On a stroll down University Avenue in Palo Alto, California, on a spring Saturday evening, one can see parklets that were once parking spaces packed with well-heeled diners elegantly swirling wine glasses or digging into their meals inspired by culinary traditions from around the world.

Families line up down the block to order ice cream at Salt...Read more

Cemal Clik was rinsing some strawberries for lunch when he felt a gun on his temple.

The 61-year-old was sitting near his gift shop in downtown Los Angeles this month when two men threatened to kill him if he didn’t give up the gold chain hanging from his neck. They grabbed the chain and disappeared down South Broadway.

It took 45 minutes ...Read more

In a city infamous for its high housing costs, Seattle’s ultrawealthy will soon be able to buy condos for their luxury cars and yachts.

Nearly 9 acres of a former industrial fuel terminal on Salmon Bay waterfront near the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Ballard will undergo a transformation into an extravagant car collector garage, superyacht ...Read more

A pest that is considered a major threat to California’s vineyards and its $73-billion wine industry has been found on grapevines sold at Northern and Central California Costco stores between April 21 and May 21, according to authorities.

The glassy-winged sharpshooter, which was first identified and detected May 19 from grapevines sold at a ...Read more

Many people thought the long fight over whether the city can or should build housing near the baseball stadium was done in May. But it will now stretch out even longer, after an appeal filed last month that could also delay the city’s broader plans for growth in Seattle.

The city is in the midst of updating its plan to manage growth over the ...Read more

The United Auto Workers union on Wednesday said it had struck a tentative contract agreement with Dauch Corp. to end a 10-day strike at the axle supplier's Three Rivers plant that had threatened to disrupt General Motors Co. truck production.

Nearly 1,000 workers at the plant in southwest Michigan walked out at the start of last week, demanding...Read more

The city of Mackinac Island, Michigan, Hoffmann Family of Companies' Arnold Transit Company and Shepler's Mackinac Island Ferry have agreed to enter mediation regarding ferry service in 2027 and beyond, according to the Fair Access to Mackinac Island coalition.

The coalition praised the decision to pursue mediation, saying it is encouraged that...Read more

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission unveiled a proposal for prediction markets Wednesday that would crack down on bets related to war, terrorism and assassination.

The CFTC plan also proposed narrowly defining some “gaming” — the category that helped launch the surge of sports-related prediction markets 18 months ago - to be games ...Read more

Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei said the government should have the power to block artificial intelligence developers from deploying new AI models if they present certain risks.

In a lengthy essay on Wednesday, Amodei argued that AI models should undergo mandatory testing by third parties to assess the risk they pose across ...Read more

Thousands of Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivans are being recalled because of a battery that can catch fire even when the minivan is turned off.

The recall affects 17,277 Pacificas made between Aug. 5, 2020 and May 2, 2022. Until a repair is finalized, and "out of an abundance of caution," Chrysler owner Stellantis NV warns owners to ...Read more

One injury and 72 fires have been linked to a recall of more than 1 million of Jeep's best-selling Wrangler and Gladiator models, according to the automaker and national safety officials.

Owners of Wrangler and Gladiators from model years 2021 through 2025 should park their vehicles outside and away from buildings in case of fires, federal ...Read more

WHITING, Indiana — United Steelworkers Local 7-1 workers will have to spend more time without work at the BP Whiting refinery after an unsuccessful return to negotiations Wednesday.

However, union members are prepared to continue picketing outside the refinery.

“I hope we’re going back soon, but they keep stalling,” said Steven Kallies...Read more

My last review was a robot vacuum. This week, we let the robots outside to let it cut the grass.

Years ago, my first experience with robot mowers required a wire to be buried around the perimeter of the yard. When the manufacturer offered to come have a wire buried at my house for testing, it was more than I wanted to deal with, as I’m a ...Read more

When confronted with an enormous labor strike this January in California and Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente spent an additional $1 billion to buck union demands and operate its facilities with temporary workers, a spokesperson said.

While Kaiser management and striking workers with the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care ...Read more

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, filed confidentially for a public listing on Monday, following a similar filing by rival Anthropic last week, as AI developers compete to cash in on surging investor interest in artificial intelligence.

It is the first step to start gauging investor interest in what would probably be one of the biggest IPOs in ...Read more

Electric-vehicle maker Rivian began delivery of a cheaper SUV on Tuesday as it aims to take customers from Tesla and others.

The long-anticipated R2, which will eventually be available for less than $45,000, could help boost the market share of the Irvine company better known for vehicles priced around $77,000.

The first R2s to roll off the ...Read more

Buoyed in the Pacific, small sea vessels have traveled autonomously from San Diego shores to locate Chinese ghost fleets in Taiwanese waters.

These small skiffs, created by San Diego-based startup Seasats, are vital to reconnaissance, intelligence, and surveillance missions at sea. In the middle of the ocean, dependable internet is hard to come...Read more

Mayo Clinic is developing a smartwatch app that can head off or shorten temper tantrums by monitoring children for clinically meaningful changes in heart rate and restlessness.

Researchers recently found the smartwatches could cut the length of tantrums in half by using biometric data to identify agitated children and alert parents to step in. ...Read more

More than 92,000 Illinois consumers lost or dropped their Affordable Care Act health insurance in recent months — an unusually large number — following the expiration of generous tax credits that had helped to curb the plans’ costs.

Initially, 448,568 Illinois residents enrolled in health insurance plans sold on the state’s exchange, ...Read more