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Cigarette company offloads over $2 billion of Anheuser-Busch InBev shares

Business / Business News /

Tobacco company Altria Group Inc. is selling more than $2 billion worth of its Anheuser-Busch InBev shares in a secondary offering, reducing the cigarette manufacturer’s stake in the Belgium-based brewer by about 18%.

Experts say this isn’t reflective of Anheuser-Busch’s poor sales performance from the past year but rather a strategy for ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

American debt stings like never before in new era for households

Business / Business News /

After years of managing household budgets through the stress of the worst inflation in a generation, U.S. families are increasingly pressured by a different kind of financial squeeze: The cost of carrying debt.

Two years after the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates to tame prices, delinquency rates on credit cards and auto loans are ...Read more

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS

This Bay Area city is the latest to try and reconnect neighborhoods divided by freeways

Business / Business News /

In the span of a mile, two highways and a rail line slice through the heart of South San Francisco, forming barriers that residents must navigate daily on their way to work, school or to visit family.

Now, the “Industrial City’s” downtown area is the latest among Bay Area neighborhoods where officials are working to reconnect communities ...Read more

Walgreens will lay off hundreds of people in CT; close distribution center

Business / Business News /

Pharmacy giant Walgreens Co. will close a distribution center in Killingly, Connecticut, later this year, laying off hundreds of employees, according to a notice filed with the state labor department.

Walgreens will layoff 322 employees at the distribution center in the Dayville section beginning May 17, according to a WARN notice filed with ...Read more

Friso Gentsch/Volkswagen/Zuma Press/TNS

UAW files for election to organize VW's Tennessee plant

Business / Business News /

Workers at Volkswagen AG’s Tennessee plant will again try to organize with the United Auto Workers after filing with the National Labor Relations Board to have a union election, the Detroit union said Monday.

This is not the first time the UAW has pursued an organizing drive at the plant. In 2019, VW workers at the plant voted 51.8% against ...Read more

UnitedHealth says it's doled out $2 billion to health care providers after cyberattack

Business / Business News /

UnitedHealth Group, in a public update Monday, says it's provided more than $2 billion to health care providers that have suffered financial disruption in the fallout of a wide-reaching cyberattack.

The cyberattack against its Change Healthcare subsidiary at the end of February had a cascading affect on hospitals, clinics and health care ...Read more

Powell's silence frustrates markets as post-COVID economy shifts

Business / Business News /

For Rick Plympton, there’s no going back to the pre-COVID-19 economy. The chief executive officer of precision-lens maker Optimax Systems Inc. sees “shifting sands” in many aspects of his business.

It’s tough to find enough workers, prices of key inputs are more volatile and there are longer lags between ordering equipment and having it...Read more

Nvidia backs little-known upstart in India's biggest AI bet yet

Business / Business News /

It’s a sultry March evening in the suburbs of Mumbai and a group of men hovers anxiously at the back gate of a startup called Yotta Data Services. They pace, pause and fret. It’s approaching midnight, 10 hours late, when a truck pulls up with the precious cargo they’ve been waiting for: semiconductors from Nvidia Corp.

The company’s ...Read more

Vanguard raises eyebrows in search for new CEO

Business / Business News /

Some Vanguard Group-watchers raised their eyebrows when last month Mortimer “Tim” Buckley announced, at 55, that he’s stepping down immediately as president and will retire as CEO and chair at year end.

“Surprise exit raises big questions,” wrote financial news publication Barron’s.

Early retirement is normal for executives at ...Read more

With the Better FAFSA still in limbo, here's what to do as college decisions loom

Business / Business News /

When the U.S. Department of Education rolled out the "Better FAFSA" at the end of last year, the intent was to make the Free Application for Federal Student Aid a simpler process for the millions of college students hoping for financial help for the 2024-25 school year.

But so far, the new FAFSA has created a series of headaches for students, ...Read more

Allie Goulding/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Commentary: American business needs a strong democracy, not political retribution

Business / Business News /

The United States continues to have one of the freest and most dynamic economies in the world. U.S. businesses generate jobs, improve living standards and are among the most trusted institutions in American life. They thrive in no small part from operating in our enviable democratic republic and free market economy. But in recent years political...Read more

Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/TNS

NYC yellow taxi demand still slow post-pandemic, thousands of medallions idle

Business / Business News /

NEW YORK — The number of yellow taxis on New York City streets is growing post-pandemic — but passenger demand has not kept pace, and a third of taxi medallions remain dormant, the Taxi and Limousine Commission says.

“We had over 9,000 taxis in service in January, 1,000 more than the same time last year,” Taxi and Limousine Commission ...Read more

Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images North America/TNS

Boeing criminal probe widens with Seattle grand jury subpoena

Business / Business News /

Federal prosecutors investigating the Jan. 5 midair blowout of a Boeing Co. door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight are casting a wide net to gather information and documents, sending subpoenas and using a grand jury based in Seattle.

The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington has convened a “grand jury investigation of suspected...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Health insurers split with US over relief after cyberattack

Business / Business News /

Health insurers and U.S. government officials are expected to meet next week to hash out differences over how to assist cash-strapped medical practices, as a cyberattack last month continues to hold up billions of dollars in payments.

The Biden administration has been dialing up pressure on insurance companies broadly to advance payments to ...Read more

Ken Lambert/Seattle Times/TNS

Amazon reports 'measurable progress' on worker safety; critics object

Business / Business News /

Amazon’s safety data shows a decline in its warehouse injury rate in 2023, marking an improvement for the second consecutive year, but critics disagree with how the company measures its worker safety.

Amazon says the numbers point to a year of “meaningful, measurable progress,” as it continues to bring its injury rate down with ...Read more

SEMPRA/TNS

Blowin' south of the border: Sempra subsidiary will build a new wind farm in Mexico

Business / Business News /

Sempra Infrastructure, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Fortune 500 energy giant Sempra, announced Thursday it is moving forward on the third phase of a large wind energy complex in Baja California.

Some 64 turbines will be erected at the Cimarron wind project, with capacity to generate about 320 megawatts of power under a 20-year power purchase...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Evan Ramstad: Cyberattack leads to renewed scrutiny of UnitedHealth

Business / Business News /

Every developed country provides health insurance except the United States. We've left that to the free market and it has produced UnitedHealth Group, which has leveraged its position as the nation's largest health insurer to create or buy businesses in almost every part of the health care system.

In the last three weeks, we've seen how the ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

China urges EV makers to buy local chips as US clash deepens

Business / Business News /

The Chinese government has quietly asked electric-vehicle makers from BYD Co. to Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. to sharply increase their purchases from local auto chipmakers, part of a campaign to reduce reliance on Western imports and boost China’s domestic semiconductor industry.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology asked ...Read more

Realtors group to pay $418 million to settle litigation over broker commission fees

Business / Business News /

The Chicago-based National Association of Realtors will pay $418 million as a part of a settlement agreement to resolve litigation against the organization and its members brought on behalf of home sellers related to broker commissions.

The settlement comes after a Missouri federal jury issued a landmark $1.8 billion verdict in October of last ...Read more

Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Medieval Times union efforts collapse as American Guild of Variety Artists pulls support

Business / Business News /

A beleaguered union effort among show performers and stable hands at Medieval Times' Buena Park, California, castle has met its end.

The American Guild of Variety Artists, the union backing workers who organized in Buena Park as well as at another location of the popular themed dinner theater in New Jersey, submitted paperwork pulling its ...Read more