| Insurance is top issue for many
Judith Kelly, a 49-year-old medical case worker, says of all the benefits her employer offers its full-time workers, good health insurance coverage is most important to her. It is what has kept her at VITAS Innovative Hospice Care in Fort Lauderdale for almost 18 years. ''It's number one for a lot of people,'' Kelly says. ``The other things are just icing on the cake.'' Kelly defines good health coverage in dollars and cents. ``The opportunity to chose a plan that suits your budget and gives you maximum benefit with the least amount of deductible.'' If there's one benefit most important to employees, companies know it is health insurance. It also happens to be the most costly benefit for employers -- particularly in South Florida where visits to doctors and hospitals, and the procedures they conduct -- are more expensive and more frequent than in most other areas of the country, according to several academic studies.
Albion Drive: a saga of modern Britain
If beer, 34p a pint when Margaret Thatcher was elected in 1979, had increased at the same rate of inflation, it would now cost £12.90. A loaf of bread would be £24.08, petrol £22.19 a litre. Unfortunately though, the story does not end here. Because, typing away on a computer at the back of the kitchen is Alex, Alan and Diana's 29-year-old son. He's a freelance radio journalist, has just moved back to London from Leeds and is renting a room from his parents while he re-establishes himself in the capital. His parents are property winners. But, because of a crucial matter of timing, Alex is a property loser: he was born too late. He's a first-time buyer, in the most expensive city in Britain - the most expensive city in the world, actually, since a survey last week showed that London's property prices have overtaken those in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Monaco and New York - at a point in history in which a combination of factors has conspired to make buying a home uniquely unaffordable.
Investing strategies: Steady at the wheel
Whatever 2008 brings for stocks, some Long Island investors say they aren't worried. They say they've experienced volatile markets before and have developed strategies that let them sleep at night.
Fran Troutman, a Port Jefferson Station resident who works at the Holtsville facility of the Internal Revenue Service, said that even if 2008 is a bad year for stocks, she won't tinker with her portfolio. It consists mostly of a diversified array of stock mutual funds, and went up by about 10 percent this year.
"I don't believe in changing it around," Troutman, 56, said. "I'm not going to need it tomorrow, and if it goes down, I believe it's going to come back up again."
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Countrywide loss doesn't deter proposed BofA buyout
Countrywide's fourth-quarter earnings fell far short of Wall Street estimates, with a loss more than double what analysts predicted. But investors didn't run away from the nation's mortgage lender; instead, they sent Countrywide shares up 36 cents, or 6.5 percent, to close at $6.31. Stock in Bank of America — which has offered $4.1 billion in stock for Countrywide — rose 74 cents, or 1.8 percent, to close at $41.94 Tuesday. Calabasas, Calif.-based Countrywide posted its second consecutive quarterly loss as rising home loan delinquencies forced it to boost loss provisions and take impairment charges. In the third quarter, it reported a loss of $1.2 billion. The $422 million loss — or 79 cents per share — contrasts with earnings of $622 million — $1.01 per share — during the same period the previous year.
Melville company offers controversial $1,000-down mortgage
"My thoughts were, 'Yeah, right sure. This can't be real,'" said clothing designer Crystal Austin, 42.
But that's all she plunked down in cash last month for her $344,000 Rockaway Beach home under a new program arranged by Melville-based Continental Home Loans.
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NY Billionaire Faces 2nd Sex Lawsuit
A teenage girl filed a $50 million lawsuit against a New York billionaire Thursday, saying he sexually abused her when she was 14. Jeffrey Epstein's attorney, Lilly Ann Sanchez, said the allegations are false and motivated by money. The girl, now 17 and identified only as Jane Doe, claims Epstein invited her to his Palm Beach mansion in 2005 to perform a massage for $300. She claims he demanded she remove her clothes, then sexually assaulted her, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in West Palm Beach. "Jane experienced confusion, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, and the assault sent her life into a downward spiral," the lawsuit states. The girl, her father and stepmother are seeking more than $50 million.
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