| MasterCard spent $1.8M lobbying
MasterCard International Inc. spent $1.8 million in 2007 to lobby on Internet-related issues and on fees merchants pay when customers use credit cards. The Purchase, N.Y.-based company spent $880,000 in the second half of 2007 to lobby Congress, according to a disclosure form posted online Feb. 13 by the Senate's public records office. It lobbied on gambling regulations and the use of credit cards to purchase illegal material on the Internet. The company spent $880,000 lobbying in the first half of the year on financial literacy, data security, microchip technology and fees banks pay to credit card networks. Congress is weighing tighter regulations on the credit card industry. The industry came under fire in December, when a Senate subcommitee issued a report denouncing practices that include raising interest rates for customers whose credit ratings decline, even if they make their card payments on time.
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Pull 'Em Up Campaign Goes National With Dr. Phil Appearance (This mean people don't like saggin' pants)
Ludacris Opening Upscale Restaurant In Atlanta
Kool Herc On Hip-Hop: 'Dr. King Would Be Proud' (Think Hip-Hop, not rap!)
LIL' SCRAPPY'S NEW GIRLFRIEND?
Hip-Hop hasn't been too kind to Lil' Scrappy in the last couple of years. Well, that's got nothing to do with the ladies. I thought Scrappy Doo and Diamond were rock solid, but it would appear that they aren't! Now, we know appearances can be deceiving, but let me explain. AllHipHop.com just got a new columnist, a an actress who is talking about being a fledgling actress. Her name is Noree Victoria.
Spring Training: For McCutchen, being No. 1 no sweat
But McCutchen remains, without question, a work in progress, as his tumultuous 2007 illustrated. Coming off a strong spring, he was sent back to Class AA Altoona and went hitless in his first 15 at-bats. His average was .189 through April, .230 through May. The minor-league evaluators blamed the wicked cold in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania in that early going for icing McCutchen, and he shared that view. After that, the thinking went, he was so eager to get his average up to a respectable level that he reached out of the zone to grasp for hits. Big mistake. "That's not my game," McCutchen said. "It just snowballed." He settled eventually and, after a .301 run in his final 41 games with the Curve, was promoted to Indianapolis in late August and batted .313 in 17 games.
BBB releases latest set of consumer alerts
This week the Better Business Bureau of Northern Indiana released its latest consumer/business tips. The BBB notes that readers should take into consideration the importance of the practice in question and the total performance of a company. For complete information on these companies, go to www.bbb.org on the Web. • Wish Children of Indiana — Do not confuse this group with the Indiana Children’s Wish Fund. Wish Children is calling consumers claiming that they grant wishes to terminally ill children. Calls to the organization are answered by a professional fundraiser who opens with "accounting" and not the name of the organization. The professional fundraiser is keeping 85 percent of the money the company collects. The BBB recommends no more than 35 percent be spent on fundraising. • LSAT Intensive Review advertises weekend Law School Test preparation seminars in cities throughout the U.S.
Both Obama And Clinton Hold Edge Over McCain
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) kicks off his general-election campaign trailing both potential Democratic nominees in hypothetical matchups, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) leads McCain, who captured the delegates needed to claim the Republican nomination Tuesday night, by 12 percentage points among all adults in the poll; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) holds a six-point lead over the GOP nominee. Both Democrats are buoyed by moderates and independents when going head to head with McCain and benefit from sustained negative public assessments of President Bush and the war in Iraq. About two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job and think the war was not worth fighting, and most hold those positions "strongly." A slim majority also doubt that the United States is making progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq, even as McCain and others extol recent successes there.
ID theft tops list of complaints
For the second year running, identity theft leads the list of the top 10 consumer complaints lodged last year with the Illinois attorney general's office. Attorney General Lisa Madigan was an identity theft victim about 10 years ago when someone used her credit card information to buy concert tickets, she said. People should keep an eye on their bank statements and shred personal documents to avoid being a victim, Madigan said, adding that in more than half of identification theft cases, the victim actually knows the thief. Madigan's office reported that calls are coming in from people needing to restore their stolen identities and those concerned about security breach notices they received in the mail. Illinois consumers struggled with collection agencies and mortgage lenders amid the housing crisis and slumping economy -- the next two spots on Madigan's top 10 list of consumer complaints.
Hornets' derby debacle
WATFORD's crisis of results at Vicarage Road plunged to new depths this afternoon (Saturday) after they crashed to a 4-2 defeat against Queens Park Rangers. The game was effectively over by half-time after the counter-attacking visitors had capitalised on some alarming defensive failings in the Hornets rearguard to race into a 3-0 lead courtesy of two Martin Rowlands goals, including a penalty, and a Damion Stewart header. A Damien Francis header at the start of the second-half, which had suspicions of an own goal about it, gave the Hornets hope, but Akos Buzsaky ensured it would be seven games without a win at Vicarage Road for the home side before Dan Shittu netted a late consolation. .
Bay Area Traveler Gets Runaround From Airline
Airlines have strict policies regarding rebooking flights if you get sick. One South Bay viewer turned to ConsumerWatch after spending months getting the runaround from one airline. Roland Borges hadn't been to India in 30 years. So when his 94 year old mother wanted to visit her homeland for a family reunion, Borges was thrilled to take her. "We went to see where she was born and where my grandparents lived. It was a wonderful experience," said Borges. But at the end of their trip, his mother was hospitalized with pneumonia and an embolism. They needed to postpone their 22 hour flight home on Virgin Atlantic. "I tried to contact their customer service in Mumbai and find out what kind of paperwork I needed," said Borges. He called repeatedly, but to no avail.
Yale relaxes int’l travel restrictions
Students hoping to spend their summers studying in Bhutan, Burma or Bangladesh can now rest easy. But first, they should be sure to apply for Yale-sponsored grants or fellowships to help subsidize their exotic excursions — for their trips are now eligible for University support. Under a new policy formalized last week, the University will lift its ban on Yale-sponsored undergraduate travel to dozens of countries and simplify how restrictions on foreign travel are developed and applied. Previously, Yale forbade University-sponsored student travel to at least some regions of 75 countries. Now, that number will drop to about 25, officials said. The new policy replaces one developed in 2003 under which University administrators identified dozens of countries to which Yale-sponsored travel by undergraduates might need to be restricted and then reassessed the list semiannually.
Buffy the Cynicism Slayer: Behind the Obama Phenomenon
I've made this comment on other posts, but I say this because how many politicians do you know who want single payer health care? And why isn't he coming out and saying all this? He speaks in generalities because the opposition (starting with Hillary) would twist his words and the media would jump on it. It's funny, there's something about him you don't trust. There's something about him I do trust, and I've spent many years being wary. But he feels authentic to me. I acknowledge I could be wrong, but look around, what have we got to lose? I want to take a chance, a leap of faith, and I don't feel uncomfortable doing it either. I watched Michelle Obama's UCLA speech, and I liked what she said and I liked her. Their parents couldn't afford to put them through college and she said they were just three years out from paying off their student loans.
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