NEW YORK – Sears, Roebuck & Co. (S) Tuesday announced the launch of its new off-mall store format, which the retailer hopes will position it for steady sales growth ahead as it integrates its operations with those of Kmart Holdings Corp. (KMRT). The new mid-sized store format is called Sears …

U.S. taxpayers will directly shoulder half of the nation’s health care costs by the end of the next decade, according to federal cost estimates released Wednesday. The figures show that spending on Medicare and Medicaid will grow at roughly 7 percent to 8 percent per year until 2014, when the …

OWYHEE COUNTY, Idaho – Idaho’s most infamous outlaw, Claude Dallas (search), killed two state officers in a remote desert 24 years ago in a crime that brought him notoriety as both a callous criminal and a modern-day mountain man at odds with the government. Now a bespectacled 54-year-old, Dallas is …

WICHITA, Kan. – Confessed BTK serial killer Dennis Rader (search) chose his first victims because he was attracted to an 11-year-old girl in the family, and he told authorities about a chilling conversation he had with her before she died, agents testified Wednesday. As the sentencing hearing for Rader started, …

Should I make an early 401(k) withdrawal to buy a house? What if I just borrow from the account instead? In all likelihood, your employer will allow you to tap your 401(k) to purchase a home. Just keep in mind that if your employer allows both borrowing and withdrawals to …

SAN FRANCISCO – Web retailer Amazon.com (AMZN) Monday said it would offer online photo developing services through a partnership with leading Internet photo service Shutterfly (search) as it targets a fast-growing market. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Amazon said the service would allow customers to design photo …

NEW YORK – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (search) has named eight more defendants in a case involving alleged insider trading in Reebok International Ltd (RBK) share options, an SEC attorney said Thursday. “We have named eight additional defendants today,” SEC attorney David Rosenfeld told Reuters at the U.S. …

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s (search) head of parliament announced Saturday that Shiites and Kurds had agreed to Sunni Arab (search) proposals for the new constitution and were awaiting a response. But Sunni negotiators said the changes fall short of their demands and urged voters to reject the draft in the …

MALIBU, Calif. – A sheriff’s detective will be assigned to investigate the BB gun shooting of a photographer who was staking out Britney Spears (search) over the weekend. Such incidents usually draw little attention from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, but authorities say they were swamped with phone calls. …

NEW YORK – Stocks ended a volatile session on the positive side Wednesday as energy and construction companies gained and after the president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said the central bank could change its interest rate policy in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Dow Jones industrial average (search) …