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Most Harvey flood victims on hook to pay for home repairs
NEW YORK (AP) -- Insurance experts say only a small percentage of homeowners in Harvey's path of destruction have flood insurance. That means families with damage caused by flooding will have to come up with their own recovery costs. Harvey made landfall in Texas late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane and has lingered off the coast, dropping heavy rain as a tropical storm. Robert Hunter, director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America, expects flood damage alone to cost at least $35 billion.
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US home prices surge in June, led by Seattle
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. home prices climbed higher in June with gains that are eclipsing income growth. This creates affordability pressures for would-be buyers. The Standard & Poor's CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.7 percent in June. The separate national average rose as well, putting it 4.3 points above its housing bubble-era peak in July 2006.
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Nation's largest refinery scales back output as Harvey rages
DALLAS (AP) -- The largest refinery in the country has cut output by nearly half as it deals with Tropical Storm Harvey, which continues to pummel the Texas Gulf Coast. A major pipeline carrying fuel to the East Coast is also running at a reduced rate, partly because of refinery shutdowns in Houston, compounding pressure on the nation's energy system. Gasoline futures rose 6 cents, or about 4 percent, in trading Tuesday.
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Judge rejects Sarah Palin lawsuit against The New York Times
NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge has thrown out a defamation lawsuit that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin brought against The New York Times over an editorial. Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said Tuesday there were a few factual inaccuracies somewhat pertaining to Palin that were rapidly corrected. He says it may have been negligent but was plainly not defamation of a public figure.
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US consumer confidence improves again in August
WASHINGTON (AP) -- American consumers are giving today's economy the highest grade in more than 16 years. The Conference Board says consumers' assessment of current economic conditions hit the highest level this month since July 2001.
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New drug reduces heart attacks, but is that enough?
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- A large, long-term study of a new cholesterol drug developed by Merck showed that it prevents heart attacks and reduces the need for heart procedures where three similar drugs developed by rivals failed. But a study released Tuesday showed the drug only reduced those complications by 9 percent, leaving Merck to weigh whether to seek approval from regulators and convince people to buy it in a market full of cholesterol drugs.
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Are consumers ready to give augmented reality a try?
NEW YORK (AP) -- "Augmented reality," the blending of the virtual and physical worlds, is getting a boost this fall as Apple enables it on hundreds of millions of devices. While software programmers are excited about the prospects, it's not yet clear whether people will be ready to give it a try.
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Medicare to foot the bill for treadmill therapy for leg pain
CHICAGO (AP) -- Older Americans hobbled by leg pain caused by clogged blood vessels will have a new option when the government starts paying for them to exercise on treadmills at medical clinics. Beginning in January, Medicare will cover supervised exercise therapy for people with peripheral artery disease, or PAD.