After chewing and spitting out something that appeared to a be rubbery substance, Hart surmised that he had found a portion of a human finger in his sandwich, reported MLive, a Michigan news website.

While many stories of finding human body parts in fast food have turned out to be hoaxes in the past, Jackson, Mich. health officials confirmed that an Arby’s employee cut her finger on a meat slicer. The employee left her station (presumably to tend to her wounds) before her coworkers became aware of the incident, and they continued to prepare customer orders with the possibly contaminated meat.

The franchise referred to the finger food incident as “unfortunate and isolated.” Food production was halted once the incident had been discovered, and the staff cleaned and sanitized the restaurant, John Gray, Arby’s vice president for corporate communications, said in a statement. The restaurant was not closed.

This isn’t the first time an Arby’s employee injury has added to the restaurant’s flavor. According to a National Public Radio article, an Ohio man also found a portion of a human finger in his Arby’s sandwich in 2004 when the manager sliced his finger while chopping lettuce.

Other similar finger food claims have turned out to be fraudulent like the Las Vegas couple who were convicted in 2006 of planting a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili to extort money from the fast food chain, the New York Times reported.

-Follow Elise Rambaud Marrion, @emarrion_cmn.

According to the NY Times, CEO Meg Whitman, who took over the company in September of last year, plans to use the money saved from the job cuts for sales technology and to create new products. The company recently announced its lightweight laptops called ultrabooks, which were created to compete against Apple products.

Whitman has plenty of financial ground to make up after taking over for Léo Apotheker, the CEO who lasted less than a year before H.P.’s shares dropped 43%, costing the company more than $32 billion in market capitalization. The company reported $127 billion in revenue for fiscal 2011, but only $7.1 billion in earnings the NY Times reported.

-Dustin Bass, @dbass_cmn

Find the Right Fit

With more than one million charities operating in the U.S., donors must be proactive in their approach, said Laurie Styron, a financial analyst at CharityWatch (formerly known as the American Institute of Philanthropy).

“Too often donors don’t think ahead about what causes are important to them, and what specific charities will use their donations efficiently,” Styron said. “Instead, many donors give impulsively just because they receive an appeal in the mail, a telemarketing call, or an in-person solicitation on the street.”

When donors fall for these solicitations, they may end up wasting their donations on charities that are not operating effectively. Sandra Miniutti, vice president of marketing and CFO of Charity Navigator, agrees that consumers often give in to knee-jerk reactions. She warns that individuals who give to organizations that solicit them often end up giving to a for-profit, which may keep up to 90% of donations.

“It’s much better to do your research and stick with a few charities to give to year to year,” she said.

Use Your Resources

How can you separate fact from fiction, bypass the marketing ploys, and determine which charities are really worthy of your dollars?

“The biggest mistake donors make is being tugged at by messaging rather than data,” said Clay Johnson, author of The Information Diet, which focuses on how individuals should use publicly available resources to make better decisions.

Among these resources is the Form 990 that all non-profits must file with the IRS. The form provides insight on an organization’s mission, programs, and finances. Individuals can access an organization’s Form 990 through GuideStar, an online resource that currently consists of more than five million Form 990s, available in PDF format. However, keep in mind that the Form 990 is based on self-reported data, which does make it possible for charities to misreport information. Users will have to register with the site for free to access Form 990s.

There is a wealth of other resources available. GiveWell attempts to do much of the non-profit research for givers and focuses on how well programs work. CharityWatch analysts evaluate a charity’s financial reporting, including audited financial statements, tax forms, annual reports, state filings, and other documents. Then, they assign charities a letter grade efficiency rating on an A+ to F scale.

Another site, Charity Navigator, evaluates 5,500 charities, rating them on two dimensions. First, Charity Navigator determines how fiscally responsible they are — how much they spend on programs and services versus administrative costs. Secondly, Charity Navigator evaluates the non-profit’s commitment to accountability and transparency by determining whether the charity has proper procedures in place, such as a whistleblower policy, and whether it makes key financial documents readily available to the public. It then bestows a rating of anything from one to four stars. Much of the information it provides is culled from the Form 990.

