Dear Mr. Berko: I want to own some shipping transportation stocks and have looked at Omni Corp., Overseas Shipping and Teekay Shipping, but their dividends are all under 2 percent. Can you recommend three shipping (maritime) stocks that have good growth potential and that pay at least 5 percent? And can you give me your thoughts on the shipping/maritime industry as a whole? What do you think of the possibility of higher or lower freight ... [full story]

There are tens of millions of U.S. workers who have lied or exaggerated their accomplishments on their resumes. Tens of millions. At least. And, most of them still have jobs. The news of resume fraud or resume inflation surfaces each time a high-profile individual is accused. Consider these episodes: - Marilee Jones is driven from her job as admissions director at MIT after 28 years of presumably good service to the university. She had claimed ... [full story]

College graduates looking to find a job should think twice before putting untrue statements on their resumes. Marilee Jones, the dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, learned that lying on resumes can come back to haunt you. She fabricated her education credentials almost 30 years ago on her resume. Jones admitted that she never completed her undergraduate degree; however, recently it was discovered that she received an undergraduate degree at a university ... [full story]

PARIS - Two mysteries that have long puzzled students of libational history and worldly business travelers are "how many of the many Harry's Bars around the world are authentic?" and "what was Ernest Hemingway's favorite cocktail?" Although hardly as vexing as "The DaVinci Code," the answers are here in Paris and the hunt for truth can be a delicious and unforgettable adventure. While Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy - a rude, overpriced tourist trap - ... [full story]

It's been 50 years now. But every time another teen like Tyler Murray of Ijamsville, Md., dies in a senseless crash, I remember my high school classmate Jerry Dunham. Like Tyler, who was killed on a Maryland highway last March, Jerry, a teenage passenger in a car, had been drinking. It was just that fate gave Jerry a different hand on that rainy night in 1957 on a Pennsylvania highway. Jerry lived, but the driver ... [full story]

What was the motive behind 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui's killing of 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech? Why was he consumed with hate, resentment and bitterness? Cho was an English department major and senior. As a frequent lecturer on college campuses, I have discovered that the English departments are often the weirdest and/or the most left-wing. A look at the Webs ites of Virginia Tech's English department and of its professors reveals their mindset. We ... [full story]

A bane of editorial writers must be their occasional brush with futility. Sometimes the best intended advice falls flat. Thus it was, as Democrats flooded into San Diego last week for their state convention, a lead editorial urged them to avoid Bush-bashing. Voters crave serious solutions to the nation's problems, it said - better stick to talk of immigration reform, Social Security and the war in Iraq. It was as if the writer knew no ... [full story]

As the Republican candidates all gather at the Reagan Library for their first debate of the presidential campaign, what follows is my advice on "what would Ronald Reagan do?" I'll start with the economy and follow with foreign policy in next week's column. In giving thought to what Reagan would do about tax and budget policy, we must never forget the times in which he led our nation. When he was first sworn in in ... [full story]

Are you a crook? If so, you are dumb. D-u-m-b. Why risk being shot, or landing in lockdown for 10 years, when the government is doling out more money than a man can spend in lifetime? Last week, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report accusing FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, of shelling out more than $3 billion to Katrina contractors with bad credit and companies whose bookkeeping systems resemble a corn maze. ... [full story]

Three months into the wretchedly early 2008 presidential campaign, a startling truth is already evident. The presidential fields of both parties are strikingly vulnerable. Weak might be too harsh an assessment of these collections of earnest candidates, but both fields have a distinctly unsettled aura. Start with the Democrats. Hillary Clinton was supposed to be her party's "inevitable" choice. Turns out, she isn't so inevitable. Despite the Clinton money machine, Bill's potent networking and her ... [full story]