Procter & Gamble’s failure to raise the price of Cascade dishwashing soap shows why investors are buying Treasuries at the lowest yields in history, giving the Federal Reserve more scope to boost the economy. Read full article > >

See more here:
Sign that bond market backs 3rd quantitative-easing round? Check Huggies’ price.

New car registrations in the UK fell 4.4% in 2011 to 1.94m – their lowest level in over a decade – new data shows.

The rest is here:
UK car sales 4.4% lower in 2011

The Post published 875 corrections in the print edition this year through Dec. 30. That’s down from 1,054 in 2010, with one day left in the year. The 17 percent decrease is significant, and the total is the lowest for any year since The Post began counting in 2005, when it had more than 1,300 corrections, according to Managing Editor Raju Narisetti. Read full article > >

Visit link:
The year in corrections

New HIV infections and Aids-related deaths are at the lowest levels since their peaks, figures from UNAids suggest.

Go here to read the rest:
Aids deaths ‘down 21% from peak’

WASHINGTON — The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week fell to the lowest level since April, a sign that employers could be stepping up hiring. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications dropped to a seasonally adjusted 390,000. It was the third decline in four weeks. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell to 400,000, also the lowest point since April. Read full article > >

Read more:
Applications for unemployment benefits fall to 390,000, lowest level since April

The Washington region has the lowest poverty rate of any metropolitan area in the country, according to a census analysis of how many people had incomes below the poverty line in the previous two years. About 8.4 percent of the region’s residents were living below the poverty threshold in 2010. That was almost a full percentage point lower than Honolulu, the next lowest city on the list released by the Census Bureau on Thursday. Read full article > >

Read this article:
Washington region has nation’s lowest poverty rate

“9-9-9 will pass, and it is not the price of pizza because, it has been well-studied and well-developed… The problem with that analysis [that it will not raise enough revenue] is that it is incorrect. The reason it’s incorrect is because they start with assumptions that we don’t make. Remember, 9- 9-9 plan throws out the current tax code. … Now, what 9-9-9 does, it expands the base. When you expand the base, we can arrive at the lowest possible rate, which is 9-9-9.” Read full article > >

See the original post:
Herman Cain’s misleading pitch for the ‘9-9-9’ plan

ATLANTA — Drunken driving incidents have fallen 30 percent in the last five years, and last year were at their lowest mark in nearly two decades, according to a new federal report. The decline may be due to the down economy: Other research suggests people are still drinking as heavily as in years past, so some may just be finding cheaper ways of imbibing than by going to bars, night clubs and restaurants. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
Drunk driving seems to be going down, says CDC study based on anonymous survey

Weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped sharply to a seasonally-adjusted 391,000, according to figures released by the Labor Department Thursday. That is 37,000 fewer claims than were filed the previous week and is the lowest number since April 2. Though that could be an encouraging sign for the nation’s ailing economy and its soaring unemployment rate, a Labor Department spokesman cautioned that some of the upturn may be a result of technical challenges associated with the seasonal adjustment of the data. Read full article > >

Here is the original post:
Jobless claims drop to lowest level since April

Had the lowest score after the first round.

More here:
Ron Artest Voted Off ‘DWTS’

Does President Obama have a Hispanic problem? In recent Gallup polling, his approval rating among Latinos dipped to 48 percent — the lowest mark of his presidency and a significant drop-off from the 60 percent approval among the group he carried as recently as January. Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics is now just seven points higher than it is among the general public in Gallup data, a major decline from earlier in his term. Read full article > >

Read the original here:
With Hispanic support for Obama waning, could Latino vote be up for grabs in 2012?

SAT reading scores for graduating high school seniors this year reached the lowest point in nearly four decades, reflecting a steady decline in performance in that subject on the college admissions test, the College Board reported Wednesday. In the Washington area, one of the nation’s leading producers of college-bound students, educators were scrambling to understand double-digit drops in test scores in Montgomery and Prince William counties and elsewhere. Read full article > >

Visit link:
SAT reading scores drop to lowest point in decades

NY, NJ, CT, MA among the lowest.

See original here:
West, South Lead U.S. in Divorces

Newly released ACT scores on tests used for college admissions show that only 1 in 4 graduates of the class of 2011 who took the exam met four key benchmarks that supposedly show readiness for success in the first year of college. The scores, being released today, show that the achievement gap between the top-scoring students — Asians and whites — and the lowest scoring — African Americans, Hispanics and American Indians — has grown slightly between 2007 and 2011. Taken together, the snapshot of the 2011 graduating class revealed by the scores shows huge college readiness issues — that is, if you believe that a high-stakes college admissions tests can adequately tell that story. (More on this later.) Read full article > >

More:
2011 ACT scores show problems with college readiness

NEW YORK — Adam LaRoche sat at his locker Wednesday night and pulled on a pair of cowboy boots, the disappointment and frustration from earlier still sticking with him. He had come up four times and made four outs, twice not putting the ball in play. Nights like this when the Washington Nationals win, he can handle. When they don’t, he feels responsible. LaRoche, of course, is not solely liable for the Nationals’ sluggish offensive start to the season, which continued Wednesday with a 3-0 loss to the New York Mets at Citi Field, their sixth shutout loss this season and third in nine games. It takes a team effort to do that, and the Nationals, after left-hander Jon Niese allowed them zero runs in seven innings, will wake up Thursday with the lowest batting average (.225) and smallest on-base percentage (.298) in the National League. Read full article > >

Excerpt from:
Nationals vs. Mets: Washington musters no offense in rainy 3-0 loss to New York