Know the Limits of These Resources

While there are resources to help individuals make an informed decisions, they do have their constraints.

“I think [sites like Charity Navigator] are really important because they provide access to a charity’s fundamentals, but it’s important to understand that they’re distilling public data for you,” Johnson said. “So a ‘five star rating’ for a charity is nice, but it’s also editorial.” He said the Form 990 itself provides better context than a five star rating.

Styron also points out limits in Charity Navigator’s ratings system, nothing that their data collection processes are largely computer animated. “It is not designed to provide donors with ratings that reflect a rigorous financial analysis of a specific charity’s financial activities,” Styron said.

Miniutti recognizes the gaps in Charity Navigator’s ratings system, as well as blind spots in its evaluation methods. While Charity Navigator assesses the financial health and transparency of non-profits, the results that these organizations achieve are much more difficult to gauge. For this, donors should give their favorite charities a call or pay them a visit; well-run charities are happy to answer questions posed by prospective donors.

In the next five years, CharityNavigator.org hopes to roll out CN 3.0, which will rate the programmatic impact of organizations based on the information they make available about the outcomes they achieve. The problem, Miniutti said, is that very few charities actively monitor their own results.

When researching charities, donors should expect well-managed charities to spend 75% of their budget on programs and services, and the remaining 25% on fundraising and administrative costs. According to Miniutti, non-profit CEOs average earnings of $150,000 per year, but this figure is subject to variation, depending on the size of the charity, its location, revenue, and a multitude of other factors.

However, experts say these figures should serve only as a benchmark and that donors should not obsessively scrutinize salaries and administrative costs. Instead, Johnson suggests that prospective donors consider how executive compensation measures as a percentage of the charity’s total budget. Compare salary levels at a preferred charity against other charities operating in the same space. Again, donors should measure the productivity of a charity and its ability to implement the funds it raises in worthy projects and services.

“We need to worry less about the finances of a charity and more about whether or not we’re investing in the ones that are making actual differences,” Johnson said.

The company’s chief executive officer, Fran Shammo, said during the 40th Annual J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference yesterday that he expects a great migration of customers from the 3G network to its 4G LTE network. Some customers, however, may end up migrating to other carriers. Twitter has been full of customers voicing their displeasure after the company’s announcement.

“I’m sort of thinking about switching to T-Mobile because of #Verizon’s aggressive moves to nickel and dime customers,” one customer tweeted.

“There goes my main reason for staying with #Verizon… no more grandfathered unlimited data plans.. Wish I had #Sprint,” tweeted another customer.

Verizon, which has yet to confirm if it will force the customers off of their unlimited data plan, issued a statement acknowledging the uproar the announcement caused: “As we have stated publicly, Verizon Wireless has been evaluating its data pricing structure for some time. Customers have told us that they want to share data, similar to how they share minutes today. We are working on plans to provide customers with that option later this year. We will share specific details of the plans and any related policy changes well in advance of their introduction, so customers will have time to evaluate their choices and make the best decisions for their wireless service. It is our goal and commitment to continue to provide customers with the same high value service they have come to expect from Verizon Wireless.”

“A lot of our 3G base is unlimited. As they start to migrate into 4G, they will have to come off of unlimited and go into the data share plan,” Shammo told the Los Angeles Times. “And that is beneficial for us for many reasons, obviously.”

The company will have a $30-per-month plan for a 2 gig data plan. For customers upgrading, there is a $30 upgrade fee the company recently started charging, which Shammo said was the “right move” since it didn’t impact their customer base, CNN Money reported.

Do you think this recent move will impact Verizon’s customer base? Voice your opinion on our Twitter page @CMN.

-Dustin Bass, @dbass_cmn

After surveying 2,451 adults in March, the study shed some light on where and how often Americans are dining out.

In an effort to save money, seven in 10 (71%) respondents reported stocking the fridge and cooking at home more often than eating at a restaurant. More than half (57%) said they consider dining out as a luxury rather than a regular convenience.

