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Mortgage Bail-Out Helps Struggling Homeowners

If you’re a homeowner struggling to make mortgage payments because you are unemployed or underemployed, the federal government has just launched a program to help. The Emergency Homeowner Loan Program, or EHLP, will provide zero-interest loans of up to $50,000 to pay your mortgage, property tax and insurance bills for up to two years.

The program will essentially subsidize your mortgage payments, allowing you to pay just 31% of your income or $150, whichever is greater. EHLP will pay the balance. Homeowners can receive this help for up to 24 months, or until they run through the maximum EHLP loan amount of $50,000.

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AMA backs ACA health insurance mandate

At its annual meeting in Chicago, the American Medical Association (AMA) voted to maintain its official position in favor of the "individual mandate," which requires nearly all Americans to purchase health insurance. The AMA prefers the term "individual responsibility.

"The AMA has strong policy in support of covering the uninsured, and we have renewed our commitment to achieving this through individual responsibility for health insurance with assistance for those who need it," Dr. Cecil Wilson, president of the AMA, said in a statement. "The AMA's policy supporting individual responsibility has bipartisan roots, helps Americans get the care they need when they need it and ends cost shifting from those who are uninsured to those who are insured."

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Restaurants revamping menus in response to calorie count rules

Restaurant chains are working to lower the calorie counts on menu items because of national rules expected by year-end that will require any restaurant chain with 20 or more locations to post calorie information.

IHOP took its standard bacon-and-eggs breakfast, with 1,160 calories, and developed a version with turkey bacon and egg whites that has just 350 calories. Panera Bread Co., worried that customers would balk at sandwiches with more than 1,000 calories, cut back on mayonnaise, salami and bread. Starbucks Corp. launched a line of tiny cakes and mini donuts.

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Supreme Court Rules States Cannot Bypass E.P.A. on Power Plant Emissions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court unanimously ruled out a federal lawsuit Monday by states and conservation groups trying to force cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

The court said that the authority to seek reductions in emissions rests with the Environmental Protection Agency, not the courts.

EPA said in December that it will issue new regulations by next year to reduce power plants' emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas. The Obama administration has already started controlling heat-trapping pollution from automobiles and from some of the largest, and most polluting, industrial plants.

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