In cases of medical emergency, folks across the U.S. often do much of their initial business with a Greenwood Village, Colorado firm. Not only does it run the largest private ambulance service in the country, but it also staffs emergency rooms from coast to coast.

Emergency Medical Services Corporation (NYSE: EMS) specializes in healthcare transportation and emergency department procedures. Its American Medical Response ambulance unit serves some 3,100 cities and hospitals in 36 states, with over 4,000 vehicles. Its EmCare Holdings unit provides emergency care professional staffing and related hospital-based management services to more than 340 facilities nationwide. Last year, EMSC assisted more than nine million patients, in two thousand communities.

The company pleased investors last week, when it reported Q1 EPS of 42 cents (ex-items) and revenues of $523.3 million. Analysts had been looking for 26 cents and $504.2 million. The CEO particularly noted benefits from the firm's risk mitigation program and solid ambulance transport growth, in discussing the favorable results. Management also guided FY07 EPS to $1.30-1.37, versus consensus of $1.17.

Mergers come to sectors in waves and now its media's turn.

There are many companies that would be of interest to either public or private buyers including Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI), E.W. Scripps Co. (NYSE: SSP) and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO).

Shares of Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher, have tanked more than 20% over the past five years as advertisers fled to the Internet. The company, though, has a solid management team that has made many accretive acquisitions.

Scripps has long been a favorite on Wall Street. The company's cable business, which includes the Food Network and HGTV, is great and its newspaper business is no worse off than others, which I realize is faint praise. Its shares are down 13% this year.

Martha Stewart Living, whose shares have plunged 15% this year, has defied the skeptics.

Even though the company recently said its first quarter loss widened, the results did beat Wall Street expectations. Chief Executive Susan Lyne has done a good job in expanding the Stewart brand. The recent prepared food deal with Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) seems to have potential.

Other targets include The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT), which I've argued before, satellite radio companies XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (NYSE: XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) and Belo Corp. (NYSE: BLC), which owns the Dallas Morning News along television and radio stations.

It is year-end retrospective time and here at Bloggingstocks and AOL Money & Finance, we've been taking our own look back, featuring for the past month the Best & Worst in Money for 2006 and asking readers to vote for their their favorites in lots of different categories -- including the biggest business stories.

The results are in. The following are some of the top stories of 2006, what the voting told us about public perceptions and what that signals for 2007:

Gas Prices. They peaked in the middle of the year at $3 a gallon – just high enough to seriously dampen consumer spending, cause people to start abandoning their SUVs and create worries about $5 a gallon gasoline. Prices slid in the second half of the year to today's more comfortable $2.30 level. Still, in AOL Money & Finance's voting for the biggest business story of the year, higher gas prices got more than 60% of the votes.

Prediction for 2007: Gas prices will stay at the $2.50 range with temporary spikes up to $3 when tensions flare in the Middle East or supply is disrupted around the world. Stocks of companies like ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) and Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) will continue to prosper.

Kudos to a reader named Kathleen for pointing out that we missed "vetted" in our list of the most overused buzzwords. I also agree with her that the mashing together of celebrity couple names like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (Brangelina) has got to stop.

We probably should have vetted our buzzword list with Kathleen (who didn't give her last name) before publishing it. Vetted, like all buzzwords, is a fancy-sounding word that describes something simple. It started out meaning reviewing or checking out for accuracy as in the qualifications of a nominee for a cabinet position on an article for scientific journal. Now, it's being bandied about to describe every type of review. For example, officials in Louisville are vetting a dog ordinance. When words like vetting get overused, their original meaning becomes diluted.

Finally, please dear God, when will the name mashing madness end? I mean first there was Bennifer, now Brangelina. I think Stephen Colbert created the ultimate celebrity couple when he merged William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman into Filliam H. Muffman. With the 2008 presidential election gearing up, I'm afraid the name mashing will only get worse. I'll get the process started with Hillbama (Hillary Cilnton and Barack Obama).

--Jonathan Berr is the editor of http://www.desperateinvestors.com

The people have spoken! The results are in for the Best and Worst of 2006 and the big winners include Donald Trump (in two different categories), Paris Hilton (with more votes than any other nominee in any category), President Bush, YouTube (edging out Borat), and this past year's skyrocketing gasoline prices.

