Texas billionaire Allen Stanford is expected to appear in court Friday morning to face criminal charges, but the venue for the hearing is unclear, Stanford’s lawyer said Thursday.

The attorney for R. Allen Stanford, chairman of troubled Stanford Financial Group, says the Texas billionaire has surrendered to FBI agents in Virginia.

SAN FRANCISCO—-Fitch Ratings assigns an ‘A+’ rating to Oakland, California’s $62 million general obligation bonds . Fitch also assigns a ‘F1′ rating to Oakland’s $185 million 2009-10 tax and revenue anticipation notes , series A and B .

SAN FRANCISCO—-Fitch Ratings downgrades to ‘A’ from ‘A+’ the following:

On the surface, the government seemed to signal Thursday that more Americans are finding jobs: The number of people receiving unemployment aid fell for the first time since early January.

Craig and Marcia Strehlow’s 4,400-square-foot dream home had been their sanctuary for 23 years, a wooded paradise in North Dakota river country. But after record-breaking spring floods, they and thousands of others are left wondering: Will the federal government help?

LOS ANGELES—-1,000 tourism workers took to the streets today near LAX in a protest marking the beginning of a citywide contract campaign. As Los Angeles enters the height of the tourism season, union contracts that mandate good wages, guaranteed wage increases, free family health insurance and job security are set to expire for 10,000 Los Angeles tourism and hotel workers.

The House on Thursday used the first spending bill for 2010 to notify the White House that it will not go along with President Barack Obama’s plan to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A startup automobile company planning to build an all-new vehicle in Louisiana has a strong management team with experience in automotives and appears to have an affordable product with fuel economy above some current competitors, according to an independent study.

Investors can’t seem to get the stock market rally back up to full speed again. Stocks closed mostly higher but down from their highs of the day Thursday following three straight days of losses.