Credits

The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery but that skeptics say could open the door to the risky lending that caused the housing crash in the first place. President Obama's economic advisers and outside experts say the nation's much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind , including young people looking to buy their first homes and...

MOORE, Okla. — The principal's voice came on over the intercom at Plaza Towers Elementary School: A severe storm was approaching and students were to go to the cafeteria and wait for their parents to pick them up. But before all of the youngsters could get there, the tornado alarm sounded. The plan changed quickly. "All the teachers started screaming into the room and saying, ‘Get into the hallway! We don't want you to die!' and stuff like that," said sixth-grader...

Tesla Motors is on a remarkable run for a company that not long ago seemed to be sputtering. The luxury electric-car maker's flagship sedan, the Model S, won Motor Trend's 2013 car of the year honors, then earned a rare, near-perfect rave from Consumer Reports . In the past month, Tesla's stock value has doubled to more than $90 a share. That gives the California-based company a total market value of $10.6 billion, greater than that of Italian automaker Fiat, worth less than $8 billion.

LOS ANGELES — Americans got better about paying their credit card debt on time in the first three months of the year, a period when many borrowers use income tax returns to tackle their holiday season debt. The rate of credit card payments at least 90 days overdue fell to 0.69 percent in the first quarter from 0.85 percent a year earlier — drop of nearly 19 percent, credit reporting agency TransUnion said Tuesday. The January-March card delinquency rate was also down from 0.73...

LONDON — As the centerpiece of Europe's pledge to lead the global battle against climate change, the region's market for carbon emissions effectively turned pollution into a commodity that could be traded like gold or oil. But the once-thriving pollution trade here has turned into a carbon bust. Under the system, 31 nations slapped emission limits on more than 11,000 companies and issued carbon credits that could be traded by firms to meet their new pollution caps. More efficient ones could sell excess carbon credits, while less efficient ones...

The energy you reap from the earth, sun or wind may be free, but the equipment needed to produce renewable energy for your home typically costs more than traditional technology based on fossil fuels. New federal tax credits are available to people who install qualifying renewable-energy technologies in their primary residence, rental home or vacation property. They are available for equipment installed (or new homes purchased) this month through 2016. Energy type Amount of credit Caps ...

Dan Schneider's TV shows: "All That," Nickelodeon, 1994-2005 "Kenan & Kel," Nickelodeon, 1996-2000 "The Amanda Show," Nickelodeon, 1999-2001 "What I Like About You," WB, 2002-06 "Drake & Josh," Nickelodeon, 2004-07 "Zoey 101," Nickelodeon, 2005-08 "iCarly," Nickelodeon, 2007-present "Victorious," Nickelodeon (scheduled to air in 2010) Some of Schneider's acting credits: "Better Off Dead" (1985) "Head of the Class" (1986-91)

Back in March, Apple shifted away from using Google Maps in its iPhoto for iOS map in favor of OpenStreetMap (OSM), the open-source mapping service that relies on the public for edits similarly to Wikipedia. At the time the OpenStreetMap Foundation made a blog post saying that it was "rather pleased" to find that Apple had used OSM data to create map tiles in the latest version of iPhoto for iOS. However, Apple had neglected to give credit to the Foundation's contributors in using the data.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and executives of Constellation Energy will announce today that the energy giant has agreed under a legal settlement to give 1.1 million electricity customers in the Washington-Baltimore area a one-time $170 credit on their bills, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The deal, stemming from a lawsuit Constellation filed against the state of Maryland this month, also would eliminate an estimated $5.2 billion that electricity customers were scheduled to pay...

The Pentagon has been funding Texas A&M University to pay landowners near a Texas military post to protect endangered bird species on their land under a secretive program designed to free the military to conduct training activities that would damage the birds' habitats inside the post's boundaries, documents show. Despite complaints that the program is a boondoggle for the landowners, some federal officials are pushing to replicate it at other military sites and in federal highway projects.

Kathleen T. Vernem, 62, credit manager at the Hay-Adams hotel for 16 years, died May 5 of a heart attack at the Inova HealthPlex Emergency Care Center in Alexandria. She was a Springfield resident. The death was confirmed by a granddaughter, Candace Vernem. Kathleen Theresa Sams was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She moved to Houston in the early 1980s and settled in the Washington region in 1988. About two decades later, she became a U.S. citizen. Survivors include her husband of 44 years, Jerry Vernem of Springfield; five...

LONDON — Fitch Ratings agency has downgraded Slovenia's credit grade by one notch, citing a weak economic outlook and a frail banking system. It cut the government bond rating to BBB+ from A-, which is still investment grade. It left a negative outlook, suggesting there's a risk of another downgrade. Fitch said the prospects for Slovenia's economy and its public finances have deteriorated in recent months as international investors worry the country might struggle to overhaul its...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Melissa Torrez didn't even think when teenagers in her apartment complex said a man had just grabbed her 4-year-old girl and drove away. She jumped in her car and began chasing the brown Buick through traffic, zigzagging on Interstate 40 at high speeds and staying with the car even as it bluffed trying to exit in an attempt to lose her. Many called Torrez a hero after her story came out Wednesday. But Torrez said Friday that she was just a mother...

We've gotten a lot of questions from readers lately about chip-and-PIN credit cards, also known as EMV cards (for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, the originators of the technology). Although they're almost universal in Europe, credit card companies have yet to widely offer them to American customers. For travelers headed around the globe, here are the basics: What is a chip-and-PIN card? A chip-and-PIN card looks pretty much like the plastic you're used to. But it's embedded with a special chip that contains the...

Tesla Motors is on a remarkable run for a company that not long ago seemed to be sputtering. The luxury electric-car maker's flagship sedan, the Model S, won Motor Trend's 2013 car of the year honors, then earned a rare, near-perfect rave from Consumer Reports . In the past month, Tesla's stock value has doubled to more than $90 a share. That gives the California-based company a total market value of $10.6 billion, greater than that of Italian automaker Fiat, worth less than $8 billion.

Remember the federal tax credit programs offering $7,500 and, later, $8,000 to first-time home buyers? The credits were designed to deliver a jolt to the reeling housing industry. And they did: More than 4 million people applied for and have received nearly $30 billion worth of credits. Most of them, according to the Internal Revenue Service, went to people who legitimately qualified for the credits. But a series of audits has documented foul-ups by the IRS, ranging from credits granted to prison...

NEW ORLEANS – By 2009, Laura Ziskin had earned the kind of credits that open exclusive doors in Hollywood. Her long record of successes included producer credits on blockbusters such as "Pretty Woman," "As Good as It Gets" and the original "Spider-Man" trilogy, but she had little luck in finding financial backers for "The Butler. " Major studios passed on a film based on the life of Eugene Allen (and inspired by a 2008 Washington Post article by Wil Haygood ). As a...

OMAHA, Neb. — Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. was downgraded by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Thursday after the credit rating agency changed the way it evaluates insurance companies. The ratings agency dropped its investment-grade counterparty credit rating for the Omaha-based holding company and all the debt it guarantees by one notch to "AA" from "AA+. " But all of Berkshire's insurance subsidiaries keep their "AA+" ratings. S&P said Berkshire's insurance...

WARSAW, Poland — Polish officials have honored Irena Sendler, a Polish woman credited with saving 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust, by naming a walkway in a symbolically important spot after her. Sendler was a social worker who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, when Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany. The children were placed with Christian families and in convents and given new names. Sendler died in 2008. President...