Search results for

Are federal prosecutors gearing up to file more big mortgage fraud cases? Bank of America was targeted recently, and JPMorgan Chase has disclosed that it is under investigation. Now that banks have returned to profitability, regulators may be more willing to take action. But time may be running out in some cases.

President Obama unveiled a plan on Thursday that would, for the first time, tie federal student aid to a new rating system for colleges and universities. The problem is that many of the things the administration wants to measure to rate schools are hard to pin down.

When Republicans on Capitol Hill want to hear reasons not to take strong action on climate change, sometimes they call on Judith Curry to testify. The climatologist has staked out an unusual position on the subject: She says the climate is changing and people are partly responsible, but we shouldn't bother regulating carbon dioxide.

The former politician Bo Xilai offered a spirited defense in court in China on Thursday, surprising observers who had expected a quick show trial to end the country's biggest political scandal in decades. However Bo was allowed to cross-examine witnesses and tell judges he had been framed in the bribery charges against him. He said he had confessed to the charges under psychological pressure during interrogation.

More than 330,000 people filed new claims for unemployment insurance benefits last week. That sounds like a big number — and is a slight increase over the previous week — but it's being taken as some very good news. For a month, now, fewer new people are asking for unemployment insurance than at any time since November, 2007. That's before the Great Recession.

A blogger charges that management at the Minneapolis-based symphony may have attempted to undercut pro-labor organizing efforts — several months before talks between the musicians and the administration failed. The orchestra association says that they were just doing their job.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is back in the news — more than two years after an earthquake and tsunami triggered a series of meltdowns. New leaks found this week prompted regulators to consider raising the alert level.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was released from prison on Thursday. He is under house arrest at a military hospital in Cairo. Mubarak could go back to prison if he's convicted in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising against him.

Reports about the use of chemical weapons near Damascus are "very troublesome," the president tells CNN. For the U.S., "core national interests" are now at stake: Syria's weapons of mass destruction must not be allowed to spread. But military action also requires international support, Obama says.

A Canadian dentist bought one of John Lennon's molars at auction for $31,000. And now, Michael Zuk plans to use the tooth to clone the former Beatle. The DNA sequencing is already underway.