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| Florida |
| National home builders plan a merger
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| Pulte Homes and Centex, both national players with a strong presence in Florida, will merge into the country's largest home builder if shareholders approve the deal in a vote expected today. Post-merger, Pulte's acquisition of Centex would leave it with about 80 communities throughout the Sunshine State.
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| @ Sarasota Herald Tribune | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0201 EDST
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| Bill collectors may call, but in most cases, you can't inherit a debt
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| As the bills keep piling up, here's at least some debt relief: You don't have to take calls or pay the bills for relatives who died and didn't leave enough money to cover their outstanding expenses.
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| @ St. Petersburg Times | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0315 EDST
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| Is state shifting policies on holding up unemployment payments?
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| Last week, recipients discovered their checks had been delayed because the state was first reviewing each claimant's job-search activity before issuing a payment. That's allowed, but it also runs counter to a U.S. Department of Labor advisory that tells states it's OK to pay first and verify later. The advisory says it's not practical to do otherwise.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0320 EDST
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| Lee County, Ft. Myers; visitor numbers flat, bed tax collections down 9 percent
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| Across Florida, June bed tax collections appeared to take a year-over-year tumble. Collier County, down 28 percent; Hillsborough, down 21.5 percent; Miami-Dade, down 17.5 percent; and Orange County, down 16 percent. These percentages are based on sums collected in the month of June.
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| @ Ft. Myers News Press | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Midwest |
| Real estate rebound? Existing-home sales inch upward in Chicago region
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| July sales of existing homes in the Chicago region posted the first year-over-year gain in at least two years, a sign that the local housing market may have, from a sales volume standpoint, bottomed out. The same cannot be said of prices, which, while showing improvement on a monthly basis, remain far below year-ago levels.
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| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0345 EDST
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| Slight increase in building permits for single-family homes in Dane County, Madison, WI
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| From July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, Dane County had 567 housing starts for single-family homes and duplexes, a decline of 38 percent from the 916 starts the previous year. That compares to a decrease of 53 percent from the 1,202 starts in 2006-07, and 70 percent from the 1,911 in 2005-06
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| @ Wisconsin State Journal | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0400 EDST
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| The underemployed
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They followed the so-called rules to success but have often ended up working harder for less. Nothing about this life is the easy way. Since the recession began in December 2007, many reports have focused on the unemployed. But tens of thousands in this region alone are underemployed.
Editor's Comment This is a good read
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| @ Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0415 EDST
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| Des Moines home sales are best in 2 years
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| Des Moines-area home sales in July climbed 8 percent to 890 over a year earlier. That is more homes sold than in any month in nearly two years. Pending sales grew nearly 15 percent over a year earlier to 916.
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| @ DesMoines Register | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0419 EDST
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| National |
| Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling
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| Too bad it's not in U.S. waters. You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.
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| @ Wall Street Journal
| Posted: 08/18/09 at 0419 EDST
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| When Did Your County's Jobs Disappear?
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| An interactive map of vanishing employment across the country, updated with the latest figures.
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| @ Slate | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0419 EDST
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| Expansive China faces grass-roots resentment
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| From Africa to Europe, the Middle East and the United States, China's drive to project its economic might abroad can sometimes breed fear and resentment. From having a handful of tiny investments abroad less than two decades ago, China has grown to the world's sixth-biggest foreign investor and overtook the United States as Africa's top trading partner last year.
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| @ Reuters
| Posted: 08/18/09 at 0646 EDST
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| The economy in Spain is still in pain, worst performance in over 30 years
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| The Spanish economy has contracted more than expected in the second quarter, with a 1 per cent decline from the previous quarter according to the latest figures from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics. Compared to the same period last year, the contraction reached a whopping 4.1 per cent. While other European economies such as that of France and Germany, are already returning to growth, Spain is stuck in a downward spiral.
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| @ Spainish News | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0652 EDST
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| Toronto office market 'fragile'
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| Commercial property sales in the Toronto area plunge 65% to $1.3 billion in first half of year
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| @ Toronto Star | Posted: 08/18/09 at 0655 EDST
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