EU to Women: Sorry, No More Cheaper Car Insurance

European insurance sanction will be the toughest to dodge, Reuters says

(NEWSER) - Could the decisive blow in the West's struggle with Iran involve insurance salesmen? An upcoming European ban on providing maritime insurance for Iran's oil tankers may be the most vexing sanction Tehran has ever faced, experts tell Reuters . That's because 90% of the world's tanker insurance is based in the West, and without insurance, Iran can't ship to essential markets like Japan, China, India, and South Korea. "The bottleneck is insurance," says one Japanese buyer. More»

Colossal nationwide suit split into regional cases

(NEWSER) - Four months after the Supreme Court decided that 1.5 million past and present female workers at Walmart couldn't be lumped together in a single class-action suit , the first of what promises to be a flood of fresh lawsuits have begun. The original plaintiffs—who say they were denied pay rises and promotions because of gender bias—have filed class-action suits on behalf 95,000 of the retail giant's female employees in California, and on behalf of up to 45,000 workers in Texas. More»

Governor signs bill forbidding local governments from making new rules

(NEWSER) - Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has signed a law forbidding local governments from creating their own anti-discrimination laws—like, for example the recent Nashville measure banning employers from discriminating against gay and lesbian applicants. A Haslam spokesman says the Republican governor had mixed feelings about “telling local governments what to do, but he also had concerns about local governments telling businesses what to do,” according to the Tennessean . More»

Some simple moves can net $1K or more

(NEWSER) - On the eve of the first serious workday of the New Year, take a hard look at your finances and see where you can cut back in 2010. A relatively small investment in time can result in some serious savings, Kathy Kristof writes for the Los Angeles Times :

• Save automatically: "Try having just $25 a month put into a savings account at the beginning of each month." You can still spend it, but if all goes well, "you'll just find a way to spend that much less."

(NEWSER) - As the economy sours, a stunning number of drivers are cutting back or dropping their insurance, MSNBC reports—and that has regulators and safety activists worried. “We may be looking at record numbers of uninsured motorists across the nation,” said the president of the Northwest Insurance Council. An industry research group predicts that by next year, 1 in 6 US drivers won’t have insurance. More»