When the Justice Department in 2007 settled its criminal investigation into the maker of OxyContin, a high-powered painkiller, federal officials claimed a “victory” that would deter other companies from illegally marketing opioids. But now we know thanks to a once-secret Justice Department report that the case’s real winner was OxyContin’s producer, Purdue Pharma, and its […]

It’s St Stephen’s Day and I’m happy to offer tutorials to all those Brits I know who have successfully received their Irish passports over the past year: It’s not Boxing Day, it’s Stephen’s Day. This is to commemorate the first Christian martyr, I’ll explain, and the tradition derives from the time when Ireland identified as […]

Let’s take a moment to pity the Internal Revenue Service. Yes, to many Americans, it’s a money-grabbing ogre siphoning hard-earned cash to the faceless federal bureaucracy. But the nation’s tax collector today is an enfeebled enforcer. Its budget has been bled dry by a Republican Congress in service to wealthy donors and businesses aggressively pursuing […]

To the Editor: “The End of Privacy Began in the 1960s,” by Margaret O’Mara (Op-Ed, Dec. 6), points to several critical moments in the development of American privacy laws, but there is much in this history that needs clarifying if the next steps on privacy are smart ones. Ms. O’Mara is correct that the proposal […]

On Christmas Eve 1968, human beings orbited the moon for the first time. News of the feat of NASA’s Apollo 8 mission dominated the front page of The New York Times the next day. Tucked away below the fold was an essay by the poet Archibald MacLeish, a reflection inspired by what he’d seen and […]

Nicole Barthelemy, the quiet, gracious owner of one of Paris’s premier cheese shops on the Rue de Grenelle, told me this week, with real panic in her eyes, “I have never in 47 years been so afraid as I am today.” And with good reason. Only a few blocks away, on the Rue de Solferino, […]

NASHVILLE — It would be fair to call my home décor aesthetic the opposite of a Pottery Barn catalog. In theory, I would love to live in a Pottery Barn catalog, but in practice, I’m too much of a pack rat to be comfortable among spare furnishings in rich earth tones. Our house looks like […]

Why do we find such enduring fascination with Maria Callas more than 40 years after her death at age 53? What is it about this opera diva, whose life and career were equal parts brilliant and tormented, that excites us so? And what the heck did she see in Aristotle Onassis? The questions are myriad […]

(Reuters) – Cadence Bancorp (CADE.N) said on Monday it would offer more shares to buy State Bank Financial Corp (STBZ.O) in an $849 million deal, well below the $1.4 billion it offered in May. Cadence’s share price has fallen nearly 43 percent since May 13, when it announced the offer. State Bank shareholders will receive […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Pan-European exchanges group Euronext NV (ENX.PA) is set to add the Oslo bourse to its portfolio after winning the support of shareholders owning almost half of the Norwegian stock exchange for a 625 million euros ($711 million) bid. Euronext, which already operates bourses in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Dublin, has offered […]