NBC Quickly Renews Three New Fall Series

By BILL CARTER

NBC moved quickly Tuesday to acknowledge some early-season success by renewing three new series for a full season of episodes: the drama “Revolution,” which has been scoring well on Mondays, and two Tuesday night comedies, “Go On” and “The New Normal.”

The orders are especially early, well before the fall season competition generally settles in; but NBC has had so little success in prime time lately that it needs to show some confidence in its new entries.

The announcement also serves to bolster the entertainment division regime headed by the top program executives, Bob Greenblatt and Jennifer Salke, who were responsible for selecting the network's fall slate of shows.

Of the three renewals, “Revolution,” about a future world without electricity, has demonstrated the strongest early credentials, having won its 10 p.m. time period in both weeks of the season so far. It also posted the best results in network television in terms of improvement based on delayed viewing; last week it showed a 53 per cent increase in its rating among the 18-49-year-old viewers that account for the bulk of NBC ad sales.

The comedies also showed significant growth. “Go On,” a new starring vehicle for Matthew Perry about a depressed sportscaster, has ranked as the No. 1 new comedy of the fall so far in that rating group. “The New Normal,” about a gay couple and a surrogate mother, showed surprising appeal in the delayed viewing figures from premiere week, with an impressive 40 percent increase in ratings.

Many series have started out fast and faded of course, which makes the NBC decision on Tuesday a risky one, and vulnerable to second guessing later.

But NBC's showing thus far has exceeded most expectations, and the network took the first opportunity to celebrate that.

Free Advice From Financial Planners in October

By ANN CARRNS

Four nonprofit groups are sponsoring a freebie that might come in handy if you're looking to get your financial life on track: financial planning sessions in two dozen cities during October.

The groups are billing the sessions as free, “no strings attached,” one-on-one meetings with financial professionals - mostly certified financial planners, but also other members of the Financial Planning Association. The planners are volunteering their time and will not distribute business cards or sell financial products or services, according to the organizers.

The groups sponsoring the third annual “Financial Planning Days” events include the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, the Financial Planning Association, the Foundation for Financial Planning and the United States Conference of Mayors.

In one-on-one meetings, the financial planners can help answer questions on budgeting, managing credit, getting o ut of debt, income taxes, homeownership, handling mortgage foreclosures, paying for college, estate planning, insurance and other topics.

Most locations will also offer free workshops on various personal finance topics, like taxes and retirement.

The events begin this week on Thursday and Friday in Miami. The next round occurs Saturday in Baltimore; Columbus, Ohio; Huntington Beach, Calif.; Newark; Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; and San Diego. The events will be held in other cities later in the month; for a complete list of locations, cities and dates, see www.financialplanningdays.org.

You can register online in advance by clicking on the city where you want to attend, or by calling, toll free, 1-877-861-7826. You can also walk in and register on the day of the event, but preference is given to those who pre-register.

Participants do not have to bring anything, but organizers suggest they might want to bring relevant financial documents and a lis t of questions to make the most of their time.

Fixing a Credit-Card Snafu for Stay-at-Home Spouses

October 2, 2012, 12:11 pm

By ANN CARRNS

More than a year ago, I wrote a Bucks post about a provision of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, which was created to protect consumers but also ended up restricting access to credit for stay-at-home wives and husbands.

Now, the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau plans to propose a new rule to fix that defect, and allow credit card issuers to consider household income on applications from non-working spouses, according to testimony by bureau head Richard Cordray before a Congressional committee last month.

The law was passed in part to prevent students and young adults from getting into trouble with credit card debt, but it ended up backfiring in its impact on spouses who don't work outside the home.  In finalizing the law's details after it was enacted, the Federal Reserve had said that credit card companies must consider “individual” income, not “household” income, on credit applications. That meant that in most situations, a non-working spouse couldn't obtain credit based on their husband's or wife's income, as they could previously. (There were no specific allowances for same-sex couples, and I've reached out to various parties to get clarification on where they stand now and where they would stand once the Bureau intervenes.)

