June 19 Biz Minute

Texas billionaire R. A. Stanford, whose sprawling banking empire collapsed this year, has been indicted for what prosecutors say is a $7 billion scheme to defraud investors. Justice Department officials announced the charges against Stanford, who ran Stanford Financial Group, and six others at a news conference today.
The Labor Department reported today that 48 states and the District of Columbia saw employment conditions deteriorate last month. The fallout from the longest recession since World War II, was the worst in Michigan, where Its unemployment rate rose to 14.1 percent, California climbed to 11.5 percent while the western US reported an overall rate of over 10 percent. Today Nestle USA voluntarily recalled its Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products after a number of illnesses were reported by those who ate the dough raw. The FDA advised consumers to throw away any prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products in their homes. About 25 people have been hospitalized, but no one has died.
Car shoppers could take advantage of government incentives worth up to $4,500 this summer to send their old gas guzzler to the scrap heap in favor of a more fuel-efficient new vehicle. President Obama is expected to sign into law the "cash for clunkers" program, which was approved by the Senate yesterday
Today the attorneys general of 11 U.S. states called for a deeper probe into the bonuses that AIG awarded employees in a unit whose losses led to the federal bailout of the insurer and expressed concern about how much taxpayer money is going toward compensation. They pointed to AIG having said in May that it paid $454 million of bonuses companywide, nearly four times the amount Congress had been told two months earlier.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Allen Standford
• Labor Department
• Unemployment
• Nestle USA
• Toll House
• FDA
• Cash for clunkers
• Senate
• AIG
• Attorney general