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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A company that made and operated casino-style games used for illegal gambling will pay $3.5 million and permanently stop its California operations under a court settlement announced Thursday. Pong Game Studios Corp. agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleged it provided software to gambling dens that offered slot- and poker-style computer

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon isn’t just grappling with the easing of pandemic-induced splurges. The online retail behemoth is also contending with surging costs as it navigates a snarled supply chain and labor shortages. Those challenges resulted in Amazon reporting Thursday a shortfall in third-quarter profits and sales. It

By ZEKE MILLER and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden set out to be a president who under-promised and over-delivered. That worked, until it didn’t. The White House is trying to nail down a nearly $3 trillion domestic package that Biden frames as a historic investment in infrastructure and social spending. But

By DAVID PITT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Legislature has passed a bill that requires businesses to allow employees to seek medical and religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates. It also guarantees that employees who are denied exemptions and are fired due to their decision not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, an 18-year-old Illinois man accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Prosecutors say Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, fatally shot Joseph

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer Workers at three Starbucks stores in Buffalo, New York, will hold union elections next month after winning a case before the National Labor Relations Board. If the effort is successful, the stores would be the first of Starbucks’ 8,000 company-owned U.S. stores to unionize. The Seattle coffee giant opposes

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press South Dakota’s labor secretary says officials had decided to give Gov. Kristi Noem’s daughter another chance to win her state real estate appraiser license even before a meeting in the governor’s mansion that has spurred conflict of interest questions. Secretary of Labor and Regulation Marcia Hultman testified Thursday before a

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A. Linwood Holton Jr., Virginia’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction and a crusader against racial discrimination, has died. He was 98. His family says he died peacefully Thursday at his Kilmarnock, Virginia, home. Holton was Virginia’s governor from 1970 to 1974. A moderate, he declared an

By TOM KRISHER and HOPE YEN Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — The government has reported that the number of U.S. traffic deaths in the first half of 2021 hit 20,160, the highest first-half total since 2006. The estimated number was 18.4% higher than the first half of last year. That percentage increase was the biggest