Best Buy Co. on Tuesday reported a loss for its fiscal first quarter as it sold its stake in Best Buy Europe and works on a turnaround plan that includes cutting costs and closing some stores.
Jamie Dimon, the CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, easily survived a vote Tuesday that would have called on him to give up his role as chairman of the nation’s largest bank. But shareholders sent a message that the bank needs better oversight by giving only narrow approval to three of the bank’s board members.
Pierce County unemployment fell sharply in April, dropping to 8.1 percent last month from 8.9 percent in March, the state Employment Security Department announced Tuesday.
The stock market at record highs apparently has some people convinced that investing is child’s play.
Special K first hit shelves in 1955 as a no-frills breakfast alternative but now caters to dieters who see its airy chips and pastries as a way to beat cravings and lose weight. And this summer, Kellogg Co. is building on its biggest moneymaker with a “hot cereal” called Special K Nourish that’s made with quinoa and other grains.
Chicago-based food ordering startup GrubHub is merging with New York-based rival Seamless, creating a company with more than $100 million in revenue and a combined network of more than 20,000 local takeout restaurants across the U.S.
Consumer spending is likely to pick up this year, while government spending declines at a faster rate, according to a survey of business economists.
Federal health regulators say an experimental insomnia drug from Merck can help patients fall asleep, but it also carries worrisome side effects, including daytime drowsiness and suicidal thinking.
Americans got better about paying their credit card debt on time in the first three months of the year, a period when many borrowers use income tax returns to tackle their holiday season debt.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Do your kids love chocolate milk? It might have more calories on average than you thought.
CHICAGO — Signaling confidence to the public that Boeing 787s are safe to fly, the CEOs of The Boeing Co. and United Continental Holdings Inc. traveled Monday from Houston to Chicago aboard a Dreamliner.
Tacoma-born and Tacoma-based Richlite Co. celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. You might have never heard of Richlite. You're not alone. "We're one of the best-kept secrets in Tacoma, " said marketing director Don Atkinson.
United Airlines put its 787 back in the air on Monday, with both the airline and Boeing hoping to put the plane's four-month grounding behind them.
Some Ruston building owners say they've seen signs that the darkest days of The Great Recession might be ending. And yet, the town's council took what some merchants say was an inexplicable action, voting to freeze all development and building permits in the commercial zones for six months.
The jobs of the nation’s citizen-soldiers are supposed to be safe while they are serving their country: Federal law does not allow employers to penalize service members because of their military duties. Yet every year, thousands of National Guard and Reserve troops coming home from Afghanistan and elsewhere find they have been replaced, demoted, or denied benefits or seniority.
Last year, Mitchell Erickson earned what he believed would be his ticket to a lucrative new career: a bachelor’s degree in computer science and software engineering from the University of Washington Bothell.
Where others have failed in University Place, Applebee’s will build. The national restaurant chain has sealed a transaction to lease space on the site of a former Chinese buffet – and an erstwhile Blockbuster video store – at the University Village shopping center.
Frank Jacobs is not a household name in Tacoma, but according to a generation of city leaders, the strength of his convictions went a long way toward shaping the redevelopment of Tacoma’s waterfront.
Transocean Ltd. shareholders have voted out the oil drilling company’s chairman and backed one of Carl Icahn’s director nominees.
The former CEO of Tuesday Morning has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the discount retailer, saying she was fired just months after revealing she had breast cancer.
The Washington Beer & Wine Distributors Association is asking the city of Olympia to hold off on pursuing a mandatory ban on certain single-serve alcohol drinks and allow local distributors to voluntarily stop distributing the adult beverages.
The Energy Department on Friday conditionally approved a Texas company’s proposal to export liquefied natural gas, only the second such project allowed to move forward amid a production boom that has led to a glut of domestic natural gas.
Engineering a financial bailout for Cyprus in March was such a chaotic process that top European officials say it is time to rethink how the region manages its crisis.
