An uneasy economy, and those living through it

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Here was Chas Kaufmann's life before the Great Recession: $28,000 in restaurant tabs in a year, cruises, house parties with fireworks. His Mr. Gutter business was booming in the Pennsylvania Poconos.

Now: "We mainly shop at Sam's Club and portion out our meals. We spend $4 to $5 a night on eating." He and his wife use space heaters in their elegant house and leave parts of it cold. The Hummer is gone, and he drives a 2005 pickup. On Nov. 6, Kaufman is voting for Mitt Romney.

Lower down the ladder, the recession put Simone Ludlow's life in a full circle. Laid off by an Atlanta hotel company in 2009, Ludlow, 32, bounced from job to job for two years, got by with a "very generous mother," still makes do by renting a room in a house owned by friends, and is back working for the company that had let her go. She's voting for President Barack Obama.

For four years, the bumpy economy cut an uneasy path. It raked small towns and big cities, knocked liberals and conservatives on their backs, plagued Republicans and Democrats alike.

It was the worst economic setback since the Depression, and it didn't take sides.

___

Across the country, Associated Press reporters asked people to talk about their livelihoods before and after the December 2007-June 2009 recession and how those experiences have shaped their politics in the presidential election just days away. Their answers help illuminate why the race is so close. In this time of great polarization, their stories bridge the partisan divide, showing that resilience and optimism are shared traits, too, and that no one seems to think either candidate can work miracles.

"Our potential doesn't rely on an election and one man or even a ballot," said Ben McCoy, 35, of Wilmington, N.C., creative director for 101 Mobility, a company that sells, installs and services handicapped access equipment. "I don't think either candidate for president has the conviction to go as far as we need to go to really get back to stability."

Economic well-being, for him, will come from personal decisions by his wife and himself, not Washington. "We will roll up our sleeves and cut the family budget down to the core if we have to, where we know we're going to eat and we know the lights are going to stay on, and that's it. We'll do it. We won't laugh and dance about it, but we'll do it."

In the Charlotte area, the recession played a cruel trick on Obama supporter Tamala Harris, wrecking the Charlotte housing market just after she quit a job to go into selling real estate. It drove Romney supporter Ray Arvin out of business selling industrial equipment from North Carolina and cleaned out his retirement savings with not that many years left to start from scratch. Both have more hope than you might think.

Harris, 38, is back in Charlotte after getting her master's in business from the University of Rochester in New York. During the worst of the calamity, she used loans and scholarships to advance her education, and looks back on it all as a time that made her dig deep.

"It made me realize what was important," she said. "It's just not the material things and having things to improve your status. I know that people are in such a rush to have things. They feel that is a validation — 'Oh I have this, I have that.' I was one of them. So, for me, I found it was a time to reflect on your character — and rebuild again. It was a wonderful time to realize when you don't have certain things — money is not coming, or houses are not selling — who's really in your corner. "

Arvin, 47, is starting over, too.

In 2001, he and his wife bought a small company that sold equipment to power utilities and the aviation industry. Business hummed until 2007, when five big customers filed for bankruptcy and the couple raided their retirement and savings accounts to keep the enterprise afloat. It sank in 2009. Now he travels five states in a 2005 Suburban as sales representative for a business supplying equipment to electric and gas companies, bringing home $50,000 to $60,000 after taxes and travel expenses.

"Am I doing better? Yes. But I've lost so much. I'm starting new. I'm confident in my ability to work hard and do well with what I do."

___

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The Ticker

Johnson ditches A123

Auto parts maker Johnson Controls is stepping away from its position as the debtor-in-possession lender during the bankruptcy process for battery maker A123 Systems in order to prevent delays.

The company is avoiding a premature legal tussle with Chinese auto parts maker Wanxiang Group Corp., which is challenging Johnson Controls' role as the primary bidder for A123.

A123 Systems Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month and Johnson Controls Inc. agreed to buy its automotive assets. Johnson said Friday that its $125 million offer stands, and it now plans to expand the offer to include the company's government business, which involves military contracts.

