Car talk: What’s good to know – before you owe?

A century ago, the prevalence of public transportation enabled many Americans to take a bus or trolley car to work, school, shopping or health care providers. Today, many communities lack these public services and consumers instead rely on a personal vehicle to manage their day to day concerns. Beyond mobility, owning a car has become a gateway to economic opportunity.

Buying a car is more than finding a car you like. Finding the best financing for that car is just as important. How consumers shop for vehicles and financing was the focus of a late 2012 survey sponsored by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). Additional research on auto financing and sales is included in CRL's latest research report, The State of Lending in America and its Impact on U.S. Households, (http://www.responsiblelending.org/state-of-lending/).

Gut-busting restaurant meals named 'dis-honorees'

Shrimp pasta, steak and eggs, maybe a bacon cheddar double cheeseburger.

Sound good?

Those dishes, as prepared by restaurant chains, may look and taste good, but they're loaded with calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugar -- enough to earn them the dubious distinction of being named Xtreme Eating "dis-honorees" on this year's list from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, known as the CSPI.

Gun control support dips but still strong

WASHINGTON – There is strong support from Americans for many of the proposals to curb gun violence that President Barack Obama announced Wednesday (Jan.16), but according to a new national poll, public support has slipped a bit when compared to surveys taken immediately after last month's mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut.

A CNN/Time Magazine/ORC International poll also indicates that Americans generally favor stricter gun control and think that it is too easy to buy guns in this country, but they don't believe that stricter gun laws would reduce gun violence all by themselves.

Oprah’s Armstrong interview

It will take more than a television interview to reduce sanctions against Lance Armstrong, the World Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday as Oprah Winfrey spoke out about her interview with the disgraced cyclist.

"Only when Mr. Armstrong makes a full confession under oath – and tells the anti-doping authorities all he knows about doping activities – can any legal and proper process for him to seek any reopening or reconsideration of his lifetime ban commence,a agency Director General David Howman said.

Dick Gregory: Spike Lee is a punk and a thug

Legendary social activist, comedian and author, Dick Gregory, has weighed in on the controversial Quentin Tarantino film, "Django Unchained," and he did so in explosive fashion.

In an interview posted to YouTube, Gregory says that the movie spoke to him in ways that no film had in all his years on earth. He then calls out Director Spike Lee for criticizing a film that he's never seen, saying that if anyone has created movies that are disrespectful to our ancestors, it's Lee himself:

Breaking the school-to-prison pipeline

WASHINGTON – In schools today, black students get suspended at a rate that is more than triple the rate of their white classmates. As the uneven enforcement of zero tolerance policies disconnect minority students from their schools, juvenile detention centers and, in some cases, adult prisons welcome them with open arms.

Data collected by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education found that 70 percent of students arrested or handed over to law enforcement were black and Latino.

Powell: ‘I’m still a Republican’

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday he's still a member of the Republican Party, despite voting for President Barack Obama in the last two elections and being very critical of the GOP of late.

"I think the Republican Party right now is having an identity problem – and I'm still a Republican," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "But in recent years there's been a significant shift to the right, and we've seen what that shift has produced: two losing presidential campaigns."

Finding ‘Mr. Right’ harder than it looks

Finding Mr. Right is harder than it seems for professional women of color. What is the secret to finding true love?

"The Relationship Plan" – an interactive seminar created by entrepreneur Shannon O'Brien – shares the secret for women to find and nurture their true soul mate.

Twenty-three years ago, Newsweek magazine caused an uproar among single working women when it published a controversial article predicting that professional women over the age of 30 had a 3 in 100 chance of getting married.

Obama to swear-in on 3 historic bibles

What do the 16th president, a civil rights leader, and Michelle Obama's grandmother have in common? Their Bibles will be used in the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) made the announcement on Wednesday that Obama will take the oath of office on the Robinson family Bible on Sunday and on the Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. Bibles on Monday.

Finding and funding African Americans in science

In many ways, Raynard Kington – a prominent African-American medical professional and scientist – sees himself as incredibly privileged.

After attaining his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Michigan, Kington later completed his M.B.A at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and served in various capacities at the National Institutes of Health, including deputy director. Board certified in internal medicine, public health and preventive medicine, Kington has been president of Grinnell College in Iowa since 2010.

A ‘classic flu epidemic’

ATLANTA – The spread of the flu across the United States appears to have slowed in portions of five states in the South and Southeast, a federal official told CNN early Friday, even as a National Institutes of Health director warned of the onset of "a classic flu epidemic."

The news came hours before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was due to release its flu advisory report for December 30 to January 5, which according to the official with knowledge of the findings will also show the number of flu-related deaths for children climbed by two last week.

Atlanta pastor, Evers’ widow to speak at inauguration

The widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers and an Atlanta pastor will deliver the invocation and benediction at President Barack Obama's inauguration January 21, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Tuesday.

The committee said in a statement that the president was involved in selecting Myrlie Evers-Williams to deliver the invocation and the Rev. Louie Giglio, pastor of the Passion City Church, to deliver the benediction.