Murder in the Nursing Home
October 28, 2009
Budget woes prompt placement of sometimes-violent mentally ill in long-term care.

‘Walkaways’ Can Hurt Homeowners
October 1, 2009
Facing foreclosure, Archie Stewart abandoned her Cleveland home of 25 years nearly two years ago feeling ashamed and defeated.

Bank Refuses to Cash Check for Man Without Arms
September 23, 2009
When Steve Valdez went to a Bank of America branch recently to cash a check, it seemed like a simple enough transaction.

Church Bells Take Their Toll
September 1, 2009
One man’s joyful noise is another’s aural pollution. Ask Bishop Rick Painter of the Cathedral of Christ the King in Phoenix.

Housing Authority Wants to Ban Clotheslines
August 26, 2009
Residents in Greenwich, Conn., and a New Hampshire environmental group criticize new policy.

Widow Caught in Legal Quandary Over Workers’ Comp Claim
July 29, 2009
For the better part of three years, Virginia widow Claire Pierce, 60, has done battle with an infuriating legal Catch-22 linked to an unfortunate on-the-job incident involving her husband.

A Runaround for Magazine Refunds
July 15, 2009
When Michael Grantham cleaned out his late father’s home earlier this year, magazines were everywhere. And little did he know that they’d keep piling up.

No Credit, No Rental Car
June 24, 2009
Hertz turns away customer willing to pay with cash because credit score was too low.

Waaay Too Many ER Visits
June 1, 2009
Think your local emergency room is crowded? Here’s a startling look at why that might be.

Nurse Gets Pink Slip During Patient Procedure
May 27, 2009
As companies try to reduce costs during the economic slump, many have resorted to layoffs. But for one Wisconsin health care provider, cutting staff has been a particularly messy affair.

Cigarette Savings Go Up in Smoke
May 1, 2009
Frances Dalton was just looking for a good deal when she purchased cigarettes from a business on an American Indian reservation in New York last fall.

A Bra’s Unfulfilled Promise
April 29, 2009
It sounded too good to be true: a bra that boosted breast health. That, at least, was the claim for the Bràssage.

Jobless Benefits Can Cost You
April 1, 2009
In a steadily shrinking economy, unemployment benefits are critical for workers receiving pink slips. But some banks view such benefits as another potential revenue stream.

Delphi Axes Benefits for Salaried Retirees
March 25, 2009
Court rules company has right to stop health, life insurance benefits in move to emerge from bankruptcy.

Banking on Bonuses and Greed
March 2, 2009
What were bankers and Wall Street CEOs thinking? While $2.8 trillion in retirement savings vanished and $400 billion in taxpayer-financed loans were rushed to bail out troubled banks, financial executives gave themselves some $18.4 billion in bonuses.

My Kingdom for a Cookie?
Feb. 11, 2009
When a Louisiana librarian spent more than an hour helping an older patron with the computer one day, the woman wanted do something kind in return.

The $1.5 Million Morale Booster
Jan. 27, 2009
Some people could use a lift to their spirits every now and then. But is such a pick-me-up worth $1.5 million? Apparently the U.S. Food and Drug Administration thinks so.

Fighting for Combat Benefits
Jan. 6, 2009
James Dixon was on his third tour of duty in Iraq in September 2006 when the vehicle he was riding in hit an explosive device.

Scamming the VA
Dec. 24, 2009
Dean Toth, 37, has normal hearing levels, according to four different government-administered tests. Yet somehow the former Marine pilot qualified for 100 percent disability from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs because of hearing loss.

Shortchanged on Short Notice
Dec. 1, 2008
Brenda Hanson was staring at $1,700 in unpaid hospital bills for treatment for a rare form of uterine cancer when she got another blow.

A Nurse's Good Deed Goes Bad
Nov. 26, 2008
It was past quitting time when nurse Joyce Diasparra left work one evening in late October. She hadn’t driven far when she noticed one of her patients from the Erie County Home in Alden, N.Y., wandering in the dark.

Living on a Time Bomb
Nov. 1, 2008
When Renee Hale, 50, moved to her new home in southeast Orlando, Fla., in 2002, she never expected to worry about bombs in the neighborhood. But six years later, bombs and munitions are common conversation topics.

Swiping Pills From the Elderly
Oct. 15, 2008
At the Pleasant Valley Retirement Home, the facility’s manager was replacing some residents’ pills with over-the-counter medications such as aspirin in an effort to feed his own prescription drug habit, the local sheriff alleges.

Assisted Living Residents Get the Boot
Oct. 1, 2008
When Doris Engdahl, 86, moved to a Fremont, Neb., assisted living facility in 2003, she expected to be there for the rest of her life. But four years later, Engdahl’s daughter, Gloria Turner, was told that her mother needed to leave within two months.

Widow Loses Out on Spouse's Insurance
Sept. 17, 2008
More than a year after Tom Amschwand’s 2001 death from cancer, his widow, Melissa Amschwand Bellinger, had not received a cent from her husband’s policy. And no one would tell her why.

Money Matters in Gulfport
Sept. 2, 2008
Louis Finkle is among about 9,000 Mississippians still living in trailers, hotels or cottages three years after Katrina.

