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Extend your car's longevity with these spring cleaning tips
(BPT) - The open road lies in front of millions of drivers who are ready to lower the windows and feel the warm breeze. Nothing curbs the excitement of a spring drive more than car issues that could have been avoided by simple maintenance to combat the lasting effects of driving through winter. Many people consider spr...
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Top three reasons to find your banking bliss
(BPT) - What would you do with an extra hour this week? Maybe you would sit down to watch your favorite TV program, jump back into that book you’ve been dying to finish, or pick up the phone to catch up with an old friend. Gaining an hour this week may be as simple as having a good relationship with your bank. “A recen...
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Safety tips for seniors: reducing risk, increasing peace of mind
(BPT) - If you’re just entering retirement, chances are you have many years of good health and independence ahead. But the normal aging process still brings limitations that we all need to prepare for - such as slower reaction times and declining vision - which can lead to accidents and injuries. Many accidents are pre...
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Five common credit report errors to watch out for
(BPT) - Everyone makes money mistakes. Some are harmless – like writing last year’s date on checks or buying a big-screen TV the day before they go on sale. Others can be downright harmful, especially when they could mean the difference between getting a good interest rate and paying thousands more in interest over the ...
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Knowing your health heritage: the familial link of diseases
(BPT) - Family members can have many things in common, including physical characteristics and personality traits. While some traits are obvious, like having red hair or blue eyes, some shared traits are not as obvious, such as the risk for developing a common medical condition, like high cholesterol, or a rare disease. ...
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Don't let spring cleaning weigh you down: Here's how to spring forward
(BPT) - Spring is the time to shed your winter layers, dust off the cobwebs, open the windows and embrace the beginning of a new season. Aside from spending more time outdoors, the sunshine and warm weather often energize us to do the things we put off during the cold winter months, such as cleaning and organizing. Spring cleaning doesn’t need to be a daunting task. The key is to take small steps and designate time to complete them – don’t try to do it all in one fell swoop. Linda Rothschil...
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Pregnancy can be a beautiful thing
(BPT) - The big news that a baby is on the way is a time for celebration, excitement and planning. Many couples choose to keep this information quiet for the first couple of months, so they can celebrate the upcoming change in their life together. But sometimes, morning sickness for the mom-to-be can let the news out of...
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What to do when your drinking becomes a problem
(BPT) - There's no denying that drinking is a widely accepted element of social life in America. Cocktail parties, evenings out, formal functions, and even a drink or two with dinner are customary practices. However, alcohol abuse is a major problem in this country and, on a different level, many "social drinkers" proba...
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A strong financial education makes good 'cents'
(BPT) - Millennials, also known as Generation Y or those born between 1978 and 1994, are money movers. They’re wielding more purchasing power, spending $200 billion annually, and are expected to outspend the baby boomer generation by 2017, according to Kelton Research. At the same time, they face an increasingly complex...
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Relax while planning your wedding with these financial and budgeting tips
(BPT) - Planning and organizing a large and complex special event can quickly overwhelm a bride and groom-to-be, especially if the couple has no previous experience or training in large event organization. In addition to all the details of the invite list, the location for all activities for the big day and the special ...
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Money and marriage: Tips to achieve financial happiness
(BPT) - Fights over finances are a commonly known cause of stress and divorce, and a new survey indicates that while the average couple fights over money five times a year, they discuss finances reasonably fewer than two times a month. Every couple knows there are some topics you just don’t bring up – his mother’s dre...
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How to manage money when you're between jobs
(BPT) - Though the U.S. economy has been gradually improving, job changes - both involuntary and voluntary - remain a fact of American working life. “It's also a fact that bills need to be paid whether you're employed or not,” says J.J. Montanaro, a certified financial planner with USAA . To help you cover expenses and protect your finances as you transition from one job to the next, Montanaro offers these tips. 1. Decide how to collect your final pay If leaving your job wasn't your ide...
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national news
Pentagon unveils plans for moving women into combat roles

U.S. soldiers from the NATO-led coalition force relax beside a basketball court as night falls at the Kandahar Air Field, AfghanistanBy David Alexander and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. military official declared "the days of Rambo are over" as the Pentagon unveiled its plans on Tuesday for integrating women into combat infantry positions following 12 years of war in which they fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan while barred from front-line fighting jobs. The plans, which call for gender-neutral job requirements like scaling walls and lifting 55-pound (25-kg) tank ammunition, will require more years of study, education and training before some services open combat jobs to women. ...


2013-06-18 19:08:19 -0500
U.S. says surveillance thwarted NYSE attack, Somali funding

A street sign for Wall Street hangs in front of the New York Stock ExchangeBy John Shiffman and Mark Hosenball (Reuters) WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday identified two of the more than 50 classified cases in which they say National Security Agency eavesdropping helped thwart terrorist plots including a planned attack on the New York Stock Exchange. The other, a San Diego money laundering investigation tied to financing for a Somali militia, is among the 27 cases cited in a Reuters report Tuesday in which the U.S. government filed public notice that it used a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant. ...


2013-06-18 19:28:15 -0500
Oklahoma executes man convicted of killing couple in robbery
By Heide Brandes OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Oklahoma executed a man on Tuesday convicted of stabbing an elderly couple to death during a robbery in 2000 that netted about $73, some of which he and convicted accomplices used to buy tacos. James Lewis DeRosa was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m. CDT (1907 ET) after a lethal injection, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said. He was the second person executed in Oklahoma this year and the 16th in the United States. ...
2013-06-18 19:12:23 -0500
Journalist Michael Hastings dead at 33
Michael Hastings, the journalist whose explosive 2010 Rolling Stone profile of U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal ("The Runaway General") led to McChrystal's ouster, died in an early morning car accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the magazine said. He was 33. "Hard-charging, unabashedly opinionated, Hastings was original and at times abrasive," Rolling Stone, where he [...]
2013-06-18 19:23:00 -0500