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Dirty Spuds? Alleged Potato Cartel Accused Of Price Fixing A civil lawsuit that shifted into U.S. district court in Idaho last week alleges that the United Potato Growers of America has become a veritable OPEC of spuds. The group is accused of using high-tech, strong-arm tactics to inflate potato prices. |
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FTC Can Sue Firms In 'Pay For Delay' Drug Deals, Court Rules The ruling may end the era of what are also called "reverse-payment" deals, in which the maker of a brand-name drug pays a maker of generic drugs to not produce a lower-priced version of their product. The Federal Trade Commission can challenge such deals in court, the justices say. |
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This One Page Could End The Copyright War Over 'Happy Birthday' The birthday song — Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, etc. — is still under copyright protection. That may soon change. |
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High Court Sides With Regulators In Drug Patent Case The Supreme Court sided with government regulators in an important case involving the pharmaceutical industry and patent law. At issue were contracts between "brand-name" pharmaceutical companies and "generic" producers in which the brand-name company paid the generic not to compete. The court said the Federal Trade Commission could challenge such contracts. |
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Wholesale Grocer Accuses Potato Farmers Of Price-Fixing A wholesale grocer has brought a lawsuit against the United Potato Growers of America claiming they are running an illegal price-fixing cartel. According to the lawsuit the UPGA has gone so far as to employ aerial surveillance to ensure its members are abiding by agreements to reduce the potato supply. Robert Siegel speaks with Associated Press reporter John Miller in Boise, Idaho about the case. |
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Google's 'Internet Balloons' Could Expand Online Access Google's "Project Loon" just launched in New Zealand — it uses balloons floating in the stratosphere to bring high-speed Internet access to remote areas. |
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For People Of Color, A Housing Market Partially Hidden From View A new study has found that blacks, Latinos and Asians looking for homes were shown fewer housing options than whites who were equally qualified. And fewer options meant higher housing costs. |
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Italian University Spreads The 'Gelato Gospel' Among the many culinary treats Italy has given the world is gelato, a frozen dessert with roots in ancient Mesopotamia. Gelato lovers from all over the world are flocking to a university outside Bologna, Italy, to master the art of gelato-making. Here's a free lesson: Don't call it ice cream. |
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Economists To G-8: Want Growth? Try This Economists hope the leaders of major economies gathering in Northern Ireland will discuss expanding global trade. Since interest rates can't be lowered much further, analysts say, trade will be a key catalyst for growth. |
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Smartphones Help Bridge Gaps In Electronic Medical Records Hospitals, doctors and Medicare are making it easier for people to have access to their own health records. Some app developers have even created ways to have health information available even on a smartphone. |
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Poor Economy Encourages Scientists To Leave Spain More than 40,000 scientists in Spain have signed a petition calling on their government to freeze budget cuts blamed for an exodus of the country's best and brightest researchers. As the Spanish government struggles to avoid a bailout, it has cut the number of university jobs and research grants. |
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Long-Term Interest Rates Start Moving Higher The bond market has pushed interest to the highest levels in 15 months, and that includes mortgage rates. David Greene talks to David Wessel, economics editor at The Wall Street Journal, about rising interest rates. |
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Lowes Looks To Acquire Hardware Stores The home-improvement retailer Lowe's has reportedly agreed to buy Orchard Supply Hardware Stores. The sale price is expected to top $200 million. Orchard is a California-based hardware-and-garden chain. It was once owned by Sears, and is now about $230 million in debt. |
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Mind-Numbing TV Shows Are A Hit In Norway Boring TV is such a hit in the Scandinavian nation of Norway that broadcasters are scrambling to produce even more shows to satisfy the appetites of viewers. One idea being considered is a live show with knitting experts, according to The Wall Street Journal. |
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To Find Out How The Health Law Affects You, Ask The President The next move in the health care law is all about coverage for people who don't have health insurance. President Obama has been trying to clear up some of the confusion over who gets coverage, and when. But many questions remain to be answered. |
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Visa Exchange Program Draws Scrutiny Under Immigration Bill As lawmakers consider a sweeping immigration bill, they are taking a close look at a decades-old exchange program popular with foreigners looking for summer jobs. Critics of the J-1 visa program say it can hurt U.S. job seekers at a time when youth unemployment is at 25 percent. |
