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IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva calls US debt load 'mind boggling'

Business / Business News /

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva praised the strength of the U.S. economy but warned its current level of deficit spending was not sustainable and could crimp U.S. and global growth if it's not brought under control, in remarks Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

Servicing the U.S debt — now ...Read more

Mike Siegel/Seattle Times/TNS

Boeing 787 employees falsified inspection records; FAA opens probe

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The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it has opened a new investigation into a potential manufacturing quality lapse on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner after Boeing admitted that inspection records on work at the wing-to-body join were falsified at the jet’s final assembly site in South Carolina.

Boeing informed the FAA in April that on ...Read more

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Stellantis car-sharing service Free2move is rebooting after a bumpy American start

Business / Business News /

In recent years, the company Free2move set up free-floating car rental operations in such major American cities as Denver, Portland, Oregon, and Columbus, Ohio.

Like scooter rentals but for cars, the vehicles were spread out around each city, and drivers could book them from their phones at a moment's notice for a few minutes or a few days. The...Read more

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SEC warns Robinhood that its crypto business faces lawsuit

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned Robinhood Markets Inc. that it faces an enforcement action over its crypto business — the latest sign that the regulator isn’t letting up on its years-long crackdown on digital assets.

Robinhood, which is best known for stock trading, said on Monday that the SEC’s enforcement staff had ...Read more

Matt Stone/Boston Herald/TNS

Steward Health goes bankrupt after mounting financial trouble

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Steward Health Care System LLC filed for bankruptcy early Monday after a period of mounting financial challenges and government scrutiny over the impact of its hospital closures on patients.

The Dallas-based firm is finalizing a rescue loan with landlord Medical Properties Trust Inc., according to the filing. It sought Chapter 11 protection in...Read more

Minnesota electric utility owner Allete to go private after $6.2 billion sale

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A Canadian pension board and a large investment fund are leading a partnership that has agreed to buy Duluth, Minnesota-based energy company Allete, whose electric utility supplies power to a swath of northeastern Minnesota homes and the region's large industrial customers.

Allete said Monday it would keep its Duluth headquarters after the ...Read more

Dreamstime/DREAMSTIME/TNS

More than 90% of stablecoin transactions aren't from real users, study finds

Business / Business News /

More than 90% of stablecoin transaction volumes aren’t coming from genuine users, according to a new metric co-developed by Visa Inc., suggesting such crypto tokens may be far away from becoming a commonly used means of payment.

The dashboard from Visa and Allium Labs is designed to strip out transactions initiated by bots and large-scale ...Read more

Vanguard is boosting fees to urge holdout customers to do their own trades online

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Investment giant Vanguard Group is renewing its effort to get customers to embrace online banking, annoying some longtime clients.

The company, which has spent the past decade urging longtime fund investors to move their savings into the company’s brokerage accounts, now plans to raise brokerage fees in a bid to get holdouts to finally start ...Read more

Ivy Ceballo/The Seattle Times/TNS

Boeing duped the flying public before Alaska Air blowout, Flight 1282 passengers say

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Passengers on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max plane that lost a panel midflight are accusing the airplane manufacturer of fraud, according to new filings in a civil lawsuit stemming from the Jan. 5 incident over Portland, Oregon.

Those passengers allege Boeing defrauded the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Justice and the ...Read more

Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

As opposition to Israel's war in Gaza grows, Boeing arms sales draw scrutiny

Business / Business News /

As opposition to Israel’s Gaza war intensifies, so too has the attention on Boeing’s longstanding connection with Israel and the Israeli armed services’ use of Boeing weapons.

On campuses across the U.S., including this week’s encampment at the University of Washington, and outside Boeing’s Virginia headquarters, protesters have ...Read more

Rob Nikolewski/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Sales of zero-emission vehicles in California up slightly

Business / Business News /

After two consecutive quarters of declines, the number of zero-emission vehicles sold in California ticked up slightly in the first three months of this year.

According to data compiled by the California Energy Commission, the combined number of battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles came to 102,507 in the ...Read more

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Union advocate 'salts' quietly take jobs inside NC Amazon warehouse

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Around 5,000 people work at RDU1, Amazon’s sprawling four-floor fulfillment center in the Wake County town of Garner. A few clock in harboring covert intentions.

Ahead of May Day this week, I checked in with the Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or C.A.U.S.E., which launched in early 2022 to unionize the facility’s ...Read more

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Deal or no deal for Paramount? Here are the options on the table

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Time is running out for Paramount Global and Skydance Media to reach a deal combining their entertainment empires within the 30-day exclusive negotiating window that closes Friday, and it appears likely that the week will pass without an agreement on a transaction.

Paramount, controlled by Shari Redstone, and Skydance, helmed by film producer ...Read more

David A. Sherman/Dairy Queen/TNS

Sundaes in Shanghai: Dairy Queen expands global empire

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It's getting easier to track down a Blizzard in Beijing.

Dairy Queen opened 450 new locations around the world last year — and 300 of them were in China.

"China continues to be our fastest-growing market," said Troy Bader, CEO of Bloomington-based International Dairy Queen. "International plays a really, really important part of our future."...Read more

Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Foreign automakers look to leverage strengths as Chinese brands dominate home market

Business / Business News /

Once attracting great numbers of sales and plenty of investment from global automakers, China is now increasingly being dominated by its own domestic manufacturers — leaving foreign rivals there mostly on the outside looking in.

General Motors Co. is losing money in China. Ford Motor Co. isn’t spending on capital expenditures there. Tesla ...Read more

Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/TNS

Mark Gongloff: Not even Elon Musk can doom the EV charger network

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Elon Musk may not like to talk about this, but Tesla Inc. probably wouldn’t be one of the world’s biggest automakers today if not for a $465 million U.S. government loan at a make-or-break phase in the company’s development. Tesla went on to repay the loan nine years early on the way to briefly having a market value of more than $1 ...Read more

Waymo to begin testing driverless cars in the San Francisco Peninsula, South Bay in coming weeks

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Drivers navigating traffic on El Camino Real in the Bay Area could soon have new cars to contend with, but no one to direct their road rage at: Driverless cars are coming to the Peninsula.

Autonomous vehicle company Waymo is set to begin testing its robotaxis along the Peninsula in the next few weeks, the first step in the company’s plans to ...Read more

Chance Yeh/Getty Images North America/TNS

Byron Allen's Allen Media Group facing layoffs across all divisions of the company

Business / Business News /

Allen Media Group, the company owned by TV mogul Byron Allen, is set to undergo a significant round of layoffs that will affect all divisions of the business.

“Allen Media Group is making strategic changes to better position the company for growth that will result in expense and workforce reductions across all divisions of the company,” a ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Are Tesla Superchargers really open to other EVs in California? It's complicated

Business / Business News /

If you visited Elon Musk’s X last Saturday and clicked on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office account, you could watch him pull up to a Tesla charging station, step out of an electric Ford Mustang Mach-E, and announce that Tesla Superchargers were now open to non-Tesla EVs.

It’s a questionable assertion. Owners of electric Fords, Chevys, ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

A slice of tourists hasn't returned since COVID-19. LA wants them back

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Before the pandemic, a steady stream of buses ferrying tourists from Brazil, China, Australia and elsewhere pulled into the Original Farmers Market every day. They typically idled for an hour or so, while their passengers ate and shopped for souvenirs at the historic collection of food stalls and kitschy shops in the heart of Los Angeles.

The ...Read more