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• Foreigners take advantage of U.S. home prices, weak dollar
  Panden Rota, a Nepalese producer of fine rugs, is about to become a Manhattanite, the owner of a sumptuous apartment in the luxurious downtown neighborhood of Battery Park City. [ Submit your comments below. ] His primary residence will remain Katmandu, but his new home will allow him to spend more time at U.S. showrooms that display his rugs and with a brother and sister in New York. "I looked at many places and I decided that a Manhattan apartment will always hold its value," he said.
• Feds won't enforce rule on firing illegal immigrants
  Employers will get a pass this year on rules that would have required firing illegal immigrants. The Social Security Administration says it will not mail out "no-match" letters this year to more than 138,000 employers nationwide. The program was stymied because of a lawsuit by a coalition of labor, business and civil liberties groups.
• Last-minute shoppers bring relief to retailers
  Just weeks ago, the holiday shopping season seemed headed for disaster. But in the waning hours before Christmas, the nation's retailers got their wish — a last-minute surge of shopping that helped meet their modest sales goals, according to data released late Monday by research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp. And with post-Christmas shopping to come, some malls and stores were downright optimistic. While consumers jammed stores at the start of the season in search of discounts and hot items such as Nintendo Co.'s Wii game console, a challenging economy prompted them to hold out until the end for bigger discounts.
• Domino's Pizza longs for days of '30 minutes or free'
  Ann Arbor, Mich. — It's been 14 years since Domino's last promised to deliver a pizza to someone's door within 30 minutes, but that pledge is still stuck in many customers' heads. Now, the chain is trying to hearken back to that hardy ad campaign — this time without getting sued. Domino's made its name in pizza delivery by running ads that offered a discounted or free pie if the driver didn't arrive within 30 minutes of an order. But in 1993, a St. Louis woman who was involved in an auto accident with a Domino's delivery person sued the company on the grounds that the 30-minute pledge led to accidents. Domino's later settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum that the company says was in the seven-figure range, and, fearing a wave of similar lawsuits, abandoned the promise. Ever since then, the company has struggled to craft an equally distinctive marketing message. "I don't think there was a time in my nine years here ... where we didn't whine about how we wish we could just put the 30-minute guarantee back," says Domino's Pizza Inc.'s Chief Executive David Brandon. Delivery times also slowed without the guarantee to motivate workers.
• Financial advice for struggling women
  Many of the women who come to hear Vickie Elisa talk about money aren't who you'd expect to see at a financial planning workshop. The audience at one of her free, day-long sessions on budgeting, debt reduction and retirement investing might include former or current prostitutes, drug users and victims of domestic abuse. "It's different than [personal finance expert] Suze Orman. She's not talking to crack addicts," Elisa observes dryly, adding, "not that that's my whole audience."
• 9/11 airport security pariah tries a comeback
  He was the perfect villain. That's the way Frank A. Argenbright Jr. — starched, coiffed and rich – saw it then, and it's the way he sees it now. Firefighters were digging through the rubble of Ground Zero and a terrorized nation was demanding an accounting when the focus turned to Argenbright Security, the gigantic airport company the Atlanta businessman founded. Six years ago, Argenbright was a pariah. Two of the four hijacking teams passed through screening stations manned by Argenbright Security. U.S. Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft later called a press conference to condemn the company for "an astonishing pattern of crimes that could have directly jeopardized public safety."
• Debt crisis spreads to plastic
  Americans are falling behind on their credit card payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting warnings of worse to come. [ Post your comments below. ] An Associated Press analysis of financial data from the country's largest card issuers also found that the greatest rise was among accounts more than 90 days in arrears.
• Sandy Springs weighs midrise project
  Sandy Springs is considering a mixed-use redevelopment proposal for the Lakeside office park at 5775 and 5795 Glenridge Drive, just north of I-285. Greenstone Properties wants to raze two of the five existing five-story office buildings, replacing them with a pair of 16-story buildings. The five buildings would have 1 million square feet of office space. In addition, Greenstone wants to build 300 apartments, 50,000 square feet of retail and an eight-story hotel with 200 rooms. Several zoning variances will be required.
• Developer plans 2 projects on eastside
  Two mixed-use projects are planned for Atlanta's near east side: one in Grant Park and another on Memorial Drive in Reynoldstown. Both are from Atlanta development company Franco DeFoor Properties. The Reynoldstown project — to be called Memorial Station for its proximity to the Beltline — is in the early stages of development, but it is likely to include 30,000 to 60,000 square feet of retail fronting Memorial, topped by 250 to 300 apartments, said Stephen Franco, a principal in the firm. The 5.3-acre site includes a former auto parts warehouse and a smaller adjacent parcel. The company recently purchased the property for about $8 million, Franco said. It joins a wave of development on Memorial, an industrial corridor that's rapidly becoming a residential and retail hot bed.
• Debt crisis spreads to credit cards
  Americans are falling behind on their credit card payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting warnings of worse to come. An Associated Press analysis of financial data from the country's largest card issuers also found that the greatest rise was among accounts more than 90 days in arrears. Experts say these signs of the deterioration of finances of many households are partly a byproduct of the subprime mortgage crisis and could spell more trouble ahead for an already sputtering economy.