US remains silent over McKinney arrest by Israel

Nearly a day after the detention of former US lawmaker Cynthia McKinney by Israeli forces, Washington has yet to make a reaction. Israeli Navy detained former US congresswoman and Nobel Prize laureate Cynthia McKinney and twenty other human rights activists on board a relief boat outside Israel's territorial waters on Tuesday as they were heading to Gaza on a humanitarian mission. Tel Aviv claims the boat was trying to break Israel's two-year siege on Gaza.

Quest for Judaization envelops Palestinian house

Israel has demolished a Palestinian house in eastern Jerusalem (al-Quds) without a prior warning, injuring nine people living in the building. The incident occurred on Monday when Jerusalem (al-Quds) municipality authorities tore down a house on the Mount of Olives on Monday morning. The Israeli police forces who accompanied the bulldozers clashed with those residing in the house and wounded nine people, including four women. Two of the women were taken to the nearby al-Maqasid Hospital.

Oil Companies Reject Iraq's Contract Terms

BAGHDAD -- Iraq awarded a BP-led consortium the right to develop the giant Rumaila oil field but failed to strike deals for seven oil and gas fields as companies balked at the country's contract terms.

U.S. Journalist Quizzed on Foreign Contacts After Landing at Miami

A veteran American journalist returning from Latin America on Saturday was closely questioned by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent about where he went and whom he talked to. John Dinges, a former NPR managing editor for news and currently professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism, landed at Miami International Airport June 27 after visiting Venezuela and Chile.

By-the-mile road tax could replace by-the-gallon federal fuel tax

The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center. What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted.

DISGRACEFUL: Dan Choi Told to Start Packing His Fatigues

In a closed-to-the-media military panel in Syracuse yesterday, New York National Guard First Lt. Dan Choi was given the fate Barack Obama told him he should expect: It's time to go. A four-member Army board yesterday heard Choi's Don't Ask Don't Tell case and concluded he should be discharged. The decision now falls into the hands of Lt. Gen. Thomas Miller of the First Army Division, and Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau.

After Honduran coup, reporters detained, signals blocked

New York, June 30, 2009--Honduran military personnel briefly detained seven journalists, temporarily shut down several local broadcasters, and intermittently blocked the broadcast signals of international news channels in the aftermath of the weekend coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on those in power in Honduras to allow the press to report freely and without fear of reprisal.

Warning: Britain faces new recession
Economy set to relapse into dreaded 'double-dip' downturn, say world's central bankers

The world's central bankers have warned that the British economy faces relapsing into another recession – the much-feared "double dip" downturn. A continuing drought in bank lending, evidenced in the latest figures from the Bank of England, and the threat that spiralling public borrowing will feed through to higher interest rates and inflation, are judged by international economists to be mortal dangers to a sustained recovery.

Fliers unhappy with new fees, fewer in-flight perks, survey says

US forces pull out of Iraq's cities

Iraqi forces have assumed formal control of the capital, Baghdad, and other cities, six years after US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq.

Minnesota court rules Democrat Al Franken won Senate seat

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of a tight U.S. Senate race over Republican Norm Coleman, which should give Democrats the 60-seat majority they need to overcome procedural obstacles and push through their agenda.

Scalia breaks ranks, slams Bush officials on bank regulation

WASHINGTON ? In a rebuke of the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal bank regulator erred in quashing efforts by New York state to combat the kind of predatory mortgage lending that triggered the nation's financial crisis. The 5-4 ruling by the high court was unusual. Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the most conservative jurist, wrote the majority's opinion and was joined by the court's four liberal judges.

Identity card trial for air industry staff dropped

A compulsory identity card trial for pilots and 30,000 other airport workers due to start in September has been abandoned by the new home secretary, Alan Johnson.

Crime of blasphemous libel proposed for Defamation Bill

A NEW crime of blasphemous libel is to be proposed by the Minister for Justice in an amendment to the Defamation Bill, which will be discussed by the Oireachtas committee on justice today. . . . “Blasphemous matter” is defined as matter “that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.”

