Consumer Watchdog Fines Alec Baldwin’s Capital One for Deceptive Credit Card Practices

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Capital One, one of the nation’s biggest banks, will reimburse $150 million to more than two million customers for selling them credit card products they could not use or did not want, as the nation’s new consumer watchdog leveled its first enforcement action against the financial industry.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday hit Capital One with findings that a vendor working for the bank had pressured and deceived card holders into buying products presented as a way to protect them from identity theft and hardships like unemployment or disability.

The regulatory actions, totaling $210 million including fines to authorities, take aim at one of the financial industry’s growing profit centers and increasingly controversial practices. Several other banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC, were sued in June by the Hawaii attorney general, accused of improperly selling similar so-called add-on products, which consumer advocates typically regard as costly and ineffective.

“We know these deceptive marketing tactics for credit card add-on products are not unique to a single institution,” said Richard Cordray, the director of the consumer bureau. “We expect announcements about other institutions as our ongoing work continues to unfold.”

Capital One — known for its catchy television ads that ask, “What’s in your wallet?” — did not admit to or deny any of the findings. While it said the wrongdoing had occurred at outside call centers that “did not always adhere to company sales scripts,” the bank’s president for credit cards, Ryan M. Schneider, acknowledged that the company was “accountable for the actions that vendors take on our behalf.”

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Gingrich to Romney: You’d better invite Sarah Palin to the Tampa Convention

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Former House Speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich slammed the Romney campaign Tuesday, saying former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney should extend a speaking invitation to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

“Governor Palin motivates and arouses an entire base,” Mr. Gingrich said in an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. “[She] should absolutely have a speaking slot.”

Mr. Gingrich’s comment on the matter comes just days after reports emerged noting that Mr. Romney has yet to invite Ms. Palin to the Republican presidential convention hosted in Tampa, Florida. Mr. Gingrich, who has not been invited to speak at the convention, said that he would be honored to speak at the convention if asked, but the decision is up to Mr. Romney and his team.

Ms. Palin, who responded to reports that the Romney campaign has yet to offer her a speaking invitation, said the circumtances regarding the Romney decision was payback for her outspokenness and criticism of his policy stances.

“What can I say?” Palin told Newsweek when asked about the convention. “I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on the road to bankruptcy, and engaging in crony capitalism.”

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Romney’s VP pick narrowed to these pro-lifers

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Speculation about which vice-presidential candidate Republican hopeful Mitt Romney will select to run with him against pro-abortion President Barack Obama has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks.

A new report from Reuters claims three pro-life elected officials top the Romney list, despite the fact that campaign officials say no decision has been made and that political pundits are making cases for other possible selections. As Reuters reports:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appears to be in the final stages of deciding who to pick as his vice presidential running mate, with speculation growing that he has narrowed his choice down to a short-list of three.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal all offer various strengths to Romney should he decide to pick one of them to join his battle to unseat President Barack Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, in the November 6 election.

“No decision has been made. An announcement could happen any time between now and the convention, but it will only happen after a decision has been made and no decision has been made,” said Romney campaign senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom.

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Saving her first kiss for her husband: Olympic archer Jennifer Nichols on being a virgin

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With the London Olympics fast approaching, Jennifer Nichols is bang on target when it comes to her archery career.

And it seems she is a straight shooter when it comes to her love life too.

In a new interview, the 28-year-old, from Wyoming, has opened up about her decision to remain celibate before marriage, and why she didn’t even kiss a man for the first time until she was 27.

Miss Nichols, who shared that kiss with fiancé Chris Hardy, 25, is a devout Christian and says she made the decision to save her first kiss when she was just 13.

She told US Weekly: ‘I saved my first kiss for the man I knew I was going to marry – my fiance. I made that commitment when I was about 13 years old.

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The Economics of Abortion: Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Lost

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As we all know, there are so many effects that abortion has on our society and the whole world. What seems to be overlooked is how abortion can hurt the economy. People make the mistake that abortion is solely a moral issue, and therefore cannot be related to the effects of the economy.

In the United States, we have a national debt nearing $16 trillion, which has surpassed the nation’s annual GDP. In other words, our federal government is spending beyond our means. Since abortion was legalized in 1973 by Roe v. Wade, over 50 million babies have died, with over 3,000 killed on a daily basis.

It’s horrible enough that these innocent babies are murdered, but can you imagine how many more contributions those 50 million lives would have made? Perhaps one of those aborted could have found a way to cure AIDS, cancer, or asthma, just to name a few. Plus, with more people contributing to society through work, we would have a higher GDP, which would greatly help reduce the burden of our government spending, which spends about $4 billion daily. Much progress could be made to shore up the social security of the 10,000 individuals who retire every day.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Social Security Administration, Guttmacher Institute, and National Center for Health Statistics, if abortion had never been legalized in 1973, more than 17 million people would be employed, resulting in an additional $400 billion from those workers, with $11 billion contributed to Medicare and $47 million contributed to Social Security. Although it is important to also reduce government spending, these added incomes would nevertheless help the country.

