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Early tax prep can buy you relief

Every year, tax day sneaks up in a hurry. Whether you use tax preparation software or outsource to a certified public accountant, here are some key strategies to ensure a smooth and worry-free tax season. Use a tax checklist Using a tax checklist or organizer can help you avoid that paper chase and assemble all the key documents in advance; completing your return is then a matter of filling in data. Tax checklists abound online. If you use an accountant, it’s a good bet they send you a tax organizer, either paper or digital; such forms often come prepopulated with your tax data ...

Trade with Cuba collapses as Trump steps up pressure

MIAMI — The Cuban Communist Party has shown an astonishing resilience over six decades in power. Whether it’s the United States trade embargo to counter Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, or the widespread starvation of the “special period” that followed the breakup of its Cold War patron, the Soviet Union, both U.S. hostilities and calamities of its own making have proven no match for the country’s leadership. But perhaps none of those crises pose as grave a threat as the one triggered by an all-but-declared naval siege by the Trump administration as it seeks to force ...

Briefcase: Business news of local interest

PITTSBURGH Peoples looks to drop rates Peoples Natural Gas Company LLC is filing a request with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to decrease natural gas rates as of Oct. 1. Peoples Natural Gas has requested an overall gas cost decrease of $131 million per year. If the company’s entire request is approved, the total bill for a residential customer using 86 Mcf per year would decrease from $122.20 to $106.94 per month or by 12.5%. The PUC will examine the requested rate change and can prevent existing rates from changing until it investigates and/or holds hearings on ...

High oil prices erase Street’s hopes for cut to interest rates

NEW YORK — Another climb for oil prices shook stock markets on Friday, as hopes collapsed for a possible cut to interest rates this year by the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 fell 1.5% to close its fourth straight losing week, its longest such streak in a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 443 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2%. The market’s losses deepened after oil prices erased an early dip and accelerated in the afternoon. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 3.3% to settle at $112.19 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 2.3% to $98.32 ...

Oil continues climb, shakes market

NEW YORK — A roller-coaster day for oil prices showed how they’re dictating where financial markets and maybe even the global economy are heading. Stocks tumbled in Europe and Asia when oil prices shot higher early on Thursday, but U.S. stocks pared their sharp losses as the day progressed and oil prices fell back. The morning began with the shock of Brent crude, the international standard, briefly rising above $119 per barrel, up from roughly $70 before the war with Iran began. The jump followed intensified attacks by Iran on oil and gas facilities around the Persian Gulf in ...

Nvidia’s DLSS 5 the subject of memes, gamer backlash

Upgraded graphics in video games sound like they would be popular amongst players and enthusiasts, but Nvidia is finding that the opposite appears to be true with its latest tech. The company announced at a conference Monday that the new version of its artificial intelligence technology designed to boost performance will enable game developers to deliver “photoreal computer graphics previously only achieved in Hollywood visual effects.” DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is Nvidia’s image enhancement technology. First released in 2018, the technology was initially used to ...