A group of lawmakers from six states have worked on the first major proposals to reign in AI discrimination. But those bills face blistering headwinds from every direction. Lawmakers in Colorado, Texas and Connecticut, among others, have come together Thursday to argue the case for their proposals. The press conference follows a tug of war between civil rights-oriented groups and the industry over core components of the legislation. Organizations including labor unions and consumer advocacy groups are pulling for more transparency from companies. The industry is offering tentative support but digging in its heels over those accountability measures.

Prospective homebuyers are facing higher costs to finance a home with the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate moving above 7% this week to its highest level in nearly five months. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 7.1% from 6.88% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.39%. When mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford. Rates have been mostly drifting higher in recent weeks as stronger-than-expected reports on employment and inflation.

The spring homebuying season is off to a sluggish start as home shoppers contend with elevated mortgage rates and rising prices. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell 4.3% in March from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.19 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s the first monthly decline in sales since December and follows a nearly 10% monthly sales jump in February. Existing home sales also fell 3.7% compared with March last year. The latest sales still came in slightly higher than the 4.16 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Home prices climbed compared with a year earlier for the ninth month in a row.

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits didn’t change last week as the labor market continues to defy efforts by the Federal Reserve to cool it off. The Labor Department reported Thursday that unemployment claims for the week ending April 13 were unchanged from the previous week’s 212,000. Weekly unemployment claims are considered a proxy for the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week and a sign of where the job market is headed. In total, 1.81 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended April 6, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week.

Boeing is in the spotlight as members of Congress examine allegations of major safety failures at the embattled aircraft manufacturer. The Senate held back-to-back hearings on Wednesday to hear from aviation experts and people who have worked at Boeing. The witnesses included two whistleblowers, a former Boeing manager and a current engineer at the company who has made serious safety allegations about two of Boeing's biggest planes, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777. No Boeing representatives attended either hearing but the company has disputed the engineer's claims. Boeing has been in crisis mode since a door-plug panel blew off a 737 Max jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

Regulators are approving Georgia Power's plan to build and buy more electrical generation ahead of schedule. The Georgia Public Service Commission voted Tuesday o approve an agreement negotiated between the utility and commission staff. The company says that if nothing else changes, the deal could result in a small rate reduction for existing customers. However, the unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. isn't guaranteeing that rates will drop. Environmentalists warn the plan would let the utility buy power and build new plants without going through a competitive process. Using those sources would mean Georgia Power emits more climate-altering carbon dioxide.

The Biden administration is enlisting officials in 15 states to help enforce consumer-protection laws covering air travel. The U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday that it will give the states power to investigate complaints about airlines and ticket sellers, and then refer cases to the federal government for enforcement. Under U.S. law, only the federal government can regulate consumer-protection laws covering airlines. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the agreement is legal. He's touting it as a way to increase protection for airline customers. Buttigieg pointed to travelers whose flights are canceled and then must wait days for another flight or pay more to fly home on another airline.

Boeing is defending the integrity of the fuselages on two of its largest planes. Boeing engineering executives explained Monday the process for assembling fuselage panels on the 787 Dreamliner. The panels are made of carbon composites, which Boeing says is very resistant to the kind of fatigue that can lead to microscopic cracks over time in convention aluminum fuselages. Boeing is defending its manufacturing ahead of congressional testimony on Wednesday by a whistleblower who says panels on the outside of Boeing 787s could eventually break apart during flight. The whistleblower says factory workers apply too much force to fit panels together on the factory floor, raising the risk of damage.

NASA is seeking a faster, cheaper way to bring rock samples from Mars to Earth. In the meantime, the space agency says the effort is on hold. Reviews put the total cost of the project at $11 billion, with an arrival date of 2040. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says that's too much and too late. So he's asking private industry and each NASA center to come up with other options. The goal is to get at least some of the samples to Earth sometime in the 2030s for around $7 billion. A NASA rover on Mars has already collected some of the soil and rock samples.

After reporting dismal first-quarter sales, Tesla is planning to lay off about a tenth of its workforce as it tries to cut costs, multiple media outlets reported Monday. CEO Elon Musk detailed the plans in a memo sent to employees. The layoffs could affect about 14,000 of the 140,473 workers employed by the Austin, Texas, company at the end of last year. Musk’s memo said that as Tesla prepares for its next phase of growth, it needs to look at every aspect of the company for cost cuts and increased productivity, The New York Times and CNBC reported. News of the layoffs was first reported by electric vehicle website Electrek. Shares of Tesla fell nearly 3% in Monday morning trading after the news broke.

