Best Buy Co. said Friday it's expanding its Lively Urgent Response service to Amazon's Alexa-enabled home devices, such as Echo speakers and Fire tablets.

When enabled, users can just say, "Alexa, call for help," and they will be connected to a Lively agent who will assess the situation and dispatch medical authorities when needed.

"We are ...Read more

From the outside, summer at Orlando, Florida’s theme parks will probably look like business as usual: sunburnt tourists, intimidating lines and families making lifelong memories.

But behind the scenes, theme park workers will likely be straining to maintain the high standards Orlando’s attractions are known for.

Park staffing has largely ...Read more

Cryptocurrencies are probably headed for more bouts of downside volatility and investors should consider reining in their risk, according to Fundstrat.

Buying put protection on long-crypto positions and cutting exposure to more speculative altcoins are a couple of safeguards, Sean Farrell, head of digital-asset strategy at the financial ...Read more

California faces the grim prospect of a drought-fueled summer of power shortages, hydroelectric plant shutdowns and rising electricity costs in areas that include the service territories of PG&E and other utilities, a report released Friday warns.

The drought could deplete big reservoirs in California such as Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville to ...Read more

Are Americans ready for electric vehicles? If the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning is any indication, it’s clear that they are.

When Ford revealed the Lightning last year, it planned to produce 25,000 units. But demand caught Ford by surprise, so management ramped up to produce 80,000 units in 2022. But it still wasn’t enough, so they upped ...Read more

This is what earth-shattering power is all about.

Cadillac, the great American luxury brand, has had a lot of success providing ground-pounding power to its array of vehicles. For example, its fan favorite CTS-V has been a chart topper. When it comes to American power, someone has to keep up with the rest, and in typical Cadillac fashion, the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — If you're wondering what's swelling the price of everything you buy, the cost of a gallon of diesel is a good place to start.

Record gasoline and diesel prices across the country are a major contributor to the kind of inflation not seen in 40 years, and it's worse in California, where both fuels cost more than anywhere else in ...Read more

MIAMI -- At age 10, when she arrived in the United States from Cuba after waiting four years to be reunited with her father, Jennifer Arniella didn’t dare to speak English. She was afraid that her middle school classmates would make fun of her, so she kept to herself and her small circle of friends from Homestead.

Arniella, who did not speak ...Read more

DETROIT — One of my favorite SUV personalities is the Volvo XC40. Cleverly designed inside and out, unique looks, Android operating system, legroom, storage aplenty.

And now it has a pair of electric 2022 Recharge siblings. Though it’s gonna be tough to beat the 355-mile-range gas model. On a wintry April day in Detroit, I had to make a day...Read more

The bestselling 2016 book “Hidden Figures,” later adapted into a popular film, told the story of Black female mathematicians who played an essential role in the U.S. space program in the 1950s and 1960s, but who faced racial discrimination and were paid less than their male counterparts.

The gender pay gap existed before the era portrayed ...Read more

It's been a year since the California Department of Motor Vehicles opened an investigation into Tesla's sales pitch for its Full Self-Driving feature, the $12,000 software package that supposedly enables a Tesla car to drive itself through city and neighborhood streets.

It's been nearly six months since the agency, under pressure from the state...Read more

The monthly jobs report is the Rodney Dangerfield of economic statistics. It gets little respect yet has a big and important audience.

In good times, employment data is derided as “a lagging indicator,” as if just because it captures what the job market was, it is to be dismissed, especially by the stock market. In bad times, the job ...Read more

As a Boy Scout, I was taught to “Be Prepared.” Whether you are hiking over a mountain or preparing for a family vacation, the advice is sound. The best way to make sure your much-anticipated road trip does not become the trip from — well, somewhere not pleasant — is to take time to prepare.

Preparing your car

“Have your car checked ...Read more

A new report from a leading political consultancy says increasing sanctions against wheat-rich Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine could trigger a "hunger hurricane" in North Africa, the Middle East and other famine-affected regions of the world.

The report raises difficult questions about war, sanctions and the consequences — ...Read more

Employees at four Philadelphia Starbucks voted this week to unionize — with workers at two stores voting unanimously — joining a wave of newly organized Starbucks across the country.

Five Philly shops in total voted on unionizing on Wednesday. Employees at 1945 Callowhill St., near the Barnes Museum, voted against unionizing, 10-4.

Stores ...Read more

Illinois legislators and advocacy group Equality Illinois issued a joint statement Thursday calling out State Farm after the insurance giant pulled support for a gender identity school book program.

Facing backlash, Bloomington, Illinois-based State Farm ended its partnership this week with the GenderCool Project, a “youth-led” nonprofit ...Read more

El Al, the national airline of Israel, is moving its U.S. headquarters from New York to Margate in Broward County, according to the county mayor and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance.

In a joint telephone interview Thursday with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Mayor Michael Udine and David Coddington, senior vice president of business ...Read more

A Carnival Cruise Line ship that sails out of Port Canaveral became a spectacle Thursday morning with its iconic smokestack funnel engulfed in flames while docked in Grand Turk.

Carnival Cruise Line officials said in a statement the ship’s “emergency response team quickly activated and extinguished a fire inside the ship’s funnel while ...Read more

With a number of new electric vehicles entering the U.S. market, auto shoppers are more likely than ever to consider going electric, according to a J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration Study released Thursday.

In this year's study, the percentage of shoppers who say they are "very likely" to consider an EV for their next purchase...Read more