He was born and died in Italy, yet the influence on America of a grubby street urchin named Salvatore Lucania ranged from the lights of Broadway to every level of law enforcement, from national politics to the world economy. First, he reinvented himself as Charles Luciano. Then he reinvented the Mafia. His story was Horatio Alger with a gun, an ice pick and a dark vision of Big Business. He was nine when the family immigrated from Sicily, where ...

Facebook, for better or worse, is like being at a big party with all your friends, family, acquaintances and co-workers. There are lots of fun, interesting people you're happy to talk to when they stroll up. Then there are the other people, the ones who make you cringe when you see them coming. This article is about those people. Sure, Facebook can be a great tool for keeping up with folks who are important to you. Take the status update, ...

The cars drove up to the stadium in a steady, orderly stream Monday -- some drivers giddy with anticipation as they entered and shaking with excitement as they exited. By 10 a.m. 2,200 fans had come through Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, to pick up tickets to the star-studded memorial service for pop icon Michael Jackson. Singers Mariah Carey, Usher and Stevie Wonder will be among the participants at the event, scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Staples ...

It sounds like a homework problem out of a high school math book: What is the probability of rolling a pair of dice 154 times continuously at a craps table, without throwing a seven? The answer is roughly 1 in 1.56 trillion, and on May 23, Patricia Demauro, a New Jersey grandmother, beat those odds at Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa. Demauro's 154-roll lucky streak, which lasted four hours and 18 minutes, broke the world records ...

It is a familiar scene these days: employees taking newly laid-off co-workers out for a consolation drink. But which side deserves the sympathy more, the jobless or the still employed? On March 6, researchers at a conference at the University of Cambridge heard data suggesting it's the latter — compared with people who are straight-up laid-off, those who keep their jobs but are under constant threat of losing them suffer a greater decline in mental well-being. Brendan Burchell, a Cambridge ...

Ten co-workers from New Jersey say they will split a $216 million Mega Millions jackpot, thanks to the five bucks they each kicked into a pool. The 10, who work for Chubb Commercial Insurance in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, held a news conference Wednesday to announce their win. Bob Space of Toms River, New Jersey, held up a lottery ticket that clearly showed the winning numbers from Tuesday's drawing: 26, 32, 35, 43, 52 and 10. "I checked ...

Human beings are innately trained to do certain basic things: Eat. Drink. And despise television commercials. But put down that remote for a second. While in no way should you shun food and water, don't go skipping through the car ads on your TiVo. Turns out that sitting through those 30-second spots may make you happier than you think. According to a surprising study to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research, commercial interruptions often enhance enjoyment of television, ...

Thanks to the California state budget that was approved early Thursday morning, my husband and I — relatively new citizens of the Golden State — will help bridge the extraordinary $42 billion deficit next year by paying approximately $1,000 in additional taxes, fees and loss of dependent tax credits. And this figure will remain at that level only if we make no purchases for 12 months in an effort to avoid the new 1-cent-on-the-dollar increase in sales tax. It is, ...