In an echoing studio in Long Beach, California, an ambitious team of designers is trying to reinvent how electric vehicles are made.

Slate Auto has assembled a team of EV engineers from Tesla, Rivian and elsewhere to develop America's least-expensive EV truck. In the warehouse space near construction supply shops and a Western-themed bar, ...Read more

No major U.S. metro is affordable enough for the middle class, but the Twin Cities is one of the most accessible options.

According to a December report from the Brookings Institution, more than 75% of middle-class households in the Twin Cities are able to afford necessities such as housing, food, transportation, child care and health care.

...Read more

The year 2025 was a pathbreaking one for the auto industry.

That was not wholly unexpected following the triumph of now-President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. But the speed and scale of changes were perhaps unlike anything Michigan's signature sector has seen in a generation.

Tariffs meant to onshore production prompted big domestic ...Read more

It was just a couple of years ago that the minimum wage landscape in California reached a major milestone — fast food workers would begin earning $20 an hour, a monumental boost in pay over the state’s then hourly rate of $16. It would set a new bar for service workers up and down the state.

That bar is changing yet again, but this time in ...Read more

New Jersey’s minimum wage will increase on Thursday.

The new rate of $15.92 an hour is a $0.43 increase from the previous standard, which was set in 2025.

“Eight years ago, Governor Murphy pledged a stronger, fairer economy, and we’re delivering on this commitment by raising New Jersey’s minimum wage again,” Robert Asaro-Angelo, ...Read more

Inside a single-story brick building in Sorrento Mesa is a small lab sprinkled with beakers, test tubes and incubators that is worth billions of dollars.

This is where Cidara, a small San Diego pharmaceutical company, created what the scientific community has talked about for decades — a kind of universal flu shot that fights all forms of ...Read more

Mayor Brandon Scott announced Tuesday that the City of Baltimore has filed a lawsuit against digital lender Dave Inc., accusing the company of luring cash-strapped residents into high-cost, short-term loans through misleading marketing and interest charges.

Baltimore is being represented by the Baltimore City Department of Law and Berger ...Read more

BAY LAKE, Florida — A Walt Disney World cast member was injured blocking the massive boulder prop from hitting the audience Tuesday at the Indiana Jones attraction at Hollywood Studios.

Disney confirmed the employee was recovering and the iconic feature of the boulder scene in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular would be changed.

“We�...Read more

If you picture a first-time homebuyer in the Seattle area, you probably wouldn’t think of 24-year-old Edwin Nino Delgado with his hip-hop posters taped to the wall of his $770,000 Lake City triplex.

He’s nowhere near the age of the typical first-time homebuyer, which is now a record high of 40 nationwide, according to the National Realtors ...Read more

Just because you can buy a home, should you?

It seems like a no-brainer when home prices soar year after year. But experts say first-time homebuyers need to consider factors beyond pure capital before jumping into the market.

The median age of a first-time homebuyer has reached a record high of 40 — a time when most people are settled. But ...Read more

Boeing will design and produce 25 new fighter jets for the Israeli Air Force under a new contract with the U.S. Department of Defense, reigniting concern about the aerospace manufacturer’s connection to the ongoing violence in Gaza.

The Pentagon said Monday it had awarded Boeing an $8.6 billion contract to build and deliver 25 new F-15IA ...Read more

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — When the federal government gave hemp-growing the green light in 2018, Josh Bobbert almost literally bet the farm on the crop, figuring the versatile plant was going to be a moneymaker for himself, his wife, and nine children.

Since then, though, devoting a lot of his 61-acre family farm in Lawrence County, ...Read more

Five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, a single industrial block in Vernon is drawing as much electricity as a small town.

Inside a three-story, 242,000-square-foot building known as LAX01, rows of advanced artificial intelligence chips hum across six data buildings, consuming enough electricity to power more than 26,400 homes for a year. ...Read more

Inside Groupon’s 2-year-old headquarters on the 25th floor of the Leo Burnett Building in downtown Chicago, a giant cat in a spaceship with flashing lights greets visitors in an otherwise staid office tower.

Here, the quirky e-commerce startup once dubbed the fastest-growing company ever, amid Super Bowl ads and ubiquitous media coverage, is ...Read more

MIAMI — There was a buzz in the air at a Starbucks near the downtown Miami Brightline station — and it wasn’t only because of the caffeine.

A “Holiday Sip and Shine,” featuring kids’ games, a DJ and drink specials, took over the cafe.

Concessions International, a Black-owned business, operates this Starbucks, and wanted local ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Frank Gillis laid out four sheets of fiberglass inside the Penn College Building Performance Lab in Pittsburgh's Homewood neighborhood.

With a knife, he demonstrated how to cut through the insulation layer, stopping short of the aluminum cover — "like filleting a fish" — and how to fold the sheet into a rectangular duct, ...Read more

The American dream of owning a home has never seemed further out of reach for young people. You can hardly blame Gen Z and younger millennials for adopting an economic nihilism that prioritizes the here and now — whether that’s $400 Lola blankets or risky crypto trading — over stashing money away for a down payment.

But there’s an ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A standoff has developed between U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and the Detroit Three automakers over executives' attendance at a planned hearing next month on vehicle affordability.

The Texas Republican last month invited the heads of Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Chrysler parent company Stellantis NV to testify Jan. 14 in front of...Read more