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Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times/TNS

Autonomous weapons firm Anduril betting big on Seattle office, shipyard

Business / Business News /

SEATTLE — Defense contractor Anduril Industries is expanding in Seattle, with hiring plans to fill out what it calls its connected warfare headquarters.

After installing a small office in Seattle about six years ago, the Costa Mesa, California-based company has expanded into Bellevue and Seattle's ship canal, pumping millions of dollars into ...Read more

Wendy Gilch/TNS

Why Pennsylvania is moving to regulate firms offering home equity investments

Business / Business News /

PITTSBURGH -- Wendy Gilch wasn’t looking for a new financial threat lurking in the housing market when she opened TikTok.

The Franklin Park, Pennsylvania, consumer advocate was researching a completely different problem: companies she believed were violating the Federal Trade Commission’s advertising rules with fake testimonials, AI-...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Rent-hike ban to protect fire victims ends despite gouging concerns

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES -- A rule intended to prevent rent gouging in the wake of the Eaton and Palisades fires has lapsed in Los Angeles County, possibly exposing some renters to hikes.

The executive order that blocked rent increases was issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom amid the devastating wildfires last year. Under the order, landlords couldn't increase ...Read more

Yong Kim/The Philadelphia Inquirer/Yong Kim

Home price cuts and canceled contracts were less likely in the Philly region than in most major metros in April

Business / Business News /

PHILADELPHIA -- Signs point to a stronger housing market last month in the Philadelphia region than in most other major metropolitan areas.

In the Philadelphia metro, home sales were less likely to fall through and sellers were less likely to cut their prices in April, according to two Redfin analyses of the country’s 50 most populous ...Read more

Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images North America/TNS

Workers at damaged Washington paper mill will be paid at least through Aug. 8

Business / Business News /

SEATTLE — Around 550 Longview pulp and paper mill workers idled by last week's deadly implosion can count on paychecks at least through Aug. 8, the company and its union said Wednesday.

A chemical tank at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging plant imploded May 26, killing 11 workers in one of the deadliest industrial disasters in state history.

The...Read more

Stephanie Breijo/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Illegal-fishing investigation hits Venice seafood restaurant Dudley Market

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES — After a yearslong investigation, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said Dudley Market violated state fishing laws, and staff, fishermen and businesses associated with the popular Venice restaurant and wine bar were hit with $150,000 in penalties and court fees.

Dudley Market is known for its fresh seafood, and ...Read more

Robin Buckson/The Detroit News/TNS

Dauch CFO cites 'active negotiation'; UAW says no meeting since strike start

Business / Business News /

DETROIT — The negotiation process with the United Auto Workers over its strike at the auto components plant in Three Rivers run by the Detroit-based company formerly known as American Axle is "very active," its chief financial officer said Wednesday.

But the Detroit-based union says the parties haven't returned to the bargaining table since ...Read more

David Guralnick/The Detroit News/TNS

Gotion wants Michigan township to pay the $23.7M it owes in incentives

Business / Business News /

DETROIT — Gotion Inc. has asked a federal judge to order the Michigan township where it was supposed to call home to repay the roughly $23.7 million it owes the state in taxpayer-funded incentives.

Green Township's actions opposing Gotion's planned battery parts plant made it all but impossible to move forward, the company argued, leaving ...Read more

Northeast Philadelphia Airport could soon run on 100% solar power

Business / Business News /

A large solar array is being planned to fully power Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE).

A bill that still needs approval by City Council would authorize a contractor to build a 1.5-megawatt solar farm. In return, the city would purchase the energy for the airport for 25 years at a set rate.

It would become the largest municipal on-site solar...Read more

Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images Europe/TNS

Catherine Thorbecke: What if AI retraining is just a comforting lie?

Business / Business News /

No one knows whether AI will trigger a white-collar jobpocalypse. The loudest warnings still come from people building and selling the technology, whose predictions often double as hype-mongering or cover for unrelated cost cutting with investor-friendly language. Think-tank and analyst forecasts are no less vertiginous.

