Wall Street closed out its first two-week gain in almost a year Friday barely. After a mixed start, stocks veered lower in the afternoon as financial stocks fell and investors collected profits from the advance that saw the Dow rise 14 percent over seven trading days.
Down here in the Deep South, calls to bring back the hanging noose are coming from an unlikely source: a 62-year-old, black Republican mayoral candidate in Mississippi's largest city.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday called for banking supervisors to pay "close attention" to compensation practices as they examine the soundness of financial institutions.
Despite new estimates that say President Barack Obama's budget would generate unsustainable large deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year, the White House insisted Friday that the flood of red ink won't swamp its costly agenda.
The African Union on Friday suspended Madagascar as the international community stepped up the pressure on the increasingly isolated island nation where the army forced the country's president from power.
AARP has long been seen as the domain of the aged. But its new CEO says the group's central issue of health care reform makes it an advocate for every age group.
Shawn Alexander can recognize the look immediately. It's one of surprise when a student enters his African-American studies class and finds, standing at the front, a white guy.
