Obama Tells Congress: Act Soon on Financial Reform
The U.S. needs major changes to its financial system so consumers are better protected, banks fortified and the economy safeguarded from sliding into another Depression, President Barack Obama said Saturday.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama toldCongress to act quickly and pass “commonsense rules that will our allow markets to function fairly and freely while reining in the worst practices of the financial industry.”
That, he said, is the central lesson of the current financial crisis that has cost millions of Americans their jobs and nearly caused the collapse of the entire financial system.
“And we fail to heed that lesson at our peril,” Obama said.
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee is set to begin debate Monday on legislation from its chairman, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., that would give the government unprecedented powers to split up big financial firms, force the industry to pay for its most spectacular failures and create an independent consumer watchdog.
Yelp defends against small business lawsuits
Yelp is a popular Web site that lets you post opinions about restaurants shops and other services.
Now it will defend claims by small businesses that they’ve been pressured to advertise on the site in exchange for squashing negative reviews.
Since late February, at least three lawsuits seeking class-action status have been filed against the site by a dozen companies, complaining that reviews are manipulated depending on which companies advertise on the site and which ones do not.
Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said that the businesses suing his company doesn’t understand how Yelp works.
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/today/index.ssf/2010/03/yelp_defends_against_small_bus.html
2009 Los Angeles Auto Show
If the North American auto show season has an official kickoff party, the Los Angeles Auto Show is it. In addition to world debuts of the 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe, 2011 Toyota Sienna and VW Up! Lite Concept, the 2009 LA Auto Show again played host to the Green Car of the Year announcement, which went to a diesel car for the second year in a row. The LA Auto Show is also a first chance to see and touch the cars unveiled around the world in the eight months since the New York Auto Show, which this year included jaw-droppers like the 2011 Lexus LFA and 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.
