WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a $15 billion measure intended to spur job creation by granting payroll tax breaks to businesses that hire new workers, hoping to show voters that Congress was doing something about the dismal employment picture. The vote was 217 to 201.
Democratic backers of the plan wanted to [...]

The World Health Organizations says smoking is considered a high risk factor in six of the eight leading causes of death worldwide. Medical experts have long preached about how smokers can quit. Now a growing number of employers in the United States are refusing to hire them. Some smokers are wondering what kind [...]

A small single-engine airplane crashed into an office building in Austin, Texas Thursday in what may have been a suicide carried out by a disturbed local resident. The pilot is believed to have died and two people in the building were injured.
The plane struck the side of a seven-story building in northwest Austin where many [...]

As time goes on, one of the more interesting trends that continues to happen with surprising regularity is how frequently new business models and ways of doing business are emerging through social media and online tools. In many cases, these trends are helping to reinvent how businesses sell and consumers buy all kinds of products. [...]

by Connie Prater
APR Shocks Many, but Issuer Says They Are Pricing for the Risk
If you have bad credit in the new era of credit card regulation, be prepared to pay — dearly — for the privilege of using credit. That’s the message underlying recent credit card offers that feature jaw-dropping interest rates of up to [...]

Daniel “Danny’’ Dennis Sr., founder and managing partner of an accounting firm in Boston, died of pancreatic cancer at his home on Thursday. The Quincy resident was 67.
Mr. Dennis founded Daniel Dennis & Co. in Boston in 1981. The firm grew from one partner and five or six employees to seven partners and about 30 [...]

Two former Blackwater Worldwide employees say the security company repeatedly billed the U.S. government for excessive or inappropriate expenses, including a prostitute for workers in Afghanistan and strippers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Virginia, Brad and Melan Davis say Blackwater officials also deceived the government by double-billing for [...]

The unemployment rate in the U.S. unexpectedly dropped to 9.7 percent in January, indicating the labor market may be poised to climb out of its deepest slump since World War II.
More than half a million Americans found work, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington, helping push the jobless rate to the lowest since [...]