Grocery giant Kroger revealed during its first-quarter earnings call this month that it will shut down about 60 underperforming stores over the next 18 months. At the same time, the company intends to open new locations throughout this year and the next.

“We’re simplifying our business and reviewing areas that will not be meaningful to our ...Read more

In a landmark decision, a Los Angeles judge ruled that California's home insurer of last resort is violating state law by how it treats smoke-damage claims — a policy that homeowners have long complained shortchanges them, including, most recently, victims of the Jan. 7 firestorms.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stuart Rice on ...Read more

Seattle will soon ban the controversial rent-setting platform RealPage and similar services, becoming the latest local government to take aim at a technology that critics say helps drive up housing costs.

The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ban a widely used class of software that gathers information from an array of ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Art dealer Martin Akinseye travels to Africa at least four times each year to meet with artisans and buy art at fairs and festivals. He has a trip planned to Ghana and Liberia in September.

Like several other immigrant business owners at Midtown Global Market, a bustling international marketplace on Lake Street in Minneapolis, ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — A growing number of civic and business groups are highlighting the metropolitan area’s stagnant population as an urgent problem, and they’re pushing the region’s planning organization to do something about it.

Backers of the effort say they have so far secured a dozen resolutions from professional associations and civic ...Read more

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is adding an artificial intelligence coding assistant to to ease the work of developers, aiming to catch up with rival products such as OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Code.

The Gemini CLI — short for “command line interface” — is launching globally, the internet search giant said Wednesday. The tool ...Read more

In a high-stakes gamble, Wall Street hedge funds are offering to buy claims that insurers may have against Southern California Edison if the utility is found liable for causing the devastating Eaton fire in Altadena.

The solicitations are legal, but have alarmed California state officials — who loathe the idea of investors profiting from a ...Read more

How much does a bottle of water cost? At a Las Vegas Strip hotel minibar: $26.

A Las Vegas visitor wrote into blog View from the Wing to share a water bottle from the minibar at the Aria was $26.

“Told me the price after I had already (out of thirst, in the desert) consumed (fortunately only one) bottle of water,” said the visitor who ...Read more

CHICAGO — An effort to require Chicago businesses to install surveillance cameras started with a City Council majority but is now seeing its support wither.

West Side Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, had sign-on from 28 aldermen last week when she introduced legislation requiring public-facing businesses to put in security cameras. But several ...Read more

In-N-Out Burger has filed a lawsuit against a YouTube personality for allegedly impersonating a company employee, filming customers without their consent and posting videos sharing false and misleading information about the popular California burger chain.

The federal lawsuit, filed in Santa Ana on June 20, stems from a video Bryan Arnett ...Read more

U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly declined in June, underscoring lingering anxiety about the potential impacts on the economy and job market from higher U.S. import duties.

The Conference Board’s gauge of confidence decreased 5.4 points to 93, data showed Tuesday. The figure was below all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

A...Read more

Illinois has a shortage of about 142,000 housing units and must build 227,000 in the next five years to keep pace with demand, a number that would require recent annual production rates to double, according to a new economic study.

The joint study published Tuesday by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class ...Read more

CareerBuilder + Monster, a firm that brought together early trailblazers in online job recruiting, filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware as business continues to shrivel.

The company said Tuesday it started a Chapter 11 process to facilitate a sale of the operations, according to a statement. The firm had estimated liabilities between $...Read more

Elena Morales, the president of SMT Automation, had been preparing for a big year at the tiny Michigan maker of manufacturing machinery.

Morales had purchased a new building and hired staff in anticipation of installing more equipment on automotive assembly lines. Her customers, who are some of the biggest automakers and parts suppliers in the...Read more

You may have seen an eye-opening statement recently from the Trump White House crowing about its success in pushing up "blue-collar wage growth."

The statement was headlined: "Blue-Collar Wage Growth Sees Largest Increase in Nearly 60 Years Under Trump." It purported to track real wages for hourly workers during Trump's first five months in ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — In Society Hill, Angela Tate makes an extra $200 a week on average, on top of her full-time job.

Across the river in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, Katie Repko brings in about $500 to $700 a month while taking care of a newborn.

In Philadelphia's Far Northeast, Kristin Doll made $75 in minutes — with just a photo of a ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Hours after the surprise raid this month at Buona Forchetta, an Italian restaurant in the city's South Park neighborhood, where masked and armed U.S. immigration agents handcuffed employees and eventually took four workers into custody, a still rattled Matteo Cattaneo was trying to process what had happened to his business — and ...Read more

The hair care manufacturer John Paul Mitchell Systems has become one of the latest companies to relocate its headquarters from California to Texas.

The company behind brands including Tea Tree and Clean Beauty is moving to Dallas. It was formerly headquartered in Beverly Hills and Century City and has an operations facility in Santa Clarita.

...Read more

Stellantis NV's new CEO officially began his new role Monday by making limited changes to the transatlantic automaker's senior leadership and indicating a significant shift stateside in the company's center of gravity.

Antonio Filosa will continue to manage directly the automaker's North American operations and oversee its traditional U.S. ...Read more

U.S. auto safety regulators are looking into incidents where Tesla Inc.’s self-driving robotaxis appeared to violate traffic laws during the company’s first day offering paid rides in Austin.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is aware of the incidents that were captured in videos posted on social media and is gathering...Read more