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Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Citigroup settles lawsuit, consumer spending rises

Ryan Faughnder Aug 30, 2012
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Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Citigroup settles lawsuit, consumer spending rises

Ryan Faughnder Aug 30, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Here are our major stories for the day.

Citigroup will pay almost $600 million to settle a lawsuit brought by its own shareholders. The complaint against the giant bank dates back to before the financial crisis — investors said Citi concealed its exposure to risky mortgage assets.

With Isaac slowly moving north, residents in the northwest part of Louisiana are preparing homes and businesses for potential flooding. Area hotels are full as the people of south Louisiana wait out the storm.

Germany’s Angela Merkel is in China, where the premier warned southern Europe’s debtor nations to quit stalling and trim their government spending.

The government said this morning that consumer spending grew last month. That’s the fastest pace in 5 months.

Tonight Mitt Romney accepts the GOP nomination for President. Which brings us to our coverage of the Real Economy — what matters most to voters this election year. For that, we went to the Florida coastal town of New Smyrna Beach.

So far, the Republican National Convention keynote speeches have featured plenty of talk on jobs and the deficit. Something a little more surprising, maybe, has been the emphasis on teachers and schools. Gallup this month surveyed Americans on their opinions about the education system.

The standard-setters for American school lunches are rebalancing the menu this fall. They’re aiming at the eternal task of getting kids to eat more fruits and veggies. And now some research out of Cornell University offers up a few ideas on how to get kids to actually eat those carrots and broccoli.

Artic ice is melting faster, making it easier to extract oil and gas. But the Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom said this week it is halting development of a giant natural gas field in the Arctic.

Which American cities spoil their kids the most? We have an answer to that now from the website Bundle.com they looked at toy and clothing spending for kids across major metropolitan areas, and came up with this ranking: Two New York boroughs — Manhattan and Brooklyn — spend the most per household, followed closely by Miami and Minneapolis.

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