Ratings

Distancing himself from Republicans on housing issues, President Obama pitched a $5-billion to $10-billion plan to help a key segment of struggling homeowners — those still making monthly payments, but on underwater mortgages. Obama proposed Wednesday to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages. He argued that those homeowners — and the country — couldn't afford to let the housing market bottom out, as many Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have advocated.

It was kind of a buzz-kill moment. Earlier this month, at a town hall meeting in Township, Pa., Mitt Romney mentioned that the jobless rate had dropped a bit, from 8.2% to 8.1%. The audience started to applaud, but Romney stopped them. "Normally, that would be cause for celebration," said the former Massachusetts governor. "But anything near 8% or over 4% percent is not cause for celebration.... The reason the rate came down is because about 340,000 people dropped out of the workforce.

The alarm over potential bank runs in Greece and Spain this week has highlighted an often-overlooked fact: Europe's debt crisis is also, in many ways, a major banking crisis. In capitals such as Athens, Madrid and Rome, large portions of the sovereign debt racked up by spendthrift governments are owed to the countries' own banks, locking governments and the banks in an embrace so tight that disaster for one would almost certainly spell doom for the other. International bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have helped to keep not just their governments but also their banks afloat, as well as financial institutions in other parts of Europe with large exposure to those nations' debts.

With the unofficial start of summer just days away, it's time to stock up on sunscreen. Does it matter which one you buy? Consumer Reports tested some popular brands, and found that it does, but the best choices are not necessarily the most expensive. Of the 18 popular products Consumer Reports tested , none rated excellent in all four categories: UVA and UVB protection, UVB protection after being in the water, and staining fabrics. All Terrain Aqua Sport lotion rated best, scoring 88 of 100 possible points.

New figures from Gallup place President Obama's reelection bid in a precarious gray zone between the one-term exit of presidents like George H.W. Bush, and successful second-term victories like those of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Combining Obama's job approval rating with several evaluations of public sentiment on the economy, Gallup's indicators show that the president is performing better than he was just a year ago, but his numbers are nonetheless lackluster compared with those of his predecessors.

Spanish-language TV giant Univision Communications said Monday that it was creating an in-house production unit -- a move that reflects consumers' changing viewing habits and a sign that the company no longer wants to rely as heavily on its longtime partner in Mexico for its most popular shows. Univision will launch Univision Studios in Miami to produce prime-time soap operas, reality shows and videos for the Internet. Although Univision benefits from a steady supply of the popular telenovelas produced by Grupo Televisa of Mexico City, the New York-based broadcaster has determined it needs greater diversity in content, according to company executives.

Another ratings record, another halftime controversy. What else could it have been but the Super Bowl? Sunday's NFL championship set another TV ratings record, the latest evidence that the Super Bowl has become the equivalent of a nationwide secular holiday, with all the attendant hoopla and partisan bickering one might expect. An average of 111.3 million total viewers tuned in to NBC's coverage, according to figures from Nielsen, watching the underdog New York Giants hold off the New England Patriots 21-17 in a seesaw match that went down to the final moments.

The Nielsen Co. list of prime-time television rankings that usually appears on Wednesdays is delayed this week because of the Presidents Day holiday. It will be published in Calendar later this week.

  Flip through the radio dial any given afternoon and you might hear an angry-sounding white man railing against the government, Congress and dastardly politicians. No, not Rush Limbaugh. This one criticizes Congress for not giving more help to the poor, the government for cutting off unemployment benefits, and politicians for pledging to dissolve unions. Ed Schultz has, over the last two years, made a niche in radio and on TV by talking about the poor and middle class, solidly gaining in ratings while more and more Americans lost jobs, benefits and middle class status.

Riding wave after wave of pop hits that carried the station into more radios than any other in the market, Top 40 outlet KIIS-FM (102.7) dominated Los Angeles-Orange County ratings for most of the last three years. Now another station has finally started its own winning streak. After already claiming January and February, talk station KFI-AM (640) - home of commentators such as Bill Handel, John Kobylt, Ken Chiampou and Tim Conway Jr. - placed first in the March ratings, released Monday.

Record low interest rates for 30-year mortgages edged down another tick, Freddie Mac said in its latest survey , which showed lenders across the nation offering the benchmark loan at 3.78% compared to 3.79% last week. The typical rate on a 15-year fixed loan held steady at 3.04%. Sales of new homes were rising in a recent survey, with the low rates helping to make housing more affordable. But many homeowners are trapped in homes worth less than their mortgages, restraining home resales and holding back the recovery in the housing markets.

