Advocates for the semiconductor chip industry blanketed Capitol Hill offices this week to push for passage of $52 billion in subsidies amid an ongoing global shortage.

Their efforts appear to be paying off: More than three dozen bipartisan members of Congress from auto manufacturing states urged House leadership on Thursday to pass funding for ...Read more

UnitedHealthcare has launched what it calls a "virtual-first" health plan where patients start with online health care providers before moving to in-person visits as needed.

The Minnetonka-based carrier, which is the nation's largest health insurer,announcedthe health plan this weekas a way to reduce costs at a time when the pandemic has ...Read more

Operators of power plants and transmission lines that are part of the Texas electric grid have until Dec. 1 to make their "best efforts" to fix known problems that led to failures during last February's deadly freeze and to implement decade-old winterization recommendations that state regulators largely disregarded until this year.

That's the ...Read more

Southern California home prices set another record last month, but the market is cooling despite the all-time price high.

The region's six-county median sales price — the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less — climbed 1.3% from August to $688,500 in September, according to data released Wednesday from real estate ...Read more

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose in September by the most in a year, suggesting a slight easing in home-price growth and lower mortgage rates a month earlier provided a tailwind for demand.

Contract closings increased 7% from the prior month, the most since September 2020, to an annualized 6.29 million, figures from the National ...Read more

Q: A resident of our community is a hoarder and does not maintain his home. We are concerned that the condition of his home will attract pests and cause other problems. The association’s management company sent him letters, but nothing came of it, and the problem is getting worse. Can anything be done? —Brett

A: Dealing with this situation ...Read more

Portillo’s is expected to go public Thursday and raise $405.4 million with its initial public offering.

The Oak Brook, Illinois-based fast casual chain offered nearly 20.3 million shares of its stock at $20 per share — a little less than the cost of three Italian beef sandwiches, Portillo’s said in a news release Wednesday evening.

...Read more

Several years ago, Kristine Chadwick and her family were trying to buy a house in Eugene, Oregon. The market was competitive, so her agent suggested she write a letter to the seller, describing her husband, three kids, two dogs and one cat, and why she wanted to raise her family in the house. Hers was not the highest bid, but she got the house ...Read more

SEATTLE — Like many vendors at Pike Place Market, Scott Chang isn't sure when business will resume its pre-COVID normal.

True, this summer brought welcome crowds of tourists and locals to the open-air Seattle landmark. Sales at See Lee Gardens, the flower business owned by Chang's family, are nearly back where they were before the pandemic ...Read more

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people often relied on telemedicine for doctor visits. Now, insurers are betting that some patients liked it enough to embrace new types of health coverage that encourages video visits — or outright insists on them.

Priority Health in Michigan, for example, offers coverage requiring online visits first ...Read more

Tesla held its third-quarter earnings call with shareholders on Wednesday — but anyone hoping the automaker would provide more details about moving its headquarters to Austin was likely disappointed.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Oct. 7 that Tesla will relocate its corporate headquarters to Austin, but gave few hints as to what that would...Read more

Bitcoin rallied to a record, topping $66,000 for the first time as optimism surged for greater mainstream acceptance in the wake of the successful launch of the inaugural exchange-traded fund for U.S. investors.

While the historically volatile digital currency spent recent days hovering in a narrow range as it approached its previous April ...Read more

An California semiconductor company took its stock public Wednesday — straight into the maw of a global chip shortage that could pose either a threat or an opportunity.

The company is Navitas, based in El Segundo. Its stock offering created a company with an enterprise value of about $1 billion and brought in $320 million in cash. Navitas ...Read more

Here's a handy rule for anyone struggling to decode policy debates in Washington: If the GOP is throwing a fit about something, you can be sure their complaints are bogus.

Latest case in point: a provision in the Build Back Better bill, the Biden administration's omnibus spending package, that would give the Internal Revenue Service more of ...Read more

Foul odors reminiscent of urine or sweaty socks are exposing people in older Toyota vehicles to health and safety risks, a new federal lawsuit claims.

The odors result from a design defect that allows condensation to accumulate in hidden parts of the Toyota vehicles’ air conditioning systems and cultivate microbes, bacteria, mold and fungus, ...Read more

The holiday shopping frenzy has always been driven by FOMO. But this year, the fear of missing out is colliding smack dab into the fear of running out.

The ongoing message we're hearing a month before Thanksgiving is buy now before it's too late. A QVC host in mid-October proclaimed that products will be sparse across the board for all ...Read more

Spam keeps changing and several readers wonder what to do about it. Sharon Gresham of Sarasota, Florida, says she's begun receive e-mails in a foreign language, and trying to block them hasn't worked. Ann Donovan of Colorado Springs, Colorado, says she's getting a steady stream of what appear to be scam e-mails from someone named Elene, who she ...Read more