Category Archives: Financial

Debt Collector Is Faulted for Tough Tactics in Hospitals

By doris | Published: April 28, 2012

Full Story at NYTimes.com Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside. This and other aggressive tactics by one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical debts, Accretive Health, were revealed on Tuesday by the Minnesota attorney general, raising concerns [...]

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America’s Public Schools: Still Unequal and Unjust

By doris | Published: April 8, 2012

Full Story at huffingtonpost.com Millions of children in America are denied the opportunity to receive a fair and high quality education. In March, the U.S. Department of Education released new information showing that children of color face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous course offerings, and are more often taught by lower paid and [...]

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Winning ticket for record Mega Millions jackpot sold in Maryland

By doris | Published: March 31, 2012

Full Story at CNN.com (CNN) — Someone in Maryland is about to have a wildly euphoric weekend. A winning ticket for the record-breaking $640 million Mega Millions jackpot was sold in Baltimore County, the Maryland Lottery said Saturday. Lottery officials are waiting for information on potential jackpot winners from other Mega Millions states. The winning [...]

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Airlines successfully hike airfares for third time this year

By doris | Published: March 27, 2012

Full Story at OverheadBin.msnbc.msn.com Updated March 27, 10:50 a.m. ET — U.S. legacy and low-fare airlines have agreed to increase airfares by up to $10 on roundtrip flights. Airlines have attempted five fare increases so far this year, and three have stuck. In the second quarter of 2011, prices jumped twice, Rick Seaney, CEO of [...]

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Americans hit the brakes on health care spending

By doris | Published: January 10, 2012

Full Story at America hits the brakes on health care spending – Health – Health care – msnbc.com WASHINGTON — U.S. healthcare spending barely rose in 2010 from record-low recession levels, as high unemployment and the loss of private health insurance forced many Americans to delay or forego medical treatment, government officials said on Monday. [...]

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US automakers look to build on victories in the new year

By doris | Published: December 29, 2011

Full Story at BottomLine.msnbc.msn.com Ford is hoping history can repeat itself with the upcoming launch of the next-generation Fusion four-door. It’s been more than a quarter century since the maker revolutionized automotive design with the original Taurus sedan. Its windswept styling helped Ford dominate the huge midsize market segment, and led most competitors to migrate [...]

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Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts

By doris | Published: December 24, 2011

Full Story at USATODAY.com OMAHA (AP) – The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children. He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn’t be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman [...]

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Former Professor Donates $150 Million to University

By doris | Published: December 18, 2011

Full Story at Happy News – Former Professor Donates $150 Million to University Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., announced today that the University has received a $150 million gift from Dr. James and Dr. Marilyn Simons, and from the Simons Foundation. It is the largest gift in the history of Stony [...]

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Seattle welfare recipient lives in million-dollar home

By doris | Published: December 6, 2011

Full Story atnews.Yahoo.com A Seattle woman who is receiving welfare assistance from Washington state also happens to live in a waterfront house on Lake Washington worth more than a million dollars. Federal agents raided the home this weekend but have not released the woman or her husband’s name because they have not officially been charged [...]

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Stock market closes out its best week since 2009

By doris | Published: December 2, 2011

Full Story at BottomLine.msnbc.msn.com NEW YORK – An early rally fizzled on the stock market Friday but still left the Standard & Poor’s 500 index up 7.4 percent for the week, its biggest gain since March 2009. A surprise drop in the U.S. unemployment rate sent stocks higher in early trading, but the gains faded [...]

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Waiting for midnight, hungry families on food stamps give Walmart ‘enormous spike’

By doris | Published: November 28, 2011

Full Story at RockCentemsnbc.msn.com At the stroke of midnight, a growing number of Americans are lining up at Walmart not to cash in on a holiday sale, but because they’re hungry. The increasing number of Americans relying on food stamps to survive the sluggish economic recovery has changed the way the largest retailer in the [...]

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Millions savor Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade

By doris | Published: November 24, 2011

Full Story at nsmbc.msn.com About 3.5 million people were expected to crowd the route of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York on Thursday while an additional 50 million watched from home. A jetpack-wearing monkey and a freakish creation from filmmaker Tim Burton are two of the big new balloons that will make [...]

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Report: 1 in 5 U.S. children at risk of hunger

By doris | Published: November 23, 2011

Full Story at CNN.com New York (CNN) — Students gathered as the chef sliced tomatoes with a plastic knife in a Brooklyn public school cafeteria. Their eyes followed as she held up a slender green cylinder before the crowd of parents and kids in plastic aprons and hairnets. “What’s that?” kids shouted. “It’s a scallion. [...]

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District plans to close 9 schools, make grade changes in 17 others

By doris | Published: November 4, 2011

Full Story at Philly.com Faced with declining enrollment, aging facilities, and a brutal fiscal situation, Philadelphia School District officials on Wednesday recommended closing nine schools and making grade changes at 17 others. “We need to aim for a more efficient footprint reflecting the times and the demographics of the city,” said acting Superintendent Leroy Nunery [...]

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Many companies pay no income taxes, study finds

By doris | Published: November 3, 2011

Full Story at money.cnn.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The corporate tax rate is 35%. But an examination of 280 of the nation’s largest corporations suggests that many aren’t paying anything close to that. The real tax rate paid by a slew of major corporations averages closer to 18.5%, according to a study released Thursday by [...]

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Obama recruits more big money ‘bundlers’

By doris | Published: October 15, 2011

Full Story at msnbc.com WASHINGTON/CHICAGO — The number of donors who raise big money for President Barack Obama jumped in the last three months as he builds a war chest for what will likely be the costliest presidential election ever. At least forty-one people have raised at least half a million dollars for the president, [...]

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Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis has died

By doris | Published: October 8, 2011

Full Story at ProFootballTalk.nbcsports.com Al Davis, the Oakland Raiders owner who was one of the towering figures of professional football over the last half century, has died. The Raiders’ web site has confirmed that Davis passed away this morning. He was 82. In 1963, the Raiders, at the time a struggling franchise in the upstart [...]

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More than 100 arrested in massive NYC theft ring

By doris | Published: October 7, 2011

Full Story at msnbc.com NEW YORK — Bank tellers, restaurant workers and other service employees in New York lifted credit card data from foreign tourists and residents as part of an identity theft ring that stretched to China, Europe and the Middle East and victimized thousands, authorities said Friday. In total, 111 people were arrested [...]

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Citi hikes fees on checking accounts

By doris | Published: October 5, 2011

Full Story at cnn.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The fees keep coming. Citi is the latest big bank to slap customers with a round of fee hikes. This time, on its checking accounts. Starting in December, customers who hold its mid-level Citibank Account will be charged $20 a month if they fail to maintain a [...]

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1 dead in shooting as motorcycle club members brawl inside Nevada casino

By doris | Published: October 1, 2011

Full Story at CNN.com Los Angeles (CNN) — A brawl between motorcycle club members at a western Nevada casino devolved into a gunfight that left one person dead and two wounded, police said Saturday. Around 11:25 p.m. Friday, a fight broke out among members of the Hell’s Angels and Vagos clubs in front of the [...]

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