Treat colds with sleep

CHICAGO -- Fluff up the pillows and pull up the covers. Preventing the common cold may be as easy as getting more sleep.

Researchers paid healthy adults $800 to have cold viruses sprayed up their noses, then wait five days in a hotel to see if they got sick. Habitual eight-hour sleepers were much less likely to get sick than those who slept less than seven hours or slept fitfully.

"The longer you sleep, the better off you are, the less susceptible you are to colds," said lead author Sheldon Cohen, who studies the effects of stress on health at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University.

Army recruiter weighs fat camp for recruits

Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, head of the Army Recruiting Command, said he wants to see a formal diet and fitness regimen running alongside a new school at Fort Jackson that helps aspiring troops earn their GEDs.

Bostick told The Associated Press that obesity looms as "a bigger challenge for us in the years ahead" than any other problem that keeps young people from entering the military, including lack of a GED or high school diploma, misconduct or criminal behavior and other health issues such as eye or ear problems.

According to Defense Department figures provided to the AP, over the past four years 47,447 potential recruits flunked induction physicals at the nation's 35 Military Entrance Processing Stations because they were overweight.

Senate OKs Burris

CHICAGO -- Roland Burris says he's "humbled and honored" to be Illinois' next junior senator, and is thankful for the opportunity to serve.

The former Illinois attorney general thanked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois at a news conference Monday and said their scrutiny was motivated by trying to do the best thing for the chamber.

Senate Democrats said earlier Monday that they'll accept Burris as President-elect Barack Obama's Senate successor and expect to swear him in soon.

Even though Burris doesn't stand accused of wrongdoing, Senate Democrats initially rejected Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick. Blagojevich is accused by federal investigators of seeking to trade the Senate seat for personal favors.

The impasse has served as a distraction for Democrats trying to tackle an ambitious agenda.

Experts: Retailers must be more creative

NEW YORK -- Retailers need to offer customers more services to make themselves indispensable and work with the government to help solve economic and social woes even as they deal with seismic changes in consumer behavior, industry leaders said Monday.

Departing Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told retailers they need to get involved in broader issues such as health care, immigration, energy independence and environmental sustainability, and said that doing so would resonate with shoppers and improve the bottom line.

"We need to tackle the hard issues," Scott said at the annual National Retail Federation convention, noting that retailers in particular are close to what consumers are thinking.

"As businesses we have a responsibility to society. We also have an extraordinary opportunity," he added

Retailers have just come off the worst holiday season in four decades, as people watch their spending because of worries about job security, their retirement funds and the value of their home. That's already meant falling sales and profit warnings at many retailers and could mean more bankruptcies to come.