Business

The Shenzhen-based company BYD started producing cellphone batteries and then moved to electric cars. Now, it's rolling out a fleet of electric buses in the U.S., a first for a Chinese auto manufacturer.

The banking giant has agreed to pay a record sum to the U.S. government over charges that it knew it was selling risky mortgage products. But it's not clear exactly what, if anything, the bank is admitting to — or if the government's case would have held up in a jury trial.

"This little baby — what my wife used to call my 'pretend money project' — is really going mainstream," says the chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation.

One of the nation's largest school systems has been pushed to the brink of insolvency. Not long ago, Philadelphia was touted as a "laboratory of innovation," a promising model for urban public education. But something went wrong. So who is responsible for the district's descent into academic and financial ruin?

Beta agonists, a class of drugs widely fed to cattle and hogs to make them put on weight faster, are coming under increasing scrutiny. Reports suggest animals fed these drugs can seem reluctant to move — lethargic, unable to walk properly — and may die more often, too.

Fort Dodge, Iowa, is not exactly what you'd think of as a hotbed of health care innovation. But the small town in the western part of the state is part of a Medicare pilot project that economists say could be a pathway to the holy grail of health care: providing better care at a lower cost.

The Federal Election Commission is expected to vote Thursday on a proposal to allow virtual currency contributions to political action committees.

The health care law is helping low- and middle-income Americans pay for their insurance. Where does that money come from? In part, it is a matter of the well-off helping pay for those who have less. But that's not the full answer.

The U.S. landline network was once the best in the world. But these days, phone companies see them as a burden, an old technology too expensive to maintain. AT&T wants to start replacing the system with cheaper options. Some call it a hasty abandonment of the tried-and-true traditional network.

About 10 percent of working Americans carpool to work. For two years, Neville Amaria was one of them. He spent two to three hours a day in the car with as many as four co-workers squeezed in alongside him. Now his office has moved closer to home. Here's an audio diary from the last morning of his carpool.