Here's your three's-a-crowd Thursday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Here's an economic indicator that things are looking up ... or not. Nevada tourism officials predict thousands of travelers will head to Las Vegas for the holiday weekend. A spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority says roughly 292,000 people are expected to visit Sin City through Monday. That's a 3% increase from the 2010 Fourth of July holiday. Hotel occupancy is expected to be at 92%, up from 89% last year. Visitors are expected to spend more than $179 million, excluding gambling dollars. Last year, Independence Day revelers generated a non-gambling impact of $173 million. I take this as either a sign that people have more cash on hand to go out and play, or that they figure the economy will never get better, so they might as well party while they can.

-- There may be some relief on the way for our grocery bills. Farmers have planted the second-largest corn crop in nearly seven decades, raising the prospect that prices for a variety of goods could be reduced. The size of this year's corn crop will be 92.3 million acres, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. That's 9% larger than the average annual corn crop over the past decade. This could ultimately make everything from beef to cereal to soft drinks cheaper at the supermarket. For all of 2011, the USDA predicts food prices will rise as much as 4%. It typically takes six months for changes in commodity prices to affect retail food prices.

 -- Heads-up: About 300,000 Hamilton Beach toasters are being recalled because of a fire hazard. There have been 15 reports of toasters that did not pop up as intended, including three reports of minor damage to kitchen cabinets. There were no reports of injuries. The recall involves model 22600 toasters, made in China. The toaster has a chromed steel exterior, a front control panel with a rotary toast shade selector and function buttons arranged in an arc. There's also a front removable crumb tray and "Hamilton Beach" printed across the front of the appliance. If you have one, Hamilton Beach says you should stop using it immediately and contact the company to arrange a free replacement.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Las Vegas is expecting boom times this holiday weekend. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

As the summer tourist season begins, the Walt Disney Co. announced an increase in ticket prices at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.

As of Sunday, one-day passes for the Disney theme parks in Anaheim increased 5.3%, from $76 to $80. A three-day pass to visit Disneyland and nearby Disney California Adventure Park jumped 8.7%, from $206 to $224. Annual passes for Southern California residents, among the most popular ticket option, increased 8.1%, from $184 to $199.

A Disney spokeswoman said the price increases were the result of a regular evaluation of rates and were not in response to the opening of new attractions this summer.

This summer, visitors to the Disney theme parks in Anaheim can ride the new Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure attraction, which opened this month at Disney California Adventure Park. At Disneyland, visitors can try the newly refurbished Star Tours attraction, which also launched this month.

The higher prices are unlikely to discourage ardent Disney fans from visiting the parks, said Robert Niles, author of Theme Park Insider, an online guide to the nation's most popular theme parks.

"If you're an out-of-town guest, four extra bucks is not going to make a difference in determining if you are taking a vacation in Anaheim," he said.

Niles said the new attractions are already drawing huge crowds, particularly Star Tours, for which guest have waited up to two hours in line to ride.

One possible reason for the long lines: Star Tours, based on the "Star Wars" movies,  offers 54 different experiences, randomly chosen for each guest. So it likely most fans are going to try the attraction more than once.

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-- Hugo Martin

Photo: Disneyland and Disney California Adventure park in Anaheim, California. Credit: Joshua Sudock / AP

Here's your more-more-more Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Fly the friendly iPad? British Airways is experimenting with handing out iPads for in-flight entertainment. The carrier has already begun trials of the iPad on selected Boeing 777 services as an alternative to the portable DVD players currently issued to first-class passengers. Late last year, Finnair began offering its premium passengers the use of an iPad on flights between Helsinki and Hong Kong. The tablets were preloaded with content including newspapers, magazines, movies and TV shows, music and games. Apple's touchscreen tablet is even finding its way into the cockpit, with Qantas investigating the use of the iPad as a replacement for bulky flight manuals.

-- First Sony, now Nintendo. The Wii maker said it was targeted in a recent online data attack but that no personal or company information was lost. The server of an affiliate of Nintendo's U.S. unit was accessed unlawfully a few weeks ago, but a spokesman said there was no damage. The damage was more serious at Sony. It says a huge amount of confidential info, including email addresses, names and birth dates, and involving more than 100 million users, is suspected of having been stolen after security was compromised in April for its network service for the PlayStation 3 game machine. It is still unclear who is behind the attacks at Sony and Nintendo.

