Wire stories category, Page 108
Bid from New Kensington company awarded to rehabilitate I-70 bridges in West VirginiaVideo
WHEELING, W.Va. — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has awarded a nearly $215 million bid to improve bridges on Interstate 70. News outlets report the selection of the lowest bid for the project was announced Monday in Wheeling. New Kensington-based Swank Construction won the project to rehabilitate or replace more...
U.S. labels China a ‘currency manipulator’ as stocks fall and trade war worsens
WASHINGTON — The U.S.-China trade war took a dangerous turn for the worse Monday as Beijing allowed its currency to weaken and said it was halting new American farm purchases, sending U.S. stocks in a tailspin and heightening risks of a global economic downturn. The Chinese actions were seen as...
Stocks suffer worst rout of year as China escalates trade warVideo
NEW YORK — stocks plunged to their worst loss of the year Monday and investors around the world scrambled to sell on worries about how much President Trump’s worsening trade war will damage the global economy. China let its currency, the yuan, drop to its lowest level against the dollar...
Japan’s NEC shows ‘flying car’ hovering steadily for minute
ABIKO, Japan — Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. on Monday showed a “flying car,” a large drone-like machine with four propellers that hovered steadily for about a minute. The test flight reaching 3 meters (10 feet) high was held in a gigantic cage, as a safety precaution, at an NEC...
Ford shows most powerful street-legal Mustang with 760 hp
DETROIT — The most powerful street-legal Ford Mustang ever built will go on sale this fall. A 5.2-liter supercharged V8 will crank out 760 horsepower in the 2020 Shelby GT500. The new version has a beefed-up suspension and brakes. It also has a seven-speed automatic transmission that Ford promises will...
Blackjewel’s coal assets sold at auction; hearing Monday
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Contura Energy has made a successful bid at an auction for the assets of three Blackjewel LLC coal mines, including two of the top producers in the country. The results are subject to a federal bankruptcy judge’s approval Monday in Charleston. The judge ordered the parties to...
Times Leader newspaper in Pennsylvania sold to Avant
The Times Leader newspaper in Wilkes-Barre has been sold to a North Carolina media company. The newspaper reports that the Times Leader Media Group has been sold to privately held Avant Publications. The purchase price was not disclosed. Avant’s leadership group includes Scott Champion, whose Champion Media owns five dailies...
China threatens retaliation for Trump’s planned tariff hike
BEIJING — China on Friday threatened retaliation if U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned tariff hikes go ahead, while the renewed acrimony between the two biggest global economies sent stock markets tumbling. China’s government accused Trump of violating his June agreement with President Xi Jinping to revive negotiations aimed at ending...
Minivan sales keep falling, but experts say they’ll live on
DETROIT — They were the suburban vehicle of choice in the 1990s and early 2000s, but ever since, minivans appeared to be riding the slow lane to extinction. The soccer moms who once made the boxy people-haulers ubiquitous have shunned them for car-based SUVs with three rows of seats. Many...
Capital One hit with massive data breach affecting more than 100 million customers
SEATTLE — A hacker gained access to personal information from more than 100 million Capitol One credit applications, the bank said Monday as federal authorities arrested a suspect in the case. Paige A. Thompson — who also goes by the handle “erratic” — was charged with a single count of...
FTC fines Facebook $5B, adds oversight for privacy mishaps
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have fined Facebook $5 billion for privacy violations and are instituting new oversight and restrictions on its business. But they are only holding CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally responsible in a limited fashion. The fine is the largest the Federal Trade Commission has levied on a tech...
Employers urged to find new ways to address workers’ mental health
In the middle of a work project at a global corporate consulting firm, Katherine Switz was gripped with a debilitating bout of anxiety. Her body froze, her heart raced, her chest tightened, and her mind went blank, which made it nearly impossible for her to concentrate on a computer screen...