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World's Shortest Business Brief: The Smoffice Contest results are in for the world's smallest office. |
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Google's 'Looney' Internet Balloons Invade New Zealand The tech giant hopes the test of flying hotspots will bring service to billions of people in remote areas such as Africa and Southeast Asia. |
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Facebook, Microsoft Reveal Requests For User Data The tech giants say they have been allowed to reveal data requests from the government in broad terms, but expressed frustration that they aren't permitted to say more. |
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Pandora Buys A Radio Station, Songwriters' Group Calls It A 'Stunt' This week, the Internet radio broadcaster bought a radio station in Rapid City, S.D., in an effort to get the more favorable royalty rates given to terrestrial broadcasters. But the move has songwriters and composers up in arms. |
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How Rock 'N' Roll Can Explain The U.S. Economy In music, as in so many industries, the lion's share of the money now goes to a relative handful of top performers, says White House economic adviser Alan Krueger. He says the music business offers valuable lessons about America's "superstar economy." |
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Rule Would List All Chimps As Endangered, Even Lab Animals Though the regulation proposed by the Fish and Wildlife Service would make it more difficult to use chimpanzees for research purposes, that may not be a problem, some scientists say. Scientific advances show the animals are less medically useful than previously thought. |
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Housing-Market Watchers Edgy As Mortgage Rates Keep Climbing The Federal Reserve's economic stimulus has helped keep mortgage rates at record lows in the years since the Great Recession. But rates are ticking upward, leaving some investors worried that the nascent housing recovery will suffer if the Fed unravels its policies too quickly. |
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Housing Market Watchers Edgy As Mortgage Rates Keep Climbing The Federal Reserve's economic stimulus has helped keep mortgage rates at record lows in the years since the Great Recession. But rates are ticking upward, leaving some investors worried that the nascent housing recovery will suffer if the Fed unravels its policies too quickly. |
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When People Make Their Own Banks An ex-con lends money to people in need; a group of friends creates a savings club. Even without banks, people often figure out how to get the money they need, when they need it. |
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Nudging Detroit: Program Doubles Food Stamp Bucks In Grocery Stores Incentive programs that double the value of food stamp dollars spent at farmers markets have been hailed as one of the most effective ways to encourage healthful eating and support local farmers. The flaw: Most people don't shop at farmers markets. So a new program will soon pilot the concept at three grocery stores in Detroit. |
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Looking Back, and Up, at a Seattle Icon Seattle's Space Needle opened in 1962 as part of the World's Fair. Knute Berger, author of Space Needle: The Spirit of Seattle, discusses the history and engineering behind the tower, and explains why a symbol of "the future" from days gone by still has relevance today. |
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Since his days as head of the Solar Energy Research Institute under President Jimmy Carter, Denis Hayes has been pushing to add more renewable energy sources to the country's energy portfolio. Hayes discusses the current U.S. market for renewables such as solar and wind, and gives his take on where he sees America's energy future headed. |
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With Climate Change, No Happy Clams Carbon emissions are slowly acidifying ocean waters, forcing marine life to adapt. Oysters and other shellfish, for example, may have a harder time building their shells, according to NOAA's Richard Feely. At Quilcene, Washington's Taylor Shellfish Hatchery, research director Benoit Eudeline says he's already seeing those effects. |
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Decoding 'the Most Complex Object in the Universe' The human brain contains some 100 billion neurons, which together form a network of Internet-like complexity. Christof Koch, chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, calls the brain "the most complex object in the known universe," and he's mapping its connections in hopes of discovering the origins of consciousness. |
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Human Genes Not Patentable, Supreme Court Says The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that the mere act of isolating a DNA sequence does not make human genes patentable. Mary-Claire King, who helped discover the breast cancer gene at the center of the court dispute, discusses the ruling and its implications for genetics. |
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Valid Cycles specializes in handcrafted bamboo bicycle frames. To be bike-ready, the bamboo must be cooked in an oven, stripped, and sealed. But after that, the founders of Valid Cycles say the bikes last as long as a metal one. We stopped by their shop — a barn in Woodinville, Washington — for a look at how the bikes are put together. |
