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Thursday October 12, 4:40 pm ET By , AP Business Writer Dow Ends Up 96 to Close at Record High of 11,948 on Earnings Optimism; Nasdaq Gains 38 NEW YORK (AP) -- The Dow Jones industrial average broke through 11,900 to close at a record high Thursday, boosted by optimism over the health of corporate earnings. According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 95.57, or 0.81 percent, to 11,947.70. The previous record close from Tuesday was 11,867.17. The index's gain marked its fifth record close in two weeks. The intraday high set Thursday was 11,959.63, eclipsing an...

WASHINGTON (AP) The Labor Department says employers added 128,000 jobs in August, pushing the national unemployment rate down a notch to 4.7 percent.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers added a fewer-than-expected 121,000 workers to their payrolls last month, but the jobless rate stayed at a five-year low and hourly earnings rose, a government report showed on Friday. The Labor Department's employment report was a modest improvement over May's revised gain of 92,000 jobs and led the market to pare back expectations of continued interest-rate increases from the Federal Reserve. Still, June's wage gains and the 4.6 percent unemployment rate may figure in the inflation-wary central bank's thinking. Average hourly earnings rose 8 cents, or 0.5 percent, while the average work week rebounded from...

The Great American Job Sellout Free trade policies that force US companies to outsource or import foreign labors are dramatically affecting opportunity for American middle class. Paul Craig Roberts examined this in March 2005. Americans are being sold out on the jobs front. Americans' employment opportunities are declining as a result of corporate outsourcing of US jobs, H-1B visas that import foreigners to displace Americans in their own country, and federal guest worker programs. President Bush and his Republican majority intend to legalize the aliens who hold down wages for construction companies and cleaning services. In order to stretch...

Sheep's clothing and Adam Smith -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 13, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Vox Day -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com How does one resolve the question of the presumably cataclysmic meeting between the hitherto immovable rock and the historically unstoppable force? Perhaps by reversing the logic of the famous question: "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?" Is the rock truly immovable? Or, alternatively, is the force actually unstoppable? I mention this because I have long been a vocal advocate of free trade. I was raised on Adam Smith, inoculated against the usual collegiate flirtation with...

Everybody knows strep throat is as common as backpacks among school children, but one of the surprises in a new study of Pittsburgh students is that it isn't even more common. Elementary students "are sitting in a sea of strep," said Dr. Judith Martin, an infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital who led a four-year study of the prevalence of group A Streptococcus bacteria in a Pittsburgh private school. The researchers report in this month's issue of the journal Pediatrics that six out of every 10 students tested positive for strep at least once during a school year. But just...