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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Inflation took a bigger bite out of consumers' wallets over the last 12 months, with September marking the biggest rise in three years. But at the same time, monthly price increases are starting to slow. The Consumer Price Index, the government's key measure of inflation at the retail level, jumped 3.9% in September from the year before. Higher food and energy prices again were the biggest culprits, with food 4.7% more expensive than a year earlier, and energy prices jumping 19.3%. Even core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, posted a 2% gain...

Minimum Wage To Rise In 8 StatesBumps Range From 28 Cents To 37 Cents Per Hour Tami Luhby UPDATED: 2:54 pm MDT October 3, 2011 NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Minimum-wage workers in eight states could see their paychecks grow by hundreds of dollars next year, thanks to automatic annual increases in the rates. Colorado, Montana, Ohio, Washington and Oregon recently announced their 2012 minimum wages, which contain bumps ranging from 28 cents to 37 cents per hour. This translates into annual raises of between $582 and $770 for full-time workers at that end of the pay scale depending on where...

Here’s Rupert Wyatt, director of the blockbuster movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes in a recent interview: “(The script) had become very different and much more exciting to me. It became less a story of domesticization of a pet and more about an uprising and a Che Guevara story.” Here’s the Associated Press review of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”: “Raised much like a human child by a researcher, with help from a veterinarian, Caesar becomes a Che Guevara-style revolutionary, leading a rebellion of apes against their human oppressors.” Ground control to Director Wyatt:

Donald Trump’s potential candidacy for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has forced the issue of whether Barack Obama was born in America into the mainstream, a question the establishment media has been frantically avoiding. Mr. Trump is demanding the president reveal his long-form birth certificate. The real estate mogul believes Mr. Obama is deliberately withholding embarrassing or damaging information. He has ridden the birth controversy to the top of the GOP field.

CENTRAL OHIO - As gasoline prices continue to climb, the oil industry said this week that by 2012, we could be paying not $4 per gallon, but $5. "It scares me," said Sharri Carroll, who was filling up her car in Hilliard Wednesday. "How are you going to afford to fill up your tank every week to get to work?" NBC4 took the concerns Wednesday to John Felmy, a Ph.D. a top official with the American Petroleum Institute. Felmy is one of the country's leading experts on gasoline prices who just happened to be in Columbus Wednesday

Wow... I only bought 30 - 40 oz of Silver as a hedge against inflation or if all hell broke lose. I can not believe it blew past $30 Oz and shows no sign of stopping....or perceived that way. I keep reading about a 16:1 ratio of Gold to Silver on this planet. Does that mean Silver could go for around $100 per ounce when all is said and done? Are more industries using Silver, people investing in it or the dollar dropping like a rock that is causing the rise? I assume all three but I would like to...

(Reuters) - New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week while unit labor costs fell in the third quarter, underlining the persistent weakness in the jobs market. Although other data on Thursday showed nonfarm productivity rebounded at a much stronger-than-expected 1.9 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the general tone remained consistent with a sluggish economy. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000, the Labor Department said, reversing the prior week's decline. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 443,000 from the previously reported 434,000. The government...

The number of children dying of abuse or neglect after involvement by Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services has steadily increased since 2008, according to confidential documents reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. The data represent the first time the public has gained access to the department’s year-over-year maltreatment fatality trends. According to information circulated recently among senior county officials, the number of children who have died of abuse or neglect by their caregivers rose from 18 in 2008 to 26 in 2009.

As gold hovers just below the $1,300 mark it broke last week, consensus expects the metal keep rising in the coming week. The bull is back: Bloomberg: Sixteen of 23 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, or 70 percent, said the metal will rise next week. Six forecast lower prices and one was neutral. Gold for December delivery was up 1.3 percent for this week at $1,293.60 an ounce at 11 a.m. yesterday on the Comex in New York. Futures climbed to a record $1,298 on Sept. 22. ... The weekly gold survey that started six years ago has...

(Reuters) - Gold could rally above $1,300 an ounce this year, setting successive all-time highs, as uncertainty about economic recovery and a sovereign debt crisis stoke investment interest, according to a closely watched industry report released Tuesday. Investment demand in gold should benefit from the threat of inflation as central banks cut interest rates to the bone to battle double-dip recession and high unemployment, respected metals consultancy GFMS Ltd said in its Gold Survey 2010 Update. "I think we could easily see gold spike comfortably above $1,300 before the year's out ... further gains in 2011 are far from out...

