Business category, Page 291
Americans got 26.3B robocalls last year, up 46 percent from 2017, report says
Americans are now getting so many robocalls on a regular basis that many are simply choosing not to answer the phone altogether. That’s one big takeaway from a report released Tuesday by Hiya, a Seattle-based spam monitoring service that analyzed activity from 450,000 users of its app to determine the...
Rhode Island named lead plaintiff in suit over Google Plus lapse
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island has been named the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Google’s parent company. State Treasurer Seth Magaziner said Tuesday a federal court in California approved his motion to make Rhode Island’s public employee retirement system the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Alphabet...
Stocks end mixed as Wall Street assesses earnings
NEW YORK — Stocks posted an uneven finish on Wall Street on Tuesday, handing the S&P 500 index its second decline in a row. An early gain faded as investors assessed a mixed bag of corporate results and looked ahead to a heavy schedule of news on companies and the...
U.S. consumers rattled by shutdown, roiling markets
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence tumbled this month to its lowest reading in a year and a half, tested by the partial government shutdown and roiling financial markets. Still, consumer spirits remain robust by historic standards. The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index...
Workspaces centered on women on the rise in #MeToo movement
MINNEAPOLIS — Entering the year-old workspace ModernWell feels like coming into a comfortable spa. Clean lines give way to cozy touches like footstools covered with faux fur and a roaring fire surrounded by comfortable armchairs. Women type away on laptops at tables scattered throughout. There is not a man in...
China tells U.S. to stop ‘unreasonable crackdown’ on Huawei
BEIJING — China called on Washington on Tuesday to “stop the unreasonable crackdown” on Huawei after the United States stepped up pressure on the tech giant by indicting it on charges of stealing technology and violating sanctions on Iran. Beijing will “firmly defend” its companies, a foreign ministry statement said....
Apple to fix FaceTime bug that allows eavesdropping
Apple has disabled a group-chat function in FaceTime after users said a software bug could let callers activate another person’s microphone remotely. With the bug, a FaceTime user calling another iPhone, iPad or Mac computer could hear audio — even if the receiver did not accept the call. The bug...
January is running true to form this year
No month has more stock-market lore associated with it than January. Yes, October is known as the haunt of crashes. But January is known for several things, including the “January effect” and the “January barometer.” The so-called January effect is really a confluence of three effects: • Most stocks tend...
Justice Department charges Chinese telecom giant Huawei with fraud
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department fired a legal broadside Monday at Chinese telecom giant Huawei, alleging the company operated a long-running scheme to deceive financial institutions about its activities in Iran and tried to steal sensitive information from T-Mobile. The charges follow others in recent months lodged by the Trump...
Companies navigate dementia conversations with older workers
CHICAGO — Experts say that U.S. companies are increasingly navigating delicate conversations with employees suffering from cognitive declines as the American workforce ages. Workers experiencing early stages of dementia may struggle with tasks they’ve long completed without difficulty. Historically punctual employees may forget about scheduled meetings. And those who have...
Trump rollbacks for fossil fuel industries carry steep cost
BILLINGS, Mont. — As the Trump administration rolls back environmental and safety rules for the energy sector, government projections show billions of dollars in savings reaped by companies will come at a steep cost: more premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution, a jump in climate-warming emissions and more severe...
Super-rich Americans getting younger and multiplying
A survey of U.S. investors with $25 million or more finds their average age dropped by 11 years since 2014 to 47. These fabulously rich Americans, whose ranks have more than doubled since the depths of the Great Recession, are younger than less wealthy millionaires. The average age of those...
How timekeeping software helps companies nickel and dime their workers
If you work on an hourly basis, you may not have given much thought to what happens to your hours after you log out of your workstation. You might assume those hours are simply converted into dollars and show up on your paycheck. However, there are a lot of ways...
Economy likely to pick up, though pain may linger for some
BALTIMORE — The U.S. economy will likely resume its steady growth now that the government has reopened, though economists say some scars — for the nation and for federal workers — will take time to heal. Most analysts estimate that the 35-day partial shutdown shaved a few tenths of a...
Trump administration eyes transferring control of Citgo to new Venezuelan government it has recognized
WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department plans to claim Venezuela’s U.S.-based international reserves and state-owned assets - including oil refiner and distributor Citgo - on behalf of the newly recognized government headed by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, removing them from the control of President Nicolás Maduro. In a vaguely worded statement...
Researchers say Amazon face-detection technology shows bias
NEW YORK — Facial-detection technology that Amazon is marketing to law enforcement often misidentifies women, particularly those with darker skin, according to researchers from MIT and the University of Toronto. Privacy and civil rights advocates have called on Amazon to stop marketing its Rekognition service because of worries about discrimination...
Under Armour is blasting off into a new market —spacesuits
Under Armour Inc. is teaming up with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to create the next generation of apparel and footwear for pilots and passengers on trips to space. The athleticwear company will also provide uniforms for Virgin Galactic employees at its Spaceport America operations center in New Mexico, and will...
Small business workshop slated at Saint Vincent College
The Saint Vincent College Small Business Development Center will offer a seminar titled “The First Step to Small Business Success” from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Feb. 13 at its Unity campus. The informal workshop will provide information on what is needed to start a small business venture, including financing and licenses. The...
Tech rises as stocks regain some of week’s losses
NEW YORK — Stocks closed higher on Wall Street on Friday, recovering a chunk of their losses from earlier in the week. Technology and industrial companies jumped. Traders took a brighter view on the economy, and U.S. companies continued to report solid results for the fourth quarter. Energy and consumer-focused...
Canada auto workers seek boycott of GM vehicles from Mexico
DETROIT — The Canadian auto workers union is asking people in Canada and the U.S. to boycott General Motors vehicles made in Mexico. The Unifor union is asking people not to buy trucks or SUVs with vehicle identification numbers that start with the number three, which signify that they are...
YouTube changing its algorithms to stop recommending conspiracy videos
SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube said Friday it is retooling its recommendation algorithm that suggests new videos to users in order to prevent promoting conspiracies and false information, reflecting a growing willingness to quell misinformation on the world’s largest video platform after several public missteps. In a blog post that YouTube...
‘The milkman model’: Big brand names try reusable containers
A new shopping platform announced Thursday at the World Economic Forum aims to change the way we buy many brand-name products. Loop, as the platform is called, would do away with disposable containers for things like shampoo and laundry detergent from some of the world’s biggest manufacturers. Instead, those goods...
Chefs and truck drivers beware: Robots coming for your jobs
Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report. The report, published Thursday, says roughly 36 million Americans hold jobs with “high exposure” to automation — meaning at least...
Q&A: How new law, shutdown can impact tax season
Tax season is almost here, and this one could be tricky. It’s the first year that taxpayers will be filing under the massive tax law overhaul pushed through by the Trump administration. And a monthlong partial shutdown of the federal government threatens to complicate things further for some. Tax filing...
BuzzFeed, HuffPost feel pinch in faltering digital-news economy
BuzzFeed, the progenitor of both serious news and viral listicles and quizzes, will lay off about 15 percent of its staff in the latest sign of financial turbulence for once-highflying digital-media outlets. People at the New York-based publisher said the cuts will affect about 215 employees spread across all departments,...
