| Use free reports to monitor, clean up your credit
CREDIT REPORTS show the good, the bad and the ugly in your financial life. They also provide the basis for calculating your credit score, which among other things is used to determine what interest rate you pay on a loan or whether you even get a loan in the first place. That's why it's so important for consumers to obtain a free credit report once a year from each of the country's three major credit reporting bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Passage of a federal law in 2003 made this possible. Going over your credit report helps you find out not only if there are mistakes that could lower your credit score, but also whether you are an identity-theft victim. Sandra Chapin, program director at the San Mateo-based Consumer Federation of California, ordered her credit reports a few weeks ago.
Full text: Bill Keller's Hugo Young lecture
I don't know how successful I was at elucidation in my own columns, but I had no shortage of agonised indecision, and I consider that a point of pride. If we have a higher purpose, those of us in the press, I think it is to challenge lazy certainty, conventional wisdom and complacency. My assignment tonight is to talk about the state of newspapers in America. No doubt you have read that newspapers, at least in my country, are beleaguered. That is undeniable. Let me count the ways. To begin with, we have endured nearly seven years of the most press-phobic government in a couple of generations. I don't intend to blame the plight of the newspaper business on George Bush. He did not invent our great disrupter, the internet. (That, you recall, was Al Gore.) The Bush administration has merely fed a current of public antipathy that has been running against us for a long time, a consequence of our own failings and, perhaps, a tendency to blame the messenger when news is bad.
Q&A: Offshore wind farms
They construct a platform, and the turbine is assembled on top of it. Offshore wind turbines have big advantages over onshore ones. They can be built a lot bigger and there is a lot more wind out at sea rather than on land. How do they work? The technology is easily understandable: turbines are basically big windmills that use the energy of moving air to generate electricity. Sensors on the turbine detect the wind direction and turn the blades into the wind. The blades then power a generator to convert the energy into electricity. Undersea cables then carry the electricity to land where it goes into the national grid. .
Feds Charge Investigator in HP Spying Scandal
A private investigator accused of illegally accessing a reporter's private phone records as part of the Hewlett-Packard boardroom spying scandal has been charged with federal identity theft and conspiracy charges. U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan filed the charges on Wednesday in San Jose, Calif., federal court against Bryan Wagner. Is Your Paid Search Paying Off?Paid search spending is on the rise. Before you raise that cost-per-click, let�s determine if it�s working for you. Download this report to receive industry statistics, tips to optimize search initiatives and methods for measuring success. Get Your Free Report Today! .
Salmond bid for seat at UN
ALEX Salmond has launched an audacious bid for Scotland to take part in crucial international talks at the United Nations on ending the nuclear age. Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the First Minister has written to representatives of the 189 countries who have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - including Iran and Zimbabwe - declaring his aim for the SNP administration to be involved in future discussions. .
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