Mall managers announced to merchants this week that Mervyns will open a department store in the building Macy's used to occupy.

The 94,000-square-foot site will be San Bernardino's second Mervyns and bring 100 retail jobs to the mall. The other store in town has a Highland postal address.

"It'll bring in shoppers during the off-season," said Lindsey Basbas, who's worked at the Vans skateboard-apparel store for two years. "That's usually February to May."

Her boss is just as optimistic - and with good reason.

"We had really good foot traffic up until January," said Jessica Delaney, assistant manager of the skate shop. "A lot of people are just browsing right now. They don't want to buy anything."

But when customers do open their wallets, several of them are using pre-paid H&R Block tax refund debit cards, not cash or credit, Basbas said.

Sports goes for a six !

Or, will club identities come to replace national loyalties? After all, whoever pays the bucks gets the loyalty.

Has cricket in India entered the age of sponsored gambling where its stake-holders are abdicating their responsibility and letting the 'free-market' forces take control of the sport? Will it only create a super-elite category of overpaid, arrogant superstars at the cost of domestic cricket? Will the new cricket corporate czars have any emotional attachment to the sport? Importantly, will substance become the first casualty of the hoopla and hype of the auctioning? Will it widen the gap between cricket and other sports?

True, the BCCI and IPL promoters dismiss these fears as much ado about nothing. Why is everyone raving and ranting about the cricketers earnings? What about other sports like Golf, tennis and car racing.

TIO Networks Announces Availability of TIO Prepaid MasterCard(R) and ...

BURNABY, British Columbia, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- TIO Networks Corp., North America's leading automated non-bank financial services network (TSX-V: TNC) , announced that the initial deployment of its TIO Prepaid MasterCard program to 75 EWIZ stores has met the pilot criteria and will be rolling out to all 400 EWIZ stores across the United States and another 300 stores scheduled for future deployment.

TIO also announced a new initiative to make NetSpend's National Savings Program available to TIO prepaid MasterCard cardholders. NetSpend cardholders can earn up to 5.00 percent interest on an annualized basis by linking their MetaBank-issued prepaid cards to an interest-bearing savings account. The program benefits under-banked Americans and/or those who prefer not to establish accounts with traditional banks.

FBI: Folsom Man Admitted Investment Fund Fraud

The FBI says a Folsom man arrested Wednesday night has admitted defrauding investors and using their money for his own expenses. There are allegedly 69 victims of the Christians In Crisis, or CIC Investment Fund.

FBI agents arrested Stephen K. Wilson, also known as Stefan Wilson, at his million-dollar Folsom home on Glen Mady Way. He's charged in federal court with wire fraud and mail fraud.

Investigating agents from the IRS and FBI claim Wilson committed fraud by promising investors returns as high as 24 percent while he lost much of their money in day trading, according to a federal search warrant first obtained by News10. Wilson later paid early investors their promised returns from new investor funds, what IRS agent Don Daley described in a search warrant affidavit as, "the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme."

The search of Wilson's house and office was conducted February 15.

The time has come to kill all the plastic bags

So instead of nickle and diming us about plastic bag use, how about talking to the idiots with four cars in their driveways or heated backyard pools? And China as an example of environmentalism is laughable as they are one of the biggest industrial polluters in the world. Posted 11/02/08 at 8:17 AM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment .

Freebie Fridays Help You Save Cash

I love my mutt, but I just can't imagine sending her off to a spa. Now, I don't have to! Thanks to www.happytailsspa.com, I can buy all kinds of at home "spa products for the dog about town". You can drop some serious money here, so if you want to try something from this website for free, here's a link to pamper your pooch.

IBD's Top 10 - Monday

1 Standard & Poor's (NYSE:MHP) affirmed ratings for Ambac Financial and MBIA, easing fears of a ripple effect through the financial system. The Dow climbed 1.5%, the S&P 500 1.4% and the Nasdaq 1%. The No.1-rated fertilizer group jumped 7%, as the agri-boom continues. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 9 basis points to 3.90%

Visa Plans Largest-Ever U.S.