Chance To Catch Up I recall the era of the cost of living adjustment (COLA), which was very beneficial to the average American worker and their families in maintaining a normal living standard with any increases in food, fuel and other necessities. Then our corporatism decided to change it to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which doesn't include the rise in costs of food and fuel. Seems we are not being considered today for our hard work. ...more

November 3, 2008

For the past two decades, the nation could count on one thing to keep it going when economic times got tough: Consumers kept spending. ...more

October 4, 2008

Nearby traffic sounds from Sarasota's Main Street evaporate in Jodi John's backyard, where sprouts emerge from deep boxes of soil with peanuts, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, spinach, basil and other plants. ...more

September 28, 2008

The request caught dairy farmer Brian Ziehm off guard: Would he devote an acre of his fields near the Vermont line this fall to grow stinkweed? ...more

September 4, 2008

This wasn't supposed to be the year of the angry taxpayer. In January, Florida voters passed Amendment 1, which promised property tax relief on several fronts, including nearly doubling the homestead exemption. ...more

August 30, 2008

The leader of the decade-long Maoist rebellion in Nepal was finally elected prime minister Friday, after four months of political wrangling. His victory sets the stage for the former rebel's toughest challenge: how to uplift the lives of 27 million people in one of the poorest countries in the world at a time of soaring food and fuel prices. ...more

August 16, 2008

Forklifts rumble around the scrap yard, grabbing pieces of metal and plunking them on scales: Will the junk be worth a tank of gas or a cart of groceries? ...more

August 6, 2008

Republican presidential candidate John McCain had his own German experience Thursday - at a restaurant in Ohio. He asserted that he was happy to devote his time this week to touring the nation's heartland. ...more

July 25, 2008

The nation's leaders are running out of answers to America's economic crisis. ...more

July 16, 2008

All those job cuts at automakers, newspapers and even Starbucks are hard to stomach. But in a roundabout way, they may actually help the economy a bit. ...more

July 4, 2008