The Republicans won’t stop harping about President Barack Obama’s handling of the Louisiana floods. Their media focus until this week was to talk exclusively about whether he would break into his August vacation and tour the damage. When he got there, of course, it was (for them) too little, too late. What has been noteworthy about this coverage is …

  Once upon a time, a regular hacker could make decent money in the world of ransomware, malicious software that locks up parts of a victim’s computer and demands payment to restore access. Now those days are gone. I blame globalization. Ransomware has only recently entered the public consciousness, thanks to the high-profile extortion of a Los Angeles hospital and …

  New York / Bloomberg U.S. stocks fluctuated amid a batch earnings after erasing an early decline, while investors awaited clues on the path of interest-rate increases before a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Friday. HP Inc. sank 4.9 percent after forecasting earnings that may miss analyst projections. Signet Jewelers Ltd. dropped 14 percent as its profit …