Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern confirmed last week that they are in merger talks that would create a single railroad company with service stretching from the East to the West Coast. The potential merger would combine the largest and smallest of the country’s six major freight railroad operators. There’s widespread debate over whether such a [...]
Hershey and other chocolate makers are continuing to hike prices, saying a volatile cocoa market gives them no choice. Hershey, the maker of Reese’s, Whoppers, barkThins and other chocolate candies, said last week it will be raising retail prices later this fall. In some cases, pack sizes will get smaller; in others, list prices will [...]
Instagram parent company Meta has introduced new safety features aimed at protecting teens who use its platforms, including information about accounts that message them and an option to block and report accounts with one tap. The company also announced that it has removed thousands of accounts that were leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images [...]
More than 50 years after the Safe Drinking Water Act was passed to ensure that Americans’ water is free from harmful bacteria, lead and other dangerous substances, millions of people living in mobile home parks can’t always count on those protections. A review by The Associated Press found that nearly 70 percent of mobile home [...]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google’s shift into artificial intelligence helped propel its corporate parent to another quarter of solid growth while a crackdown on its internet empire looms in the background. Google parent Alphabet Inc. earned $28.2 billion, or $2.31 per share, during the second quarter, a 19 percent increase from the same time last [...]
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Trump administration last week canceled a $4.9 billion federal loan guarantee for a new high-voltage transmission line for delivering solar and wind-generated electricity from the Midwest to the eastern part of the country, but the company indicated that project would go forward anyway. The U.S. Department of Energy declared that [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — American automakers are concerned about President Donald Trump’s agreement to tariff Japanese vehicles at 15 percent, saying they will face steeper import taxes on steel, aluminum and parts than their competitors. “We need to review all the details of the agreement, but this is a deal that will charge lower tariffs on [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — The country’s fertility rate dropped to an all-time low in 2024 with less than 1.6 kids per woman, new federal data shows. The United States was once among only a few developed countries with a rate that ensured each generation had enough children to replace itself — about 2.1 kids per [...]
 NEW YORK (AP) — The fallout from Elon Musk’s plunge into politics a year ago is still impacting his Tesla business as both sales and profits dropped again in the latest quarter. The car company that has faced boycotts for months last week said revenue dropped 12 percent and profits declined 16 percent in [...]