US economic growth improves to 2 pct. rate in Q3

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. economy expanded at a slightly faster 2 percent annual rate from July through September, buoyed by an uptick in consumer spending and a burst of government spending.Growth improved from the 1.3 percent rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday.The pickup in growth may help President Barack Obama's message that the economy is improving. Still, growth...

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Disney buying Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Disney is paying $4.05 billion to buy Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company behind "Star Wars," from its chairman and founder, George Lucas. It's also making a seventh movie in the "Star Wars" series called "Episode 7," set for release in 2015, with plans to follow it with Episodes 8 and 9 and then one new movie every two or three years.The Walt Disney Co. announced the blockbuster...

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Has Obama Been Good for Millionaires?

The question of whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago depends, of course, on the American.For the 12 million unemployed, the answer is most certainly no.But for many of America's millionaires, the answer may be more affirmative.A new study from WealthInsight, the London-based wealth-research and data firm (and yes, they are non-partisan), showed that the United States added...

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Obama Wins 2012 Election: Why Your Taxes Are Going Up

When President Obama and the new Congress begin to tackle important legislation and federal policy in January, one of the key issues will be how to reform America's byzantine tax code.Obama campaigned on a platform to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, declaring that millionaires and billionaires need to "pay their fair share." The president proposed the highly controversial "Buffett Rule,"...

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Senators Watch ‘Lincoln’ with Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis

Grab the popcorn: Its movie night tonight in the Senate.The Senate has taken an official recess from floor debate for a few hours to screen the movie “Lincoln” in the Capitol Visitors Center within the Capitol complex.Appearing with director Steven Spielberg and actor Daniel Day-Lewis on Capitol Hill this evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that he hopes the message of the movie...

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Videogames under fire, Hollywood lays low after school shooting

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The multi-billion-dollar videogame industry came under scrutiny on Wednesday after Hollywood canceled, postponed or played down a slew of movies and TV shows with violent content in the wake of last week's shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.In Washington, Senator John Rockefeller called for a national study of the impact of violent videogames on children and a review...

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'Homeland' star Claire Danes gives birth to first child

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Emmy-winning actress Claire Danes has given birth to her first child, a boy, the publicist for the "Homeland" star said on Wednesday.Cyrus Michael Christopher Dancy was born on Monday to Danes, 33, and her husband, British actor Hugh Dancy.Danes' performance as CIA operative Carrie Matheson on Showtime's "Homeland" series scored her an Emmy win in September, while the psychological...

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'Lincoln' at the Capitol draws director and star

WASHINGTON (AP) — Today's lawmakers might be excused for thinking they've seen this movie: A recently re-elected president spars with a quarrelsome Congress over an issue that roils the nation.The so-called fiscal cliff wasn't at the core of the film screened Wednesday in the Capitol for lawmakers. The movie "Lincoln" explores the political machinations involving President Abraham Lincoln and Congress...

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Book Talk: The sin of envy on a small Greek island

TOKYO (Reuters) - After a Greek bride is abandoned at the altar and her prospective bridegroom is found blinded from an acid attack, local villagers are baffled until Hermes Diaktoras, a portly man in white tennis shoes, arrives to help.So begins "The Doctor of Thessaly," the third in a series of detective stories by British-born author Anne Zouroudi that feature Hermes, who even as he works to unravel...

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Smoking in pregnancy tied to lower reading scores

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies exposed to their mother's cigarette smoke in the womb later perform more poorly on reading comprehension tests, according to a new study."It's not a little difference - it's a big difference in accuracy and comprehension at a critical time when children are being assessed, and are getting a sense of what it means to be successful," lead author Dr. Jeffrey Gruen...

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