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Lindsay Wise

Mobile wallet technology raises privacy, security concerns

Your smart phone already serves as a portable office, media player, newspaper, GPS, camera and social network hub. Now it can replace your wallet, too. | 03/18/13 16:12:15 By - By Lindsay Wise

Republicans question structure of consumer agency as they query nominee Richard Cordray

Richard Cordray received polite questions – and even a few compliments – from a panel of U.S. senators at his nomination hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill. After two hours of testimony, however, his chances for being confirmed as director of Washington’s newest consumer watchdog agency looked grim. | 03/12/13 17:37:15 By - By Lindsay Wise

Statement glosses over Vicky Hartzler's votes on Violence Against Women Act

At first glance it seemed as though Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri had broken with the majority of her fellow conservatives in the House of Representatives last week to renew an expanded version of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which funds programs to assist survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse. | 03/06/13 16:48:07 By - By Lindsay Wise

As sequestration nears, federal workers brace for furloughs, vent anger at politicians

As a single dad with seven kids living at home, Bill Blevins is used to pinching every penny. The building engineer at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing hasn’t had a cost-of-living pay raise in more than two years, even as his rent and insurance premiums went up. Now he and other federal workers across the country are bracing for possible unpaid furloughs as part of an $85 billion reduction in federal spending. | 02/28/13 19:30:13 By - By Lindsay Wise

Skeptics shine sunlight on tanning industry’s safety claims

A new association of tanning salon owners is trying to salvage the reputation of sun beds despite a broad consensus among doctors and researchers that the devices can cause cancer. | 02/27/13 14:36:51 By - By Lindsay Wise

Advocates work to expand 20-year-old Family and Medical Leave Act

Twenty years after the Family and Medical Leave Act became law, 4 in 10 workers aren’t eligible to take temporary, unpaid leave to recover from serious illnesses or to care for new children or sick relatives. | 02/05/13 17:49:10 By - By Lindsay Wise

Path social media app settles with FTC over privacy issue

A popular social-networking app has reached a settlement with federal regulators over allegations that it collected address book information from users’ mobile phones without their knowledge or consent, the Federal Trade Commission announced Friday. | 02/01/13 14:45:01 By - By Lindsay Wise

Court decision throws future of consumer protection agency in doubt

A cloud of uncertainty hovers over Washington’s newest consumer watchdog agency. | 01/30/13 18:05:37 By - By Lindsay Wise

Financial crisis has left 401(k)s vulnerable, so what now?

As the father of two college-age kids, Rob Harris knew that finding money to pay soaring tuition costs wasn’t going to be easy. Reluctant to saddle himself or his children with loans, the 55-year-old product development manager from Kansas City, Mo., tapped another source: his retirement savings. | 01/27/13 00:00:00 By - By Lindsay Wise

McCaskill again tries to ban earmarks

Sen. Claire McCaskill is making another run at ending earmarks after the Missouri Democrat tried but failed during her first term in Congress. McCaskill will reintroduce legislation today designed to halt the practice of earmarking, which enables lawmakers to designate funds for special projects back home without legislative scrutiny. | 01/24/13 12:15:17 By - Lindsay Wise

Sen. Claire McCaskill leaps hurdles to overhauling wartime contracting

When Claire McCaskill set out to crack down on waste and fraud in wartime contracting six years ago, the newbie Democratic senator from Missouri figured that finding ways to save taxpayer dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be a no-brainer project, even in the highly partisan halls of Congress. “I learned quickly that that was very naive,” she said in a recent interview. | 01/19/13 00:00:00 By - By Lindsay Wise

Kansas’ Black & Veatch, with history of problems in Afghanistan, now has another

An American contractor that came under fire several years ago for cost overruns and delays during the construction of a major U.S.-funded power plant in Afghanistan faces renewed criticism on another, much smaller project. | 01/19/13 00:00:00 By - By Lindsay Wise

