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Mortgage help: 170,000 get permanent aid
More than 170,000 troubled homeowners are breathing a lasting sigh of relief now that they've received permanent modifications under the Obama administration's foreclosure prevention program.

$642 million to clean up Lehman -- and counting
Unraveling the biggest-ever U.S. bankruptcy case isn't cheap.

Good news for stocks is good for the $
The dollar has gotten stronger this year. Is that because the U.S. economy appears to be improving -- or in spite of it?

Yellen in line for Fed No. 2
San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen is a leading contender to be the next vice chairman of the central bank, according to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Health care: Going from broken to broke
A few nights ago in the historic Renaissance Grand Hotel in St. Louis, Mo., President Obama reassured a crowd of Senator Claire McCaskill supporters that health-care reform wouldn't just be good for their health, it would be good for the health of the country: "I said at the beginning of this thing we would not do anything that adds to our deficit," he said to the clapping audience. "This plan does not do anything to add to this deficit. And that's how we should be operating."

30-year rides auction wave
The 30-year bond continued to rise Friday, carrying over from a successful $13 billion government auction the day before. Other Treasurys remained relatively flat as investors look ahead to statements from the Fed next week.

'Medical mafia' don pleads guilty
A medical consultant accused of orchestrating a conspiracy among top Las Vegas doctors and lawyers to inflate personal injury settlements by many millions of dollars, has pleaded guilty to concealing knowledge of a felony, a charge known as misprision. The consultant, Howard Awand, 65, faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Warriors in the workplace
John Suh wanted to make a good impression on his new mentor. Before their first meeting last November, the 26-year-old former Army officer came up with a clear outline for what he hoped to get out of the relationship and rehearsed what he would say when the time came. "I went in there with a plan," says Suh. "I knew this was an incredible chance to expand my network. It's not like I have any relatives or friends who are CEOs of giant media conglomerates."

Google's privacy challenge
When dealing with privacy, Google often finds itself walking a tightrope.

Oil dips on gloomy consumer sentiment
Oil prices fell Friday, as a preliminary consumer sentiment report came in worse than expected, overshadowing a rosy government retail sales report and a weaker dollar.

Hedge funds: They're back!
After two incredibly turbulent years defined by high-profile blow-ups and staggering losses, the hedge fund industry appears to be expanding once again.

Stocks near 18-month highs
Stocks ended little changed Friday, as investors welcomed a report that showed a surprise rise in retail sales, but showed caution as the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 lingered below 18-month highs.

Apple's online store braces for iPad preorders
Apple's online store was temporarily closed Friday morning as the company got ready to start taking preorders for its highly anticipated iPad tablet computer.

Retail sales beat expectations
Retail sales rose in February, the government said Friday, surprising economists who expected a decline.

Dollar hurt by weak consumer data
The dollar fell Friday against most major currencies except the yen as investors digested conflicting reports on retail sales and consumer confidence.

Stocks set for gains
U.S. stocks were poised to extend gains Friday after a government report showed surprising strength in retail sales for February.

The three-figure kitchen makeover
Living with an undersize, outdated kitchen? If so, a sledgehammer may feel like the only solution. But these days you're probably not up for spending the $50,000 or more -- maybe much more -- it would cost to demolish the space and build a new state-of-the-art room from scratch.

Give money to a jobless friend?
Dear Annie: I have a very close friend who's been out of work for almost a year now. He was my college roommate: I've known him for almost 20 years and, for about half that time, we worked at the same company. Then he got laid off. Last week one of my kids told me that my friend's youngest son missed out on a ski trip with the rest of his class because of the expense, even though the cost was minimal (to those of us with jobs).

Building the world's longest ethanol pipeline
John D. Rockefeller figured out a long time ago that the most efficient way to transport liquid fuels long distances wasn't on wheels but in pipelines. Today POET, the privately held Sioux Falls, S.D., company that is the country's largest producer of ethanol, and Tulsa pipeline-builder Magellan Midstream Partners are poised to make the same leap.

What killed Lehman
Failings by Lehman Brothers executives and its auditor led to the bank collapse that unleashed the worst of the financial crisis, according to a report by a court-appointed investigator.

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