Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. have reached a settlement with the U.S. government to pay a total of $300 million for misleading consumers about the fuel efficiency of their cars. The deal is said to represent the largest penalty ever for violating the Clean Air Act. The carmakers got into trouble when their engineers “chose favorable results rather than average results from a large number of tests,” said the EPA.   read more

It’s a measure of how House of Representatives districts have been drawn to ensure safe seats that only 25 races in this week’s election account for 80% of the outside spending in House races. Most House districts that aren’t competitive see little spending. In fact, 193 of them have less than $10,000 in outside spending.   read more

Independent groups from both sides have spent at least $36 million on the race—in a state with only 490,000 registered voters. About 280,000 of those are considered to be likely voters. The spending averages out to about $120 per likely voter. And that figure doesn’t or can’t account for the actual amount that’s gone into the election from third party interests. So much money is being spent on the Senate race that it’s crowding other candidates off the airwaves.   read more

In some instances, patients find themselves being billed for the room they sat in while seeing a therapist. “How could it be that the doctor was in network and the hospital was in network, but I had to pay separately for the room?” asked Leo Boudreau, who found such a charge on a bill. Some ophthalmologists are now charging “refraction fees” as part of eye examinations. A person with a broken arm is now billed separately for the sling. A visit to an ER can result in an “activation fee.”   read more

The U.S. nuclear weapons complex is greatly expanding the production of fissile cores to levels not seen since the end of the Cold War three decades ago. The dramatic increase comes as part of a long-term billion-dollar effort to renew the nuclear arsenal under President Barack Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize largely because of his promise to greatly reduce the nation’s stockpile of these weapons—a promise he has not kept.   read more

The terms of the settlement were negotiated by Warren’s lawyers and approved by the mayor and city council. Warren was arrested after a high-speed car chase in which he struck a school bus, a police car, and a police officer. After Warren flipped his car, five Birmingham police officers descended on him, repeatedly hitting and kicking him. The arrest was captured on video taken by a police car dashboard camera and later shown on national news. Warren sued for assault and battery.   read more

“We’re in a day when a person can commit about 15,000 bank robberies sitting in their basement,” said the FBI's Robert Anderson. Some of the big name businesses targeted by hackers recently include JPMorgan Chase, Target and Home Depot. About half of all adult Americans—110 million people—have had their financial data compromised in some way in the past year. About 80% of businesses don’t realize their accounts have been breached until being informed by financial institutions or customers   read more

While the average income is growing, the median income, that is, the point at which half the families make more money and half the families make less money, is falling. Between 2010 and 2013, the average family income rose 4%, but the median family income fell 5% during that period. That means the income gains have been concentrated among the wealthy, with the poor and middle class still struggling to see a real recovery.   read more

About 44% of all personal assets on the planet are owned by only 0.7% of the global population, according to Global Wealth Report 2014 produced by Credit Suisse. In the United States, the richest 1% takes home 20% of the nation’s total income. This is the highest rate since 1928. Credit Suiisse classifies the United States as one of only three developed economies with “very high inequality.”   read more

One would think that if more than a billion stolen dollars could be retrieved, the U.S. government would pursue a good lead. But successive presidential administrations have chosen not to investigate it. It was the mission of Stuart W. Bowen to find out where the funds went. When he heard that the cash had been shipped to Lebanon and hidden in a bunker, he told the FBI and CIA. But neither agency pursued it. Bowen attempted to go to Lebanon himself, but was forbidden to do so by his bosses.   read more

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has faulted budget cuts, and thus Congress, for the lack of an Ebola vaccine. In fact, the lack of funding has forced NIH to slow all its research. Even now, with the media frenzy over two cases of Ebola occurring in the U.S., there is little action on Capitol Hill to provide NIH with emergency supplemental funding. “Nobody seems enthusiastic about that,” Collins said.   read more

The $100 million is more than a third higher than what was spent on congressional races at this point in 2012. The money is funneled to so-called “social welfare” groups. One of the most prominent spenders has been the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, which promotes the campaign of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and targeting his Democratic rival, Alison Grimes. Other money is spent by the Koch brothers’-funded Americans for Prosperity and Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS   read more

The Pentagon bought 20 transport planes for use in Afghanistan for $486 million. The planes could not be kept operational, so 16 of them were scrapped at Kabul Airport and the shredded metal was sold for 6 cents a pound. “I am concerned that the officials responsible for planning and executing the scrapping of the planes may not have considered other possible alternatives in order to salvage taxpayer dollars," said SIGAR's John Sopko.   read more

When Republicans and Democrats presented a rare united front on an issue, it wasn’t surprising that their goal was to put more money in their pockets. The FEC, in reponse to a joint letter from Democratic and Republican national committees, agreed that the parties may receive convention donations that don’t count against the annual limit. Campaign Legal Center’s Larry Noble called the decision “disgraceful” and that it could lead to allowing donations for different party tasks.   read more

The Obama administration’s attempt to report how much money has been flowing from manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices to doctors is proving to be seriously flawed. CMS officials proclaimed during the unveiling of Open Payments that the data included nearly 4.5 million payments worth $3.5 billion, but the flaws and omissions raise questions about how complete those numbers really are. Mistakes won’t be corrected until next year, and some of those errors are whoppers.   read more

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and device companies issued 4.4 million payments to more than 500,000 health care professionals that totaled $3.5 billion, during the last half of 2013. “The main goal is to influence prescribing practices,” said Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. “The interest of those companies is to improve their financial bottom line, and not necessarily represent the best interest of patients.”   read more