The holiday season often includes gift-giving to loved ones and charitable causes, but authorities say the threat of scammers seeking to trick victims into giving them large sums of money and personal information persists year-round.

Here are some common scams and how to protect yourself from them:

'Pig butchering'

“Pig butchering” refers...Read more

Royal Caribbean is facing more legal trouble after a former crew member admitted to spying on cruise passengers, including children, in their bathrooms and showers after planting small cameras in their cabins to record them in states of undress.

A dozen potential victims, represented by Coral Gables, Florida-headquartered Aronfeld Trial Lawyers...Read more

As California students’ math and English test scores continue to trail pre-pandemic scores and students struggle to recover from COVID-19 learning loss, one Bay Area innovator has turned to artificial intelligence for a solution.

This year’s test scores data revealed that only about 35% of K-12 students in the state met or exceeded the ...Read more

Here are some rough calculations of when some of America's richest individuals fulfilled their Social Security tax obligations for 2025: For Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, it was at about 2 p.m. on New Year's Day. For McDonald's CEO Christopher Kempczinski, sometime on the morning of Jan. 3. For Elon Musk, it was sometime around 12:31 a.m. New ...Read more

Soaring monthly electricity bills charged by PG&E and its utility siblings could hobble California’s quest for a green energy Holty Grail, a disquieting new state report shows.

PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison levy charges for monthly bills that are far higher than the national average, making California ...Read more

An investor from "Shark Tank" and a former owner of the Dodgers are teaming up to try to save TikTok before a nationwide ban is set to go into effect this month.

Kevin O'Leary, one of the venture capitalist "sharks" from the reality television show, said Monday that he had joined a group known as the People's Bid for TikTok that has been ...Read more

Experian, one of the nation's largest credit bureaus, was sued Tuesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for allegedly improperly handling consumer disputes, which could lead to lower credit scores — one of a number of punitive actions the agency has taken in the waning days of the Biden administration.

The Costa Mesa-based company ...Read more

A cookware industry group is suing Minnesota in federal court over the state’s sweeping new PFAS ban, arguing the law is unconstitutional and discriminates against out-of-state manufacturers.

“Manufacturers will be forced to either keep their products out of the Minnesota market or treat Minnesota’s regulation as the national standard,”...Read more

Media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner was recently hospitalized with a mild case of pneumonia.

His spokesperson Phillip Evans, in a statement on Tuesday, said Turner “is recuperating at a rehab facility and expects a full recovery. While he was diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia in 2018 and despite health challenges it presents, Ted ...Read more

Amazon will pay $145,000 and institute various safety measures to settle a series of cases — including two in Colorado — brought by the U.S. Department of Labor over hazardous working conditions.

The federal investigation marks the first major multi-site probe brought by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in more than a ...Read more

The Chicago Transit Authority is set to formally lock in needed federal money for the extension of the Red Line before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, paving the way for the long-planned addition through Chicago’s Far South Side to move forward.

A large, nearly $2 billion federal grant, key to moving the $5.3 billion project ...Read more

DETROIT — Ram on Tuesday unveiled its updated 2025 heavy-duty pickups that offer more powerful and efficient Cummins turbo diesel engines, refreshed front ends and more interior screen space.

But the bigger recent news for the Stellantis NV truck maker is popular former CEO Tim Kuniskis coming out of retirement.

A day after the automaker ...Read more

Toyota Motor Corp. is investing in a Japanese startup that aims to mass produce lightweight rockets and someday vie with big players for a slice of the growing commercial space industry.

Interstellar Technologies Inc. announced Tuesday that Toyota is contributing ¥7 billion ($44 million) through its subsidiary and research unit, Woven by ...Read more

Affordability will be one of the largest challenges in 2025 for Detroit's automakers after General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. posted their best sales year in the United States since 2019, and as Stellantis NV's declines eased somewhat in the final months of the year.

Inventories swelled in 2024 following the end of pandemic-induced vehicle ...Read more

Judy Simon noticed something strange during her Thursday evening grocery trip in Redmond, Washington. The shelves held no chicken eggs, only a few cartons of quail eggs.

Limited and increasingly expensive egg options for grocery shoppers across the region and the nation are becoming common amid the ongoing avian influenza outbreak. The Consumer...Read more

Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A has been catching a little heat online following a “slight” change to one of its most beloved menu items. The waffle fries have a new recipe, and some social media commenters are letting their thoughts be heard.

Chick-fil-A announced the recipe change online, disclosing the menu favorite has a new ingredient.

“...Read more

The number of foreign workers newly employed in Minnesota under the H-1B program has nearly doubled in the past decade, with some of the state’s largest businesses relying on the skilled worker visas more than ever.

They are working as software developers and engineers, experts say, at such organizations as U.S. Bank, UnitedHealth Group’s ...Read more

Nippon Steel Corp.’s thwarted bid to expand in the U.S. could mean tougher competition for Chinese mills in an already saturated global market.

Creating an entity to compete more effectively with China, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of steel, was touted as a key rationale behind the Japanese firm’s proposal to purchase United...Read more

Is reliable Wi-Fi at 30,000 feet on the horizon?

United Airlines announced over the weekend that it will outfit much of its fleet with Wi-Fi provided by Elon Musk's Starlink company and plans to fly its first commercial flight with the service this spring.

The service, which will be offered for free to members of the carrier's loyalty program,...Read more