Peanut Butter News

Full Story at CNN.com

CNN) — Some people who didn’t file a federal tax return for 2006 have more than 1 billion reasons to reconsider, but they need to do it fast, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS says it has more than $1.3 billion in refunds for 1.4 million people who didn’t file a 2006 return. But to collect the cash, they will have to file for that year by April 15.

Otherwise, the money will become the property of the U.S. Treasury, as happens with all tax refunds that aren’t claimed within three years.

The IRS estimates the median unclaimed refund for 2006 nonfilers is $604. California is the state with the most nonfilers who qualify for refunds from that year (159,700), with Texas (109,600) and Florida (101,700) right behind.

Full Story at msnbc.com

ALBANY, N.Y. – No nuptials at Niagara Falls? Jones Beach off limits on a 90-degree day? The “Grand Canyon of the East” devoid of campers?

New York’s state parks system, the nation’s oldest, is facing another round of funding cuts that is likely to result in the first budget-related closures in the system’s 125-year history. State officials say even popular parks at Niagara Falls and Jones Beach, with attendance figures in the millions, could be closed, along with such destinations as Letchworth, a popular hiking and camping spot ringing the rugged Genesee Gorge south of Rochester.

Full Story at ABCNews.go.com

Appearing on “Good Morning America” today Feinberg also responded to a senior Republican congressman who claimed that AIG has “taxpayers over a barrel.”

In a statement released Tuesday night Sen. Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said “the Obama administration has been outmaneuvered. And the closed-door negotiations just add to the skepticism that the taxpayers will ever get the upper hand.”

Feinberg insisted he had not been “outmaneuvered” by the insurance giant.

Full Story atmoney.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A midnight deadline has passed, but the Fox network has still not resolved its differences with Time Warner Cable to keep its channels on the air.

Time Warner Cable and News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500), Fox’s parent company, have been locked in a public battle over how much the cable giant should pay for the right to deliver Fox networks into its subscribers’ homes.

Full Story at msnbc.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – American International Group Inc. has lost a top executive due to the government’s limits on executive pay.

AIG said Wednesday that vice chairman and general counsel Anastasia Kelly has resigned, effective immediately.

Kelly left because of the reduction in her base salary that was mandated by the government’s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, AIG said.

Full Story at msnbc.com

WASHINGTON – Universities and colleges are still waiting for tuition payments for thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who attended school last fall under the new GI Bill, leaving the veterans panicked that they’ll be unable to return to class in January.

Veterans Affairs Department officials promise to get them back into the classroom. The VA says the number of veterans with claims unprocessed is now fewer than 5,000 — down from tens of thousands — and the goal is to have them all processed by the end of the year

Full Story at CNN.com

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — The next time a married man or woman glances your way, you might think twice before acting on impulse and frolicking between satin sheets. The scorned spouse could sue you.

Yes, you read that right. You, the paramour, can get hit with a lawsuit that could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They’re known as “alienation of affection” suits, when an “outsider” interferes in a marriage. The suits are allowed in seven states: Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.

The law allowing such legal action dates back to antiquated times when a wife was considered the property of a husband. A broken-hearted hubby could go after his wife’s lover — not with a gun, but with the law.

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday it will be at least 15 years before his government can bankroll a security force strong enough to protect the country from the threat of insurgency.

Speaking at a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Karzai said Afghan security forces would take the lead in securing the nation within five years, but he said his nation would need financial help to pay the salaries and equip a growing army and police force.

“Afghanistan is looking forward to taking on our responsibilities in terms of paying for its forces with its own resources, but that will not be for another 15 years,” Karzai said.

Full Story at Reuters.com

TEPCO, Japan’s largest utility, has entered a binding agreement with project partners for the purchase of 1.8 million tonnes per year (mtpy) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for a period of 20 years, Exxon said in a statement.

The contracted volume includes the plant’s recently expanded output of 0.3 mtpy, which means all of the project’s 6.6 mtpy capacity has now been contracted, project partner Oil Search (OSH.AX) said in a separate statement.

Exxon and partners have not yet finalized two other gas sale agreements with Taiwan’s CPC Corp and Japan’s Osaka Gas Ltd 9532. ahead of a self-imposed deadline of December 8 for the project’s final investment decision.

Full Story atmoney.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Because oil prices have always been directly related to the strength of the economy, a recovery might have seen headlines like these:

• The recession ends: Get ready for $100 oil

• The economy roars: $140 oil, is there an end in sight?

• Everyone in China buys a Cadillac: World tapped out

But a growing number of experts are saying that you can forget all that. For the next couple of years, they say, oil prices will remain well below $100 a barrel as the economy remains fragile and efficiency measures kick in.

Full Story atCNN.com

Washington (CNN) — A former State Department employee and his wife, accused of illegally aiding the government of Cuba for nearly 30 years, pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges.

Walter Kendall Myers, 72, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit espionage and two counts of wire fraud. He agreed to forfeit $1.7 million related to the two counts of wire fraud and to serve a life prison sentence.

His wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense information. She agreed to serve a sentence of between 6 and 7½ years in prison.

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

CHICAGO – Henry Ford would have hated 2009, and not just because it’s been a tough year to sell cars.

Ford, as the story goes, refused to do business on Friday the 13th, and this week marks the third time this year that the 13th will fall on a Friday — the most times it can happen in one year.

It’s a day when people rearrange travel plans, delay surgery or just pull up the covers and stay in bed until Friday the 13th turns into Saturday the 14th, convinced that even stepping out of the house would cause bad luck to find them the way an anvil finds the head of Wile E. Coyote.

“They’re afraid something tragic or ominous would happen,” said Donald Dossey, a North Carolina behavioral scientist and author who said he named the fear — paraskavedekatriaphobia — proof that he does not suffer from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, the fear of long words.