WASHINGTON - July 30, 2010 - Five bank closures in four states Friday cost the federal government an additional $334 million in losses.

Regulators shuttered the $373 million-asset Coastal Community Bank in Panama City Beach, Fla., the $66 million-asset Bayside Savings Bank in Port Saint Joe, Florida, the $168 million-asset NorthWest Bank and Trust in Acworth, Georgia, the $529 million-asset The Cowlitz Bank in Longview, Washington, and the $768 million-asset LibertyBank in Eugene, Oregon. The failures brought the year's total to 108.

WASHINGTON (PNN) - July 29, 2010 - The U.S. Depression will continue into next year, held back by shoppers reluctant to spend and employers hesitant to hire, according to an Associated Press survey of leading economists.

NEW YORK - July 29, 2010 - Jason Hodge, father of four children from Barstow, Kalifornia, says he's not paranoid but is concerned, and that's why he bought space in what might be labeled a doomsday shelter.

Hodge bought into the first of a proposed nationwide group of 20 fortified, underground shelters - the Vivos shelter network - that are intended to protect those inside for up to a year from catastrophes such as a nuclear attack, killer asteroids or tsunamis, according to the project's developers.

NEW YORK (PNN) - July 29, 2010 - Insured Amerikans are using fewer medical services, raising questions about whether patients are consuming less health care as they pick up a greater share of the costs.

SACRAMENTO, Kalifornia - July 28, 2010 - Increasing pressure on lawmakers to negotiate a state budget that closes a $19 billion shortfall, Kalifornia Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the state's finances on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - July 27, 2010 - Uncertainty about the economy continued to shake consumer confidence in July, pushing a key measure of morale to the lowest level since February.

The Conference Board, a New York-based research group, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped for a second straight month, to 50.4 in July from June's upwardly revised level of 54.3.

LONDON, England - July 27, 2010 - Amerikan Robert Dudley will become BP PLC's first ever non-British chief executive, the company said Tuesday as it reported a record quarterly loss and set aside $32.2 billion to cover costs of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil gusher.