Business

A Company's Tweets Can Help Make It Creditworthy

10:12am October 28, 2013

by Wendy Kaufman

Banks use credit scores and similar metrics to assess creditworthiness. A company called Kabbage that lends working capital to small businesses does some of that but also relies on unconventional measures, using real-time data from things like UPS shipments, eBay, Facebook and Twitter.

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Three generations live under this roof: (from left) 19-year-old Jamie Dusseault, grandmother Jacque Ruggles, mother Marci Dusseault and 22-year-old Chelsie Dusseault.

One Roof, Many Generations: Redefining The Single-Family Home

10:12am October 28, 2013

by Peter O'Dowd

Homebuilders are finding there's a post-recession demand for bigger houses, and it's partly thanks to boomerang kids who can't find jobs and aging parents who can't afford to live alone anymore.

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Books
Arts

One Way For An Indie Bookstore To Last? Put Women 'First'

5:59pm October 27, 2013

by Cheryl Corley

Women and Children First has weathered more than three decades of competition from chain stores and online booksellers to become one of the largest feminist bookstores in the U.S. Now, the Chicago store is among the few of its kind left standing — and it's on the hunt for new ownership.

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France's government has taken legal steps to protect the country's independent booksellers from behemoths like Amazon. It already prohibits discounts of more than 5 percent on books. Now it's considering a law that would not allow online retailers like Am

Little 'Libraires' That Could: French Law Would Keep Amazon At Bay

7:55pm October 25, 2013

by Eleanor Beardsley

A proposed law in France prevents online booksellers like Amazon from pricing books at deep discounts. It's the French government's latest effort to protect the country's many independent bookshops.

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Bernard Omondi got $1,000 from GiveDirectly.

Economy

What Happens When You Just Give Money To Poor People?

10:34am October 25, 2013

by David Kestenbaum

Kenyans who received money with no strings attached started businesses and bought food for their kids, according to a new study. They didn't spend it on alcohol or cigarettes.

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A September 1959 advertisement for the Xerox 914

Economy

Happy Birthday, Copy Machine! Happy Birthday, Copy Machine!

2:37pm October 23, 2013

by Kate O'Connell

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the first modern copier ever made. The technology, which came from serial inventor Chester Carlson, revolutionized the business world and formed the foundation of Xerox's success. It also meant no more messy carbon paper.

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The changing landscape of of agriculture is leaving many sheep farms in the dust. Farms are larger and technology makes crops more economically attractive and sheep herds less.

National

Ranchers Wonder If U.S. Sheep Industry Has Bottomed Out

3:37pm October 22, 2013

by Luke Runyon

Over the last 20 years, the number of sheep in the U.S. has been cut in half. Today, the domestic sheep herd is one-tenth the size it was during World War II. Consumers are eating less lamb and wearing less wool these days. Those trends have left ranchers to wonder: When are we going to hit bottom?

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What To Know About The Tentative JPMorgan Deal

3:37pm October 22, 2013

JPMorgan has reached a tentative $13 billion settlement with the Department of Justice over its questionable mortgage practices leading up to the U.S. financial crisis. Renee Montagne talks to NPR business correspondent Chris Arnold about what's known so far about the terms of the deal.

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The long arms of pivot irrigation rigs deliver water from the Ogallala Aquifer to circular fields of corn in northwestern Kansas.

Kansas Farmers Commit To Taking Less Water From The Ground

12:38pm October 22, 2013

by Dan Charles

Water from the Ogallala Aquifer is withdrawn about six times faster than rain or rivers can recharge it. Now, a group of farmers in one part of northwestern Kansas has agreed to pump 20 percent less water out of the aquifer over the next five years.

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Volkswagen's car plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., is the company's only one in the U.S. It's also the only VW plant around the world without a workers union.

Volkswagen Union Opposed By Tennessee Republican Officials

10:10am October 22, 2013

by Blake Farmer

At auto plants, the tension is typically between the workers and the management. But not at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, where it's Republican officials who are trying to stand in the way. One of them is the Tennessee governor, who says a unionized plant might discourage other companies from coming to his state.

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