The global market has exploded for drinks that promise to do more than just taste good. So much so that grocery store beverage aisles are starting to look more like pharmacies. There are sodas made with mushrooms that supposedly improve mental clarity and juices packed with bacteria that claim to enhance digestive health. Water infused with collagen carries the promise of better skin, and energy drinks offer to help burn body fat. Welcome to the frenzy of functional beverages. What started in the late 1980s with caffeine- and vitamin-laced energy drinks like Red Bull has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Hundreds of brands are vying for consumers’ attention with increasingly exotic ingredients and wellness-focused marketing.

Israeli leaders are crediting an international military coalition with thwarting Iran’s direct attack and calling the coordinated response a starting point for a “strategic alliance” of regional opposition to Tehran. But an official says Israel’s War Cabinet has met without apparent decision on next steps as a nervous world waits for any sign of further escalation of the former shadow war. The military coalition is led by the United States, Britain and France and appears to include a number of Middle Eastern countries. It shot down the vast majority of about 350 drones and missiles Iran launched overnight.

Federal prosecutors say a supervisor who managed security at a South Carolina prison accepted more than $219,000 in bribes over three years and got 173 contraband cellphones for inmates. Officials say 46-year-old Christine Mary Livingston was indicted earlier this month on 15 charges including bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. Livingston worked for the South Carolina Department of Corrections for 16 years. She was promoted to captain at Columbia's Broad River Correctional Institute in 2016. Prosecutors say Livingston worked with an inmate, 33-year-old Jerell Reaves, to accept bribes for cellphones. Reaves is serving a 15-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter for shooting a man at a Marion County convenience store in 2015.

Consumer sentiment about the U.S. economy has ticked down but remains near a recent high, with Americans’ outlook largely unchanged this year.  The University of Michigan’s index, released in a preliminary version, showed that sentiment is about halfway between its all-time low, reached in June 2022 when inflation peaked, and its pre-pandemic averages. An increase in gas prices may have contributed to the decline in consumers’ outlook. Americans’ perceptions of future inflation also edged up, likely reflecting still-elevated prices. Consumers expect inflation to be 3.1% a year from now, which would exceed the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Still, that would be below the current level of 3.5%.

Consumer inflation remained persistently high last month, boosted by gas, rents, auto insurance and other items, the government said in a report that will likely give pause to the Federal Reserve as it consider how many — or even whether — to cut interest rates this year. Prices outside the volatile food and energy categories rose 0.4% from February to March. Measured from a year earlier, these core prices were up 3.8%. The March figures, the third straight month of inflation readings well above the Fed’s 2% target, provide concerning evidence that inflation is stuck at an elevated level and threaten to torpedo the prospect of multiple rate cuts this year.

Internet service providers will be required to be more transparent about the cost and performance of their internet service packages, thanks to new FCC rules that take effect this week. The new required pricing labels are modeled on nutritional labels and are meant to help consumers comparison shop and avoid junk fees. They will be mandated at every point of sale, both in persona, and online, the FCC said, beginning April 10.

There are lots of things college students and their parents should keep in mind before filing their taxes. While tax pros say it’s great for college students to start filing their own forms, parents and students should double-check everything carefully before anyone pushes the “submit” button.  College students also need to be careful that they understand whether or not their parents are claiming them as a dependent. Parents should also look into what college and education tax credits are available.

Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay $600 million in a class-action lawsuit settlement related to a fiery train derailment in February 2023 in eastern Ohio. The company said Tuesday that the agreement, if approved by the court, will resolve all class action claims within a 20-mile radius from the derailment and, for those residents who choose to participate, personal injury claims within a 10-mile radius from the derailment. But residents worry that the money won't go very far because the deal would include several towns around the derailment and their potential health needs down the road could be tremendous.

