Fourth Quarter

EssaySelling Out by Selling OffBy JOHN SCHWARTZ When all other moneymaking ideas fail, you can always try selling your worldly possessions. But even that can run into a wall.Off the ShelfStrategic Advice, Long Before You InvestBy PAUL B. BROWN Two new books — “Plan Your Prosperity” and “Diary of a Hedgehog” — offer ideas to consider long before you invest in any mark...

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Obama moves up deadline for Afghans to take lead security role

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Friday said he is moving up the deadline for Afghan forces to take the lead in securing their...

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Doomed Spacecraft Captures Awesome Close-Up Video of Moon

Three days before the moon-orbiting Ebb spacecraft collided with a lunar mountain, its on-board cameras captured some striking images of the pockmarked moon’s northern hemisphere — from just six miles up. On Jan. 10, NASA released what look like scenes from a science fiction movie: two probe’s-eye views of the lunar farside, made from Ebb’s stitched-together images.The...

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ABC’s “Zero Hour” Will Conclude Conspiracies After Each Season

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Paul Scheuring, the executive producer of ABC’s “Zero Hour,” says the conspiracy driving the new ABC drama will “100 percent” wrap up at the end of its first season.Premeiring February 14, the show follows Anthony Edwards (“ER”) as the publisher of a magazine that investigates conspiracy theories. But after his wife (Jacinda Barrett) is abducted from her antique clock shop,...

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Personal Health: Keeping Firearms Away From Children

I doubt that our forebears who ratified the Second Amendment in 1791 ever imagined how carelessly and callously firearms would be used centuries later. Witness the senseless slaughter of 20 innocent children and 6 adults last month in Newtown, Conn. As a mother of two and grandmother of four, I can’t imagine a more painful loss.If you are as concerned as I am about the safety of your children and...

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DealBook: Wells Fargo Profit Jumps 24% in Quarter, Driven by Mortgage Gains

8:46 a.m. | Updated Wells Fargo reported $5.1 billion in profit for the fourth quarter on Friday, a 24 percent increase, driven by the bank’s lucrative mortgage business.Seizing on low-interest rates that have spurred a flurry of refinancing activity, the bank again notched record profits. For the last 12 quarters, profits at the bank have increased.In this latest quarter, Wells Fargo, based in San...

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Irvine City Council overhauls oversight, spending on Great Park

Capping a raucous eight-hour-plus meeting, the Irvine City Council early Wednesday voted to overhaul the oversight and spending...

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Hands-On: Nvidia's Project Shield Is Impressive, But Not Perfect

As a gamer, I can’t help but be wowed by Nvidia’s Project Shield. But after getting to use the Android-powered portable gaming console/controller/mini-tablet hybrid device here at CES, I see some potential pitfalls.Project Shield is a console-style gaming controller with the buttons, triggers, dual joysticks and single directional pad you’re familiar with if you’ve ever touched an Xbox or...

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Depardieu skips court to set up Strauss-Kahn role

PARIS (Reuters) – French film star Gerard Depardieu skipped a court hearing on drink-driving charges on Tuesday as he pursued a headline-grabbing world tour that has seen him set up an alleged tax haven home in Belgium and pick up a passport in Russia.The garrulous actor’s lawyer said he had missed the hearing in Paris because he was now in Montenegro for meetings about a film in which he will play...

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Flu Widespread, Leading a Range of Winter’s Ills

It is not your imagination — more people you know are sick this winter, even people who have had flu shots. The country is in the grip of three emerging flu or flulike epidemics: an early start to the annual flu season with an unusually aggressive virus, a surge in a new type of norovirus, and the worst whooping cough outbreak in 60 years. And these are all developing amid the normal winter...

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