For those who avoid the kitchen, but still want to save money, 60% reported eating out just as often, but at less expensive eateries, while 29% said they are shifting reprioritizing other expenses to still enjoy meals on the town.

“At the beginning of the economic downturn we saw consumers saving money by changing their behavior in two ways: eating out less frequently and shifting their eating-out dollars away from Casual Dining towards Fast Food/Quick Service restaurants,” Mary Bouchard, Vice President and Thought Leader at Harris Interactive said in a news release. “Now, with several years of experience with constrained budgets, they have shifted even further from the busy-lifestyle convenience of eating out on a regular basis to making time for cooking at home. When they do eat out, not surprisingly, price is still a primary component of their decision making process.”

Over the last six months, respondents were nearly split evenly on cutting back on fast food consumption frequency (36%), casual dining chains (34%) and local casual dining restaurants (34%). Consumer restaurant behavior is also divided between the sexes. According to the survey, 45% of women report eating fast food less often, versus 31% of men.

Related: Fast Food Nation: Subway Tops List of Consumer Favorites

-Follow Elise Rambaud Marrion, @emarrion_cmn.

The man behind the generosity was Rankin Paynter, a jewelry exchange business owner, who wondered what would happen to the store’s merchandise once it closed, reported a Lexington NBC affiliate.

Instead of letting the inventory go to the highest bidder, Paynter paid $200,000 to keep the clothing and household items in his community for those in need.

It took Kmart employees using four cash registers nearly seven hours to ring up all the items, which are currently being stored and sorted for local donations in a warehouse.

-Follow Elise Rambaud Marrion, @emarrion_cmn.

The FEI and Baruch College released its CFO Quarterly Outlook Survey yesterday reporting that 62% of its surveyed chief executive officers planned to add to its staff within the next six months. The report suggests that the hiring rate could increase, which would lower the amount of jobless claims. Half of the CFOs indicated the country was in the midst of an economic recovery.

Although the rest of the CFOs indicated the economic recovery wouldn’t until 2013 or as late as 2014, the jobless claims numbers show a recovery is taking place. The four-week moving average decreased by 4,750 to 375,000 compared to the previous week of 379,750. The unadjusted jobless claim numbers for state programs totaled 322,821, compared to 361,753 from a year ago.

There has been plenty of fluctuation with jobless claims numbers since the beginning of the year ranging from 390,000 in the first week of the year to 361,000 by early February and shooting back up to 392,000 in late April.

-Dustin Bass, @dbass_cmn

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine studied the coffee consumption habits and mortality rates of participants ages 50 to 71 of the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study.

Researchers followed 229,119 men and 173,141 women, and excluded data from participants with cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Of the study participants, 33,731 men and 18,784 women died between 1995 and 2008.

Excluding those who preferred to smoke a cigarette with their coffee, heavier coffee drinkers who consumed four to five cups lived longer than those who only drank one cup per day or none at all. Women in this category were 16% less likely to die and men were 12% less likely than their non coffee-drinking cohorts.

If this data seems circumstantial, researchers might agree.

“In this large prospective study, coffee consumption was inversely associated with total and cause-specific mortality. Whether this was a causal or associational finding cannot be determined from our data,” the study authors wrote in the study’s abstract.

-Follow Elise Rambaud Marrion, @emarrion_cmn.

There are eco-friendly ways to build music products, including CD packaging, music player speakers, and even area-ready electric guitar cabinets. Companies both big and small are acknowledging what Chris Campbell, operations manager for Innova Recordings, describes as a “sea change” among consumers who love music and are concerned about a product’s environmental footprint. Here are just a few eco-friendly companies and products creatively addressing this concern.

Music Listening

The audio company Vers builds sound systems and headphones especially designed for the ubiquitous iPod, using various types of wood from plantations and sustainably managed family-owned mills. No threatened, endangered, or tropical woods are used in Vers products. And for every tree used in a product, Vers plants 100 more through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. Wood, an easily renewable material, also has acoustic properties that Vers takes advantage of in the design and construction of their audio products. Their combination radio and alarm clock with iPod dock ($220), available in either walnut or bamboo, has a surprisingly warm and full sound once you make a few treble and bass adjustments. Vers packages their products with 100% post-consumer paper instead of plastic with no twist ties.