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Rising grain prices from Russia's drought and fires will pressure populations already hit by the financial crisis and could stoke unrest -- particularly in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe. Wheat prices have risen by nearly 70 percent since June after Russia suffered its worst drought in 130 years and are at their highest since 2008, when the last major food price rally sparked protests and riots in a string of emerging nations.

Hospital waiting times have begun to rise again after years of decline following the introduction of European rules on junior doctors’ working hours. Waiting times in the NHS had been dropping since the 1990s but the rules limiting junior doctors to a 48-hour week, which were implemented last August, had reversed the trend. Thousands more patients were now waiting longer than 18 weeks for surgery. (Snip) However, since the EU directive cut junior doctors’ hours from 56 to 48 per week, these gains had been wiped out, the Royal College said.

Petrol and power prices have risen sharply in New Zealand after the government introduced a controversial emissions trading scheme. The government has pressed ahead with plans to slash the nation's carbon output, despite widespread opposition and New Zealand's larger neighbour Australia shelving its own scheme. Motorists were hit by a 3c (1.4p) rise in the price of a litre of petrol overnight, while householders face a 5 per cent increase in gas and electricity prices. It was the first step in a complex scheme, universally referred to as "the ETS", to slash carbon emissions back to 1990 levels. Some disgruntled...

Saturday's special election for Hawaii's 1st Congressional District has garnered a huge amount of attention. The stakes are high: for the candidates, their political parties, Hawaii residents and even the Obama administration, given the national attention this race has drawn.

WASHINGTON — The number of homeowners dropping out of the Obama administration's main mortgage assistance plan is growing, and is now almost equal to the number who have received permanent relief. The Treasury Department's report on Monday was the latest evidence of problems in the administration's $75 billion program. While officials insist the program is helping the housing market turn around, critics say it is merely delaying an inevitable surge in foreclosures. More than 299,000 homeowners had received permanent loan modifications as of last month, Treasury said. That's about 25 percent of the 1.2 million who started the program since...

Young people will need to carry more of the burden of health care under the new health overhaul law. The new law limits an industry practice of charging older customers more.

CHICAGO (AP) - Health insurance premiums for young adults are expected to rise about 17 percent once they're required to buy insurance four years from now. That estimate is from an analysis by Rand Health. Young people will need to carry more of the burden of health care under the new health overhaul law. The new law limits an industry practice of charging older customers more. Even so, the pluses could outweigh the minuses. Some 2 million people under age 26 should qualify for coverage under their parents' health plans. And Medicaid expansion will insure 9 million more young adults.

The hike would pay for more aggressive conservation programs and a solar plan designed to create 16,000 jobs as well as cover the fluctuating price of coal and natural gas. Households that get their power from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power could see their electric bills go up between 8.8% and 28.4%, depending on where they live and how much energy they use, under a plan unveiled Monday by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of U.S. workers filing for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but another big gain in productivity in the fourth quarter offered hope that companies were closer to adding to payrolls. Initial claims for state unemployment insurance increased 8,000 to 480,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Financial markets had expected claims to come in at 460,000. While claims are down sharply from their peak last spring, the improvement has stalled in recent weeks. Despite the setback, analysts are optimistic hiring will pick up soon as firms run out of ways to boost output without...

Islamic terrorism is on the rise both domestically and internationally since Obama became President in 2009, according to a count of high-profile, terrorism incidents in 2009, both in the US and abroad. The number of Islamic terrorism incidents worldwide since Obama took office in 2009, including both domestic and international acts of terrorism, is on pace to surpass more than 1000 for all of 2009, according to a report by the American Security Project which is a bipartisan, Washington-based group. On the domestic front, for 2009 when Obama became President, the number of terror-related incidents hit a peak, the highest...

There has been an endless amount of chatter about the price of gold being too high (it's not) and perhaps representing a bubble. It also seems that fair amounts of ink and windage have been wasted on worries about the gold trade being "too crowded." In my daily column on my own Web site, on Sept. 17, I noted a remark by Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter that the gold market was "terribly, egregiously, preposterously, shockingly overpopulated." That day, gold closed at $1,014 an ounce. Here we are, about two months later, and gold is more than 10% higher....

