All posts tagged: Collections: Business

7-Eleven Expects to Close Hundreds of Its Stores in North America This Year

7-Eleven Expects to Close Hundreds of Its Stores in North America This Year

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — Convenience chain 7-Eleven expects to close hundreds of its locations this year. According to earnings filings published last week, 7-Eleven’s North American operator plans to close 645 stores in the 2026 fiscal year — outpacing the 205 locations it forecasts it will open during that same time. Seven & i Holdings Co., the Japan-based parent of the convenience chain, noted that these closures “include the conversion to wholesale fuel stores.” Financial documents show that 7-Eleven Inc. has steadily opened new wholesale fuel stores in North America over recent years, which accounted for more than 900 locations as of December 2025. The company did not immediately explain the closures or specify which locations could be impacted. The Associated Press reached out for further information. According to the company’s website, there are over 86,000 7-Eleven stores across 19 countries today. 7-Eleven Inc., the brand’s North American operator based in Texas, oversees more than 13,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada. The convenience giant has closed hundreds of underperforming locations over the years, and …

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Announces It Has Found a Buyer to Keep the Newspaper Open

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Announces It Has Found a Buyer to Keep the Newspaper Open

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — Barely two weeks before it was due to shut down, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said Tuesday it had found a last-minute buyer — a successful nonprofit journalism operation that has agreed to keep the struggling newspaper open. The resolution to a months-long worry in western Pennsylvania about the paper’s shutdown comes at a difficult moment for the American newspaper industry, which has shed jobs, resources and sometimes entire companies due to the upending of the traditional revenue model by the internet at the beginning of this century. The Post-Gazette dates its ancestry to 1786, the first newspaper to open west of the Allegheny Mountains, and its closure would have left Pittsburgh as the nation’s largest community without a city-based paper. “For us to be a vibrant, strong city, as we are, it’s imperative that we have a newspaper that demonstrates that,” said Jay Costa, the top-ranking Democrat in the Pennsylvania state Senate, whose district encompasses about half of Pittsburgh. Operations to continue in Pittsburgh The Post-Gazette’s owners, Block Communications, said the Venetoulis …

Trump Promised Tax Relief, but Polling Shows Most Americans Still Think They’re Overpaying

Trump Promised Tax Relief, but Polling Shows Most Americans Still Think They’re Overpaying

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans still think their taxes are too high, according to recent polls, even after last year’s tax law fulfilled several of President Donald Trump’s tax-related campaign promises. In fact, a new Fox News poll indicates people are more upset about taxes than they were last year. The findings from the survey, which was conducted in late March, are another sign that Americans are on edge about their personal finances as the U.S. experiences a spike in inflation and sluggish economic growth. Other polling finds that frustration goes beyond personal tax obligations, with many believing that wealthy people and corporations are not paying their fair share, while others worry about government waste. Most say taxes are too high About 7 in 10 registered voters say the taxes they pay are “too high,” according to the Fox News poll. That’s up from about 6 in 10 last year. The poll shows heightened concern among very liberal voters and Democratic men, but there has also been a sizable increase among groups that Republicans want …

Judge Dismisses Trump’s B Lawsuit Against WSJ, Murdoch Over Reporting on Ties to Epstein

Judge Dismisses Trump’s $10B Lawsuit Against WSJ, Murdoch Over Reporting on Ties to Epstein

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida wrote in the order that Trump had failed to make the argument that the article was published with the intent to be malicious, but gave the president a chance to file an amended complaint. In a social media post several hours after the ruling, Trump said the decision “is not a termination” but rather a “suggested re-filing” of his “powerful case,” which Trump said would be done “on or before April 27th.” Trump filed the lawsuit in July, following up on a promise to sue the paper almost immediately after it put a new spotlight on his well-documented relationship with Epstein by publishing an article that described a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper said bore Trump’s signature and was included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Attorneys for the newspaper and Murdoch had asked Gayles to rule that the article’s statements were true and therefore couldn’t be defamatory, but the judge wrote that “whether President Trump was the author of the Letter or …

Oil Rises Back Above 0, but US Stocks Hold Steadier After US-Iran Talks Failed to End the War

Oil Rises Back Above $100, but US Stocks Hold Steadier After US-Iran Talks Failed to End the War

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are back above $100 per barrel on Monday after 21 hours of ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran failed to end their war. But U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady, an indicator that Wall Street still hopes both sides will ultimately avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy. The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in morning trading after erasing an earlier dip. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 250 points, or 0.5%, as of 10:05 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher. The moves were much more modest than the extreme swings that have been hitting financial markets since the war began in late February. The oil market showed more concern, and prices there rose roughly 5%. But even there, prices pared bigger, earlier gains as the morning progressed. A blockade would keep even more oil off the global market, after prices already jumped for everyone worldwide because of shortfalls due to Iran’s restrictions on traffic in the important strait. That narrow …

