Your customized headlines for Wed, Apr 18, 2012

Are American motorists finally changing their gas-guzzling ways?

As prices have neared and in some cases topped $4 a gallon, drivers have cut their consumption of gasoline to its lowest levels in a decade, driving less and buying cars that are more fuel-efficient.

Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney was overheard earlier this week saying he might eliminate the Housing and Urban Development Department.

President Obama's advisers say he is trying to preserve HUD's support for housing aid, but advocates for the poor say his budget plans would raise rents on very-low-income Americans and could cause some families to lose assistance.

Spain and other embattled European countries may be slashing government spending too quickly, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday, saying deep budget cuts could be choking off economic growth vital for curing their financial crises.

President Obama proposed measures Tuesday to step up oversight of energy markets and boost by tenfold the penalties for market manipulation, in an effort to blunt political pressure over the 20 percent increase in gasoline prices since the beginning of the year.

The North American headquarters of building-materials ­giant Lafarge will move from Herndon to Chicago in the fall, according to Illinois state officials who enticed the firm with financial incentives.

Spain and other embattled European countries may be slashing government spending too quickly, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday, saying deep budget cuts could be choking off economic growth vital for curing their financial crises.

— "It may take explosives to dislodge a group of cows that wandered into an old ranger cabin high in the Rocky Mountains, then died and froze solid when they couldn't get out."

— In 1790, Congress passed a law requiring ship owners to buy health insurance for their employees.

The Peter G. Peterson Institute is located at 1750 Massachusetts Ave, just steps from Dupont Circle. It's a modern, glass building that is named, as you might have guessed, for its principal donor, Peter G. Peterson, the billionaire investor who co-founded Blackrock, served as secretary of commerce under President Richard Nixon, and is one of Washington's most influential deficit hawks. And on Tuesday, it got occupied.

Whole volumes have been written on the virtues of cities — the way they make people around the globe smarter, more productive, more innovative. See, for instance, Edward Glaeser's "The Triumph of the City," or Matt Yglesias's "The Rent is Too Damn High," or Ryan Avent's "The Gated City."

Lisa Miller is away. Her column will return next week.