| 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.
Hain faces damaging "sleaze" probe in donations scandal
However the scale of the under-reporting caused astonishment among MPs and triggered calls for him to consider his position. Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling said that it had shown "breathtaking incompetence". However allies today sought to rally round the beleaguered minister, insisting that it was a "perfectly innocent oversight". Labour MP Martin Linton, who was part of Mr Hain's campaign team, said it was not "a big deal" and that such things could "happen very easily in politics". "Anyone who has worked with Peter Hain... would know that it could only be what he says it is - a perfectly innocent oversight - and he is very sorry for it," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. He said the money involved was "a fairly modest amount", comparing it with the 260 million dollars (£133m)spent by US President George Bush on the Republican primary elections in 2004.
Alberta in no rush to go nuclear, says Stelmach
This is going to hurt to accomplish, it will lower your standard of living no matter how you look at it. One last point, it is easy to say, ok, we suffer through a ten percent increase in fuel prices and or electricity prices, but these prices are also then included on everything you buy, so be prepared for that increase as well. Posted 28/12/07 at 11:17 AM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment .
Red Hat/Cygnus record run lost amid Sun/MySQL billion-dollar hoopla
Two reasons: (1) Red Hat had a large market cap in the days of 1999-2000 stock market and (2) Cygnus was earning in 1999 what very few open source companies are earning even today, almost 10 years later. At the end of the day, revenue and growth drives valuation, and Cygnus had revenue and growth. Does that almost decade-long reign say anything about the real or perceived values of open source companies today? It says more about how rare it is to find high-quality companies. What's your best guess as to how long we'll have to wait for the next billion-dollar-plus open source deal? Exempting Red Hat from my answer (because I cannot comment or speculate on Red Hat's future), I would not be surprised to see another $1B deal of some sort in the next 12-18 months.
Shoring up retirement path
Like many couples in their 50s, Wanda and Donald McCoy are worried about retirement.
And perhaps with good reason: They haven't managed to save much over the years.
They both are planning to work until age 70, but Donald's job as a truck driver can be demanding. And Wanda, as a breast cancer survivor, knows that health-care surprises happen all the time.
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As obesity surgery takes off, waiting lists grow in Canada
We are great at blaming everyone and everything else for us being fat though, I can give us that much credit. The healthy foods are still on the shelves, they haven't gone missing. I am speaking from some experience. I used to weigh 285lbs after I graduated from University and had always been “husky" even though I was very active. Problem was I didn't know how to eat properly and all the exercise in the world wouldn't make a difference when I was eating over 3000 calories a day. Funny thing though, I joined weight watchers and after giving it a honest 6 months I noticed I was already down 40lbs. Its funny how a pound or so a week adds up. (The weight didn't get put on overnight, its a joke people think it should just melt off.) I still ate all the time, more than ever in fact, I just ate healthy with lots of vegetables.
Marxist critic Eagleton faces axe at debt-hit university
July marks Professor Eagleton's normal contractual retirement date at 65 and discussions are continuing regarding his future role," he said. Eagleton has made it clear he resents having to leave his post as John Edward Taylor professor of English literature. The thought of retiring to help pay the salary of his opponent rankles, and he told the Observer: "It is certainly profoundly odd that during this financial crisis they can afford to hire someone like him." Eagleton has written that Amis is "with the beasts ... the Muslim-baiters and haters, these days as likely to come from the Groucho and Garrick clubs as the nasty secret venues used by the neo-fascists". Amis is unlikely to attend Eagleton's farewell party, if it comes to that, after remarking that the critic had "submitted to an unworthy combination of venom and sloth", adding: "Can I ask him, in a collegial spirit, to shut up about it?" Following a European directive, UK legislation has left it up to individual employers to set a mandatory retirement age for their workers, which has to be at least 65.
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