Outdoors Bound News and Notes from central, southwest Virginia

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian markets were mostly lower on Wednesday after shares slumped on Wall Street despite better-than-expected reports on the U.S. jobs market and business activity. U.S. futures and oil prices were higher. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.3% to 39,981.06. The U.S. dollar was trading at 157.97 yen, down from 158.06. Hong […]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a federal defamation lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups, months after Bonta sued the oil and gas giant alleging that it deceived the public for half a century by promising the plastics it produced would be recycled. The Texas-based company said in […]

DENVER (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is suing several large landlords for allegedly coordinating to keep Americans’ rents high by using both an algorithm to help set rents and privately sharing sensitive information with their competitors to boost profits. The lawsuit arrives as U.S. renters continue to struggle under a merciless housing market, with […]

Ski patrollers miffed by wages they say are too low for high living costs have put a wrench in operations at the biggest U.S. ski resort with a rare strike that began over the busy holidays and carried on into the new year’s fresh powder. The resulting thin staffing at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort, […]

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration on Tuesday abruptly dropped its nascent plan to protect old-growth forests after getting pushback from Republicans and the timber industry. The move was announced by U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore in a letter to forest supervisors. It brings a sudden end to a yearslong process to craft […]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When he was still a boy making long, tedious trips between his school and his woodsy home in the mountains during the 1980s, JoeBen Bevirt began fantasizing about flying cars that could whisk him to his destination in a matter of minutes. As CEO of Joby Aviation, Bevirt is getting closer […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Lenders will no longer be able to consider unpaid medical bills as a credit history factor when they evaluate potential borrowers in the U.S. for mortgages, car loans or business loans, according to a rule the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized Tuesday. Removing medical debts from consumer credit reports is expected […]

New tax credits are available for companies that generate clean electricity, the Biden administration announced Tuesday, while arguing it would be a mistake for President-elect Donald Trump to try to undo them. The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service released final rules for the clean electricity investment and production tax credits, less than two […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Good news on the U.S. economy is back to being bad for Wall Street, and the stock market slumped Tuesday following better-than-expected reports on the job market and business activity. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% after giving up an early gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 178 points, or 0.4%, […]

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. regulators have opened an investigation into 2.6 million Teslas after reports of crashes involving the use of company technology that allows drivers to remotely command their vehicle to return to them, or move to another location, using a phone app. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also said Tuesday that […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $20 billion investment for data centers in the United States by an Emirati company led by billionaire Hussain Sajwani, a close business partner of the Trump family. The investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates is intended to highlight Trump’s personal ability to […]

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a suite of new products, services and partnerships at CES 2025. In a packed Las Vegas arena, Huang kicked off the CES this week with his vision for how his companies’ products will drive gaming, robotics, personal computing and even self-driving vehicles forward. Here’s a look […]

Beyond the general discomfort of talking about death, the topic of inheritance brings in a whole other set of sticky issues. Research finds that parents’ and children’s expectations for bequests are rarely aligned, even among those who have a good relationship, which is why it’s so important to get on the same page with heirs […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in November, showing companies are still looking for workers even as the labor market has cooled overall. Openings rose to 8.1 million in November, the most since February and up from 7.8 million in October, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. They were down from 8.9 million a […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vowing to stop machines from taking their jobs, 45,000 U.S. longshoremen are threatening to go on a strike that would shut down ports on the East and Gulf coasts and could damage the American economy just as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. If the standoff sounds familiar, it’s because […]

President Jimmy Carter ‘s legacy of giving back endures in several nonprofits he and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, supported for the almost 50 years after they left the White House. In Los Angeles on Monday, members of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles signed wooden two-by-fours that will be used in a new house […]

HONG KONG (AP) — The U.S. Defense Department has added dozens of Chinese companies, including games and technology company Tencent, artificial intelligence firm SenseTime and the world’s biggest battery maker CATL, to a list of companies it says have ties to China’s military, prompting some to protest and say they will seek to have the […]

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to reject a bid by Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel on national security grounds isn’t the first time friction over trade and investment has irked Washington’s closest ally in Asia. There have been plenty of scraps over trade in the past few decades, and Secretary of […]

TOKYO (AP) — Nippon Steel was standing firm on its proposed $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, Chief Executive Eiji Hashimoto said Tuesday after President Joe Biden’s blocked the top Japanese steelmaker’s move. “There is no reason or need to give up,” he told reporters at company headquarters in Tokyo. “We are convinced it’s clearly […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Rising technology stocks on Monday helped U.S. indexes recover some more of their holiday-season slide that bridged the new year. The S&P 500 added 0.6% for a second straight gain following five straight losses, its longest losing streak since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost an early gain to slip […]