Business

/

ArcaMax

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'Los Angeles is our home.' Companies with SoCal ties donate millions in wildfire relief

Business / Business News /

In the days since twin fires devastated the region, several companies with ties to Southern California have pledged millions in relief funds.

The scope of loss from the Eaton and Palisades fires will reshape the region for decades — devastating families, razing entire neighborhoods and creating economic losses estimated at $50 billion. In the...Read more

John Moore/Getty Images North America/TNS

Prison company retaliated against detained immigrants, labor board says

Business / Business News /

Private prison company GEO Group has been accused by the National Labor Relations Board of retaliating against immigrant detainees who protested working conditions inside a California facility.

GEO Group punished detainees housed at its detention center in Bakersfield who signed a petition and participated in a work stoppage to protest wages ...Read more

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS

OpenAI whistleblower's death fuels 'conspiracy theory' boosted by Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Bay Area congressman

Business / Business News /

Despite San Francisco police repeatedly saying OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji’s death was a suicide, influential figures on both ends of the political spectrum are spreading questions about foul play, raised by the young man’s grieving family, around the world.

Former Fox News provocateur Tucker Carlson, on his Tuesday podcast, spoke ...Read more

Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS

Silicon Valley bigwigs bask in Trump limelight in major reversal at inauguration

Business / Business News /

Silicon Valley has come a long way.

In suits and ties on the dais behind President Donald Trump during his inauguration speech Monday — inches from the President’s family — sat Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

It was a ...Read more

Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Gov. Newsom calls for investigation into massive California battery plant blaze

Business / Business News /

Five days after a huge fire at one of the world’s largest battery storage plants in Moss Landing, California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for an investigation into the blaze, which has jolted California’s renewable energy industry.

“The governor believes there should be an investigation into this incident to determine cause and any steps...Read more

Evan Ramstad/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

UnitedHealth Group shrinks urgent care business

Business / Business News /

UnitedHealth Group has quietly but significantly scaled back its MedExpress urgent care business, with just 19 locations operating across the country — down from more than 150 locations in 2022.

The move was not formally announced as word spread in October of divestitures in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Executives alluded to the pullback ...Read more

Arvin Temkar/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Atlanta music tech startup is betting on the growth of the creator economy

Business / Business News /

The creator economy is one of the biggest developments of the digital age.

Over the past decade, advertisers have funneled billions of dollars into paying social media users with large followings to promote anything from beauty products to new albums. Goldman Sachs predicts the sector will be worth nearly half a trillion by 2027.

Atlanta ...Read more

Don Richey/NASA/TNS

AI, drones and sensors: How technology could help battle future fires

Business / Business News /

Maxwell Brodie vividly recalls the destructive wildfire he experienced as a kid growing up in the interior of British Columbia.

One night in 2003, lightning struck a tree at around 4 a.m., sparking a massive blaze that scorched Okanagan Mountain Park. Winds picked up, the skies turned orange and more than 30,000 people evacuated from his ...Read more

Max Ortiz/The Detroit News/TNS

'Gifted, intuitive': Mustang, minivan pioneer Hal Sperlich dies at 95

Business / Business News /

Automotive product legend Hal Sperlich passed away Monday at 95, but his memory lives on in the millions of pony cars and minivans that ply our highways.

Sperlich was known as the father of two American icons, the Ford Mustang and Chrysler minivan. Colleagues remember him as one of the most significant product developers of his generation.

“...Read more

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Trump proposes big tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Consumers could feel pain

Business / Business News /

In the hours immediately after his swearing-in, President Donald Trump said Monday he will enact steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada starting next month and moved through executive orders to reassess trade with other foreign nations.

Trump told reporters tariffs of 25% would be enacted against Mexico and Canada starting Feb. 1, saying the ...Read more

Former executive for cannabis company Verano indicted on insider trading charges

Business / Business News /

A former executive for Chicago-based Verano, one of the largest cannabis companies in the United States, was federally indicted on charges of insider trading.

The indictment Thursday accused Anthony Marsico, 39, of Bartlett, Illinois, of using confidential information to make an illegal profit of about $607,000 by buying stock in another ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

18,000 Costco workers vote to authorize strike on Feb. 1

Business / Business News /

About 18,000 Costco workers will go on strike beginning Feb. 1 if their union doesn’t reach a deal with the warehouse retailer, the union announced Sunday.

The Teamsters represent Costco workers in 56 warehouses across five states, CNN reported. The 18,000-person strike would represent about 8% of Costco’s nationwide workforce.

A contract ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Cargill pays $32.5M to settle customer lawsuit alleging turkey price-fixing

Business / Business News /

Cargill will pay $32.5 million to settle claims the company conspired with other poultry producers to fix the price of turkey and overcharge customers.

The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based agribusiness is the nation’s third-largest turkey purveyor, after Butterball and Jennie-O, according to WATT Poultry, a trade publication. Cargill controls ...Read more

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Trump proposes big tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Consumers could feel pain

Business / Business News /

In the hours immediately after his swearing-in, President Donald Trump said Monday he will enact steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada starting next month and moved through executive orders to reassess trade with other foreign nations.

Trump told reporters tariffs of 25% would be enacted against Mexico and Canada starting Feb. 1, saying the ...Read more

Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images North America/TNS

The FDA has banned red dye No. 3. What could be next?

Business / Business News /

Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the use of red dye No. 3 from the country’s food supply, citing studies that have found the dye to cause cancer in rats.

Often called erythrosine or FD&C Red No. 3 or Red 3, red dye No. 3 was barred from use in cosmetics over three decades ago.

The move was praised by many of ...Read more

Christian Petersen/Getty Images North America/TNS

Netflix adds 19 million subscribers, capping streaming giant's biggest year

Business / Business News /

Netflix gained a record number of subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024, further solidifying its dominance in the streaming market and capping the company's biggest year yet.

The company added 19 million paid subscribers, bringing its total base to 302 million customers globally in the fourth quarter. Hits such as the second season of ...Read more

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/TNS

Coalition of Colorado unions hopes to tackle climate change and spur higher-paying jobs at the same time

Business / Business News /

Since elementary school, Aidan Boyd has learned about how climate change will reshape Colorado’s future — how aridification will dry streams and summers will become increasingly hot.

Now 24, he hopes that training to be an electrician will help him be part of the solution to the environmental challenges that he believes are the most ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Home insurance was already hard to get. Then came LA's fires. Here's what San Diegans need to know

Business / Business News /

David and Peggy Blue were dumbfounded when they were notified last month that their home insurance would not be renewed because of a tall sycamore tree that overhangs their Altadena house. Their appeals for reconsideration were fruitless, leading the former San Diegans on a nerve-racking quest for a new policy.

Carrier after carrier rejected ...Read more

Meri Simon/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Trump movement is divided over H-1B visas. Do they hurt workers?

Business / Business News /

Ten years after being laid off from Disney, Leo Perrero still views a visa program for skilled international workers as deeply flawed, blaming it for disrupting his information technology career and putting him in the unsettling position of having to train his foreign replacement.

“The whole thing is just a terrible scam on Americans,” said...Read more

File taxes online: Tools, tips, deadlines and more

Business / Business News /

It’s now the norm for Americans to file their taxes online — the IRS reports that more than 90% of individual tax returns were e-filed in 2023, the most recent data available. Even most professional tax preparers are required to electronically file returns on behalf of their clients.

If you file your own taxes, you have a few different ...Read more