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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Jan 28, 2013
January 28, 2013
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Big Money, Big Problems:
If you use credit cards a lot, you may be paying through your shorts now.
Beginning yesterday, a new law says merchants in 40 states can tack on a surcharge of anywhere between 1.5 percent and four percent to your bill.FYI: The ten states whose laws don't allow a surcharge are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.
You also won't get charged if you use a debit card and put in your pin number, or an American Express card, since Amex's contract with retailers forbids them from levying a surcharge.
Moral of this story: always check your bill!Money Talks:
Here's a surprise (NOT!) --the US Post Office is now charging 46 cents to send a first class letter out. That's a hike of a penny over the usual 45-cent first class stamp.
Postal costs went up Sunday, including the price to send a letter to Canada --that's $1.10 now across the board.Ways the Postal Service will spend the extra money from rate hike (Maiman):
--Stamp collection featuring President Clinton and all of his mistresses
--Lobby to put a mailman on Mt Rushmore
--Special stamp glue that gives you a 3-hour buzz
--Purchase sophisticated surveillance equipment to make even more certain you're not home when delivering mail requiring a signature
--Pensions! Pensions! Pensions!Fashion Emergency:
American women spent $768 million dollars on nail polish last year. Women's Wear Daily says that's a 32 percent increase over 2011. It also represents a 4.3 percent increase for the mass market beauty business overall. Fashionista.com says 33 percent of women own at least 25 bottles of nail polish. The biggest trends: sandy and matte finishes, at-home gel polishes and nail wraps. (Bartha)
Driver's Ed:
This guy probably failed driver's education.
CNews says a man in Ontario, Canada was pulled over for allegedly failing to stop at a red light. Cops say when they approached 45-year-old DEREK LAPAGE to check his license and registration, they noticed something weird. In addition to the alleged smell of alcohol on his breath, officers say LaPage had ice skates on his feet.
Police say he passed a breathalyzer, but still got a ticket for the ice skates. (Still)Grace notes:
ADELE's dad is not feeling the love. The UK's Daily Mail says that since MARK EVANS sold a story about Adele to the tabloids in 2011, she refuses to have anything to do with him. Mark says he has yet to his three-month-old grandson, or the child's father, SIMON KONECKI. Adele's mom and dad split up when she was just three-years-old, and Mark says he hasn't had much of a relationship with her. Adele has said that she has no desire to see her father ever again. Mark claims he doesn't want any of his daughter's money, he just wants to be part of her life again. (Marino)
Baseball:
Here's good news for baseball fans --the Washington Nationals have added a new "President" for their race during the fourth inning.
Up until now, the four presidents have been the same ones that are on Mt Rushmore --Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt. Last season, everybody was rooting for Teddy to win a race --which he finally did to celebrate the Nationals reaching the postseason.
This year, the Nats are bringing on a fifth president --William Howard Taft-- to join the racing presidents. As the Washington Post points out, it's a pretty good choice, considering that Taft began the tradition of tossing out the first pitch at a game in 1910, and is also widely credited with having accidentally created the seventh-inning stretch. -
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