A consumer spending slump and tightening credit markets are prompting thousands of store closings that may remake shopping districts across the country.
AP - If Delta and Northwest are going to create the world's largest airline, they'll first have unions to cajole, politicians to placate, and antitrust regulators to convince.
AP - Yes, some Democrats in Pennsylvania's Rust Belt communities were upset by Barack Obama's suggestion that voters there "cling to guns or religion" because of bitterness about their economic lot. But many more seem to think it was no big deal — and if there's a problem it's with the political slapfest that has followed.
AP - Texas officials who took 416 children from a polygamist retreat into state custody sent many of their mothers away Monday, as a judge and lawyers struggled with a legal and logistical morass in one of the biggest child-custody cases in U.S. history.
The directors of Delta and Northwest on Monday approved a deal for the two companies to merge into the world's largest airline. The merger could lead to a series of other deals to reshape the U.S. airline industry, potentially leading to less competition, CNNMoney.com reports. The deal still faces regulatory and labor hurdles.
A group of women from a polygamist sect's Texas ranch returned to the compound Monday after authorities separated them from the 400-plus children now in state custody.
U.S. President George W. Bush has ordered the release of $200 million in emergency aid to help countries where the soaring cost of basic food has spurred riots and instability.