Two more years: The U.S. House and Senate ushered in a new Congress today, the 113th in the nation’s history, with the House re-electing embattled Republican John Boehner as speaker. Boehner, bruised after weeks of trying to cajole his fractious caucus to back a bill that cuts taxes and spending, won a second, two-year term as leader with 220 votes. Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi got 192 votes. More on the new Congress’ first day of action is available in the full story here.
Case closed: Google is pledging to license hundreds of key patents to mobile computing rivals under more reasonable terms and to curb the use of snippets from other websites in Internet search results in a settlement announced today that ends a high-profile antitrust probe. In a major victory for Google, the Federal Trade Commission unanimously concluded that there isn’t enough evidence to support complaints that Google unfairly favors its own services in search results. More details of the settlement can be found here.
Throwing it into overdrive: U.S. auto sales hit a five-year high in 2012, as low interest rates, improving consumer confidence and—most important—some popular new cars drew Americans into dealerships. Sales of new cars and trucks are expected to reach 14.5 million for 2012, up 13% from the year before. That’s not quite a return to the boom times of 2005, when sales hit 17 million, but sales are 40% higher than they were at the depths of the recession in 2009. The full story is here.
