OMAHA, Neb. — Freight railroads and their unions are facing increasing pressure from business groups and the White House to settle their contract dispute before Friday’s looming strike deadline. The pressure stems from concerns that halting railroad deliveries of raw materials and finished products that so many companies rely on would be, in the words…
Gun-rights backers call credit-card plan a step toward national registry
Second Amendment advocacy organizations are blasting the major credit-card companies over their plan to distinguish gun purchases in their payment processors, panning the idea as a step toward a database of U.S. gun owners. Visa Inc. announced over the weekend that it will begin to categorize separately sales at gun shops, which gun-control advocates say…
Ukraine’s nuclear power plant shutdown cuts risks
KYIV, Ukraine — The forced shutdown of Ukraine’s endangered and crippled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – significantly reduces the risk of a radiation disaster that has haunted the world for weeks. The last of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant’s six nuclear reactors was shut down Sunday because Russia’s military actions in Ukraine had…
New research facility shows how to live with rising tides
NORFOLK, Va. — The Elizabeth River Project’s latest work doesn’t fight the rising tide. It will roll with it. The environmental group is constructing a 6,500-foot resilience lab along Colley Avenue and Knitting Mill Creek. The building has an intentional life span of about 30 to 50 years; when sea levels reach a certain height,…
As small businesses raise prices, some customers push back
NEW YORK — Inflation isn’t only costing small businesses money. It’s costing them customers as well. At the Bushwick Grind Cafe in Brooklyn, New York, Kymme Williams-Davis has raised prices and switched to different types of goods to keep up with the rising costs of milk, coffee, paper goods and plastic, as well as shortages…
Tech company’s outage leaves fans unable to download tickets
A technology company that handles ticketing for many of the biggest college football programs encountered a problem Saturday that left fans across the country unable to download digital tickets onto their smartphones for several hours. The outage also led StubHub, one of the biggest secondary ticket marketplaces, to suspend sales until the issue was resolved….
Visa, Mastercard, AmEx to start categorizing gun shop sales
NEW YORK (AP) — Payment processor Visa Inc. said Saturday that it plans to start separately categorizing sales at gun shops, a major win for gun control advocates who say it will help better track suspicious surges of gun sales that could be a prelude to a mass shooting. But the decision by Visa, the…
Maine officials blast California group for designating lobster as whale-killing seafood
Maine officials are ripping the recommendation of California-based nonprofit Seafood Watch to try to save whales by stopping fishing for lobster. The group argues that lobster fisheries in American and Canadian waters use vertical lines that can entangle the endangered North Atlantic right whales. “Seafood Watch determined that current Canadian and U.S. management measures do…
Gustavo Arnal, Bed Bath & Beyond CFO, was named in fraud lawsuit before falling to his death
Bed Bath & Beyond’s chief financial officer who fell to his death Friday in New York City had been accused of orchestrating a “pump and dump” scheme to inflate his company’s stock price, according to a lawsuit. Gustavo Arnal, 52, as well as billionaire investor Ryan Cohen, are listed as defendants in the lawsuit that…
Jackson water pressure better, work continues on treatment
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A treatment plant at the center of water woes in Mississippi’s capital city made “significant” gains overnight and into Saturday, Jackson officials said. According to a news release, the O.B. Curtis Water Plant’s total plant output increased to 86 pounds per square inch, approaching the city’s goal of 87 PSI or…