MUST READ: The New Credit-Card Rules: What to Expect (Smartmoney.com)

Unexpected rate hikes. Over-limit fees. Double-cycle billing. Those are just a few of the credit-card practices that have trapped millions of consumers into a life of constant worry over mounting debt. In less than a week, these practices will be history.
On Feb. 22, 2010, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act) takes [...]

New Wave Of Foreclosures By The End of 2010 is Predicted (Los Angeles Times)

About 4 million U.S. homeowners are 90 days or more delinquent on their loans or in foreclosure proceedings, Moody’s Economy.com says. A federal loan modification program is helping a relative few.
Reporting from Washington – [...]

CNN POLL: 63% Say ‘Vote Incumbents Out’; 52% Say No Second Term For Obama (CNN)

Washington (CNN) — Only a third of U.S. voters think that most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected this year, according to a new national poll. That’s the lowest number ever recorded for that question in a CNN survey.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, released Tuesday, indicates that only 34 percent feel that current federal [...]

Smaller Banks Now Offering More Private Student Loans (Bankrate.com)

Highlights

High-risk students may have better success at small banks, credit unions.
Community bank loans don’t offer the same benefits as student loans.
Shop around and ask big and small lenders for the full cost of a loan.

Labor Unions Are Becoming Increasingly Dissatisfied with Obama (Washington Post)

Looks like organized labor has joined the increasingly crowded ranks of the folks most unhappy these days with President Obama. The latest cause for their disaffection was a statement Obama put out late Thursday after the Senate confirmed 27 of some 63 nominees Republicans had blocked.
In the statement, Obama said he told Senate Minority Leader [...]

Afghans Lend Hand To Anti-Taliban Efforts (USA Today)

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — Afghans who had been under the rule of the Taliban for years in Marjah are starting to offer help to U.S. and Afghan troops, pointing out the locations of buried roadside bombs as fighting continues in the town.
“Most of the people know where they are already,” said Lt. Col. Jeff Rule, [...]

WILLIAM MCGURN/OPINION: Biden Tries To Rewrite History (Wall Street Journal)

It’s easy to pile on Joe Biden. Vice presidents, after all, acquire reputations in Washington they never really shake. Dick Cheney was Darth Vader, and now Joe Biden is the embarrassing uncle you try to keep away from the microphone.
Neither is entirely fair. Still, when Mr. Biden claims success for a victory won by a [...]

Suburban Homeless Is Becoming a Reality For American Families (Huffington Post)

ROOSEVELT, N.Y. — Homelessness in rural and suburban America is straining shelters this winter as the economy founders and joblessness hovers near double digits – a “perfect storm of foreclosures, unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing,” in one official’s eyes.
“We are seeing many families that never before sought government help,” said Greg Blass, commissioner [...]

Obama Betting On Nuclear Power, U.S. Backing New Reactors (New York Times)

President Obama, speaking to an enthusiastic audience of union officials in Lanham, Md., on Tuesday, underscored his embrace of nuclear power as a clean energy source, announcing that the Energy Department had approved financial help for the construction of two nuclear reactors in Georgia.
If the project goes forward, the reactors would be the first begun [...]

Dominate Your Next Job Interview (Yahoo!)

For many job seekers an interview can seem too much like an inquisition. That’s usually because they’re doing all the answering and none of the asking.
“Somewhere in the interview you have a chance to impress the employer on your own terms and see if the job is a good fit for you,” says Florida-based career [...]