CNNMoney - Special Report Mortgage Meltdown, Last Updated: July 30, 2008: 10:29 AM EDT

The legislation devotes $300 billion to helping troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure. See if you qualify.

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — President Bush signed a $300 billion housing rescue bill Wednesday aimed at helping troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure and supporting mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

After the law kicks in on Oct. 1, thousands of at-risk borrowers will be able to refinance their unaffordable old mortgages into new low-cost fixed-rate loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

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BUSINESSWEEK - Technology July 30, 2008, 12:01AM EST

The housing bust is driving loads of traffic to related Web sites, from one that searches for foreclosure lawyers to others that give timely tips

by Catherine Holahan

Even some of Wall Street’s biggest bears were taken aback by a recent report showing a surge in second-quarter home foreclosures. But the dour news was no surprise to Mark Britton, who runs Avvo.com, a Web site that lets users rate attorneys. Searches for foreclosure lawyers on Avvo had skyrocketed eightfold in six months. “A lot of people are hurting out there,” says Britton.

Effects of the housing bust are showing up all over the Web. As the number of foreclosures has increased—they’re up 53% in the past year, says online real estate database RealtyTrac—consumers are scouring the Web for help navigating the subprime mortgage morass. In June, 1.82 billion people searched for the term “foreclosure,” according to research firm comScore (SCOR), which launched a search marketing tool last year to track searches. That’s an increase of 117% from 12 months earlier.

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CNNMoney - Special Report Mortgage Meltdown, Last Updated: July 30, 2008: 11:12 AM EDT

President enacts controversial measure that aims to help borrowers, bolster the housing market and provide a fail-safe for Fannie and Freddie.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — President Bush on Wednesday signed into law a sweeping housing bill that aims to boost the struggling housing market and bolster mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Senate voted 72-13 in favor of the bill on Saturday, after the House passed it three days earlier.

“We look forward to put in place new authorities to improve confidence and stability in markets, and to provide better oversight for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. “The Federal Housing Administration will begin to implement new policies intended to keep more deserving American families in their homes.”

The new law, one of the most far-reaching on housing in decades, marks the centerpiece of Washington’s efforts to address the nation’s housing meltdown.

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BUSINESSWEEK - News July 29, 2008, 6:22PM EST

Company medical clinics are springing up at Toyota, Harrah’s, Disney, and elsewhere—and the savings are substantial

by David Welch

When a company unveils a new plan to rein in health-care costs, workers usually groan. Yet Toyota Motor (TM) is getting rave reviews for the on-site medical center it built at its truck factory in San Antonio. Ask line worker Louis Aguillon. He went to the clinic in May with nagging back pain, and paid just $5 for the visit. “I saw the doctor for 20 minutes,” Aguillon beams. “You’re not just a number there.”

Toyota isn’t running a charity. The medical center, which cost $9 million to build in 2007, could save the company many millions over the next decade. Managed by Take Care Health Systems, whose business is running medical clinics, the program has helped Toyota slash big-ticket medical items including referrals to highly paid specialists, emergency room visits, and the use of costly brand-name drugs. Plus, there are big productivity gains because workers don’t have to leave the plant and drive to a doctor’s office for routine medical matters.

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Sillicon Alley Insider - Michael Learmonth | July 30, 2008 1:35 PM

Google and YouTube just found themselves in more legal/political hot water — in Italy. MediaSet, the dominant TV provider in Italy controlled by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, sued Google (GOOG) and YouTube in a Rome court, seeking “at least” $779 million in damages.

The Milan-based company found 4,643 videos from MediaSet companies on YouTube on June 10, representing 325 hours of broadcasting, the company said. Based on the number of hits generated by the clips, MediaSet claims it lost the equivalent of 315,672 broadcasting days.

Of course, most of that online viewing would have been lost to TV anyway since it occurred after the initial broadcast of the video. Still, it looks like YouTube isn’t having much better luck screening copyrighted video from Italy than it is clips of “The Daily Show.”

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BUSINESSWEEK - Annual Retirement Guide July 3, 2008, 5:00PM EST

Why companies—and insurers—are suddenly interested in offering health insurance to early retirees

by Anne Tergesen

Early retirement, a dream of many, can turn into a nightmare for those forced to buy their own health insurance. Too young for Medicare, early retirees who can’t get coverage through a spouse often must fend for themselves in the market for individual policies. But insurers turn down about 30% of applicants ages 60 to 64, and those they accept often pay exorbitant premiums. “This is not a group anyone really wants to cover,” says Sara Collins, assistant vice-president at Commonwealth Fund, a health-care policy foundation in New York.

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InformationWeek - July 29, 2008 02:31 PM

Microsoft’s opinion that Vista’s troubles are all in users’ heads — and not in the OS’s performance — was supported by a company experiment.

By Paul McDougall

Windows Vista’s troubles are all in users’ heads, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) believes — and to prove it the company set up a blind study in which subjects were asked to watch a video demonstration of what they were told was its forthcoming “Mojave” operating system.The subjects, according to a video that Microsoft posted Tuesday of the experiment, were immediately sold on Mojave. “It’s awesome,” gushed one. “The speed is incredible,” said another. “I’d give it a 10,” raved yet another.

What the subjects weren’t told was that they were actually watching a demo of Windows Vista in action — an OS that most had previously said they wouldn’t purchase under any circumstances.

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