Americans are expected to spend a record amount (between $979.5 billion and $989 billion) on holiday gifts and décor this November and December, according to the National Retail Federation. Inflation and high interest rates are important parts of the story, but there’s not much evidence that people are planning to cut back, either.

Only 1 in...Read more

A $5 billion facility to manufacture jet fuel for airplanes is coming to Moorhead, Minnesota.

DG Fuels, a Washington D.C.-based energy company, announced it’s putting a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant in Clay County, bringing 650 jobs to northwestern Minnesota’s border with North Dakota.

The facility, which expects to start ...Read more

By any measure, the lawbreaking by the U.S. subsidiary of Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank was spectacular.

The bank, which goes by the name TD Bank in the U.S., facilitated the laundering of more than a half-billion dollars by human traffickers, fentanyl dealers, a major Ponzi schemer and others. It failed to file legally mandated reports of ...Read more

In late 2022, Facebook parent Meta saw ChatGPT go viral and went all in on developing its own version of generative artificial intelligence. But a whistleblower claims in a new lawsuit that after she pointed out that the social media giant’s revenue projections for the technology were inflated by $1.5 billion — a number pulled “out of thin...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Every few Fridays, in the middle of the night, a line forms outside the Pop Mart store at Westfield Century City.

It's the same scene over at Glendale Galleria. And at South Coast Plaza. Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, too.

They come by the hundreds, all vying for the latest Labubu, a furry toy character with rabbit-like ...Read more

SEATTLE — Striking Machinists voted Monday to approve the company’s most recent contract offer, ending a strike and enabling Boeing to begin restarting work at assembly plants in Everett and Renton that have been stopped for eight weeks.

Results announced late Monday showed the offer, which needed a simple majority to gain approval, was ...Read more

Apple has been accused by the National Labor Relations Board of trying to prevent employees from discussing pay equity and pressuring an engineer who attempted to circulate an online survey about wages to quit.

In a complaint issued last week by the NLRB’s regional office in Oakland, federal labor regulators alleged Apple has unlawfully ...Read more

Franchise Group, the company at the heart of a troubled management buyout that has devastated the stock of B. Riley Financial, has filed for bankruptcy — but plans to keep open most of its retail brands, including Vitamin Shoppe.

The retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, announcing it already had a deal with about 80%...Read more

Seven families in France are suing TikTok over harmful content that is linked to two teenagers’ suicides.

Laure Boutron-Marmion, a lawyer for the families, said the app’s algorithm exposed the children — all girls — to self-harm, eating disorders and suicide content.

Two of the children, both 15 years old, died by suicide. Four of the ...Read more

A Missouri judge has dismissed Build-A-Bear’s lawsuit against Squishmallows parent company, California-based Kelly Toys Holdings.

Earlier this year, Kelly Toys Holdings and its affiliate companies sued Build-A-Bear Workshop over alleged infringement of trade dress rights. Kelly Toys Holdings’ lawsuit, which was filed in California, states ...Read more

Striking Boeing Machinists union members are voting today on the company’s latest bid to end their strike, now in its ninth week.

The Machinists went on strike Sept. 13, idling Boeing’s assembly plants in Renton and Everett as the plane-maker’s cash reserves dwindle. Union members rejected two prior offers, believing they could win ...Read more

The Las Vegas Valley’s affordability and housing crisis is taking center stage this presidential election, a UNLV political scientist, said.

One demographic, in particular, should be paid close attention to as the election nears: Latinos, said John Tuman, executive associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and professor of political ...Read more

China has lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the European Union’s final tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports, escalating a dispute that’s straining an already fraught relationship.

Beijing brought the case to the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism on Monday to “safeguard the development interests” of the...Read more

There's a new place to shop with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Gopuff, the Philadelphia-founded on-demand delivery service, is now accepting SNAP payments, the company announced Friday.

"We are honored to now allow SNAP-eligible families access to the groceries they need in the fastest and most affordable way," said ...Read more

To Dioselina Salto, the first two weeks of motherhood were amazing, even though she spent much of it in the hospital after her daughter was born prematurely.

She visited her daughter Janelle twice a day, held her close to her own skin and pumped breast milk for her, which doctors supplemented with specialized formula.

But a midnight call from ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Orange Line operator was directed to take the train out of service because of an issue elsewhere in the system, and was emptying the railcars of passengers. But that Friday morning in mid-October, one customer refused to get off.

With fists raised, the customer got in the operator’s face, the operator’s union President ...Read more

Q: ​I drive a 1998 Toyota that has 62,000 miles on it. I have read your column faithfully for years and have learned so much from you. As you can tell from the mileage on my car, I barely put 2,000 miles on it in a year. The most I might drive in a day is 3-5 miles and sometimes I go days without driving at all. Also, I never do expressway ...Read more

One of the world’s most valuable companies took a North Carolina megasite off the market this week as Microsoft notified local officials on Thursday it had completed a $27 million purchase of the Person County Mega Park.

The 1,350-acre site sits below the Virginia border, about an hour’s drive north of Durham. Person officials said they ...Read more