NEW YORK – Mixed employment data helped Wall Street extend its New Year’s rally Friday, as investors saw a slowdown in monthly hiring as a precursor to the end of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. The major indexes surged this week, finishing at their highest levels since mid-2001. According …

LOS ANGELES – Paris Hilton won’t joke about her peeps. The hotel heiress canceled an appearance at Monday night’s Billboard Music Awards because she didn’t like the jokes written for her, according to a spokesman. “It is my understanding that some satirical references ridiculed some of her peers,” her spokesman, …

This week, Gail answers a reader’s question and discusses the secret to avoiding gift and estate taxes: plan ahead. Hi, Gail- I graduated from college earlier this year and want to start building my credit history by buying my first piece of property. The problem is, without my parents’ help …

The trouble begins… now! Does John’s My Word make your blood boil? Click here to listen live to The John Gibson Show on FOX News Radio (weekdays, 6-9 p.m. ET). It’s your chance to call in and argue with John! A lot of anti-war Democrats have been insisting the war …

NEW YORK – Conservative Jewish scholars eased their ban Wednesday on ordaining gays, upending thousands of years of precedent while stopping short of fully accepting gay clergy. The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which interprets religious law for the movement, adopted three starkly conflicting policies that nonetheless gave gays …

WASHINGTON – Sales of new homes rose in November while the backlog of unsold homes fell for a fourth straight month, providing hope that the serious slump in housing could be ending. Sales of new single-family homes rose by 3.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of …

BOSTON – After three years of dating, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and actress Bridget Moynahan are free to play the field again. The celebrity couple have broken up, a publicist for Moynahan confirmed Friday. A statement said Brady and Moynahan “amicably ended their three-year relationship several weeks ago. …

LOS ANGELES – A woman mistakenly put her 1-month-old grandson through an X-ray machine at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said. A startled security worker noticed the shape of a child on the carry-on baggage screening monitor and immediately pulled him out, the Los Angeles Times reported for a story …

I apologize for not being able to stay current with you last week, as the internet connection wasn’t possible. But for any of you reading this blog at work or in a cold wintry corner of the US, you would have hated me anyways. Costa Rica is the closest thing …

It doesn’t seem possible there’s any good news from Iraq, especially if you watch the news. I haven’t been to Iraq, so I’m not as schooled in the nuance of life and politics there, but I could swear I detected what seemed to me to be one shiny nugget in …