EPA list shows dangerous coal ash sites found in 10 states

WASHINGTON ? The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday released a list of 44 coal-fired power plant waste sites in 10 states with a high hazard potential, including 12 sites in North Carolina, seven in Kentucky and a large storage pond in Pennsylvania.

Man in Guatemala arrested for Twitter messages

A man in Guatemala, Jean Anleu, has become one of the first people in the world to be arrested for using Twitter. Mr Anleu was so tired with corruption in his country that he decided to vent his feeling with a 96-character message on the social-networking site.

The message, or tweet, has now earned him a potential five-year prison sentence.

It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado

DURANGO, Colo. — For the first time since territorial days, rain will be free for the catching here, as more and more thirsty states part ways with one of the most entrenched codes of the West. Precipitation, every last drop or flake, was assigned ownership from the moment it fell in many Western states, making scofflaws of people who scooped rainfall from their own gutters. In some instances, the rights to that water were assigned a century or more ago.

Keys ill-prepared for rising sea
Despite being called 'ground zero' for sea-level rise in the United States, the Florida Keys have lagged behind the rest of South Florida in planning for the potentially massive problem.

BIG PINE KEY -- Treasure salvors searching for an 18th-century wreck in the Florida Straits a few years ago made a fascinating but little noticed discovery. Not buried treasure. Buried land.

CHURCH PERFORMED EXORCISM ON GAY MAN: Video posted on YouTube.

Bernard Madoff gets maximum 150 years in prison

NEW YORK – Convicted swindler Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison Monday for fraud so extensive that the judge said he needed to send a symbolic message to those who might imitate his fraud and to victims who need relief.

Supreme Court holds Troy Davis case until September

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - A decision from the US Supreme Court will not be made until September in the case of convicted killer Troy Anthony Davis.  Davis is on death row for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail.

Thousands of Pakistanis hold anti-US rally

Thousands of Pakistanis march in the southern port city of Karachi to denounce the 'unwelcome' influence of the US in the nuclear-armed country. About 10,000 participants, holding party flags, banners and placards, chanted anti US slogans and demanded the government to condemn Washington's policies on Sunday.

Did toxic chemical in Iraq cause GIs' illnesses?

What these three men — one sick, one dying, one dead — had in common is they were National Guard soldiers on the same stretch of wind-swept desert in Iraq during the early months of the war in 2003. These soldiers and hundreds of other Guard members from Indiana, Oregon and West Virginia were protecting workers hired by a subsidiary of the giant contractor, KBR Inc., to rebuild an Iraqi water treatment plant. The area, as it turned out, was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a potent, sometimes deadly chemical linked to cancer and other devastating diseases. No one disputes that. But that's where agreement ends.

California's Fiscal Crisis: The Legacy of Proposition 13

Proposition 13 was the brainchild of the late Howard Jarvis. . . . Jarvis created a similarly impregnable institution. When he rode the wave of anger over skyrocketing property-tax assessments to pass Proposition 13 in 1978, he included a two-thirds vote requirement for the passage of any new taxes in California - an insurmountable obstacle built on populist allergy to any kind of new levy. Beholden to a tax-averse electorate, the state's liberals and moderates have attempted to live with Proposition 13 while continuing to provide the state services Californians expect - freeways, higher education, locking up felons, assisting needy families and, very importantly, essential funding to local government and school districts that vanished after the antitax measure passed.

Obama aide's husband lobbied for oil drilling

Florida looked to have the ultimate ace in the hole on oil drilling. When President Barack Obama named Florida native Carol Browner the Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, groups opposed to oil drilling in the waters off Florida rejoiced. But Browner's role as Obama's top adviser on major environmental issues could be clouded by her husband's past job as chief lobbyist for the group behind the latest push for more oil drilling off Florida's coast.

Brill's Journalism Online and ITZ Publishing Forge Alliance

NEW YORK Journalism Online, the company founded to help publishers charge for content, and ITZ Publishing have announced a partnership to work with small and medium-sized newspaper companies.

