Congestion, pollution, obesity: some American colleges feel these problems are important enough to warrant some out-of-the-box solutions. One of those solutions is paying students to ride their bikes instead of driving.

Stanford spiffs employees and students who agree to give up car commuting up to $282 a year. At Ripon College in Wisconsin, freshmen who don't bring a car to campus are given a free high-quality bike, lock and helmet. The University of New England has a similar program.

Other colleges and universities are setting up bike borrowing programs, so students can grab and go without the burden of ownership. On some campuses, pedicabs also provide convenient transportation around the quad.

Many cities are also climbing on board, such as Washington, D.C., which recently launched a Smart Bike program. The recently passed TARP legislation also included, oddly, incentives for individuals and companies to encourage bike commuting.

Winter bicycling, while challenging, is still practical if you prepare properly and know the strategies. The Gear Junkie has a nice post about dealing with the season on two wheels.

Recently, newspapers, magazines, and the internet have been buzzing with articles about the declining economy and its effect on relationships. Apparently, while there are numerous reasons for marital strife, most therapists agree that the biggest cause of friction between spouses is money. In fact, according to numerous surveys, the majority of divorced partners cite financial problems as the primary reason for their split.

This makes sense; after all, when things are going well, and a couple has enough money to cover all expenses and most discretionary purchases, relationships are easier to sustain. On the other hand, when money gets tighter, couples often have to make difficult decisions, putting their relationships to the test. Needless to say, the recent downturn in the economy has made these sorts of issues particularly relevant.

With winter coming on and Christmas on the horizon, money problems are looming large for many American families. This is especially true in Colorado Springs, where over 200 employees of Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family (FOTF) were recently fired. A non-profit, evangelical organization, FOTF describes its mission as "nurturing and defending families worldwide." In the pursuit of this goal, it produces radio programs, runs a "homosexual conversion" program, and heavily lobbies voters and politicians to pass laws in support of its agenda. In fact, FOTF does so many bulk mailings that it has its own zip code.

Tired of trying to organize your siblings to contribute to a group gift for your parents? Perhaps you work online, and would like to give a gift to your boss (or favorite blogger?) in a faraway city. How do you gather the money, buy the gift, arrange delivery? This is the dilemma that FrumUs.com hopes to turn into a thriving business. My take is, though, that they don't offer anything you can't do for yourself just as easily.

Through FrumUS.com, the person organizing the gift group creates a personal group gift page, where the group can kick around gift ideas. Having chosen the gift, the group members can then make their contributions, from a PayPal account or a credit card, to the Paypal account of the group organizer. The collected funds can be used to buy from any site that accepts PayPal directly, or, via PayPal's plugin, at any online merchant. The money can also be turned into a PayPal secure card, a virtual credit card that carries typical credit card purchase protections.

However, I have some grave reservations about this service. The site works through Paypal, not a particularly user-friendly service. One person must serve as the collector, and donations are crediting to this person's Paypal account. A basic Paypal account charges 4.9% plus $.30 per payment made to the account, and is limited to five per month. Therefore, the organizer must step up to the Premier Paypal level, which drops the fees to 2.5% plus $.030 per transaction.

My take: this might be a useful fall-back option for a widely dispersed group, but paying 2.5% to Paypal isn't a good deal for the consumer. Since FrumUS.com stands to collect from both Paypal and the merchants when the group buys a gift through FrumUS.com's portal, why not share the love a bit with the group by cutting it a better deal?

The fact is, if one of your group wants to go to the trouble of setting up a Paypal Premier account, why bother with FrumUS.com? You probably already have a working IM group, so why not use that for planning?

In case you're curious, my favorite color is blue.

On Tuesday of this week, Floridian William Cody found himself staring across a courtroom at his estranged wife, Ida. In a country where the divorce rate still hovers around 50%, this is pretty common, but the circumstances surrounding this particular battle are actually unique. While the Codys have been separated for over 25 years, William recently won $1.9 million in the lottery and Ida was suing for half of the take.

Although the Codys haven't shared a home since Ronald Reagan was in his first Presidential term, they have stayed on fairly good terms over the years. Until recently, they regularly went to the dog track together, and Ida often drove William to various appointments. In fact, according to court documents, when William won the lottery, he offered Ida $55,000, in addition to the $25,000 that he gave to some of their shared children. However, she rejected the offer and is currently demanding $950,000.

Ida Cody's claim hinges on her allegation that she loaned William the money for his lottery ticket, in return for which he promised her half of his winnings. Circuit Judge Dick Prince is expected to render a verdict later today. However, even if Ida Cody loses this round, she already plans to (finally!) file for divorce. Under Florida law, she may then qualify for half of her husband's assets. Regardless, William should probably not spend his winnings just yet!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. While he sometimes wonders what happened to his ex-girlfriends, he's now starting to wonder if he really wants to find out. Regardless, he probably won't be buying any lotto tickets.

Regional scam artists have put a new twist on the old Nigerian check deposit swindle. At least one county in Wisconsin has come up against a check deposit fraud which is aimed at unsuspecting resort owners there. A blurb from WJFW television in Northern Wisconsin indicates that the Sheriff of Oneida Country is telling resort owners there to be wary about taking reservation payments made by check.

