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Zoom to buy Seattle AI startup

Business / Business News /

Zoom, the San Jose, California-based company known for its video conferencing platform, has agreed to purchase a Seattle startup as it tries to position itself as an artificial intelligence-powered workplace.

Four Seattle-area tech workers founded the startup, called Common Room, in 2020. The company offers a sales and marketing platform that ...Read more

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Illinois bill awaiting Pritzker OK would add oversight on private equity firms buying disability group homes

Business / Business News /

By the time Illinois notified group home provider Broadstep two years ago that it was revoking its license, the list of problems documented by state investigators spanned nearly seven pages.

Expired medications. Incomplete background checks. “Critical incidents,” which may have included medical emergencies and other events that spurred 911...Read more

Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump pardons Michigan companies, people for Clean Air Act violations

Business / Business News /

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned a series of western Michigan businesses and individuals for violations of the Clean Air Act in connection with an emissions manipulation scheme.

"It is my Great Honor to have just signed Pardons for six people who were persecuted by the Biden Administration, and were in, or being sent to,...Read more

CN-STR/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Stellantis starts selling Chinese EVs from Leapmotor in Mexico

Business / Business News /

Chinese electric vehicle maker Leapmotor has joined with partner Stellantis NV to start selling an SUV in Mexico — the latest example of Chinese automakers aiming to quickly grow market share just over the U.S. border.

The Leapmotor B10 compact SUV formally launched in recent days with the carmaker promoting the vehicle around various FIFA ...Read more

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Hackers stole private information of more than 50,000 clients from a Philadelphia-based law firm, lawsuits say

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Cybercriminals duped a Blank Rome attorney into sharing the personal information of 57,554 former and current clients, two federal lawsuits filed Monday say.

The firm, which is headquartered in Philadelphia and has 15 other offices nationwide, notified impacted clients a month after the incident, according to the complaints.

The two nearly ...Read more

George Avalos/Bay Area News Group/TNS

California's first ADU condo sale offers cheaper path to homeownership

Business / Business News /

San Jose is home to the first accessory dwelling unit sold as a separately owned condo in California, city officials said, setting a potential template for a more affordable path to homeownership. But a lengthy rollout raises questions about whether the model can become a scalable solution to the state’s housing crisis — the sale comes more ...Read more

LOU ROCCO/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc./TNS

Disney's ABC spars with the FCC (again) in defense of 'The View'

Business / Business News /

Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network has stepped up its defense of "The View" amid its battle with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who has targeted the network's programming and its hiring policies.

At issue is whether "The View" still qualifies for an exception to FCC rules that require broadcasters to provide equal air time ...Read more

Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Benefit or penalty? Views differ on Maryland's new leave insurance plan

Business / Business News /

All Maryland employers with at least one employee must offer paid family and medical leave through a state-run insurance plan starting next year, or actively opt out with a state-approved plan.

State lawmakers designed the statewide insurance plan in 2022 to keep workers from having to choose between their health and families, and their ...Read more

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Microsoft replaces OpenAI, Anthropic with own AI in some apps

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Microsoft Corp., looking to reduce AI costs, is starting to replace OpenAI and Anthropic with its own models in software products like Excel and Outlook.

Tens of thousands of AI prompts in the widely used spreadsheet and email applications are now being completed each week with Microsoft’s internally built MAI models, according to a person ...Read more

Benjamin B. Braun/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS

Here's why it feels like Pittsburgh is at the center of the grocery wars

Business / Business News /

Pittsburgh may be a sports town, but the grocery market is a league to watch in its own right.

Among the recent highlights:

Ohio-based Kroger announced Wednesday that it plans to acquire Pittsburgh’s longtime grocery leader Giant Eagle for $1.65 billion.

Wegmans is entering Western Pennsylvania for the first time in the next year or so. ...Read more

Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

This Iron Range mine is one of Minnesota's biggest economic development projects ever

Business / Business News /

Minnesota’s first new mine in half a century is just weeks away from its expected opening on what may be one of the last great ore deposits on the Iron Range.

The site, concealed beneath work vehicles and a forest floor, is aflutter with activity. About 1,500 contractors are passing through a security checkpoint each day to meet the deadline,...Read more

Lucian Milasan/Dreamstime/TNS

Employment seekers and businesses navigate rise in AI-fueled fake job postings

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Workers at Doherty Staffing Solutions were perplexed when strangers started calling the office in response to recruitment texts — texts the firm never sent.

The Minneapolis-based staffing agency soon pieced together what was happening: Fraudsters, posing as Doherty recruiters, were sending fake job ads to individuals in an attempt to extract ...Read more

Sebastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Want an AI-proof job? New research says you may be safer at companies embracing the technology

Business / Business News /

While AI is often cited as one of the reasons for mass layoffs, particularly in the tech sector, for fast-growing companies it also seems to be creating new jobs in many companies, according to a study published Tuesday from financial services company Ramp and employment database Revelio Labs.

"Our early result is that it looks like firms are ...Read more

Madeline Carter/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Strip casino giants eyeing Wall Street exits as billionaires bet on Las Vegas' future

Business / Business News /

When billionaire Tilman Fertitta offered $17.6 billion to take Caesars Entertainment private, industry observers viewed it as a bold move by a longtime casino operator seeking control of one of gaming’s largest companies.

Less than one week later, another billionaire made an even bigger bet.

Media mogul Barry Diller’s People Inc. proposed ...Read more

Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Judge blocks California rules targeting blackjack-style games at cardrooms

Business / Business News /

San Jose, California, avoided a potential multimillion-dollar budget hit last week after a San Francisco judge struck down new state regulations that would have strictly limited blackjack-style games at cardrooms across California.

Superior Court Judge Richard Darwin ruled this week that the state Bureau of Gambling Control, a division of ...Read more

Ronaldo Schemidt/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump claims credit for Walmart's latest price reductions

Business / Business News /

President Donald Trump praised Walmart Inc. for lowering prices on some products on Monday and urged other retailers to follow suit, touting the move as a boon to US consumers.

“I have just been informed that one of the biggest, best, and smartest Retailers in America, Walmart, will be lowering prices, by a lot, at my Administration’s ...Read more

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Trump Bitcoin reserve faces hurdles as departments seek control

Business / Business News /

The Trump administration’s plan to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has been complicated by two government departments vying to run it, alongside questions about which has the legal authority to do so.

President Donald Trump ordered the reserve to be created last year as part of his promise to turn America into the “crypto capital of the ...Read more

Henry Payne/The Detroit News/TNS

Toyota to shift production of truck from Mexico plant to Texas

Business / Business News /

Toyota Motor Corp. is moving production of its popular Tacoma midsize truck from a plant in Mexico to San Antonio as part of a $3.6 billion investment in the Texas facility.

The Japanese carmaker will build a second production line in San Antonio, where it currently makes full-size pickups and SUVs, and add some 2,000 new jobs by 2030, it said ...Read more

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Anti-Musk retail investors scramble to keep SpaceX out of their portfolios

Business / Business News /

Christopher Bejnar has spent the last couple of months combing through the fine print of exchange-traded funds, emailing financial advisers and moving money into European stocks — all to keep SpaceX out of his $1 million portfolio.

As Elon Musk’s newest public company heads into Nasdaq’s stock indexes this week, the 46-year-old software ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Reddit is cracking down on AI marketing slop with its own AI

Business / Business News /

Reddit Inc. is battling a new kind of spam: stealth marketing content created by brands that want to get mentioned by popular artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini.

OpenAI and Alphabet Inc., whose AI tools formulate responses and recommendations by drawing on vast amounts of internet information, have content deals with ...Read more