Oil Prices Rise After the US Says It Would Block Iranian Ports Starting Monday

Oil Prices Rise After the US Says It Would Block Iranian Ports Starting Monday

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices rose in early market trading Sunday after the U.S. said it would blockade Iranian ports beginning Monday. The price of U.S. crude oil rose 8% to $104.24 a barrel and Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 7% to $102.29. Brent crude has swung dramatically during the Iran war, rising from roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February to more than $119 at times. On Friday, ahead of the peace talks, Brent for June delivery fell 0.8% to $95.20 per barrel. Iran has been effectively controlling the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil shipping. U.S. Central Command said the blockade would be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations” entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. It said it would still allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transit the Strait of Hormuz. Around a fifth of the world’s traded oil typically flows through the Strait of Hormuz every day. …

Kansas City Officials Are Proposing 0M in Stadium Bonds to Keep MLB’s Royals in Missouri

Kansas City Officials Are Proposing $600M in Stadium Bonds to Keep MLB’s Royals in Missouri

Published by Sam Flores

Kansas City, Missouri, would issue $600 million in bonds for a new downtown stadium for Major League Baseball’s Royals under a proposal officials are pursuing months after Kansas lured professional football’s Chiefs over the state line with a massive stadium subsidy. Mayor Quinton Lucas and nine of 12 City Council members introduced a proposed ordinance Thursday to allow the city manager to negotiate with the Royals over a new stadium near the city’s historic Union Station and its World War I museum, about 6 miles northwest of the Royals’ current Kauffman Stadium. The city expects the new stadium to cost $1.9 billion, and Missouri last year enacted a law allowing the state to cover half, or $950 million. If Kansas City issued its bonds, the Royals would need $350 million in private funds. Kauffman Stadium sits beside the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium in the Truman Sports Complex, owned by Jackson County, Missouri, and home to both teams since 1973. Their stadium leases expire in 2031, and in April 2024, county voters rejected extending a tax that …

Federal Court Hears New Case Against Trump’s Latest Global Tariffs

Federal Court Hears New Case Against Trump’s Latest Global Tariffs

Published by Sam Flores

The U.S. Court of International Trade, a specialized court in New York, heard oral arguments Friday in an attempt to overturn the temporary tariffs Trump turned to after the Supreme Court in February struck down his preferred choice — even bigger, even more sweeping tariffs. In his first attempt to impose global tariffs, the president last year invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), using the law to declare America’s longstanding trade deficit a national emergency and to impose double-digit worldwide taxes on imports to combat it. He interpreted the law broadly to justify tariffs of whatever size he wanted, whenever he wanted to impose them, on whatever country he wanted to target. But Trump had alternatives to IEEPA. The quickest option was Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose global tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days, after which congressional approval is needed to extend them. After his defeat at the Supreme Court, Trump quickly announced 10% Section 122 tariffs. He said he’d raise …

Maryland Settles With Owner and Operator of Ship That Crashed Into Baltimore’s Key Bridge

Maryland Settles With Owner and Operator of Ship That Crashed Into Baltimore’s Key Bridge

Published by Sam Flores

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland has reached a settlement with the owner and operator of the massive cargo ship that crashed into a Baltimore bridge two years ago, causing its deadly collapse, state officials announced Thursday. The settlement in principle was reached with Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, owner and operator of the M/V Dali, Attorney General Anthony Brown said. The settlement resolves a portion of the state’s claims arising from the ship’s March 26, 2024, crash into the Francis Scott Key Bridge. “For two years, Maryland workers, families, and communities have carried the weight of a disaster that should never have happened,” Brown said in a news release. It did not give details of the settlement. The attorney general noted that the Dali’s crash into the bridge “disrupted the Port of Baltimore, devastated livelihoods, and sent economic shockwaves across our State that are still being felt today.” “Our work is not finished, but this settlement is an important step toward making Maryland whole,” Brown said. The companies confirmed in a …

Sarkozy Says He Owes France ‘The Truth’ as He Challenges Conviction Over Alleged Libya Funding

Sarkozy Says He Owes France ‘The Truth’ as He Challenges Conviction Over Alleged Libya Funding

Published by Sam Flores

PARIS (AP) — French former President Nicolas Sarkozy maintained his innocence at an appeal hearing in Paris on Tuesday over his conspiracy conviction last year, saying that not a single cent from Libya helped fund his 2007 presidential campaign. “I owe the truth to the French people,” Sarkozy told a three-judge panel during a hearing in the case that led him to spend 20 days in prison before being granted release pending appeal. “I’m innocent,” he said. Sarkozy, 71, is challenging his conviction after being found guilty in September of criminal conspiracy. He was sentenced to five years in prison for his alleged part in a scheme to obtain funds from the government of then Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in exchange for political and diplomatic favors. Sarkozy has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and says the allegations are politically motivated. Sarkozy’s wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, attended Tuesday’s hearing, which focused on his role as a conservative presidential candidate and then president from 2007 to 2012. The 12-week appeal trial, which began last month, will reexamine all of …