WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has moved to protect distressed homeowners from the promoters of bogus foreclosure rescue and mortgage modification services by proposing a new rule that would forbid companies to charge up-front for these services. Instead, companies could only collect payment after providing services.
According to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking announced [...] [...]
DECATUR, Ala. — The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with Summit Treestands, LLC, of Decatur, Ala., has announced a voluntary recall of approximately 6,800 Talon Hunting Hang-on Tree Stands and Brackets/Straps.
The CPSC said the tree stands can unexpectedly detach from the tree when the brackets fail, posing a fall hazard to consumers. [...] [...]
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced yesterday that the Department of Energy has closed its $1.4-billion loan agreement with Nissan North America,Inc. to retool its Smyrna, Tenn., factory to build advanced electric automobiles and an advanced battery manufacturing facility. The two projects are expected to create up to 1,300 American jobs and [...] [...]
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators yesterday tightened rules for money-market mutual funds to require them to hold some assets that could be easily converted to cash and to disclose new information on fund values.
The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 4-1 at a public meeting to adopt the new rules designed to bolster protection for investors in [...] [...]
FULTON — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued three Mueller Industries Inc. subsidiaries in Fulton 128 citations for allegedly exposing workers to safety and health hazards. The privately-held corporation headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., owns and operates 20 facilities located in eight states and two foreign countries.
OSHA began its investigation in July 2009 [...] [...]
WASHINGTON — Support for Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s confirmation for a second four-year term as head of the U.S. central bank mounted today as the White House appeared to stanch opposition that had roiled financial markets.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, expects a vote by the end of the week, his spokesman said [...] [...]
Median weekly earnings of the nation’s 98.7 million full-time wage and salary workers were $748 in the fourth quarter of 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. This was 2.7 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 1.4 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over [...] [...]
ELYRIA, Ohio — President Barack Obama believes Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will win a second term, a spokesman said today, despite Senate concerns over steps the central bank will take to create jobs.
Deputy press secretary Bill Burton said Obama has “a great deal of confidence” in the actions Bernanke already has taken and believes [...] [...]
WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday said the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) now has a web-based 2008 crop program payment calculator to help producers calculate the financial benefits they may receive under the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) program. The calculator was designed by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to give producers a [...] [...]
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are raising new concerns about the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Brown’s Ferry nuclear plant in North Alabama.
In a letter released today, inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that equipment used to automatically shut down the plant’s reactors in an emergency was not properly protected from fire hazards. The NRC described the [...] [...]
