Breaking News

Local Business

Briefcase: Peoples seeking base rate increase

Peoples Natural Gas has filed a request with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission for a base rate increase to support its Long-Term Infrastructure Improvement Plan, among other operations and safety initiatives. The company’s LTIIP involves the retirement and replacement of aging pipelines while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Peoples’ base rate request also provides for the recovery of the company’s ongoing business costs. The request requires investigation and approval by the PUC, which may approve all, some or none of Peoples’ request. The rate review process can ...

Ticker: US stocks swing through shaky day as oil climbs

U.S. stocks swung as oil prices kept climbing because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran could end. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% Monday and deepened its loss since the war began to pull 9.1% below its record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.7%. Caution was prevalent throughout markets. After jumping to an initial gain of 0.9%, the S&P 500 quickly erased nearly all of it before seesawing lower. Indexes rose in Europe but fell sharply in some Asian markets, while the price of U.S. oil topped $100 per barrel. Kosovo struggles as Iran war ...

EU targeting Snapchat over child safety

LONDON — European Union regulators are investigating Snapchat over concerns the platform isn’t doing enough to protect kids and exposing them to risks such as increased vulnerability to child predators or recruitment by criminals. The 27-nation EU’s executive Commission said Thursday it was opening a formal investigation into Snapchat under the bloc’s sweeping rule book known as the Digital Services Act that’s designed to protect internet users. The European Commission said that Snapchat requires users to be at least 13 to use the platform but it suspected that the ...

Wall Street drops again to close 5th straight losing week

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks deepened their drops Friday as Wall Street finished off a fifth straight losing week, its longest such streak in nearly four years. The S&P 500 fell 1.7% to close its worst week since the war with Iran began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 793 points, or 1.7%, and fell more than 10% from its record set last month, while the Nasdaq composite sank 2.1%. The losses were a break from Wall Street’s pattern this week, where the U.S. stock market flip-flopped from gains to losses each day as hopes rose and fell about a possible end to the war. Moments ...

Study: AI giving bad advice to flatter users

Artificial intelligence chatbots are so prone to flattering and validating their human users that they are giving bad advice that can damage relationships and reinforce harmful behaviors, according to a new study that explores the dangers of AI telling people what they want to hear. The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, tested 11 leading AI systems and found they all showed varying degrees of sycophancy — behavior that was overly agreeable and affirming. The problem is not just that they dispense inappropriate advice but that people trust and prefer AI more when the ...