My Blog My WordPress Blog

WASHINGTON – A day after castigating the federal government’s ousted disaster chief, a House panel is hearing pledges from government auditors that they will closely examine millions of dollars in contracts the Bush administration awarded to politically connected companies for Hurricane Katrina (search) relief. The inspectors general from half a …

NEW YORK – Applications for U.S. residential mortgages rose last week as higher interest rates failed to deter borrowers from refinancing their existing home loans, an industry trade group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association (search) said its index of total mortgage applications (search) for home purchase and refinancing …

Older women who smoke cigarettes or have smoked for long periods of time may be up to 40 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than women who never smoked, according to a new study. The results also suggest that use of combination estrogen plus progestin hormone therapy among older …