Stocks ended higher on Wall Street Wednesday, bringing the S&P 500 to the brink of another record high
Business
Local, state and national business news from the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.
Lower-income Americans starting to opt out of holiday spending
A survey released Wednesday shows that 11.5 percent of U.S. holiday shoppers say they plan not to spend anything on gifts and services this holiday
Walgreens begins testing drone delivery in Texas
Walgreens will begin flying packages by drone to residents in a pair of Texas cities in partnership with Google’s drone-making affiliate, Wing
Gates Foundation to spend $120 million on access for COVID-19 pill
The foundation says it wants to boost access to generic versions of drugmaker Merck’s antiviral COVID-19 pill for lower income countries, if the drug gets approved by regulators,
Fed survey finds economy facing supply chain, other drags
The Federal Reserve reports that the economy was facing a number of headwinds at the start of this month from supply chain disruptions and labor shortages to uncertainty about the delta variant of COVID.
Food shortages are the next supply-chain crunch
There’s plenty of food but transportation delays are rising.
Businesses nervously await fine print of vax-or-test rule
The regulation covers about 80 million U.S. workers
Gov. Mills picks industry leader to head new state broadband agency
The organization Andrew Butcher would lead is tasked with expanding access to broadband internet service in Maine.
Beef industry tries to erase its emissions with fuzzy methane math
In the U.S., ranches, farms and feedyards generate about 243 million tons of heat-trapping gases annually – more than five times as much as an equivalent amount of pork or chicken.
Facebook paying fine to settle allegations it favored foreign workers over U.S. labor
It is the largest civil penalty and backpay award ever recovered by the civil rights division in the 35-year history of enforcing anti-discrimination rules under the Immigration and Nationality Act, officials said.