Iraqi whose lies made the case for war looks on from afar
Uncertain future awaits CIA's most valuable source on Iraq's fictitious chemical and biological weapons programme

When the Iraqi who could be considered more responsible than any other for the US invasion six years ago quietly returned last March to the land his lies helped shape, Iraq was entering one of its most stable and promising phases in six years of turmoilRafid Ahmed Alwan – otherwise known as Curveball – slipped back into Baghdad after 10 years of exile in Germany.

Salmonella Scare Prompts Dairy Recall
Impact potentially far-reaching

Plainview Milk Products Cooperative, Plainview, Minn., is voluntarily recalling instant nonfat dried milk, whey protein, fruit stabilizers, and thickening agents that it has manufactured over the past two years, because they might be contaminated with Salmonella. The company sells these products to other industry customers, including distributors and manufacturers, who may have incorporated them into their own products. None of Plainview's products were sold directly to the public.

Gaza civilians 'mired in poverty' after war

Six months after the war in Gaza, humanitarian workers claim the population there is sliding deeper into despair. The territory's 1.5 million people are still struggling to rebuild their lives, because of stringent restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza.

Bosnia Faces Collapse as General Strike Looms

Bosnia's Federation entity is facing a total collapse as industry, education, health, postal, communal and other administrative workers prepare the country's biggest-ever strike over government plans for interventionist budget cuts.

RFID could be in all cell phones by 2010

Military Coup in Honduras

The people of Honduras show great bravery by surrounded [sic] the Presidential Palace to support their president. General Romeo Vasquez, the head of the armed forces who led the military coup against the democratically elected president Zelaya, is a graduate of the notorious School of the Americas (SOA).

U.S. general: Time right to withdraw from Iraqi cities

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. commander in Iraq said on Sunday the time is right for American forces to pull out of Iraqi cities and expressed confidence in the ability of Iraqi security forces to take more control. With U.S. forces due to be out of Iraqi cities by Tuesday, General Ray Odierno said, "I think from a military and security standpoint it's time for us to move out of the cities."

Gaza 'war crimes' hearing under way

A public hearing organised by a UN team investigating alleged war crimes by Israel and Hamas during the Gaza war is under way. As part of its investigations into the December 2008-January 2009 Gaza conflict, the UN fact-finding mission will listen to testimony from victims of the conflict for two days in Gaza City and hold a second round of public hearings on July 6 and July 7 in Geneva.

CEO Compensation: Who Said Health Care is in a Financial Crisis?

Those of you who are struggling to pay for your generic medicines or wondering why the doctor is charging you a $5.00 co-pay, give some thought to these facts about how our health care dollars are allocated. At the end of this post, there is a list of 23 health companies I found on Forbes.com, what the CEO was paid in 2005, and the average paid to the CEO in the past five years. . . . Based on this, the next time you want to argue with your Primary Care doctor's front desk about a $5.00 co-pay, remember that he makes an average of $149,000.00 per year. On the other hand -- using United Healthcare as an example -- your insurance company paid their CEO -- one man -- $324,000,000 over a recent five year period.

NYT Co. Hopes to Sell 'Globe' and 2nd Paper 'Quickly'

NEW YORK The New York Times Company hopes to find a buyer for its Boston Globe, and a second paper in that state, quite quickly, according to a confidential letter a Times reporter has obtained. And it wants to find a buyer who will take on $59 million in pension liabilities.

Responding to McClatchy Debt Swap, Credit-Rater Raises Bankruptcy Specter

CHICAGO Reaffirming its belief that The McClatchy Co. has "an untenable capital structure" of large debt and shrinking revenue, Fitch Ratings on Friday downgraded the credit rating of the nation's third-largest chain, and noted pointedly that other debt-encumbered newspaper companies are now iin bankruptcy protection. The action came hours after McClatchy announced that its offer to exchange $1.15 billion of its approximately $2 billion debt for new and deeply discounted notes with higher interest rates had fallen far short of its goal.

