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Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

California's billionaire tax battle is playing out on Instagram -- with paid influencers

Business / Business News /

As California decides whether to slap billionaires with a special tax, the Golden State's swarm of social media stars is chiming in — and increasingly getting paid to influence voters.

Unlikely influencers, from foodies to mothers to retirees, are weighing in on Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on the assets of the state's roughly 200 ...Read more

Andreistanescu/Dreamstime/TNS

Google erases a record $500 billion as AI eats into sales

Business / Business News /

Alphabet Inc.’s shares fell more than 13%, erasing more than $500 billion in its biggest-ever market plunge, after the company reported disappointing search and advertising sales that reinforced investor concerns about AI’s threat to its core business.

The Google parent reported sales, excluding partner payouts, of $111.2 billion for the ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

As Californian ports push truckers to go green, the struggling industry asks for more subsidies

Business / Business News /

California's struggling truckers say they need more aid to help ports reach their green goals.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, each with some of the country's most ambitious emissions targets, are considering additional incentives to help truckers switch to electric big rigs.

Even as record diesel prices have triggered a wave of ...Read more

Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

10 weeks free rent? Lackluster San Diego rental market has deals

Business / Business News /

Average San Diego County, California, rents in the last week of October increased more than they have in nearly three years.

They still weren’t up by much, though.

On an annual basis, San Diego County rent was up 1.2%, said real estate tracker CoStar, to an average $2,587 a month. It’s a small but notable change, following slowed rent ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: What are our options after appraisal came in $30,000 below contract price?

Business / Business News /

Q: We agreed to buy a home, and the appraisal just came back $30,000 below our contract price. Our lender says it will only lend based on the lower number. We don’t want to lose the house, but we also don’t want to overpay, especially as I keep reading that the market is cooling. What are our options here? — Marcus

A: You have some ...Read more

Donald Miralle/Getty Images North America/TNS

WA court decision revives landlord's challenge to Seattle rental laws

Business / Business News /

Seattle landlords could soon have an easier path to challenging the city’s tenant protection laws.

Division One of the Washington State Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a lawsuit taking aim at city rental regulations could move forward, overturning a lower court decision that had sided with the city.

The case centers on an affordable ...Read more

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Fed holds fire as Warsh telegraphs more hikes without saying it

Business / Business News /

Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh on Wednesday left the central bank on track to raise interest rates again this year, even as he stuck to his refusal to offer any explicit guidance on the future path of policy.

Operating within his self-imposed communication boundaries, Warsh used his assessment of a strong economy and warnings over ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

US bans Chinese genomics companies, citing forced labor

Business / Business News /

The U.S. placed an effective ban on imports from the Chinese genomics powerhouse BGI Group and two related entities, one of the most striking applications yet of a law seeking to block goods allegedly made by forced labor from entering the country.

The Department of Homeland Security added BGI Group, its publicly traded genomics-testing unit ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Boston Scientific chopping jobs as its stock price keeps dropping

Business / Business News /

Boston Scientific is eliminating jobs as part of “a pretty meaningful restructuring,” the company’s CEO said Wednesday, as the medical device manufacturer lowered its sales forecast and saw its stock price drop further.

“Some employees impacted by the global restructuring plan have been notified this week,” the company said in a ...Read more

David Guralnick/The Detroit News/TNS

Ford reports drop in Q3 net income, but hikes low end of 2026 guidance

Business / Business News /

Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday, Oct. 28 increased the bottom-end of its annual financial guidance as it reported a $2 billion net income in the third quarter of 2026, a decrease of 17% year-over-year.

The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker is forecasting annual operating income of $10.5 billion to $11 billion, up from $10 billion to $11 billion and the...Read more

Stephen Brashear/Getty Images North America/TNS

Microsoft beats earnings estimates, driven by cloud growth

Business / Business News /

Microsoft smashed Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, with all eyes on the balance between the company’s artificial intelligence spending and revenue growth.

The Redmond-based tech giant reported $92.3 billion in revenue, a 19% year-over-year increase, for the first quarter of its 2027 fiscal year, which ran from July through September, ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Terry Savage: Financial tasks to tackle before year-end

Business / Business News /

Now is the sweet spot, after the elections and before the year-end holiday crunch, to do some financial planning and organization. This is the quiet time for accountants and financial advisors, so you can easily get their attention. And late fall weekends are the perfect time to do that since most of the exciting sports playoffs are behind us �...Read more

Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register/TNS

Disney's theme parks division lays off at least 100 employees

Business / Business News /

The latest round of belt-tightening across Hollywood has now reached the Happiest Place on Earth.

Walt Disney Co.'s theme parks division is laying off between 100 and 200 people, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.

The cuts to Disney's experiences segment stem from a regular evaluation of ...Read more

TNS

Tech review: Affordable OLED TVs? Roku says why not?

Business / Business News /

Roku is a brand most of us know for streaming sticks and streaming boxes that turn any TV into a smart TV.

Roku also licenses its operating system to TV manufacturers, which means you could buy a TCL TV that runs the Roku operating system.

For the last few years, I have been aware of Roku-branded TVs, but I never really gave them much thought....Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

San Diego biotech lays off nearly all its staff after drug trial failure and 2 patient deaths

Business / Business News /

San Diego biotech Artiva Biotherapeutics is laying off about 94% of its workforce and abandoning its lead immunotherapy treatment for rheumatoid arthritis roughly five months after raising about $300 million from investors.

The company said Tuesday that updated data showed its lead candidate, AlloNK — an off-the-shelf natural killer cell ...Read more

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's pay dips to $90.6 million

Business / Business News /

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's pay dropped in the company’s most recent fiscal year — all the way down to $90.6 million.

It marks a nearly $6 million slide in total compensation from a year earlier for Nadella, according to an Oct. 21 regulatory filing. But it’s still up from the cool $79.1 million he made the year before that.

The drop ...Read more

Chance Yeh/Getty Images North America/TNS

Michael Hiltzik: Anthropic says its goal is to help humanity, but you may not want to believe it

Business / Business News /

Anthropic, the big artificial intelligence lab, wants everyone to understand that it's deeply devoted to developing advanced AI "for the benefit of humanity."

We know this because it has placed this principle front-and-center in the preliminary prospectus for its upcoming initial public stock offering, which was made public on Monday. It's what...Read more

Todd McInturf, The Detroit News/The Detroit News/TNS

Hybrids coming to GM plant in Michigan, automaker says

Business / Business News /

General Motors Co. will produce hybrids at its Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant near Michigan's capital, as it seeks to catch up in an electrified vehicle segment that has enjoyed strong growth this year amid rising gas prices.

The automaker declined to provide details on timing and models to be made at the plant, which now produces the ...Read more

Henry Payne, The Detroit News/The Detroit News/TNS

Special charges return Stellantis to net loss in third quarter

Business / Business News /

The maker of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram returned to the red in the third quarter, reporting a net loss of more than $500 million (453 million euro) from special charges.

Despite the loss as the company incurred $111 million (0.1 billion euro) in cash outflows related to second-half of 2025 charges, the transatlantic automaker said the ...Read more

Scott Olson/Getty Images North America/TNS

America's truckers on the brink with 221 bankruptcies this year

Business / Business News /

Justin Stoneman has been in the trucking industry for 27 years, operating out of central Michigan’s agricultural heartland. Hauling grain and fertilizer around the Midwest, his 12-odd tractor trailers generated more than $3 million in annual revenue during their best times.

Those days are over. In the past year, Stoneman’s business has been...Read more