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ATTORNEY GENERAL OPENS PROBE

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo unveiled a probe of CareCredit, a division of General Electric Co.'s GE consumer finance unit, saying it promoted its health care credit card with kickbacks.

"People are being tricked by misleading offers that have them paying for services they never received as well as interest charges they never knew about--and they are ignored and given the runaround when they try to get their money back," Cuomo said in a statement.

"We look forward to learning more about the investigation, working with the Attorney General's office, and we don't have any further comment at this time," GE spokesman Stephen White said.

CareCredit, a product of Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric's GE Money unit, offers payment options for some expenses not covered by insurance or that exceed coverage levels, according to the CareCredit website.

WORKPLACE DEATHS DROP

The number of workers who died on the job fell by 17 percent last year to 4,340, the lowest level in nearly two decades, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The DOL began recording tracking the data in 1992.

It represents the second straight year that workplace fatalities have dropped. In 2008, the number went down by 10 percent.

The Labor Secretary Hilda Solis credited stronger workplace safety law enforecement. The drop in workplace fatalities is also linked to workers logging fewer hours during the recession.

GAO: FEDS STARTING TO PLAN AIG EXIT STRATEGY

The government may sell its stake in American International Group Inc. through a public stock offering sometime after 2013, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

GAO officials talk about the future of AIG, New York and other large recipients of financial assistance in a report on federal help to private-sector companies prepared for congressional committees.

The government has provided $134 billion in indirect and direct assistance to AIG, with the majority made through government investments in AIG stock, officials said.

Officials in the U.S. Treasury Department and at the Federal Reserve Board told GAO staffers that AIG must repay a Federal Reserve Bank of New York credit facilitybefore the government's AIG trust can dispose of its AIG stock, Dodaro said.

AIG is supposed to repay the government by Sept. 13, 2013.

DOG BITES UP

Insurance claims from dog bites reached $412 million in 2009 in the United States, a record number since such figures were first kept in 2003, according to research released by the Insurance Information Institute.

Dog-bite claims went up from $387.2 million in 2008.

The impact has been felt by homeowner's insurance companies. According to estimates from the Insurance Information Institute, dog bites represented more than one-third of all homeowner's liability claims paid in 2009.

Since 2003, dog-bite claims frequency is down 2 percent (to 16,586 in 2009).

--Compiled by staff from news and wire reports.

September 15, 2010

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