Chicago business owner Mellody Hobson will step down from her position as lead independent director of Starbucks’ board of directors, the coffee giant said in a statement on its website.

Hobson serves as co-CEO and president of Ariel Investments in Chicago. She is married to George Lucas, the director and producer who created “Star Wars.”...Read more

The Chicago Reader, the city’s storied alternative weekly newspaper, may be on the brink of extinction again.

Driven by an “urgent need to reduce costs” and the “imminent risk of closure” amid financial challenges, the Reader announced the immediate layoffs of six non-union employees, organizational restructuring and the resignation ...Read more

As the smoke clears from devastating Los Angeles wildfires, efforts to clean up the affected areas are being complicated by burnt-out electric and hybrid vehicles and home-battery storage systems.

Lithium batteries from Tesla Inc., along with those from other carmakers, have added to the mix of toxic materials requiring specialized removal in ...Read more

CHICAGO — Sam Sanchez, a Chicago-based restaurateur, hadn’t planned to get involved in politics until he realized that his voice was a platform that many of his undocumented employees didn’t have.

When recently arrived migrants from mostly Venezuela received expedited work permits from the Biden administration, he noticed the anger and ...Read more

As Porsche has been a staple in Grasso’s Garage for awhile now, due to their sportiness design and powertrains, the opportunity to add the Taycan EV to the fleet was a no brainer and the Taycan was born. Similar to our tester in October 2022, the Taycan was a powerhouse and easily outstanding. In this year’s test, things get even better.

...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — In its early days, the quirky tech startup known as Google adopted a visionary corporate credo: “Don’t be evil.” That later evolved into the motto: “Do the right thing,” reflecting the idealistic ambitions of the company’s founders that its technology could be a force for good.

Google’s pioneering search ...Read more

I have to confess one of my recent guilty pleasures has been watching the Martha Stewart documentary, “Martha,” on Netflix. She’s as perfectly pleasant and prone to details as ever, but post-prison Martha has a bit more edge, hanging with Snoop Dog and dropping F-bombs like garden flower ordinances. If she had an automotive alter ego, it ...Read more

While the Toyota Camry has been mocked as something akin to a toaster, the comparison is absolutely misinformed. As anyone who’s bought a toaster recently can attest, they are cheap junk made and imported from China and sure to break sooner than a politician’s promise. Trust me, I’ve been through far too many toasters in the past few ...Read more

Losses from the Los Angeles fires threatened to deepen a crisis that has already left hundreds of thousands of Californians struggling to find and keep affordable homeowners insurance.

A major concern out of the destruction is not just the people without insurance, but the fear other homeowners will lose coverage after the devastation.

...Read more

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday announced it had referred a complaint against Snap Inc. to the Department of Justice, alleging the social media company's AI-powered chatbot is harmful to young users.

The complaint isn't public, but the commission made the unusual move of announcing its referral because it determined it's in the ...Read more

The Federal Trade Commission will ban General Motors Co. from sharing customer geolocation and driver behavior with consumer reporting agencies for five years under a newly proposed order settling the commission's allegations.

This is the FTC's first action related to connected vehicle data, according to a news release. The agency alleged that ...Read more

U.S. Bancorp ended its year with hefty earnings strengthened by higher fees and disciplined spending, as executives predicted revenue growth of up to 5% this year.

The Minneapolis-based company that runs U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest bank in the nation, delivered net income of $1.75 billion for the last three months of the year, up 7% from the ...Read more

American Express Co. will pay about $230 million to resolve a long-running investigation into some of the firm’s prior sales practices which regulators said misled small-business owners.

Amex reached agreements with federal prosecutors and the Federal Reserve to settle the allegations, according to statements from the parties involved.

The ...Read more

A U.S. ban on ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok is poised to be delayed with a deadline for the sale of the app falling on a holiday weekend and President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration pledging an extension.

President Joe Biden’s administration is not planning to intervene before a Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok’s U.S. arm to find a ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom extended price gouging protections on rental housing Thursday amid calls for authorities to prosecute landlords jacking up rent in the wake of Los Angeles County's devastating fires.

Under California law, price gouging protections kick in during a state of emergency and generally bar landlords, hotel and motels from...Read more

UnitedHealth Group beat estimates for fourth quarter profit as the Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based health care giant released its first earnings report since the fatal ambush last month of top executive Brian Thompson in New York City.

Despite the earnings result, the company’s stock price fell in early trading Thursday as its massive ...Read more

Heavy promotion and sales drew people into Target stores over the holidays, boosting comparable sales by 2% as people bought apparel and toys to put under the tree, the retailer said Thursday.

While not robust compared with past holiday seasons, it beat the Minneapolis-based retailer’s guidance of flat sales and is a much better performance ...Read more

China has failed to break a deflationary cycle and is now on track for the longest streak of economy-wide price declines since the 1960s, analysts say, exposing a key vulnerability likely masked by a growth upswing at the end of last year.

Deflation persisted for the second straight year in 2024, official data due Friday is set to show, ...Read more