Unemployment report: January job gains have economists rethinking outlooks
An unexpectedly rosy jobs report set off a chain reaction Friday, upending economists’ gloomy predictions for the coming year, leading to a surge on Wall Street and potentially boggling the political calculus of the 2012 presidential campaigns. Read full article >>

Is Romney nicer because he’s Mormon?
Does religion make people nice? Mitt Romney’s tax returns prompt this question. According to those documents, which he released recently, Romney gives at least 10 percent of his earnings of about $20 million a year to the Mormon Church. Read full article >>

Guest post: An ‘Arab Spring’ of free online higher education
In recent days, we have heard President Obama lecture college presidents about cost control, and we have seen a vaunted Stanford professor quit to pursue teaching students by the millions online — at minimal cost. Read full article >>

U-Va. prepares for George Huguely’s trial for the murder of Yeardley Love
Nearly two years ago, the University of Virginia mourned and tried to comprehend the death of Yeardley Love, a fourth-year student from the Baltimore area who played on the lacrosse team. On Monday a trial is set to start for her ex-boyfriend George Huguely V, who also played lacrosse at U-Va. and is charged with her murder. Read full article >>

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Guest post: Higher education’s $64,000 question
“ Academically Adrift,” a 2010 book, shook the Ivory Tower to its foundations with evidence that a substantial share of college students show no significant learning gains between their freshman and senior years. Read full article >>

Susan G. Komen foundation takes steps to rebuild trust after PR fiasco
The nation’s leading breast cancer advocacy group has gone into full damage-control mode. Executives of the embattled Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation held conference calls with affiliates Saturday to discuss a new strategy for working with supporters, a first step in rebuilding trust after last week’s public relations fiasco surrounding Komen’s off-then-on-again decision to fund Planned Parenthood. Read full article >>

Castaway lizards put evolution to the test
When Hurricane Frances swept through the Caribbean in 2004, it wiped out populations of little anole lizards living on seven tiny islands in the Bahamas. Instead of mourning the loss, Harvard University biologist Jonathan Losos spied an opportunity: He could, for the first time, test a controversial 70-year-old idea in evolutionary biology. Read full article >>

Agencies urge Interior to reject mining near national park
Two key federal agencies have recommended that the Interior Department reject a controversial coal lease proposed for an area near Bryce Canyon National Park, arguing it could impair visibility at the park and harm imperiled animals living in the region. Read full article >>

Tom Brady vs. Eli Manning: Who’s smarter?
Even NFL teams use a standardized test to assess whether athletes are smart enough to draft. And given that today is the Super Bowl pitting the New York Giants against the New England Patriots, did Pats quarterback Tom Brady or Giants quarterback Eli Manning score higher? Read full article >>

How real school reform should look (or explaining water to a fish)
This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author. This first appeared on truth-out.org . By Marion Brady Imagine the present corporately promoted education reform effort as a truck, its tires nearly flat from the weight of the many unexamined assumptions it carries. Read full article >>

DCPS fires principal forced out of Dallas school (updated)
Update: D.C. schools strengthening hiring process, more details D.C. school officials have now fired a principal they had recently hired without knowing that she had been accused of “unethical” behavior when she was a principal in Dallas, a district spokeswoman said Friday. Read full article >>

Corning releases sequel to “A Day Made of Glass” viral video ad (video)
Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass, have entered into the movie-making business...sort of. In their latest attempt at viral-video advertising, Corning released a nearly six-minute follow-up to their highly successful “A Day Made of Glass” Web video on Feb. 3. ”A Day Made of Glass 2” features a world where car dashboards, tablets, blackboards and tables are replaced with interactive display glass. Imagine a more interactive, streamlined iPad transposed on nearly every surface you interact with. Read full article >>

Innovation, action and finding your purpose: An interview with Purpose CEO Jeremy Heimans
Before undertaking any venture, one needs a purpose. In the case of Jeremy Heimans, Purpose is everything, including the name of the organization he co-founded and for which he currently serves as CEO. Read full article >>

Why the Giants’ Eli Manning is a better leader than Tom Brady
This piece is part of a “faceoff” between Tom Brady’s and Eli Manning’s leadership, written by two leadership experts (and football fan rivals) for the Washington Post’s On Leadership section. Read the piece on Tom Brady here. Read full article >>

The GOP candidates’ best leadership traits
By this stage of the GOP race, when the votes start tumbling in and the lesser players start tumbling out, we have read most of what there is to know about the six men—and they are indeed now all men—who aim to become the Republican nominee. We’ve read about their political successes and failures. We’ve learned about their families and their backgrounds. We know the quirky tidbits of their lives: Rick Santorum briefly lobbied for the World Wrestling Federation. Ron Paul doesn’t wear his seat belt. Newt Gingrich has an odd fascination with zoos. Read full article >>

The Rolodex that redefined power
You’ve probably never heard of Pattie Sellers. But Warren Buffett has. And so have Sheryl Sandberg, Oprah Winfrey and Indra Nooyi. It’s an enviable list, really. They’re among the many who’ve joined Sellers at the Most Powerful Women summit. This year, from a slightly raised stage, she looks out once more across table upon table of some of the world’s most prominent female executives, artists and philanthropists. It’s the opening dinner of Fortune magazine’s annual summit on a surprisingly chilly October evening on the Southern California coastline. The 400-plus guests sit under a big, white tent on a cliff perched over the gray, choppy Pacific. Inside, the Ritz-Carlton has pulled off something that looks a lot like prom: purple sequined tablecloths and settings of pink roses illuminated by purple and pink floodlights. Read full article >>

Google’s Eric Schmidt expounds on his Senate testimony
A week after Google Chairman Eric Schmidt testified before the Senate Judiciary antitrust committee, he was back in California at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View. There on September 29, Schmidt — who until this April had served as the company’s longtime CEO — sat down with Washington Post On Leadership editor Lillian Cunningham and reflected on his first time testifying before Congress, what Washington understands and doesn’t understand about regulating technology, and where the connections and disconnects are between the Hill and the Valley. Read full article >>

Cyber Monday sales change game for UPS drivers
Quick, hide this from the children if they’re under the age of 7. It is Cyber Friday and — ho-ho-ho — Santa is making his rounds. You may know all about Cyber Monday, which comes right after Thanksgiving weekend, when online hawkers try to sell a lot of stuff by offering free shipping. Cyber Friday comes four days later. That’s when a billion and one packages begin getting delivered. Read full article >>

National Guard deployment on U.S.-Mexico border has unclear results
HIDALGO, TEX. — President Obama’s decision last year to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border may have been smart politics, but a growing number of skeptics say the deployment is an expensive and inefficient mission that has made little difference in homeland security. Read full article >>

Assessing the art of the Occupy movement
The Occupy movement is largely an impromptu one, and its camps in McPherson Square and nationwide are dotted with handmade signs, bearing information both political and practical. But this is the age of computer design, when slick images are easily produced and generally accepted. As the online gallery at occuprint.org reveals, the Occupy movement has more than a few skilled graphic designers in its informal ranks. Read full article >>

John Wall back to basketball after learning more about business
In the 18 months since the Washington Wizards drafted him No. 1 overall, John Wall has received an education in the business of basketball that surpasses anything he learned in the online courses he is taking this fall toward his business management degree at Kentucky. Read full article >>

At the bottom of the world, a controversial search for cosmic leftovers
The geologist who conceived it called it the poor man’s space program. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) fumed that it was a waste of taxpayer dollars. Meteorite hunter Ralph Harvey simply calls it work. For the 35th year, the United States is mounting its annual campaign to gather space rocks from the wind-hammered icefields of Antarctica. Read full article >>