Business category, Page 148
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in the Bahamas
NEW YORK — The former CEO of failed cryptocurrency firm FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested Monday in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government, U.S. and Bahamian authorities. Bankman-Fried had been under criminal investigation by the two countries following the collapse last month of FTX. The firm filed...
Wall Street rises ahead of year’s last barrage of rate hikes
Stocks closed higher Monday as Wall Street kicked off a busy week when central banks are likely to unload the year’s final barrage of interest-rate hikes meant to drive down the world’s painfully high inflation. The S&P 500 rallied 1.4%, trimming its loss for the year to 16.3%. The Dow...
U.S. reports another Takata air bag death, bringing toll to 33
DETROIT — U.S. safety regulators are urging drivers once again to make sure their vehicles haven’t been recalled after another person was killed by an exploding Takata air bag. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday that the person was killed in a crash involving a 2002 Honda Accord...
Fight to curb food waste increasingly turns to science
Hate mealy apples and soggy french fries? Science can help. Restaurants, grocers, farmers and food companies are increasingly turning to chemistry and physics to tackle the problem of food waste. Some are testing spray-on peels or chemically-enhanced sachets that can slow the ripening process in fruit. Others are developing digital...
Amazon will tip your delivery driver if you ‘thank’ them through Alexa
Amazon customers with Alexa-enabled devices can send a dose of goodwill to their delivery driver through a program the company announced this week. And the gratitude won’t cost the customer anything. Customers can use the device to say “Alexa, thank my driver” to have an appreciative message — and $5...
Short stack, short staff: Restaurant industry still hurting for workers
For Tracy Allison, a bartender who serves the dining room at Ligonier Tavern and Table while completing a host of other tasks, finding good employees has been an ongoing challenge. “I have no earthly idea why” it has been so hard to attract and retain workers, said Allison, a Ligonier...
New York Times journalists, other workers on 24-hour strike
NEW YORK — More than 1,000 New York Times journalists and other staff walked off the job for 24 hours Thursday, frustrated by contract negotiations that have dragged on for months in the newspaper’s biggest labor dispute in more than 40 years. Hundreds of reporters, editors, photographers and other employees...
FTC sues to block Microsoft-Activision Blizzard $69B merger
The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued to block Microsoft’s planned $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard, saying it could suppress competitors to Microsoft’s Xbox game console and its growing games subscription business. The FTC’s challenge could be a test case for President Joe Biden’s mandate to...
Women sue Musk’s Twitter alleging discriminatory layoffs
Two women who lost their jobs at Twitter when billionaire Elon Musk took over are suing the company in federal court, claiming that last month’s abrupt mass layoffs disproportionately affected female employees. The discrimination lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges over Musk’s decimation of Twitter’s workforce...
Wiz Khalifa to make W.Pa. stops to push his medical marijuana products
Rapper Wiz Khalifa is making another mark on the Pittsburgh area — his medical marijuana products will be available at Trulieve locations statewide starting Monday. Khalifa, a graduate of Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill, will be back in his old neighborhood at the Trulieve location there, as well as...
Apple: Most iCloud data can now be end-to-end encrypted
BOSTON — As part of an ongoing privacy push, Apple said Wednesday it will now offer full end-to-encryption for nearly all the data its users store in its global cloud-based storage system. That will make it more difficult for hackers, spies and law enforcement agencies to access sensitive user information....
New York Times journalists, other workers on 24-hour strike
NEW YORK — Hundreds of New York Times journalists and other staff walked off the job for 24 hours Thursday, frustrated by contract negotiations that have dragged on for months in the newspaper’s biggest labor dispute in more than 40 years. Reporters, editors, photographers and other employees planned a rally...
Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’ stir controversy on social media
Drama surrounding billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter continues to escalate as a series of tweets deemed “The Twitter Files” showcases the social media giant’s internal struggle over the 2020 story about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Hunter Biden is the son of President Joe Biden, who was a...
‘City of Steel’ lets former workers chronicle the rise and fall of Pittsburgh steel industry
When Bruce Spiegel was a child, he would look out his Greenfield window at the heart of American industry: the U.S. Steel Homestead Works. “I would look out into the night and watch the Homestead furnaces blowing blue flames,” Spiegel said. “I thought steel-making was never going to end.” In...
Juul reaches settlements covering more than 5,000 cases
Juul Labs has reached settlements covering more than 5,000 cases brought by about 10,000 plaintiffs related to its vaping products. Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Juul said that it has secured an equity investment to fund it. Juul rocketed to the top of the U.S. vaping...
Pittsburgh unemployment near record lows, but region is slow to regain workers
Pittsburgh’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest the region has seen in the past 50 years, but that isn’t necessarily a sign that the city’s economy is humming, according to a University of Pittsburgh economist. The unemployment rate for October was 4.1%, the Pennsylvania Center for Workforce Information and...
Pittsburgh unemployment near record lows, but region is slow to regain workers
Pittsburgh’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest the region has seen in the past 50 years, but that isn’t necessarily a sign that Pittsburgh’s economy is humming, according to a University of Pittsburgh economist. The unemployment rate for October was 4.1%, the Pennsylvania Center for Workforce Information and Analysis...
Lensa’s magic-avatar portraits are all over social media
With people sharing AI-generated portraits on social media, attention is being drawn to the Lensa AI photo app. The app, from Prisma AI, has been around since 2018, but the new “magic avatar” feature debuted last month. The feature creates highly-stylized portraits that users share on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok....
Holmes’ former partner faces sentencing in Theranos case
A former Theranos executive learns Wednesday whether he will be punished as severely as his former lover and business partner for peddling the company’s bogus blood-testing technology that duped investors and endangered patients. The sentencing for Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who was convicted in July of fraud and conspiracy, comes less...
Millennial Money: How credit can beat buy now, pay later
At first glance, a “buy now, pay later” plan’s promise of no interest or upfront fees can seem more appealing than a credit card’s terms. Dividing a transaction into, say, a pay-in-four installment plan sounds straightforward and manageable. Unlike credit cards, though, these plans lack certain consumer protections and are...
Meta oversight board urges changes to VIP moderation system
LONDON — Facebook parent Meta’s quasi-independent oversight board said Tuesday that an internal system that exempted high-profile users, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, from some or all of its content moderation rules needs a major overhaul. The report by the Oversight Board, which was more than a year in...
John Dorfman: Executives buy at Align Technology, Black Stone Minerals
Company executives usually talk an optimistic game. When they put their money where their mouth is, that’s when I pay attention. Align Technology Joseph Hogan, president and chief executive officer of Align Technology Inc. (ALGN), spent about $2 million to buy his own company’s stock in November. Hogan had sold...
Russian oil price cap, EU ban aim to limit Kremlin war chest
FRANKFURT, Germany — Major Western measures to limit Russia’s oil profits over the war in Ukraine took effect Monday, bringing with them uncertainty about how much crude could be lost to the world and whether they will unleash the hoped-for hit to a Russian economy that has held up better...
U.S. futures inch down, oil higher after Russia price cap pact
U.S. futures dipped and oil prices rose Monday after the European Union and the Group of Seven democracies agreed on a boycott of most Russian oil and committed to a price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian exports. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 were...
As Musk is learning, content moderation is a messy job
Now that he’s back on Twitter, neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin wants somebody to explain the rules. Anglin, the founder of an infamous neo-Nazi website, was reinstated Thursday, one of many previously banned users to benefit from an amnesty granted by Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk. The next day, Musk banished Ye,...
