The Coolest Vertigo Comics, From <em>Sandman</em> to <em>Swamp Thing</em>

DC Comics has lost one of its most influential tastemakers with the news that executive editor Karen Berger will be stepping down from Vertigo Comics, the DC Comics imprint she founded and ran since its inception in 1993. In her nearly 20 years running Vertigo, Berger helped birth numerous legendary comics, like Neil Gaiman's Sandman and Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, which often reached beyond the...

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‘Dr. Phil”s stolen classic Chevy recovered

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles police say they’ve recovered a stolen 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible that belongs to talk-show host Phil McGraw.Detective Jess Corral said Tuesday that investigators recovered McGraw’s classic car, along with 13 others, after law enforcement began targeting auto theft rings.McGraw is known as television’s “Dr. Phil. His car was stolen from the RODZ shop in Burbank...

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Generic Drug Makers Facing Squeeze on Revenue

They call it the patent cliff. Brand-name drug makers have feared it for years. And now the makers of generic drugs fear it, too. This year, more than 40 brand-name drugs — valued at $35 billion in annual sales — lost their patent protection, meaning that generic companies were permitted to make their own lower-priced versions of well-known drugs like Plavix, Lexapro and Seroquel...

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Economic Scene: Unionizing at the Low End of the Pay Scale

Andrew Kelly/ReutersA protester held up a sign at a demonstration outside McDonald’s in Times Square last week. Other than poverty, José Carrillo and Joshua Williams have little in common. The austere life of Mr. Carrillo, a 79-year-old Peruvian immigrant from Washington Heights, is a universe apart from the hardscrabble reality of Mr. Williams, a 28-year-old single father from Atlanta staying at...

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Santa Monica Nativity scenes to move to private property

Santa Monica's much-debated Nativity scenes will be staged after all — on private property. The decision was hailed by advocates...

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Microsoft's Motorola Patent Violation Won't Stop Xbox Sales

A federal judge in Seattle has told Motorola Mobility that he will not grant its request to ban the sale of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and the two need to stop bickering and broker a licensing deal to end their patent suit.The ruling by Judge James Robart follows a finding by an International Trade Commission administrative law judge that the Xbox has violated four Motorola...

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LeBron James wins Sports Illustrated annual award

(Reuters) – LeBron James of the Miami Heat was named as Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year for 2012, the U.S. magazine announced on Monday.In an outstanding year, the 27-year-old James won his first NBA championship, his third league Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, was named MVP of the NBA finals and a won gold medal with the United States at the London Olympics.He became just the sixth...

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Global Update: GlaxoSmithKline Tops Access to Medicines Index

Sang Tan/Associated PressGlaxoSmithKline hung on to its perennial top spot in the new Access to Medicines Index released last week, but its competitors are closing in. Every two years, the index ranks the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies based on how readily they get medicines they hold patents on to the world’s poor, how much research they do on tropical diseases, how ethically...

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Deficit Talks Stumble Over Down Payment

WASHINGTON — For all the growing angst over the state of negotiations to head off a fiscal crisis in January, the parties are farthest apart on a relatively small part of the overall deficit reduction program — the down payment. President Obama and the House speaker, John A. Boehner, are in general agreement that the relevant Congressional committees must sit down next year and work out changes...

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Slaying of 4 rocks Northridge neighborhood

Shane Grady was jolted awake early Sunday when he heard gunfire on Devonshire Street.He said he dropped to the floor and looked...

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