WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose to their highest level in two months this week, providing no relief for a slumping housing market. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year rate rose to 5.66% from 5.55% last week. One year ago, the rate stood at 2.87%. The average rate on […]

BOSTON (AP) — There is a silver lining to the drought affecting the northeastern U.S. that has frustrated farmers, dried up rivers and reservoirs, and brought water use restrictions and brush fires to the region. The arid conditions have benefited amusement parks, minor league baseball teams, construction contractors and other businesses that need warm, dry […]

Elon Musk and Twitter lobbed salvos at each other Tuesday in the latest round of legal filings over the billionaire Tesla CEO’s efforts to rescind his offer to buy the social media platform. Musk filed more paperwork to terminate his agreement to buy Twitter, this time based on information in a whistleblower complaint filed by […]

From what you buy online, to how you remember tasks, to when you monitor your doorstep, Amazon is seemingly everywhere. And it appears the company doesn’t want to halt its reach anytime soon. In recent weeks, Amazon has said it will spend billions of dollars in two gigantic acquisitions that, if approved, will broaden its […]

VERMONT (JTA) – A federal judge denied ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s attempt to get its parent company Unilever to stop selling the brand’s ice cream in the West Bank. Andrew L. Carter Jr., a U.S. District judge in Manhattan, said Ben & Jerry’s claim that the sale would harm its brand, which incorporates […]

BOSTON (AP) — An authenticated Apple-1 Computer prototype from the mid-1970s has sold at auction for nearly $700,000. The prototype was used by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1976 to demonstrate the Apple-1 to Paul Terrell, owner of The Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, one of the first personal computer stores in the world, […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Target reported solid sales for the fiscal second quarter but its profit plunged nearly 90% after it was forced to slash prices to clear unwanted inventories of clothing, home goods and electronics. In early June, Target warned that it was canceling orders from suppliers and aggressively cutting prices because of a […]

LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk caused a stir by tweeting that he was buying the English soccer team Manchester United — whose current owners are opposed by many fans — then saying several hours later that it was a joke. It comes as the billionaire Tesla CEO faces a legal battle in the U.S. after […]

SEATTLE (Yaakov M / VINnews) — The Starbucks corporation wants to ban mail-in ballots from its union elections, due to concerns about…wait for it…election fraud. Sound familiar? The woke coffee giant is asking the federal labor board to suspend mail-in ballot union elections nationwide, claiming voter misconduct facilitated by the board as well the Starbucks […]

NEW YORK (VINnews/SandyEller) – Turning the tables on ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, a group of Israeli students accused the company of hypocrisy for its occupation of Vermont land that once belonged to a native American tribe. The New York Post (bit.ly/3paajn6) reported that 1,000 students and academics signed on the Students for Justice […]