Business

The report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers says hiring for the upcoming class of graduates will jump 13 percent from a year ago. But the improvement won't get the job market for new grads back to where it was before the recession.

PNC Bank says its website is the latest victim of a denial of service attack. Users who tried to access the bank's websites had trouble loading the pages, or couldn't get into their accounts. But officials say the accounts were not compromised.

The convenience store chain is allowing customers to choose: coffee in a blue cup for President Obama, or a red cup for Mitt Romney. And for the undecided, or those just indifferent to politics, they can request a plain cup. The company tabulates the choices at the register and results are posted daily on its 7-Election website.

We set up our shell companies. Then we wondered: What do people actually do with shell companies?

One popular use, it turns out, is what professionals call "asset protection." Ordinary people call this "hiding money."

Maybe you're a surgeon worried a patient might sue you and take everything you have. Or you want to hide money from your ex (or your soon-to-be ex).

The world's central banks are pumping cash into their economies, pushing down interest rates in hopes the ready cash and lower rates will boost borrowing and economic activity. Everyone agrees the action is dramatic and unprecedented, but there's disagreement over whether they will do more harm than good.

Economists know very well the trillions of dollars being added by the central banks to the global economy can be risky.

"These are risks about long-term rises in inflation, housing bubbles potentially building up," says Jacob Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute.

After one of the driest summers on record, recent rains have helped in some parts of the country. But overall, the drought has still intensified. The latest tracking classifies more than a fifth of the contiguous United States in "extreme or exceptional" drought, the worst ratings.

In some parts of the Lower Midwest, water-starved crops have collapsed, but the farmers have not. Farmers across the country are surviving, and many are even thriving. This year, despite the dismal season, farmers stand to make exceptionally good money, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

This soundtrack has accompanied untold wasted hours around the globe. It is the music from "Angry Birds," the addictive mobile game that surpassed one billion downloads in May.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)

Pat Henneberry is an airline's dream customer. She flies all week, every week, and buying an $800 ticket so that she can have full flexibility is standard operating procedure. She's an American Airlines platinum customer. But she is fed up with the endless delays and cancellations.

We thought the U.S. economy added just under 2 million jobs between March, 2011 and March, 2012. Turns out, the actual number was more like 2.4 million — a big difference!

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CELESTE HEADLEE, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Celeste Headlee. Michel Martin is away. Coming up, Eric LeGrand was a star college football player until a tackle left him paralyzed. We'll speak with him about his new memoir and his new life. That's in a moment.

But, first, let's turn to housing. The Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index is one of the top measures of the U.S. housing market and the latest report just out this week says prices are on the rise.