Whether they manage football pageants or Ford Motor Co., these guys, from Walmart’s Michael Duke to ex-Massey Energy’s Don Blankenship, remind us how much needs to change, economically and politically, in 2012 and beyond.
us business
Driven By Lower Fuel Costs, FPL Projects Lowering Power Bills By $2 a Month in 2012
FPL, the state’s largest utility, said 2012 fuel costs are now projected to be $460 million less than it had anticipated earlier as natural gas costs keep dropping. That won’t affect surcharges for future nuclear power plant construction.
How Progress Energy Wants to Pass On A $2.5 Billion Nuclear Blunder to Customers
One of the most expensive nuclear accidents in United States history happened right here in Florida a little over two years ago, and now Progress Energy wants customers to pay for its mistake at the Crystal River nuclear plant.
Walmart Wants To Be Your Health Care Provider
Walmart wants to become by “the largest provider of primary healthcare services in the nation,” according to a request for information from potential partners sent the same week Walmart–the nation’s largest private employer–scaled back its health coverage for employees.
Heist in Print: How Newspapers Sold Their Soul to Business Brigands
Ethics in newspaper media, such as the once-inviolable church-state wall between newsrooms and the business department, are for the most part history as newspapers seek profits at the expense of public trust, Donald Kaul argues.
Nuclear Socialism: FPL and Progress Energy Get $282 Million Rate Hike
Though FPL’s and Progress Energy’s nuclear plants may never be built, the Public Service Commission is set to approve billing utility customers now for those future costs.
What I Learned Occupying Wall Street and DC
The unemployed, the foreclosed, and the sick-of-it-all are coming together to discuss the world that we want to see and how to get there, says Lacy MacAuley, an activist, in an attempt to define the movement’s purpose.
A Florida Bank’s Rise and Fall Spotlights Fast-and-Loose Culture Plaguing the Economy
The rise and fall of U.S. Century, whose leaders used it as their own corporate ATM, exemplifies the failure to regulate banking during the boom years and the slipshod approach to the bailout. Losers are taxpayers and Florida residents grappling with ill effects of sprawl.
Occupy Wall Street Protests Spreading to Florida–Jacksonville, Gainesville and Ocala
Occupy Wall Street, the tea party’s growing flip-side movement, is organizing a series of protests across the nation and in a half dozen cities in Florida, from Jacksonville to Miami to Tampa.
Check the Box Scoundrels: Corporations Lobby to Preserve a $10 Billion Loophole
The ‘check-the-box’ rule, meant to cut red tape for companies, has inadvertently allowed them to avoid billions of dollars in taxes each year, and the government keeps balking at closing the loophole.