MONDAY

L The American Society for Radiation Oncology holds its annual meeting at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

L The U.S. Commerce Department releases personal income and spending for September.

L Cognex, Haemonetics, Harvard Bioscience and Northeast Utilities report quarterly financial results.

TUESDAY

L Mayor Thomas M. Menino and developer Urbanica break ground on Boston's first "E+ green" building at 226 Highland St. in Roxbury.

L Standard & Poor's releases the S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices for August.

L Cabot Corp., Ford and Pfizer report quarterly earnings.

L The U.S. Conference Board releases the Consumer Confidence Index for October.

WEDNESDAY

L Campbell Edlund, president of EMI Strategic Marketing, speaks at a "Best Practices" seminar hosted by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

L Abiomed, General Motors, Hanover Insurance and Iron Mountain report quarterly financial results.

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Shelburne Falls nurse practitioner helps promote homeopathy in Haiti

SHELBURNE FALLS — The first time nurse practitioner/homeopath Lauren Fox of West County Physicians went to Haiti was six months after the catastrophic earthquake hit Port-Au-Prince, a city of about 6 million people.

"People were in emotional and mental shock," she said. "They needed physical help. People were still walking around in a total daze. Some had lost their homes or their family. Some didn't even know where they are."

"It has evolved since then," Fox said.

Fox has been to Haiti three times since the 2010 earthquake, as a volunteer with Homeopaths Without Borders (HWB), a group that offers both homeopathic treatment and training in the use of homeopathic medicine.

Fox spent a week in early September both treating patients and helping train the first group of 15 students who are to graduate from HWB's "Fundamentals Program," a curriculum in homeopathic therapeutics. According to Fox, the students include nurses, medical students, pharmacists and a couple of community workers. She said the students spent 90 hours in a classroom and under supervision in a clinic setting.

"We're going to move this teaching project to another part of the island, in the mountains where there is no medical practice whatsoever," she said. "The whole project is to get them to be teaching and to do clinics and run study groups."

A nurse practitioner for 40 years, Fox was also a home-births midwife for about 20 years. She has been a practitioner of homeopathy, an alternative medical treatment, for 30 years.

"It's a systematic form of medicine that uses minute doses of natural substances that encourage the body to heal itself," says Fox. "It's safe and effective for all ages. It also can be used to stimulate the immune system, she said. "It's easily learned."

On her website, Fox explains: "The more individualized this medicine is, the more likely the person will respond with a lasting healing response. ... Guided by sound medical knowledge, the remedies can be utilized together with conventional treatments and drugs."

Although Fox is busy with her practice in Shelburne Falls and in Florence, she says she treated about 100 people in Haiti over four days in September, at a temporary clinic she and others set up in a remote, hilltop church.

"Before the earthquake, there were 300 hospitals and clinics in Port-au-Prince," she said. "Now there are about 100. Not to mention all the people outside of the city that have no access to health care."

When Homeopaths Without Borders sets up temporary clinics, people learn about the clinics through word-of-mouth.

"The last time, we were in a school with a big courtyard," she said. "There's no advertising, but the word got out to the neighborhood and they all came. They waited out in the hot sun for hours just to see us."

In these makeshift clinics, a dispensary is set up, and the available homeopaths, like Fox, have about 15 minutes per patient. With the shortage of medical providers in Haiti, those seeking help even include gravely ill people, with malaria or with the AIDS virus.

"Their main complaints are headache, muscular/skeletal problems, eye problems, digestion, reflux," she said. "They are chronically malnourished," she said. "Many have severe anemia."

Fox said that HWB organization has several obstacles to overcome in Haiti. One of them is to find a pharmacy to partner with, so that homeopathic remedies can be shipped to Haiti. Fox said the group has to bring their supplies whenever they go to Haiti.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Insurers nervous over prospect of Mitt Romney victory

WASHINGTON — You'd think health insurance CEOs would be chilling the bubbly with Republican Mitt Romney's improved election prospects, but instead they're in a quandary.

