Cheap Auto Insurance

1. Shop around. Policy prices differ drastically between companies, and just because the company you use had the best price once doesn’t mean their price will stay the least expensive. Once a year check with other agents to get a quote using the same deductibles and coverage you currently have. Netquote is an online service that will email you quotes and takes little time.

2. Raise Your Deductible. One of the keys to getting a cheap insurance quote is the willingness to pay out more if you do have an accident. A higher deductible means you’ll pay much less in premiums.

3. Consider dropping collision coverage for a car over 5 years old. If the value of your car is lower, you may be better off saving that money towards a replacement vehicle.

big east tournament bracket

It’s Round one of the 2010 Big East tournament and several non-bubble and bubble teams are looking to punch their ticket to this year’s NCAA Big Dance. Unfortunately for DePaul and UCONN it seems their only possible dancing will be in the NIT tournament rather than the NCAA version. Meanwhile, in the Big East tournament bracket, University of Southern Florida, Seton Hall and St. John’s have all moved on to the next round.

South Florida kept its hopes alive for an NCAA bid by defeating DePaul in the opening game of the tournament. They won by a count of 58-49 over DePaul behind 20 points from Dominique Jones. Tomorrow USF will take on the #8 seed Georgetown Hoyas, one of several Big East teams who were ranked among the Top 25 in college basketball in the AP poll.

Obama Fishing Ban

Here’s a new one that’s getting everyone on the Internet worked up: an ESPN blog today claimed that the Obama administration is very close to an initiative that could “prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.”

Of course, this is a bunch of baloney, and a key tip-off phrase here should be the quote ” Big Green anti-use organizations.” Big Green, like Big Banks? Doubtful that the whole Green movement is on par with the other entities talking heads assign the “Big” label to.

layla grace

Layla Grace, the two year old little girl, who captured the hearts of tens of thousands of Twitter users has passed away. The toddler, known as @LaylaGrace, died this morning after battling stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma. Not surprisingly, her parents, who’ve tracked her progress and shared her courageous fight against cancer, on the social networking site, shared the sad news with fans. “Layla went to play with the angels early this morning. Rest in peace precious Layla. 11/26/2007 – 3/9/2010.”

cisco

(NASDAQ:CSCO) hyped today’s Cisco Announcement to be something that “will change the internet forever”. Shareholders were expecting a big news but the actual Cisco Announcement of a new router called CRS-3 Carrier Routing System which has 12 times the traffic capacity of the nearest competing system and it will improve the video streaming speed.Looking at the demand for high end streaming websites, Cisco’s product might do well however definately shareholders are not impressed much with the overall announcement.

U.S. Health Care

March 9 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama and his top health official are stepping up attacks on the nation’s insurers in an effort to sway public opinion and persuade lawmakers to back U.S. health-care legislation.

Obama told an audience outside Philadelphia yesterday that insurers have calculated that higher premiums can more than make up for the loss of customers who can’t afford coverage. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius highlighted her call to insurers to post information justifying their rates.

Toyota Prius

Toyota’s right about one thing: It doesn’t have a ghost problem.
Its sudden-acceleration challenges are real and growing, despite the company’s best efforts to contain them.

The latest incident came at the worst possible time for Toyota. Just hours after it put up a spirited defense of its electronic system, which some have blamed for sudden acceleration, James Sikes in San Diego County called 911 to say the accelerator of his Toyota Priuswas stuck and that he couldn’t slow down.

A California Highway Patrol officer caught up to him 20 minutes later (Mr. Sikes was driving on a rural interstate highway) and clocked him going over 90 miles an hour despite his efforts to brake.

hp-slate

Apple won’t have the tablet computer market to itself for long as Hewlett-Packard and others plan Windows 7-based slates. Hewlett-Packard doesn’t want Apple to have all the fun when it comes to tablet-style computing devices.

HP said Tuesday it’s readying a Windows 7-powered slate PC that it claims will offer a more complete computing experience than Apple’s iPad.

“With this slate product, you’re getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand,” said Phil McKinney, HP’s VP and chief technical officer for its Personal Systems Group, in a blog post. “No watered down Internet, no sacrifices,” wrote McKinney.

Commerzbank

March 9 (Bloomberg) — German stocks declined as Deutsche Post AG reported results that missed estimates and analysts recommended selling Commerzbank AG shares.

Deutsche Post and Commerzbank fell more than 1 percent. Henkel AG declined as Equinet AG cut its recommendation on the shares. Aareal Bank AG dropped the most in a month in Frankfurt trading on speculation the German commercial-property lender is planning to raise capital as it seeks to repay government aid.

EADS

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Shares of EADS fell more than 5% on Tuesday, retreating as the European aerospace and defense giant said it lost more 1 billion euros in the fourth quarter because of a hefty charge on its A400M military-transport program.

The company, the parent of aircraft maker Airbus, also said it will drop pursuit of a $35 billion deal to supply refueling planes for the U.S. Air Force.

EADS /quotes/comstock/24s!e:ead (FR:EAD 15.14, -0.74, -4.66%) reported a net loss of 1.05 billion euros ($1.44 billion) in the three months to Dec. 31 after booking additional charges of roughly 1.6 billion euros on the A400M and 240 million euros on the A380 superjumbo program.