AP National Business

By LYNN ELBER AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan and fearsome Hurricane Ida drew viewers to cable channels that focused on the unfolding events. Fox News Channel had the lion’s share of the most-watched shows last week on cable, 19 of the top 20, Nielsen said Tuesday. MSNBC got

DALLAS (AP) — The pilots’ union is suing Southwest Airlines, saying that rules the airline put into place before and during the pandemic have changed pay rates and working conditions its members. The union says that violates federal law because any changes in working conditions should be negotiated between Southwest and the union. The Southwest

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer Jury selection in the fraud trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes began Tuesday, casting a spotlight on the fallen Silicon Valley star now facing felony charges alleging she duped elite financial backers, customers and patients into believing that her startup was about to revolutionize medicine. But the Theranos technology,

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A business executive charged in the aftermath of a failed multibillion-dollar project to build two nuclear reactors in South Carolina has pleaded not guilty. Jeffrey A. Benjamin entered the plea in federal court Tuesday. Benjamin is a former executive at Westinghouse Electric Co., the lead contractor to build two new reactors

The Associated Press Closing prices for crude oil, gold and other commodities, and foreign exchange levels.

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and MARTIN CRUTSINGER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The sharp shock of the coronavirus recession pushed Social Security a year closer to insolvency but left Medicare’s exhaustion date unchanged, the government reported Tuesday. It’s a counterintuitive assessment that deepens the uncertainty around the nation’s bedrock retirement programs. Social Security’s massive trust fund

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Canadian National’s $33.6 billion deal to acquire Kansas City Southern railroad is in jeopardy. Federal regulators on Tuesday rejected a key part of the plan and opened the door for a competing $31 billion offer from Canadian Pacific Railway. The Surface Transportation Board says Canadian

MOUNTAIN VIEW Google is once again postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-January. The internet search giant is also to requiring all employees to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened. The highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is driving a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

By TOM VERDIN Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Caldor Fire near Lake Tahoe can be measured in more than acres burned. While it has claimed homes, it’s also churning through or threatening places that have been cherished getaways for generations of Californians and others. An entire town, South Lake Tahoe, lies in its

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — America’s lobster fishing industry will face a host of new harvesting restrictions amid a new push from the federal government to try to save a vanishing species of whale. The prospect of new rules has loomed over the profitable lobster industry for years and were announced

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer Walgreens will hike starting pay to $15 an hour beginning in October, as employers across the United States continue boosting wages to attract workers. The drugstore chain says the wage hike will take effect in phases and be completed by November 2022. It will affect workers in the U.S.,

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — A large U.S. survey of new-vehicle owners found that automobile quality rose last year, but glitches in pairing smartphones with infotainment systems frustrated owners more than anything. The annual survey by J.D. Power found that the Ram truck brand had the fewest problems per 100 vehicles.

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated press MILAN (AP) — The heir of a late duke who sold Sting his Tuscan winery 25 years ago says the singer has hit a flat note with a lame apology for comments the family deems slanderous. The dispute has spilled into the pages of Italian papers. It arose from an

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is taking an initial step to assess how climate change could harm financial markets. It’s planning to launch on Tuesday a 75-day comment period on how the impacts could reshape the insurance sector. Insurers face payouts from wildfires and flooding risks that could

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence fell in August to the lowest level since February amid rising concerns about the rapidly spreading delta variant of the coronavirus and worries about higher inflation. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index dropped to a reading of 113.8 in

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer DALLAS (AP) — Ask anyone old enough to remember travel before Sept. 11, 2001, and you’re likely to get a gauzy recollection of what flying was like. There was security screening, but it wasn’t intrusive. There were no long checkpoint lines. Passengers and their families could walk right to

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s economy grew by 20.1% in the April-June quarter from the same period a year earlier, when it suffered a record contraction, raising hopes of an economic recovery. It was India’s fastest pace of growth since it began publishing quarterly gross domestic product figures in 1996. It was also far higher