Penn Brewery insists it’s not closing despite filing for bankruptcy protection
Penn Brewery is not closing despite filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owners said in a social media post early Thursday morning. The popular brewery and restaurant in Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill neighborhood said it is using the filing “as a strategic tool to restructure and secure a stronger future.” In...
Trump unveils 100% tariff on some patented drugs on ‘Liberation Day’ anniversary
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that could slap long-threatened pharmaceutical tariffs of up to 100% on some patented drugs from companies that don’t reach deals with his administration in the coming months. Companies that have signed a “most favored nation” pricing deal and are...
Dizzying U.S. fuel prices are determined by factors largely outside of a gas station’s control
DES MOINES, Iowa — The near-daily changes in U.S. gas prices are dizzying for drivers, who are left feeling frustrated and cash-strapped by the highest fuel costs since 2022. With the Iran war pushing up prices worldwide, the U.S. average for a gallon of gas topped $4 on Tuesday, according...
One Tech Tip: Got an awkward or embarrassing Gmail address? Google is now letting users change it
Good news for people who regret the Gmail address they came up with when they registered for an account: Google is now letting users change it. Google started quietly rolling out the change late last year in India and said this week in a blog post that it’s now available...
Tesla sales rise as $4-a-gallon gas revives interest in EVs
Tesla sold slightly more cars in the first three months of 2026 than a year earlier, the company said Thursday, a sign that rising gasoline prices as a result of the war with Iran may be prompting more consumers to choose electric vehicles. Tesla said it delivered 358,023 vehicles globally...
U.S. jobless aid filings fall to 202,000 as layoffs remain low despite uncertainty of Iran war
WASHINGTON — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week as layoffs remain sparse despite a softening labor market and rising energy costs due to the Iran war. The number of Americans applying for jobless aid for the week ending March 28 fell by 9,000 to 202,000 from the previous...
Astrobotic’s latest lunar lander on track for 2026 launch
Pittsburgh’s Astrobotic is closing in on the launch of its Griffin-1 lander, a 15-footwide spacecraft that will deliver two state-of-the-art rovers to the moon. CEO John Thornton said Wednesday the lander is nearing completion and should be ready for takeoff on a SpaceX rocket by the end of the year....
Pittsburgh biotech company Lipella Pharmaceuticals files for bankruptcy protection
Lipella Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday following more than two decades of developing medications that never made it to market. The drugmaker is winding down operations just 10 months after being delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange, which choked off access to...
Oil and gas prices won’t immediately return to normal even if the Iran war ends, the EU warns
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Skyrocketing oil and gas prices in Europe as a result of the ongoing Iran war won’t return to normal levels any time soon, even if peace is declared tomorrow, the European Union’s energy commissioner warned Tuesday. Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said although there are no immediate oil and...
Retail sales rise 0.6% in February, but impact of Iran war threatens to derail spending
NEW YORK — Shoppers increased their spending in February after pulling back at the start of the year, reflecting volatile and cautious activity by American consumers even before the Iran war sent gasoline prices soaring. Retail sales rose a better-than-expected 0.6% in February, after registering a 0.1% decline in January,...
How Instagram’s ‘PG-13’ branding for teens unraveled
Last fall, as Instagram faced scrutiny over child safety, the social media company introduced a new approach that it hoped would ease parents’ minds. New content restrictions for teenage users would be guided by the PG-13 rating long used by the film industry. In other words, teenagers should only be...
Coal-heavy Nippon could undo U.S. Steel’s limited environmental progress, green group warns
Nippon Steel lags behind at going green, according to a new report from environmental group SteelWatch, highlighting concerns the Japanese firm could be a bad influence on subsidiary U.S. Steel. Nippon’s progress toward ultra-low-emission steelmaking ranked 17th out of 18 companies given a “corporate scorecard” Monday by SteelWatch, a global...
Fresh food distributors add surcharges as fuel costs rise
Jesse Filion, who raises chicken, pigs and cattle on 100 acres in Walterboro, South Carolina, made a tough decision in March. He will add a fuel surcharge of $5 for deliveries of his Keegan-Filion Farm meat to homes and the 20 restaurants he serves. Simply raising overall prices wasn’t an...
Jury can’t reach verdict in corruption trial of 2 ex-FirstEnergy executives in $60M bribery scandal
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jurors said they can’t reach a verdict in the trial of two fired FirstEnergy Corp. executives in a $60 million bribery scheme in Ohio. A jury in Akron said Friday it was at an impasse in the trial of former CEO Chuck Jones and former senior vice...
U.S. consumer confidence inches up despite soaring gas prices brought on by war in Iran
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence inched higher in March despite soaring energy prices brought on by the war in Iran. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose modestly to 91.8 in March from 91 in February. The board said that while rising costs due to tariffs...
Job openings slide to 6.9 million in February, another hint of sluggish hiring in America
WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings fell slightly last month to 6.9 million, another sign of sluggishness in the American labor market. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job vacancies slipped from 7.2 million in January. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS), showed that layoffs rose and the number...
Gas prices eclipse $4 a gallon in the U.S., the highest since 2022
NEW YORK — U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday as the Iran war pushed fuel prices to soar worldwide. According to motor club AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now $4.02 —...
Donut Connection in New Kensington to close
Donut Connection along Tarentum Bridge Road in New Kensington will close its doors Tuesday, according to the owner of the franchise. Rakesh Patel said he is looking for a location in the Alle-Kiski Valley to open a new franchise. He said he’s eyeing New Kensington or Lower Burrell. Patel purchased...
Aurora looks to Congress to override some states’ more restrictive laws on autonomous trucks
Autonomous big rigs could be close to mass adoption, and the U.S. doesn’t have a law on the books specifically governing them. The least productive Congress in more than a half-century seems like an unlikely bet to finally deliver legislation on driverless trucks. Aurora Innovation, a Pittsburgh-based firm with pole...
Rising gasoline prices are a double blow for drivers who use their own vehicles for work
Leslie Sherman-Shafer, an Uber driver in the San Francisco Bay Area, likes to start each shift with a full tank of gas. It used to cost her around $25 to fill up her Toyota Corolla. She’s spent closer to $40 since the Iran war began and pushed up the average...
John Dorfman: What is your sell discipline? Do you have one?
You can find dozens of books and hundreds of articles on how to buy stocks. When to sell them? A deafening silence. It’s not just ordinary investors who struggle with selling. A 2021 paper looked at the performance of 783 institutional investors. These professionals outperformed the market with their buy...
Stocks swing through another shaky day as oil prices keep climbing
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks swung Monday as oil prices kept climbing because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran could end. The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% and deepened its loss since the war began to pull 9.1% below its record set early this year. The Dow Jones Industrial...
Powell says Fed is monitoring energy price spikes, but that it’s limited in what it can do
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that it is important to closely monitor inflation amid a spike in energy prices from the Iran war. Powell, who spoke before nearly 400 students at Harvard University as gas prices inched toward an average of $4 per gallon in...
Democrats examine Elon Musk’s role in suspension of business disclosure law
Democratic lawmakers are seeking answers from the U.S. Treasury Department about Elon Musk’s possible role in dismantling a federal business accountability law. The group, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, sent a letter on Monday morning asking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for all communications that could show Musk may...
Worries about global economic pain deepen as the war in Iran drags on
WASHINGTON — U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran have driven up prices, darkened the outlook for the world economy, sent global stock markets reeling and forced developing countries to ration fuel and subsidize energy costs to protect their poorest. Ongoing strikes and counterstrikes on Persian Gulf refineries, pipelines, gas fields...