NOVEMBER 15, 2009 Concerns Rise Around Obama Trip JONATHAN WEISMAN SHANGHAI -- President Barack Obama arrived here late Sunday to press China on issues from climate change to economic restructuring, amid rising concerns that his first swing through Asia as president will yield more disappointment than progress on trade, human rights, national security and environmental concerns. A flurry of actions in Singapore this weekend raised more questions than they resolved on a broad sweep of issues confronting both sides of the Pacific. On Sunday, leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum dropped efforts to reach a binding international climate-change agreement...

Here is a look at the key components of GDP, showing how much each one contributed or subtracted from growth in the third quarter, along with forecasts for how they will perform going forward. CONSUMER SPENDING HOW MUCH IT GREW: 3.4 percent rate in third quarter, best showing since early 2007. CONTRIBUTION TO OVERALL GDP: 2.36 percentage points of the 3.5 percent third-quarter growth in GDP came from consumer spending. Car sales alone represented 1 percentage point of total growth, reflecting the success of the government’s Cash for Clunkers program. PROSPECTS: This is the biggest question facing the fledgling recovery,...

The number of children who have died from the swine flu has jumped sharply as the virus continues to spread widely around the United States, striking youngsters, teenagers, young adults and pregnant women unusually often, federal officials said Friday. The deaths of another 19 children and teenagers from the new H1N1 virus were reported in the past week around the country, including two in Maryland, pushing the total number of fatalities to 76 among those younger than age 18. It was the largest number of pediatric deaths reported in a single week since the pandemic began last spring. "These pediatric...

New jobless claims down 4,000 to 570,000 last week Continuing claims rise 92,000 to 6.23 million, U.S. data show on eve of payrolls By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The number of people filing for state unemployment benefits for the first time fell by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 570,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Initial claims have held in a fairly narrow range for the past seven weeks, down about 100,000 from the peak in March but still well above levels seen in a healthy economy. The number of people claiming benefits of any kind remained...

The NHS spent more than £800m settling legal claims last year as complaints of medical negligence against the service rose sharply. The surge in payouts is revealed in the NHS Litigation Authority's annual accounts which show that maternity services attract the highest legal costs. Clinical errors in delivering babies can result in lifelong damage and payments accordingly reflect the intensive medical care often needed for decades to come.

Doors are opening my children " Doors ARE opening "! But you must " remain " ever watchful attending to my wants( will ) for your needs . Do you see my will even now (( ( pressing ) )) into your lives ? Do not resist this but come into agreement with me for as I met Jacob so I shall meet you yet do not wrestle or ponder for my will is for you to overcome without hostility , grief or intervention . Allow me to have my will in your lives that your hip , yeah your...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Amid rising public impatience with an economy now under his watch, President Barack Obama on Tuesday said his administration needs to push money out faster to initiate a recovery and conceded that unemployment would rise above 10 percent. "People are going through a very tough time right now," Obama said at a White House news conference. "And I don't expect them to be satisfied." For the second time in a month, Obama voiced unease over the results of a $787 billion economic stimulus that he pressed Congress to pass as one of his first acts as president.

WASHINGTON – The sun is moving into a busier period for sunspots. Forecasters expect a relatively mild outbreak by historical standards, but one major solar storm can cause havoc with satellites and electrical systems. Researcher Doug Biesecker (BEE-sec-ker) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's space weather prediction center compared solar storms to hurricanes: A weak cycle may mean fewer storms, but even one powerful one can be devastating.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Large-scale U.S. layoffs rose again in March, according to Labor Department data on Thursday, as the economy struggles with what many expect will be the country's worst post-World War II recession. Last month witnessed 2,933 more mass layoffs, defined as affecting 50 or more workers, than February. This brought the total number of people who lost their jobs in this manner to 299,388, the highest on a record that dates back to 1995. The U.S. job market has been under severe strain as a crisis first evident in housing spread to the rest of the economy,...

This image issued by Britain's Community Security Trust on Friday Feb.... 'This Is Racism' LONDON (AP) - The number of anti-Semitic attacks on British Jews rose sharply after the start of the conflict in Gaza, a Jewish charity said Friday. The London-based Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism and works to safeguard the Jewish community in Britain, said 250 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in the four weeks after Dec. 27, when Israel launched attacks on Gaza to stop Hamas rocket attacks. That compares to 40 incidents from the same period the year before. Dave Rich, a spokesman for the trust,...

