Factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region contracted in May as new orders fell to their lowest level in almost a year.

It's "nonsensical" to split the chairman and CEO at JPMorgan when you have Jamie Dimon, a former board member says.

Jurors began a third day of deliberations in a Cincinnati murder trial revolving around whether a dying, paralyzed man identified his shooter by blinking his eyes.

The jury in the trial of 35-year-old Ricardo Woods, of Cincinnati, began discussions Tuesday afternoon and didn't reach a verdict Wednesday. Jurors reconvened Thursday morning.

Woods is accused of shooting David Chandler in 2010. Chandler was left paralyzed from the neck down and unable to speak before his death about two weeks later.

Prosecutors told jurors that Chandler clearly identified Woods by blinking his eyes in a video interview with police. Officials said Chandler blinked three times for "yes" to identify Woods' photo.

The defense called Chandler's blinking unreliable due to his condition and medications.

A federal judge in Kansas City, Kansas, ordered Dow Chemical Co on Wednesday to pay $1.2 billion.

Cooler temperatures and lighter winds are helping hundreds of firefighters combat a 3,000-acre wildfire that has blackened rugged terrain in the Los Padres National Forest.

The fire that broke out Wednesday quickly charred 3,000 acres of dry, thick trees, despite a heavy aerial effort to beat back flames in the largely unpopulated area.

The blaze was 10 percent contained early Thursday.

No structures were threatened although a high school has been evacuated as a precaution. No injuries have been reported.

The fire near Interstate 5 through Frazier Park, where Kern and northern Los Angeles counties meet, could be fanned by winds that could reach up to 35 mph Thursday.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Thursday's economic reports featured mostly bad news, with housing starts plunging and jobless claims rising while inflation remained under control.

Henry Linder did try to give up the shoe repair business once.

Two Michigan students have been banned from showing their baby bumps in the school yearbook.

Deonna Harris says she was pulled aside this week by a yearbook staff member and told her photo would have to be re-taken because the previous shot displayed Harris' pregnant belly.

Kimberly Haney also is pregnant and not permitted to show her midsection in the White Cloud High School yearbook.

Haney tells WOOD-TV she "went to the bathroom and cried" when she received the news.

Both girls say they're being discriminated against. White Cloud superintendent Barry Seabrook said Thursday allowing the pictures to appear in the yearbook would be contrary to the state's mandate that public schools' sex-education curricula be abstinence-based.

Haney and Harris have decided against shooting new photos that hide their pregnancies.

A Washington woman whose car was stolen from her apartment complex saw the stolen SUV hours later — in the drive-thru of the McDonald's restaurant where she works.

The Tri-City Herald reports (http://bit.ly/11H2tDS ) Virginia Maiden called police Tuesday after seeing her SUV in the drive-thru.

Officers arrested the driver, a 22-year-old Kennewick woman, at the restaurant.

Police found clothes in the car that had been stolen from department stores.

___

Information from: Tri-City Herald, http://www.tri-cityherald.com

S&P downgraded Berkshire Hathaway's credit rating to "double A" from "double A plus" with a negative outlook.

The hurricane season opened Wednesday with a flourish -- and more specifically, with the debut of its first named storm, Tropical Storm Alvin.

Romance may be getting short shrift among college students these days, replaced instead with quick "hookups" devoid of any real emotion, a new book argues.

LZ Granderson says instead of reducing the blood alcohol content threshold, how about enforcing existing laws better?

"Things are better enough for the Fed to slow the pace of purchasing," Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser says.

While Republican rhetoric might be overheated, he says, their political edge is real.

Rep. Charles Boustany tells CNBC congressional investigators will get to the truth in the IRS scandal.

VIDEO: POLITICO Playback

Bloomberg has quietly launched a wealth management company, putting it in competition with its big terminal customers.

The Obama administration stepped up pressure on the Internal Revenue Service and sought to insulate itself from the outcry over the agency’s special scrutiny of conservative groups.    

More Americans feel less frugal, and at least one survey suggests it's time to release that pent-up desire to eat out.