A Dallas suburb's long, expensive fight to ban illegal immigrants from renting homes will have perhaps its most important hearing before a largely conservative group of judges with the power to influence the national immigration debate.

Resales of existing homes rose in August to a two-year high, an additional sign the U.S. housing market is gaining traction in the second half of the year.

The basic case for the Federal Reserve’s third round of quantitative easing is simple and airtight. The fine print is more complicated, and the Fed’s inability to explain itself makes this worse — but don’t let the details obscure the main point. QE3 was the right move.

France stepped up security Wednesday at its embassies across the Muslim world after a French satirical weekly revived a formula that it has already used to capture attention: Publishing crude, lewd caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Sony Corp. will sell a smaller, lighter version of the PlayStation 3 console this holiday season as it tries to win back customers flocking to games played on mobile devices and personal computers.

AOL has harvested a new chief financial officer from its board of directors.

Procter & Gamble Co. Chief Executive Officer Bob McDonald said he’s spending more than a third of his time at the world’s largest consumer-products company on succession and leadership planning for top positions.

Oil tumbled to a six-week low after U.S. crude inventories surged the most since March as production and imports rebounded from Hurricane Isaac.

Feel your taxes are too low? House Republicans have devised a new convenient way for those worried about government red ink to donate more to the Treasury.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. taxpayers have spent $1.5 billion to allow Union Pacific Corp.’s tracks between Chicago and St. Louis to carry faster passenger trains, one of the biggest projects in President Barack Obama’s high-speed rail program.

New housing construction rose in August, boosted by the strongest pace of single-family home starts in more than two years that shows an improving real estate market.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says that only he is equipped to help poor and middle-class Americans.

Yet Rep. Paul Ryan was trying to defend GOP candidate Mitt Romney -- not belittle him.

Japan's central bank on Wednesday ramped up its efforts to spur economic growth, following similar steps by central bankers in the United States and Europe.

General Mills Inc. is benefiting from its acquisition of Yoplait International, even as it struggles to expand its yogurt business at home.

Strong U.S. housing figures shored up markets Wednesday after an earlier bout of optimism over stimulus measures from the Bank of Japan ran out of steam.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks advanced for the first time in three days and U.S. equity-index futures gained after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly boosted its asset-purchase program. Spain’s bonds rallied for a second day.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Oil extended losses amid speculation that crude-producing countries will increase supply, outweighing the impact of Japan’s expanded program of monetary easing and economic stimulus.

President Barack Obama's campaign allies continued to push out an unauthorized video of rival Mitt Romney dismissing the half of Americans who don't pay income taxes, while the Republican nominee tried to turn the campaign disruption into a debate over the role of government in family finances.

A jump in sales of previously occupied homes and further gains in home construction suggest the U.S. housing recovery is gaining momentum.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates remains the nation's richest man by far, as the tech and philanthropy giant took the top spot on the Forbes 400 list for the 19th year running, with a net worth of $66 billion.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. commodities trader, who was fired after the bank spotted a series of unusual aluminum trades, sued for unfair dismissal.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp. Executive Vice President Sean Maloney, once seen as a candidate to lead the company, will retire in January.

Arizona State University's journalism school has won two grants totaling $8.2 million aimed at improving coverage of business and economics.

Learning Tree says it has created a special committee to evaluate a buyout offer from its CEO, as well as its other strategic options.

FirstEnergy Corp. said Wednesday that it will cut 200 jobs in November following an assessment of its workforce.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Mitt Romney’s remarks that split the American electorate into makers and takers turn on their head Republican arguments that President Barack Obama is dividing the country through “class warfare.”

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A two-story brick house in Detroit sold for $47,214 last month, two years after U.S. Bank seized it in a foreclosure. For the home, with blue-striped awnings and white shutters, it was the fourth owner since December, when investor Buy Right Properties LLC purchased it for $3,383.

More leading universities are offering free online courses through the fast-growing education platform Coursera.

The U.S. seafood catch reached a 17-year high in 2011, with all regions of the country showing increases in both the volume and value of their harvests.

Long-time Intel executive Sean Maloney plans to retire from the computer-chip maker at the beginning of next year.

Computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday that it has resolved an ink cartridge patent infringement lawsuit with Brazil's Rio Branco Ltda., a distributor of Maxprint ink cartridges.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Salesforce.com Inc. said it’s releasing a new version of its software for tablet computers and unifying its social-media marketing products into a single suite, as it races to stay ahead of new market entrants.

