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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli inventor has created a scanner that he says could change the way we shop and take care of ourselves — by reading the chemical makeup of foods, drugs and other items we use.

The tiny gadget is still limited to a few key applications. But creator Dror Sharon envisions a machine that will compile a massive collection of data that will allow users to analyze the physical matter that exists around them.

"We wanted to find applications where people have the most visceral connection to the world," said Sharon, CEO and co-founder of Consumer Physics.

His gadget, called the SCiO, is an infrared spectrometer the size of a thumb drive. It is being marketed for three applications — food, pharmaceuticals and horticulture, or the health of plants. Simply by pointing and clicking a miniature digital wand, users can see how many calories are in a piece of cheese or determine when a tomato will reach peak ripeness.

Its name evokes the Latin verb "to know."

These features may seem more fun than life-changing at this point. But ultimately, advocates say, the SCiO could have life-saving uses, such as identifying contaminated foods or determining whether a drug is counterfeit.

"Immediately, the major impact will be increasing the awareness of people to the material world around them, which is already an enormous effect," said Sanford Ruhman, a professor of chemistry and expert on spectroscopy at Israel's Hebrew University.

Ruhman, who is not involved with SCiO, said that while the technology has been growing smaller and smaller for decades, the SCiO represents a significant new step. It is believed to be the first device of its kind.

A self-described "skeptic by nature," Ruhman suggested that in the future the ability to detect chemicals could be very beneficial in fields such as health and security. "It is just the beginning of something that can become much larger," he said.

Sharon, an engineer with an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes the gadget as the next generation of "Googling." He finds the current process of searching for information to be cumbersome. The user must think of a concept or question, identify a relevant set of words, type them into a search engine and hope they get some useful results.

With the spectrometer, he said, you can just point the gadget at an item — without even necessarily knowing what it is. The device reads the item's molecular structure, matches the information to an ever-expanding database and then can send additional data to your smartphone.

"I think it will change the world in many ways," said Sharon. He said the device could have potential uses for monitoring car tires, fuel tanks, soil analysis and the human body.

Sharon has raised over $2 million from over 11,000 supporters on the fundraising website Kickstarter. For now, he says the gadget's capabilities are limited by the relatively small size of its database.

But he expects thousands of these investors to have a SCiO in their hands by the end of the year to help build what he calls "the world's largest database of matter," which will be stored online and shared between users.

Additionally, hundreds of these new backers will be enlisted as developers to tweak and experiment with the SCiO's software.

"Obviously it's nice to have $2 million," Sharon said. "But it was more about creating a community and creating engagement rather than actual funding."

He expects the gadget to hit the consumer market "sometime in the next year," at the price of $299.

Yossi Vardi, one of Israel's most successful high-tech investors, said the unorthodox development program is one of SCiO's greatest strengths.

"It's kind of an open innovation community," said Vardi, who said he is not an investor in the company. "And the winners are those who are able to recruit the highest number of developers, because then you have like a huge worldwide brain, which comes with a lot of ideas."

HAVANA (AP) — The company and family of a Canadian business executive awaiting a court ruling in Cuba defended him against accusations of graft, arguing that what were in fact "legitimate commercial transactions" were wrongly characterized as corrupt at trial.

A two-page statement sent to The Associated Press by the Tokmakjian Group also complained that company president Cy Tokmakjian's trial, which ended June 21, was unfairly stacked against him.

It said he was held without charge for two years while the results of the investigation were kept secret, and then given just two months to present a defense. Meanwhile 14 of 18 international tax experts proposed as witnesses for the defense were rejected by the court without explanation.

"We are concerned that the outcome of the trial is predetermined given the reluctance by the Cuban authorities to rectify gross procedural mistakes," the statement said.

Prosecutors are seeking 15 years for Tokmakjian and 8 to 20 for more than a dozen others named as defendants. They include two more Canadians as well as Cuban employees of the company, government officials and workers at state-run businesses.

On Monday, Communist Party newspaper Granma said Tokmakjian was accused of corruption to obtain benefits in contract negotiations, unauthorized financial transactions, illegally taking large amounts of money out of the country, falsifying documents to avoid taxes and payroll irregularities. A ruling is expected soon.

Tokmakjian is among a number of foreigners and dozens of Cubans arrested in 2011 as part of a high-profile crackdown on graft that targeted multiple businesses operating in the country.

