Like most of us, I love/hate banks. We need them, but I definitely don't like being beholden to one–I want the freedom to walk when rates fall or fees rise. So I've worked to free my family from dependence on our bank's bill-paying service, which we access through the Web. The convenience has suckered us into a long list of payees that would be a pain to reconstruct at another bank.
My thoughts have been traveling south of the border (I'm bound for Argentina on vacation), and I'm not the only one. With 47 million Hispanics in the United States, many companies are anxious to court that growing market. By 2020, the number of Hispanics will reach 60 million, or 18 percent of the population, according to census estimates. And they've got money to spend.
AP - Just seven days after Pat Tillman's death, a top general warned there were strong indications that it was friendly fire and President Bush might embarrass himself if he said the NFL star-turned-soldier died in an ambush, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
AP - A captive Royal Marine was shown in new TV footage Friday apologizing for being in Iranian waters, and Tehran made public a third letter supposedly written by the only woman prisoner among 15 Britons seized by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
AP - President Bush apologized to troops face to face on Friday for shoddy conditions they have endured at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He shook the artificial hand of a lieutenant and cradled a newborn whose daddy is nursing his remaining, severely injured leg back to health.
The White House has criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plans to stop in Syria during a Middle East trip that began Friday. "We discourage members of Congress to make such visits to Syria," said White House deputy spokeswoman Dana Perino. "This is a country that is a state sponsor of terror." Pelosi is scheduled to meet with Syria's president next weekend, according to Syria's ambassador to the United States.
A new analysis of funding for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan concludes the Army could continue to wage war through July without additional funding from Congress.