MARK WILSON / Getty Images Walter Lukken (left), acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told a Senate committee yesterday that his agency was seeking more trading data from exchanges in the United States and abroad.

With Americans growing angrier by the day about high gasoline prices, nobody can accuse Congress of turning a deaf ear. Today lawmakers will hold their 40th hearing so far this year on the cause of high oil prices. Filing bills on Capitol Hill to combat the problem is becoming a cottage industry, with clever names such as the Prevent Unfair Manipulation of Prices Act, or PUMP Act, and the No Excuses Energy Act.

San Diego County foreclosures and defaults remained at historically high levels last month, with troubles spreading to previously untouched coastal markets, DataQuick Information Systems reported yesterday.

The Dow Chemical Co. said yesterday that it was raising prices for the second time in a month to offset a “relentless rise” in energy costs, a sign that companies may increasingly have to pass on price increases to their customers.

NEW YORK – U.S. consumers are the gloomiest they've been since the tail end of the last prolonged recession. Inflation, sinking home values and soaring gas prices have pushed confidence to the lowest level since 1992. Consumers' view of the economic future has never been lower, raising worries that already weak consumer spending could deteriorate further.

Tennessee insurance company Unum Group will pay a $5.5 million fine as a result of a federal investigation of kickbacks paid to a San Diego insurance broker, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The San Diego company, which prosecutors have not named, received millions of dollars in kickbacks disguised as items such as requests for proposals, communications and enrollment fees.

WASHINGTON – The nation's largest immigration law firm is under federal scrutiny over whether it helped major U.S. corporations disqualify American job applicants and give thousands of high-paying positions to immigrants.