NPR People: Elaine Korry

Parents and volunteers in Palo Alto, Calif., have begun a nightly watch at a railroad crossing where four teens from the same high school have been victims of suicide in the past six months.

One silver lining in the real estate crisis is that nonprofits are finding great land deals. Developers who had been sitting on tracts of land slated for development are dumping the parcels at fire-sale prices. Habitat for Humanity, which builds housing for needy families, is aggressively buying properties it couldn't afford a few years ago.

The government is releasing a revised figure for fourth-quarter growth Thursday. The initial estimate was a very weak 0.6 percent. The new figure will finally determine if the U.S. economy is headed into recession.

Every time the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, consumers expect to see lower rates on consumer loans. But many banks are going through hard times, and their customers haven't necessarily seen the benefits of lowered rates, especially with their credit cards.

Say the word "Clorox," and harsh products like bleach may come to mind. But the Oakland, Calif.-based company is making a big push into the market for eco-friendly cleaning supplies. Green Works, a line of "green" cleaning products, is the company's first new brand in decades.

AOL will stop providing technical support for the Netscape browser, which gave millions of Americans their first experience in surfing the Web. But Netscape lives on with Firefox, an open-source alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

California's real-estate industry awaits a plan to raise the limit on mortgages backed by federal agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The move, part of a stimulus package Congress is considering, would lower borrowing costs and open up credit in higher-price housing markets.

A federal court has cleared the way for San Francisco to start charging employers for the health-care costs of uninsured employees. Restaurant owners have sued to block the ordinance, but for now, the court says the city has the right to begin collecting premiums.

Bank of America announces it will acquire Countrywide in a stock deal valued at $4 billion. Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, had few options after losses related to the subprime mortgage crisis. Analysts believe the company faced bankruptcy if it didn't work out a deal to be acquired.

About 11,000 low-income San Franciscans have opened bank accounts in the past year. The city is working with commercial banks and some nonprofit organizations to help people who have never had checking accounts get into the banking system.

Green companies are sprouting. There are some 200 new businesses for solar-panel installation, home weatherization, and electronic recycling. The sector is growing so fast, there's a critical shortage of entry-level workers. And that's opening doors for unemployed young people.

The Bush administration's plan to deal with rising home foreclosures by freezing interest rates for struggling borrowers is closely modeled on a California program that has attracted doubters.

Teachers in California may be required to take racial sensitivity training next year. The training would help close the "achievement gap" between students of different races; white and Asian students score higher on tests than their black and Latino classmates.

Engineers say the damage to a major freeway interchange near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge could take months to fix. A gasoline tanker exploded Sunday, turning part of the roadway into rubble.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened to cut the welfare safety net for children whose parents aren't working, saying that the only alternative would force California to face federal penalties. But critics say the approach will not change things.