| Spreading accounts helps out
Welcome to cash management, 2007-style. Forget the quaint notion that you should have your checking account, credit card and savings account all at the same bank. Instead, look to cherry-pick the best of these accounts — with the goal of sidestepping fees, piling up credit-card rewards, earning extra interest and building a great credit score. Sound like a lot of work? It doesn't have to be. -Boosting yield. Start by getting a no-fee, no-interest checking account with little or no required minimum balance, advises Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. Many banks now offer such accounts. Not collecting interest might seem like a bum deal. But, in truth, this isn't a big loss. On average, interest-paying checking accounts now require a $3,300 balance to avoid fees — and, even then, you will earn interest averaging just 0.3 percent, according to a recent Bankrate survey.
Photo: Champion(R) Launches New National Advertising Campaign Celebrating Style and Sport in Our Everyday Lives
SALEM, N.C., Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Champion, a leading athletic apparel brand for men and women, today announced the launch of a national ad campaign featuring a new tagline, "How You Play." The campaign, which includes print, out-of-home, online and viral components, is designed to capture the everyday moments of fun and sport in a series of cool and hip lifestyle images. .
Cyclone fury shocks Bangladeshis
DOHA � Several Bangladeshi expatriates hailing from the cyclone-affected areas in their country have left for home to search for their missing relatives. One of them, Abdul Aziz, 52, said on Sunday night he was rushing home since his son-in-law was missing and three sons of his sister-in-law (wife�s sister) were killed in Thursday's storm, the worst in Bangladesh's history. The Bangladeshi embassy here, meanwhile, told this newspaper that nationals looking for information about their families can provide details which would be faxed home to official agencies involved in rescue and relief work for quick response. The Ambassador of Bangladesh, M Maroof Zaman, said Qatar's Red Crescent Society had offered help. �We told them we will provide you visas whenever you require,� said the envoy.
Do-gooder done in by poppy project
Early on in Opium Season, a gangly, first-person account of development work in the rural areas of war-torn Afghanistan, author Joel Hafvenstein asks a rhetorical question: "How do you convince a farmer to give up the perfect crop?" The crop is opium, of course, and the answer to Hafvenstein's rather naive query is, well, you can't, nor can the Afghan or U.S. eradication teams. The country remains corrupt to its core, the money is too good and the central government controls only Kabul. The rest of that beautiful but tragic nation is managed by nests of warlords packing AK-47s. For a year-and-a-half beginning in 2004, the young Hafvenstein worked tirelessly on the Quick Impact Project for "Chemonics International, USAID's largest private contractor." The goal was to infuse the Helmand region with cash by having residents rebuild roads and clean neglected irrigation canals.
Proceeds of Crime Update - Money Laundering News - Be prepared for the new MLRs
On 15 December 2007, The Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) 2007 will come into effect. They will revoke and replace the 2003 Regulations and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are urging businesses to be prepared for the new Regulations which will affect: Money Service Businesses (MSBs); Trust or Company Service Providers (TCSPs); High Value Dealers (HVDs); and Accountancy Service Providers (ASPs). HMRC's Business Director of Money Laundering Regulations, Melissa Tatton, said: "With just a month to go until the Regulations come in, affected businesses need to have the right processes in place. Businesses should familiarise themselves with the MLR guidance on the HMRC website to help them put in place anti-money laundering controls. It is also critical that all businesses that have to register with us get their applications in before the legal deadline for their sector." The new Regulations will bring new businesses under the supervision of HMRC and will require businesses to implement risk-based systems and controls to help prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
Ramona wildfire forces about 11,000 evacuations
NORTH COUNTY ---- A local emergency was called today after a 3,000-acre wildfire fueled by Santa Ana winds burned on both sides of Highway 78 near Witch Creek Road and spread toward Ramona, causing road closures, power outages and the evacuations of some 11,000 residents, authorities said.The blaze, dubbed the Highway 78 fire, was reported shortly before 1 p.m., has left Highway 78 closed between Old Julian Highway and Highway 79, and Highway 79 closed between Highway 78 and Highway 76, the California Highway Patrol reported. Structures in the Witch Creek area ---- near the intersection of Highway 78 and Old Julian Highway ---- are immediately threatened, and several have burned, authorities said. The fire, which has crossed Highway 78 in several places, is burning west toward Ramona and the San Diego Country Estates area, prompting further evacuations, they said.
Big U.S. banks vary widely on protecting consumers from fraud
Bank of America Corp. took top honors for the second year in a row in a report ranking the largest U.S. banks on how well they protect their customers from fraud and identity theft.J.P. Morgan Chase, Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo Co. tied for second place, and Citibank came in third in the study published by Javelin Strategy & Research.The study looked at 25 banks that together hold 50 percent of U.S. checking account deposits and counted only banks that have a brick-and-mortar presence. The study measured banks’ policies for preventing, detecting and resolving fraud, focusing on measures that consumers experience, not internal bank security policies. .
G20 urges more currency flexibility in countries with current account surpluses
In their communique following this weekend's meeting here the G20 agreed that an orderly unwinding of global imbalances is a "shared responsibility", involving among, other things, "greater exchange rate flexibility in a number of surplus countries". China, which is crucially part of the G20, was not mentioned by name, but its currency policy has been the biggest source of tension in currency markets at a time when the value of the US dollar has fallen heavily. While the Chinese yuan has barely budged, other currencies like the euro, the Canadian dollar and the commodity currencies have all surged on foreign exchange markets in recent weeks and months. The fortunes of the dollar, which has shed around 30 pct of its value in the last three years on a trade-weighted basis, and the resulting strains on the world's currency system was a key element in this week's discussions even though it was not directly mentioned in the communique.
Business Respect - CSR Dispatches No 115 - 28 Oct 2007
An email newsletter with news and discussion focusing on corporate social responsibility globally, looking at the companies in the news and the emerging issues. Linked to the website at http://www.mallenbaker.net and produced every two weeks. In this issue, we consider the implications of the Soil Association's move to restrict air-freighted produce from its organic certification. In the news:1. US: Action against companies over apartheid reinstated 2. BP fined for environmental crimes 3. Gap takes action over child labour allegations 4. France: Monsanto sues anti GMO activists 5. US: States lobby for Microsoft anti-trust settlement to be extended 6. Japan: Alico warned over misleading cancer policy ads Feature articles on the internet:1. Big bucks, bad business - 22 Oct 2007 FROM International Herald Tribune
=================== Topics: Welcome CSR news 28 Oct 2007 CSR features from the internet The unnecessary suicide of the organic food movement Want to read a hyperlinked version of this issue? You can find one on the website at http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/nl/115.html.
Legal bills near $1M in whistle-blower suit
Legal bills to defend the state Board of Public Utilities and three top officials against a whistle-blower lawsuit could reach $1 million before the case begins trial. The trial was supposed to begin last Tuesday but has been adjourned until Jan. 28. In the lawsuit, BPU fiscal chief Joseph Potena claims his supervisors became critical of his job performance, threatened insubordination charges and usurped his responsibilities after he alerted the state Treasury Department that the board had set up an $80 million to $100 million Clean Energy account in a private bank without Treasury approval. Several factors contributed to the latest delay: an addition of a medical expert to testify about Potena's 2005 heart attack, an unrelated trial before Superior Court Judge Paul T.
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