Your customized headlines for Mon, Jul 9, 2012

Online shopping in the Washington region is about to become more expensive.

A wave of states, including Virginia, have passed laws that will require consumers to pay sales tax on all Internet purchases as soon as next year. Other states and the District are pursuing similar measures. And in Maryland, Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) wants to go further and levy a tax on songs and other digital products bought through popular sources such as iTunes.

Steve Joyce, 52, chief executive of Silver Spring-based Choice Hotels International, likes the Redskins, the Orioles and heart-stopping rib-eye steaks from Del Frisco's. He can name a long-ago starting lineup for the Washington Senators (and he did), he lives in Herndon and vacations — when not in a Choice Hotel — at his place in Ocean City.

President Obama has a two-pronged economic message problem as he heads into the fall of his reelection race, a conundrum that his campaign must solve in order to have a chance at a second term on Nov. 6.

The implosion of the subprime lending market has left a scar on the finances of black Americans — one that not only has wiped out a generation of economic progress but could leave them at a financial disadvantage for decades.