Business category, Page 240

BOSTON — Massachusetts marijuana regulators have approved of a plan to slowly roll out “cannabis cafes” where adults could use pot in a social setting. The 3-2 vote by the Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday calls for an initial test program in as many as a dozen communities where licenses...

A decade after the Great Recession, when new college grads walked into an abysmal job market with long-lasting effects, the Class of 2019 is joining the workforce during an economic upswing, complete with historically low unemployment and rising wages. For technically minded graduates, the prospects are even brighter, according to...

Word swept through the Reading Eagle last Friday that newspaper baron and Pittsburgh Pirates owner Robert Nutting was touring the presses and offices, triggering speculation that his Ogden Newspapers could bid on the distressed 230-employee Pennsylvania newspaper. Nutting could not be reached in several attempts to contact him at Ogden...

WASHINGTON — U.S. home construction rose in April, led by an uptick in single-family homes. The Commerce Department said Thursday that homebuilding rose 5.7% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.24 million. But housing starts fell 2.5% from a year earlier, suggesting that would-be home buyers are...

BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota judge has ruled that regulators properly refrained from getting involved in a dispute over the location of an $800 million oil refinery planned near Theodore Roosevelt National Park, sparing developers from a potentially lengthy delay in construction. The Public Service Commission last year declined...

LOS ANGELES — Co-working is often more pleasant these days than putting in eight hours at a traditional office. If you’d prefer a workspace that looks like a chic hotel lobby with waiters at your service, that can be arranged. Want to be around other women in a cabana on...

SAN FRANCISCO — On the heels of President Trump’s repeated assertions claiming anti-conservative bias by tech companies, the White House has launched an online form asking people to share their experiences if they think political partisanship has led them to be silenced by social media sites. The White House’s official...

SAN FRANCISCO — A California cafe is brewing up what it calls the world’s most expensive coffee — at $75 a cup. Klatch Coffee is serving the exclusive brew, the Elida Natural Geisha 803, at its branches in Southern California and San Francisco. The 803 in the coffee’s name refers...

NEW YORK — American Express is buying the online reservation startup Resy, the latest move by AmEx to establish and maintain a foothold for its card members in some of the world’s most desired restaurants. AmEx and Resy declined to disclose the terms of the deal. However, Resy announced it...

PHILADELPHIA — Sales of soda and other sweetened beverages have declined by 51% at chain stores in Philadelphia since the city’s controversial tax on beverages took effect in 2017, according to a study released Tuesday, one week before city primary elections in which the tax is a key issue. Total...

Bayer’s stock fell 2% Tuesday afternoon, one day after a California couple was awarded more than $2 billion over allegations that its Roundup weed killer causes cancer. The decision marked the third consecutive jury verdict against the company over its top-selling herbicide. The company has said it will appeal the...

Walmart wants to one-up Amazon.com in the fight for online shoppers. The world’s largest retailer is rolling out a next-day delivery service to counter Amazon’s recent move to speed shipment times for top customers to just one day from two. Starting Tuesday, Walmart customers in Phoenix and Las Vegas who...

BURBANK, Calif. — Disney is taking full control of Hulu, extending the reach of its streaming abilities. Disney said Tuesday that it’s taking operational control of the streaming service immediately. NBCUniversal owns 33% of Hulu right now. According to the agreement, Disney can demand Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, sell the...

It’s just enough time to mix a cocktail. Helicopters have been whisking the wealthy from Manhattan to New York’s airports for decades. Now the ride costs as little as $195, and you can book it via a smartphone. Back in 2014, when Rob Wiesenthal founded Blade Urban Air Mobility, a...

Trader Joe’s has debuted a wacky and wonderful YouTube channel. If you are a Trader Joe’s fan — and who isn’t? — then you’re going to love the chain’s new YouTube channel. The California-based grocer, which recently took top honors in Consumer Report’s annual supermarket survey, quietly launched the new...

The world’s largest chocolate market is finally getting a taste of the ruby range, the first new type in more than 80 years. Switzerland’s Barry Callebaut, the top maker of bulk chocolates, is rolling out its ruby breakthrough in the United States almost two years after announcing the discovery. The...

WhatsApp is urging its 1.5 billion users to update their app after the company detected sophisticated hacking attempts that may have targeted human rights activists. The Facebook subsidiary said “an advanced cyber actor” exploited a security flaw and installed the malware by reaching targets on their mobile phones through WhatsApp’s...

OAKLAND, Calif. — A jury on Monday ordered agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. to pay a combined $2.05 billion to a couple claiming that the company’s popular weed killer Roundup Ready caused their cancers. The jury’s verdict is third such courtroom loss for Monsanto in California since August. The state court...

Your friends just can’t stop posting photos of their new babies on Facebook. And it’s infuriating. Well condom maker Skyn is here to rescue you — with a “social media contraceptive.” They’ve come up with a Google Chrome extension that filters out those annoying photos on your Facebook feed and...

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks moved sharply lower Monday on Wall Street and extended the market’s slide into a second week as investors seek shelter from an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China. The world’s largest economies had seemed on track to resolve the ongoing trade dispute that...

Apple suffered a significant defeat at the Supreme Court on Monday, when the justices ruled that consumers could forge ahead with a lawsuit against the iPhone giant over the way it manages its App Store. The 5-4 decision could spell serious repercussions for one of Apple’s most lucrative lines of...

Indiana-based First Commonwealth Bank announced it is buying 14 branches of Santander Bank in central Pennsylvania. First Commonwealth, which also has been in growth mode in Ohio, last week applied to the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities for approval to purchase assets and assume liabilities for the branches located...

NEW YORK — Amazon, which is racing to deliver packages faster, is turning to its employees with a proposition: Quit your job and we’ll help you start a business delivering Amazon packages. The offer, announced Monday, comes as Amazon seeks to speed up its shipping time from two days to...

SEATTLE — Washington is set to become the first state to enter the private health insurance market with a universally available public option. A set of tiered public plans will cover standard services and are expected to be up to 10% cheaper than comparable private insurance, thanks in part to...