For months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts. It wasn't until the money was flowing and news was trickling out to the public that official Washington rose up in anger and vowed to yank the money back.
Pope Benedict, who's beginning a tour of Africa, has released a statement saying that condoms will not solve the HIV/AIDS problem. In fact, he says condoms would only make matters worse. Pope Benedict, like his predecessor Pope John Paul II, promotes abstinence.
The pontiff's comments have brought strong and sometimes angry reaction from some health agencies and advocacy groups. One of the organizations that's critical of the pope's comments is the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), one of South Africa's leading HIV/AIDS advocacy groups. Rebecca Hodesis the TAC's director of policy communication and research. From Cape Town, she spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about Pope Benedict's position on condom use.
If you're out of work like Steve Lippe, who was laid off from his job as a salesman in January, you know you already have problems. But looking at the fine print that came with his new unemployment debit card, he became livid.
A brochure that goes out to Pennsylvanians seeking unemployment via debit card lists a number of fees.
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"A $1.50 [fee] here, a $1.50 there," he said. "Forty cents for a balance inquiry. Fifty cents to have your card denied. Thirty-five cents to have your account accessed by telephone."
He was quoting fees listed in a brochure that goes out to every unemployed person in Pennsylvania who chooses to receive benefits via debit card. He was given the option when he filed for jobless payments: Wait 10 days for a check or get the card immediately. Like most of the 925,000 state residents who received unemployment benefits in February in Pennsylvania, he chose the debit card and only then, he says, did he learn about the fees.
"I was outraged by it," he told CNN. "I was very noisy about it. I just couldn't believe it. An outrage is just too weak a word. It's obscene."
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 30 states offer direct deposit cards to the unemployed. Many of the nation's biggest banks have contracts with the individual states. JP Morgan Chase, for instance, has contracts with seven states and has pending deals with two others, according to Chase spokesman John T. Murray. About 10 states, the Labor Department says, pay by check only.