Another Canadian, Sarkis Yacoubian of Tri-Star Caribbean, was sentenced to nine years in 2013 but freed earlier this year and allowed to return home.

Canada's Foreign Affairs office has said it is monitoring its citizens' legal cases in Cuba and providing consular services, but declined to comment further. Ottawa's ambassador to Havana attended Tokmakjian's trial.

The statement from the Tokmakjian Group, an international transportation company based in Concord, Ontario, questioned why an individual was being held liable for a corporate tax issue, and said any claims were purely commercial and should have been handled in arbitration rather than a criminal court.

"A simple and objective reading of recent court decisions will lead to the conclusion that what is shown as 'corruption' is internationally accepted business practices," it said. "Commercial activities such as discounting bills of exchange or providing supplier credit appear as 'evidences of corruption.' Earning profits out of a commercial activity is considered a 'crime against (the) economic interests of Cuba.'"

Tokmakjian's trial came to a close within days of a new law taking effect that Cuba hopes will lure much-needed foreign investment. Officials say it safeguards commercial and personal property rights.

Though Cuban authorities made no details publicly available while the trial was ongoing, its outcome is sure to be scrutinized by the foreign business community and likely by potential investors.

"Although no one will (dispute) the legitimacy of Cuba to combat corruption," the Tokmakjian Group statement said, "this fight against corruption has been used as an excuse to deprive companies operating in Cuba of their rights and assets with no compensation."

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Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed.

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Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Arizona's largest city has gone four months without any measurable rain, and neighboring New Mexico is in the midst of four years of severe drought.

But you'll still see and hear fireworks sparkle and pop during the days around July 4, despite the dangerously high threat of wildfires.

While some places in the West ban fireworks altogether, or greatly limit what you can light off when conditions are ripe for fire, other states are going in the opposite direction.

Arizona actually loosened its restrictions this year and is now allowing residents of the two most populated cities to set off fireworks in the days around Independence Day, and an effort by the New Mexico governor to impose tougher rules during dry times has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears in the Legislature.

Some lawmakers chalk it up to statehouse politics, while others say it's politicians' reluctance to impose more regulations and take away the cherished tradition of setting off fireworks, even in severe droughts.

Phil Griego, a northern New Mexico rancher and a Democratic state senator, said the pastures around his village are so dry that the grass crunches under the hooves of horses and cattle when ranchers move the animals from one field to the next.

Griego tried during this year's legislative session to pass a measure that would have updated New Mexico's fireworks laws to give cities and counties more authority to ban fireworks when fire danger is high. Political wrangling stalled the measure in the Democrat-controlled Senate despite bipartisan support from lawmakers, fire chiefs around the state and Republican Gov. Susan Martinez, who has been pushing since 2011 for changes to the law.

"This is critical because I don't think this drought and this situation we're in right now is going to pass any time soon," Griego said. "For this year, it's done and over, but we've got to start working on next year. We've got to have protections. Look at the fires that are taking place now with just lightning strikes."

Arizona began allowing the sale and use of certain fireworks in 2010. This year, the state updated its laws to prohibit cities in Maricopa and Pima counties — which include Phoenix and Tucson — from banning the use of fireworks around the July 4 holiday. Previously, some cities in the area had banned fireworks, while others didn't, resulting in much confusion.

The Phoenix Fire Department is placing trucks in strategic places around town so crews can respond to brush fires within minutes. City employees will also be monitoring popular hiking trails, looking for anyone trying to set off illegal fireworks.

"We're trying to keep control on it," said Glenn D'Auria, president of the Arizona Fire Marshals Association and a Tucson fire inspector. "It's new for us. It's not like back East where people grew up with it. It's a new toy to play with out here."

In Texas, legislation to give the state fire marshal the power to enforce stricter rules didn't get far during the last session partly due to the lack of appetite among some lawmakers for imposing more regulations on small businesses.

Some places in the West do restrict fireworks heavily. In Utah, more than 50 cities and towns have imposed additional restrictions this year due to the fire danger. Some municipalities have banned all fireworks in city limits, while several have designated safe areas near fire departments or parking lots from which to light fireworks.

Utah lawmakers this year passed a measure giving counties the authority to restrict fireworks in unincorporated areas.

In California, not many cities allow for the sale and use of legal fireworks. An open burn ban began this week for millions of acres managed by California's state forestry division. The agency said it has zero tolerance for illegal fireworks and will be patrolling over the holiday weekend given the drought emergency.