Donald Trump didn't need the recent brouhaha with Rosie O'Donnell in order to triumph as the Most Annoying Money Personality of the Year, garnering 44% of the votes in that category. He didn't stop there. His signature comb-over was a very clear favorite as Worst Signature Style, with a whopping 85% of the vote (nearly 69 thousand votes). Readers evidently did not love the 'doo.

ExxonMobil's Lee Raymond came out on top as the Most Overpaid CEO (some very lively debate about it in the comments) with 63% of that vote. Readers also voted "real estate bubble" as the Most Overused Buzzword of 2006 with 47% of the vote in that category, and Northwest Airlines's dumpster-diving tips for laid-off employees the Dumbest Moment in Business with 45% of votes.

Voting continues for the Best & Worst of 2006, and there is no closer race right now than between Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen's bumbling faux-journalist from Kazakhstan (as well as the motion picture named for him), and YouTube, everyone's favorite source for wacky foreign television commercials, drunken celebrity rants, and re-edited movie trailers, as the Up-and-Comer of 2006. Whether you think that Baron Cohen is brilliantly clever or just a cheap-shot artist, whether you believe YouTube offers hours of wholesome entertainment or is just an online version of America's Dumbest Home Videos, let your vote be counted.

The contest for Biggest Fall from Grace is not quite so close, but close enough that with a late surge, Mel Gibson could still overtake current frontrunner, President Bush. As some commenters have pointed out, Bush really didn't have far to fall as he'd already lost credibility before 2006. So if you think Gibson's arrest and drunken tirade have permanently harmed his career (despite the apparent popularity of Apocalypto), then lend your support to help him take the lead in this category.

Many of the close races are for second place. While Donald Trump leads in the Most Annoying Money Personality category, there is a virtual tie for the silver among Suze Orman, Jim Cramer, and Mark Cuban. In the Most Overpaid CEO contest, Barry Diller of IAC (NASDAQ:IACI) and Bob Nardelli of Home Depot (NYSE:HD) are battling for second place behind Lee Raymond of ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM). The Walton family has a slight edge over Martha Stewart for second place as the Tycoon We'd Send to the Poor House, and the Enron sentencing and the real estate market trail gas prices as the Money Story of the Year.

As we've learned from the past few national elections, every vote counts.

Voting for the Best & Worst of 2006 ends Christmas Eve, so don't wait too long. Results will be posted December 28.

For another view on Borat and YouTube, as well as many other of the nominees, also check out MarketWatch's Winners and Losers of 2006.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2006. Vote for it as the Money Story of the Year or check out the other nominees in the category.

Gas prices are truly the Money Story of 2006. Along with crude oil prices, they peaked during the middle of the year and then, just as some forecasters were talking about $5 per gallon, they promptly took a nosedive.

Some people are claiming that this is a temporary calm in the storm. They cite the rising energy demand from the modernization of China and other emerging markets as indicators of higher prices to come. Others mention that the tensions in the Mideast, in particular, are still present and act as a potential source of supply disruptions. Some even talk as if this is the beginning of the 1970s all over again.

Maybe so -- anything is possible. However, the stock market does not seem to be cooperating. Gas prices are the story of the year, but it's not the story that these people wrote. The gas bubble broke (pardon the pun), letting out not only a lot of hot air but also fuel for the current stock market rally.

The decrease in oil prices has eased inflationary pressures and allowed the Federal Reserve to go on hold with its string of interest rate increases. This has indeed provided gas for the current equity bull market.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. To vote for the money story of the year, go here.

Can the U.S. auto industry recover from a horrid 2006? Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and General Motors Corporation (NYSE:GM) had many really bad quarters this year in an attempt to turn their huge, globalized businesses around on a dime -- which is almost impossible with the sprawl both companies have.

Combine this with an out-of-date pension and health care liabilities that other global car makers don't have, plus the inability of both Ford and GM to properly anticipate the problem of rising gas prices (and the sales reduction in gas-hogging vehicles as a result) and -- voila! -- you have one of the more disastrous years on record for both automakers in recent history.

Ford is in the midst of giving 38,000 workers a severance package to leave the company after losing almost $6 billion in its latest quarter and is replacing its CEO. And GM, while not having that large of a perceived problem, is also in the midst of trying to re-engineer the huge liabilities it has for older worker costs (like health care for retired GM workers), while simultaneously trying to get stylish, reliable cars that people want to buy to the marketplace.

