Glenbrook's Jacqueline Chilton shares her thoughts about some alternative ways to gift this holiday season.

Kathleen Pender writes for the San Francisco Chronicle about a new California state law, SB250, that takes effect on January 1st requiring retailers in California "to redeem unused or partially used gift cards or certificates for cash when the value on the card is less than $10." Pender also notes that the law "does not apply to cards that can be used at multiple retailers, such as those issued by malls or ones with a card-company logo such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover. Federal law covers those."

Mike Meyers writes for the Star-Tribune about the decline in paper check processing at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "The change is taking place at a geometric pace -- last year, 7 percent of the checks going through the Minneapolis Fed were electronic, this year the share rose to 35 percent, and next year, two-thirds of the transactions are expected to be composed of bits and bytes, not paper."