Mortgage settlement will send billions to struggling homeowners

Almost 4 million homeowners might receive cash compensation and mortgage relief in a multi-billion-dollar settlement with 10 major banks, government regulators announced Monday. | 01/07/13 18:41:45 By - By Lindsay Wise and Kevin G. Hall

New rule puts cloak of privacy on children’s apps

Unbeknownst to the lucky children who unwrapped tablets or smartphones this holiday season, new rules issued in Washington to protect their privacy on those devices could have profound implications for the future of the Internet and mobile apps. | 12/28/12 16:17:12 By - By Lindsay Wise

Tice family pleads for help in return of journalist missing in Syria

The parents of missing American journalist Austin Tice made a heart-wrenching appeal for his safe return Thursday in an open letter addressed to his captors in Syria. | 12/20/12 18:54:34 By - By Lindsay Wise

New USDA rule would speed poultry-processing lines, worrying inspectors

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is poised to finalize major changes to the poultry slaughter-inspection process that critics warn could threaten food safety and harm workers. | 12/17/12 17:55:38 By - By Lindsay Wise

New poultry rule could harm workers, advocates say

Workplace safety experts say a U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal to increase line speeds at poultry plants could endanger the low-wage workers who are tasked with sorting and trimming inedible carcasses, a job that used to belong to federal inspectors. | 12/17/12 17:54:58 By - By Lindsay Wise

Federal budget cuts would hit consumer protection agencies

Automatic spending cuts triggered by the so-called fiscal cliff would slash a total of about $69 million from the annual budgets of three federal agencies tasked with protecting consumers. | 12/06/12 16:48:54 By - By Lindsay Wise

Dole watches vote on UN treaty on disabled

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, his 89-year old body now weakened by age, illness and war injuries, sat quietly in a wheelchair on the Senate floor Tuesday, watching the debate over a United Nations treaty on the rights of the disabled. | 12/05/12 10:59:36 By - Linsey Wise and Dave Helling

Holiday bargain-shopping online can be a confusing deal

Browsing for the best deal on the Internet during this holiday season can make even the savviest shopper feel like a high-stakes gambler. | 11/30/12 12:54:18 By - By Lindsay Wise

Regulators go after deceptive mortgage advertising

Federal regulators on Monday announced investigations into possible violations of the law by mortgage lenders and brokers suspected of false or deceptive advertising. | 11/19/12 17:54:48 By - By Lindsay Wise

McCaskill pushes tax increase for wealthy to avoid ‘fiscal cliff’

Republicans will have to accept some sort of tax increase in order to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said in her first interview since Election Day. | 11/14/12 19:48:34 By - By Lindsay Wise

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran chosen to bring Senate back to GOP

Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas ascended to the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee on Wednesday in a unanimous vote by his colleagues on Capitol Hill. | 11/14/12 16:54:03 By - By Lindsay Wise

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran eager to be national player for 2014

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran is angling for a key leadership role in the Republican Party, a move that could catapult the 58-year-old politician from Plainville into the national spotlight. | 11/13/12 17:50:33 By - By Lindsay Wise

Parents of missing journalist Austin Tice speak to press in Beirut

The parents of missing American journalist Austin Tice appealed for information about their son Monday at a news conference in Beirut. | 11/12/12 15:20:04 By - By Lindsay Wise

Romney was unable to translate economic argument into a win

Mitt Romney staked his campaign on the economy, and the economy let him down. | 11/07/12 14:55:57 By - By David Lightman and Lindsay Wise

Who will pay the big bill that Sandy left?

