Oil prices ticked higher Wednesday as OPEC said the world would consume more crude in 2010 than previously expected, and China said its economy improved.

LYNN HAVEN, Fla.—-Representative Allen Boyd along with local officials visited Sallie Mae’s Panama City facility to discuss student loan reform legislation that could impact hundreds of jobs in Panama City.

From his upstairs office, Jerome Frantz can hear the delivery trucks as they rumble into the yard of the auto parts business his grandfather founded 90 years ago.

The price of gold surged to a fresh high Wednesday as the dollar fell to a 15-month low. Gold futures for December delivery jumped to as high as $1,119.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange in morning trading, then slipped back to $1,114.20, up $11.70 from Tuesday’s close.

The slump in China’s exports eased last month and several other key indicators showed improvement Wednesday, fresh evidence that recovery in the world’s third-largest economy was firmly on track.

The same economic pressures that pushed California to the brink of insolvency are wreaking havoc on other states, a new report has found.

The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 index made new yearly highs on Wednesday after data showed China industrial output surged and Federal Reserve officials hinted money would remain cheap well into 2010.

PALATINE, Ill.—-Nearly 700 of Illinois’ finest community and government leaders joined in Little City Foundation’s celebration marking 50 years of groundbreaking, innovative programs and services to hundreds of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—-The Booth Western Art Museum, an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, premieres the Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy Exhibition – ‘Artist at Work’ on January 16, 2010.