Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss will drop out of a group that was bidding for Tribune Publishing Co., according to people familiar with the situation, dealing a setback to a $681 million takeover attempt.

Wyss had teamed up with Choice Hotels International Inc. Chairman Stewart Bainum Jr. on the $18.50-a-share offer, which topped a rival bid ...Read more

NASA announced Friday it would partner with SpaceX as its sole contractor for a human landing system for its Artemis missions to return humans to the moon.

The Starship lander was one of three teams vying for the contract that aims to put the first woman as part of a two-person team on the Artemis III mission later this decade. The NASA ...Read more

Nestled among the cornfields of Normal, Illinois, a long-fallow stretch of land is preparing for a bumper crop this summer.

Rivian, the startup electric vehicle maker whose inaugural truck, SUV and Amazon delivery van have captured the auto world’s attention — and billions of dollars in investor seed money — is launching production in ...Read more

Cloud-computing and crosstown rivals Amazon and Microsoft have teamed up to defend themselves against twin lawsuits challenging how the companies built their facial recognition software.

Illinois residents Steven Vance and Tim Janecyk uploaded images of themselves to the photo-sharing website Flickr in the mid-2000s. Without their knowledge, ...Read more

Hundreds of alumni and faculty of Harvard Business School — the alma mater of many of Amazon's top executives — have signed a petition calling on the company to address pay inequities faced by female employees and employees of color.

Amazon's commitment Wednesday to increase the representation and retention of women and employees of color ...Read more

Universal, affordable coverage through a "Medicare for all" program remains a distant prospect for the U.S. healthcare system. But that doesn't mean we can't address some of the crazier aspects of medical pricing.

One place to start: diagnostic tests.

Cheryl Becker Leff, 59, related her experience involving breast cancer and recent tests ...Read more

California's economy is slowly picking up as businesses reopen and new unemployment claims fall, but stubborn joblessness persists as many simply stop looking for work.

In March, employers added 119,600 positions, state officials reported Friday. The Golden State has yet to recover 56% of the 2.7 million jobs lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ...Read more

Q: With all the manufacturers talking about going to electric vehicles, I wonder how my neighbors who have four SUVs in their driveway and garage full of stuff and the people in the city who park on the street nightly will charge their vehicles?

F.M., Darien, Illinois

A: Charging in one’s driveway should not be a problem if the cable is long...Read more

Earth Day will bring together leaders of more than three dozen countries to talk climate. And while the state of the environment will be the focus of the discussions, it’s the economy that will drive decisions.

Long-term investors should be paying attention. After all, companies are under increasing pressure to acknowledge and disclose the ...Read more

Watt’s new?

It’s a phrase that applies to the auto industry, which is undergoing a fundamental shift in powertrain technology to battery electric vehicles from those powered by internal combustion engines. While there are a number of gas-electric hybrids, a host of pure electric vehicles, or EVs, are about to hit the market.

Currently, ...Read more

Following the lead of Tesla Inc.'s Autopilot and General Motors Co.'s Super Cruise, Ford Motor Co. has telegraphed a semi-autonomous, active-drive-assist feature available with its 2021 Ford F-150 pickup and electric Mustang Mach-E.

Now that system has a name: BlueCruise.

Blue as in the colorful highlights in the instrument panel that indicate...Read more

People had started showing up to the office again in greater numbers, but fled for home as the recent coronavirus surge shook the region, fresh data show.

Still, employers and landlords are betting that workers will want to return as vaccinations increase and virus fears recede, even though demand to rent space in office buildings continues to ...Read more

Performance brand Mazda wants to put its own unique stamp on the electric vehicle market.

The zippy automaker introduced the 2022 MX-30 SUV Wednesday, its first battery-powered offering. Following other Asian automakers' electrification strategies, the ute is part of a portfolio of electrified vehicles that will include a hybrid and plug-in ...Read more

The brash $35,000 Hyundai Veloster N hot hatch thinks it's a premium performance car. Slip inside and it hands you your seat belt like a Mercedes S560 Coupe. The seats are bolstered for hard cornering, yet easy on the backside like an Audi RS. The steering wheel bristles with twin drive-mode buttons like a BMW M.

But my favorite luxe imitation ...Read more

The ability to walk and chew gum will go a long way toward determining which automakers survive this decade. Engineering talent and investment capital are being pulled in two different directions like never before.

On one hand, automakers are scrambling to develop electric and self-driving vehicles — fabulously challenging and expensive ...Read more

Reasons to buy: SUV-type looks; room, safety and driver assistance features

Shortcomings: Access to third row with optional VIP middle-row seats; no hybrid model; controls

Are minivan owners happy?

That may sound like a question for their therapists, but automakers ask it all the time.

Kia is the latest to answer it, with a resounding “...Read more

Federal regulators directed by President Joe Biden to re-evaluate national fuel economy rules and encourage the transition to electric vehicles are expected to raise the standards — though it's unclear just how high.

Gas- and diesel-powered vehicles, however, still earn automakers their profits. Many companies say they don't intend to invest ...Read more

A new report on Oakland’s post-COVID economy is bullish on the city’s downtown, which analysts and at least one developer are betting will come back in a big way in 2021 and beyond.

Speaking at an economic summit hosted by the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Thursday, Beacon Economics founder Christopher Thornberg presented the key...Read more

President Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, left nothing to the imagination on Feb. 9 when he tweeted a line from Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inaugural address: "Action, and action now."

Klain repeated the allusion in another tweet a week later, and even more recently posted side-by-side photos of the Biden and Roosevelt cabinets. All this ...Read more