Your customized headlines for Tue, Jun 26, 2012

BALTIMORE — Rep. Elijah E. Cummings doesn't need to go farther than his front stoop to see the scars of the housing crisis.

"That one was foreclosed on," the 61-year-old Maryland Democrat said on a recent morning outside his brick rowhouse in this city's Madison Park neighborhood, pointing to an empty house nearby with a "No Trespassing" sign in the front window.

It wasn't easy for Barack Obama to persuade David Axelrod to take him on as a client. It took years, actually. But there was a reason Obama wanted Axelrod to run his campaigns. Axelrod knew how to get black candidates elected by white voters. In fact, he had a whole theory about it.

Earlier this year, oil prices spiked upward, and observers worried that high prices could pinch the global economy. Then the global economy stumbled on its own — with slowdowns in the United States, China, Europe, and elsewhere — and oil prices slumped again. Crude traded in the United States sunk from $108 per barrel back in February down to $78 per barrel today. So will the reverse be true? Can low oil prices provide a stimulus?

The tech industry was abuzz last week with a question: What's wrong with Larry Page?

The Google CEO and co-founder was absent from the company's annual meeting Thursday, at which Chairman Eric Schmidt told shareholders that Page had lost his voice would not be doing any public speaking engagements "for the time being." Schmidt confirmed that Page "will be involved in all the strategic business decisions we make — just like today" and quipped that co-founder Sergey Brin "has said it may make Larry a better CEO because he will have to choose his words carefully."