Saturday, December 19, 2009

SPB News for Saturday





Morgan Stanley's CEO Forgoes Bonus Again

Credit card's nearly 80 percent interest rate
First Premier Bank's bloated APR skirts new regs meant to curb industry abuses

Auditors challenge $1 billion in Afghanistan costs A Senate subcommittee says Pentagon auditors have challenged nearly $1 billion in charges by military contractors in Afghanistan. That's raising concerns on Capitol Hill about wasteful spending as the Obama administration expands the U.S. 'mission' in Afghanistan. According to a memo distributed to subcommittee members before the [Thursday] hearing, the Defense Contract Audit Agency examined $5.9 billion in Afghanistan troop support contracts. The agency determined that $950 million of the costs were unreasonable or lacked enough documentation to support them.

Judge considers newly released e-mails in KBR case A Houston judge is in the spotlight as he has to decide who could have stopped a military contractor truck convoy in Iraq before six civilian truck drivers were killed and others injured in a 2004 ambush. U.S. District Judge Gray Miller has made this call once before. He decided that the U.S. Army had control over KBR. But an appellate court bounced the issue back to him, and the legal landscape may look different after months of pretrial information gathering.

Weekly Address: The Patient's Bill of Rights and Health Reform
The President talks about the consumer protections that will be passed as part of health insurance reform, and calls on the Senate to allow an up-or-down vote.

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