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Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Happy Thanksgiving, 2012!

Jeremy Hobson Nov 22, 2012
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Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Happy Thanksgiving, 2012!

Jeremy Hobson Nov 22, 2012
HTML EMBED:
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Just in time for the holiday weekend, the government has offered up some proposed rules for the Affordable Care Act. And the rules could mean it would still be difficult for people with pre-existing conditions to get coverage.

Japan’s stock market is at a six and a half month high, in part thanks to expectations that Japan’s version of the Federal Reserve is about to get aggressive by setting negative interest rates to get investors to stop putting their money into government bonds. Why would anyone want a negative interest rate?

And while markets — and everyone else — here at home are kicking back and relaxing today, European Union leaders are gathering in Brussels to hammer out a budget for the EU. The task won’t be easy, with the continent trying desperately to claw its way out of debt.

And speaking of the European Union, one question for the ages has finally been answered: Just how many bottles of wine are stocked in the official government wine cellars? 42,789. But according to the New York Times, the most expensive bottle is just $60 — if that makes you feel any better.

Tomorrow traditionally begins the dramatic start to the holiday shopping season. But why wait till Black Friday? Shopping will start today in many places. Are Americans ready to spend?

43.6 million. That’s how many Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more this holiday weekend. And 250,000 — that’s the estimate from the National Automobile Dealers Association of how many cars may have been damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. A lot of the owners of those vehicles have turned to rental cars to get around.

And if you manage to get even get behind the steering wheel this weekend, beware of yellow traffic lights. Some cities are being accused of making those lights shorter than usual to get more money out of red light cameras.

And finally, to the turkey, which apparently has an amazing ability to gobble on cue. The Atlantic dug up this 1973 recording of a guy named Jim Nollman singing with hundreds of wild male turkeys.  Nollman says the trick is sharing musical energy with the birds without aggravating them, which he says did happen once.

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