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Second Trump presidency raises big questions for health care

Business / Business News /

Donald J. Trump’s second presidency may significantly alter health care and public health in Minnesota, especially if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gets the opportunity to bring his vaccine skepticism to federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump’s pledge to let Kennedy “go wild” on those agencies drew ...Read more

Karen Ducey/The Seattle Times/TNS

Seattle-area homebuyers, trying to go agent-free, face hurdles

Business / Business News /

Ballard, Washington, renters Anurag Kamasamudram and Mayuri Gupta started their home search casually this fall. They hoped to get a feel for the market, “window shopping” before they hired an agent and started searching more seriously in the spring.

But the couple quickly ran into problems. Agents representing home sellers seemed hesitant ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'It's a tremendous opportunity.' Closure of Phillips 66 refinery in LA County has developers salivating

Business / Business News /

The South Bay region of Los Angeles County is in for a large-scale transformation near the Port of Los Angeles as Phillips 66 shuts down its sprawling refineries and makes way for developers to reimagine the prime real estate.

Potential replacements for the century-old refinery complex covering 650 acres include housing and last-mile ...Read more

TOM GRALISH/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

One-third of Philadelphia-area rentals offered free rent or other perks in October

Business / Business News /

Folks who are looking to rent a home now have more negotiating power, especially heading into the end of the year.

The rental market is typically slower in the fall, but it has slowed beyond what’s expected. An influx of new apartments in Philadelphia and across the country has controlled rent increases and forced landlords to work harder to ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: Do I need my ex's signature to sell house I kept in divorce?

Business / Business News /

Q: When I divorced my first husband more than a decade ago, we agreed that I would keep the house. Now, I want to sell it, and I am being told that he must also sign the deed. The problem is that I have not spoken with him in years and have no idea how to get in touch. What can I do? — Janet

A: There is a distinction between agreeing to do ...Read more

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Spotify woos video and podcast creators with new tools to better compete with YouTube

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES — Swedish streaming audio giant Spotify is courting more video creators, podcasters and influencers in an effort to step up its competition with popular digital platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

The Stockholm-based company on Wednesday hosted creators at its office in Downtown L.A.'s Arts District, where executives ...Read more

Recombinetics, which engineered hornless dairy bulls, files for bankruptcy

Business / Business News /

Recombinetics, whose hornless dairy bulls garnered national attention for the Eagan-based gene-editing company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after it faced a net loss of more than $2.6 million between January and August.

The company said it faces $7.7 million in total liabilities as of Aug. 31 in a petition filed Monday with in U.S. ...Read more

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Delta's internal directory information leaked in data breach

Business / Business News /

Delta Air Lines acknowledged this week that information from its internal directory was leaked in a data breach of a third party, but said it did not include any sensitive employee information.

The data included “things like names, contact information and office location,” but no sensitive personal data, according to the Atlanta-based ...Read more

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Art Institute names tech billionaire, Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky as board chairman

Business / Business News /

The Art Institute of Chicago has named tech billionaire and Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky as its new board chairman, putting the serial entrepreneur in charge of overseeing the museum, the school and an ambitious plan to usher in an era of new development at the historic South Michigan Avenue campus.

Lefkofsky, 55, who joined the Art ...Read more

Hollywood intimacy coordinators unanimously vote to unionize under SAG-AFTRA

Business / Business News /

Intimacy coordinators have unanimously elected to unionize under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Members of the bargaining unit voted 100% in favor of unionization in an official election overseen by the National Labor Relations board, the union announced Tuesday.

Intimacy coordinators are the ...Read more

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Amazon labor ruling outlaws mandatory anti-union meetings

Business / Business News /

Mandatory “captive audience” meetings in which companies argue against unionization are illegal, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in a case involving Amazon.com Inc., prohibiting one of employers’ most potent weapons against labor organizing campaigns.

Requiring workers to attend anti-union gatherings violates federal labor law ...Read more

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Michael Hiltzik: OpenAI just scored a huge victory in a copyright case ... or did it?

Business / Business News /

The snap judgment among legal experts was that a federal judge's dismissal on Nov. 7 of a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI, the leader in advanced chatbots, will short-circuit an ever-growing effort by artists and writers to keep AI firms from stealing their content.

There's no question that the ruling handed down Thursday by Judge...Read more

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Meta must face trial after judge pares some FTC claims

Business / Business News /

Meta Platforms Inc. will face a somewhat scaled-back antitrust trial over its alleged dominance of social networking after a federal judge threw out some allegations by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, but the heart of the case remains.

In a brief order on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington said he was narrowing one ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Amazon aims at Temu with low-priced storefront called Haul

Business / Business News /

Amazon.com Inc. has launched an online storefront designed to compete with Temu, the low-cost shopping app that gained traction with shoppers who trade longer shipping times for rock-bottom prices.

Amazon describes Haul, which is available in a beta version for shoppers who use the company’s smartphone app or mobile browsers, as an “...Read more

Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

After many delays, $2B Iron Range project revives quest to create first new taconite mine since 1970s

Business / Business News /

NASHWAUK, Minnesota – An industrial resurrection seems afoot at a long-promising but snakebitten $2 billion-plus taconite project.

On a crisp fall morning, a construction site in this Iron Range city teemed with workers aiming to complete a venture given up for dead by just about everybody but its owner, Mesabi Metallics.

After years of ...Read more

EZQuest/EZQuest/TNS

Tech review: Gifts to keep the techie in your life charged up

Business / Business News /

Christmas is coming, and gift giving can be a challenge for the techies on your list.

This gift guide is centered on gifts that will help keep gadgets charged up.

Virtually everyone has a phone, tablet or laptop, which means they are always looking for better, faster, smarter ways to keep them charged up.

I’ve tested all of these ...Read more

Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

AI is everywhere. How should schools handle it? Teachers' different approaches show its potential -- and limits

Business / Business News /

In Jeff Simon’s math class at Sage Creek High School in Carlsbad, California, students are not only allowed but encouraged to use AI.

Simon introduces students to artificial intelligence tools that explain, step by step, how to solve a math problem — all they have to do is take a picture of it. There are AI tools that graph equations and ...Read more

Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Apple headphones can work as hearing aids. Leading hearing aid maker Starkey says it welcomes competition

Business / Business News /

Ross Graham loves loud bands like Nine Inch Nails, and in his younger days he used to frequent ear-numbing concerts and crank up the volume on his headphones. He thinks it was a 2013 concert by the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band in Indianapolis that probably wrecked his hearing.

“I left and thought, ‘Wow, my hearing is not going to be ...Read more

Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times/TNS

Earnings for Seattle tech workers hit record high

Business / Business News /

Everyone knows Seattle tech workers make good money. Even so, when it comes to earnings, it’s remarkable how far they’ve pulled ahead.

New census data shows in 2023, Seattle residents who worked in computer and mathematical jobs had median earnings of about $157,200, up by about $14,000 from the 2022 estimate. This marks the first time ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

DirecTV plans to cancel Dish deal unless debt swap resolved

Business / Business News /

DirecTV intends to terminate its planned acquisition of Dish Network Corp. in 10 days if bondholders don’t agree to a debt exchange.

“A successful exchange was a condition for acquiring the Dish video business,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Given the outcome of the EchoStar exchange, DirecTV will have no choice ...Read more