GM and Ford SUVs have rapidly fallen out of favor with the recent advent of sky-high gas prices, and although gas prices have come down quite a bit recently, that doesn't mean GM will start selling SUVs like hotcakes again -- and it can't think this way any longer.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2006. Vote for it as the Money Story of the Year or check out the other nominees in the category.

The softening real estate market reminds me of the difference between a recession and a depression. If your neighbor loses a job, it's a recession; if you lose your job, it's a depression. Regarding real estate, if your neighbor's house goes into foreclosure it's a real estate recession; if your house goes into foreclosure it's a real estate depression.

Last week I saw strange people hanging out in front of the house across the street from mine. One of them told me he was an auctioneer; another said she was a real estate agent and the house was in foreclosure. Since we are not in danger of foreclosing on our house, by my previous definition, we are in a real estate recession.

The softening real estate market is a money story of the year because it's slowing down the economy. A leading home builder said we were in the worst housing market in 40 years. In October home prices fell nationally at a 3.5% annual rate -- the biggest year-over-year price decline on record. And homeowners used their homes as a source of cash -- withdrawing $800 billion in home equity in 2005. Therefore, a reversal in home prices could boost foreclosures, reduce consumer spending, and crimp consumer confidence. Moreover, every dollar spent on buying a new house is worth another $7 to $8 to the overall economy, from spatulas to fertilizer. So a decline in home building could lead to job losses in construction and its related industries.

I view the softening real estate market as a real estate recession -- if I can keep paying my mortgage, perhaps it won't become a depression. Regardless, it looks like things will be getting worse before they get better. I lived through a real estate slump in the late 1980s -- during which time my house lost about 15% of its value. This slump looks a lot worse to me.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, and a Professor of Management at Babson College.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2006. Vote for it as the Money Story of the Year or check out the other nominees in the category.

The demise of Enron will likely turn out to be the biggest business story of the decade -- maybe even the century. The once $60 billion market cap energy trading giant dissolved into worthlessness in an ugly morass of accounting fraud and human greed in late 2001.

But 2006 was the year in the long, sad saga that some justice was finally meted out to Enron's top executives. Former chief executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were both convicted in the spring on charges including securities fraud, making false statements, and conspiracy. Enron's former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow was sentenced to six years in jail after he pleaded guilty to several charges of securities fraud and agreed to testify against his former bosses.

But the Enron story continued to provide shocking twists, even at this stage. Ken Lay died suddenly of a heart attack in July. BloggingStocks readers not only doubted that he had died of natural causes (many suspected suicide), but others doubted he had died at all.

Lay's conviction was vacated in October because he died before his sentencing. That seems to have preserved his wealth for his heirs.

Jeff Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in jail in late October. When we wrote about the sentence, 64% of readers responding to a poll said the jail time was too short. Skilling, at his sentencing, continued to profess his innocence.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. If you think this was the dumbest moment in business, cast your vote here.

What were Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) executives thinking when they allegedly authorized the unlawful accessing of records and conversations to get to the bottom of leaks that appeared as if they were coming from inside HP's board of directors?

The executives -- and HP chair Patty Dunn among them -- probably thought they were acting in the best interests of the company and HP shareholders in trying to find out who continued to leak stories and confidential information to the outside world. A few small snags arose, though -- the means by which all this spying took place contained loads of illegal activity, although as an executive officer I would have wanted to track down leak sources as well -- even inside my own board.

Regardless of the nepotism on the board and who-knows-what-else political bickering, the first duty is always to the shareholders. Protecting confidential information from outside sources that could impact market price and other factors is right up there. Does the HP spying scandal count as one of the dumbest moments in business of the year? Well, it gets my vote for #1 -- how about you?

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. To vote for Northwest's blunder or to see other dumbest moments in business, go here.

Back in August, Northwest Airlines went through a bit of trouble and was forced to cut wages and fire workers as it tried to figure out how to get out of bankruptcy. Fifty of these newly unemployed workers were given a booklet that contained 101 money-saving tips to help them through their transition. It included the advice that these former ground workers for the airline not be shy about dumpster diving.

If that's what Northwest Airlines management thought was a good way to help its fired employees, it's hardly surprising that the company stumbled its way into bankruptcy to begin with. It shows a complete lack of connection with the people who are the company's lifeblood.

The booklet, which got quickly yanked from the airline's website, contained other helpful nuggets, such as the need to set aside money for emergencies and the recommendation that employees move somewhere with a lower cost of living.