The same goes for Washington, where fireworks are banned in all of the biggest cities and in many other places. People in Seattle are prohibited from setting off fireworks within city limit on the Fourth of July or any other time.

From California and Arizona to New Mexico and Oklahoma, fire officials and elected leaders are encouraging people to attend professional fireworks shows instead of lighting fountains in their neighborhoods.

At a barren lot on the edge of Albuquerque, a team of pyro-experts with Western Enterprises Inc. was busy Wednesday dropping hundreds of shells into carefully aligned and wired launching tubes for the city's annual fireworks show. Thousands of people were expected to attend.

Across town, Nathan Farmer was setting up dozens of boxed sets of fireworks at his roadside stand. Last summer, when the drought reached unprecedented levels in New Mexico, sales were down but he's hopeful his sparklers and fountains sell this year.

Farmer said concerned citizens have in the past called the police on him, saying he shouldn't be selling fireworks given the threat of wildfire.

Fireworks are like anything else in life, he said.

"If you give a person some money, a gun, a car or alcohol, it's up to that person to be responsible with it," he said.

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Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Ariz.; Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas; Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle; Gillian Flaccus in Tustin, Calif.;Juliet Williams in Sacramento, Calif.; Dan Elliot in Denver; and Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa, Okla., contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Five years after the Great Recession officially ended, most states still haven't regained all the jobs they lost, even though the nation as a whole has.

In May, the overall economy finally recovered all 9 million jobs that vanished in the worst downturn since the 1930s. Another month of solid hiring is expected in the U.S. jobs report for June that will be released Thursday.

Yet 32 states still have fewer jobs than when the recession began in December 2007 — evidence of the unevenness and persistently slow pace of the recovery.

Even though economists declared the recession over in June 2009, Illinois is still down 184,000 jobs from pre-recession levels. New Jersey is down 147,000. Both states were hurt by layoffs at factories. Florida is down 170,000 in the aftermath of its real estate market collapse.

The sluggish job market could weigh on voters in some key states when they go to the polls this fall. A Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday found that voters named the economy by far the biggest problem facing the United States.

The states where hiring lags the most tend to be those that were hit most painfully by the recession: They lost so many jobs that they've struggled to replace them all.

Nevada, which suffered a spectacular real estate bust and four years of double-digit unemployment — has fared worst. It has 6 percent fewer jobs than it did in December 2007. Arizona, also slammed by the housing collapse, is 5 percent short.

By contrast, an energy boom has lifted several states to the top of job creation rankings.

"North Dakota is the No. 1 example," says Dan White, senior economist at Moody's Analytics. "It's like its own little gold rush."

North Dakota has added 100,000 jobs since December 2007 — a stunning 28 percent increase, by far the nation's highest. The state has benefited from technology that allows energy companies to extract oil from shale, sedimentary rock formed by the compression of clay and silt.

Not surprisingly, the capital of North Dakota, Bismarck, has the lowest unemployment rate of any American city: 2.2 percent as of May.

Also benefiting from the energy boom is Texas, which has added more than 1 million jobs since December 2007, an increase of nearly 10 percent. For comparison, the nation as a whole has added only a net 113,000 jobs over that period.

Jobs in Washington D.C., where lobbying is an all but recession-proof occupation, are up 49,000, or 7 percent. The gain was led by a 10 percent increase in hiring by private employers.

Wall Street's recovery from the financial crisis has helped New York gain 237,000 jobs since the recession ended, an increase of nearly 3 percent.

Moody's White says many states are struggling because the recession wiped out solid middle-class jobs — in manufacturing and construction — that haven't returned. He says it will take a stronger housing recovery to put significantly more people back to work building houses, installing wiring and plumbing and selling furniture and appliances to new owners of homes.

Housing has rebounded somewhat since bottoming a couple of years ago. But the industry's recovery has slowed. Home construction is running at barely half the pace of the early and mid-2000s. And the United States has lost nearly 1.5 million construction workers since the end of 2007 — a 20 percent plunge. Nevada has lost half its construction workforce.

Factories have added 105,000 jobs over the past year, but manufacturing payrolls remain down 1.6 million, or 12 percent, since the start of the recession. Manufacturing jobs in Michigan hit bottom in June 2009. But the state still has 45,000, or 7 percent, fewer factory workers than it did in December 2007.