Comics artist Mark Sable detained for Unthinkable acts

Boom! Studios sends word that comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at Los Angeles International Airport this past weekend because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries Unthinkable. Sable was detained while traveling to New York for a debut party at Jim Hanley's Universe today.

U.S. beef recall expanded, 18 illnesses suspected

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Colorado meat company is expanding a recall of beef due to possible contamination by E.coli O157:H7 bacteria after an investigation found 18 illnesses may be linked to the meat, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Sunday. Greeley, Colorado-based JBS-Swift Beef Co is voluntarily expanding its June 24 recall to include about 380,000 lbs of assorted beef products, USDA said. The original recall was for 41,280 lbs.

Bailout of U.S. Banks Gives British Rum a $2.7 Billion Benefit

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- In June 2008, U.S. Virgin Islands Governor John deJongh Jr. agreed to give London-based Diageo Plc billions of dollars in tax incentives to move its production of Captain Morgan rum from one U.S. island -- Puerto Rico -- to another, namely St. Croix. DeJongh says he had no idea his deal would help make the world’s largest liquor distiller the most unlikely beneficiary of the emergency Troubled Asset Relief Program approved by Congress just four months later. . . . The hurried legislation adopted by a Congress voting under the threat of sudden global economic collapse led to hidden tax breaks for firms in dozens of industries. They included builders of Nascar auto-racing tracks, restaurant chains such as Burger King Holdings Inc., movie and television producers -- and London’s Diageo.

Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe

A major impediment in the fight against cancer is that most research grants go to projects unlikely to break much ground.

How To Save The Newspapers, Vol. XII: Outlaw Linking

Of all the misguided schemes put forth lately to save newspapers (micropayments! blame Google!), the one put forth by Judge Richard Posner has to be the most jaw-dropping. He suggests that linking to copyrighted material should be outlawed.

Solar disarray

US reneges on Iraq withdrawal promises

The United States retracts its initial promise of commitment to withdrawing its troops from Iraqi cities by the end of the month of June. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the US military in Iraq, Brigadier General Steve Lanza, said a number of the country's troops are to remain in the urban areas after the June 30 deadline, Reuters reported.

Ahmadinejad censures Obama for Iran comments

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has criticized US President Barack Obama for his recent comments about post-presidential election protests in Iran. President Ahmadinejad said the American president had made the mistake of following in the footsteps of certain European countries and his predecessor George W. Bush.

Airport bomb squad detonates . . . mangoes

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio airport summoned a bomb squad to detonate a suspicious item that turned out to be pickled mangoes.

Supreme Court: Teen Strip Search Illegal

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school's strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal.

The court ruled on Thursday that school officials violated the law with their search of Savana Redding, who lives in Safford, in rural eastern Arizona.

US initial jobless claims jump for second month

WASHINGTON (AFP) — New claims for US unemployment benefits climbed for the second consecutive week last week, the Labor Department said Thursday as employers cut payrolls to cope with a brutal recession. Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 627,000 in the week ended June 20 from an upwardly revised 612,000 claims in the prior week.

British intelligence agencies to step up security over cyber-attack threats

Intelligence agencies led by GCHQ, the government's electronic spy centre, are to step up operations against a growing threat of cyber-attacks, the government announcedtoday as part of an updated "national security strategy".

PC makers race to comply with China's Web filter

BEIJING (AP) -- Days before a deadline abruptly imposed by China, computer makers are scrambling to comply with an order to supply Web-filtering software with PCs and worrying what it might do to their reputations.

Sanford's only the latest GOP rising star to crash and burn

WASHINGTON — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's admission of an affair Wednesday dealt a potentially fatal blow to the political career of a rising Republican star, and it's only the latest stumble of many in the early jockeying to lead the GOP back from oblivion in 2012.

Netanyahu trying to reach deal on settlements with U.S.

PARIS - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing with efforts to advance compromise formulas that will win support in the Obama administration on the issue of settlement construction. Ahead of the visit to Washington by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Netanyahu is planning to propose that increased construction in the settlements be allowed for "natural growth."