"American Idol"continued to suffer a ratings drop as it headed into its season finale Wednesday night and prepared to crown either Phillip Phillips or Jessica Sanchez the winner. According to preliminary ratings, the Tuesday night episode of the Fox show drew 14.3 million viewers. That was enough for an easy win, and the show also was first in the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults ages 18 to 49. "American Idol's" overall numbers, however, are inching downward.

After the coffee. Before getting out of wet Boston. The Skinny: After almost two weeks on the road, I'm finally heading back home Wednesday night. Just don't tell me it's raining in Los Angeles. Wednesday's headlines include NBC's plans to hype the online component to its Olympics coverage, Disney hitting pause on a pricey movie, andCNN's ratings troubles. Daily Dose: While the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn.'

That ray of light you see peeking through all the clouds darkening California's future? That's the sun. More specifically, solar power, in which California is the hands-down national leader. The state's installed solar generating capacity of about 1.2 gigawatts - the equivalent of two big conventional power plants and enough to fill the electrical demand from nearly 200,000 homes for a year - easily outstrips the next 10 highest-ranked states. It's also the fastest-growing solar market in the country.

Moody's Investors Service raised the credit rating of Ford Motor Co. to an investment grade, giving its seal of approval to a corporate turnaround of the business that started with heavy borrowing at the end of 2006. The move Tuesday returns control of the automaker's famous "Blue Oval" logo back to Ford. The logo, with the Ford name written in distinctive script, was first seen on a Model A in 1928 and was pledged as collateral to obtain the loans. Moody's raised its assessment of the creditworthiness of Ford's automotive operations to Baa3, up from Ba2. Ford Motor Credit Co., the automaker's finance arm, now has a rating of Baa3, up from Ba1. The investment rating is an important measure of corporate health and will reduce the automaker's borrowing expenses.

OAKLAND — Several big league veterans, including Torii Hunter , were convinced Howie Kendrick would win a batting title some day after the Angels second baseman hit .285 as a rookie in 2006, .322 in 2007 and .306 in 2008. Entering Tuesday, the only category in which Kendrick ranked among American League leaders was strikeouts — he was tied for ninth with 39, including five three-whiff games, in 161 plate appearances. That Kendrick went five for 38 in 11 games through Monday, a .132 clip that dropped his average from .298 on May 9 to .257, is disturbing enough.

Maybe the world was craving an Elton John-Lady Gaga duet. Or perhaps a Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatic routine from a nearly naked Pink. Or it could be that viewers just like hearing bleeped rap songs. Whatever the case, the 35% ratings surge for Sunday's Grammy extravaganza on CBS -- nearly 26 million viewers, or about as many as for Fox's singing smash "American Idol," according to early results from the Nielsen Co. -- has the TV business asking: Are award shows staging a comeback?

KOCE-TV Channel 50, the Orange County-based public broadcasting outlet, has seen its ratings soar 150% since it took on the full PBS schedule on Jan. 1, according to the Nielsen Co. A year ago, KOCE was delivering a 0.2 household rating for its programming day. Now, with PBS signatures such as "American Experience" and "Charlie Rose" added to the lineup, that rating has jumped to a 0.5 for the month of January. That is the same number KCET-TV Channel 28 was doing with the PBS schedule during the same period last year.

WASHINGTON - The Congressional Budget Office warned that the country could be thrown into a recession if Congress tries to reduce the nation's deficit quickly with a combination of budget cuts and higher taxes scheduled to take place at the end of the year. The nonpartisan budget office laid out the stark choices Tuesday over what has been called the coming fiscal cliff as congressional leaders square off in an expected partisan showdown from now through December. The office warned that the growth of the nation's gross domestic product - the value of goods and services produced - would slow to just 0.5% next year if Congress did nothing.

When it comes time to trade in your frequent-flier reward points for seats on an airplane, low-cost airlines do the best job of getting you in the air. That was the conclusion of a study released last week by IdeaWorks, a Wisconsin consultant to the airline industry. In March, IdeaWorks submitted nearly 7,000 booking requests through the frequent-flier websites of 23 airlines. Seats were requested for the airline's most popular routes in June through October. The study had a 93.5% success rate of finding available seats on low-cost airlines around the world, including U.S. carriers such as Southwest Airlines, AirTran Airways and JetBlue Airways.