The Fed, in a somewhat outdated view of who stays home with the children these days, had said it believed “married women who do not work outside the home” would still have access to credit because they could apply for joint accounts with their husbands, or become authorized users on their husband's accounts. The move was necessary, the Fed said, to make sure the person holding the card can actually pay the bill.

But some con sumers-including one who started an online petitionâ€"vehemently disagreed. So did members of Congress, who asked Mr. Cordray to fix the problem.

Mr. Cordray, in testimony before the house committee, said his agency had determined over the summer that the restriction of credit to stay-at-home spouses was “clearly an unintended consequence” of the CARD Act and was creating a significant problem that must be addressed. He said his agency would propose a fix sometime this month.

Do you think considering household income for non-working spouses who apply for credit makes sense?

Fixing a Credit-Card Snafu for Stay-at-Home Spouses

October 2, 2012, 12:11 pm

By ANN CARRNS

More than a year ago, I wrote a Bucks post about a provision of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, which was created to protect consumers but also ended up restricting access to credit for stay-at-home wives and husbands.

Now, the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau plans to propose a new rule to fix that defect, and allow credit card issuers to consider household income on applications from non-working spouses, according to testimony by bureau head Richard Cordray before a Congressional committee last month.

The law was passed in part to prevent students and young adults from getting into trouble with credit card debt, but it ended up backfiring in its impact on spouses who don't work outside the home.  In finalizing the law's details after it was enacted, the Federal Reserve had said that credit card companies must consider “individual” income, not “household” income, on credit applications. That meant that in most situations, a non-working spouse couldn't obtain credit based on their husband's or wife's income, as they could previously. (There were no specific allowances for same-sex couples, and I've reached out to various parties to get clarification on where they stand now and where they would stand once the Bureau intervenes.)

The Fed, in a somewhat outdated view of who stays home with the children these days, had said it believed “married women who do not work outside the home” would still have access to credit because they could apply for joint accounts with their husbands, or become authorized users on their husband's accounts. The move was necessary, the Fed said, to make sure the person holding the card can actually pay the bill.

But some con sumers-including one who started an online petitionâ€"vehemently disagreed. So did members of Congress, who asked Mr. Cordray to fix the problem.

Mr. Cordray, in testimony before the house committee, said his agency had determined over the summer that the restriction of credit to stay-at-home spouses was “clearly an unintended consequence” of the CARD Act and was creating a significant problem that must be addressed. He said his agency would propose a fix sometime this month.

Do you think considering household income for non-working spouses who apply for credit makes sense?

Tuesday Reading: When Doctors Stop Taking Insurance

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

Tuesday Reading: When Doctors Stop Taking Insurance

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

The Breakfast Meeting: Debate Moderators in Spotlight, and Testing Green Marketing

By BILL BRINK

The referees are under the spotlight again, and this time not on the football field. As the first presidential debate approaches Wednesday night, the moderators have inevitably become part of the story, Jeremy Peters writes in The Times, as they get caught up in the partisan give-and-take that characterizes the campaigns. A role that once stood as a crowning journalistic achievement has become more scrutinized and stressful than ever. “Mind you, every morning I wake up, I want to throw up thinking about it,” said CNN's Candy Crowley, who will moderate a debate on Oct. 16.

• In The Daily, Daniel Libit writes that “if this is the ‘Twitter election,' then tomorrow's debate could really be where America is won or lost.'' Twitter, he says, may be the echo chamber that decides who is the winner and loser.
• In Massachusetts, Senator Scott P. Brown and his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, had another contentious debate. “Both scored points and made blunders,'' Katherine Q. Seelye writes in The Times, and Mr. Brown drew some boos from the audience when he identified Justice Antonin Scalia as his “model'' Supreme Court justice, prompting him to quickly throw out several other names, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor from the court's more liberal wing.

In Washington, Edward Wyatt reports, the Federal Trade Commission tackled the issue of so-called green marketing, saying that companies claiming their products are good for the environment had to have supporting data. The commission said substantially more companies were using this marketing strategy while the claims themselves had become more ambiguous.