Shares of General Motors reached an important milestone Friday, closing above their initial public offering price of $33 for the first time in more than two years.
In workplaces across the nation, Americans are inviting their colleagues to chip in $2 for a Powerball ticket and a shared daydream.
Fiat, the century-old Italian automaker, appears poised to move its headquarters to the U.S. after its planned merger with Chrysler Group.
SAN FRANCISCO — Google says it still is figuring out the best ways to use Glass, but the company announced Thursday that Facebook, Twitter and several other media firms have built their own applications for the futuristic-looking wearable computer.
RICHMOND, Va. — Facebook’s “Like” feature is vital to 500 million people who share ideas on the social network and must have free-speech protection under the Constitution, a lawyer for the company told a federal appeals court.
FORT WORTH, Texas — If you’re traveling light, you can board earlier on American Airlines.
WASHINGTON – Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose this week but stayed near their historic lows.
U.S. builders broke ground on fewer homes in April, one month after topping the 1 million mark for the first time since 2008. But most of the decline was in apartment construction, which tends to vary sharply from month to month.
E. Robert Kinney, a former chief executive of General Mills who was instrumental in popularizing fish sticks, has died. He was 96.
Dell’s earnings plunged 79 percent in the latest quarter.
J.C. Penney Co.’s net loss in the first quarter widened as the department-store chain works to rebound from Ron Johnson’s failed makeover.
Luxury retailer Nordstrom says its first-quarter net income fell 3 percent, hurt by weak demand for spring merchandise and softer performance in the Northeast and Midwest.
Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose this week but stayed near their historic lows. Cheaper mortgages have helped the economy by spurring more home-buying and refinancing.
Nordstrom Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter net income fell 3 percent, hurt by weak demand for spring merchandise and softer performance in the Northeast and Midwest.
The legacy of J.C. Penney's former CEO is being felt at the department-store chain.
The Washington state economy continues to show improvement after the unemployment rate fell to a nearly five-year low of 7 percent in April from 7.3 percent in March, according to the state Employment Security Department.
Tacoma Makes, run by a local pair of arts advocates, plans a second deck of Tacoma playing cards to be released this fall.
Many part-timers are facing a double whammy from President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
U.S. manufacturers cut back on production in April, as auto companies cranked out fewer cars, factories made fewer consumer goods and most other industries reduced output. The weakness suggests economic growth may be slowing.
Deere & Co. said on Wednesday that bad weather and weak economies will hinder sales growth this year for lawnmowers and construction equipment.
Cisco says its net income rose 14 percent in the latest quarter, and says it is seeing “some good signs” in the U.S. and other markets.
Sharp drops in fuel and food costs reduced a measure of U.S. wholesale prices in April by the most in three years. Outside those volatile categories, inflation stayed tame.
Macy’s Inc. reported a 20 percent increase in first-quarter profit even though cool temperatures and economic worries dampened some of its shoppers’ spending on spring clothes.
The city of Sumner and its residents share a desire to revitalize the city’s downtown core. For some, that means restoring a vacant city asset, the Red Apple Market building. For others, it’s working to sell and redevelop the property from the ground up.
Thousands of Defense Department employees in Pierce and Thurston counties are still facing the likelihood of unpaid time off this summer, but not as much as the Pentagon initially proposed.
When the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 15,000, it had me dreaming of bigger things. Specifically: Dow 116,200.
The U.S. hedge fund manager renowned for shaking up Yahoo Inc. has set his sights on Sony Corp., proposing that the Japanese electronics giant spin off up to 20 percent of its movie, TV and music division and use the money to strengthen its ailing device manufacturing unit. Sony rejected the plan, but analysts latched onto the idea as a way for Sony to unlock hidden value.
Research In Motion unveiled a lower-cost BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets on Tuesday, stepping up its efforts to regain market share lost to Apple’s iPhone and Android devices powered by Google’s software.