Discount carrier Spirit Airlines said it is deferring all aircraft on order from Airbus that were scheduled to be delivered in the second quarter of 2025 through the end of 2026. Spirit said Monday that it came to an agreement with the European plane manufacturer to delay delivery of the planes until 2030 and 2031. Spirit said the deferrals will bolster Spirit’s liquidity by about $340 million over the next two years. Florida-based Spirit also said it plans to furlough 260 pilots effective Sept. 1, 2024 as a result of the deferrals and ongoing problems with Pratt & Whitney GTF engines.

Elon Musk’s X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has started restoring complimentary blue checks to some of its users. That’s caused confusion online. Last year, X began removing the verification badges from users who do not pay for the platform’s new Premium subscription — stripping checkmarks from an array of celebrities and other prominent accounts. But on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, numerous users reported seeing the blue checks return or appear for the first time despite not paying for them. Musk, who bought the platform for $44 billion back in October 2022, said last week that all X accounts with more than 2,500 verified subscriber followers would get Premium features — which includes the blue check — for free going forward.

California school districts are preparing for the impacts of a new minimum wage for fast food workers. The new law took effect Monday and guarantees $20-per-hour wages for fast food workers in California. The law does not apply to food service workers at public schools. California was the first state to guarantee free meals for all students regardless of their family's income. This has increased the demand for school meals. Many school districts have sought to hire more workers to handle the increased workload. Sacramento Unified School District  will increase its wages for food service workers to $20 per hour on July 1.

Federal Reserve officials will likely reduce their benchmark interest rate later this year, Chair Jerome Powell said, despite recent reports showing that the U.S. economy is still strong and that U.S. inflation picked up in January and February. “The recent data do not ... materially change the overall picture,” Powell said in a speech at Stanford University, “which continues to be one of solid growth, a strong but rebalancing labor market, and inflation moving down toward 2 percent on a sometimes bumpy path.” Powell also sought to dispel any notion that the Fed’s interest-rate decisions might be affected by this year’s presidential election.

A Biden administration-appointed review board has issued a scathing indictment of Microsoft corporate security and transparency. The panel says in Tuesday's report that “a cascade of errors” by the tech giant let state-backed Chinese cyber operators break into email accounts last year of senior U.S. officials including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The Cyber Safety Review Board describes what is says is shoddy cybersecurity, a lax corporate culture and a lack of sincerity about the company’s knowledge of the targeted breach, which affected multiple U.S. agencies that deal with China. Microsoft said it appreciated the board’s investigation. It added that recent events “have demonstrated a need to adopt a new culture of engineering security in our own network."

Officials say the aftermath of last year’s fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio doesn’t qualify as a public health emergency because widespread health problems and ongoing chemical exposures haven’t been documented. The Environmental Protection Agency never approved that designation after the February 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment even though the disaster forced the evacuation of half the town of East Palestine and generated many health fears. EPA's response coordinator says the agency's tests simply haven't shown ongoing chemical exposure and health agencies haven't documented widespread problems. The topic came up in emails obtained by the Government Accountability Project watchdog group through a public records request.

More and more businesses are taking advantage of the total solar eclipse set to dim skies across North America next week. In the snacks department alone, Krispy Kreme is teaming up with Oreo to sell a limited doughnut-cookie creation. Sonic Drive-In is selling a “Blackout Slush Float.” And Frito-Lay’s SunChips has unveiled a new flavor that will only be available during the celestial event’s nearly 4 and a half minutes of totality. Meanwhile, airlines like Southwest and Delta have advertised eclipse-viewing flight paths. And beyond promotions from big-name brands, small businesses along the 115 mile (185 kilometer)-wide prime path are leading the charge to meet incoming tourist demand — just like the last time the U.S. got a big piece of the total solar eclipse action in 2017.

U.S. job openings barely changed in February, staying at historically high levels in a sign that the American job market remains strong. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 8.76 million job vacancies in February, up modestly from 8.75 million in January and about what economists had forecast. But the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed that layoffs ticked up to 1.7 million in February from 1.6 million in January. Monthly job openings are down from a peak of 12.2 million in March 2022 but are still at a high level. Before 2021, they’d never topped 8 million.

In its heyday, the Tropicana Las Vegas was known for its opulence. It was a frequent haunt of the Rat Pack and host to A-list stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds, while its storied past under the mob cemented its place in Vegas lore. But after welcoming guests for 67 years, the Las Vegas Strip’s third-oldest casino will shut its doors for good at noon Tuesday. It's slated for demolition in October to make room for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium — part of the city’s latest rebrand as a hub for sports entertainment.

