Beer sales in the U.S. are finally picking up again after four years of declines.

The 2012 increase in beer sales wasn't huge -- only about 1.4% -- but at least one worrisome trend for brewers appears to have reversed, reports The New York Post.

And while craft brews and imports appear to be responsible for much of the growth, even the biggest names in the business saw improvements as well. In fact, many brewers were able to raise prices last year, which helped them bring in more revenue, the Post reports.

A few other factors helped sales last year, including cheaper gas, plenty of leap-year partying and a warm, dry winter in parts of the country, said Brian Sudano, the managing director of Beverage Marketing, according to the Post. 

Folks in Hollywood, who don't agree on much, are united in their assessment of "Jack the Giant Slayer" being 2013's first box-office bomb. The flop couldn't have come at a worse time for Time Warner's (TWX) Warner Bros. studio, which now has sustained four straight failures (following "Gangster Squad," "Beautiful Creatures" and "Bullet to the Head").

The PG-13 take on "Jack and the Beanstalk" topped the North American box office over the weekend, grossing more than $28 million. However, that's roughly half of what the film needed to be considered a success, according to The New York Times. The movie cost about $270 million to produce and market, which raises the possibility that New York-based Time Warner may have to take a write-down because of Jack's poor performance.

The dud could halt Time Warner's momentum on Wall Street.  

Remember Amtrak, America's poor excuse for a national rail line? In the decades following its establishment in 1971, Amtrak came under constant criticism for its uncomfortable and undependable service -- as well as for what the Brookings Institution remembers as a "big, bloated bureaucracy, incapable of change and dependent on federal subsidies."

Well, apparently no longer. On Friday, Brookings released a new study that describes Amtrak as "in the midst of a renaissance" fueled by consumer frustrations with the rising costs and hassles of both car and plane travel as well as a renewed interest in passenger train travel.

The study notes Amtrak ridership is up 55% since 1997, with the rail service now carrying an all-time high of over 31 million passengers annually.

 

Is it an example of corporations practicing responsible, cost-efficient environmental sustainability -- or a public relations exercise meant to help a fan base feel good about their sports team?

Maybe it's a bit of both. But either way, the new, $1.2 billion facility being built for the NFL's San Francisco 49ers is expected to be the "greenest" stadium in the league when it opens for business next year.

Last month, the 49ers announced that SunPower Corp. (SPWR) had been named "the official and exclusive solar technology partner of the San Francisco 49ers and the new Santa Clara Stadium."

SunPower will supply 400 kilowatts of high-efficiency solar panels for the stadium, the first such facility to incorporate solar power from the very start of construction.

 

If you have the time and energy to thumb through the tax code, you'll find some real gems. One of the best, though, goes like this:

Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Form 1040, line 21, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040), if it's from your self-employment activity.

That's right: Drug dealing, embezzlement and any number of other duplicitous and illegal activities aren't only "self-employment," but are taxable. CNNMoney broke it down on Friday and found that while criminals typically don't give the Internal Revenue Service a cut of the take, more are reporting their ill-gotten gains just to avoid facing two sets of charges. As Al Capone proved, even if you get off scot-free on criminal charges, you can still be put away for tax evasion. 

Eric Clapton, whose guitar playing has influenced generations of musicians, is hinting that he wants to retire from touring when he turns 70 in 2015, according to Rolling Stone.

"The bit onstage, that's easy," Clapton told the magazine. "But for me, the struggle is the travel. And the only way you can beat that is by throwing so much money at it that you make a loss."

Clapton's move has financial consequences. When he started out during the 1960s, rock musicians made most of their money from record sales. Now, their main source of income comes from touring. A Princeton University paper pointed out that the income from touring exceeded income from record sales by a ratio of 7.5 to 1 in 2002. 

It's one thing to have a seven-pound box of marijuana accidentally shipped to you. It's a far more delicate matter when the shipping company that brought it to your doorstep gives the neighborhood weed dealers your address when they ask where it ended up.

Plymouth, Mass., resident Maryangela Tobin filed a lawsuit against FedEx (FDX) on Feb. 12 after just such a scenario unfolded at her house over a stretch of several days. Tobin's suit alleges FedEx violated state privacy law by handing out her address and that it put her and her two children in danger from drug dealers seeking retribution for their lost stash.

Tobin originally thought the package was a present for her daughter. She told CBS (CBS) Boston it was filled with a thin layer of peppermints over packages of "what we thought was potpourri."

 

It's the canned protein that helped America get through the Depression and fed the Allies as they won World War II. No, it's annoying unsolicited messages in your email in-box, apparently given its name from a hilarious Monty Python skit. No, it's a once-derided mystery meat that's now making inroads with a new generation of consumers and now even has its own spokescharacter, Sir Can-A-Lot...

Turns out Spam (short for "spiced ham") is all of the above.

Strong sales of Spam have helped fatten the bottom line of parent company Hormel Foods (HRL), whose recent first-quarter earnings report was in line with Wall Street's expectations, with overall profits and sales up slightly.