An undated video clip on a Web site that supports the Syrian government appears to show Austin Tice, an American freelance journalist, to be alive and being held hostage by Islamist militants, David D. Kilpatrick reports in The Times. It was the first glimpse of Mr . Tice since Aug. 13, but there are questions about the origin of the clip that raise doubts about its authenticity. Some analysts believe it might have been staged to try to discredit the armed opposition, Robert Mackey reported in The Lede blog.

OWN, the cable network started by Oprah Winfrey that has struggled to attract an audience, has made a big programming bet by signing Tyler Perry to produce new shows, Brian Stelter writes. It's an exclusive arrangement between Ms. Winfrey and Mr. Perry, the prolific television producer behind sitcoms like “House of Payne.” The network said that it would introduce two new scripted series made by Mr. Perry sometime in mid-2013 and that OWN would become the “singular destination'' for his new series and projects.

Four young memoirists, Dwight Garner writes, have decided to write books about hunting, for various personal reasons, including, he says, the desire to thoughtfully stare their protein in the face.

Can nice guys avoid finishing last in the hypercompetitive environment of Hollywood? Jordan Roberts has managed to find a way, Brooks Barnes writes. A longtime, respected script doctor, he has directed and self-financed a new movie with an unusual name - “3,2,1 … Frankie Go Boom'' - that will get a limited run in theaters starting later this month.

The Breakfast Meeting: Debate Moderators in Spotlight, and Testing Green Marketing

By BILL BRINK

The referees are under the spotlight again, and this time not on the football field. As the first presidential debate approaches Wednesday night, the moderators have inevitably become part of the story, Jeremy Peters writes in The Times, as they get caught up in the partisan give-and-take that characterizes the campaigns. A role that once stood as a crowning journalistic achievement has become more scrutinized and stressful than ever. “Mind you, every morning I wake up, I want to throw up thinking about it,” said CNN's Candy Crowley, who will moderate a debate on Oct. 16.

• In The Daily, Daniel Libit writes that “if this is the ‘Twitter election,' then tomorrow's debate could really be where America is won or lost.'' Twitter, he says, may be the echo chamber that decides who is the winner and loser.
• In Massachusetts, Senator Scott P. Brown and his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, had another contentious debate. “Both scored points and made blunders,'' Katherine Q. Seelye writes in The Times, and Mr. Brown drew some boos from the audience when he identified Justice Antonin Scalia as his “model'' Supreme Court justice, prompting him to quickly throw out several other names, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor from the court's more liberal wing.

In Washington, Edward Wyatt reports, the Federal Trade Commission tackled the issue of so-called green marketing, saying that companies claiming their products are good for the environment had to have supporting data. The commission said substantially more companies were using this marketing strategy while the claims themselves had become more ambiguous.

An undated video clip on a Web site that supports the Syrian government appears to show Austin Tice, an American freelance journalist, to be alive and being held hostage by Islamist militants, David D. Kilpatrick reports in The Times. It was the first glimpse of Mr . Tice since Aug. 13, but there are questions about the origin of the clip that raise doubts about its authenticity. Some analysts believe it might have been staged to try to discredit the armed opposition, Robert Mackey reported in The Lede blog.

OWN, the cable network started by Oprah Winfrey that has struggled to attract an audience, has made a big programming bet by signing Tyler Perry to produce new shows, Brian Stelter writes. It's an exclusive arrangement between Ms. Winfrey and Mr. Perry, the prolific television producer behind sitcoms like “House of Payne.” The network said that it would introduce two new scripted series made by Mr. Perry sometime in mid-2013 and that OWN would become the “singular destination'' for his new series and projects.

Four young memoirists, Dwight Garner writes, have decided to write books about hunting, for various personal reasons, including, he says, the desire to thoughtfully stare their protein in the face.

Can nice guys avoid finishing last in the hypercompetitive environment of Hollywood? Jordan Roberts has managed to find a way, Brooks Barnes writes. A longtime, respected script doctor, he has directed and self-financed a new movie with an unusual name - “3,2,1 … Frankie Go Boom'' - that will get a limited run in theaters starting later this month.