Digital gift cards, fundraising stickers, and online food orders to help your favorite restaurants during COVID-19 restrictions are now embedded into the digital fabric of the Instagram community. Instagram appropriately shared the announcement through a blog post. Tap to Make Your Purchase "When you see gift cards or food orders,...
Actor Lin-Manuel Miranda Encourages Shopping Small Businesses
NEW YORK — With the holiday shopping season upon us, actor and “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is encouraging people across the country to take part in Small Business Saturday, an effort to shop at local, independent stores on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Growing up in the neighborhood of Washington Heights,...
Good News for Fulton as Downtown Street Gets Ready to Party
Fresno Mayor Lee Brand delivered good news Friday about Fulton's $20 million makeover —a day before the Fulton Street Party celebrating its 2017 reopening. According to city records, businesses along the downtown street grossed $43.6 million in revenue for fiscal year 2019. That compares to $2.9 million in 2015, which was...
Thanks to Consumers, US Economy Is Rising Steadily if Slowly
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economic landscape would look even bleaker if not for America's consumers. The economy slowed in the spring, and many analysts think the weakness will continue in the months ahead. Yet consumer spending, which drives about 70% of growth, accelerated in the April-June quarter at the fastest...
Heating Up: Investors’ Green Targets Go Beyond Big Oil
NEW YORK — It's not just big oil and power companies that investors are pushing to do better on the environment. In the next few weeks, Amazon shareholders will vote on a proposal made by one of their own to push the company to describe how it's curbing its use...
Unemployment Hits 49-Year Low as US Employers Step up Hiring
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a robust 263,000 jobs in April, suggesting that businesses have shrugged off earlier concerns that the economy might slow this year and now anticipate strong customer demand. The unemployment rate fell to a five-decade low of 3.6% from 3.8%, though that drop partly reflected an...
Walters: Some Bills Are Silly, and Some Are Just Dumb
Every session of the California Legislature generates some bills that can only be labeled as silly – that is, they defy common sense. One example this year is a bill that would abolish paper receipts at retail businesses, thereby requiring customers to supply their email addresses so merchants can send...
House Democrats Ask IRS to Provide Trump’s Tax Returns
WASHINGTON — A House committee chairman formally asked the IRS to provide six years of President Donald Trump's personal tax returns and the returns for some of his businesses as Democrats try to shed light on his complex financial dealings and potential conflicts of interest. The request by Massachusetts Rep....
Federal Reserve Foresees No Interest Rate Hikes in 2019
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday and projected no rate hikes this year, reflecting a dimmer view of the economy as growth weakens in the United States and abroad. The Fed said it was keeping its benchmark rate — which can influence everything from...
House Panel Opens Sweeping Probe of Trump, His Associates
WASHINGTON — Democrats launched a sweeping new probe of President Donald Trump, an aggressive investigation that threatens to shadow the president through the 2020 election season with potentially damaging inquiries into his White House, campaign and family businesses. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Monday his panel was beginning the...