Get Your Credit Report

Thanks to a new law in Maryland, you can now request the three major credit reporting agencies not give out your credit report. It is just the newest way to protect you from identity theft. It will cost you $15, a five dollar fee from each credit reporting agencies. But there are two other steps you can take to guard your good name and they are both free.You see ads all the time promising you a free credit report. Those ads are all too familiar to Angie Barnett, President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland. “It is all over the internet, we find them everywhere, I'm listening to the radio, you hear it constantly." But Barnett warns buyers beware. She says, “that you can get these free credit reports but what they are going to do is give you something you can already get for free then secondly they are going to try to sell you a bundle or package of services that are directly related to protecting you from identity theft." She goes on to say that those services are steps you can take on your own without paying.The federal government requires all three of the major credit reporting agencies, Transunion, Experian and Equifax, to give you a free copy of your report once a year. There is only one place on the internet where you can do that and it is http://www.annualcreditreport.com“We encourage people to be sure you stagger it," says Barnett.

Federal deficit possible, study says

We get that. There is no point in coming on and using your usual Rhetoric 101 trick of discrediting the source, the reporter, the paper, and anyone else in the partisan drivel supply chain. The source does that. Posted 14/01/08 at 10:02 AM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment .

Breakfast: The return of porridge

There's nothing we're protecting about the recipe. It's proper food, with no tricks." They agree that nothing beats porridge made slowly on the hob, but argue that you don't always have the choice. "Grasshopper is convenience food for when you can't face another pain au chocolat," says Abigail. "You can put one in your Prada handbag, your car boot or the baby's buggy." The differently flavoured pots have cult status at Cowes week, while in the City they're guzzled at desks for breakfast. The sisters gamely sent one off to Prince Charles, receiving back a "charming" letter from Clarence House, though one suspects the Prince is one for pinhead with salt, spurtle and bagpipes.

Cheer up, things aren’t that bad

The latest, published a few days ago, shows economists expect a slowdown but not a recession.

There are, of course, any number of jokes about economic forecasters, sometimes involving unfavourable comparisons with meteorologists, but they will have collectively made a huge error if the economy were to be badly derailed next year.

McCain spokesman John King of CNN

The e-mail flood started out we caught you guys, we never did trust you. That kind of thing. I think it is a very interesting dynamic. I saw middle-aged women just throw their arms around Barack Obama, kiss him hard on the cheek and say, you know, I'm with you, good luck. And i think he feels it, too.Dana Milbank, The Washington Post:ABOARD THE STRAIGHT TALK EXPRESS, Jan. 7

Perhaps as important, McCain has learned a small degree of restraint.