Balance Wu Design has a similarly eco-friendly if quirkier approach when it comes to designing its products. The company’s new Pulpop speaker ($56, mollaspace.com) is a hollow loop constructed out of recycled pulp and a speaker, amplifier, and rechargeable battery contained in its small base. Sound from an iPod, iPhone, or computer connected to the Pulpop is diffused 360 degrees and reverberates within the hollow pulp loop. By default, the Pulpop sounds like an AM radio playing inside a shoebox, with an audible amount of reverb. This isn’t a speaker designed to pump up your favorite hip-hop club banger. But it’s perfect for a desk in a small office, and ideal for playing music as a “background” for whatever task you’re engaged in.

CDs

CDs are made of plastic; it’s impossible to make them out of anything other than optical grade polycarbonate. With that in mind, more and more manufacturers are offering the option of CD packaging made from recycled and biodegradable materials.

The CD tray of Bonnie Raitt’s new album Slipstream boasts, “This tray is made from 100% recycled plastic with at least 35% post-consumer materials.” Slipstream, like most albums these days, is packaged as a “digipak,” and eco-friendly form of packaging that has overtaken the once ubiquitous polystyrene jewel cases. Raitt has a long history of environmental and anti-nuclear activism, so it’s not surprising to she’s concerned about the environmental footprint of a CD.

Artists outside of the mainstream are also taking care to package their music in a similarly green way. “So many of our artists are mindful about things like being “eco-friendly” because it’s just part of who they are,” says Campbell. “It’s not a calculated PR move.” Such eco-friendly CD packaging can be expensive and labor intensive, such as the thin, 7″ x 7″ cardboard, ornately designed, letter pressed sleeve that houses string quartet Ethel’s newest CD Heavy. But Innova, being a non-profit, artist-friendly label, don’t factor in such costs when it comes to realizing an artist’s vision. “We’re lucky to have a really good vendor who’s aware of our needs and is very accommodating,” says Campbell. “It comes down to case by case basis for packaging costs.”

Hemp speakers and cabinet

Hard Truckers, founded by two of the original soundmen for the Grateful Dead, built and sell an eco-friendly speaker cabinet made of pressed hemp and covered in renewable bamboo. The cabinet, called the Hemp Fatty, features two 12” Tone Tubby hemp cone speakers, invented and built by John Harrison, who estimates he’s made at least 10,000 such speakers. Hemp is durable, renewable, and, according to musicians, including Billy Gibbons, Trey Anastasio, and Keith Richards, sounds amazing. Unlike the Vers radio alarm clock or the Pulpop speaker, Hard Trucker’s hemp guitar cabinet and Harrison’s Tone Tubby hemp speakers are built for professional musicians. With sustainability in mind, the Tone Tubby website describes their built to last speaker cones as “an investment for the future of your sound,” that sound being directly dependent upon the future of our environment.

Photo: Pulpop speaker by Dan Saelinger.

“U.S. CFOs remain particularly optimistic in their companies’ expectations, reflecting projections in net earnings, optimism in the U.S. economy and small dips in unemployment rate,” John Elliott, Dean of Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business, said in the survey’s press release.

The CFOs indicated they would remain optimistic despite oil prices and showed that 42% believed the oil prices per barrel would average $110 and 32% believed the average would be $100. Those CFOs felt the price would not change over the course of six months. The price of oil is currently under the $93 mark.

CFOs, on average, also indicated they were not overly worried about the inflation rates.

From a political standpoint, more than half of the surveyed would give the President and Congress as a whole a grade of a “D” or “F” for their work on healthcare, employment, and the economy.

CFOs may not be pleased with oil prices, inflation rates, and the government’s shortcomings, but their confidence in the economy increased by five points from the previous quarter, according to the survey. The survey reported the CFOs believe they will see a 20% increase in their net earnings, compared to 13% last quarter, which may be the reason for the index increase.

-Dustin Bass, @dbass_cmn