The plethora of bank and corporate bailouts, stimulus plans and interest-rate cuts that the U.S. government has produced over the last three months can only lead to one outcome: The U.S. dollar has to decline. During the crisis so far, the dollar in general, and U.S. Treasury bonds in particular, have been regarded as a “safe haven,” making the dollar strong and pushing long-term U.S. Treasury rates downward. In the New Year, however, this is likely to change – the weight of the added supply of dollars in circulation will be too great for the greenback to shrug off. Back...

TIJUANA – Manuel GarcNa has worked up to 14 hours a day for the past month outside the coroner's office, which now doubles as a municipal morgue. The wave of violent crime in Tijuana has filled the refrigerated rooms of the building, and GarcNa is among at least half a dozen employees of funeral homes who mill around the hearse entrance, hoping to sell their services to the families of the deceased. When the families arrive, GarcNa tries to be the first to approach them. He speaks softly, hands them a business card and tells them the price. “It all...

HONG KONG – Asian markets rose Wednesday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street, amid hopes for a year-end rally and that a new U.S. president would act to boost the sluggish American economy. With Barack Obama's victory in the U.S. presidential race, investors were hopeful he could focus renewed energy on tackling deteriorating conditions in the world's largest economy — a vital export market — that have dragged on growth around the world, analysts said. --snip-- "Investors also are hoping that Obama can make a number of changes to help the economy," he said. --snip-- "It's an excuse for the...

Is Barack Obama the "promised warrior" coming to help the Hidden Imam of Shiite Muslims conquer the world?

Adjusted gross income reported on tax returns in 2006 averaged $58,029. In 2006 dollars that was an increase of $739, or 1.2 percent, from the $57,289 average in 2000, analysis of Internal Revenue Service data showed. Total income increased by $619.2 billion or 8.3 percent, all of which went to those making more than $75,000, and 42 percent of which went to the roughly one in 400 taxpayers who made more than $1 million in 2006. Average income fell sharply in 2001 and in 2002, when it dropped to $51,870, off nearly 10 percent from 2000, tax data show. The...

Food price rise affects restaurant menus By Ian Johnston Last Updated: 3:36am BST 13/04/2008 Restaurants have slapped a surcharge on the cost of steaks and dropped popular dishes from their menus as they pass on soaring food costs to their customers. Owners say the rising prices of staples such as rice, beef and chicken are forcing them to cut the size of portions, use more vegetables and re-write recipes to drop expensive ingredients. Fish not fowl: Le Raj restaurant owner Enam Ali has introduced pangush fish as a cheaper alternative to chicken A fillet steak surcharge of several pounds has...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street closed a dismal first quarter with a moderate gain Monday, rising after a reading on regional manufacturing came in better than expected. The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index, considered a precursor to the National Institute for Supply Management manufacturing survey on Tuesday, rose to 48.2 in March from 44.5 a month earlier. Economists had been expecting a reading of 47.3, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Though the reading topped forecasts, a figure below 50 nonetheless indicates a contraction in manufacturing activity. The market's reaction, however, was likely not as enthusiastic as it might seem from...

BEIJING - Food prices are set to rise around the globe after years of decline, with climate change making it harder for the world's poorest to get adequate food, according to a report released Tuesday. Rising global temperatures as well as growing food consumption in rapidly developing countries such as China and India are pressuring the world food system, meaning that food prices will rise for the foreseeable future, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. Joachim von Braun, the director of the Washington-based research group, said food prices have been in a declining trend since scientists began developing...

Magma surge causes record rise at Yellowstone 19:00 08 November 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic The remains of the Yellowstone supervolcano in the US is huffing and puffing and rising by up to 7 centimetres a year, say researchers. They speculate this rise is caused by a mass of molten rock the size of Los Angeles being forced from the Earth’s mantle into the magma chamber beneath the ancient volcano. But the researchers, led by Wu-Lung Chang of the University of Utah in the US, caution that the movement does not mean an explosion is imminent. Calderas – the...

Flatter oceans may have caused 1920s sea rise 17:53 24 August 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic The movement of a colossal "mounds" of water in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans may have caused sea levels to suddenly begin rising more quickly in the 1920s, researchers say. Their analysis presents a more complex picture of sea-level change and suggests that the rate of change has been more dramatic than previously thought. Data collected using tidal gauges dotted along the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines during the late 19th and 20th centuries suggest that sea levels suddenly began rising more quickly...