The honest answer is ...Read more

World Business Chicago picks design contest finalists: Covered highways, residential alleys, recycling tourism

Business / Business News /

CHICAGO — When architect Daniel Burnham created the 1909 Plan of Chicago, his “make no little plans” vision shaped the development of the city, its parks system and its open lakefront for more than a century.

World Business Chicago, which hosted the “Horizon Lines” open design contest this spring, is hoping it may have found the next ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Value of Huntington Beach defense tech startup balloons to $1.8 billion

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES — California defense tech startup Mach Industries said Tuesday it raised $300 million, nearly quadrupling the company's valuation to $1.8 billion within a year.

The Huntington Beach startup's soaring valuation underscores how defense tech funding is booming as armed conflicts such as the Iran war and the Russian-Ukrainian war ...Read more

Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images North America/TNS

Parmy Olson: Google's AI shift is causing a collective freak-out

Business / Business News /

When Google recently announced radical changes to its search tool that will overshadow the page of blue links we’ve been used to seeing for more than a decade, online advertisers had something of a collective freak-out. The Alphabet Inc.-owned company called it the biggest such shift in more than 25 years, and that the search bar would be “...Read more

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

US companies add 122,000 jobs, most since January 2025

Business / Business News /

U.S. companies in May added the most jobs since January 2025, signaling the labor market may be gaining momentum despite rising energy costs sparked by the Iran war.

Private-sector payrolls rose by 122,000 after advancing 105,000 in the prior month, according to ADP Research data out Wednesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of ...Read more

Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America/TNS

SpaceX targets $75 billion in IPO at $135 per share

Business / Business News /

SpaceX is planning to offer shares ​at $135 apiece to raise $75 ​billion in its ⁠initial public ​offering, according to people familiar with the matter, as Elon Musk rejects another Wall Street convention by setting a fixed price ahead of the marketing phase of the deal.

The rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence company aims to ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Transmission lines, the arteries of the power grid, need more room to breathe

Business / Business News /

They don’t look like much — two small boxes and a solar panel mounted on some utility poles around Pittsburgh. A small weather station and a sensor, constantly updating Duquesne Light on the conditions of its transmission lines.

The system is crunching the data into a physics equation that governs how transmission lines operate. The more ...Read more

Encord/Encord/TNS

Silicon Valley's humanoid robots are learning how to do your job -- in the kitchen

Business / Business News /

Fernando Flores can spend eight hours a day pouring the same cup of coffee.

He is not a barista. He's a robot puppeteer, trying to train humanoids.

He manipulates mechanical controllers to make nearby robot arms pick up a pot of coffee, pour it into a mug and put the pot back in the coffee maker. Flores checks for spills, then empties the mug ...Read more

Steve Niedorf/UnitedHealth Group/TNS

Massachusetts attorney general's lawsuit alleges $100M fraud by UnitedHealthcare

Business / Business News /

The attorney general in Massachusetts is suing UnitedHealthcare, alleging in the lawsuit that the Minnetonka-based health insurance giant pocketed millions by overstating the health risks of lower-income residents enrolled in a health plan for Medicaid beneficiaries.

Between January 2015 and December 2025, UnitedHealthcare systematically ...Read more

Aiman Khair/Dreamstime/TNS

As students protest artificial intelligence, Pitt professor cautions: 'We cannot delay the AI adoption'

Business / Business News /

Mark Ma wants to know how the workforce really feels about artificial intelligence — so he’s tracking exactly that.

An associate professor of business administration at the University of Pittsburgh, Ma spent the past four years studying the motives behind return-to-office mandates after the pandemic. He became a go-to voice on the issue ...Read more

Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune/TNS

Minnesota Star Tribune cuts jobs and pursues nonprofit ownership structure

Business / Business News /

The Minnesota Star Tribune will cut its workforce by 15% through buyouts and layoffs, executives said Tuesday evening, just a month after the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Annunciation school and church shooting.

Chief executive Steve Grove also signaled a potential new ownership structure for the news organization, ...Read more