Your customized headlines for Mon, Jul 23, 2012

BRUSSELS — Europe may be a financial disaster and a faded military force, but in at least one arena it has emerged as champ: Regulators here are challenging the power of America's technology titans. And they are winning.

McLean-based Science Applications International Corp. plans to add more than 1,300 employees to its health business with its planned acquisition of Westfield, Ind.-based MaxIT Healthcare Holdings, announced last week.

U.S. prosecutors and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with a sweeping investigation into the rate-rigging scandal.

So how does a 62-year-old Purdue University electrical engineering whiz end up building decks for a living?

The answer lies in reinvention, which has led John Barrett on a circuitous career path— including stints running high-tech teams at Motorola and owning a chainlet of retail computer stores. He has found financial stability — and an outlet for his urge to build stuff — in a outdoor living space company called Archadeck.

Nationally, the economic picture is decidedly dismal — a sullen state of affairs that has led many political observers to conclude that President Obama is an underdog in his bid for a second term.

But in the 12 (or so) swing states — where Democrats and Republicans will spend the lion's share of their time and money in the 100 or so days between now and Nov. 6 — the economic picture is considerably sunnier.