Business category, Page 253
U.S. gains a robust 266,000 jobs; unemployment falls to 3.5%
WASHINGTON — Hiring in the United States jumped last month to its highest level since January as U.S. employers shrugged off trade conflicts and a global slowdown and added 266,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% from 3.6% in October, matching a half-century low, the Labor Department reported Friday....
Coffee so strong you can build car parts out of it
CHICAGO — McDonald’s coffee bean remnants are getting a second purpose in life in the form of car parts. Researchers from Ford, the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker, are using McDonald’s coffee chaff — the waste left over after the roasting process — to make headlamp housings and other auto components. Ford...
Uber reports more than 3,000 sexual assaults on 2018 rides
SAN FRANCISCO — More than 3,000 sexual assaults were reported during U.S. Uber rides in 2018, the company said in a long-awaited safety report. That figure includes 229 rapes across the company’s 1.3 billion rides. Uber noted that drivers and riders were both attacked, and that some assaults occurred between...
Pittsburgh woman to lead new nursing school at Grove City College
Janey A. Roach, a Pittsburgh native and former UPMC nursing director, has been named the first director of the new Charles Jr. and Betty Johnson School of Nursing at Grove City College. Roach, who has extensive experience as a nurse, educator and administrator, will oversee the college’s newest academic school...
State grants available to Pa. businesses looking for skilled workers
The state is making $4.6 million in grants available to Pennsylvania businesses that want to form partnerships to improve the quality of worker education and workforce development. The PAsmart Next Generation Industry Partnership Grant program is designed to address the state’s deficit in adequately trained workers in industries such as...
Google co-founders step down as execs of parent AlphabetVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — The co-founders of Google are stepping down as executives of its parent company, Alphabet, ending a remarkable two decades during which Larry Page and Sergey Brin shaped a startup born in a Silicon Valley garage into one of the largest, most powerful — and, increasingly, most feared...
Gun background checks are on pace to break record in 2019Video
Background checks on gun purchases in the United States are climbing toward a record high this year, reflecting what the industry says is a rush by people to buy weapons in reaction to the Democratic presidential candidates’ calls for tighter restrictions. By the end of November, more than 25.4 million...
Workers fired from Google plan federal labor complaint
SAN FRANCISCO — Four workers fired from Google last week are planning to file a federal labor complaint against the company, claiming it unfairly retaliated against them for organizing workers around social causes. The former employees said Tuesday they are preparing to file unfair labor practice charges with the National...
U.S. proposes tariffs on up to $2.4 billion in French imports
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is proposing tariffs on up to $2.4 billion worth of French imports — including Roquefort cheese, handbags, lipstick and sparkling wine — in retaliation for France’s tax on American tech giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative charged Monday...
‘Cyber Monday’ sales on track to hit record
“Cyber Monday” is still holding up as the biggest online shopping day of the year, even though the same deals have been available online for weeks and the name harks back to the days of dial-up modems. Shoppers are expected to spend a record $9.4 billion on purchases made on...
John Dorfman: Insiders buying at Matador, Berry Petroleum
Investors loathe energy stocks, which are down more than 40% since their peak in June 2014. A 2018 rebound proved to be a sucker rally. Two CEOs of small energy companies are defying the trend, buying their companies’ shares recently. Joseph Foran, the CEO of Matador Resources Co. (MTDR), spent...
Facebook tests tool to move photos to Google, other rivals
LONDON — Facebook started testing a tool on Monday that lets users move their images more easily to other online services, as it faces pressure from regulators to loosen its grip on data. The social network’s new tool will allow people to transfer their photos and videos directly to competing...
Trump to tariff steel and aluminum from Argentina and Brazil
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday accused Argentina and Brazil of hurting American farmers through currency manipulation and said he’ll slap tariffs on their steel and aluminum imports to retaliate. Trump also called on America’s central bank to take action to prevent other countries from devaluing their currencies. Both...
