• LAS VEGAS (AP) -- How do you know the economy is coming back? High rollers are paying their gambling debts.
• All four major U.S. casino corporations bumped up their allowances for bad debt during the recession, with one company estimating that fewer than half of outstanding debts would be repaid. Now, companies have lowered their estimates to pre-recession rates.
• The casino business was among the industries hardest hit by the economic downturn, and has been slower to recover. Visitor numbers are only now returning to 2007 levels in Las Vegas, and gambling revenue still has not completely bounced back. Even during fat times, most patrons were never offered the opportunity to gamble on credit, making this quirky economic indicator one of the lesser known corners of the gambling world.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Chris Brown's misdemeanor assault charge in Washington, D.C., could further complicate the R&B singer's unsettled legal situation. Additional time behind bars remains a possibility for the singer -- both in the District of Columbia and California -- where Brown remains on probation for his 2009 beating of his on-again, off-again girlfriend Rihanna.
• Brown emerged from a Washington court on Monday flashing a peace sign after spending more than a day in custody on a charge filed after a man accused the Grammy winner and his bodyguard of punching him and breaking his nose outside a local hotel.
• Brown's arrest early Sunday comes at a crucial time for the singer, who is releasing an album this winter and is under a deadline to complete hundreds of hours of community service to satisfy his sentence for the Rihanna attack.
• His day and a half in custody are the longest time the scandal-plagued singer has spent behind bars and the case represents the most serious accusations he's faced since his attack on Rihanna. Brown left the courthouse to cheers from supporters, some of whom clapped when a judge announced he would be released.

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