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The CEO and the owner broke up. Now what?

The news that Los Angeles Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt are divorcing came with a bitter kick: Team chairman Frank's first move against his soon-to-be-ex was to fire her from her job as the Dodgers' chief executive.

Pen 2.0: Your scribblings go digital

As founder and creative director of Art Street Design, a graphic-design studio, I'm pretty familiar with pens and computers. (We make all sorts of marketing materials for companies, from invitations to Web sites.) But in my 13 years of running the company, I hadn't seen anything like a smartpen until recently.

Geithner: 'Credit crunch not over'

One day after Goldman Sachs' CEO apologized for his bank's role in the financial meltdown, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner called on the nation's financiers to step up and do more to fix the damage they helped cause.

Rebuilding from real estate rubble

Semper fidelis, the U.S. Marine Corps motto, means "always faithful" in Latin. As a young grunt serving at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Duane Draughon learned to remain loyal to the mission -- "whatever the cost," he says.

Goldman's $500 million small biz hug

Goldman Sachs earned an eye-popping $3.2 billion last quarter. Now it's decided to share some of that with the little guys.

Loans: $10 billion evaporates

Eight months after President Obama began prodding the nation's banks to increase their small business lending, the loan numbers continue to move in the opposite direction.

Control the cloud

For years the online-software company HotSchedules had its head in the clouds.

Goodbye, price tags

In 2001, Sunit Saxena made a midnight run to the grocery store for wonton wrappers. When he couldn't find any, he went looking for a clerk. The aisles were empty. He discovered the workers holed up in a back room tearing price tags off merchandise to reprice it for the next day.

The no-cash economy

Short on cash? Join the new old economy and swap.

A truffle farmer's black diamonds

I take my first bite of a truffle in Franklin Garland's sunlit kitchen, which overlooks a greenhouse and an orchard of budding hazelnut trees.

Banks leery of lending plan

Small business lending has been in freefall since the recession began. Concerned about the obstacles that places in the way of economic recovery, President Obama recently proposed a new federal effort to give community banks access to ultra-cheap government loans, which they can then use to expand their local business lending.

High-tech security, low price tag

Until recently, small businesses looking for high-tech building security had few affordable options.

Meet Detroit's new employers

The Motor City needs new industries. These 7 entrepreneurs are bringing tech, medical research and design jobs to the Detroit metro area.

Advanta circles the drain

Small business credit card lender Advanta has filed for bankruptcy, five months after it cut off new lending on its 1 million customer accounts.

A sonic silver bullet for fighting crime

Police surveillance cameras can make civil libertarians queasy. But what if cops could listen for dangerous crime instead of watching?

Rebooting your business model

When I moved to New York City from Calcutta, I wasn't planning a catering career. I had come to earn a master's degree in lighting design from Parsons the New School for Design. But as a foodie, I was dismayed by the city's Indian eateries: The good ones were pricey, while the more affordable restaurants served two-day-old curries.

The nightmare employee

A while ago I needed to hire an accounts payable person for my picture-framing business. We put an ad in the paper and received a good number of applications. One candidate jumped out from the pile: He had exactly the right background, and it didn't hurt that he asked for a slightly lower salary than we were planning on paying.

Even bad reviews boost sales

Like many retailers, Jim Hobart knows the value of a good testimonial.

What if you don't like your staff?

All companies have a corporate culture. Some cultures are good; others are bad. Some are productive, some destructive.

'How we got a loan'

As banks clamp down, small businesses are struggling to find the loans and credit lines they need. Here's how one company got the financing it needed.