Ten dead in Czech floods, central Europe on alert

NOVY JICIN, Czech Republic (Reuters) - At least 10 people died in flooding in the eastern Czech Republic, and rising river levels prompted flood warnings across central Europe following heavy rains this week.

Chancellor Merkel Visits the Debt President

The occupant of the White House may have changed recently. But the amount of ill-advised ideology coming from Washington has remained constant. Obama's list of economic errors is long -- and continues to grow. The president may have changed, but the excesses of American politics have remained. Barack Obama and George W. Bush, it has become clear, are more similar than they might seem at first glance.

Record bonuses at bailed-out US banks

Saudi royals funded 9/11: Lawyers

Lawyers representing the families of the 9/11 victims, expose evidence allegedly proving the Saudi royal family's financial support for al-Qaeda. The lawyers provided The New York Times with excerpts of the material they had amassed by putting together the pieces from leaking American intelligence documents among other things, the daily reported on Tuesday. The evidence, originally presented in hundreds of thousands of pages, recount how the Saudi royalty would use middlemen and financial supply routes to bankroll militants based in Afghanistan and Bosnia.

Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists

WASHINGTON — Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims provide new evidence of extensive financial support for Al Qaeda and other extremist groups by members of the Saudi royal family, but the material may never find its way into court because of legal and diplomatic obstacles.

D.C. Crash Kills General Who Scrambled Jets on 9/11

June 24 (Bloomberg) -- David F. Wherley Jr., the head of the Washington National Guard who scrambled jets over the city during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was among those killed in the worst commuter train crash in the city’s history, officials said. Wherley’s wife, Ann, was also among the nine people killed when a train plowed into the rear of a stopped train during rush hour on June 22, Quintin Peterson, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department, said in a telephone interview. Both were 62 and lived in southeast Washington.

Sanford admits affair, apologizes to family

Gov. Mark Sanford admitted today that his secret trip to Argentina over Father's Day weekend was to visit a woman he is having an affair with.

Argentina case threatens to criminalize criticism of Israel

In what Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel has termed "a witch hunt and an attack on democratic freedoms," nine pro-Palestinian protesters in Argentina have been detained following a demonstration at an event celebrating Israel's 61st anniversary. The activists have been vilified as violent anti-Semites by politicians and the television and print media, and now face up to 12 years in prison for "ideological arrogance," under revived Juan Peron-era anti-terrorism legislation of dubious constitutionality.

Pensions crisis: 96% of final salary schemes are doomed... OAPs worst off in Britain... and state funds withering on the vine

The extent of the pensions crisis was laid bare yesterday by a 'triple whammy' of worrying reports. Almost all blue-chip companies now admit their final salary schemes are 'unsustainable', according to a major survey. At the same time, two separate studies said that Britain's state pension was the worst in the Western world.

Silvio Berlusconi triumphs in Italy's elections despite allegations
Silvio Berlusconi enjoyed a resounding victory in provincial elections after Italians overlooked the allegations of sleaze swirling around the Italian prime minister.

The prime minister also faced down accusations that he slept with a prostitute at his mansion in Rome, one of the many embarrassing claims about his private life to have emerged. The scandal took a further twist on Tuesday when a transsexual television presenter claimed to have acted as a "talent scout" for young women who were subsequently invited to Mr Berlusconi's parties.

Alcohol fears led Ottawa to withhold hand sanitizer withheld from flu-ravaged reserves

In the critical days after dozens of Manitoba aboriginals fell severely ill with swine flu, Health Canada hesitated in sending desperately needed hand sanitizer to native towns because of concerns that people would ingest the alcohol-based gel. The revelation arose Tuesday during a Senate probe of the federal government's response to the H1N1 outbreak on reserves and exposes yet another fissure in the $1-billion national pandemic plan that many aboriginal leaders say has failed them.