Although the industry hates parts of President Barack Obama's health care law, major outfits such as UnitedHealth Group and BlueCross Blue Shield also stand to rake in billions of dollars from new customers who'll get health insurance under the law. The companies already have invested tens of millions to carry it out.

Were Romney elected, insurers would be in for months of uncertainty as his administration gets used to Washington and tries to make good on his promise repeal Obama's law. Simultaneously, federal and state bureaucrats and the health care industry would face a rush of legal deadlines for putting into place the major pieces of what Republicans deride as "Obamacare."

Would they follow the law on the books or the one in the works? What would federal courts tell them to do?

The answers probably would hinge on an always unwieldy Congress.

Things could get grim for the industry if Republicans succeed in repealing the Affordable Care Act's subsidies and mandates, but leave standing its requirement that insurers cover people with health problems. If that's the outcome, the industry fears people literally could get health insurance on the way to the emergency room, and that would drive up premiums.

"There are a lot of dollars and a lot of staff time that's been put into place to make this thing operational," G. William Hoagland, until recently a Cigna vice president, said of the health care law.

Insurers "are not going to be out there saying, 'Repeal, repeal, repeal,'" added Hoagland, who oversaw public policy at the health insurance company. "They will probably try to find the particular provisions that cause them heartburn, but not throw the baby out with the bath water."

The Romney campaign isn't laying out specifics on how the candidate would carry out his repeal promise, other than to say the push would begin on his first day in office. Romney has hinted that he wants to help people with medical conditions, doesn't say what parts of the health care law he'd keep.

Likewise, America's Health Insurance Plans, the major industry trade group, isn't talking about what its members are telling the Romney campaign, though informal discussions are under way through intermediaries. Insurers like Romney's plan to privatize Medicare, and some point out that it looks a lot like Obama's approach to covering the uninsured.

Robert Laszewski, an industry consultant and blogger, says the tension is becoming unbearable.

"I spend a lot of time in executive offices and board rooms, and they are good Republicans who would like to see Romney win," said Laszewski. "But they are scared to death about what he's going to do."

There is no consensus among Republicans in Congress on how to replace Obama's law, much less anything like a bipartisan middle ground on health care, a necessity if the House retains its GOP majority and the Senate remains in Democratic hands.

In contrast, Obama's law is starting to look more and more like a tangible business opportunity. In a little over a year, some 30 million uninsured people will start getting coverage through a mix of subsidized private insurance for middle-class households and expanded Medicaid for low-income people. Many of the new Medicaid recipients would get signed up in commercial managed care companies.

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study estimated the new markets would be worth $50 billion to $60 billion in premiums in 2014, and as much as $230 billion annually within seven years.

Under the law, insurance companies would have to accept all applicants, including the sick. But the companies also would have a steady stream of younger, healthier customers required to buy their products, with the aid of new government subsidies. That finally could bring stability to the individual and small-business insurance markets.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Beware of app-aritions this Halloween!

Trick-or-treating has gone digital.

No more going door-to-door without a plan. These days, you've got to maximize your treat-collection efficiency by plotting a route with a mobile app. For 99 cents, the Trick or Treating app, available at the iTunes app store, allows you to save your favorite candy collection hotspots, and plot your route for the night of Halloween.

Android users can keep tabs on their children's whereabouts with Trick or Tracker. At $4.99, this is one of the higher priced apps, but it allows parents to know exactly where their child is on a map during Halloween — and year-round. Both the child and parent must install the app for it to work. The price includes the "Latch Key" app, which tells you when your child has arrived at home and at school.

What's more, Trick or Tracker includes geofencing, which allows parents to draw a virtual fence and receive alerts when their child enters or leaves the perimeter. It's a feature also offered by Snap Secure ($57.99 for five phones, Android), which is a comprehensive security suite that has a personal panic button and allows you to see every place your child's been.

Planning a Halloween party? Halloween Planner (99 cents, Android) will ensure you don't freak out, with hundreds of tips on how to create that ghoulish vibe. All the songs anyone could want to set a haunting mood are just 99 cents with Halloween Party Pack (Android).

