Wire stories category, Page 40
Elon Musk defends his tweets about taking Tesla private
SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk returned to federal court Monday in San Francisco, testifying that he believed he had locked up financial backing to take Tesla private during 2018 meetings with representatives from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — although no specific funding amount or price was discussed. The billionaire...
Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
NEW YORK — Across the country, there’s a silent frustration brewing about an age-old practice that many say is getting out of hand: tipping. Some fed-up consumers are posting rants on social media complaining about tip requests at drive-thrus, while others say they’re tired of being asked to leave a...
Gyms that survived pandemic steadily get back in shape
NEW YORK — One day in January, a once-regular customer at Fuel Training Studio in Newburyport, Massachusetts, stopped in to take a “shred” class. She hadn’t stepped foot in the gym since before the pandemic. The customer told owners Julie Bokat and Jeanne Carter that she had been working out...
U.S. ends probe into Ford SUV exhaust issues without a recall
DETROIT — The U.S. government’s road safety agency has closed a more than six-year investigation into exhaust odors in Ford Explorer passenger cabins, determining that the SUVs don’t have high levels of carbon monoxide and don’t need to be recalled. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it reviewed more...
Justice Department investigating Abbott baby formula plant
NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the Abbott Laboratories infant formula plant in Michigan that was shut down for months last year due to contamination, the company confirmed. The factory’s closure in February 2022 was a key cause of a nationwide baby formula shortage that forced parents...
2022 was slowest year for U.S. home sales in nearly a decade
LOS ANGELES — U.S. home sales tumbled to the slowest pace in nearly a decade as soaring mortgage rates and sky high prices in 2022 pushed homeownership out of reach for many Americans. The National Association of Realtors said Friday that existing U.S. home sales totaled 5.03 million last year,...
GM to sink over $900M into 4 plants, Flint to get new engine
FLINT, Mich. — General Motors says it will spend more than $900 million to update four factories, with the bulk going to an engine plant in Flint, Michigan, to build the next-generation V8 for big pickup trucks and SUVs. Factories in Rochester, New York; Defiance, Ohio; and Bay City, Michigan;...
Google axes 12,000 jobs, layoffs spread across tech sector
LONDON — Google is laying off 12,000 workers, or about 6% of its workforce, becoming the latest tech company to trim staff as the economic boom that the industry rode during the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who also leads its parent company Alphabet, informed staff Friday at...
Union membership rate hits all-time low despite campaigns
The U.S. union membership rate reached an all-time low last year despite high-profile unionization campaigns at Starbucks, Amazon and other companies. Union members fell to 10.1% of the overall U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was down slightly from 10.3% in 2021. The number of workers...
Fewer Americans file for jobless benefits last week
WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits in the U.S. reached a four-month low last week, a sign that employers are holding on to their workers despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow the economy and tamp down inflation. U.S. jobless aid applications for the week ending Jan....
December retail sales fall 1.1% as inflation takes a tollVideo
NEW YORK — Americans cut back on spending in December, the second consecutive month they’ve done so, underscoring how inflation and the rising cost of using credit cards slowed consumer activity over the crucial holiday shopping season. Retail sales fell a worse-than-expected 1.1% in December, following a revised 1% drop...
Party City, amid rising prices, seeks bankruptcy protection
NEW YORK — Party City has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after struggling with rising prices and a pullback in customer spending. The company, based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, said that its franchise stores, subsidiaries outside of the U.S. and its foil balloons Anagram business are not part...
Explainer: How ominous is the debt limit problem?
WASHINGTON — On the brink of hitting the nation’s legal borrowing limit on Thursday, the government is resorting to “extraordinary measures” to avoid a default. Sounds ominous, right? But — take a breath — the phrase technically refers to a bunch of accounting workarounds. Yes, accounting. Because the debt cap...
Millennial Money: 4 expenses for parents to rethink in 2023
When inflation rises, child care expenses do, too. If you’re a parent, you may be hoping to get a little financial relief during the upcoming tax season through deductions or credits. But since there have been recent reductions to both of the child tax credits, you may not get as...
Kimberly Palmer: How to tackle holiday debt in January
After years of being in debt, Rachel Kramer Bussel came to a realization: “If I don’t become proactive about it, I will be in debt for the rest of my life.” For Bussel, a freelance writer near Atlantic City, New Jersey, that meant scaling back spending and putting any available...
Elon Musk’s next drama: a trial over his tweets about Tesla
SAN FRANCISCO — While still grappling with the fallout from a company he did take private, beleaguered billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over a company he didn’t. Long before Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October, he had set his sights on Tesla, the electric automaker...
Apple CEO Tim Cook to take more than 40% pay cut
Apple CEO Tim Cook will take a more than 40% pay cut this year from a year earlier as the company adjusts how it calculates his compensation partly based on a recommendation from Cook himself. Apple Inc. said in a regulatory filing late Thursday that Cook’s target total compensation is...
ExxonMobil publicly denied global warming for years but quietly predicted it
In perhaps one of the most cynically ironic twists in the field of climate science, new research suggests ExxonMobil may have had keener insight into the impending dangers of global warming than even NASA scientists but still waged a decades-long campaign to discredit research into climate change and its connection...
Wall Street ticks higher as hot U.S. inflation cools furtherVideo
NEW YORK — Wall Street closed higher Thursday after a report showed inflation slowed again last month, bolstering hopes the Federal Reserve may take it easier on the economy through smaller hikes to interest rates. While the report on U.S. inflation was clearly encouraging, stocks had already rallied earlier this...
Wall Street wobbles following run-up into inflation report
NEW YORK — Wall Street is wobbling Thursday as it digests a report showing inflation slowed again last month, bolstering hopes the Federal Reserve may take it easier on the economy through smaller hikes to interest rates. The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower after flipping between small gains and losses...
U.S. consumer inflation eased again to 6.5% in December
WASHINGTON — Rising U.S. consumer prices moderated again last month, bolstering hopes that inflation’s grip on the economy will continue to ease this year and possibly require less drastic action by the Federal Reserve to control it. Inflation declined to 6.5% in December compared with a year earlier, the government...
New, taller Barbie doll is aimed at kids as young as 3
NEW YORK — Love her or loathe her, Barbie has been transformed again, this time into a version for children as young as 3. Gone is the contentious hourglass figure for My First Barbie, which launched Thursday ahead of July’s live-action film about the icon starring Margot Robbie and Ryan...
Disney faces proxy fight as Peltz pushes to join board
Activist investor Nelson Peltz is fighting for a seat on the board of Walt Disney Co., claiming that the company is struggling with self-inflicted problems. Peltz’s attempt to join Disney’s board comes just months after the company brought back longtime CEO Bob Iger to lead Disney again. Disney urged shareholders...
Can U.S. avoid a recession? As inflation eases, optimism rises
WASHINGTON — For months, the outlook for the U.S. economy has been a mostly bleak one: Inflation hitting a four-decade high, consumer spending weakening, interest rates surging. Most economists penciled in a recession for 2023. An economic downturn is still possible. Yet in recent weeks, with inflation showing widespread signs...
Flight delayed or canceled? Experts share some advice
Thousands of travelers were stranded at U.S. airports Wednesday due to an hours-long computer outage. More than 1,100 U.S. flights were canceled and nearly 8,000 flights were delayed as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the tracking site FlightAware. Even though the Federal Aviation Administration was at fault for the outage,...