The country’s four biggest cellphone companies are set to launch their first joint advertising campaign against texting while driving, uniting behind AT&T’s “It Can Wait” slogan to blanket TV and radio this summer.
Google Inc. must respect requests to remove autocomplete entries from its search bar in Germany if they are defamatory, a German court ruled Tuesday.
A planned Windows 8 update to address complaints and confusion with Microsoft’s new operating system will be made available for free this year, the company said Tuesday.
PORTLAND – An ethanol plant on the Columbia River that was built with the help of $36 million in Oregon state loans and tax credits is now being used to store and ship crude oil from North Dakota.
NEW YORK — Almost five years after Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. filed for bankruptcy and set off the global financial crisis, managers of the bank’s estate are demanding millions of dollars from retirement homes, colleges and hospitals.
NEW YORK — U.S. airlines collected more than $6 billion in baggage and reservation change fees from passengers last year — the highest amount since the fees became common five years ago.
4-month delay Boeing restarted deliveries of 787s on Tuesday after a four-month halt while it dealt with the smoldering batteries that had kept the planes grounded.
A sign prominently posted on Canyon Road East, near the entrance to FPS-Encon Precast’s expanded Frederickson plant, explains in short measure why dignitaries are gathering at the plant Wednesday to celebrate. “Now hiring,” the sign declares
The city of Sumner and its residents share a desire to revitalize the city’s downtown core. For some, that means restoring a vacant city asset, the Red Apple Market building. For others, it’s working to sell and redevelop the property from the ground up.
The Boeing Co. took another step Monday in what is becoming an incremental withdrawal from the Puget Sound area, telling its informational technology workers that it plans to cut 1,500 Puget Sound area jobs over the next three years and set up IT centers in St. Louis and Charleston, S.C.
You probably didn’t find a Mother’s Day card thanking your mom for helping you figure out how to handle your money.
The trophy high-rises on Madison, Park and Fifth avenues in Manhattan have long commanded the top prices in the country for commercial real estate, with yearly leases approaching $150 a square foot. So it is quite a Gotham-size comedown that businesses are now paying rents four times that in low, bland buildings across the Hudson River in New Jersey.
Dell board members say they need more details from investor Carl Icahn if he wants them to seriously consider his latest challenge to Michael Dell’s $24.4 billion plan to take the computer maker private.
U.S. businesses left their stockpiles unchanged in March for a second straight month while their sales fell sharply.
The Supreme Court said Monday that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto Co.’s patents on soybean seeds by growing the beans without buying new seeds. The justices unanimously rejected the farmer’s argument that cheap soybeans he bought from a grain elevator are not covered by the Monsanto patents, even though most of them also were genetically modified to resist the company’s Roundup herbicide.
Cloud storage for three of Google’s more popular services — Gmail, Google Drive and Google+ — are being combined to give users more control over how they want to use the storage space.
Lower-priced gas allowed Americans to step up their spending at retailers in April, from cars and clothes to electronics and appliances. The rebound from a weak March suggests consumers remain resilient in the face of higher taxes and could continue to drive economic growth this spring.
The Boeing Co. today took another step in what is becoming an incremental withdrawal from the Puget Sound area telling its informational technology workers that its plans to cut 1,500 Puget Sound area IT jobs over the next three years and set up informational technology centers in St. Louis and Charleston, S.C.
For those looking for signs that the economic recovery we’ve been promised for five years might finally be taking hold, and that the Tacoma renaissance we’ve been promised for even longer might be back on track, last week’s entries on The News Tribune’s Biz Buzz blog made for uplifting reading.
Remember the Disney character Tinker Bell, the fairy that fluttered about Peter Pan? Now, imagine a place filled with fairies and fairy-themed products, demanded by customers and shipped throughout the country and the world.
Even if you’re not looking for work, keeping your online persona clean will serve you well when a recruiter, business contact or even your current employer looks you up.