SpookyPic, which has a free and 99-cent version, and iMut8r put the monster in your mash of photos. SpookyPic overlays creepy shadows and broken glass on your photos, and iMut8r, which costs 99 cents, will turn your images into something out of a "Thriller" video. Both are available for Apple devices.

This Halloween, you can play an even "scarier" version of Angry Birds. Angry Birds Haunted Hogs is out. If the idea of slaying Frankenstein swine appeals to you, so will this game. But it might be more fun to battle against the inevitable zombie apocalypse with Plants vs. Zombies, which is available for Apple, Android and Kindle devices starting at $2.99.

Thanks to real estate website Zillow's Trick or Treat Index, we know that Boston is the second best city in the nation for the annual rite, just behind San Francisco. With that in mind, go forth and trick-or-treat. Just don't forget your smartphone.

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Obama's head of the class

The sluggish economic recovery has the Hub's collegiate upperclassmen wracked with worry over their job prospects come graduation day, yet many say President Obama remains the right leader to fix the nation's ills.

"Obama has already pushed down the unemployment level. Romney just seems entirely out of touch with the whole situation in that he approaches everything as if it were a business plan," said Boston University senior Colin White, 21, of New Jersey. "He always talks about how he's a self-made man, but he's had his opportunities."

White, a double major in anthropology and film and television, said he has some job prospects, "but at this point they are kind of tenuous."

"I wish I had done engineering to begin with, because jobs in engineering are much better to come by," he said. "Anthropology and film and television, while interesting industries ... are looked down upon in a lot of regards."

The Herald interviewed upperclassmen at seven local colleges and universities this week. When asked whom they would vote for on Election Day, more than two-thirds pledged their support for Obama.

Amira Downes, 22, a Boston University senior from Harwich majoring in sociology, said Obama needs more time to repair economic damage left in the wake of George W. Bush's two terms as president, yet added she was "scared" about finding a job in her field.

"I'm sort of relying on my father to help me out," she said. "I think in the future I do wish I took something that could help me gain more skill instead of just having general knowledge."

Last month, the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds with a bachelor's degree or higher and not enrolled in school was 6.3 percent, compared to 8.1 percent and 9.1 percent for the same period in 2011 and 2010, respectively, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While new jobs are being created, there aren't enough to meet the needs of both the unemployed and new entrants into the workforce, said Michael Goodman, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

"Just because you have degrees in the social sciences or humanities doesn't mean you're unemployable," Goodman said. "There are jobs available for college students, but they aren't always going to be held for new college graduates."

Connecticut native and Suffolk University senior Elizabeth Kelleher, 20, said while she has some concerns about securing a job, Obama seems more apt to keep financial aid funding intact for students.

"I think that government majors do fairly well with finding a job," said Kelleher, who is majoring in international affairs and Spanish. "I think that my professors here at Suffolk and the different experiences that I have had have set me up so that I will be ready for the workforce in May."

College students looking to land performing arts careers told the Herald they were prepared to hit vocational roadblocks post-graduation, yet added Obama was the more trustworthy candidate.

"I had five jobs this summer, so, at least for me, I don't think it's hard getting a job just to survive," said Devin Holloway, 21, an Emerson College junior from New Orleans majoring in musical theater. "My gut feeling, from just looking at Mitt Romney, is I just don't trust him. I think (Obama's) doing the best he can."

"I don't really have a job opportunity ahead unless I get cast in something," added Adam Santaniello, 21, a theater major at Suffolk University from Connecticut. "If I have to vote, I'm voting for Obama. He's more gay-friendly, and that's a major reason for me. I don't think you can turn (the economy) around in four years."

Job fears also extend to members of Boston's graduate student population.

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Mortgage deduction stakes to get higher next year

WASHINGTON -— Limiting the homeowner mortgage interest deduction came up in two of the presidential debates, but specifics about who would be affected and how much they might lose in tax benefits were minimal. To put some rough numbers on the issue, here's a quick primer on the mortgage interest deduction and related housing write-offs.

