Mary Louise Kelly has the Last Word in business.

The Rhode Island city of Central Falls is sliding closer into bankruptcy. The state won't give the cash-strapped city money to pay its bills for the fiscal year that just ended, and the city is entering the new fiscal year nearly five million dollars in the hole. Catherine Welch of member station WRNI reports

Steve Inskeep has business news.

Former First Lady Betty Ford is being laid to rest in Michigan Thursday. Her funeral was held Tuesday in Palm Desert, California. Among the speakers were former first lady Rosalyn Carter and the head of the Betty Ford Clinic.

As British investigators dig for details in the News Corp. scandal, a columnist for the Reuters news service looked at figures that were already public. News Corp. is a publicly-traded company in the U.S., meaning it must disclose its finances here. So columnist David Cay Johnston ran those numbers — how much News Corp. made in the last four years and the taxes paid. Johnston talks to Steve Inskeep about his investigation.

Netflix is raising its prices. The company will separate DVDs-by-mail and streaming into two separate services. It will also raise the price on bundling the two services together.

At the heart of the phone-hacking scandal threatening Rupert Murdoch's empire, is a woman who's been described as a "tough social climber" with "long flame-red hair." The woman is Rebekah Brooks, head of the British arm of News Corp. Andy McSmith wrote a profile of Brooks for Britain's "Independent" newspaper, and he talks to Mary Louise Kelly about it.

Deficit-cutting negotiations continue with little apparent progress. Time is running short to raise the government's debt limit so lawmakers are beginning to consider alternatives, in case no deal is made.

Much of America as we know it evolved in the 19th century, as we'll explore in a series of three conversations this week with writers who seek out new ways to understand old events.

In 1979, 19th-century activist Susan B. Anthony became the first woman to appear on a circulating United States coin. Anthony is remembered for her work in fighting for women's right to vote, but it was her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton who actually launched the women's rights movement. She, however, never got a coin.

In a sluggish economy with slow growth and high unemployment, innovation may be part of the solution.

Tom Clement is just the sort of entrepreneur the U.S. needs to propel the economy. He loves brainstorming and developing new ideas and turning them into products and companies.

Back in the mid-1980s, he climbed Mount Everest. When his friends asked if he was frightened, he told them no, just excited. Clement says starting a new business is a lot like scaling mountains .