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U.S. Prices Dropped In April

WASHINGTON (UPI) — U.S. consumer prices dropped 0.4 percent in April, pulling the 12-month inflation rate down to 1.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. Prices also dropped in March, sliding 0.2 percent. An extended period of falling prices, known as deflation, is considered disruptive to the economy, as consumers tend to […]

U.S. Housing Starts Drop, But Permits Issued Rise

WASHINGTON (UPI) — Residential home building starts dropped sharply in April, but permits for new projects rose soundly, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Thursday. After housing starts topped 1 million in March for the first time since June 2008, building starts fell 16.5 percent in April to 853,000. The March figure was revised, but […]

Mortgage Rates Head Higher

WASHINGTON (UPI) — Average U.S. mortgage rates for long-term loans rose for the second consecutive week in the week ended Thursday, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said. Prior to the two-week stretch, interest rates had dropped for six consecutive weeks. In the current week, average rates on 30-year fixed rate loans rose from 3.42 […]

Los Angeles Top City For Dog Attacks On Mail Carriers

WASHINGTON, (UPI) — Los Angeles leads all American cities in injuries to postal service employees by dog bite, the U.S. Postal Service announced Thursday. In anticipation of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, May 19-25, the Postal Service said 5,879 of its mail carriers experienced dog bites in 2012, and released a list of cities ranked […]

Suspect Took Responsibility For Bombings With Note In Boat

BOSTON, (UPI) –  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev scrawled a note inside the boat in which he was found hiding taking responsibility for the Boston Marathon bombings, a report said Thursday. The note was written with a pen on the inside of the boat as he lay bleeding from an earlier shootout with police in which his brother […]

Acting IRS Chief Resigns, Obama Promises ‘New Safeguards’

WASHINGTON,  (UPI) –  U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday the acting head of the Internal Revenue Service has resigned after “inexcusable” misconduct by some IRS personnel. Speaking with reporters at the White House, the president said he had reviewed a Treasury Department report on “IRS personnel who improperly screened conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status, […]

Reid: ‘House Republicans Have Truly Lost Their Minds’

WASHINGTON,  (UPI) –  U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday “House Republicans have truly lost their minds” under a popular definition of insanity. Reid, speaking of House GOP leaders’ plan to hold a 37th vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act — commonly known as “Obamacare” — cited a statement often attributed to […]

Obama, Biden Release Financial Disclosure Forms

WASHINGTON, (UPI) –  U.S. President Barack Obama released a financial disclosure form Wednesday showing considerable income from book royalties. The president reported several million dollars in assets, mostly in mutual funds. His press secretary, Jay Carney, said Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who also released a disclosure form, have no financial conflicts of interest. […]

White House Releases Benghazi Emails

WASHINGTON,  (UPI) –  The White House Wednesday released more than 100 pages of emails related to talking points on the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The release came a day after White House spokesman Jay Carney accused Republicans of fabricating — or at least misrepresenting — the content of the […]

New Method For Mining Gold Does Away With Use Of Cyanide

EVANSTON, Ill. (UPI) — U.S. researchers say they’ve come up with an inexpensive and environmentally friendly method to mine gold that does away with the use of cyanide. Scientists at Northwestern University said their method uses simple cornstarch instead of the highly poisonous cyanide nearly all gold-mining companies use in a leaching process to sequester […]