How big are they? Very big — which is why they have become such a tempting revenue-raising target for candidates seeking to reduce the massive federal deficit. According to estimates from the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the mortgage interest deduction alone will "cost" the federal government $484.1 billion between fiscal 2010 and 2014 — $98.5 billion in 2013 and $106.8 billion in 2014. Write-offs by homeowners of local and state property taxes account for another $120.9 billion during the same five-year period.

Keep in mind: What "costs" the federal government also represents significant tax savings for the people who take the deductions, in this case the millions of homeowners who save thousands of dollars a year that they are not paying to the IRS. Only about one-third of all taxpayers itemize on their returns — the rest opt for the standard deductions — who's really getting these tax savings? As you might guess, people who have higher incomes are more likely to itemize and claim mortgage interest and other housing deductions. Citing the latest data on the subject, published by the IRS in 2009, Kolko found that while just 15 percent of households with incomes below $50,000 took itemized deductions, 65 percent of those with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 did. Just about everybody with income above $200,000 — 96 percent — itemized on their returns.

In an interview, Kolko said that a $25,000 cap on itemized deductions, as proposed by Mitt Romney in the second debate, would hit people in the $50,000 to $200,000 income range, since their average total write-off (for mortgage interest, charitable contributions and all the rest) was $24,000. It would take a much bigger bite out of upper-income households beyond $200,000, of course, where the average total for all itemized deductions came to $81,000 in the IRS data from 2009.

President Obama supports a cutback in housing-related and other write-offs for people with incomes above $250,000, capping the marginal rate at which they can take their deductions at 28 percent.

So where do homeowners who claim the biggest mortgage interest deductions — and would be most vulnerable to caps and cutbacks — live? The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C., did a study based on the 2009 IRS data, and found that there are dramatic differences state by state. As a general matter, residents of states with high housing and tax costs, large average mortgage balances and high household incomes write off the most; states with low housing costs and incomes the least. Any significant cutbacks on deductions would hit the high-cost states the hardest, absent compensating savings from elsewhere in any forthcoming tax code changes.

California ranked No. 1 in the size of home mortgage deductions, with $18,876 on average. Next came Hawaii ($16,730), the District of Columbia ($16,720), Nevada ($15,502), Washington ($14,262), Maryland ($14,162) and Virginia ($14,094). At the opposite end were homeowners in Oklahoma ($7,992), Iowa ($8,104), Nebraska ($8,233), Mississippi ($8,301) and Kentucky ($8,345). Maryland is tops in the percentage of taxpayers taking mortgage interest write-offs (37.5 percent), followed by Connecticut (34.7 percent), Colorado (33.7 percent) and Virginia (33.6 percent).

What's the outlook on cutting back deductions? Two of the traditional political guardians of the housing tax benefits — the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders — say they are digging in for battles next year, no matter who wins the presidential election.

"The real debate" on housing deductions, said Jamie Gregory, deputy chief lobbyist for the Realtors, is not on TV between Obama and Romney, but on Capitol Hill next year, where both groups are planning major defenses.

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'Argo' finally tops box office with $12.4M

LOS ANGELES — It took three weeks, but "Argo" finally found its way to the top of the box office.

The Warner Bros. thriller from director and star Ben Affleck, inspired by the real-life rescue of six U.S. embassy workers during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, made nearly $12.4 million this weekend, according to Sunday studio estimates. "Argo" had been in second place the past two weeks and has now made about $60.8 million total.

Debuting at No. 3 was the sprawling, star-studded "Cloud Atlas," which made a disappointing $9.4 million. The nearly three-hour drama, also from Warner Bros., was co-directed by siblings Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer and features an ensemble cast including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugh Grant playing multiple roles.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Poll: Scant demand for Microsoft's Windows 8

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft bills Windows 8 as a "re-imagining" of the personal computer market's dominant operating system, but the company still has a lot of work to do before the makeover captures the imagination of most consumers, based on the results of a recent poll by The Associated Press and GfK.

The phone survey of nearly 1,200 adults in the U.S. found 52 percent hadn't even heard of Windows 8 leading up to Friday's release of the redesigned software.