A catchy pro-marijuana jingle for Colorado voters considering legalizing the drug goes like this: “Jobs for our people. Money for schools. Who could ask for more?”

Investors withdrew money from stock mutual funds for the eighth consecutive week during the period ended Sept. 12, despite further gains in the stock market. Bond funds attracted the largest amount of new cash for a weeklong period since early April.

JPMorgan Chase says it's “experiencing intermittent issues” with its banking website, Chase.com.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Adobe Systems Inc. forecast fiscal fourth-quarter sales and profit that missed analysts’ estimates as the company offered a lower-priced subscription version of its flagship Creative Suite software.

will face a tax penalty for not carrying medical coverage once President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law is fully in place, congressional budget analysts said Wednesday.

American Airlines and American Eagle say they will cancel 300 flights this week to cope with a high number of pilots reporting sick and an increase in maintenance reports filed by crews.

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. said Wednesday it added about $900 million to its stock repurchase program, increasing its authorization to $2 billion.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks were little changed, halting a two-day decline, after the Bank of Japan joined the Federal Reserve in expanding its asset-purchase program. U.S. index futures fluctuated, while Asian shares rose.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Trulia Inc. priced the shares in its initial public offering at $1 above the marketed range, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Computer terminals glow in the darkened Combat Direction Center of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as they process feeds from sensors tracking any air, surface or underwater vessel within striking range.

A Georgia-based restaurant chain that drew national attention when its owner reaffirmed his opposition to same-sex marriage says it's leaving the debate to politicians in the future.

Japan's Finance Ministry reports a smaller-than-expected trade deficit of $9.6 billion for August, though weakening demand overseas is undermining hopes for an export-driven revival.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., the world’s biggest technology company, and four publishers offered to overhaul pricing models for digital books to allay European Union concerns that they blocked competition.

The move by the Japanese central bank boosted stock markets in Asia. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 1.2 percent to 9,232.21 -- its highest finish since May 2, but indexes in Europe were little changed.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The yen fell to a four-week low against the dollar after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly expanded monetary stimulus by 10 trillion yen ($127 billion) to bolster growth, sapping demand for the nation’s currency.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- World food prices will exceed the all-time high set last year as droughts in the U.S., South America and Russia push up animal feed costs, spurring meat and dairy farmers to cut herds, Rabobank International said.

Blackstone is leading a group that has agreed to buy home security provider Vivint for more than $2 billion.

Groupon launched a new payment service Wednesday that allows businesses to run credit cards using an iPhone or iPod Touch, the latest company to seek a portion of that growing market.

The nation's crude oil supplies increased last week, the government said Wednesday.

Portugal's interest rates fell steeply in a short-term debt auction Wednesday where it borrowed (euro) 2 billion ($2.61 billion), evidence that the European Central Bank's recently-unveiled plan to intervene in bond markets is boosting investor confidence.

U.S. builders started work on more homes in August, driven by the fastest pace of single-family home construction in more than two years. The increase points to steady progress in the housing recovery.

are a troubling sign for the shoe maker. The note came two days after the same analyst warned that Deckers' margins might come under pressure after an unexpected sale of Uggs showed up on a Website.

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s land prices dropped at a slower pace for a third year as low interest rates and tax incentives supported housing demand.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The end of the Chicago teachers’ strike adds to a groundswell favoring a new way to judge classroom instructors -- grade them based on students’ standardized test scores.

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. has a limited time to settle a European Union antitrust probe, though there isn’t a formal deadline to end discussions, the EU’s antitrust chief said today.

The Supreme Court is allowing Texas to use congressional districts that were drawn by a lower federal court for the November election.

So much of what is in our homes these days is factory-made _ toasters, furniture, toys -- but not the homes themselves.

Mitt Romney's comment that he doesn't worry about the 47 percent of Americans who pay no income tax has quickly entered the bloodstream in the presidential campaign's most hard-fought states.

Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is selling his house in Washington, in part to help pay for health care costs.

A day after the most contentious provision of Arizona's immigration law took effect, rallies were planned around Phoenix to protest the law that civil rights activists contend will lead to systematic racial profiling.

Prosecutors are seeking to file 10 more counts against the man accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others at a suburban Denver movie theater.