It doesn’t take a world-renowned economist to figure out that when you’re decreasing the youth from abortion and with all the baby-boomers retiring, Social Security is going to eventually run out if we continue with abortions and the amount of spending by the federal government. Even though Social Security cannot last forever with the amount of federal spending today, not having abortion would help Social Security last longer, assuming that the amount of federal spending is the same.

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Obama circumvents yet another state ban on Planned Parenthood funding

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After reaching an agreement to send more than $1 million over three years to a Planned Parenthood in Tennessee, the Obama administration has awarded $3.1 million in federal funds to Planned Parenthood affiliates in New Jersey.

The grant announcement was made Tuesday by Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Robert Menendez, (D-NJ), two pro-abortion Democrats in the U.S. Senate who are longtime allies of Planned Parenthood. The funding comes through the Department of Health and Human Services to Planned Parenthood and other agencies.

The Obama administration grant to the abortion company also comes after Governor Chris Christie again vetoed state taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

The New Jersey Senate passed a measure to restore the $7.5 million in funding 26-13 with all of the Senate Democrats voting to restore the Planned Parenthood funds along with Republicans Diane Allen and Jennifer Beck. Pro-life advocates called on him to rescind the funding again, after two of the abortion business’ centers closed last year following the first veto of the funding.

The new funding brings the New Jersey Family Planning League’s total federal funding this year to nearly $6.3 million. The NJFPL works with Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey, Planned Parenthood of Central and Greater Northern New Jersey, Hoboken Family Planning, and Women’s Health and Counseling Center in Somerville to fund 25 locations.

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Egyptian Christians Refuse Meeting with US Delegation

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Representatives of Egypt’s Orthodox and Evangelical churches on Sunday morning declined invitations to meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to protest perceived US interference in Egypt’s internal affairs.

Bishop Marcus of the Coptic Orthodox Church told Ahram Online that the clergymen’s refusal to attend the meeting with Clinton was intended to voice “our rejection of US intervention in Egypt’s domestic affairs and the Americans’ strategy of favouring certain Egyptian political currents over others.”

Safwat El-Beyadi, head of Egypt’s Evangelical Church, likewise refused to meet with Clinton, as did the leaders of other churches.

A number of Christian politicians – including rights activist Michael Mounir, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party’s Emad Gad, former MP Georgette Qeleini and business tycoon Naguib Sawiris – also refused to meet with the US state secretary during her brief visit to Egypt.

In a joint statement on Sunday, they expressed their displeasure over Clinton’s decision to meet with members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community following earlier meetings with Muslim Brotherhood members and Salafists. They asserted that Clinton’s move served to “promote sectarian divisions.”

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Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice front-runner for Romney VP?

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Late Thursday evening, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign launched a new fundraising drive, ‘Meet The VP’ — just as Romney himself has narrowed the field of candidates to a handful, sources reveal.

And a surprise name is now near the top of the list: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice!

The timing of the announcement is now set for ‘coming weeks’.

It was Condi who received two standing ovations at Romney’s Utah retreat a few weeks ago, and everyone left with her name on their lips.

Rice made an extended argument for American leadership in the world.

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Who knew she was political? Miley Cyrus sports new tattoo with Teddy Roosevelt quote

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Miley Cyrus debuted a new tattoo yesterday, with eagle-eyed fans spotting that the phrase is a quote from former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.

The tattoo, which features on 19-year-old Miley’s left forearm, reads: ‘So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.’

The quote is taken from Roosevelt’s speech which he made at the the Sorbonne, Paris, on April 23rd 1910.

The full speech reads: ‘It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

‘The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.’

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Rielle Hunter’s book tour about affair with John Edwards comes to abrupt end with pathetic sales

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It was billed to be an explosive tell-all about what ‘really happened’ during the affair that ended a marriage and the dreams of the man who was being pipped to be the next U.S. president.

But after all the hype, it seems not that many people really wanted to hear Rielle Hunter’s side of the story, as the book about her relationship with former senator John Edwards has sold just 6,000 copies.

Due to poor sales, Hunter seems to have dropped under the radar and scheduled no additional tour dates despite an initial media blitz.

Boookscan told the New York Post that ‘What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter And Me’ sold enough copies to make it onto the New York Times best-seller list but ‘not big enough to make the major houses sorry’ for not choosing it.

New York publishers had said they were not interested in Hunter’s book, citing her negative image, so it was instead released through Dallas-based boutique publisher BenBella Books – who reportedly only gave her a small cash advance.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Tony Fischer Photography