Barack Obama crossed into majority favorability among registered voters for the first time since spring in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, further evidence of a convention boost. Mitt Romney trails in popularity, albeit with a number near his own high. The shifts in this......

The friendly sights and sounds of a neighborhood block party may seem typical, but to one family in White Bear Lake, Minn., it feels nothing short of miraculous. Greg Hoffman, 56, and his wife, Kim, saw their close-knit, congenial community turn into a ghost town because of Lori Christensen, 49, whom they call "the neighbor from hell."
Today, after months of rumors and speculation, Apple will announce its next iPhone – the iPhone 5. Starting at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET, Apple's CEO Tim Cook is expected to take the stage and detail the new features of the phone.
When a competitor copies somebody else's product, is that a good thing or bad? Very, very, very bad, said a federal grand jury in Apple vs. Samsung. It found Samsung owed Apple damages in excess of $1 billion for, among other things, making phones and tablets whose rounded corners aped too closely those of Apple's. The court's decision, thinks David Hsu, professor of management at Wharton, will have the effect of strengthening the branch of patent law that protects design (as compared to functionality). "There seems to be," he told a Wharton interviewer, "a broadening of the protection of design elements."That's exactly the wrong direction the law should be heading, say the co-authors of a new book.