Hundred-pound sacks of wheat stacked taller than a man once filled warehouses that ran for a mile between the rails of the Northern Pacific and the ships moored along City Waterway.
The Federal Aviation Administration will keep open for now the 149 control towers at small airports that were slated to close as the result of governmentwide automatic spending cuts imposed by Congress, the Transportation Department said Friday.
Base commissaries are facing turbulent times as staff vacancies swell under a federal hiring freeze, employee furloughs remain a worry, and the Defense Commissary Agency digests budget guidance for fiscal 2015 that will force new efficiencies on stores and, possibly, deeper cuts to store operations.
NEW YORK — The sophistication of a global network of thieves who drained cash machines around the globe of an astonishing $45 million in mere hours sent ripples through the security world, not merely for the size of the operation and ease with which it was carried out, but also for the threat that more such thefts may be in store.
A new report shows 200 people who dined at one of Las Vegas’ most popular restaurants about a block off the Strip have reported food poisoning symptoms, making it the largest outbreak southern Nevada health officials have seen in at least a decade.
Whole Foods Market Inc. said that labels on a chicken salad and those on a vegan version were reversed at some of its cold food bars in the Northeast.
The dollar continued to soar above 100 yen Friday, driven by aggressive credit-easing aimed at reviving Japan’s sluggish economy and improved U.S. economic figures.
One of the biggest critics of Michael Dell’s plan to take the company he founded private has launched a fresh challenge to that $24.4 billion bid and says the PC maker needs new leadership.
The government has sold another piece of its stake in General Motors Co.
WASHINGTON — Don’t let the soaring stock market and applause from politicians over a slight dip in the unemployment rate fool you. A deeper dive into government data underscores just how bleak the picture still is in today’s labor market.
A private developer and Tacoma’s public housing authority are in the early stages of plans to revitalize two 100-year-old buildings and bring more apartments to the Hilltop neighborhood.
Microsoft named Amy Hood, an executive at the company, as its chief financial officer, the first woman to hold the top finance job at Microsoft.
When agricultural inspectors first discovered a dime-sized mollusk on a vacant industrial site at the Port of Tacoma eight years ago, they sounded a loud alarm.
McDonald’s is cutting the Angus burger from its menu.
Fannie Mae said something Thursday that would have been unthinkable a few years ago: It earned a record $58.7 billion profit in the January-March quarter.
The Foss Waterway Seaport will open Saturday after being closed for renovations for 18 months.
The actual cost of hospital care became a lot clearer for consumers Wednesday when the Obama administration released the average prices charged by more than 3,000 U.S. hospitals for the 100 most common medical procedures.
WASHINGTON — Seventy-two airport towers and other air traffic control facilities that were slated to close at night because of budget cuts will get to stay open, the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday.
Reports of the PC’s demise at the hands of Windows 8 are greatly exaggerated, according to Tami Reller, Microsoft’s Windows marketing chief.
NEW YORK — Just two months after recovering the last of its losses from the financial crisis, the Dow Jones industrial average punched through another milestone Tuesday, closing above 15,000 for the first time.
Credit card companies are once again offering free money — or it sure looks free when you see a huge 0 percent plastered on the envelope.
CHICAGO — United Airlines expects to start flying its Boeing 787s again on May 20.
Three individuals and two corporations were honored Tuesday at the annual Tacoma Goodwill “Ready to Work” breakfast.
After a nearly month-long decline, South Sound gasoline prices are climbing upward again this week.
General Motors Co. confirms that it’s building a new Cadillac factory in China.
Microsoft has extended a guarantee that provides Yahoo with financial protection as part of the two companies’ Internet search partnership.
Mondelez reported a first-quarter profit on Tuesday that met Wall Street expectations, as the maker of Oreo cookies raised prices and sold more of its snacks in emerging markets.
Americans cut back on using their credit cards in March, suggesting many were reluctant to take on high-interest debt to make purchases.
