Your customized headlines for Thu, Apr 19, 2012

A series of steps by China in recent weeks is encouraging U.S. officials that Beijing is proceeding with changes to currency and other financial policies that the two countries have long disputed.

Chinese leaders have moved to free up trading of their currency, the renminbi, and offered high-level criticism of state-owned banks. At the same time, China has seen a sharp reduction in the surplus its runs with the rest of the world in trade and financial flows.

The headlines, press conferences and presidential praise that accompanied the February announcement of a $25 billion legal settlement over egregious foreclosure practices have long since subsided.

But for one veteran banking regulator in a newly leased, 18th-floor office in downtown Raleigh, N.C., the work is only beginning. He recently resigned as North Carolina's banking commissioner to become the "monitor" overseeing the landmark agreement between government officials and five of the nation's largest banks.

The payday loan industry is spending big on politics in advance of expected scrutiny from the federal government's new financial watchdog agency.

After lobbying heavily before the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill became law in 2010, the top payday lenders did not slack off last year, and the companies have become a bigger source of campaign contributions for political candidates this election cycle, according to a report from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

About two weeks ago, something shocking happened. Apple's OS X, which has long been thought of as nearly impervious to malware or viruses, was hit with a big, nasty piece of malicious software called Flashback.

Catalyst Health Solutions, a Rockville firm that manages prescription drug benefits for companies and government agencies, was scooped up by Lisle, Ill.-based competitor SXC Health Solutions on Wednesday in a deal worth $4.4 billion.

A series of steps by China in recent weeks is encouraging U.S. officials that Beijing is proceeding with changes to currency and other financial policies that the two countries have long disputed.

Chinese leaders have moved to free up trading of their currency, the renminbi, and offered high-level criticism of state-owned banks. At the same time, China has seen a sharp reduction in the surplus its runs with the rest of the world in trade and financial flows.

— Why urban development in Washington, D.C., is so awful.

— A tire fire so big it can be seen from space.

— Did Einstein's wife secretly help co-author his 1905 paper on relativity?

— The untold tale of how NASA almost lost the Discovery shuttle in 2005.

When Warren Buffett's doctor recently administered a test for prostate cancer — a test that came back positive — he went against long-established medical guidelines. He also, perhaps unknowingly, leapt into a fierce policy debate about unnecessary care.

In recent years, the biggest U.S. energy story by far has been the surge of gas production from shale rock, thanks to a new drilling technique known as "fracking." Rigs have cropped up in backyards across the Northeast, as 11,400 new wells get drilled each year. Dirt-cheap natural gas is elbowing coal plants out of business and bringing jobs back to once-decaying states like Ohio.