Ken Stanford

To foster partnerships between German-owned businesses and the University of North Georgia (UNG), the Mike Cottrell College of Business and its Center for the Future of North Georgia hosted the German Business Forum featuring executives from more than 15 businesses.

The good news is the budget deficit for the current year is projected to come in well below what was estimated just a few months ago. The bad news for deficit hawks is that the development could further curb the already slowing momentum for a budget pact this year.

Sharp drops in fuel and food costs reduced a measure of U.S. wholesale prices in April by the most in three years. Meanwhile, U.S. factory output is also down.

The Drug Free Coalition of Hall County Thursday will host a presentation at the Hall County Board of Education offices titled "The Prescription Drug Overdose Epidemic - A Question of Balance."

Renovation of the Olympic venue on Lake Lanier was discussed at a recent meeting involving city and county officials and others, including some of those directly involved in bringing the 1996 rowing, canoe and kayak competition to Gainesville.

The stock market marched back into record territory Tuesday as investors seized on the latest encouraging news about the economy. This time, it was a report on the health of small businesses.

President Barack Obama seemed to lose control of his second-term agenda even before he was sworn in, when a school massacre led him to lift gun control to the fore. Now, as he tries to pivot from a stinging defeat on that issue and push forward on others, the president finds himself rocked by multiple controversies.

As a crowd of thousands roared from the lawn of the state Capitol, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed the bill Tuesday that makes gay marriage legal here come Aug. 1.

States should cut their threshold for drunken driving by nearly half- from .08 blood alcohol level to .05-matching a standard that has substantially reduced highway deaths in other countries, a federal safety board recommended Tuesday.