Ratings

Mortgage rates dropped slightly during the first half of this week in reaction to news of slower growth in the economy, with lenders offering the 30-year fixed-rate loan at an average 3.54%, down from 3.57% a week ago, according to Freddie Mac's latest survey. The typical 15-year fixed rate fell from 2.76% to 2.74%, the mortgage financier said, amid indications the rates would continue to ease in the coming week. Quiz: Test your knowledge of home loans This week's Institute for Supply Management indexes showed slower growth in the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors, noted Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft.

Roger Ebert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic whose gladiatorial "thumbs-up, thumbs-down" assessments turned film reviewing into a television sport and whose passion for independent film helped introduce a new generation of filmmakers to moviegoers, has died. He was 70. Ebert, who had battled cancer in recent years, died Thursday in Chicago, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, where he had been film critic for 46 years. He had undergone several surgeries to remove cancerous tumors from his thyroid and salivary glands, ultimately losing his jaw and speaking voice to the disease.

The interest rate for a key type of student loan is scheduled to double from 3.4% to 6.8% in three months unless Congress, which voted to lower the rate in 2007, decides to keep it in place. The rate for the subsidized Stafford loans had gradually declined from 2008 through 2011, when it bottomed out at 3.4%. Last summer, after some bitter partisan sniping, Congress extended the low rate - but only for a year. It's scheduled to rise back to 6.8% on July 1 unless Congress acts.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones lashed out Tuesday at another double-digit rate hike for thousands of small businesses getting their health insurance from industry giant Anthem Blue Cross. But this time Jones got some help from a surprising source. He has quietly tapped Consumer Watchdog, his political ally and the state's most outspoken industry critic, to help review health insurance rate increases under a one-year contract worth as much as $88,000. The insurance industry expressed dismay that the state enlisted its longtime nemesis to help review rate increases, and some experts questioned whether it's necessary to further antagonize insurers at a time when state officials are trying to work closely with the industry to implement a massive healthcare expansion.

LONDON -- Joblessness in the 17-nation Eurozone hit a record high in January and February, according to statistics released Tuesday that gave a grim snapshot of the region's continued economic malaise. The unemployment rate rose to 12% in the first two months of the year, the highest level since the euro was introduced more than a decade ago. That translates to about 19 million people who were out of work in February, 1.8 million more compared with the same time last year. But the average masks wide disparities among the 17 countries that share the euro currency.

Repeat births among teens have fallen, but nearly one in five children born to teen mothers already has a sibling, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Of more than 367,000 births to mothers 15 to 19 years old in 2010, 18.3% were repeat births, a decrease of 6.2% from 2007, the CDC reported. Large disparities among racial and ethnic groups and geographic areas remain, the centers reported. American Indian or Alaska native teens registered the highest percentages, 21.6%, followed by Hispanics, 20.9%, and non-Hispanic blacks, 20.4%.

HLN should send Jodi Arias a fruit basket and a spa vacation. The cable channel's coverage of the Arias murder trial -- she is accused of killing her ex-boyfriend in 2008 at his Arizona home -- gave its first quarter numbers a nice boost, according to Nielsen. In March alone, HLN saw its total day ratings increase by 53% and prime time was up almost 50%. For the first three months, HLN is up 17% in total day and 12% in prime. For the news channels not obsessing over the Arias trial, it was a tougher quarter.

Turner Broadcasting has extended "Conan" through November 2015, solidifying the network's relationship with late night host Conan O'Brien. Time Warner-owned Turner scooped up the red-haired O'Brien in 2010 shortly after red-faced NBC executives displaced the comic to shuffle Jay Leno back into his longtime perch at 11:35 p.m. on "The Tonight Show. " O'Brien had hosted NBC's marquee late night program for seven months, but ratings proved to be an issue. O'Brien's ratings on TBS are not huge either -- the show is averaging 906,000 viewers an episode.

"The Walking Dead," which has already shattered viewer records for AMC, scored another milestone with its season finale. The end of the third season of the zombie apocalypse drama scored its biggest audience ever with 12.4 million viewers, making the finale the top-rated program for the night. The episode pulled in 8.1 million adults age 18 to 49. AMC also declared that the show was No. 1 in the 18-49 demographic for the broadcast season, outdistancing "The Big Bang Theory,"  "The Voice," "Modern Family" and other series.

For months, the sea lion pups - not even a year old - have been washing up on Southern California beaches at an alarming rate. They were stranded, severely underweight, bones poking through their slick dark fur. They were clinging to life, many of them with ailments far beyond malnutrition. The strandings, which began spiking in January, have intensified in recent weeks, packing marine mammal centers, perplexing researchers and prompting federal wildlife officials to act. Officials last week declared an "unusual mortality event" for the California sea lion, a designation that came after the pups have been found stranded on beaches from Santa Barbara to San Diego at rates exponentially higher than in years past.