Drugs—and Dollars—Down the Drain
Aug. 13, 2008
Every week two nurses, a pharmacist, a security officer and a housekeeper gather at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale in New York. For three hours they stand around to toss perfectly good pills down the toilet.

Trouble Brews Over Bottle Caps
July 1, 2008
The Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau ordered microbrewery owner Vaune Dillman to cease using his six-year-old company’s bottle cap slogan. The catchphrase: Try Legal Weed.

The Great Pill-Switching Scheme
July 23, 2008
Tablets or capsules? The distinction between the two can be worth a bundle in profit for some pharmacies that switch from one form to the other when filling a prescription. And it’s the taxpayers who foot the bill for the difference in cost.

Sounding the Alarm
June 2008
Mamie Johnson was told by Alarm Company LLC that her old service was out and she needed a new system. But when Johnson called her original security provider a few days later, she found she had been scammed.

Watchdog for Elderly Gets the Ax
June 25, 2008
James Locke knows that a lot of kids can’t wait to get their hands on their parents’ money, and that worries him a lot. Unfortunately, Locke’s concern may have cost him his job.

Wal-Mart’s Give-and-Take Health Plan
May 2008
Wal-Mart’s health plan disbursed $470,000 in medical expenses for Debbie Shank, 52, of Jackson, Mo., after a car crash eight years ago. However, when Shank and her husband, James, won a $1 million settlement from a trucking firm involved in the accident, Wal-Mart went after the money.

Age No Benefit for Employee Health Coverage
May 2008
Theresa Helton, 51, was shocked to learn that many of her coworkers paid nothing for their health benefit despite holding the same position as she did. The reason: age.

FEMA Puts Freeze on Ice
April 2008
Should you find yourself in the aftermath of a disaster, luxury is exactly what FEMA will consider ice to be. “We’re not in the ice business anymore,” FEMA director R. David Paulison told U.S. senators recently.

Drug Copays Prompt Sticker Shock
April 2008
Rose Garcia’s doctor prescribed six drugs to coincide with her chemotherapy treatment. But when her husband went to pick up the medications, he faced sticker shock. The price for one month’s supply: $1,500.

A Mistake of Criminal Proportions
April 9, 2008
"We are writing to tell you that we plan to stop your Social Security benefits,” began a three-page letter from the Social Security Administration to 75-year-old Dorothy Mayo in October 2006. Mayo didn’t know it then, but she was considered a “fugitive felon” by the SSA.

FEMA Trailers Pose Health Risks
April 2008
The CDC has confirmed that many of FEMA’s nearly 36,000 manufactured homes nationwide have high levels of formaldehyde, a preservative that can pose health risks from high-level or prolonged exposure to it.

Vet Shortchanged After Wrongful Imprisonment
March 2008
For most of his 83 years, Samuel Snow silently endured the pain of having been betrayed by military justice. When vindication finally came 63 years after the fact, it was accompanied by a $725 check that merely added insult to injury.

Abusers Slip Through the Cracks
December 2007
Jennifer Coldren's 90-year-old grandmother, who suffers from dementia, was assaulted and raped by an employee at her residential care facility in 2006. The 45-year-old attacker had a criminal record and previous allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct.

Diagnosis Medicare Fraud
November 2007
Peter Hillenbrand, 86, underwent more than 15 surgeries to remove skin cancer. But Hillenbrand may never have had skin cancer. He was a patient of Sarasota dermatologist Michael Rosin, who is serving 22 years in federal prison for Medicare fraud. Rosin was convicted in 2006 after billing more than $3 million for unnecessary surgeries on at least 70 elderly patients.

No Splendor in the Grass
November 2007
When a police officer came to Betty Perry's door this past July, the 70-year-old Orem, Utah, resident says, she didn't have a clue why. As it turned out, the problem lay right before Perry's eyes: her brown lawn.

Misbehavior Leads to Eviction Battle
Oct. 1, 2007
When Mary Vaughan, 73, moved into Almon Place, a retirement community in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she thought it would be a nice place to spend the rest of her life.

No Escaping the Wrecking Ball
October 2007
Gwen Adams pays the mortgage on her Katrina-damaged New Orleans home—even though it no longer exists. The city had it torn down last year, she says, without any notice.

At the Mercy of the Court
Sept. 5, 2007
Lilly Ledbetter long knew something was up at the Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden, Ala., where she was a supervisor. Her male colleagues bragged about huge paychecks while she was just getting by.

Fill Up With Caution
September 2007
Shelah Cole didn’t think twice before gassing up her car at Costco—until the next day when she called her bank for her checking account balance. She found that not only had Costco debited the $46 for gasoline, it had put a hold on her account for an additional $100.

The IRS Phone Runaround
July 2007
Identity thieves are everywhere, so if a mysterious caller asked for your name, Social Security number and address, red flags would go up. But here's a new twist: That caller might be a contractor for the Internal Revenue Service.

From Judge to Ward of the Court
June 2007
John L. Phillips was once a respected and wealthy Brooklyn, N.Y., judge. But today, the retired jurist, 84, is in an assisted living facility and his $10 million estate is in disarray.