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In the hopes of sustaining the real estate market's recent momentum, Uncle Sam has made more than two-thirds of current homeowners and nearly all first-time buyers eligible for thousands of dollars in tax perks when they purchase a house. President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 into law Friday, a day after the House of Representatives approved it by a 403-to-12 vote. The legislation includes language that significantly expands the popular first-time home buyer tax credit that was enacted in February. ...

Pop star Rihanna is finally speaking out about the domestic assault inflicted upon her in February by her boyfriend at the time, Chris Brown. She told Diane Sawyer in an interview that aired this morning on ABC's Good Morning America that the brutal beating--for which Brown pled guilty in June--was "a wake-up call for me. Big time." She added that it was "wrong" that she initially went back to Brown afterward the attack. (Watch the interview here.)

In what will no doubt boost skepticism over the Obama administration's message of stimulus success, the unemployment rate in October rocketed to 10.2 percent, a figure much higher than economists had expected and just 0.6 percentage points away from the post-World War II high seen in 1982. While unemployment snapped back down swiftly in the early-1980s recession, it is widely expected that job creation will be slow in this recovery.

When new assignments force members of the armed forces to move, it often means children need to switch schools. In some military families, children change schools multiple times during the course of their academic lives. The Department of Defense says that the disruptions can produce setbacks in students' schooling, but department officials are working to fix that: They're developing the military's first online virtual high school, to be open in time for the 2010-2011 school year.

President Obama is floating amid three parallel universes.

The greatest unknown in retirement planning is the uncertainty of future healthcare expenses. On average, they will total between $250,000 and $300,000 for the typical retired couple. And this is for out-of-pocket spending--after all the insurance and other benefit programs have helped pay medical bills. Although it's admittedly a bit whimsical, one way to cushion the impact could be to invest in a portfolio of healthcare companies that cater to an aging population. These are firms whose products and services are particularly keyed to an aging population. ...

As comebacks go, it's an awfully weak one. Annual car sales in 2009 are likely to end up at the lowest level in years, down more than 40 percent from their peak in 2005. The worst months came in the spring, punctuated by the bankruptcy filings of General Motors and Chrysler. The cash-for-clunkers program provided a nice summer boost, but that was followed by a steep dropoff once the giveaway ended and doubts that the subsidies would lead to any net gain at all.

My company just announced "across the board" layoffs. Does that really mean that 5 percent of every department will be cut? The announcement said the entire company will be affected.

As the once free-falling economy shows tentative signs of stability, economists and investors are wondering when the Federal Reserve will reverse course and begin raising interest rates. But in a statement Wednesday after its meeting in Washington, the central bank's Federal Open Market Committee moved to maintain its benchmark interest rate at as low as zero percent, and pledged to keep rates at "exceptionally low levels" for "an extended period" of time. ...

Kids are stressed out, and their parents all too often don't know it. That's the word from the American Psychological Association's Stress in America survey, which for the first time asked children about their stress levels. One third of the 1,206 children ages 8 to 17 said they were more stressed now than a year ago. And parents seem to be missing those clues:

A year ago, on Nov. 4, 2008, a quarter of a million jubilant supporters jammed into Chicago's Grant Park to hear the wunderkind of American politics give his victory speech as the next president of the United States. Barack Obama did not disappoint. "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer," Obama said to thunderous cheers. "In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people," he ...

It might not be good for America's waistline, but froufrou dining off petite plates is out. The recession has made us hungry for family-size piles of comfort food, skyscraping burgers, and all-you-can-eat fries.

Have you heard the one about the boss who made his assistant check his sandwich every day to be sure it didn't contain tomatoes? Or the boss who always worked weekends and put dated notes on everyone's desk saying, "I was here. Where were you?"

Macy's in Minneapolis is looking for elves this season. The holidays aren't complete without Macy's Santaland, and Santaland needs elves or, more specifically, costumed associates who work inside the holiday display while offering holiday greetings and helping with crowd control.

Doing research in our pajamas is a huge benefit of the Web and modern computers. But committed readers and researchers still want access to local libraries, with their vast troves of books, periodicals, and reference works. The best of both worlds? Tapping into your library over the Web, 24 hours a day.

Surrounded by colleagues last week in front of the Capitol, Rep. John Dingell, the 83-year-old Democrat from Michigan, helped unveil the House's healthcare bill, of which he was the lead author. The bill, he said, "meets the goals that our great President Obama has outlined" and expands insurance coverage to 96 percent of Americans. He added that the bill was "conceived" in the "greatest openness, frankness, and fairness."

Getting infected with the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu is a real possibility since the virus is continuing to spread and there's still not enough vaccine to go around. Being informed, though, can help you reduce your risk. Here's what you need to know to protect yourself and your family.

Some mutual fund investors fed up with what they believe to be excessive fees had their day in court Monday--the Supreme Court. In oral arguments in the case of Jones v. Harris Associates, retail shareholders of Oakmark Funds said the fund's adviser, Harris Associates, charged them fees that were twice as high as they charged other types of investors, such as institutional customers, but provided essentially the same services.

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting approximately 44,000 cases of swine flu and at least 114 pediatric deaths since April, schools across the country are considering how to deal with a mass outbreak.

This holiday season, skip the mall. If you have kids in college, help give them a leg up financially, and teach them how to grow their money over time. Here are three ideas:

There's no shortage of flu fear these days. We're either afraid our children will get the flu--and mad/scared/frustrated because there's no vaccine to be found--or afraid that the vaccine will cause grievous harm. Those last fears were stoked by the story of Desiree Jennings, a 26-year-old Washington Redskins cheerleader from Ashburn, Va., who fell ill 10 days after getting a seasonal flu shot. ...

Ford Motor Co.'s latest earnings report doesn't mention General Motors or Chrysler, its crosstown rivals. But those competitors have a lot to do with Ford's surprising $1 billion profit in the third quarter.

I preach all the time about how the small stuff matters in a job search, because employers are drawing conclusions about you based on little things. The reverse is also true. As a candidate, you can learn a ton about a prospective employer by watching how they handle little things during the hiring process. Here are six:

A gauge of home-purchasing activity came in stronger than expected in September as buyers moved to take advantage of falling home prices, attractive mortgage rates, and a tax perk from Uncle Sam. The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its pending home sales index for September increased 6 percent from August and was more than 21 percent higher than in September of 2008--the largest year-over-year jump on record. (Pending home sales are measured by contract signings, as opposed to closings. ...

A lot of economic indicators go hot and cold these days, but here's one that's been consistently getting better: The government has been steadily withdrawing its extraordinary support for the ravaged economy.

Given the shaky job market, holiday budgets are tighter this year. According to a survey by PriceGrabber.com, 53 percent of consumers are planning to spend less on gifts. Retailers are anticipating greater demands during the holiday season because of higher-than-expected Halloween purchases this year, says Ken Burke, the founder of MarketLive, which does E-commerce research. Already 30 percent of those surveyed have begun their holiday shopping, with 22 percent having started in October. ...

Women may seem to be the driving force of health reform, given all the attention recently paid to gender disparities in insurance premiums. In fact, the massive health reform bill unveiled by the House of Representatives yesterday contains several sections that pertain just to women in terms of abortion coverage, pregnancy services, and prohibitions against excluding those with pre-existing conditions, specifically mentioning women who've been victims of domestic violence. ...

Let's face it: Texting is here to stay. The average 13- to 17-year-old sends 2,900 texts a month, according to the market research firm Nielsen. And while it might be a punishable offense in most schools, some teachers say that texting has educational tie-ins and that it can teach positive language skills, the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina reports.