The airline, when challenged, agreed that it was a "bit insensitive," which had to be one of the understatements of the year. Northwest tried to pass off the blame by saying the booklet had been prepared by an outside company and was not vetted by management.

One big tip for Northwest's management: passing the buck didn't exactly re-inspire confidence in their ability to run the airline.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. To crown Joya as one of the laughingstocks of the corporate world this year or to see other dumbest moments in business, go here.

It's a really tough year for mediocre corporate scandals, you know the ones: options backdating, restated earnings. Yawn. No other year in memory has been so excellent as fodder for the BloggingStocks-sponsored musical (you know we're going to win a dozen Tonys): The Really Stupid Corporate Spy Who Loved Me. It's kind of a mouthful, but just wait until you hear it set to music.

And wait until you get to the opening scene, Amey Stone has already written some of the dialogue. It's set in a park somewhere in the city of Atlanta (envision: 1996 Olympics logo still visible in the background). There are some people in dark trench coats and red polo shirts, handing off a box of Girl Scout cookies to some people in dark trench coats and bright blue polo shirts. Inside? The secret recipe to Coca-Cola.

The real story is nearly just as much fun. Joya Williams, an administrative assistant, called someone at PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) claiming to be a Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) executive. Named "Dirk." [Shivers of love over how adorably stupid this all is!] She offered to sell a number of trade secrets, including a sample of a new Coca-Cola beverage, to the company's rivals. The FBI then got involved and stuffed cash in a box of Girl Scout cookies to do the handoff. Now? The poor woman's going on trial for stealing trade secrets and confidential documents in January.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. If you think this was the dumbest moment in business, cast your vote.

Bausch & Lomb's (NYSE:BOL) stock still hasn't recovered from its bungled management of rumored product contamination earlier this year.

I say rumored because the FDA never found conclusive evidence that the company's MoistureLoc solution directly caused serious fungal eye infections. But the company's slow-motion response to a growing chorus of suspicious infections cost it dearly in the end. The product was pulled from the Asian market in February, and the American market on April 13. A worldwide recall was issued May 15.

The company's stance was that there was nothing found in the various FDA inspections. But it was like talking into a gale force wind. The circumstantial evidence piled up. February 15 saw the stock at $70; by May 12 it traded at around $40.

It's hard for management to get in front of a worldwide recall when the company's culpability remains in question. But that's just what Bausch & Lomb needed to do, and didn't. Doing the right thing too slowly can be as damaging as doing nothing at all, particularly when it comes to consumer health products. It's peoples' eyes for goodness sake, get it off the shelves everywhere! The solve-the-mystery-later approach came a little too late.

In November of 2005, Bausch & Lomb had a share price of $82. Today it's at about $49. Yet the best the FDA could come up with in its most recent spanking of the company was to cite it for failure to report foreign infections -- the jury is still out on the actual cause.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. If you think that Tom Cruise makes too much money, cast your vote.

Long-considered one of the big guns in Hollywood, Golden Globe Award-winning actor and producer Tom Cruise is the only actor to have six consecutive $100 million plus blockbusters to his credit.

His acting career began when he was sidelined from the high-school wrestling team by an injury and he auditioned for and won a role in the school production of Guys and Dolls. He became a star after dancing in his underwear in the 1983 film Risky Business, for which he reportedly earned a measly $75,000. After 1986's Top Gun put Cruise in the six-figure salary range, he earned his first Razzie Award nomination for 1988's Cocktail. Critically acclaimed Rain Man, Days of Thunder, and A Few Good Men followed. In 1996 he starred in and produced Mission Impossible, the first in the blockbuster franchise, and earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in Jerry Maguire. Later blockbusters include Minority Report, The Last Samurai, and War of the Worlds (which reportedly earned him $70 million plus a percentage of the profits, as well as more Razzie nominations).

But in recent years his personal life has begun to attract more attention than his film roles, notably Cruise's very public advocacy of Scientology and anti-psychiatry statements, coupled with the tabloid speculation about his romantic relationships. In May 2005, during an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Cruise unexpectedly leaped onto the couch to profess his love for Katie Holmes, an incident that was voted #1 of 2005's Most Surprising Television Moments on a countdown on E!. Economic damage due to Cruise's controversial public behavior and views was cited as one reason for the end of the 14-year relationship between Cruise's production company and Paramount Pictures.