Leading economists say the federal stimulus package contained too much pork and not enough money to increase consumer spending and commercial lending. Temple professor Bill Dunkelberg said the money should have gone to tax cuts that would have put more money into peoples’ pockets. “We still have all these road and bridge projects that were shovel-ready, but we knew that was a farce,” Dunkelberg said. “Most business owners say the reason they won’t hire is because of sales. Sales are down because people aren’t spending.”

February 22, 2010 | FOX29
(There is no link to this report.)

There are new developments in the case of alleged spying in Lower Merion School District. The district denies it engaged in general spying or that it used a web cam photo to discipline a student, but freely admits, and says it regrets, not warning students or their parents that district issued laptops could be used essentially as undercover cameras. Temple University Law Professor David Post, who specializes in internet issues, calls the district's failure to notify a colossal mistake. But, Post says, the early and public admission was a good strategy by the district. "It will come out anyway. It is not like when it comes to trial we could somehow make it magically go away,” he said.

February 22, 2010 | Associated Press

Claims by Toyota in internal documents that it saved money by obtaining a limited recall from regulators in 2007 create an even bigger challenge for the automaker's president when he testifies before U.S. lawmakers this week over quality and safety lapses. "This is any executive's worst nightmare, a damning document comes out and exposes your company as having basically gone slow and tried to delay addressing significant safety problems with their product," said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University Japan.

February 22, 2010 | Bucks County Courier Times

State or national insurance exchanges, where insurers sell individual policies in a standardized system, are one aspect of national health reform proposals that could address disparities in the individual health insurance market, health policy experts say. The exchange concept is one way to make individual insurance more affordable since it essentially turns the individual market into a quasi-group one, said Tom Getzen, a professor at Temple University's Fox School of Business.