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© Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images     December is here, and you know what that means. No, not just winter and shopping and “Star Wars” and Santa Claus. This year, December likely also means a long-awaited interest rate hike. It is widely expected that the Federal Reserve will raise rates at its policy meeting later this month, from a range of 0-to-0.25 percent to 0.25-to-0.50 percent. This, despite the small absolute change, is actually a pretty big deal. It would end the long experiment with rock bottom interest rates that started in 2008. And it would represent the first monetary policy tightening in nearly 10 years. Millions of Americans will be affected. Car loans will get more expensive. Mortgage rates will rise. Floating rates on credit cards and home equity loans will rise. Related: 10 Ways the Fed’s Looming Rate Hike Touches You But how, exactly, will Fed Chair Janet Yellen and her   cohorts actually increase the cost of credit? The simple ...

BY BOB KALINOWSKI Published: November 30, 2014 WILKES-BARRE — Kevin Vanwhy needed a new kidney and time was running out. The Wilkes-Barre man’s wife was willing to donate one, but her blood type wasn’t a match. A young woman nearing death in Atlanta also had a willing donor. But the donor wasn’t compatible either. Two people in Toledo, Ohio, faced the same scenario. On Oct. 2, the groups participated in a three-way kidney swap organized by the United Network for Organ Sharing, which helps link organ donors and recipients around the country. Mr. Vanwhy, who has battled diabetes for years, got a kidney from a 24-year-old woman in Toledo. His wife’s kidney went to the critically ill woman in Atlanta. The Atlanta donor’s kidney ended up with a patient in Toledo. Three selfless donors. Three lives saved. Three groups of people that never met before — and still haven’t. After it was all over, doctors joked with Mr. Vanwhy, 50, that he received the “Mercedes” of organ donation...