Yesterday at 2:34 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Government,
Transportation
By Problem Solver
The government’s criteria for testing vehicles’ crash safety ratings are a-changin’.
For the past 30 years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been using its 5-star testing program to test how well vehicles sustain potential crashes. That rating system will soon expand to testing how well vehicles avoid accidents in the first place.
In other words, under these new guidelines, it’s going to become much more difficult for a vehicle to earn a 5-star safety rating, meaning it’s about to get easier for consumers to identify safe cars.
Yesterday at 1:41 p.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Investing
By Dow Jones Newswires
Last year Ben Bernanke was able to make up for the losses suffered in 2008 thanks, in part, to the stock market recovery he helped bring about.
The U.S. Federal Reserve chairman’s wealth rose last year, according to financial disclosure forms released Friday by the central bank. As of the end of 2009, Bernanke’s asset holdings were $1.2 million to $2.5 million, the same as in 2007. That compares with $850,000 to $1.9 million in 2008, when stocks were walloped by the worst financial crisis since the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Get the full story »
Yesterday at 1:26 p.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Jobs/employment,
Labor
By Clout Street
Employers who try to skip out on paying wages to their workers will face new fines and possible jail time under a measure Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law Friday.
The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, establishes a new small claims division in the Illinois Department of Labor where workers could try to recoup wages of $3,000 or less.
Yesterday at 1:12 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Government,
Litigation
By Reuters
Northwest Airlines, which was bought by Delta Air Lines Inc. in 2008, has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $38 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices on air cargo shipments, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.
Under the plea agreement, it said Northwest has agreed to cooperate with the department’s ongoing antitrust investigation.
Yesterday at 7:36 a.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
Government
By Reuters
The U.S. economic recession was more severe than previously estimated, the government said Friday in a series of data revisions that also showed growth at the end of last year was weaker than previously thought.
Benchmark revisions issued by the Commerce Department showed gross domestic product contracted 2.6 percent last year and the economy did not grow at all in 2008. It had previously estimated output fell 2.4 percent in 2009 after expanding 0.4 percent the prior year. Get the full story »
Thursday at 4:09 p.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Mortgages
By Reuters
Fixed U.S. mortgage rates set record lows last week for the sixth straight week, keeping affordability high for borrowers who can get loans, home funding company Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Refinancing has picked up steam but the pace remains well below last year’s peaks when rates were similarly low. Get the full story »
Thursday at 11:19 a.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Small business
By Reuters
U.S. Senate Republicans Thursday blocked a $30-billion plan to help community banks boost lending to small businesses, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama’s election-year battle to reduce unemployment.
Tempers ran high as Democratic leaders failed to muster the 60 votes needed to pass the measure. Republicans were upset that Democrats shut them out from offering a number of amendments to the package, that also includes about $12 billion in tax breaks for small businesses.
Thursday at 11:09 a.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
Government
By Associated Press
A Federal Reserve official says the central bank should revive a crisis-era program to buy government debt if the country seems headed toward a bout with deflation. Get the full story »
Wednesday at 1:54 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Government
By Associated Press
If you think air fares have been rising, it’s not your imagination.
Figures just released from the government, though a bit dated, show that airline prices in the first three months of this year rose nearly 5 percent from a year earlier. And that doesn’t include baggage fees and other extras.
But average fares are 25 percent lower than they were in 1999 adjusting for inflation, the government says. Get the full story »
Wednesday at 1:24 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Economy,
Government,
Housing,
Jobs/employment
By Reuters
Overall U.S. economic activity is still increasing but not robustly and in a few districts has lost steam over the past several weeks, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.
The Fed’s latest Beige Book summary of national economic conditions, based on information before July 19, pointed to a less-than-booming recovery with sluggish housing markets and sales of costly items like new cars weakening. Get the full story »
Wednesday at 6:53 a.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Pharmaceuticals
By Bruce Japsen
In the wake of health reform’s passage, Hospira Inc. will begin testing an experimental cheaper version of a popular anemia treatment in the first phase of a U.S. clinical trial.
A path for the Food and Drug Administration to approval “biosimilar” or biogeneric drugs was a part of health reform legislation passed by Congress and signed into law four months ago by President Barack Obama. Biotech brands are available only outside the U.S. but the law will enable biosimilars here in the coming years. Get the full story »
Wednesday at 6:16 a.m.
Filed under:
Energy,
Environment,
Government,
Politics
By Reuters
Several U.S. agencies are preparing a criminal probe of at least three companies involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, though it could take more than a year before any charges are filed, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
BP Plc, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. are the initial targets of the wide-ranging probe, which aims “to examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contributed to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico,” the newspaper said, citing law enforcement and other sources. Get the full story »
Tuesday at 4:32 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Government
By Associated Press
The Federal Aviation Administration plans a $230,000 civil penalty against Continental Airlines because it botched a nose wheel replacement on one airplane.
The FAA said Continental failed to install the washer during the replacement of a nose wheel on a Boeing 767 on Aug. 12, 2008. The plane flew 22 flights over 15 days before the problem was discovered, and the washer was installed. The fine amounts to $10,454 for each flight without the washer. Get the full story »
Tuesday at 11:10 a.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Pharmaceuticals
From Bloomberg News | Only devising a test protocol stands in the way of a version of Pfizer’s Viagra being used to treat a rare lung disorder in children. A Food and Drug Administration panel will meet Thursday to discuss it.
Monday at 3:22 p.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Pharmaceuticals
By Reuters
The Food and Drug Administration should better explain its reasons whenever it requires additional safeguards for risky drugs, a pharmaceutical industry group said Monday.
That recommendation is one of dozens expected this week at a public meeting on the FDA’s risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, or REMS, a set of tools to protect consumers from drugs with potentially serious side effects. Get the full story »