Merry Clickmas: Black Friday online sales hit record $7.4B
NEW YORK — This year’s Black Friday was the biggest ever for online sales, as fewer people hit the stores and shoppers rang up $7.4 billion in transactions from their phones, computers and tablets. That’s just behind the $7.9 billion haul of last year’s Cyber Monday, which holds the one-day...
Yinzer candy bars are back — with more Pittsburgh themes
Those sweet chocolate bars Canonsburg’s Sarris Candies produces year-round come wrapped in Yinzer themes for Christmas, as Yinzer Bars make a holiday return. A collection of milk chocolate candy bars, Yinzer Bars come from the somewhat twisted minds of the creators of Yinzer Greeting Cards. Pittsburgh comedian Jim Krenn, radio...
Black Friday kicks off scramble in a shorter shopping season
NEW YORK — Black Friday shoppers fought for parking spots and traveled cross-state to their favorite malls, kicking off a shortened shopping season that intensified the mad scramble between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The shopping season is the shortest since 2013 because Thanksgiving fell on the last Thursday in November —...
Facebook, Instagram go down on Thanksgiving morning
Facebook and Instagram went down for several hours Thursday morning. Service to both appeared to have been restored just before noon. As of noon, there was no word on the company’s Twitter feed as to what the issue might have been. According to Down Detector, the social media platforms’ blackout...
Papa John’s founder has 40 pizzas in 30 days, says pizzas are not good
Papa John’s founder John Schnatter, who was ousted as CEO in 2017, said the pizza and company are not the same. In an interview with WDRB-TV in Kentucky, Schnatter said the company he started in 1984 has declined since he was pushed out. “I’ve had over 40 pizzas in the...
Ad business a boon for Amazon but a turn-off for shoppers
NEW YORK — Mike Maddaloni went to Amazon.com knowing exactly what he wanted to buy. But instead of showing him the Synology router he was searching for at the top of his results, Amazon bombarded him with ads for hard drives and routers that he didn’t want. Maddaloni, a web...
McDonald’s agrees to $26M settlement with California workers
LOS ANGELES — McDonald’s has agreed to a $26 million settlement of a long-running class-action lawsuit over wages and work conditions at corporate-run locations in California, the parties said Monday. The agreement, which estimates the settlement covers about 38,000 individuals, requires the approval of a Los Angeles County Superior Court...
EBay selling StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion
EBay is selling StubHub to ticket seller viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash. The transaction is part of a review that eBay undertook earlier this year following pressure from an activist investor. The San Jose, Calif.-based company then said it was also reviewing options for its classified ads business. EBay...
Charles Schwab buys TD Ameritrade in brokerage blockbusterVideo
NEW YORK — Charles Schwab is buying rival TD Ameritrade in a $26 billion stock swap, a blockbuster agreement accelerated by massive disruption in the online brokerage industry. Competitive pressure has already forced brokerages to make it free for customers to trade U.S. stocks online, and Schwab’s buyout combines two...
Uber loses license in London over safety, vows to appealVideo
LONDON — London’s transit authority on Monday refused to renew Uber’s license to operate, putting the ride-hailing company’s future in the British capital in doubt. It’s the latest chapter in Uber’s rocky history with London transport officials, who have been subjecting the San Francisco-based company to ever tighter scrutiny over...
Tesla edges into pickup truck market with electric modelVideo
Tesla is aiming for the heart of the auto industry’s profit machine with its own version of the heavy pickup truck. Rolling onstage before a wall of lasers and flame at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the introduction of Tesla’s sharp-angled, stainless-steel “cybertruck” was not a quiet one. Nor was...
WeWork cuts nearly 20% of workforce in restructuring effort
NEW YORK — WeWork is slashing nearly 20% of its workforce, embarking on a painful restructuring of its money-losing operation that doomed its stock market debut and left the office-sharing company on the brink of bankruptcy. WeWork said it has laid off 2,400 of its approximately 12,500 employees to “create...
