AP If Alfred “Skip” Nichols had been a commercial airplane pilot, he probably would have been grounded long ago. Nichols, the pilot of a hot air balloon that crashed over the weekend in Texas, killing 16, was able to keep flying despite having at least four convictions for drunken driving and twice spending time in prison — pointing to …

  Bloomberg Canada is in the midst of one of its weakest expansions ever, and only the housing boom keeps it from getting worse. That’s one of the key takeaways from Friday’s GDP report. Two years since oil prices started plunging, Canada’s economy is almost completely reliant for growth on bank lending and the hot Vancouver and Toronto housing markets. …

  Bloomberg When talking about housing, “underwater” usually means you owe more on a mortgage than the home is actually worth. If climate change continues apace, that term could take on a much more literal meaning. Rising sea levels could soak homeowners for $882 billion, according to a new report from real estate website Zillow. The research takes its initial …