The scam begins when an apparent customer reserves several rooms at a regional resort. The scam artist then pays for those reservations with a bogus check. Next, after allowing enough time for the resort owner to deposit the fake check, but not enough time for the bank to clear it, the scammer then calls to cancel the reservations and requests a refund.

The story doesn't indicate if anyone has actually suffered a monetary loss due to this scam. However, let us use this incident to remind us of a couple basic financial lessons: First, we should never take a check from anyone without current and complete identification. Second, we should never forward funds based on a check which has been deposited but which has not yet been fully cleared by the bank.

Sometimes, the economic news out there isn't all bad.

Earlier this week, The Chicago Sun Times reported that 22 middle school students at Roosevelt Middle School in Bellwood, a community deep in urban Chicago, have been offered the challenge of a lifetime. If they can get A's and B's in all of their grades in middle and high school, and stay out of trouble, they'll be given free tuition to attend Concordia University in River Forest, one of the most tony and affluent locations in Chicago.

It's a program sponsored by Fifth Third Bank, although kudos for Concordia for agreeing to offer a significant discount to the students if they succeed in this challenge. Tuition, after all, is $30,000 a year -- now. It'll likely be a bit higher in 2015 when these sixth-graders graduate.

(And I hate to be snarky, but given the state of the banking industry, my first thought when I read about this was: What happens to this program if Fifth Third isn't around in 2015? But let's not go there.)

As if you needed another reason to be wary of rebates, one of the largest rebate processing companies, Continental Promotion Group, just filed for bankruptcy. CPG, more widely known as RebateStatus.com, no longer has enough money to cover the rebate checks it has been processing. This means if you have a rebate check from the company, you shouldn't try and cash it unless you care to be hit with a NSF fee when the check bounces.

RebateStatus.com handles rebates for many companies including:

• Costco
• Newegg.com
• Canon
• Logitech
  
• Home Depot
  

The California State University system made headlines yesterday when it threatened to cut enrollment by 10,000 students next year if the state didn't front it more money. Chancellor Charles Reed said CSU had to make more cuts to a budget already $215,000 below what it needs, and that it currently serve 10,000 students for whom the state gives no money. But when it comes to top staffers, well, that's a different story. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Reed and his Board of Trustees recently approved salary increases of up to nine percent for nine vice-presidents, and hired 11 more at salaries as high as $225,000.

I'm thinking it's time for a career change to college administration, because these guys have it good. For example, the VP of student affairs at CSU Monterey came on board in February 2007 and less than 18 months later, he gets a $22,500 pay raise, from $117,500 to $140,000. The new vice-chancellor for university relations gets a salary of $240,000, plus another $40,500 to cover brokerage commissions, escrow fees and other costs for selling his home in Sacramento. Wait, is this a state school system or Wall Street these people are working for?

Holidays are just around the corner and if there's one appliance that'd better be ready for the onslaught it's the toilet. While many household fixtures require repair or replacement, one that's getting renewed attention thanks to the collective green-living consciousness is the toilet. If yours is a water hog, it's a good time to think about getting a new one.

Years ago, if a plumber told you that your family's hardest working appliance needed to be replaced, you'd have had a right to be skeptical. Historically been darn near impossible for a toilet to actually break, thanks to the typically tough vitreous china and straightforward construction with replaceable moving parts.

But today, water consumption is the big issue, and if any of your home's toilets date to 1994 or earlier, you stand to save a lot of money by switching them out for the current generation of high-efficiency toilets (HETs). Worlds apart from the low-flow models that debuted in the early 1990s, WaterSense-labeled HETs provide dependable performance on 1.28 gallons of water or less per flush.

According to the EPA, a family of four that replaces higher-flow toilets with HETs stands to save an average of more than $90 per year on water bills and as much as $2,000 over the lifetime of the HETs themselves. What's more, many local utilities offer special rebates and vouchers to residents ready to make this water-saving investment.

A wide variety of HET styles and price points make it easy to find the right fit for your household, with one- and two-piece design and such features as right-height sizing and elongated bowls. To learn more about HET advantages and browse product information, visit the EPA's WaterSense website.

Tom Kraeutler is the Home Improvement Editor for AOL and co-author of My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure. Tom helps listeners prevent plumbing problems each week as host of The Money Pit, a nationally syndicated home improvement radio program.

With times tight, everyone is looking for ways to save money. One way to do that is by making sure you get the most bang out of every hard-earned dollar you spend. So today we're going to reveal some retail rip-offs that give you less than your money's worth.

These tips aren't about scrimping or cutting out life's little luxuries -- we just want to show you some places where you are paying big price mark ups and may not realize it. Once you see just how little you are getting for your money, you can save a lot with just a few simple changes. Like...

1. Wine in restaurants
The markup on wine in restaurants is outrageous -- 100 to 200% more than what you would pay at the store if you buy by the bottle. It's a whopping 300 to 400% markup if you buy wine by the glass! To make it even worse, the highest markups are on the lowest priced wines.

Here's one thing you can do to combat wine markups: If your state/restaurant allows it, bring your own bottle and pay a small fee for the restaurant to open and cork it for you. You'll normally pay about $10.

Option two: Find out if the restaurant has an "off premises" license that allows you to take open wine bottles home with you. If so, you'll save money when you buy the full bottle even if you don't plan to drink it all. Simply cork it at the end of your meal and bring it home to enjoy later.