Obama’s Emerging Legacy: Wars, Bankers and For-Profit Healthcare

As of this writing, the Progressives for Obama website still exists, a relic of Left delusion that should have died of embarrassment months ago. Barack Obama has, indeed, grown in the presidency – but not into the FDR-like figure of his leftish supporters’ imaginations. Nor has his presence in the Oval Office served to spur Blacks and progressives to dramatic action, creating the “push” that Left Obamites had predicted would allow their champion to act on his more “liberal” instincts. Quite the contrary. The “Obama Effect” has led to the near-total collapse of the Left– both its white and Black wings – and made the nation safe for rule by finance capital and militarists.

Analysis: SC gov's disappearance a problem for GOP

NEW YORK – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mysterious disappearance from his state, topped with misinformation from his staff about where he had gone and what he'd been doing, is the latest sign that Republican governors — once thought to be President Obama's most credible adversaries — haven't quite lived up to their billing.

Public health plan could save money faster: policy group

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A nationwide health insurance exchange that includes a Medicare-like government option could save $1.8 trillion more than if only private plans are offered, a prominent private U.S. health policy group said on Wednesday.

Michael Savage vows to post Media Matters staff pictures and ‘pertinent information’ on website

US judge order Gitmo prisoner released

A US federal judge has ordered a Guantanamo detainee who was reportedly tortured, imprisoned and abandoned by al Qaeda and the Taliban released. The US government had argued that even though Abd Al Rahim Abdul Rassak was tortured by al Qaeda as a suspected Western spy, held by the Taliban for a year and a half and then abandoned, he was still allied with his tormentors.

Mossad-Taliban whistleblower killed in Pakistan

A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group's ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead. The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country.

Israel defies world builds more in WB

Despite repeated international calls for a halt in the expansion of settlements, Israel continues the construction of illegal buildings in the occupied West Bank. Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the construction of 240 new homes in the West Bank on Tuesday, Haaretz reported.

Israelis block Gaza aid to protest soldier's captivity

KEREM SHALOM, Israel (Reuters) - Hundreds of Israeli protesters temporarily blocked goods from reaching the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday, demanding the release of an Israeli soldier who was captured by militants three years ago.

Australian Greens Move to Scrap ‘Extreme’ Anti-Terrorism Laws

une 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian Greens party is pushing to repeal an anti-terrorism law introduced by former Prime Minister John Howard’s government, saying it was rushed through Parliament and undermines human rights. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said aspects of the law are “extreme,” vaguely worded and undemocratic and he will introduce legislation today to scrap them.

Pentagon Focuses On Role Of Twitter In Iran

Iranians angered over the election outcome are using social networking sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook as well as text messages and cellphone videos to document what's happening in their country. It's a communications revolution that's hard for repressive governments to control. . . . It's a revolution the U-S military is struggling to join. Even Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently started twittering to the troops. He's got nearly three thousand followers.

Lancaster, Pa., keeps a close eye on itself [with 24/7 spy cameras]

Reporting from Lancaster, Pa. -- This historic town, where America's founding fathers plotted during the Revolution and Milton Hershey later crafted his first chocolates, now boasts another distinction. It may become the nation's most closely watched small city. Some 165 closed-circuit TV cameras soon will provide live, round-the-clock scrutiny of nearly every street, park and other public space used by the 55,000 residents and the town's many tourists. That's more outdoor cameras than are used by many major cities, including San Francisco and Boston.

FDIC reins in troubled banks

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., or FDIC, is changing the way it determines the maximum interest rate that troubled banks may pay for deposits such as certificates of deposit, money market accounts and savings accounts. The institutions that fall into this category are classified as less than well-capitalized and, fortunately for consumers, there are relatively few. Well-capitalized banks can set deposit rates as they wish but rarely pay above the prevailing rates.

Hope, worries over reverse mortgages
Consumers take a new look at a complex tool that concerns some regulators

Reverse mortgages, under the radar for most of their 20-year existence, are getting new attention from cash-strapped consumers who want them and wary regulators who worry about the possible fallout. The mortgages let seniors tap the equity they've built up in their homes, basically allowing them to cash out the value of their house while still living in it. In other words, the bank pays the borrower instead of the other way around, and that's an attractive idea in an economic recession.

Is War between Iran and Israel Inevitable?