When students return Thursday for the first day of school across Wisconsin, many familiar faces will be gone, as teachers chose retirement over coming back in the wake of a new law that forces them to pay more for benefits while taking away most of their collective bargaining rights.

A new study by Newtek Business Services found that 69 percent of independent business owners do not plan on hiring any new employees within the next year or even two years.

Despite the national unemployment rate remaining fixed at higher than 9 percent, 22 percent of employed workers are proactively finding new jobs within the last year, a 4 point jump from 2010, according to a new Labor Happiness Index commissioned by Snagajob.

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked key provisions of Texas' new law requiring a doctor to perform a sonogram before an abortion, ruling the measure violates the free speech rights of both doctors and patients.