PARIS - It's cheaper than oil and, barring a global mad cow crisis, we'll probably never run out of it. But milk has one thing in common with oil: It's trading at record highs. Reasons include growing appetites for dairy foods in China and elsewhere in Asia, where chains such as McDonald's and Starbucks are introducing unfamiliar taste buds to cheeseburgers and lattes. Other factors are rising costs for animal feed, shrinking European production and long-standing drought in Australia and New Zealand, the world's largest milk-exporting region. Paying more for milk is causing an uproar in Germany, where families consider...

Democrats spooked by rise of 'new Reagan' By Alex Spillius in Washington Last Updated: 2:32am BST 27/06/2007 Republican Fred Thompson has enjoyed a decades-long career as a Washington lobbyist The Democratic party is so alarmed by the prospect of competing against Fred Thompson, a Republican who portrays himself as a successor to Ronald Reagan, that it is advising campaigners how to attack the former actor and Tennessee senator. Mr Thompson is not expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination until next month, but Democratic strategists fear the combination of his conservatism, southern charm and populist style could make...

Rise of man theory ‘out by 400,000 years’ Dalya Alberge, Arts CorrespondentJune 25, 2007 Our earliest ancestors gave up hunter-gathering and took to a settled life up to 400,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to controversial research. The accepted timescale of Man’s evolution is being challenged by a German archaeologist who claims to have found evidence that Homo erectus — mankind’s early ancestor, who migrated from Africa to Asia and Europe — began living in settled communities long before the accepted time of 10,000 years ago. The point at which settlement actually took place is the first critical stage...

BAGHDAD - A battle raged in west Baghdad on Thursday after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said. Elsewhere, a suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah, killing as many as 25 people, police said. The U.S. military said only one policeman was killed and eight were wounded. The American military also reported the deaths of three more soldiers, two killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Baghdad and...

BEIJING - China took steps Friday to let its currency trade more freely against the dollar and to cool its sizzling economy ahead of talks in Washington over Beijing's soaring trade surplus. China eased controls on the yuan amid pressure from the U.S. and Europe, but cautioned against expecting sharp increases in its value. The U.S. responded that Beijing is not moving fast enough to allow its currency to strengthen and help reduce its growing trade gap with China. The Chinese government also raised interest rates for the second time in just over two months and tightened bank credit to...

Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up more than 25 percent last year, killing 40 percent more people than in 2005, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds, the State Department said Monday. Among countries, Iran remains the biggest supporter of terrorism, with elements of its government backing groups throughout the Middle East, notably in Iraq, giving material aid and guidance to Shiite insurgent groups that have attacked Sunnis, U.S. and Iraqi forces, it said. In its annual global survey of terrorism, the department said 14,338 attacks took place in 2006, mainly in Iraq and...

Source: University Of British Columbia Date: April 25, 2007 Studying Early China, To Learn Why Civilizations Rise And Fall Science Daily — In the Yellow River valley of northern China, Zhichun Jing digs through the remains of long-ago cities to find insights for modern survival. Over the past 10 years, Jing has been excavating the cities of the late Shang Dynasty. Flourishing between 1,200 and 1,050 BC, the Shang was one of the first literate civilizations in China and East Asia. Its last capital city was Yinxu, where the present-day city of Anyang now stands. Zhichun Jing studies the dynamics...

Anti-Semitic hate crimes are on the rise, according to a new study released Sunday by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism and Racism. The study, released in conjunction with the World Jewish Congress and timed to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day, noted that last year saw the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents worldwide – 590 reported in 2006 -- since 2000. Countries where the highest number of incidents was recorded included Great Britain, Australia, France and Canada. Institute director Professor Dina Porat said that Holocaust denial activities by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Second Lebanon War...

BAGHDAD — A press conference concerning the progress of security in Diyala, Iraq was held via videoconference at the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone Friday. Army Col. David W. Sutherland, commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, and Maj. Gen. Shakir Halail Husain, 5th Iraqi Division commander, discussed increased enemy activity due to escalated Coalition and Iraqi security forces operations and the continuing effort to fight terrorism. “We have seen an increase on attacks against Coalition and Iraqi security forces in the past several months,” Sutherland said. “On the other hand, we have also seen...