Business Highlights: AI tool for adoption matchmaking; Fortnite maker takes Google to court
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Inspired by online dating, AI tool for adoption matchmaking falls short for vulnerable foster kids
NEW YORK (AP)— Former social worker Thea Ramirez has developed an artificial intelligence-powered tool that she says helps social service agencies find the best adoptive parents for some of the nation’s most vulnerable kids. But an Associated Press investigation has found that the Family-Match algorithm has produced limited results in the states where it has been used, raising questions about the ability of artificial intelligence to solve such enduring human problems. Virginia and Georgia dropped the algorithm after trial runs, noting its inability to produce adoptions. Tennessee scrapped the program before rolling it out, saying it didn’t work with their system, and social workers reported mixed experiences in Florida. Ramirez said in an email that “Family-Match is a valuable tool.”
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AT&T offers managers a rare benefit: paid time off to care for loved ones
NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T management employees are entitled to up to 15 days off caregiver leave, which allows them to care for ailing children or other relatives without eating into their vacation or personal sick days. Paid caregiver time off is a rarity in the U.S., which has no federal law requiring employers to offer paid sick or family leave. AT&T’s Vice President of Global Benefits Juli Galloway said the company decided to offer caregiver leave, as well as expanding its parental leave, to help its management employees balance their personal and professional lives in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Fortnite maker accuses Google of bullying and bribing to block competition to its Android app store
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google on Monday confronted the second major U.S. antitrust trial in two months to cast the internet powerhouse as a brazen bully that uses its immense wealth and people’s dependence on one of its main products to stifle competition at consumers’ expense. The trial that opened in San Francisco federal court targets the payment system for the Google Play Store that distributes apps for the company’s Android software that powers virtually all the world’s smartphones that aren’t made by Apple. The Play Store case is being brought by video game maker Epic Games, which already lost in a previous trial taking aim at Apple’s app store for iPhones.
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Stock market today: Wall Street drifts to a mixed and quiet finish following last week’s big swings
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks drifted to a mixed close as Wall Street’s wild recent moves calm a bit. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% Monday in its first trading after careening from months of sharp losses to its best week of the year. The Dow added 34 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%. More stocks fell than rose. The flashpoint for the stock market’s movements in both directions has been what the bond market is doing, and it regressed a bit Monday following its own extreme moves. Crude prices rose after big oil-producing countries said they’d keep production cuts in place.
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‘Amtrak Joe’ Biden visits Delaware to promote $16 billion for passenger rail projects
BEAR, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden has promoted new cash for Amtrak. He visited Bear, Delaware, to announce more than $16 billion in new funding that will go toward 25 passenger rail projects between Boston and Washington. Bear is close to Wilmington, where Biden has a home and spends many weekends away from the White House. His remarks Monday were held at the Amtrak Bear Maintenance Shops, where trains are maintained and repaired. The White House says investments will help trains run faster, cut delays and create union jobs. And the money comes from Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, which is one of several legislative accomplishments he will tout during his reelection campaign.
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Trump lashes out from the witness stand at judge, NY attorney general as he testifies in fraud trial
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is vigorously defending his wealth and his business as he testifies in a civil fraud lawsuit accusing him of dramatically inflating his net worth. He suggested on Monday that the New York judge hearing the case was biased against him and he called the state attorney general who brought the case a “political hack.” The testy exchanges underscored Trump’s unwillingness to adapt his famously freewheeling rhetorical style to a formal courtroom setting governed by rules of evidence and legal protocol.
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Starbucks increases US hourly wages and adds other benefits for non-union workers
SEATTLE (AP) — Starbucks is increasing pay and benefits for most U.S. hourly workers after ending its fiscal year with record sales. But the company said Monday that unionized workers won’t be eligible for some of those perks, a sign of the continuing tension between the Seattle coffee giant and the union trying to organize its U.S. stores. The National Labor Relations Board says least 366 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since 2021. But Starbucks and the Workers United union have yet to reach a labor agreement at any of those stores. Starbucks plans to increase wages starting Jan. 1.
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WeWork stock halted as rumors swirl about bankruptcy preparations for the office sharing company
NEW YORK (AP) — Trading in shares of WeWork has been halted as rumors swirl that the office sharing company, once valued as high as $47 billion, will seek bankruptcy protection. The specter of bankruptcy has hovered over WeWork for some time. Over the summer, the New York company sounded the alarm over its ability to remain in business and later announced plans to renegotiate nearly all of its leases. But cracks had begun to emerge several years ago. WeWork is paying the price for aggressive expansion in its early years. Shares of WeWork, which cost more than $400 two years ago, can now be had for less than $1.
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Orsted wants out of $300M forfeiture for scrapped New Jersey offshore wind farms
OCEAN CITY, N.J. (AP) — Offshore wind power company Orsted is trying to get out of a $300 million guarantee it agreed to pay New Jersey in the event it failed to build its first wind farm off the state’s coast. Last Tuesday, the Danish firm scrapped its Ocean Wind I and II projects in southern New Jersey, saying the projects were no longer financially feasible. In a letter to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Orsted said it was backing out of a deal to forfeit the money if it did not build Ocean Wind I. Orsted says it can do so because the state had not given final approval to the agreement.
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The S&P 500 rose 7.64 points, or 0.2%, to 4,365.98. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 34.54 points, or 0.1%, to 34,095.86. The Nasdaq composite added 40.50 points, or 0.3%, to 13,518.78. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 22.77 points, or 1.3% to 1,737.94.