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A study linking the artificial sweetener aspartame — which is found in lots of diet sodas — to a possible cancer risk in people was set to make a splash earlier this week. But shortly before the paper was published, in a very unusual move, the scientific leaders at the hospital released a statement saying the findings were too weak to promote.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And today's last word in business is Cab crisis.

One of London's defining features is the black hackney cab. Along with the city's red double-decker buses, those shiny black cabs are moving London landmarks. But the company that makes them is in trouble.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Unable to pay its debts, the company this week went into what's called there, Administration. Harry Harris has been driving a London cab for 25 years, but he's not too broken up about this.

Democrats and Republicans are on track to spend about $1 billion each on television advertising in the presidential race. Most of it is negative, and almost all of it is concentrated in nine battleground states.

If you live in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia or Wisconsin, you cannot get away from the ad blitz being waged by both sides. For the folks who track political advertising at Kantar Media CMAG, these commercials tell a story.