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22 Aug 2010 10:06

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Biz: The final stage of the Credit Card Act of 2009: The big changes

  • one The law limits the penalty fees on credit cards so that you’re not paying a $20 penalty for a $5 overage.
  • twoOther fees will disappear, too: You can’t get punished for not using your card for a while anymore.
  • threeAnd if you buy a gift card starting today, the balance will be active for a full five years after you buy it.
  • fourFinally, if a card company raises your interest rate for any reason, they have to tell you why. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jun 2010 10:51

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U.S.: Illegal immigrants should avoid Arizona, random Nebraska town

  • what Fremont, Nebraska residents voted to block illegal immigrants from renting property or getting jobs.
  • why Because they felt that federal immigration laws had not gone far enough to regulate it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jun 2010 17:19

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Politics: Arizona policeman: The immigration law is making our jobs harder

  • Ask any officer … You would not believe how many incidents go unreported … even though the law has not gone into effect.
  • Tucson police officer Martin Escobar • Regarding the immigration law that he has filed a lawsuit against with another officer. Escobar, who works in an area of Tucson that’s nearly half-Hispanic, says that there are no “race-neutral criteria” to decide who’s an immigrant and who isn’t. And that’s going to affect leads on crimes. “These are the people that are calling in something going on,” he says. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Mar 2010 10:39

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Offbeat: Beekeeping in NYC? It’s illegal. But it may not be soon.

Apparently, New York City is one of the few cities in the country that labels beekeeping as illegal. But that might change. This guy might get stung. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Feb 2010 10:58

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Biz: College students will have a (necessarily) harder time getting credit

  • $1,879 amount of credit card debt the average college student had in the heady days of 1998
  • $3,173 amount of credit card debt the average college student had in 2008, which is a huge increase source
  • » So, what changes? A law that takes effect Monday will regulate the credit industry at large, but with the largest effect on adults under 21. They won’t be able to get credit without a parent’s signature and proof of other assets. The new policy will help limit high amounts of debt for college students, but may also hurt them, as many often use the credit to pay for necessities.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jan 2010 20:46

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U.S.: Ca. pot legalization pushers get off the couch, get petitions signed

  • 433,971 number of valid signatures supporters of marijuana legalization need to get it on the 2010 ballot
  • 700,000 number of signatures they just dropped off today in California; mind the cloud of Cheeto dust source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Jan 2010 01:02

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U.S.: Obama and congress almost completely in sync in 2009

  • 96.7% of bills passed went Obama’s way source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

29 Dec 2009 10:39

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Tech: Broadband customers in the U.K. may have to pay big for piracy

  • Broadband consumers shouldn’t have to bail out the music industry. If they really think it’s worth spending vast sums of money on these measures then they should be footing the bill; not the consumer.
  • Carphone Warehouse CEO Charles Dunstone (which runs the TalkTalk consumer broadband service in the U.K.) • Regarding the reported £500 million British broadband consumers will be forced to pay as part of an online piracy bill. Yes, you read that right – to fight online piracy for movie and music companies, the U.K. is working on a bill that benefits those companies, specifically, at the cost to consumers, with no real benefit to consumers. May we call bull(#$&( on this already? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jul 2009 16:15

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U.S.: South Carolina police: Mark Sanford broke no laws with his tryst

  • What he did on his own personal time doesn’t require him to pay back anything. He did that for his own reasons. There was no legal requirement that he pay back any of that.
  • S.C. State Law Enforcement Division Director Reggie Lloyd • On Gov. Mark Sanford’s affair and whether or not he did anything wrong. Lloyd says, after an investigation, he did nothing wrong and in fact didn’t have to pay back any money for that business trip to Argentina he took – during which he had a free day where he was with his mistress. He’s getting called on to step down at the moment, but has avoided the pressure thus far. In other news, he’s a poster boy for why you shouldn’t use e-mail to have an extramarital affair. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Jun 2009 11:20

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World: This story from Japan will transplant your heartstrings. :(

  • 11-year-old Hiroki Ando needs a new heart. The old ticker isn’t working very well. He suffers from the inflammatory heart disease cardiomyopathy, which killed his sister five years ago. source
  • However, Ando cannot get a new heart in Japan, where it’s illegal for anyone under the age of 15 to donate organs. People donated $1.7 million, and he’s headed to the U.S. for help. source
  • It’s a major issue in Japan – the public perception of organ transplants has limited them to the point where just 81 have happened since 1997. Thousands happen yearly in the U.S. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 7 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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