Blog Posts by Dory Devlin, Shine staff

Getty ImagesAmid the endless spewing of oil into the gulf and the drama over President Barack Obama's firing of General Stanley McChrystal over the general's overly chatty time with a Rolling Stone reporter, Congress passed financial overhaul legislation. With all of the confusing talk of derivatives and complex risk assessments surrounding it, it may seem far removed from our everyday lives. But the fact is, the legislation has several new rules designed to help and protect everyday consumers from signing up for bad loans and credit cards with moving-target interest rates and teeny-tiny print agreements that will cost you big bucks in the end.

Here's a look at a few of the changes on the way:

A new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be established to write consumer protection rules for banks and other financial institutions, including mortgage lenders. It will be housed in the Federal Reserve, but run independently. We will need to see just how much authority this bureau will truly have.

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AFP Photo: Oscar the cat is walking after successful, first-ever surgery to provide ITAP prosthetic limbs to a cat.It's true.

In first-ever operation, a U.K. cat that had both its back legs severed by a combine harvester was fitted with prosthetic paws. Two-year-old Oscar is walking again after veterinary surgeon Noel Fitzpatrick attached the custom-made implants, developed by a University of London team.

"The real revolution with Oscar is [that] we have put a piece of metal and a flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone," Fitzpatrick said, explaining the operation, which occurred in November.

Oscar's recovery will play out in a six-part BBC documentary series, "The Bionic Vet,'' set to air later this month. The surgery itself is groundbreaking, but the fact that Oscar is walking after overcoming infections is remarkable. In less than four months, he was able to stand and bear weight on all four limbs.

"Oscar can now run and jump about as cats should do," Fitzpatrick said.

Oscar's owners told Reuters they wanted their cat to regain a good quality of life after the operation,

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Reuters/Larry Downing: U.S. President Barack Obama announces that Gen. David Petraeus (R) will replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal as his top commander in Afghanistan.A day doesn't go by when we're not reminded somehow about how foolish it is to diss our bosses and complain about our jobs on Facebook and other social networks. So what could possibly lead a disciplined military leader to kvetch to a reporter writing a story for Rolling Stone magazine about the president of the United States and his administration?

In the hours leading up to President Barack Obama's not-surprising dismissal of General Stanley A. McChrystal of his command in Afghanistan, we learned that freelance journalist Michael Hastings met the general and his staff in Paris following the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption. He traveled by road with them to Berlin, where they chatted for a week at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel while waiting for the ash to clear, according to the New York Times Media Decoder blog. So maybe the military guys, so used to keeping the press at a controlled distance, forgot to go over a few ground rules, such as what's off the record and what isn't??

Whatever

Read More »from Don't do that! Forget social networks, don't diss your boss to a major magazine reporter

Could you imagine paying $75 million for a house? No? Well, how about $75 for an unfinished house?

This 90,000-square-foot home is for sale outside of Orlando, Florida--as is--the AP reports. It has 23 bathrooms, 13 bedrooms, 10 kitchens, and three pools. The owners and timeshare tycoon David Siegel calls his halted creation "Versailles," which is billed as the largest home for sale in the United States. Florida's housing market has been hit hard in the recession, even at the top end, clearly, if Siegel stopped construction on the mansion. Some other features, besides nearly two bathrooms for every bedroom, are a 20-car garage and...

• a bowling alley

• an indoor roller rink

• a movie theater

• a video arcade

• a fitness center

• a baseball field

• two tennis courts

After plunking down $75 million, you'd have to supply interior walls, carpet, and tile. Surely, there will be lots of other items needed, and some major landscaping, too. Oh, and the roller rink Read More »from Would you believe: $75 million for an unfinished house?

Getty Images: After graduation, seven in 10 graduates will live at home until they find a job, a CollegeGrad.com survey says.What do you get when you mix a tough job market, another class of college graduates, and an expensive cost of living? The inevitable return home of jobless and underemployed young adults who have grown accustomed to living outside their parents' domain.

A recent Pew Research survey found that almost one out of five grown children (aged 18-34) now lives with his or her parents. A survey of last year's college graduates revealed that 80 percent moved back home after graduating, up a good bit from 63 percent in 2006, the Baltimore Sun reports. The same CollegeGrad.com survey of 2,000 young adults also showed that seven in 10 graduates said they would live at home until they got a job.With the unemployment rate at 14.7 percent for people aged 20 to 24--double what it was in 2007--that could be awhile. Add in a record student-loan debt for undergraduates--$22,700, according to the College Board--and any credit card debt a student is carrying, and it could be even longer.

You can't argue

Read More »from How to make it work when college grads return home to live

AP Photo: Starbucks will begin offering free Wi-Fi on July 1.When I met a friend at a small coffee shop today, I pulled out my computer, confident there would be Wi-Fi. There was. That's because we've come to expect free Wi-Fi at places like Panera, McDonald's, and just about any coffee shop we walk into.

All but Starbucks, that is. After loosening its paid Wi-Fi policy to provide registered Starbucks card users with two hours of free Wi-Fi, Starbucks announced this week it will offer free, unlimited Wi-Fi at most of its U.S. locations beginning on July 1. The company clearly decided not offering free Wi-Fi is not a good thing to make it unique in the market.

It's good news, as Stephen Colbert said on his show, for people who can't afford Wi-Fi because they're spending $6 on a cup of coffee.

As part of the change, Starbucks will be be offering online content through its Wi-Fi portal, the Starbucks Digital Network. It's a partnership with Yahoo! (full disclosure) that will give Starbucks Web surfers access to some paid sites, such as the Wall

Read More »from Finally: Starbucks to offer free Wi-Fi

AP Photo: President Barack Obama addresses the nation on the Gulf oil spill from the Oval Office.It's funny (strange) what Washington journalists focus on sometimes: Who will get Helen Thomas' vacated front row seat in the White House press room. The fact that President Barack Obama chose to address the nation from the staid setting of his Oval Office desk (ooohhh!). As if any of this matters as 60,000 barrels of oil is spewing into the Gulf daily. Or that the United States' longest-running war wages on in Afghanistan.

When the president began speaking from the Oval Office Tuesday night, what mattered was what he said and if it allays any of the massive fears of the people of the Gulf Coast, many already reeling from loss of income and business due to the biggest environmental disaster in our country's history. But as BP officials come to the White House to talk to the president, critics on both the left and right are questioning whether his words and actions are enough.

Here are a few highlights:

• Obama said he will make BP pay for the damage the company has caused, and directed

Read More »from President Obama addresses the nation on the Gulf oil spill: How did he do?

Getty ImagesYou'd think most of us would know that run-of-the-mill flip flops, tank tops, and bathing suits should not be worn to the office, even on the hottest, most relaxed summer days. Did I just write bathing suits?! It would seem more than a few need a reminder about summer-wardrobe no-no's in the workplace because "bathing suits in any form" are number two on CareerBuilder.com's list of 10 taboos for summer office attire.

Even if you plan to head to the pool directly from the office, ditch any idea of hiding your suit beneath your work ensemble, Superman-style: "...sprucing up your bathing suit with a nice shirt, a belt, shorts or any other accessory will not fool anyone. If you're going straight to the pool after work, just change your clothes in the bathroom or a private office when the day is over," CareerBuilder.com's Anthony Balderrama wisely writes.

Ah, good advice. Seriously, workplace attire continues to be casual and relaxed in many office environments, so casual dressers can

Read More »from What not to wear to the office this summer