Disney topped analyst expectations as revenue gains at its parks and movie studio led to a 32 percent increase in net income during the January-March quarter.
PLANO, Texas — J.C. Penney Co. says that its first-quarter revenue will likely fall 16 percent and is pointing fingers at prior leadership for part of that shortfall.
Three individuals and two corporations were slated for salutes this morning at the annual Tacoma Goodwill “Ready to Work” breakfast.
Tacoma has plenty of open water where seaplanes can land, but it has long lacked a suitable place where those planes can tie up and receive and discharge passengers.
In an investment world where image is everything, what’s in a name matters, but what is in a fund is a lot more important.
MILWAUKEE — U.S. cranberry farmers who spent millions of dollars to replant and expand bogs face a financial crisis after a huge harvest in Canada flooded the market and sent prices plummeting.
The Pierce County housing market enjoyed another good month, with both sales and prices rising again and extending a streak that started last October, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service data released Monday.
A person familiar with the matter says YouTube is set to announce a series of channels that will require payment within a few weeks.
BMC Software Inc. agreed Monday to sell itself to a group of investors led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital for about $6.9 billion, completing a campaign by an activist hedge fund to push the company into a deal.
U.S. health regulators are warning doctors and women of child-bearing age that half a dozen medications used to treat migraine headaches can decrease children’s intelligence if taken while their mothers are pregnant.
Pfizer Inc. said Monday that it will begin selling its popular erectile dysfunction pill, Viagra, directly to patients on its website.
The European Commission issued a preliminary antitrust finding on Monday against Google’s mobile communications unit, Motorola Mobility, for seeking and enforcing an injunction against Apple in Germany over patents essential to smartphones and tablets.
Loren Cohen displayed all the pride and eagerness of a new parent last week as he conducted a pre-opening tour of the Copperline Apartments, the first major structure in what someday may be a billion-dollar mixed-use waterfront development near Tacoma’s Point Defiance.
What we know: Starting this summer, State Farm will hire hundreds of people to open offices in downtown Tacoma, filling a long-empty signature building and bringing hope to surrounding businesses.
A local law firm has accused one of the region’s largest health care providers and a California collections agency of conspiring to defraud Pierce County accident victims by using liens to increase money recouped for providing medical treatment.
Barring the occurrence of mass hypnosis and conversion of David Stern, the NBA owners and the Sacramento ownership group planning to buy the Kings, Seattle-area sports fans will not be watching men’s professional basketball beginning this autumn. Or, more than likely, next autumn. And perhaps not for many autumns after that.
Tech review NEW YORK — I’ve seen Android phones get better and more powerful over the years, as Google and phone manufacturers pack devices with more and more features. There comes a time, though, when less is more. I’m afraid we’ve reached that time.
Not long ago, cheap smartphones were, to put it not so mildly, junk. For less than $100, you pretty much got what you paid for: a low-resolution screen, a crummy camera and poky performance. No more.
A surprisingly positive jobs report Friday showed that employers added 165,000 positions in April and the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.5 percent, sparking a day of milestones on Wall Street as investors looked past doubts about robust hiring in the months ahead.
Over the next few months, the Walt’s Auto Care Centers brand, operating 19 stores in Western Washington and Idaho, will be retired in favor of a new owner, Meineke Car Care Center, which operates some 960 franchised stores, in all of the 50 states and from the Caribbean to Canada to China and beyond.
What payday loans are for payday lenders, Deposit Advance Products are for banks.
Dana Pittman, president of Sustainable Floors — doing business as Sustainable Interiors in Fife — has been named as the Washington U.S. Small Business Administration Minority Small Business Champion of the Year.
The Boeing board has given the green light to offer airlines the proposed new 777X widebody jet, which means key decisions on where to build its wings and assemble it could be just months away.
Taco Bell says its new value menu may go national in coming months.