-- If you're a comics collector (like I was and my son is now), some potentially big news: DC Comics is taking its flagship "Detective Comics" back to No. 1 at the end of the summer, part of its push to renumber all of its superhero titles and give the characters new looks, new attitudes and a contemporary feel. This is kind of a big deal because No. 1 issues have more cachet as collectibles (even thought it was "Detective" No. 27, in which Batman made his debut in 1939, that sold last year for more than $1 million). DC says it also will renumber its ongoing monthly "Batman" comic at No. 1. The company is launching 52 titles at No. 1 in September. DC has published "Detective Comics" every month since 1937 and is up to issue 877.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: DC's "Detective Comics" is starting over again. Credit: Associated Press

Here's your I'll-take-you-there Tuesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- So which carrier has the happiest wireless subscribers? The surprise answer: Sprint. The company, once last in customer satisfaction among the Big Four national providers, now has the happiest subscribers, along with longtime leader Verizon Wireless. The American Customer Satisfaction Index also shows declines in customer satisfaction at the other two big carriers, AT&T and T-Mobile USA. That comes as AT&T has agreed to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion in a deal that could close next year. Sprint and Verizon Wireless rate a 72 for customer satisfaction in the ACSI survey, which polled 8,000 households in the first quarter. For Sprint, that's a big jump from a score of 56 three years ago, while Verizon's score has been steady. ACSI gave AT&T a score of 66, down from 69 last year. T-Mobile's score was 70, down from 73 points last year.

-- It used to be that Web surfing accounted for the bulk of Internet access by most homes. Now it's movie and TV downloads. A study by network company Sandvine shows that Netflix movies and TV shows account for nearly 30% of traffic into homes during peak evening hours, compared with less than 17% for Web browsing. Only about a quarter of homes with broadband subscribe to Netflix, but watching movies and TV shows online takes up a lot of bandwidth compared with Web surfing, email and practically every other Internet activity except file sharing and videoconferencing. The number of Netflix customers is growing quickly, to 23.6 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada as of the end of March. 

-- If a product says it's organic, it better have plenty of organic ingredients. But a class-action lawsuit claims Hain Celestial Group misrepresents its Jason and Avalon Organics brand "personal care products" as organic when they actually contain less than 70% organic ingredients. In the suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, Rosminah Brown says she purchased a Jason Ester-C Super-C Cleanser Facial Wash at Whole Foods. She says the front label of the product prominently stated that it was "Pure, Natural & Organic." But, she says, of the 19 ingredients listed, only one was actually organic. By the company's own admission, only aloe vera leaf gel is organic and it is not among the most prominent of the 19 ingredients, ranking ninth on the ingredient list, excluding water. State law requires that cosmetic products sold as organic must contain at least 70% organically produced ingredients.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Sprint cellphone customers are getting satisfaction, according to a new survey. Credit: Reinhard Krause / Reuters

Here's your his-latest-flame Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- The bad economy is bad news for the nation's big benefit programs: Social Security and Medicare. The government says the high unemployment rate and other economic woes have shortened the life of the trust funds that support the programs. The annual checkup says the Medicare hospital insurance fund will now be exhausted in 2024, five years earlier than last year's estimate. The Social Security trust fund will be exhausted in 2036, one year earlier than before. Trustees for the funds say the worsening financial picture emphasizes the need for Congress to make changes to avoid disruptive consequences for millions of people who depend on health and pension benefits. To which I say: Yes, please.

-- At least we'll be able to amuse ourselves while watching the benefit programs crumble. Video-game sales grew 26% in April versus last year. Five games sold more than 250,000 units last month, versus just two that sold above that amount a year ago, according to NPD Group. Sales of new console and portable games, excluding PC games, hit $503.2 million, up from $398.5 million a year ago. Including PC games, the figure is $533.6 million, a 24% rise from $429.4 million. The top-selling games were "Mortal Kombat 2011," "Portal 2," "Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars", "Call of Duty: Black Ops" and "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters."

-- One more time: Stroller maker MacLaren USA has reissued a recall notice for about 1 million strollers sold before November 2009. The stroller's hinge mechanism poses a risk of cuts and even fingertip amputation for little ones when the stroller is being folded or unfolded. MacLaren has received a total of 149 reported incidents with the strollers, including 37 reported injuries that occurred after the stroller was recalled in November 2009. These injuries include five additional fingertip amputations, 16 additional lacerations and 16 additional fingertip entrapments/bruising. More info can be obtained by calling MacLaren at (877) 688-2326.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Benefit programs are facing some Mortal Kombat from the economy. Credit: Midway

Here's your tracks-of-my-tears Tuesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Microsoft grabbed a bunch of headlines with its $8.5-billion purchase of Skype. But Google also has a pretty big announcement: The company is set to launch an online music locker service that will allow users to store and access their songs wherever they are. The idea is similar to a service launched by Amazon.com in March. Like the Amazon Cloud Drive player, Google music service is being introduced without any prior licensing deals with major music labels, following months of fruitless negotiations. Google has been working on a music service as a feature of its Android mobile operating system to better compete with Apple's iTunes. Now it's up to the major music companies to decide how'll they'll fit into these newfangled services.

--Your cellphone may soon be an emergency lifeline. Updating the national emergency alert system, federal officials say some cellphone users in New York and Washington will soon be able to receive alerts by text message in the event of a national or regional emergency. The service in those cities is scheduled to start late this year as a prelude to nationwide service next year, perhaps as early as April. To receive the alerts, users must have mobile phones with a special chip, which is currently included in some higher-end smartphones like the latest iPhones. The service will also require a software upgrade. The emergency text messages will include alerts issued by the president, information about public safety threats and Amber Alerts for missing children.