Organic Valley rolls out ultrafiltered milk, betting on low sugar, high protein drink
Organic Valley, seeking to respond to demand for nutrient-dense beverages, Monday unveiled the first organic, ultrafiltered milk available nationwide. Ultrafiltered milk boasts 50% more protein and 50% less sugar than regular milk. As people experiment with plant-based alternatives or are restricting traditional milk and cheese for health or dietary reasons,...
Stocks rise after Coke, Hasbro, others report solid earnings
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks marched broadly higher in afternoon trading Tuesday on Wall Street as several major companies reported solid second quarter earnings. The steady gains built on Monday’s upward momentum and moved stocks closer to record highs reached just over a week ago. Stocks have been volatile in...
Wyoming eyes ongoing cuts amid prolonged energy downturn
CASPER, Wyo. — Wyoming lawmakers continue to look at spending cuts amid a prolonged downturn in revenue from the energy industry. Wyoming’s latest hit comes from the closure of two huge coal mines in the Powder River Basin in early July. State Budget Director Don Richards tells lawmakers if the...
Equifax to pay up to $700M in data breach settlement
WASHINGTON — Equifax will pay up to $700 million to settle with the U.S. and states over a 2017 data breach that exposed Social Security numbers and other private information of nearly 150 million people. The settlement with the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, as...
Delta to stock in-flight medical kits with Narcan
Delta Air Lines plans to stock its on-board emergency medical kits with Narcan, which can reverse the effects of opioid overdose, starting this fall. The Atlanta-based airline made the decision earlier this year, spokesman Michael Thomas said. Narcan is a brand name of the medication naloxone. The Association of Flight...
Passengers on Southwest flight get Nintendo Switch
DALLAS — Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight got more than a small bottle of water when they boarded their plane. They received a Nintendo Switch system and a download code for the digital version of the “Super Mario Maker 2” game to enjoy as Flight 2246 traveled from Dallas...
Netflix subscriber drop hints at streaming-service fatigue
NEW YORK — How much is too much for streaming video? A dramatic slowdown in worldwide growth at Netflix — including the first quarterly drop in its U.S. subscribers since 2011 — is raising questions about just how much people are willing to pay for streaming services. Especially with a...
Impossible Foods wants to make your fish fishless
As impossible as it might sound, vegans might soon have a fish option. The company that brought you the Impossible Whopper and Impossible Supreme pizza is testing the waters for a fishless fish. Impossible Foods has focused much of its work on the biochemistry of fish flavor, the New York...
Pet leasing is real and can catch owners by surprise; New Jersey lawmakers want to ban it
Scott and Patricia Smith were looking for a new furry friend at a Middletown, N.J., pet store when they found Chase, a fluffy white Maltese. It was June 2018, five months after their last dog died, and they quickly fell in love with the pup who curled up in Scott’s...
Plant-based food sales rose 11% in 2018, moved beyond niche status
U.S. sales of plant-based foods grew 11% last year as retailers increasingly put them on shelves next to their animal-based counterpart. The annual numbers show where the plant-based market has matured, such as alternative milks, and where it is just getting started, like plant-based eggs. The sales update, published by...
Credit score up? Build credit smarts, too
Consumers’ grasp of credit is the lowest it’s been in eight years, according to an annual survey by credit scoring company VantageScore and the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit association of consumer groups. For example, 62% of those surveyed this year knew that everyone has more than one credit...
Retail rivals crash Amazon’s Prime Day party
NEW YORK — The gravitational pull of Amazon Prime Day is so strong on shoppers it’s benefiting other retailers as well, according to an early analysis from a key data group. On Monday, the first day of its 48-hour sales event, large retailers, those that generated annual revenue of at...
China’s growth cools further as tariff war pressures mount
BEIJING — China’s economic growth sank to its lowest level in at least 26 years in the quarter ending in June, adding to pressure on Chinese leaders as they fight a tariff war with Washington. The world’s second-largest economy grew 6.2% over a year ago, down from the previous quarter’s...
