AP - U.S. retail sales jumped 1 percent in January, reversing a six-month declining trend and defying economists' expectations by posting the biggest increase in 14 months.
AP - Nearly 5 million Americans continued to draw jobless benefits late last month, and new requests again exceeded 600,000 as companies lay off scores of workers amid a deepening recession.
AP - President Barack Obama called on Americans Thursday to follow Abraham Lincoln's example of showing generosity to political opponents and valuing national unity — above all else.
Shortly after midnight on January 24, Garrett Reed, a star football player, died in a head-on crash. Police later determined that he had been drinking, and alleged that a classmate's mother had supplied the alcohol. Kecia Evangela Whitfield was charged, becoming another example in a national crackdown.
A special court ruled Thursday that evidence presented in three cases by parents of children with autism did not prove a link between autism and certain early childhood vaccines.
President Obama and members of Congress are paying tribute to Abraham Lincoln on the bicentennial of his birth. "I can say that I feel a special gratitude to this singular figure who in so many ways made my own story possible -- and who in so many ways made America's story possible," Obama said at the Capitol.
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