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The Obama administration on Friday stepped up its efforts to curb environmental damage from surface coal mining, announcing plans to give 79 permit applications in four states additional scrutiny.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it wants to make certain the proposed mines won’t cause water pollution and violate the Clean Water Act […]

The negotiations over health reform are kicking into high gear. And one of the top issues is whether to make insurance companies pay for some of it.
President Obama in his joint address to Congress Wednesday said that he supports the idea as a way to help fund the cost of reform — which, depending […]

We are always reinventing ourselves. In the beginning, when we are very new, we reach for gravity, adopting silly pinstripes and tight shoes.
Later on, when youth is but a memory, we start dressing like hipsters. Some of us don’t even shave, we’re so youthful, even though the beard that comes in is chased […]

If banks ever had a capital problem, it certainly isn’t showing.
Large and small lenders alike have successfully raised billions of dollars in recent months, thanks in large part to a renewed appetite in the banking industry by investors. And some experts anticipate it won’t slow down anytime soon.
Secondary offerings of stock, for example, have […]

Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Monday that it would buy peer BJ Services Co for $5.5 billion in a move to take on sector giants Halliburton Co and Schlumberger Ltd.
The stock-and-cash deal values BJ at a 16 percent premium over its closing price on Friday, said the companies, whose boards have […]

President Obama is expected to nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as head of the Federal Reserve, a senior administration official told CNN Monday night.
The source asked not to be identified because the announcement had not yet been made.
Obama is expected to make the announcement on Tuesday morning at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., where […]

Germany and France enjoyed a shock return to economic growth in the second quarter of the year, data showed on Thursday, ending their recessions earlier than many policymakers and economists had expected.
German gross domestic product rose by 0.3% in the second quarter, bringing an end to the country’s deepest recession since World War Two […]

One of Washington’s true epic battles will play out over the next several weeks. It’s the fight over health-care reform, of course, and it will be big, brutal, and ugly.
The stakes are high — trillions of dollars, the reelection prospects of hundreds of legislators, and President Obama’s legacy. So let’s acknowledge right now […]

Barack Obama promised universal health care and a mass conversion to green energy when he launched his presidential campaign. On that frigid February day in 2007, the economy was growing at a 2.8% clip. Obama stuck to the same promises a year later when he won Iowa, as the housing market was slumping into […]

IBM’s improved outlook lifted the Dow industrials Friday, but the broader market struggled as investors showed fatigue after a strong week on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 32 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 (SPX) index ended just below unchanged and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) ended just above the breakeven point.
The […]