Marc Andreessen -- engaged, opinionated, assertive -- has long been a geek's geek but is now a power player like never before. Seventeen years after he developed the breakthrough Web browser that launched Netscape and the dot-com era, Andreessen is playing roles at HP, eBay, Skype and Facebook that prompted the tech news site VentureBeat to dub him "the King of Silicon Valley."

A shift in the distribution of venture capital dollars has San Francisco significantly outpacing its South Bay competitors and buoying key industries during the economic downturn. “This is a new trend,” said Ted Egan, chief economist for San Francisco. “High-tech is thought of being a South Bay, Santa Clara thing, [but] we are the leader.”

There are 3.5 million people missing in the U.S. Their families know them. Their neighbors see them come and go. But 3.5 million people who should be in the labor force are no longer there -- and the government doesn't know what has become of them.

In academia, the research is determined by various factors, many of which have little to do with market incentives. Secondly, the key to marketing market tend to need, not licensing opportunities.

Health insurance premiums for employers and employees rose an average of 3% nationally for family coverage this year, the smallest increase in more than a decade, according to a widely followed survey. At the same time, workers paid nearly all of the increase as employers worked to control costs in a weak economy.

One month of encouraging jobs data is hardly enough to declare a rip-roaring recovery of Michigan's feeble economy -- but it's nothing to sneeze at, either. "There's no guarantee, but evidence is building that Michigan has finally turned the corner.