Suddenly, the presidential campaign has acquired a Spanish accent. “Romney cree en nosotros,” U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., tells viewers of a TV ad in South Florida, amid scenes of swaying palm trees, the Miami skyline and smiling Cuban-Americans. “Romney believes in us.”

Sometimes, just a single word can stir one’s imagination. When, for example, producer J.J. Abrams was first pitched the idea for a TV drama pegged to Alcatraz, he was instantly intrigued.

President Obama on Friday morning will ask Congress to give him authority to significantly shrink the federal government by merging six agencies dealing with trade and commerce, a senior administration official said.

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of National Lampoon, the digital-comedy company CollegeHumor Media is taking a stab at the film business.

Jon Huntsman, who initially staked his presidential campaign on New Hampshire, now heads to South Carolina, where a recent poll shows him trailing even satirical television host Stephen Colbert.

Monday marked the end of an era at the Consumer Electronics Show, the tech industry’s gigantic annual gadget fest in Las Vegas. Steve Ballmer’s keynote speech that evening was the last one scheduled by a Microsoft CEO after a 13-year run. And after this year’s show, the company is pulling out of CES entirely.

ohn Heder has reunited with the entire cast — including Aaron Ruell and “Vote for Pedro’s” Efren Ramirez — to provide the voices for the animated version of the film. The already cartoonish Napoleon Dynamite, and the gang, can be seen when the series debuts with back-to-back episodes starting at Sunday on Fox.

Barricades surrounding the park in lower Manhattan where the Occupy Wall Street movement was born were removed Tuesday, with considerable less commotion than when they were erected, enabling anti-greed protesters to easily return.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner faces a stiff challenge this week as he tries to persuade China, Japan and South Korea to reduce their dependency on Iranian oil and natural gas.

Rapper Dr. Dre will close the 2012 edition of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, to be held for the first time over two consecutive weeks in mid-April. Headliners for the multi-weekend, six-day affair include rock acts the Black Keys, Radiohead and the Shins, as well hip-hop and dance acts Snoop Dogg, the Swedish House Mafia and Kaskade, among others.