The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, known as the Card Act, was intended to reshape the contours of consumer finance. Among other things, it forces card issuers to give customers more notice about interest-rate increases and restricts certain controversial billing practices such as inactivity fees. Yet some of the biggest card issuers in the U.S., including Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Discover Financial Services, are already rolling out a slew of fees designed to recapture some of their lost income, in part by skirting the new rules . Some banks may even be violating the law outright, say consumer advocates. "Card companies are figuring out how to replace old fees with new ones," says Victor Stango, an associate economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a professor at the University of California, Davis, who has been analyzing how the Card Act will affect consumer banking. "It's a race between regulators writing ever-more-complex laws and credit-card companies setting up ever-more-complex fees." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704895004575395823497473064.html

Sagamore Hill, once the home of Theodore Roosevelt, was named after Sagamore Mohannis who, as chief of his tribe, signed away the rights to the land on which the house was built. Some old properties in the American colonies changed names when the house changed hands--Fawn House, built around 1638, by John Fawn, within two years was sold to John Whipple and became Whipple House. In Sarasota, is Ca-D'Zan (Venetian patois for House of John) built by circus king John Ringling. In Asheville, the name of Biltmore House comes from "Bildt", a town in the Netherlands the family originally came from, and "more," an English word for rolling, upland country. House Names Around the World to be continued

The number of bistros in France has fallen from 200,000 in the 1960s to 35,000 now, and opinion is split on how to save them. Times are hard for Le Fontenoy, the only surviving cafe in a village in north-central France which once had three. Now, as changing habits and new laws alter the residents' relationship with an erstwhile local fixture, its future is looking bleak. In a last-ditch attempt to save the cafe he deems "the social link of the village", the determined patron has launched an online appeal for donations which he hopes will bring in enough money to keep the business afloat in the short term. The fundraising mission at Fontenay-Saint-Père, about 35 miles north-west of Paris, has attracted considerable media attention. But its struggle is just the tip of the iceberg. Last year, in its île de France region alone, about 2,000 bistros and cafes went under. Last week Le Parisien, the capital's daily newspaper, issued a clarion call for the hard-hit bistro, warning on its front page that time was running out to save the "fast disappearing" bastion of "jambon beurre baguettes, egg mayonnaise, jokes, chat and table football". But opinions are divided on how to go about this. Many, including the government, feel that it is up to the industry to adapt according to the needs of society and that any business that cannot keep up with the pace of change does not deserve to survive. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/25/france-bistros
Following in the footsteps of greats such as Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop, W.S. Merwin will take up the mantle of America's poet laureate this autumn. The 82-year-old poet has won the Pulitzer prize twice and is the author of more than 30 books of poetry and prose. " He leads us upstream from the flow of everyday things in life to half-hidden headwaters of wisdom about life itself," said James H Billington, librarian of Congress, announcing Merwin's appointment. "[His] poems are often profound and, at the same time, accessible to a vast audience." http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/05/ws-merwin-us-poet-laureate

From the moment of Hendrik Hudson's trip up the mighty river until today, the Hudson River is one of the most important commercial and recreational rivers in America. Hundreds of cargo ships ply its waters and thousands of pleasure craft skip along its waves. The majestic Hudson transports the goods of America from the inland ports out to the greatest deep water port in the country, New York Harbor. All of this activity and industrial momentum would have ground to a halt except for the lonely sentinels of the Hudson River marking the way and warning shipping of the hazards and channels. Over the centuries, many lighthouses have come and gone, thru fire and flood, thru storm and accident, the lighthouses have stood their ground, sending their beacons to guide the ships and barks plying the waters of the Hudson. Now, only eight of these sentinels remain on the river. No longer serving their original purpose as aids to navigation, they now mark the passage of the history of America past their lights and horns.
http://hudsonlights.com/

Daniel Schorr, a longtime senior news analyst for NPR and a veteran Washington journalist who broke major stories at home and abroad during the Cold War and Watergate, died on July 23. He was 93. Schorr was surprised to find himself on the so-called Enemies List that had been drawn up by Richard Nixon's White House when he read it on the air. The list—naming hundreds of political opponents, entertainers and publications considered hostile to the administration—became the basis for one of the charges of impeachment against Nixon.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128846420

The "Opponents List and Political Enemies Project" was compiled beginning in 1971 by various Nixon Administration officials and was frequently updated. Find the original list of 20 names of White House "enemies" and an updated "master list" of political opponents divided into categories such as academics, business, celebrities, media and organizations at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030621235432/www.artsci.wustl.edu/~polisci/calvert/PolSci3103/watergate/enemy.htm