Hurricane Sandy’s costs could run into the tens of billions of dollars, leaving state and local governments, federal agencies, utility providers and insurance companies to figure out how to split the bill. | 10/31/12 19:51:54 By - By Curtis Tate, Maria Recio and Lindsay Wise

Online-data companies try to pick your vote out of a crowd

Political campaigns are taking advantage of the same data-mining and consumer-profiling techniques that retailers commonly use to customize ads for certain audiences. | 10/31/12 18:15:14 By - By Lindsay Wise

Campaigns debate ‘binders full of women’

The women’s group that gave Mitt Romney binders of women’s resumes contested his version of the story on Wednesday, while Democrats worked to criticize his record, although Romney apparently named a comparable percentage of women to top spots as President Barack Obama. | 10/17/12 19:02:22 By - By Lindsay Wise

Conviction of Osama bin Laden’s driver tossed out, raising questions about other cases

A federal appeals court’s decision to toss the conviction of Osama bin Laden’s former driver could have implications for future prosecutions of terrorism suspects. | 10/16/12 18:29:59 By - By Lindsay Wise and Carol Rosenberg

Romney, Obama offer differing visions on financial consumer protection

Just 15 months into its existence, the federal government’s newest consumer watchdog agency faces an uncertain future. | 10/15/12 15:51:33 By - By Lindsay Wise

Biden comment on Libya feeds 2nd day of debate

Republicans on Friday seized on a debate remark by Vice President Joe Biden that seemed to contradict the Obama administration’s own position about last month’s fatal attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya. | 10/12/12 18:35:13 By - By Anita Kumar and Lindsay Wise

Equifax settles charges of improperly selling consumer data

One of the nation’s largest credit reporting agencies has agreed to pay $393,000 to settle charges that it improperly sold lists of consumers who were late on their mortgage payments, government regulators announced Wednesday. | 10/10/12 15:28:07 By - By Lindsay Wise

Romney foreign-policy speech takes tough tone but proposes few changes

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney slammed his rival’s international strategy as weak Monday in a speech at Virginia Military Institute. But many of the remarks in his critique didn’t pass the truth test, and despite his tough tone, the foreign-policy positions he outlined hewed close to those already held by President Barack Obama. | 10/08/12 18:38:08 By - By Lindsay Wise and Jonathan S. Landay

Five pre-9/11 al Qaida suspects are headed to United States

A British court on Friday agreed to send five accused terrorists to the United States to stand trial for a wide range of alleged crimes, including the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa that killed more than 220 people. | 10/05/12 19:04:59 By - By Lindsay Wise and Hannah Allam

JPMorgan Chase is sued in 2008 Bear Stearns mortgage case

A civil lawsuit against investment giant JPMorgan Chase, announced Tuesday in Washington by New York’s top prosecutor, is aimed at the root of the nation’s brutal 2008 financial crisis. Consumer advocates, however, questioned why it took so long and why prosecutors didn’t bring a criminal case. | 10/02/12 17:48:48 By - By Kevin G. Hall and Lindsay Wise

FTC cracks down on energy-efficiency ads, including some by firms Obama touted

The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on what officials say is deceptive advertising by energy-efficient window manufacturers, including two companies that President Barack Obama lauded as part of his administration’s “green stimulus” initiative. | 10/02/12 14:34:23 By - By Lindsay Wise

American Express, accused of wrongdoing, to refund customers

American Express has agreed to refund $85 million to 250,000 customers after an investigation uncovered numerous violations of consumer protection laws, ranging from illegal late fees to age discrimination against credit card applicants, federal regulators said Monday. | 10/01/12 18:21:20 By - By Lindsay Wise

Study: Lenders may see a different credit score than you do

About one in five consumers are likely to receive credit scores that differ substantially from those used by lenders, according to a government study released Tuesday. | 09/25/12 17:07:10 By - By Lindsay Wise

Discover will refund $200 million to settle charges it tricked customers

Discover Bank will refund $200 million to more than 3.5 million cardholders to settle charges that its telemarketers used deceptive tactics to sell credit card “add-on” products, such as credit score tracking and identity theft protection. | 09/24/12 17:52:36 By - By Lindsay Wise

Coptic Christian who promoted anti-Muslim video drops from sight

An anti-Muslim activist who tipped an Egyptian newspaper reporter to the existence of an incendiary anti-Islam video, setting off a chain reaction that climaxed in the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo last week, has dropped from sight. | 09/17/12 20:12:44 By - By Lindsay Wise

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