Major freight railroads will have to maintain two-person crews in most circumstances under a new federal rule. The Transportation Department’s Federal Railroad Administration released the details of the rule the agency has been working on for the past two years Tuesday morning. The rule comes amid an intense focus on railroad safety following the fiery February 2023 derailment in eastern Ohio. Rail unions have long opposed one-person crews because of a combination of safety and job concerns. Unions and regulators say the second crew member plays a crucial safety role in helping operate the train and serving as a first responder if there is a problem.Railroads have sought the discretion to operate trains with only one person and move conductors to ground-based jobs.

Student journalists across the United States have done their bit to cover small town news for years, but a college paper in Iowa is taking a bigger swing at it. The Daily Iowan of the University of Iowa just bought two struggling weekly papers for an undisclosed price. It's a deal believed to be the first of its kind. The students are already redoing the newspaper websites and soon plan to add interns to help write stories. The young journalists will get real-world experience while bringing the towns more news. Campus papers in other American communities are also being distributed more widely to help fill the gap left by disappearing newspapers.

UPS will become the primary air cargo provider for the United States Postal Service. The Atlanta shipping company said Monday that it had received an air cargo contract from the U.S. Postal Service that significantly expands an existing partnership between the two. UPS will move the majority of air cargo in the U.S. for the postal service following a transition period, according to UPS. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

U.S. highway safety regulators say traffic deaths fell 3.6% last year, but still, almost 41,000 people were killed on the nation’s roadways. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it was the second year in a row that fatalities decreased. The agency also released final numbers for 2022 on Monday, saying that 42,514 people died in crashes. Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman said that traffic deaths declined in the fourth quarter of last year, marking the seventh straight quarterly drop that started with the second quarter of 2022. The declines come even though people are driving more. Federal Highway Administration estimates show that Americans drove 67.5 billion more miles last year than the previous year, a 2.1% increase.

A measure of inflation that is closely tracked by the Federal Reserve slipped last month in a sign that price pressures continue to ease. Prices rose 0.3% from January to February, decelerating from a 0.4% increase the previous month in a potentially encouraging trend for President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Compared with 12 months earlier, though, prices rose 2.5% in February, up slightly from a 2.4% year-over-year gain in January. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, last month’s “core” prices suggested lower inflation pressures. Economists consider core prices to be a better gauge of the likely path of future inflation.

Shoppers may get a bitter surprise in their Easter baskets this year. Chocolate eggs and bunnies are more expensive than ever as changing climate patterns eat into global cocoa supplies and the earnings of farmers in Africa. Cocoa is the main ingredient in chocolate, and about three-quarters of it comes from trees in West Africa. Severe seasonal winds and heavy rainfall have cut the amount harvested in recent months. The global price of cocoa has soared to record highs. Farmers who harvest cacao beans say the increases aren’t enough to cover their lower yields and higher production costs. But big confectionery companies have maintained profit margins by raising chocolate prices.

The U.S. economy grew at a solid 3.4% annual pace from October through December, the government said in an upgrade from its previous estimate. The government had previously estimated that the economy expanded at a 3.2% rate last quarter. The Commerce Department’s revised measure of the nation’s gross domestic product — the total output of goods and services — confirmed that the economy decelerated from its sizzling 4.9% rate of expansion in the July-September quarter. But last quarter’s growth was still a solid performance, coming in the face of higher interest rates and powered by growing consumer spending, exports and business investment in buildings and software.

Krispy Kreme and McDonald’s are getting together over breakfast. The doughnut chain and the fast food giant unveiled plans on Tuesday to offer Krispy Kreme products at McDonald’s locations across the United States. The companies say a phased rollout is expected to start this year, with availability at participating restaurants nationwide expected by the end of 2026. McDonald’s plans to make three Krispy Kreme doughnut varieties available. The partnership is hardly the first bringing major restaurant chains and popular food brands together. Taco Bell, for example, has long boasted Doritos-flavored tacos while Wendy’s brought a Cinnabon “pull-apart” treat to its menu last month. McDonald’s didn’t specify how many of its 13,500 U.S. locations would be participating.

