Business

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday took aim at a broad range of imported goods in announcing a new round of punishing tariffs, saying the U.S. will impose 100% duties on imported branded drugs, 25% tariffs on heavy-duty trucks and 50% tariffs on kitchen cabinets. Trump has launched numerous...

U.S. Steel’s notoriously outdated Edgar Thomson Works handles the molten substance left behind by smelting iron ore the same way it did 150 years ago: by dumping it into slag pits. They’re as low-tech as they sound. First, molten iron comes flowing from the blast furnaces. The slag, which rides...

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump signed an executive order to help finalize the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American investor group and keep the popular video app operating in the country. “We have American investors taking it over, running it, highly sophisticated,” Trump said Thursday in signing the...

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to reject Donald Trump’s attempt to fire her, telling the justices the Republican president’s unprecedented move would destroy the central bank’s independence and disrupt financial markets. Lawyers for Cook filed a written response opposing the Justice Department’s...

Despite years of congressional hearings, lawsuits, academic research, whistleblowers and testimony from parents and teenagers about the dangers of Instagram, Meta’s wildly popular app has failed to protect children from harm, with “woefully ineffective” safety measures, according to a new report from former employee and whistleblower Arturo Bejar and four...

SEATTLE — Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which said the online retail giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime memberships and made it difficult for them to cancel after doing so. The Seattle company will pay $1 billion in civil...

Hamburger Helper’s mascot, “Lefty” — the iconic talking glove — is popping up in kitchens once again. With economic uncertainty and rising grocery prices, sales of the boxed pasta and seasoning mix have jumped 14.5% through August, as more consumers look for ways to cut down on unnecessary spending. The...

Starbucks said Thursday it’s closing hundreds of U.S. and Canadian stores and laying off 900 nonretail employees as it focuses more of its resources on a turnaround. The Seattle coffee giant said store closures would start immediately. The company wouldn’t give a number of stores that are closing, but it...

WASHINGTON — An uptick in consumer spending helped the U.S. economy expand at a surprising 3.8% from April through June, the government reported in a dramatic upgrade of its previous estimate of second-quarter growth. U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rebounded in the...

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes remained sluggish in August, even as a late-summer slide in mortgage rates brought home loan borrowing costs to a 10-month low. Existing home sales slipped 0.2% last month from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million units, the National Association of...

NEW YORK — Did you buy a new pink dress to watch the Barbie movie, only to never wear it again? An Oura ring because your favorite TikTok influencer had it? A new pair of baggy jeans because ’90s fashion is making a comeback? Niche trends fueled by social media...

After its acquisition by Japanese giant Nippon Steel earlier this year, U.S. Steel says it will invest $100 million in a new slag recycler at its Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock. The company said in a release it has submitted an “air construction permit” to the Allegheny County Health Department,...

Flush with cash after selling GetGo for $1.6 billion, Giant Eagle is prepared to spend more than $100 million to renovate stores and show customers it’s serious about lowering prices. The investment spree starts Thursday and will run through 2026, marking the start of a “new era” for Giant Eagle,...

The Eighth Avenue corridor in Homestead continues to add new businesses, most recently with the addition of a coffee house and co-working space, thanks in part to Steel Valley Accelerator, a nonprofit offering launch and growth opportunities for businesses in Munhall, Homestead and West Homestead. “Our organization’s goal is to...

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The long history of bourbon production at Buffalo Trace Distillery has been connected to the Kentucky River — summed up as a blessing and curse by a plaque on the grounds. In the 1800s, long before the Buffalo Trace name was attached to the distillery, the river...

Spirit Airlines plans to furlough 1,800 flight attendants before the end of the year, the cash-strapped budget carrier said Monday. The company said it made the “difficult decision” to put cabin crew members on temporary leave to match staffing needs with expected flight demand during Spirit’s second bankruptcy in a...

WASHINGTON — Tech giant Oracle will spearhead U.S. oversight of the algorithm and security underlying TikTok’s video popular platform under the terms of a deal laid out Monday by President Donald Trump’s administration. All the final details still need to be nailed down among several joint venture partners that will...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Monday that a nearly complete offshore wind project halted by the administration can resume, dealing President Donald Trump a setback in his ongoing effort to restrict the fledgling industry. Work on the nearly completed Revolution Wind project for Rhode Island and Connecticut has been...

HARRISBURG — The White House said Monday that it intervened under the terms of a 3-month-old national security agreement with Japan-based Nippon Steel to block a decision to stop processing raw steel at U.S. Steel’s Granite City Works plant in Illinois. In a statement, the White House said Commerce Secretary...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s appointee to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors said Monday that the central bank’s key interest rate should be much lower than its current 4.1% level, staking out a position far different than his colleagues. Stephen Miran, who is also a top economic adviser to...

NEW YORK — There will be no casino in Manhattan after a community panel rejected a proposed Mohegan Sun resort near the United Nations headquarters. The Freedom Plaza development, which also called for hotels, retail, dining, entertainment and housing, was denied by a state-commissioned community advisory committee on a 4-2...

After deflecting the U.S. Justice Department’s attack on its illegal monopoly in online search, Google is facing another attempt to dismantle its internet empire in a trial focused on its abusive tactics in digital advertising. The trial scheduled to begin Monday in an Alexandria, Virginia, federal court will revolve around...

WASHINGTON — An emerging TikTok deal with China will ensure that U.S. companies control the algorithm that powers the app’s video feed and Americans will hold a majority of seats on a board overseeing U.S. operations, the White House said Saturday. A central question to the tug of war between...

After reopening the longtime South Side music venue on July 31, the new owners of Club Cafe have been going full speed ahead with the space. Starting with soft opening hours next Wednesday, that will also include a daytime coffee house. The official opening will be Oct. 1. Club Cafe...

Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series on real estate market trends in Western Pennsylvania. Ashlea Lee was tired of hunting for pet-friendly rental apartments for Reese, her 5-year-old golden retriever. The Westmoreland County native and Greensburg Central Catholic alumna knew what she wanted: a modest ranch,...