What might be nickels and dimes for you will end up as hundreds of millions for a corporate giant. Just ask AT&T (T), which has put into play a sneaky new fee. 

The telecom giant this month is adding a 61-cent "below-the-line" charge to the bills of its wireless contract customers in a move that could bring in more than $500 million of new annual revenue, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Such fees earn their names for their placement at the bottom of a phone bill, where companies hope customers will overlook them. After all, what's profitable for wireless carriers isn't necessarily well liked by either consumer groups or the companies' subscribers. 

 

Say you're completely broke and are about to lose your home. You have a valuable painting that's been in your family for generations. Should you sell it to raise money?

That's the question stirring up controversy in Detroit, which is nearly bankrupt and could run out of cash within weeks. Last month, the city had only $64 million in cash, but $226 million in bills. Its libraries are shutting down and its police department can't even pay for gang squads anymore.

So the city's new emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, is floating a proposal: Sell some of the pieces of art in the multibillion-dollar collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The city owns the building and the collection, after all -- a collection that, by the way, includes amazing works from the likes of Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse. 

If self-flagellation were an Olympic sport, Sears Holdings (SHLD) CEO and top shareholder Eddie Lampert would surely be a gold medalist.

Lampert has yet again apologized for quarterly results that were dreadful, even by the low standards of Sears. Lampert called them "unacceptable." Although that candor seems remarkable for a CEO, keep in mind that he has been saying more or less the same thing for years. It's easy to see why.

The venerable retailer lost $279 million, or $2.63 per share, versus net income of $189 million, or $1.78 per share, a year earlier. Revenue plunged by 9% to $8.5 billion. Same-store sales, a key metric of performance at stores open for at least a year, tumbled by 3.6%.   

In another sign that America's health care system needs healing, a new study suggests that overworked hospital emergency rooms have evolved into the main entrance point for most patients and that the ER is where most hospitals need to work on controlling costs.

The Washington Post notes that trips to U.S emergency rooms have soared in recent years, from 67 million in 1996 to 119 million in 2008. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates emergency department costs account for up to 5.8% of total health care spending -- or up to $151 billion.

"The ER has become increasingly important as a place where people go for acute unscheduled care," Michael Lee, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School, told Business Insider. "However, there has been little rigorous analysis of its cost structure."

 

Maybe there isn't always money in the banana stand.

Abandoned Fox show and cult classic "Arrested Development" makes its return on Netflix (NFLX) on Sunday, but bringing the show back from its untimely death required some creative accounting. Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi and Michael Cera were a lot more affordable when "Arrested Development" went off the air in 2006 than after it propelled them to become movie stars and brought them lead roles in TV series and other high-paying career opportunities.

So how did Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and content honcho Ted Sarandos work their financial wizardry? Let The Hollywood Reporter explain how they came up with starring roles for each actor in all 15 episodes and created a sliding pay scale based on the effort involved:

 

If you care at all about America's future as a country of ideas and potential, you'll probably agree that this is a cool story.

An 18-year-old high school student has come up with what might be a breakthrough in the field of energy storage. She has invented a device that can, for example, recharge a cellphone in seconds rather than hours.

Eesha Khare, a student at Lynbrook High School in Saratoga, Calif., was one of two runners-up at the annual Intel (INTC) International Science and Engineering Fair last week in Phoenix. She beat out more than 1,600 finalists from more than 70 countries.

Khare received one of two Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards of $50,000. As the company's press release states, "Eesha recognized the crucial need for energy-efficient storage devices. She developed a tiny device that fits inside cell phone batteries, allowing them to fully charge within 20-30 seconds."

 

Speaking at his first shareholder meeting as CEO, McDonald's (MCD) chief Don Thompson rejected calls to retire Ronald McDonald as the chain's mascot. Activists have long worried that the red-haired clown encourages children to consume unhealthy food.

At the meeting, speakers from the Corporate Accountability Project accused the chain of contributing to the nation's soaring rates of childhood obesity by targeting children, particularly minorities. That notion may have struck a nerve with Thompson, who is African-American.
 
"Ronald is not a bad guy," he said, according to The Wall Street Journal. "He's about fun. He's a clown. I'd urge you all to let your kids have fun, too." 

Mike's Hard Lemonade has grown exponentially over the last few years and has dipped into a demographic beer brewers can only dream of.