Doctor and Patient: Why Failing Med Students Don’t Get Failing Grades

Tall and dark-haired, the third-year medical student always seemed to be the first to arrive at the hospital and the last to leave, her white coat perpetually weighed down by the books and notes she jammed into the pockets. She appeared totally absorbed by her work, even exhausted at times, and said little to anyone around her.Except when she got frustrated.I first noticed her when I overheard her...

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High & Low Finance: Report Lays Out Plan to Reduce Government Role in Home Financing

Can the American mortgage market ever function again without Uncle Sam guaranteeing that lenders will be repaid? It is amazing just how few people think it can. “For the foreseeable future, there is simply not enough capacity on the balance sheets of U.S. banks to allow a reliance on depository institutions as the sole source of liquidity for the mortgage market,” stated a report on...

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Race for L.A. city controller heats up

A previously low-profile race for Los Angeles city controller has begun to heat up as opponents of City Councilman Dennis Zine...

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Samsung Wallet Is Just Like Passbook, But on Android

Samsung Wallet, a newly announced Android app that looks and works a lot like Apple’s Passbook app for the iPhone, will surely add to the accusations that the Korean company rips off Cupertino at every opportunity.Like Passbook, Wallet is a designed as a central repository for your digital gift certificates, coupons, tickets, travel details and boarding passes. And, like Passbook, it will...

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Global Health: After Measles Success, Rwanda to Get Rubella Vaccine

Rwanda has been so successful at fighting measles that next month it will be the first country to get donor support to move to the next stage — fighting rubella too. On March 11, it will hold a nationwide three-day vaccination campaign with a combined measles-rubella vaccine, hoping to reach nearly five million children up to age 14. It will then integrate the dual vaccine into its national...

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DealBook: J.C. Penney’s Poor Showing Is Another Retail Miss for Ackman

With J.C. Penney‘s awful fourth-quarter results, William A. Ackman has found success in retail investments elusive once more.It’s hard to call J.C. Penney’s latest quarterly report anything but breathtaking. The retailer lost $552 million for the quarter, which at $1.95 a share far exceeded the 17-cent loss that analysts had been expecting. Same-store sales tumbled nearly 32 percent from the same...

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Gaza militants break cease-fire with rocket attack into Israel

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Cablevision Sues Viacom Over Bundled Channels

You pay too much for pay TV because your cable company is forced to purchase channels in bundles from media companies like Viacom — if it wants to offer MTV, it has to pay for CMT Pure Country and Teen Nick as well. Now one cable provider has had enough, and is suing for the right to purchase channels à la carte. Cablevision, a New York-based cable TV provider, filed an antitrust lawsuit against...

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Advanced Breast Cancer May Be Rising Among Young Women, Study Finds

The incidence of advanced breast cancer among younger women, ages 25 to 39, may have increased slightly over the last three decades, according to a study released Tuesday. But more research is needed to verify the finding, which was based on an analysis of statistics, the study’s authors said. They do not know what may have caused the apparent increase. Some outside experts questioned...

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Economic Scene: Medicare Needs Fixing, but Not Right Now

What’s the rush? For all the white-knuckled wrangling over spending cuts set to start on Friday, the fundamental partisan argument over how to fix the government’s finances is not about the immediate future. It is about the much longer term: how will the nation pay for the care of older Americans as the vast baby boom generation retires? Will the government keep Medicare spending in check by asking...

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