Kellogg has a plan to get adults to eat more cereal: Pile on the nutrients.
Kraft Foods is reviving old brands like Kool-Aid and betting on big new innovations as it begins finding its way as a smaller, independent company.
New cars were key for General Motors’ in the first quarter. New trucks will be the key to the rest of this year.
Fewer people are losing their jobs. Employers are struggling to squeeze more work from their staffs. The U.S. is producing so much oil that imports are plunging, narrowing the trade deficit.
WASHINGTON — It’s a chemical that’s been in U.S. households for more than 40 years, from the body wash in your bathroom shower to the knives on your kitchen counter to the bedding in your baby’s bassinet.
The new Tacoma store for Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics plans to open next week, store representatives told me today.
NEW YORK — A year ago, Facebook was just testing the waters of mobile advertising, causing plenty of headaches for investors ahead of its massive initial public offering.
Nissan is cutting prices on seven of its 18 models in the U.S., hoping its cars and trucks will show up in more Internet searches by shoppers.
Payments processor MasterCard Inc. said that its profit and revenue rose in the first quarter as card users spent more. Profit beat the forecasts of Wall Street analysts, though revenue missed slightly and the company’s stock fell in midday trading.
Visa Inc. said Wednesday that its net income slipped nearly 2 percent in the first three months of this year from the year before, when the company benefited from an adjustment to its income tax provision.
Private-sector job growth slowed more than expected last month, with employers adding just 119,000 net new workers in a harbinger of a stalling labor market, payroll processing firm ADP said Wednesday.
Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable company and the owner of NBC Universal, said first-quarter profit rose 17 percent as U.S. residential video subscriber revenue increased at the highest rate in four years.
A developer’s plans to build on a golf course in Northeast Tacoma are almost certainly dead. A state court of appeals issued a ruling Tuesday that the developer of the Pointe at Northshore missed a notification deadline by two days – a black-and-white error that means the entire case should be dismissed.
Until last year, restaurants and bars had one choice for where to buy liquor: state government.
An arbitrator said that a picket line of retired longshore union workers that closed a key Port of Tacoma container terminal early Tuesday was not allowed under the provisions of the longshore contract, according to the group that was the subject of the protest.
The parent company to Heritage Bank earned another quarterly profit, but it fell from a year ago due to expenses tied to acquisitions for the growing financial institution.
Pfizer Inc.’s first-quarter net income rose 53 percent despite falling sales, mainly because the world’s second-largest drugmaker took big charges a year ago. Pfizer’s results fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, and the company lowered its profit and sales forecasts for the year, blaming a sudden worsening of currency exchange rates.
Poker devotees can now skip the smoky casino and legally gamble their dollars away on the couch — at least in the state of Nevada.
Americans’ wages increased at a faster rate from January through March than the previous quarter, a trend that helped boost consumer spending at the start of the year. But benefits barely grew.
U.S. home prices rose 9.3 percent in February compared with a year ago, the most in nearly seven years. The gains were driven by a growing number of buyers who bid on a limited supply of homes.
Americans are more optimistic that the job market is healing and will deliver higher pay later this year. That brighter outlook, along with rising home prices, cheaper gasoline and a surging stock market, could offset some of the drag from recent tax increases and government spending cuts.
WASHINGTON — After a storm of complaints, the Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled simplified forms to apply for insurance under the president’s new health care law. You won’t have to lay bare your medical history but you will have to detail your finances.
WASHINGTON — For people seeking an energy boost, companies are increasing their offerings of foods with added caffeine. A new caffeinated gum may have gone too far.
William Bernstein is a former neurology doctor who became so compelled by investment theory and investor behavior that he shifted his career focus and authored several books to guide investors toward better money management decisions.
In a case that could set a national precedent, Pacific Lutheran University is taking legal steps this week to block the formation of a union to represent contingent faculty members at the Parkland university.
SAN FRANCISCO — Google is trying to upstage Siri, the sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
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