Hearings Begin on Treasury Nominee

Doug Mills/The New York TimesRepublicans have promised to grill Jacob J. Lew, center, President Obama’s nominee for Treasury secretary, over the government’s trillion-dollar deficits. WASHINGTON — Jacob J. Lew, President Obama’s nominee for Treasury secretary, faced some fierce questioning on Wednesday from the Senate Finance Committee on his tenure at the bailed-out Citigroup and on an...

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Ex-Officer Locked in Mountain Standoff With Police

LOS ANGELES — Law enforcement officials were locked in a standoff after a shootout outside a forest cabin on Tuesday afternoon with Christopher J. Dorner, the former Los Angeles police officer who is the target of the largest manhunt in Los Angeles Police Department history, officials said. Stan Lim/The Press-Enterprise, via Associated PressPolice officers manned a road block near Big...

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Alec Baldwin, wife expecting a baby this summer

NEW YORK (AP) — Alec Baldwin and his wife are expecting their first child together.Publicist Matthew Hiltzik confirmed Tuesday that Hilaria Baldwin is due late this summer.Alec Baldwin already is the father of a 17-year-old daughter, Ireland, from his previous marriage to actress Kim Basinger (BAY'-sing-ur). Hilaria Baldwin is a special correspondent for the TV show "Extra." The couple wed last June...

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Well: Straining to Hear and Fend Off Dementia

At a party the other night, a fund-raiser for a literary magazine, I found myself in conversation with a well-known author whose work I greatly admire. I use the term “conversation” loosely. I couldn’t hear a word he said. But worse, the effort I was making to hear was using up so much brain power that I completely forgot the titles of his books.A senior moment? Maybe. (I’m 65.) But for me, it’s complicated...

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Dow Ends Above 14,000 For Year’s Highest Close

The Dow Jones industrial average rose to its highest close of the year Tuesday, putting it within 1 percent of its record. Stocks gained after two big consumer brands posted impressive quarterly results. The Dow closed up 47.46 points, or 0.34 percent, to 14,018.70 Tuesday. That is 146 points from its record close of 14,164.53 set in October 2007. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index...

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Tests of Some Deadly Diseases on Mice Mislead, Report Says

Evan McGlinn for The New York TimesDr. H. Shaw Warren is one of the authors of a new study that questions the use of laboratory mice as models for all human diseases. For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally misleading for at least three major killers — sepsis, burns and trauma. As a...

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'Identity Thief' grabs $34.6M to debut at No. 1

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy's "Identity Thief" has made off with the weekend box-office title with a $34.6 million debut.The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:1....

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Personal Health: Getting the Right Addiction Treatment

“Treatment is not a prerequisite to surviving addiction.” This bold statement opens the treatment chapter in a helpful new book, “Now What? An Insider’s Guide to Addiction and Recovery,” by William Cope Moyers, a man who nonetheless needed “four intense treatment experiences over five years” before he broke free of alcohol and drugs.As the son of Judith and Bill Moyers, successful parents who watched...

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U.S. Markets Edge Back From Recent Rally

The stock market drifted lower in thin trading on Monday, pulling the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index back from a five-year high. With little in the way of market-moving news, the S.& P. 500 slipped 0.92 of a point to close at 1,517.01. Last week, the broad-market index edged up slightly to its highest level since November 2007. Seven of the 10 industry groups within...

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Paterno Family Challenges Accusation of Cover-Up

The 238-page report, which was compiled by a team led by Richard Thornburgh, a former United States attorney general, and released Sunday, said an even larger investigation into the scandal by Louis J. Freeh, a former F.B.I. director, was “factually wrong, speculative and fundamentally flawed.” According to the Thornburgh report, the Freeh inquiry, which was ordered by the Penn State board...

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