Among the people who knew something about the new operating system, 61 percent had little or no interest in buying a new laptop or desktop computer running on Windows 8, according to the poll. And only about a third of people who've heard about the new system believe it will be an improvement (35 percent).

Chris Dionne of Waterbury, Conn., falls into that camp. The 43-year-old engineer had already seen Windows 8 and it didn't persuade him to abandon or upgrade his Hewlett-Packard laptop running on Windows 7, the previous version of the operating system released in 2009.

"I am not real thrilled they are changing things around," Dionne said. "Windows 7 does everything I want it to. Where is the return on my investment to learn a new OS?"

Microsoft usually releases a new version of Windows every two or three years, but it's different this time around. Windows 8 is the most radical redesign of the operating system since 1995 and some analysts consider the software to be Microsoft's most important product since co-founder Bill Gates won the contract to build an operating system for IBM Corp.'s first personal computer in 1981. Microsoft is hoping the way Windows 8 looks and operates will appeal to the growing number of people embracing the convenience of smartphones and tablets.

The consumer ambivalence, however, was even more pronounced when it came to Microsoft's new tablet computer, Surface, which was built to show off Windows 8's versatility. Sixty-nine percent of the poll's respondents expressed little or no interest in buying a Surface, which Microsoft is hoping will siphon sales from Apple Inc.'s pioneering iPad and other popular tablets such as Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire and Google Inc.'s Nexus 7.

The results indicate Microsoft still has work to do to create a bigger buzz about Windows 8 and help consumers understand the new operating system's benefits, even though the company provided several previews of the software at various stages in the final 13 month leading to its release. But the information apparently resonated mostly with industry analysts, reporters, technology blogs and gadget geeks.

Microsoft is in the early stages of an estimated $1 billion marketing campaign that will include a siege of television commercials to promote Windows 8 to a wider audience.

That still might not be enough to sway longtime Windows users such as Mary Sweeten. She is 75, and not eager to learn the nuances of a new operating system. She, too, is comfortable with her current desktop computer running on Windows 7.

"I am not technologically savvy like all these young kids," said Sweeten, who lives in Camdenton, Mo. "I like something I am used to and can get around on without too much trouble. Sometimes when you get these new (systems), you wish you could go back to the old one."

Windows 8 represents Microsoft's attempt to adapt to a technological shift that is empowering more people to use smartphones and tablets to surf the Web and handle other simple computing tasks. The revamped system can be controlled by touching a device's display screen and greets users with a mosaic of tiles featuring an array of dynamic applications instead of the old start menu and desktop tiles. In an effort to protect its still-lucrative PC franchise, Microsoft designed Windows 8 so it can still be switched into a desktop mode that relies on a keyboard and mouse for commands.

Microsoft felt it had to gamble on a radical redesign to fend off the competitive threats posed by Apple, which has emerged as the world's most valuable company on the strength of its iPhone and iPad. Google Inc. is a threat, too. It has used its 4-year-old Android operating system to become an influential force in the mobile computing movement.

Despite the growing popularity of smartphones, Microsoft remains deeply entrenched in people's lives. The poll found 80 percent of respondents with personal computers in their homes relied on earlier versions of Windows versus only 12 percent that operating on Apple's Mac system.

Windows is even more widely used in offices, but 90 percent of companies relying on the operating system are expected hold off on switching to the new operating system through 2014, according to a study by the research firm Gartner Inc.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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NYSE plans to open as usual Monday

NEW YORK — The New York Stock Exchange plans normal operations Monday as Hurricane Sandy makes its way up the Atlantic.

New York City mass transit is shutting down Sunday evening, and public schools in the city will close Monday. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered residents to evacuate some low-lying areas Sunday.

According to the Exchange, weather last caused the NYSE to shut down on March 27, 1985 for Hurricane Gloria. Trading on the Big Board also was suspended after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2011 for three days afterward.

Hurricane Sandy was headed north from the Caribbean to meet both a snowstorm and a cold front, and experts said the rare hybrid storm that results will cause havoc over 800 miles from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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