--Sony expects to get its game network up and running again by the end of the month following a huge hack attack affecting more than 100 million online accounts. Sony also confirmed that personal data from 24.6 million user accounts was stolen in the security breach last month. Personal data, including credit card numbers, might have been stolen from an additional 77 million PlayStation accounts. Sony has not received any reports of illegal uses of stolen information, and the company is continuing its probe into the cyber-attack. Sony shut down its PlayStation network on April 20 after discovering the security breach. The company did not notify consumers of the breach until April 26, even though it began investigating unusual activity on the network April 19.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Google wants you to get your music anywhere you like. Credit: PowerGig

Bradley Franzen, one of 11 executives charged in a crackdown against the three largest poker websites open to U.S. players, pleaded not guilty to related charges.

Franzen, 41, of Illinois, was released on $200,000 bail after turning himself in to the FBI in New York on Monday, according to the Associated Press.

The 11 people -- three of whom were the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker --  were charged Friday with bank fraud, money laundering and violating gambling laws. The government also is seeking to recover $3 billion from the companies.

Franzen has been pegged as one in a group of highly paid "payment processors" who lied to banks about the nature of the financial transactions, the AP said, noting that the charges he faces could carry a sentence of 85 years in prison if he's convicted.

Federal prosecutors charged Franzen with nine counts, according to a Bloomberg report, alleging that he created fake companies and websites to disguise payments to the three poker companies and conspired to violate the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. They also allege money laundering and conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud.

Franzen isn't the only one to deny taking part in illegal activities related to online poker.

On Friday, Full Tilt Poker defended itself and its chief executive, Raymond Bitar, saying online poker was "a game of skill enjoyed by millions of people" and despite the FBI's actions, it remained committed to preserving the rights of poker fans "to play the game they love online."

Full Tilt said it believes online poker is legal, saying its view was "a position also taken by some of the best legal minds in the United States."

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Photo: Aaron Kanter plays multiple Web poker games simultaneously in a 2005 photo. After qualifying online, he won $2 million at a Las Vegas event. Credit: Steve Yeater / Associated Press

On what was already a grim day in the stock market, share prices took a fresh dive in the last 40 minutes on a report that Saudi Arabian police fired on protesters at a rally in the country’s eastern region.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 212 points, or 1.7%, to 12,001 at about 11 a.m. PST amid a broad market decline.

“It’s a ‘sell first, ask questions later’ mentality,” said Ryan Larson, head of equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago.

[UPDATED at 1:10 p.m.: The Dow ended down 228.48 points, or 1.9%, to 11,984.61, its first close below 12,000 since Jan. 31.]

Saudi dissidents have called for a "day of rage" on Friday to demand social reforms. The government has banned all protests.

World markets had been hit earlier Thursday by news of slowing Chinese export growth and by Moody’s Investors Service’s downgrade of Spain’s debt, the latter a reminder that Europe’s debt crisis was far from solved. Major European stock markets lost between 1% and 1.6% for the session.

Early in the day, investors were selling not just stocks but also most commodities on global-growth concerns. Crude oil futures in New York were down as much as $3.76 a barrel at about 8 a.m. PST, to $100.62.

But the Saudi report has triggered a rush back into oil. U.S. futures jumped to $103.39 a barrel by about 11 a.m. PST. Markets naturally are unnerved by any perceived threat to the Saudi regime. The Saudi government on Wednesday said it had boosted oil production by 1 million barrels a day in February to make up for Libyan shortfalls.

Gold, which was off as much as $26 an ounce earlier, to $1,403, has rebounded to $1,413 on Saudi worries.

Some investors also were pouring into U.S. Treasury bonds for safety. The five-year T-note yield has fallen to a five-week low of 2.07% from 2.15% on Wednesday.

-- Tom Petruno 

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Entertainment business reporter Joe Flint looks at the calculations CBS might make as it decides what to do with "Two and a Half Men" after the firing of Charlie Sheen. It might be better to replace Sheen than the show, even if that means taking a hit in ratings, Flint says.

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Find more entertainment news on our Company Town blog.

-- Video by Pat Benson

There's some off-screen drama to "Rango," Paramount's animated film about a chameleon sheriff. The movie puts the studio in competition with DreamWorks Animation, which has been Paramount's chief supplier of such animated films, Ben Fritz reports.

Read the full story: Success for Paramount's 'Rango' could lead to end of deal with DreamWorks

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-- Video produced by Pat Benson 

Entertainment business reporter Joe Flint looks at what's at stake for CBS as the network faces the loss of its top comedy "Two and a Half Men."

CBS and Warner Bros. last week pulled the plug on the show after star Charlie Sheen made derogatory comments about the show's co-creator.

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--Video by Pat Benson