DealBook: Doubt Is Cast on Firms Hired to Help Banks

Federal authorities are scrutinizing the private consultants hired by banks to clean up financial misdeeds like money laundering and foreclosure abuses, taking aim at a conflict-riddled, billion-dollar industry.The well-connected consultants operate with scant supervision and produce mixed results, according to government documents and interviews with prosecutors and regulators. In one case, the consulting...

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Sen. Robert Menendez denies consorting with prostitutes

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a key player in the effort to overhaul immigration laws, denied allegations...

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Kim Dotcom's Mega Gets Third-Party Search Engine

The file-sharing site Mega, introduced two weeks ago by infamous file-sharing kingpin Kim Dotcom, just became a lot more useful to content pirates, thanks to a community-fed search engine of links to content hosted on Mega’s servers.The search engine doesn’t crawl Mega content — which is not possible because of Mega’s architecture. Instead, it relies on Mega users voluntarily...

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UK’s Prince Charles takes first “Tube” trip since 1986

LONDON (Reuters) – Four million Londoners cram onto the city’s Underground passenger railway nearly every day, but it is a rarer event for Prince Charles. He rode the British capital’s bustling commuter network on Wednesday for the first time since 1986.The heir to the British throne and his wife Camilla took a one-stop journey from Farringdon to King’s Cross on the Metropolitan Line as part of celebrations...

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Phys Ed: Helmets for Ski and Snowboard Safety

Phys EdGretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.Recently, researchers from the department of sport science at the University of Innsbruck in Austria stood on the slopes at a local ski resort and trained a radar gun on a group of about 500 skiers and snowboarders, each of whom had completed a lengthy personality questionnaire about whether he or she tended to be cautious or a risk taker.The researchers...

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Law Schools’ Applications Fall as Costs Rise and Jobs Are Cut

Law school applications are headed for a 30-year low, reflecting increased concern over soaring tuition, crushing student debt and diminishing prospects of lucrative employment upon graduation. As of this month, there were 30,000 applicants to law schools for the fall, a 20 percent decrease from the same time last year and a 38 percent decline from 2010, according to the Law School Admission...

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Santa Ana man accused of stealing dead father's benefits

A Santa Ana man was charged with fraudulently collecting more than $100,000 of his deceased father's Social Security benefits...

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<em>Apple v. Samsung</em>: Judge Rules Samsung Did Not Willfully Infringe

Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California ruled late Tuesday that Samsung did not willfully infringe Apple’s design and utility patents in the Apple v. Samsung case. Koh reasserted that Samsung did in fact violate Apple’s intellectual property, though.This post-trial ruling partially counters August’s jury determination, which found Samsung willfully in violation of seven of Apple’s...

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Muse to play anniversary gig for War Child charity

LONDON (Reuters) – British rock band Muse will headline a gig in London next month to mark the 20th anniversary of War Child, a charity that aims to protect young victims of conflicts around the world.The gig on February 18 at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire will be the fifth time War Child has staged a concert in association with the BRIT Awards, Britain’s top pop honors which take place this year at...

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Super Bowl: At Media Day, Spotlight on Head Injuries Grows

Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesCoach Jim Harbaugh arranged his 49ers for a Super Bowl photo at the Super Dome. NEW ORLEANS — It has become a staple of Super Bowl week, as much a part of the pregame to the N.F.L.’s biggest event as the annual media day: a discussion of how football is being affected by head injuries and the mounting evidence that long-term brain damage can be linked to injuries sustained...

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