A bill in Congress would let banks enter into long-term leases with the former owners of foreclosed houses. Critics say the bill does not do enough for homeowners.

Here are two questions getting attention in Washington: When homeowners lose their houses to foreclosure, should they be able to stay in the property, leasing it back at fair market rent from the lender?

A good guitar falls into that small category of things that manage to hold their value.

For a teenage guitar slinger in the 1970s, it was the most coveted of instruments: a Gibson Les Paul. In the hands of Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend and countless others, it defined the hard-rock sound of the day.

NEW YORK — Stocks drifted lower early today as investors looked for more reasons to keep the market’s summer rally going.

The trendy teen apparel chain has suffered after refusing to cut prices, yet it resists big discounts. The retailer hopes win back customers by emphasizing edgier fashions.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. raised eyebrows last Christmas when the teen retailer insisted it would ride out the recession without resorting to widespread price-slashing.

If the Brad Pitt film ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is a hit, it could give Harvey and Bob Weinstein some much needed breathing room and quiet speculation that their production company is on the ropes.

If Miramax was the house that Quentin Tarantino built, is Weinstein Co. the house that Tarantino will save?

John McCarthy is the first Californian to be prosecuted after Swiss bank UBS agreed to reveal identities of its customers. The IRS is seeking more names from the bank.

A nationwide crackdown on federal income tax evasion using secret Swiss bank accounts yielded an agreement from a Malibu businessman to plead guilty to hiding at least $1 million abroad.

California Treasurer Bill Lockyer will have to borrow $10.5 billion next month. That’s no small chunk of change. But the way it looks now, many investors will be lining up to hand him their money.

Virgin will add two daily nonstops each from LAX and San Francisco International, and JetBlue, which has a Long Beach-to Fort Lauderdale route, will add service from San Francisco.

Arriba , arriba!

The company’s Italian production partner stops making the barreled pieces of the Dreamliner’s midsection after a defect is found in the manufacturing process.

Boeing says it has halted production of large fuselage sections for the 787 Dreamliner, the latest problem for a delay-plagued airplane that the aerospace giant is counting on to be its next big moneymaker.

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