CNNMoney recently reported what many in the real estate industry had suspected for a while or had known: the mortgage rates had fallen to new lows, the 15-year fixed-rate slipping to its lowest in 60 years and the 30-year fixed-rate dipping to very nearly its lowest. But the housing recovery is on. Low mortgage rates…

The U.S. government has supplied the latest proof that economic recovery is underway: approximately 227,000 new jobs were created in February 2012 while the unemployment rate remained steady at 8.3 percent. Reacting to the news, home mortgage purchase applications increased 4.4 percent for the first time in more than a month, revealed a Mortgage Bankers…

After a storm or a tornado, the cleanup crew comes in braving inclement weather and the dangers of destroyed structures, fallen trees, and downed power lines. Now the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is providing compliance assistance to workers and members of the public engaged in cleanup activities so they can perform their duties…

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) may be more popularly associated with safety at construction sites, but actually it affects all sectors because work safety cuts across industries. This March, OSHA put together a local emphasis program to protect workers from the range of dangers on Wisconsin dairy farms, from those involving animal handling…

Edifecs, Inc. recently released a report summarizing the important conclusions arrived at by participants at the 2012 ICD-10 Summit. The conference, hosted by Washington-based IT vendor Edifecs, gathered under one roof industry analysts, payers, providers, and other stakeholders (including providers of medical coding online training and medical coding online courses) to find out how best to…

A recent survey by Washington-based IT vendor Edifecs Inc., a known advocate of ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases 10th Edition), the new medical code set that was supposed to replace ICD-9 on Oct. 1, 2013 but whose implementation date was pushed back indefinitely, has indicated that a delay could prove financially costly to hospitals, other…

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has issued a shout-out and a challenge to all graphic artists and designers:  it has opened, together with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a poster-making contest on the theme “Less waste, better results—Standards increase efficiency” for World Standards Day, which is on October…

Corporate shenanigans have been around for as long as corporations have shaped businesses and economies, much longer in fact than ISO standards and ISO training—for instance, ISO 9001 training and ISO 27001 training, have been around. It is only now, however, that failures in corporate governance—such as the much-publicized irregularities in financial management that rocked…

According to the 2012 National Long-Term Care Insurance Price Index from the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI), prices for current long-term care insurance policies are six to 17 percent higher than they were a year ago. AALTCI’s executive director Jesse Slome noted that “Insurance prices have increased as a result of the historic…

A new study by Conning Research & Consulting has revealed that because of missed opportunities spanning five years the protection gap for the middle market has hit $10.2 trillion, a huge amount that represents an even bigger opportunity for life insurers. That also represents a huge green light for insurance professionals who already have a…

The number of housing markets that have shown measurable improvement hit 99 in March, said the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI). Thirty-three states (including the District of Columbia) are represented by at least one metro market on the list. The development is cause for excitement in the construction sector, particularly…

This spring has put a spring in homebuilder confidence, as surveys seem to show. The latest results revealed that for the first time in over two years, homebuilder confidence is up: new home sales in January rose 3.5 percent over the same period last year, and higher by one percent over the fourth quarter of…

Five outbreak investigation centers for foodborne illnesses, also called the Food Safety Integrated Centers of Excellence, are in danger of not seeing the light of day, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) reported this March. The creation of the five centers is mandated by the new Food Safety Modernization Act, but the…

Early in March the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a major consumer advocacy group, reported that the level of the 4-methylimidazole (4-MI) substance found in brown sodas (cola) was high enough to cause cancer in seven out of 1 million Americans. That prompted a swift response by cola companies such as Coca-Cola…

Making good on its promise to tide over homeowners whose homes have gone under, White House this March announced that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is slashing costs on loans refinanced under the FHA’s Streamline Refinance Program. For about three million homeowner borrowers this means savings of around $1,000 a year through lower government-backed mortgages….