Joseph P. Walsh Jr., director of D.C.'s Department of Employment Services, said the District's unemployment rate, while high compared to Maryland and Virginia, is more in line with other big cities. For instance, government data from September, the latest month for which city numbers are available, show New York at 10.2 percent unemployment, Chicago at 11.3 percent, Los Angeles at 14 percent and Detroit at 27.9 percent.

           
The District lost 500 jobs in professional and business services, information technology and construction. At the same time, it added 10,200 jobs in such sectors as education, health services, and leisure and hospitality. Experts attributed the apparent disconnect between the dramatic job growth and the dramatic rise in the unemployment rate to the sources of the data: The jobless rate is based on a household survey of unemployed people, while the jobs data are based on a survey of employers.

           
If you’ve ever wondered about those ATMs you see in bars and neighborhood stores that aren’t affiliated with a bank, what Robert Siciliano demonstrated probably won’t inspire much confidence. Siciliano, a Boston-based security expert for Intelius, an identity theft protection company, decided earlier this fall to buy one of those ATMs.

“I quickly found an ad from a bar north of Boston. They were selling pool tables, Budweiser neon signs, and an ATM,’’ he said.

           
Siciliano then used an associate, a hacker, to see what they could find in the machine. “The next day after we bought it, my hacker comes over to my garage, manual in hand, all giggly, like hackers sometimes do and says, ‘Watch this.’ He punches the master codes to access the machine’s data . . . and hundreds of credit and debit card numbers just start falling all over the floor.’’

           
There were more than 1,000 numbers recorded in the machine that Siciliano and his colleague printed out. ATMs like that are resold all the time, Siciliano said. They are particularly easy to find in big cities and can be found from time to time in the Boston area.

           
“The issue with these types is the portability of them and anyone can get one and put it anywhere,’’ he said. They are easily hacked and the innards can be reconfigured to store your card data and PIN. A criminal can also affix skimming devices that capture your data from the card’s magnetic strip and they install wireless cameras that record your PIN codes.’’

          
Siciliano said people also need to be wary of so-called rogue ATMs that are set up to do little else but steal your personal information. For most people there is little to distinguish one of those machines from a well-meaning nonbank machine. And even legit nonbank machines, Siciliano points out, don’t have security cameras built into them like those at banks.

           
Before you use a nonbank ATM, be sure you want to take that chance.

           
The Senate narrowly overcame the first of two critical hurdles to passing sweeping health care legislation last night, mustering the minimum of 60 votes required to begin debate on the bill and opening a volatile floor fight likely to last weeks.

           
Although the vote added to the sense of momentum for the most significant attempt to expand health coverage in decades, the struggle by Democratic leaders in the Senate to secure enough support yesterday demonstrated that final passage remains far from certain.

           
In the coming weeks, Democrats must resolve an intraparty dispute over whether to establish even a limited government-run insurance option, a disagreement that threatens to unravel the effort. Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada said last night that lawmakers are working on a new compromise version, but some Democrats said they believe wavering senators would not sacrifice the entire health care bill over that one issue.

         
Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, may revalue their currencies while maintaining their pegs to the U.S. dollar, a person familiar with Saudi monetary policy said.

           
The states may revalue by an unspecified amount in as soon as a month's time, the person, who declined to be identified because the matter is confidential, said yesterday. No decision has been made on whether to revalue, he said. The comments came as heads of state of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries began a summit meeting in Riyadh.

           
Gulf states are facing record inflation, caused partly by the weakening dollar, which has made imports from Europe more expensive. Consumer prices rose a record 4.9 percent in Saudi Arabia in August while inflation in the U.A.E. increased to a record 9.3 percent last year. Qatar has the highest inflation in the region, reaching 14.8 percent in the first quarter.

           
``It makes sense for them to do it,'' said Jens Nordvig, senior global markets economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York, in a phone interview. ``Given the emerging inflation pressures, there are very good reasons for them to allow currency appreciation.''

           
The decline in the value of the dollar is a ``concern'' to OPEC members, Qatar's Energy Minister Abdullah Al-Attiyah said after a meeting of OPEC oil, finance and energy ministers in Riyadh Nov. 16.

           
Home resales leaped up in October, rising far more than expected as a fat tax credit offset fears about joblessness.

           
Sales of existing homes increased by 10.1% to a 6.10 million annual rate from 5.54 million in September, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.

          
Inventories kept shrinking. Prices fell, but the NAR said the decline was the smallest in more than a year.

           
The 6.10-million rate was the highest since February 2007. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a 2.3% increase in sales during October, to a rate of 5.70 million.

       
"Many buyers have been rushing to beat the deadline for the first-time buyer tax credit," NAR economist Lawrence Yun said.

           
September sales rose 8.8% to 5.54 million; the NAR originally reported sales for that month jumped 9.4%, to 5.57 million. Existing-home sales, year over year, were 23.5% higher last month than the level in October 2008. The October surge in sales follows a very disappointing housing sector report last week showing U.S. construction tumbled in October to the lowest point in six months. A reason for the sharp, unexpected drop might have involved uncertainty over a government tax incentive for home buyers that had been due to lapse in November.

           
Congress extended the tax credit earlier this month through April, a move seen fueling sales and construction into the new year.

          
"There is still a large pent-up demand that can be tapped before the tax credit expires," Yun said.

          
Aside from the tax credit, low prices and mortgage rates have drawn in buyers, concerned as the U.S. unemployment rate climbed in October to 10.2%. The average 30-year mortgage rate was 4.95% in October, down from 5.06% in September, Freddie Mac data showed. The NAR reported the median price for an existing home last month was $173,100, down 7.1% from $186,400 in October 2008.

          
Inventories of previously owned homes decreased by 3.7% at the end of October to 3.57 million available for sale. That represented a 7.0-month supply at the current sales pace, compared to 8.0 in September.

          
Regionally, sales in October compared to September rose 11.6% in the Northeast, 14.4% in the Midwest, 12.7% in the South, and 1.6% in the West.

Of the 6.10 million in overall U.S. sales, 30% were distressed, which includes foreclosures. That compares to a range of 45% to 50% in months during late 2008 and early 2009.

           
For the first time in a decade, more people paid their credit card bills on time in the third quarter this year than in the second quarter.

The delinquency rate on bank-issued cards li

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