Your customized headlines for Sat, Mar 24, 2012

A scathing report by an independent panel has blamed federal regulators for failing to take steps that might have prevented the disaster that killed 29 workers at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine two years ago.

President Obama on Friday nominated Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim to head the World Bank, turning to a physician and public health expert to run an organization traditionally led by heavyweights from the world of finance or politics.

Jim Yong Kim is a respected physician, global health advocate and MacArthur-certified genius.

But it's as important what he isn't: Unlike three of the last four World Bank presidents, he's not a banker. Unlike both of the Bush administration's picks, he's not a diplomat or an old foreign policy hand. Unlike every other named candidate for the position — Jeffrey Sachs, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Jose Antonio Ocampo — he's not an economist or economic policymaker. He is, in other words, a new direction for the World Bank.

When Deutsche Bank reorganized its U.S. operations this week in response to new banking rules, it was the latest manifestation of what both supporters and opponents of the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul predicted would happen: The law has pushed big banks to reorganize — to comply with the new rules on Wall Street, as well as to avoid their impact.

In February 2009, Michael Zucker told a group of high-paid surgeons something they did not want to hear: The way they earned a salary was about to change.

Zucker is the chief development officer at Baptist Health System, a five-hospital network in San Antonio. For 37 common surgeries, such as hip replacements and pacemaker implants, it would soon collect "bundled" Medicare payments. Traditionally, hospitals and doctors had collected separate fees for each step of such procedures; now they would get a lump sum for treating everything related to the patient's condition.

The vast majority of tax breaks in the U.S. tax code would be hard to cut because they promote important social goals or are "hugely popular" with voters, according to a new congressional analysis that casts doubt on Republican promises to substantially lower tax rates without adding to budget deficits.

A scathing report by an independent panel has blamed federal regulators for failing to take steps that might have prevented the disaster that killed 29 workers at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine two years ago.

— I Could Be Trayvon.

— The Obama campaign embraces the "Obamacare" label.

— A great 2011 Forbes profile of World Bank nominee Jim Yong Kim.

— The government's mine-safety agency "could have prevented" the deadly Massey coal explosion, an independent panel found.concludes.

On April 5, 2010, a massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia killed 29 men. Up until now, responsibility for the deaths has fallen largely on the then-owners of the mine, Massey Energy, for violating safety standards.