usa today

Prom has gotten almost absurdly pricy: The average teen this year will spend $1,078 on the spring formal. Be smarter than average, and try these tips from consumer expert Andrea Woroch that could save you and your teen a ton, without making the night any less special.

Fast-food companies face a two-headed monster after every New Year%u2019s Day: Diet resolutions and empty wallets. So purveyors of burgers, tacos, fried chicken and the like are getting aggressive, which means means a solid month of gooey, cheesy, melty deals.

For anybody who has followed the news over the past few years (probably on a computer), the long-awaited demise of newspapers shouldn't come as much of a surprise. But on Wednesday, the bell tolled once again for the printed word when the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for the Digital Future offered a prophecy: Within five years, only four major daily papers will continue in print form.

There must be something in the cheese: Four of the top 10 American cities for credit scores are in Wisconsin, and four more are in nearby Midwest states, according to a new analysis by Experian. But all is not sunny in the South, where the cities with the worst scores are concentrated.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has grand plans to cut through the partisan noise and remind our country's politicians of their problem-solving duties: On Tuesday, he's hosting a gigantic, public telephone town hall, and asking all "concerned Americans" to join his movement and participate.

Students tired of spending weekends at the same frat parties and local bars can take advantage of online deals to spice up their leisure time. Whether it be dining at a new venue or kayaking on the local lake, your computer can find you some serious savings. WalletPop compiled a list of some of the...

Ronald Reagan tops a USA Today/Gallup poll of Americans' favorite U.S. presidents. The results suggest that a nostalgia for better economic times may play a factor, along with politics, in the survey.

Gallup, Pew Center and Washington Post/ABC News surveys all showed that Americans, for the most part, support the tax package approved by the Senate on Wednesday.

Starbucks is launching a new digital network Wednesday that it says will give customers access to free e-books, movies and access to some paid news sites. The move is meant to attract customers and customer loyalty, and also to provide Starbucks with a new revenue stream.

Gannett's third-quarter profit beat the Street, but disappointing revenue plunged shares 8.8%. The company's revenue remained flat, missing analyst forecasts, as its newspaper operations declined 5%.