As the busiest week for malicious damage approaches, AXA is warning households that having home insurance in place could mean the difference between a trick or a treat costing them dearly.

Prospects for a Senate deal to extend the homebuyer tax credit remain good. But details still need to be worked out, and worries about its cost and effectiveness are weighing on some lawmakers’ minds.

WASHINGTON — Businesses would not be required to provide health insurance under legislation being readied for Senate debate, but large firms would owe significant penalties if any worker needed government subsidies to buy coverage on their own, according to Democratic officials familiar with talks on the bill.

The Associated Press released an analysis today, October 25, entitled “FACT CHECK: Health insurer profits not so fat,” that exposed another myth associated with the long struggle to reform the health care mess in America.

WASHINGTON — Businesses would not be required to provide health insurance under legislation being readied for Senate debate, but large firms would owe significant penalties if any worker needed government subsidies to buy coverage on their own, according to Democratic officials familiar with talks on the bill.

WASHINGTON — Democratic officials say businesses would not be required to provide health insurance under legislation being readied for debate in the Senate.

A statewide effort to crack down on auto insurance fraud will provide San Francisco with more funds than expected to employ investigators and trial attorneys to help The City prosecute fraudsters.

WASHINGTON — Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They’re all more profitable than the health insurance industry. In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making “immoral” and “obscene” returns while “the bodies pile up.”

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- House Democratic leaders are pushing closer to embracing the more robust public health insurance option favored by liberal Democrats, as they sought Wednesday to gauge whether such a plan can win support from a majority of House lawmakers.

THE ISSUE: How many people have health insurance now, and how would that change if the system is overhauled?