In case you didn't know, foreign investments now make up half of the successful VC deals. It's a trend that's shifting the landscape for investors and entrepreneurs alike, and it's only likely to accelerate.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both narrowed their losses in the fourth quarter of 2010. But they aren't out of the woods yet: Both of the government-sponsored home-mortgage buyers have requested higher amounts of new federal aid than they did in the previous quarter.

It looks like a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in California has failed. Proposition 19 would have made it legal for adults of drinking age to possess up to 1 ounce of pot, as well as to grow and smoke the drug in private, and would have authorized local governments to tax its sale.

As California voters wait to find out whether they've suspended a major global-warming law, which requires the state to scale back carbon emissions 25% to 1990 levels by 2020, New Mexico on Tuesday passed its own measure to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions -- but it only takes effect if other states follow suit.

More mortgage investors appear to be joining the fight to force banks to buy back bad loans. These investors face big challenges in spite of their swelling ranks, as banks are understandably reluctant to pay.

Masdar, the $22 billion green city that United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi is building in the desert just outside its borders, has canceled its plans to generate all of its own clean energy and to emit zero carbon -- and says it's running at least four years behind schedule.

With comically bad timing, California suspended a key solar incentive just days before some 20,000 solar devotees converged on San Francisco for Intersolar, an industry conference and expo. Why? Because the program has been too successful.

After a strike that has canceled flights since Saturday, Spirit Airlines pilots plan to go back to work Friday.

The BP oil spill appears to be worse than scientists previously thought, a recurring theme in this environmental disaster. The latest calculations estimate as many as 60,000 barrels per day of oil could be gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, a far cry from the initial estimate of 1,000 barrels per day.

While the BP oil spill is an ecological disaster, this big slick has a silver lining. Alternative-energy technologies may benefit from the public backlash against fossil fuels. But the spill could also help kill the energy bill and its support for renewables.