Rideshare companies like Lyft and Uber could soon be forced to pay Chicago drivers more if an ordinance up for debate Thursday moves ahead, a change the companies say would cause the cost of rides to skyrocket for passengers.

Ald. Michael Rodriguez, 22nd, said his measure would make sure rideshare drivers make more than minimum wage and get ...Read more

CHICAGO — Illinois lawmakers ended their spring legislative session without finding a way to plug the gaping $771 million budget gap facing the Chicago region’s mass transit systems next year.

Thousands of jobs hang in the balance.

The Regional Transportation Authority has estimated that nearly 3,000 workers could lose their jobs if ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Michigan's U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin stood out last month as the only Senate Democrat to join Republicans in voting to kill California’s influential, nation-leading electric vehicle sales rules.

Her break from other Democrats shocked industry groups — even oil and gas lobbyists — that expected a party-line result on the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As the immigration sweeps in Southern California intensify, some patterns appear to be emerging about federal targets.

While some sweeps appear to be centered at certain workplaces, others seem to be chosen at random.

Agents were spotted Monday at a courthouse and library in Whittier, Home Depots in Huntington Park and Santa ...Read more

President Trump promised a new “golden age” for America, but it’s been anything but that for Los Angeles, with its dependence on trade and immigrant labor — two backbones of the region’s economy.

First, the president’s tariffs cut deeply into traffic at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and now his push to arrest undocumented...Read more

Walt Disney Co. has agreed to pay Comcast Corp. an additional $438.7 million to finalize the Mouse House purchase of streaming service Hulu.

Disney in December 2023 initially paid Comcast $8.6 billion for NBCUniversal's one-third stake in the streaming service.

The final payment, announced Monday, brings the total amount the Burbank ...Read more

Linda Peterson spent years working in salons where she didn’t feel valued.

So when she set out to open her own salon, she knew it had to be different, starting with a big break room where employees could gather to decompress and talk openly.

“I know I don’t make money in my break room, but what it did is it created a culture in which ...Read more

After financing more than 1,000 loans to some of the Philadelphia area’s smallest businesses, Lynne Cutler is leaving the top job at the Women’s Opportunities Resource Center. She founded WORC 32 years ago and now passes the torch to new executive director Iola Harper.

Amid the transition, future federal funding for its microloans and other...Read more

DETROIT — When Michelle Alston’s son asked if four of his Job Corps classmates could stay with them because they had nowhere else to go, she didn’t hesitate. She learned that students had been sleeping in two cars parked outside of her Detroit home.

"Just come in," she recalled telling them. "Just come in."

Alston recalled the panic she ...Read more

First Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and David Sacks upended America’s financial-services industry with an innovative Silicon Valley startup called PayPal that rocketed to dominance as the internet took hold.

Now the conservative billionaires have leveraged the power, wealth and connections that grew out of their membership in the “PayPal Mafia” ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — A tourist from Hawaii is suing an off-Strip casino-hotel for negligence after he says he was trapped in an elevator.

Wilson Camagan is suing The Orleans Hotel and Casino, as well as elevator company TK Elevator Corporation, after claiming he became trapped in an elevator on the way back to his room.

Camagan, who filed the lawsuit...Read more

The wildlife you see on your next hiking trip? The rustle in your backyard at night? It might not be a raccoon or a deer.

A steady increase in the population of wild pigs — a marauding, non-native animal that can grow sharp tusks and weigh 250 pounds or more — is causing growing problems for parks, water districts and homeowners across the ...Read more

Apple Inc. unveiled a new operating system interface called Liquid Glass at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, an event that focused heavily on aesthetics and design elements rather than software breakthroughs.

For the first time, the same interface will work across the company’s products, executive Alan Dye said Monday during a ...Read more

If you’ve been watching mortgage rates hover near 7% this year, you’re probably feeling frustrated.

The dream of homeownership feels more expensive than ever. And for many prospective buyers, purchasing when rates are high means stretching their budget, settling for less house than they want or risking financial strain.

But here’s what ...Read more

President Donald Trump said his tariff policy is expected to drive more business to U.S. manufacturing plants.

But many Minnesota factory heads have yet to see it, and instead are juggling budgets as orders dry up while their own costs continue to rise.

“The tariffs have just caused us havoc. Complete and utter havoc,” said Dave Wedge, who...Read more

As the Trump administration pursued a massive downsizing this year, the Bay Area lost more federal jobs than any other part of California, according to seasonally adjusted numbers compiled by Beacon Economics and the state Employment Development Department.

Over the first four months of the year, California lost 1,200 federal jobs, data shows. ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — Beyond immediate needs tied to shelter and safety, preservation experts and local officials say they’ve heard a common refrain in the aftermath of last month’s deadly tornado that ravaged parts of St. Louis, bringing down multiple brick structures:

What’s going to become of all that brick from damaged buildings — and how ...Read more

“Focus on facts, not emotions.”

I wrote that once, but I’ve come to realize that sometimes saving money is as much about contending with your emotions as it is about budgeting. Here’s what I mean.

I usually have this gnawing guilt anytime I spend a few hours at home doing “nothing.” To be clear, I don’t mean staring at the wall...Read more

Tesla Inc. received a pair of downgrades on Monday, with analysts warning that Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle company is facing a highly uncertain outlook, especially on the political front.

The stock fell 1.1% in premarket trading, suggesting it will extend its pronounced year-to-date decline. Shares are down about 27% in 2025, making it the ...Read more