It’s almost Labor Day, which means it’s time again to bid farewell to the lazy days of summer. The upside is that you have three days off to enjoy your time. Seize this opportunity to shop the mega sales, play some golf (mini or otherwise) and eat something grilled before the mildly cooler temperatures set in.

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

In its single biggest repayment of bailout loans so far, American International Group Inc. said Monday it is paying back nearly $4 billion in taxpayer aid with proceeds from a recent debt sale.

The insurer's aircraft leasing company, International Lease Finance Corp., completed the sale of $4.4 billion in debt. AIG will use more than $3.9 billion of the proceeds to repay the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, trimming the balance on its credit line with the Fed to about $15 billion. Adding interest, the total is about $21 billion.

The emergency credit line was part of a $182 billion federal bailout package that New York-based AIG received during the financial crisis to avoid collapse. AIG has been selling off assets to pay back the aid.

"This is continuing tangible evidence of AIG's progress in repaying the American taxpayers," said Robert Benmosche, AIG President and CEO. "AIG is getting stronger every day. We still have more work to do, but we will finish the job and make sure we repay the American taxpayers."

As of June 30, excluding the new payment, AIG said its outstanding balance owed to the government stood at about $101 billion. The total includes debt as well as preferred shares of stock in AIG held by the Treasury Department.

Los Angeles-based ILFC leases one of the world's biggest commercial jet fleets. It struggled earlier this year to pay off its loans, and had to draw the $3.9 billion from AIG to pay back some of its debt. AIG had tried to find a buyer for the unit, but any sale seems off the table for now as ILFC has found healthy demand for recent bond offerings which will help it meet some deadlines for paying back loans.

The repayment will release about $10 billion of collateral that ILFC had pledged to the Fed under the credit agreement. With the recent debt sales and other notes issues, the aircraft unit has boosted its total liquidity -- assets that can quickly be converted to cash -- to more than $12.5 billion over the last five months.

The offerings "are a direct reflection of our company's viability and future prospects as a leader in leasing aircraft to the world's airlines," said Henri Courpron, ILFC's CEO. He noted that the company has more than $13 billion in aircraft orders.

Separately, AIG said it will book a pretax charge of about $650 million against its earnings due to the repayment.

AIG shares dipped 13 cents to $35.04. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $21.54 to $55.90.

In June, the Congressional Oversight Panel said in a report that it was still unclear whether U.S. taxpayers will ever fully recoup the full $182 billion they plowed into AIG.

Regulators feared AIG's collapse would pose a threat to the whole U.S. financial system, in part because of AIG's dealings in financial contracts called credit default swaps. The swaps that AIG sold were insurance-like guarantees on mortgage securities that wound up forcing AIG to pay out billions of dollars after the housing market went bust.

Earlier this month, AIG reported a $538 million second-quarter loss due to charges related to selling assets to repay the bailout money. Among the charges were $3.42 billion related to the sales of AIG's American Life Insurance Co. unit, or Alico, and its Nan Shan Life Insurance Co.

It's far from the only service that Fiesta Auto Insurance Co. provides.

Yet John Rost, founder and president of the growing full service agency business, considers the particular practice to be in the best interest of drivers everywhere.

He's referring to writing auto insurance policies for illegal immigrants, despite their inability to legally obtain a state-issued driver's license beforehand.

"People would like to believe that an undocumented individual wouldn't buy a car, or if they had a car and didn't have a driver's license, they wouldn't drive to work," Rost said. "That's clearly not the case."

The issue is framed within a larger ongoing political debate over immigration policy and can generate the same divisiveness. Rost pointed to the concern by some that issuing a driver's license to those without immigration status will result in other benefits following suit.

There is also the social welfare debate about using immigration status as a prerequisite for selling auto insurance, and whether such a limitation might skew one's chances of being hit by an uninsured motorist.

As history continues to show, a lack of insurance doesn't necessarily keep illegal drivers off the road. Bob Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, said about 15% of drivers in the United States lack automobile insurance. Put simply, Hartwig said society is better served with a higher proportion of insured drivers; and an individual is better off being hit by a driver with a policy. But he said many never get past the initial political debate.

"It's a dicey issue on the national stage, and it's not one that the insurance industry is going to be able to resolve or play a fundamental role in," Hartwig said. "Unless the law of the state forbids an insurer from selling the coverage to someone who is undocumented, then it's likely there will be insurers and agents who are willing to service that market."

In California, there is no state law that would prevent an insurer from selling an auto policy to a non-U.S. resident or an unlicensed driver, according to the state Department of Insurance. Carriers there can also write coverage for someone with a valid driver's license from another country. In 1993, the state passed a law that required licensed drivers to establish proof of legal residency, well in advance of momentum that has built at the federal level.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks there was a shift in driver licensing standards. Spurred along by Congress in 2005 there has been a push for states to require that applicants have established a "lawful presence" in the United States before being issued a license.

As of March 2007, 30 states have adopted the lawful presence standard established under Real ID initiative, according to Janice Kephart, director of national security policy at the Center for Immigration Studies. All but four states -- Illinois, New Mexico, Utah and Washington --require driver license applicants to establish a lawful presence.

Rost said assisting illegal immigrants in obtaining auto coverage is a small component of his franchise-oriented agency. Rost started his auto insurance business in California with four offices in 1999 and his initial target was the under-served Hispanic and Latino market (BestWire, Jan. 22, 2010).

In addition to insurance coverage, as well as standard and nonstandard auto, Fiesta franchises also offer tax preparation services. He said the underwriting process for illegal immigrants without a license wasn't anything unique. In the absence of a foreign driver's license, some use a matricula or form of government identification.

"I don't know if any of us are out there vying for it," Rost said, referring to the market. "It's not something we advertise or market. It's simply due to the fact that these consumers are walking in and insurance companies are able to take that customer and charge them what they think is the appropriate premium. We're simply able to facilitate that."

Rost said the coverage being written through carriers has been available for the past seven years and underwritten by major ones.

"As soon as one carrier allowed it in their underwriting guidelines, other carriers started to add it in," Rost said.

Rost noted that establishing citizenship isn't necessarily a requirement for purchasing or registering a car, something confirmed by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Insurers.

"If somebody can buy a vehicle, register a vehicle and insure a vehicle legally, wouldn't it be in the best interest of the community within that state to see that they actually know how to control their vehicle?" Rost said. "Isn't that the purpose of them going to a driver's license exam and road test?"