High-yield savings accounts feel the Fed's interest rate squeeze
Before the financial crisis, the term “high-yield savings account” would have been considered an oxymoron. Today, such products are thriving. Click Here: Italy Football Shop After the Federal Reserve dropped its benchmark lending rate to near-zero in late 2008, big U.S. banks paid virtually nothing to anyone who parked money with them. That presented an…
Death doesn't take a financial holiday. Here's a cautionary tale
Dear Liz: My daughter has two children, ages 2 and 4. Recently the children’s father took his own life. He was 27. The job he worked as long as I knew him paid him in cash, so he didn’t pay into Social Security. Does this mean the children cannot receive survivor benefits from Social Security?…
Now that White Claw summer is over, will hard seltzer's popularity go splat?
It’s been 32 years since the popularity of wine coolers peaked. Zima’s day in the sun was a quarter of a century ago. The website that popularized “icing” — a drinking game that involved getting down on one knee and chugging a bottle of Smirnoff Ice — doesn’t even exist anymore. Now the question is…
L.A.’s Vegan Fashion Week showcases stylish, cruelty-free creativity
Skirts and jackets made of aluminum-can pull tabs and cork were among the animal-friendly pieces of apparel on display at the second Vegan Fashion Week held Oct. 10-15 in downtown Los Angeles. (The first one took place in March, also in DTLA.) Emmanuelle Rienda, the event organizer, acknowledged that “vegan” might not conjure images of…
Chicago teachers' strike takes toll on parents
CHICAGO — Chicago parents leaned on family, friends and community groups as 25,000 teachers in the nation’s third-largest school district went on strike this week, canceling classes for more than 300,000 students. For some families, the Chicago Teachers Union walkout meant a day off and a bit of inconvenience for parents juggling work schedules. For the…
Cyclone Nestor heads into Georgia after spawning damaging tornadoes in Florida
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Nestor made landfall Saturday as a post-tropical cyclone after the former tropical storm spawned a tornado that damaged homes and a school in central Florida but spared an area of the Panhandle devastated one year ago by Hurricane Michael. The storm made landfall on St. Vincent Island, a nature preserve just off Florida’s…
A new memorial is erected to Emmett Till — and this one is bulletproof
GLENDORA, Miss. — A new bulletproof memorial to Emmett Till was dedicated Saturday in Mississippi after previous historical markers were repeatedly vandalized. The brutal slaying of the 14-year-old black teenager helped spur the civil rights movement more than 60 years ago. The 14-year-old African American teen was kidnapped, beaten and killed in 1955, hours after he…
Stung by Parliament, Britain's Boris Johnson asks EU to delay Brexit again
LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson grudgingly asked the European Union late Saturday to delay Brexit after the British Parliament postponed a decision on whether to back his divorce deal. But the defiant Johnson also made clear that he personally opposed delaying the U.K.’s exit, scheduled for Oct. 31. A law passed by Parliament last month…
One month in, we've learned a lot about the Ukraine scandal
WASHINGTON — A madly spinning news cycle has characterized the Trump presidency since Day One: Controversies that might once have played out over a week rise and fall in a day, swept aside by another and another and another. The White House announcement that President Trump would host next summer’s Group of 7 meeting at his…
Trump taps Dan Brouillette for top job at Energy Department
WASHINGTON — President Trump says he is nominating a deputy to Energy Secretary Rick Perry to replace him in the top job at the Energy Department. Trump tweeted Friday that Dan Brouillette’s experience in the area is “unparalleled” and calls him a “total professional.” Trump also praised Perry, who plans to leave the Energy Department at…