Middle school counselor accused of headbutting student in Fairfax County

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks wavered in morning trading on Wall Street Monday at the start of a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 fell 0.1%. A handful of technology companies helped cushion the widespread losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 222 points, or 0.5% as of 9:55 a.m. Eastern time. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite […]

Century-old department store Nordstrom has agreed to be acquired and taken private by Nordstrom family members and a Mexican retail group in a $6.25 billion deal with the industry being squeezed by discount chains and other competition. Public companies are under a lot more scrutiny and if private, the Nordstroms may have more leeway in […]

NEW YORK (AP) — The Container Store has filed for bankruptcy protection as the storage and organizational goods retailer with roots dating back to the 1970s grapples with mounting losses and cash flow shortages. The Texas company has faced increasing competition from retailers like Target and Walmart at the same time that demand for its […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump won a return to the White House in part by promising big changes in economic policy — more tax cuts, huge tariffs on imports, mass deportations of immigrants working in the United States illegally. In some ways, his victory marked a repudiation of President Joe Biden’s economic stewardship and […]

WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — The Lahaina home Tamara Akiona shared with 10 people was never quiet, and she loved it that way. Akiona, her husband, uncle, stepdaughter, and her best friend’s family filled the house once owned by her grandparents, with four bedrooms, two living rooms and a spacious backyard. She remembers the happy anticipation […]

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger that would form the world’s third-largest automaker by sales, as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels. The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan […]

BANGKOK (AP) — Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan will attempt to merge and create the world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels. The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors also […]

PECOS, Texas (AP) — Federal officials investigating the deadly West Texas collision between at Union Pacific train and a tractor-trailer hauling a heavy equipment said Friday they were trying to determine why the tractor-trailer was stopped on the tracks, leading to the crash that derailed the train and propelled the heavy equipment into the air. […]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For nearly 40 years, customers flocked to Party City for Halloween costumes, favors for children’s birthday parties and decorations for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Now, the go-to shop for everything from cartoon-themed balloons to Super Bowl decor is closing stores. Party City announced Saturday that it would start a “wind down” […]

CHICAGO (AP) — Adella Bass dropped her in-person college classes because it was just too hard to get there from the far South Side of Chicago, where the city’s famous elevated train doesn’t run. And it can take her nearly two hours to get to the hospital where she is treated for a heart condition. […]

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s prime minister said Saturday the government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children. Albanian authorities held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents following the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel […]

LYONS, Ga. (AP) — Twisted equipment and snapped tree limbs still litter Chris Hopkins’ Georgia farm more than two months after Hurricane Helene made its deadly march across the South. An irrigation sprinkler system about 300 feet (92 meters) long lay overturned in a field, its steel pipes bent and welded joints broken. The mangled […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Discount chain Big Lots is conducting going-out-of-business sales at its remaining locations after a sale of the company didn’t materialize. The Columbus, Ohio-based retailer, which sells furniture, home decor and other items, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early September and said private equity firm Nexus Capital Management LP had […]

Amazon workers affiliated with the Teamsters union continued a strike Friday at seven of the company’s delivery hubs just days before Christmas. At midnight on Saturday, workers at a prominent unionized warehouse in New York will also join, the Teamsters said. However, the union has not indicated how many employees were participating in any of […]

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose Friday to turn what would have been one of the market’s worst weeks of the year into just a pretty bad one. The S&P 500 rallied 1.1% for its best day in six weeks and shaved its loss for the week down to 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial […]

A federal regulator sued JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America on Friday, claiming the banks failed to protect hundreds of thousands of consumers from rampant fraud on the popular payments network Zelle, in violation of consumer financial laws. In the federal civil complaint, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asserts that the banks rushed […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is abandoning his efforts to provide some protections for transgender student athletes and cancel student loans for more than 38 million Americans, the first steps in an administration-wide plan to jettison pending regulations to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from retooling them to achieve his own aims. The White House […]

Workers at Starbucks stores began a five-day strike Friday to protest lack of progress in contract negotiations with the company. The strikes by baristas and other workers were scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle and could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve. Starbucks Workers United, the […]

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen and its employee representatives said Friday they have reached a wage deal for 120,000 German workers that avoids plant closings and bars involuntary layoffs through 2030. The agreement includes provisions for VW to shed more than 35,000 jobs through early retirement and buyouts by 2030. The deal, reached in drawn-out […]

DETROIT (AP) — In the waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration, the government’s highway safety agency is proposing voluntary safety guidelines for self-driving vehicles. But a rule from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration putting the plan in place won’t be approved before the end of Biden’s term in January and likely will be […]