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Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn Talks Climate and Carbon Like any major city near a coast, Seattle likely won't be immune from rising sea levels and other effects of global warming. Mayor Mike McGinn discusses the city's plans for addressing climate change, including his push to divest Seattle's pension funds from fossil fuel investments, and the city council's plan to make Seattle carbon neutral by 2050. |
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Sorry, Dr. Oz, Green Coffee Can't Even Slim Down Chubby Mice An extract from raw, green coffee beans has been called a "miracle" weight-loss aid. But a study in mice casts doubt on the supplement's fat-burning effects — and even offers preliminary evidence that it could be harmful. |
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Detroit's Emergency Manager Meets With Creditors Kevyn Orr will ask unions, retirees and banks to take big losses on debt the city just can't afford to pay. But Orr is walking a fine line trying to convince those parties to accept a bankruptcy-style settlement, without actually going to bankruptcy court — at least, not yet. |
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Bidding War Breaks Out For 2 Boston Parking Spaces The two spaces in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood went for $560,000, according to the Boston Globe. The spaces are on crumbling asphalt in an alleyway. |
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Business News: A Man, A Plan, A Canal The Nicaraguan congress has granted a Chinese tycoon the exclusive right to develop a multi-billion dollar rival to the Panama Canal. The bill grants the investor 50 years of control over the potential shipping route — pending a study of its viability. |
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Why More People Are Renting Tires "I understand that I'll probably end up paying a lot," one customer says. "But right now, I need the tires." |
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Can Captain Sunshine Save The Israeli Electric Car Dream? The electric car company Better Place failed to build the dream it had designed. Its bankruptcy left tech-watchers worried about the stain on the country, which is proud of its image as a startup hotbed. But there may be a savior in the wings. |
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Unpaid No More: Interns Win Major Court Battle A federal ruling against a major movie studio's use of unpaid interns could have a wide impact on uncompensated labor, including internships for college credit. Workers' advocates say many interns are preventing workers who can't afford to work free from entering the labor force. |
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Under The Radar: Some Pilots Of Small Drones Skirt FAA Rules Unmanned drones aren't just a tool for governments anymore. By as early as this year, the Federal Aviation Administration expects to propose regulations opening up the use of small, unmanned airborne vehicles, or drones, for commercial use. Until then, anyone trying to make money with them is breaking FAA rules. |
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American Airlines To Add More Seats To 737s, MD-80s The airline will likely have to shrink legroom on its planes in order to accommodate the additional seats. |
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Why Bill Gates Is Investing In Chicken-Less Eggs   Investors like Gates are betting that our planet can't sustain the current rate of growth in animal-based foods for too much longer. Products like Beyond Eggs, a plant-based substitute, are designed to fill the void. |
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Companies Paying To Get Ahead With Economic Indicators Some trading firms have found a way to get an advanced peek at crucial economic data before anyone else. |
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Supreme Court Gene Ruling Splits Hairs Over What's 'Natural' The court said biotech company Myriad could not patent human genes, since they already "existed in nature." But when it comes to synthetic DNA, the court said patents may be acceptable in some cases. |
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Chinese Astronauts Dock With Orbiting Space Lab The three-person crew includes China's second female astronaut, being billed as the country's "first teacher in space." |
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What Bird Flocks And Fish Schools Can Teach Us About The Future Birds flock. Insects swarm. Fish swim in schools. These are all examples of collective behavior, a concept that has fascinated scientists for decades. For a recent piece in Wired Magazine, science writer Ed Yong explains what this research could tell us about predicting the future. |
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U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin To Step Down Benjamin, citing her work on disease prevention and wellness programs, will return to her home in southern Alabama to treat patients at the clinic she founded south of Mobile. |
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Could Brain Scans Reveal The Right Treatment For Depression? Treating depression is a hit-or-miss process; the first treatment works less than half the time. Scientists say they may be able to use PET brain scans to tell whether antidepressants or cognitive behavioral therapy will work best. But tailored treatments are still far off. |
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Old McDonald Might Be A Lady: More Women Take Up Farming The number of women running farms of all sizes has tripled since the early 1980s, according to the USDA. Economists say that more women are seeing opportunities to try farming, especially if they already have an off-farm job. |
