Shorts (left)
President Barack Obama on Tuesday stepped into the middle of a fierce lobbying battle by reinforcing his support for an independent agency to protect consumers against lending abuses that contributed to the financial crisis. The president’s move also signaled a tougher line and a more direct role as Congress weighs an overhaul of banking regulation.
GOP Surges to Senate Victory in Massachusetts
Scott Brown, a little-known Republican state senator, rode an old pickup truck and a growing sense of unease among independent voters to an extraordinary upset Tuesday night when he was elected to fill the U.S. Senate seat that was long held by Edward M. Kennedy in the overwhelmingly Democratic state of Massachusetts.
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Japan Airlines, the once-mighty flagship carrier and Asia’s biggest airline, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, setting the stage for a state-led bailout that could bring sweeping changes to this corner of the global aviation market.
Hackers Who Leave No Trace
The crown jewels of Google, Cisco Systems or any other technology company are the millions of lines of programming instructions, known as source code, that make its products run.
It’s All About The Ratio
Meteorologists often describe snow as “wet” and “dry.” An example of wet snow is the kind we just got in yesterday’s storm. It tends to stick to tree trunks and street signs like paste, is hard to shovel, and makes good snowballs to pelt your friends or enemies with. On the other hand, dry snow is quite light and powdery, blows around easily, and makes for great skiing and snowboarding. There are a number of factors that determine whether we get wet or dry snow, but it generally comes down to the type of snowflakes that fall out of the sky and corresponding snow to liquid ratio that results.
O’Brien Says He Won’t Host<br />‘Tonight Show’ After Leno
NBC may control its airwaves but it does not apparently control Conan O’Brien.
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For years, Wall Street whispered that Goldman Sachs profited handsomely by trading ahead of — or even against — its own clients.
Bankers’ Regrets Might Be Wrapped in Nuance
As America recovers from the worst financial crisis since the Depression, some of the nation’s chief executives are offering that rarest of statements: an apology.
Report Links Vehicle Exhaust To Health Problems
Exhaust from cars and trucks exacerbates asthma in children and may cause new cases as well as other respiratory illnesses and heart problems resulting in deaths, an independent institute that focuses on vehicle-related air pollution has concluded.
Counseling Calm Over Latest Terrorism Plots
As terrorist plots against the United States have piled up in recent months, politicians and the news media have sounded the alarm with a riveting message for Americans: Be afraid. Al-Qaida is on the march again, targeting the country from within and without, and your hapless government cannot protect you.
Google May End Its<br />Operations in China
Google, facing an assault by hackers who sought to penetrate the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, will stop cooperating with Chinese censorship and consider closing its offices and operations in China altogether, the company said on Tuesday.
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The treatment has become so popular that patients with orthopedic injuries are demanding it, willing to pay $1,000 or more out of their own pocket. Its appeal only soared higher when professional athletes like Tiger Woods and the football players Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward reported that it cured them.
Heat Wave This Weekend
High pressure remains in control over the eastern part of the country, giving us a period of quiet weather through the end of the weekend. Plenty of sunshine will be available, giving some of the snow in the area a chance to melt, although this might be bad news for those who enjoy skiing and snowboarding. A “heat wave” slides in on Friday, with a high of 47°F, which is over 10°F above average for this time of year. Long range forecasts show the possibility of a winter storm Monday and Tuesday, but at this point the weather then is rather uncertain.
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Some widely prescribed drugs for depression provide relief in extreme cases but are no more effective than placebo pills for most patients, according to a new analysis.
Military Drive to Build Afghan Expert Corps Seen to Lag
The military’s effort to build a seasoned corps of expert officers for the Afghan war, one of the highest priorities of top commanders, is off to a slow start, with too few volunteers and a high-level warning to the armed services to steer better candidates into the program, according to some senior officers and participants.
China’s U.N. Envoy Objects To Tougher Penalties for Iran
Imposing tougher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program is a poor idea while diplomatic negotiations remain possible, Zhang Yesui, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday.
Obama Faults Intelligence Agencies In Failure ‘To Connect Those Dots’
President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the government had sufficient information to uncover the terror plot to bring down a commercial jetliner on Christmas Day, but that intelligence officials had “failed to connect those dots.”
Television Begins Push <br />Into the 3rd Dimension<br />
Ralph Kramden can finally buy a television.
U.S. Saw a Path to Qaida Chiefs Before Bombing
Before detonating a suicide bomb in Afghanistan last week, a Jordanian militant was considered by U.S. spy agencies to be the most promising informant in years about the whereabouts of al-Qaida’s top leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahri, the terrorist group’s second-ranking operative.
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For the better part of three decades, the car plant here was a seemingly endless source of trouble for General Motors.