Ragbag Headliners

-- Death toll from Japan's earthquake and tsunami reaches 10,035 people, with 17,443 still missing, national police say. –CNN Reports

<><><>*<><><>

What Has Economists Most On Edge: Oil Prices

The U.S. economy faces numerous obstacles that threaten to derail the recovery. But economists are most fearful of one major headwind: oil prices.

More than two-thirds of the 23 economists surveyed by CNNMoney identified high oil prices as the most serious risk facing the economy.

As uprisings spread across the Middle East and North Africa, prices have soared about 15% in the past two months, pushing gas prices higher. And as the situation in Libya escalates, economists are growing more jittery about oil prices, even in the face of other threats to the economy, like the crisis in Japan, cuts in government spending and continued weakness in the housing sector.

"Oil and gasoline remain a very big worry for me which have been compounded by the events going on in Japan," said Bernard Baumohl, head of the Economic Outlook Group in Princeton, N.J. "But we don't have any let-up in the events going on in the Middle East and North Africa." -Read more at CNN Money 

<><><>*<><><>

WHO: Radiation In Japan Food 'More Serious' Than Thought

The detection of high levels of radioactivity in certain Japanese foods -- and the nation's subsequent clampdown on their sales -- signals the food safety situation is "more serious" than originally thought, a World Health Organization official said Monday.

Peter Cordingley, the Manila-based spokesman for the WHO's regional office for the Western Pacific, said his organization believes people in Japan "have to be cautious" about what they eat and drink.

Besides causing devastation throughout northeast Japan, the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11 seriously damaged several reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, leading to the release of an unspecified amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere.

On Sunday, the sale of raw milk from Fukushima Prefecture and spinach from neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture were banned due to detected levels of radioactive iodine and cesium that surpassed government limits, Japan's health ministry reported. And officials in Fukushima halted the distribution of locally grown vegetables outside the prefecture.  -Read more at CNN World 

<><><>*<><><>

Hispanic Population Exceeds 50 Million, Firmly Nation's No. 2 Group

The growing Hispanic population in the United States has reached a new milestone, topping 50 million, or 16.3% of the nation, officially solidifying its position as the country's second-largest group, U.S. Census Bureau officials said Thursday.

"Overall, we've learned that our nation's population has become more racially and ethnically diverse over the past 10 years," said Nicholas A. Jones, chief of the bureau's racial statistics branch.

Several trends emerged from the 2010 census, according to Robert M. Groves, director of the Census Bureau, and Marc J. Perry, chief of the population distribution branch.

The country is growing at a smaller rate. Growth is concentrated in metropolitan areas and in the American West and South. The fastest-growing communities are suburbs such as Lincoln, California, outside Sacramento. And standard-bearer cities such as Boston, Baltimore and Milwaukee are no longer in the top 20 for population, replaced by upstarts such as El Paso, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina, the officials said.

The most significant trend, however, appeared to be the nation's new count of 50.5 million Latinos, whose massive expansion accounted for more than half of the nation's overall growth of 27.3 million people, to a new overall U.S. population of 308.7 million, officials said.

The Hispanic population grew 43% since 2000, officials said. –Read more at CNN U.S.

Read more news from the 2010 census by clicking here.