Shares of Donald Trump’s social media company jumped more than 30% in the first day of trading on the Nasdaq, boosting the value of the former president's large stake in the company in the process. Trump Media & Technology Group runs the social media platform Truth Social. Before trading began, Trump Media had a market value of about $6.8 billion, a figure that will rise significantly if the gains in the shares hold. The shares are trading under the ticker symbol “DJT.” Trump holds a nearly 60% ownership stake in the company.

Egg prices are at near-historic highs in many parts of the world as Easter and Passover approach. The cost of filling a basket or completing a Seder plate reflect a market scrambled by disease, high demand and growing costs for farmers. While global prices are lower than they were at this time last year, they remain elevated. A senior global specialist with Dutch financial services firm Rabobank doesn’t expect them to return to 2021 levels. One major culprit is avian flu. In 2022 alone, more than 131 million poultry worldwide died or were culled on farms affected by the disease. Higher chicken feed costs due to weather and inflation have also impacted egg prices.

Boeing CEO David Calhoun will step down from the embattled plane maker at the end of the year as part of a broad management shakeup Monday after a series of mishaps at one of America’s iconic manufacturers. Boeing has been under intense pressure since early January, when a panel blew off a brand-new Alaska Airlines 737 Max. Fallout from the Jan. 5 blowout has raised scrutiny of Boeing to its highest level since two Boeing 737 Max jets crashed in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia. In all, the crashes killed 346 people.

TikTok’s extensive lobbying campaign is the latest tech industry push since the House passed legislation that would ban the popular app if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake. Tech industry lobbying has paid off many times over as Congress has so far failed to act on bills that would protect users’ privacy, protect children from online threats, make companies more liable for their content and put loose guardrails around artificial intelligence, among other things. Some see the TikTok bill as the best chance for now to regulate the industry and set a precedent, even if it is a narrow one.

The fast-food chain Chick-Fil-A backtracked from its decade-old “no antibiotics ever” pledge intended to help prevent human antibiotic resistance linked to the rampant use of the drugs in livestock production. Instead, the company said, it will embrace a standard known as “no antibiotics important to human medicine,” which entails avoidance of such medicines commonly used to treat people and limits the use of animal antibiotics to cases of animal illness. Livestock producers have long used antibiotics to boost rapid weight gain in animals such as chickens, pigs, cows and sheep, although many nations, including the United States, have begun to restrict the practice.

It's been 15 years since the last fatal crash of a U.S. airliner, but you wouldn't know that from a torrent of flight problems that made news in the last three months. There was a time when things like cracked windshields and minor engine problems didn’t typically receive media coverage. That changed when a panel plugging the space reserved for an unused emergency door blew off an Alaska Airlines jetliner in January. Concern about air safety, especially with Boeing planes, hasn't let up since. U.S. airline executives want to hear how Boeing plans to fix problems with its 737 Max jets. So is flying getting more dangerous? By the roughest measurement, the answer is no.

Reddit and its eclectic bazaar of online communities is ready to plumb high-stakes territory — the stock market. The company said Wednesday that it had priced its IPO at $34 a share. Shares will begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RDDT.” The market debut is likely to spur a flurry of commentary on Reddit’s own platform, as well as competing social media outlets.

Sweet Easter baskets will likely come at a bitter cost this year for consumers as the price of cocoa climbs to record highs. Cocoa futures have roughly doubled in 2024 after surging 61% overall in 2023. Rising temperatures and weather conditions have stressed and damaged crops in West Africa, which produces more than 70% of the global cocoa supply. Big chocolate companies like Hershey’s and Mondelez have been passing those costs on to consumers. That has helped bolster profit margins. Both companies reported shrinking sales volumes for their most recent quarters as consumers grow tired of paying higher prices.

DETROIT (AP) — Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000. Now, there's just one: The Mitsubishi Mirage. And even the Mirage appears headed for the scrap yard. At a time when Americans increasingly want pricey SUVs and trucks rather than small cars, the Mirage remains the lone new vehicle whose average sale price is under 20 grand — a figure that once marked a kind of unofficial threshold of affordability. With prices — new and used — having soared since the pandemic, $20,000 is no longer much of a starting point for a new car.

After 20 years of business, the Antique Emporium in downtown Aiken has closed. According to Antique Emporium store owner Beverly Brown-Huff, it has been a great 20 years.

A building in Verenes Industrial Park north of Aiken recently sold for $4.1 million.