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Bettina Hansen/The Seattle Times/TNS

Federal court upholds Seattle's delivery driver rights law

Business / Business News /

Seattle’s law regulating when delivery drivers may be deactivated from platforms such as Uber and Instacart will remain in place after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the companies’ assertions it infringed on their First Amendment rights and was overly vague.

The split ruling from the three-judge panel likely means the law is ...Read more

Pavlo Baliukh/Dreamstime/TNS

Iran conflict sends farmers rushing to secure critical fertilizers

Business / Business News /

Chet Edinger had already bought most of the fertilizer for his corn and soybean farm last year, but on Monday morning, with war breaking out in the Middle East, he rushed to secure a last few truckloads of urea for the tens of thousands of acres he cultivates near Mitchell, South Dakota.

“We grabbed what we needed,” he said by phone. It ...Read more

Department of the Interior/Department of the Interior/TNS

Michael Hiltzik: Trump's love affair with coal won't save the industry from extinction

Business / Business News /

He's a cute little fella, decked out in his reflective vest, hard hat and work boots, with his big eyes and a fixed grin.

Meet "Coalie," who joins the army of official and semiofficial mascots making government and commercial pitches go down easier for you and me, like Smokey the Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog and Franklin the Fair Housing Fox.

...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

After Warner Bros. merger, changes are coming to the historic Paramount lot. Here's what to expect

Business / Business News /

With Paramount Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros. expected to saddle the combined company with $79 billion in debt, Paramount executives are looking to do away with redundant assets including real estate — and there is a lot of that.

Chief in the public's imagination are their historic studios in Burbank and Hollywood, where legendary ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Trader Joe's and Ralphs recall some frozen foods amid glass contamination concerns

Business / Business News /

Trader Joe’s, Ralphs and others have recalled some frozen food products amid concerns they may be contaminated with glass.

The recalls come weeks after Monrovia, California-based Trader Joe’s recalled batches of its private-label chicken fried rice with best-by dates between Sept. 8 and Nov. 17 due to glass.

Trader Joe’s on Tuesday ...Read more

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America/TNS

Companies stare down $100,000 fee with new H-1B visa rules

Business / Business News /

The Trump administration’s overhaul of the U.S. visa system for highly skilled immigrants is about to get its first major test.

The annual lottery for H-1Bs, the most popular visa for white-collar professionals looking to build a career in the U.S., gets underway with new rules this month. For the first time, successful sponsors for ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Sub-6% mortgage rates vanish as Iran war sparks inflation fears

Business / Business News /

U.S. homebuyers had to act fast last week to nab the first sub-6% mortgage rates in more than three years. Now they’re up, and the new conflict in the Middle East threatens to nudge them higher.

The average for 30-year, fixed loans climbed to 6% from 5.98% last week, which was the lowest point since September 2022, data from Freddie Mac ...Read more

Simon Lehmann/Dreamstime.com/TNS

Pentagon feud with Anthropic shines light on AI's role in mass surveillance

Business / Business News /

Anthropic PBC’s clash with the Pentagon is drawing fresh attention to a lightly regulated practice: the U.S. government’s purchase of commercially available information, such as browsing histories and location data, and the growing use of artificial intelligence to analyze it at scale.

U.S. agencies, including the Defense Department, have ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: Can HOA require me to clean a roof that I don't think is dirty?

Business / Business News /

Q: Can my association fine me because they’re saying my roof is dirty and needs to be power-washed? When I asked them what the guidelines were, they just pointed to the section that said I was responsible for general maintenance under the declaration. I think my roof looks fine. Can they make me power wash my roof? — Zach

A: Homeowners ...Read more

Capital One laying off another 1,100-plus employees at former Discover headquarters in Illinois

Business / Business News /

Capital One is laying off another 1,139 employees at the former Discover headquarters in Riverwoods, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, a second wave of downsizing following the credit card giants’ megamerger last year.

The employees, whose roles span a variety of job titles at Discover Financial Services, were given notice Feb. 23 that their ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Gossiping about the boss? It might be a good thing, per new study

Business / Business News /

Gossip often gets a bad rap.

