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President Bush announced a plan that will allow the U.S. government to spend about $250 billion of its $700 billion bailout program to buy equity stakes in banks. The government has been careful to call the program a "recapitalization" plan.

The rival candidates are spelling out their plans to improve the economy in appearances this week. And those plans have markedly different approaches to an issue likely to dominate the presidential race.

President Obama's pick for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, began his confirmation hearing with an apology Wednesday. He told members of the Senate Finance Committee the tax questions that delayed his confirmation were the result of his own careless mistakes. But he added the mistakes were unintentional. The panel is expected to vote Thursday on his nomination.

The Senate is set to vote Thursday on whether to release the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package. While most Democrats are on board to approve the funds, many Republicans say the bill lacks transparency and accountability. President-elect Barack Obama's economic team went to Capitol Hill Wednesday to try to win them over.

A large credit union in Seattle has started an ad campaign that stresses its nonprofit bona fides. Sprint advertises calling plans that are right "for these times." Does austerity sell? Or is that a ridiculous contradiction?

Retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to head the Department of Veteran Affairs, has promised to modernize the agency. Shinseki appeared Wednesday before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee at his confirmation hearing.

A massive fire in the Angeles National Forest nearly doubled in size overnight, threatening 12,000 homes in the Los Angeles area. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued emergency declarations for four counties.

Grace Go, a 17-year-old rising senior at Mercer Island High School outside Seattle, is the winner of the first-ever Best Mental Health Podcast Prize from NPR's Student Podcast Challenge.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the recent beating death of a Chicago teen a "wake-up call" that would lead to action. Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan held a news conference with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. The two Cabinet officials were sent by the White House to Chicago after the killing.

Colombia says it rescued three Americans and a French-Colombian politician from leftist FARC rebels who held them for years. John Otis, South America bureau chief for the Houston Chronicle, says all the former hostages are in reasonably good health.