Online Features
Money & Finance
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Video conferencing takes next leap to connect colleagues in the cloud
Video and Web conferencing have been around for decades, but the quality of the video and audio has proved disappointing and frustrating due to technology glitches and overall poor performance.
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Making the most of your money when it comes to estate planning
Setting up an estate plan is a good investment for the future. But you can also be a careful steward of your financial assets now, with careful and organized planning as you go through the estate planning process.
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Life insurance: a safety net for your family
Fallout from the long economic downturn has made it more important than ever for families to insulate themselves against financial shock. And yet, ownership of individual life insurance stands at a 50-year low, according to the industry group LIMRA. That represents a big risk to financial security in a lot of American ho...
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This back-to-school season, stock up on college funding advice
Back-to-school shopping season means big sales for retailers selling pencils, backpacks, clothes and tech gadgets. Young parents know that as children get older, their back-to-school list grows with them. Eventually for many, that list will grow to include dorm necessities, textbooks and yes, college tuition. Parents, if...
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One size doesn't fit all life insurance needs
Life is full of phases and milestones, and each one could change your life insurance needs. Whether you're starting a new job or retiring, single or just married, deployed by the military or leaving the service, buying a home or having a baby, each transition in your unique circumstances merits a financial re-examination.
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Private investors not the only ones adding gold to portfolios
Since the onset of the recession when many investment portfolios took a hit, there has been a lot of talk about the value of investing in gold as one way for investors to protect against market volatility and preserve wealth. Now, as policy makers both here and in Europe take steps to stimulate economic growth, there is ...
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Growing families looking for larger homes
More and more households have extended family living together under one roof, and the tight fit has some families in the market for a larger home. For the "Sandwich Generation," a generation of people who are caring for their aging parents while supporting their own children, there are advantages to having children and grandparents under one roof such as sharing of household responsibilities and finances and increased focus on family time together. With these advantages, however, there may be...
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Turn health into wealth
Health care today is expensive, but there are ways that you can give your wallet a break. One of the best ways to make health care more affordable is to avoid the need for medical care in the first place. More than 75 percent of health care costs are attributed to chronic illness, most of which are controllable, if not p...
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Safeguard the big day: How to protect the wedding of your dreams
Planning a wedding has many important components, with decisions to make on everything from finding the perfect flowers to choosing the right location. For brides- and grooms-to-be, one important choice that shouldn't be overlooked is the idea of purchasing wedding insurance. Because no matter how carefully a couple plan...
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Social Security recipients embrace electronic payments, give high marks to Treasury-recommended prepaid card
If you receive one of the 6 million paper checks for your monthly Social Security or other federal benefit, the time has come to switch to the safety and convenience of electronic payments.
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Disability insurance: protecting your future
There is a common misperception that most disabilities are caused by accidents. In reality, the majority of disabilities are caused by illness. You might think it won't happen to you. And perhaps it won't. But in 2009, more than 15 million Americans experienced a disability that prevented them from working.
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Eight reasons to review your life insurance
Life insurance might not be as common as you think. Did you know that 30 percent of American households have no form of life insurance whatsoever, leaving millions to struggle to cover day-to-day expenses if a main breadwinner were to pass away? Even if you already have life insurance, financial and insurance professiona...
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national news
Tornado insured losses estimated at $2 billion-$5 billion

Jason Owen digs through debris as he helps his mother to salvage items from her uncle's home after it was almost destroyed by a tornado in Moore, Oklahoma(Reuters) - Tornadoes that struck the United States from May 18 to May 20 caused between $2 billion to $5 billion of insured losses, disaster modeling company Eqecat said late Thursday. At the high end of the range, the tornado outbreak may rank as the second-worst ever in terms of insured losses, behind the late-April 2011 twisters that devastated Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and other communities. Eqecat said most of the losses were attributed to the tornado that devastated Moore, Oklahoma, on Monday. ...


Fri May 24 07:55:01 UTC 2013
Truck crash may have caused Washington state bridge collapse

I-5 Bridge Collapses On Skagit River In WashingtonBy Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - A truck crashed into a four-lane freeway bridge in Washington state Thursday evening and may have caused it to collapse, sending vehicles and drivers tumbling into a frigid river, officials said. A U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigation into what led part of the Interstate 5 bridge to fall into the Skagit River 55 miles north of Seattle was expected to continue on Friday. Three people were rescued from the river and no one died, officials said. Two of those rescued were hospitalized with hypothermia. ...


Fri May 24 08:11:25 UTC 2013
Magnitude 5.7 quake strikes Northern California
(Reuters) - A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Northern California on Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter of the quake was 6 miles northwest of the town of Greenville, and near the smaller community of Canyondam, the USGS said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Allen Shephard, a hunting and fishing guide at Quail Lodge at Lake Almanor in Canyondam, said the quake knocked him "right off the couch and onto the floor." The floor of the lodge was littered with broken dishware, and cabinets were in disarray, said Shephard, 62. ...
Fri May 24 01:53:09 UTC 2013
Police in Australia issue warning on 3-D printed gun
The DIY 3-D gun may not be quite ready for prime time. According to Techworld, the police commissioner in Australia’s New South Wales, Andrew Scipione, has issued a warning after his officers tested one of the firearms—dubbed the "Liberator"—and experienced a “catastrophic misfire” (no one was seriously injured). According to the website, the NSW police [...]
Fri May 24 10:48:51 UTC 2013