Companies Keep Lining up for a Piece of Bailout Fund

A trio of reports due Tuesday are expected to paint a bleak picture of the nation’s housing market and the broader economy, as the deepening recession sends more companies lining up for a piece of the government’s $700 billion bailout fund.

JPMorgan Cutting 9,200 Jobs at Washington Mutual

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Monday it will cut a total of 9,200 jobs at Washington Mutual, which it acquired Sept. 25 after Washington Mutual became the nation’s largest bank to fail amid the ongoing credit crisis.

Wal-Mart Names Michael Duke to Succeed Lee Scott as New CEO

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, unexpectedly
announced Friday that its chief executive will retire in February and
be replaced by the head of its international division.

Circuit City Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

Circuit City Stores Inc, the No. 2 U.S. consumer electronics retailer,
filed for bankruptcy on Monday just weeks before the start of the
holiday shopping season, becoming the largest retailer to file for
Chapter 11 since Kmart in 2002.

From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to “I Have a Dream”: New Book Discusses Race, Religion and American Politics

American political history is marked by four great transformative periods, says American religious historian Mark Noll in his new book, God and Race in American Politics: A Short History (Princeton University Press). And in three of the four periods, “potent combinations of race and religion were the engines that drove political change.”