It can be seen as frivolous or hurtful, and not typically encouraged.

Still, “there seems to be something about it that makes people a little bit giddy, or excited to be gossiping,” says Rebecca Greenbaum, a professor at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations.

In a recent study, Greenbaum ...Read more

Cloe Poisson/Hartford Courant/TNS

New answer to affordable housing? Yes In God's Backyard movement comes to CT

Business / Business News /

Affordable housing advocates along with dozens of churches across the state are trying to launch the so-called YIGBY campaign in Connecticut this week by supporting a proposed law making it easier to build apartments on church-owned land.

The Yes In God’s Backyard movement bills itself as a creative way to quickly construct affordable housing...Read more

K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Las Vegas lost the most construction jobs of any US city last year, report says

Business / Business News /

Las Vegas lost more construction jobs than anywhere else in the country last year, according to a new report.

Data from the Associated General Contractors of America showed the area had the biggest percentage loss, as well as overall numerical loss, of construction jobs out of the largest 360 metro areas in 2025. The valley lost a total of 8,...Read more

BOB MACDONNELL/Hartford Courant/TNS

CT dairy farmers say the once-thriving industry is now unsustainable. Here's their plan to save it

Business / Business News /

Brandon Smith, a fourth-generation Connecticut dairy farmer, said that he doesn’t want to see the state’s dairy industry disappear, but that without the state’s intervention, the industry is no longer sustainable.

Smith, who works beside his family members at Cushman Farms in Franklin, said that dairy farming is in his DNA. His great-...Read more

FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Iranian drone strikes on Amazon data centers highlight tech's exposure

Business / Business News /

As the tech industry chases growth in the Middle East through data centers, the companies' infrastructure is increasingly exposed to conflicts in the region.

U.S. tech companies are investing billions of dollars into data centers in the Middle East as companies chase artificial intelligence ambitions and growing need for computing power.

At ...Read more

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

Girl Scouts San Diego sues snack food giant, alleges cookie contract breach cost council $1.1 million

Business / Business News /

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by Girl Scouts San Diego alleges that Ferrero U.S.A., a massive multinational corporation whose subsidiary bakes Girl Scout cookies, broke a contract with the local Girl Scouts in 2024, throwing the nonprofit organization’s local council into a crisis that led to more than $1.1 million in lost revenue and the ...Read more

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America/TNS

Top tech companies sign Trump's pledge to provide their own power for AI data centers

Business / Business News /

In a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday, executives from seven major tech companies signed a pledge with President Trump to supply their own power for artificial intelligence data centers.

Leaders from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle and OpenAI agreed to the “ratepayer protection pledge” Trump first announced during last ...Read more

Giovanni Gagliardi/Dreamstime/TNS

This company's AI could flag premature births based on ultrasounds

Business / Business News /

A Denver company has received federal approval to market an artificial intelligence program it says can predict when babies will arrive based on their ultrasounds, raising the possibility of flagging premature births.

Delivery Date AI predicts when a baby will be born, with an 11-day margin of error in either direction, based on second- and ...Read more

Henry Payne/The Detroit News/TNS

Detroit automakers face these potential problems if Iran war drags on

Business / Business News /

A drawn-out war with Iran that pushes oil prices higher for longer could dampen U.S. car sales and especially ding the Detroit Three automakers because of their heavy reliance on gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, experts said.

“There’s a potential for a very large impact,” said Michael Greiner, associate professor of management at Oakland ...Read more

Clarence Tabb Jr./The Detroit News/TNS

Iran war underscores value of EV 'efficiency,' Scout CEO says

Business / Business News /

NOVI, Michigan — The Iran war and its impact on oil prices could underscore the ever-important value of Americans' pocketbooks in their car-buying decisions, Scout Motors Inc. CEO said on Wednesday.

Scout is a Volkswagen AG-owned subsidiary based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that's revitalizing a historic brand name and developing off-road ...Read more