| 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.
Software colossus proves it can still be nimble
So Microsoft is making a hostile bid for Yahoo. Has it come to this? Is Microsoft's innovation engine so dead that the only way it can grow is to buy other companies? It's sad, in a way, because under the right circumstances, Microsoft, or pieces of it anyway, are still capable of fresh ideas and polished work. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the company's suite of online tools for small businesses, which reopened Monday in an improved 2.0 version (www.smallbusiness.officelive.com). What makes Office Live Small Business so compelling is its sharp focus on a single problem: that small businesses do not make full use of online tools like Web sites, e-mail newsletters, search-engine ads and online stores. Office Live Small Business, or OLSB, is a centralized Web site where you can set up all of those small-business things - a Web site, an online ad campaign, e-mail promotions, in-company communications - all by yourself, even if you're not very technical.
New categories, more winners for Best of Flagstaff 2007
The station matches the NPR sound and standards with local on-air personalities bringing listeners a mix of local, regional, national and international news.BEST OUT-OF-TOWN TOURIST DESTINATIONThe Grand Canyon80 miles north of Flagstaff, (928) 638-7888The mile-deep Grand Canyon was a destination for 4.4 million visitors in 2006.While car traffic is relatively new, human visitation is not.The oldest human artifacts found are nearly 12,000 years old. Evidence of 11 different cultures has been found in surveys covering just 3 percent of the park.Best Outdoor DiningBrix413 N. San Francisco St., 213-1021The tiny twinkling lights and comfortable chairs make Brix a romantic and fun dining experience. The helpful serving staff and excellent wine and cheese selections make your dinner or lunch one you won't soon forget.
Bank of America seeks bail out of Countrywide with $4.1 billion offer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- In a career defined by blockbuster deals, Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis has taken his biggest gamble yet with an attempt to rescue the country's biggest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial. Lewis may have become a market savior by buying the troubled Countrywide for about $4 billion in stock, and keeping the industry and regulators from the messy task of cleaning up the bankruptcy of a company that is servicing 9 million U.S. home loans worth $1.5 trillion. But Bank of America must first take on billions in mortgages at a time when the nation is facing an ever-widening credit crisis, foreclosures are on the rise and the odds of a recession seems to grow each day. The prize for Lewis' gamble, however, is a "state of the art" mortgage origination and backoffice business on the cheap.
Ex-IndyMac exec plans KC-area mortgage branches
A conversation with U.S. Bank Market President Michael Walker [East Bay] Forensic underwriting firm moves to Orlando [Orlando] Silverback rides again with infusion [Raleigh/Durham] Real estate industry economist downplays sub-prime crisis [Buffalo] South Florida's residential woes overshadow federal incentives [South Florida] .
A gift is a gift - even if someone got it first
The site features regifting dos and don'ts. There's also a link (www.regiftable.com/Lyrics.aspx) to "Regifting for the Holidays," a catchy ditty by the band The Alice Project. I found myself bopping to the Beatles-like tune and these lyrics depicting a cash-strapped holiday shopper: "As I sat looking in my room, my eyes spied a sweater from Aunt Sue. The idea hit me like a boot to the head. Gonna give that sweater to my cousin Ted." With a sense of humor, the chorus goes, "I'm regifting for the holidays. I'm packing up all that crap, adding new wrap and giving it back to you." Of course, you wouldn't give something you thought was junk. But to illustrate the good and bad of regifting, MMI is running a contest looking for the best regift tales. Entries are due by Dec. 31.
Taking responsibility
We don't let infants fly planes, why are we letting infantile cyber-citizens put us all at risk? Undeniably, the real villains are the online criminals: the phishers, the Nigerian scammers, the identity thieves that steal billions of dollars every year from individuals and organisations. Software companies selling leaky products also share blame. The unwitting henchmen But it's us - the users - that are facilitating these crimes. It's our stupidity, laziness, naiveté, ignorance and inattention that are allowing criminals to hijack our machines, and send out spam, viruses and countless other dangers to other innocent, ignorant users. We've seen with file-sharing and piracy lawsuits how record companies have successfully prosecuted computer owners, even when it turned out to be their children that had secretly carried out the piracy.
THE $TAR TREATMENT
Star Editor-in-Chief Candace Trunzo has made it no secret that she wants to take the celebrity glossy back to its old dirt-digging days as a supermarket tabloid - and she's doing so by paying sources for stories. "We do pay for information," said Trunzo, who took over the magazine last year when the high-octane Bonnie Fuller was booted upstairs to serve out her days as the editorial director of parent company American Media. "I make no qualms about it," said Trunzo. "I think all the celebrity magazines do it." Perhaps, but most mainstream publications frown on the practice. People magazine, the category leader, has always insisted it doesn't pay for news, which would be strictly against the policy of parent Time Inc. But the magazine has paid astronomical prices for exclusive photos.
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