GANNETT PROFILE

By Kelly Tyko USA Today It’s no secret that kids — and cats — like to play with cardboard boxes, sometimes more than with what’s inside. Amazon is introducing boxes with a built-in play factor. Start... Read More

By Susan Tompor Detroit Free Press As pandemic emergency relief draws to a close for some renters and others, many struggling consumers could be tempted to cover a few bills by pulling out some old, little-used credit cards.  ... Read More

By Kelly Tyko USA Today Southeastern Grocers, parent company of Bi-Lo, Winn-Dixie and Harveys supermarkets, is reversing course and says it will require that shoppers wear masks in its hundreds of stores throughout the Southern ... Read More

By Dalvin Brown USA Today Videos keep cropping up of anti-mask customers acting irrationally at supermarkets, putting workers and shoppers in awkward or unsafe predicaments. In one of the latest videos, a Costco customer who wasn&... Read More

By Steve Kiggins USA Today The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been scrapped after years of legal challenges and construction delays. The project’s developers, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, announced the pipeline&rsq... Read More

Dalvin Brown USA Today Kris Christian, a small-business owner in Chicago, was mourning the death of George Floyd when she was hit with an onslaught of online orders that caught her off guard. The owner of Chicago French Press was ... Read More

Mealand Ragland-Hudgins Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Daily News Journal Home decor retailer Old Time Pottery has started Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in order to restructure its finances. Based in Murfreesboro, Tenn., the company sai... Read More

By Charisse Jones USA Today Vinny Zuehlsdorff got his CPR certification in January, eager to get a job as a lifeguard this summer so he could sock away money for college in the fall. But with the pool closed because of the COVID-1... Read More

Fireworks sales booming nationwide because of COVID-19 By Kelly Tyko USA Today The next COVID-19 shortage could end up being fireworks. With cities across the nation canceling public displays this Independence Day, sales of fir... Read More

By Charisse Jones USA Today Fewer Americans are seeking unemployment benefits, but the number who need help remains high as the country haltingly reopens its economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. Workers filed 1.48 million first ... Read More

By Nathan Bomey USA Today All those Chuck E. Cheese tokens and tickets you’ve been hoarding are still good for now, but you might not have a local Chuck E. Cheese where you can use them anymore. CEC Entertainment, the pa... Read More

By Brett Molina USA Today Money spent in restaurants and supermarkets could offer insight into how fast or slow the coronavirus pandemic may spread. According to a note from Jesse Edgerton, an economist with JPMorgan Chase, the le... Read More

Adam Shell Special to USA Today In the eyes of Realtor Deborah Baisden’s client, a 65-year-old retired banker, the renovated waterfront home in Virginia Beach, Va., for just under $700,000 checked all the boxes. But Bais... Read More

Coral Murphy USA Today Verizon will launch a mentoring program aimed at providing female entrepreneurs and business owners with a network of female business leaders to coach them on navigating a COVID-19 reality. This is according... Read More

Jessica Guynn USA Today Joel Stallworth is smiling in front of his tiny boarded-up shop in downtown Los Angeles. He’s wearing a black T-shirt he designed not long after looters swarmed through the smashed door and carried o... Read More

By Jefferson Graham USA Today T.J. Leonard likes to kick off every Monday morning with an all-hands meeting, to keep his 100-plus employees of the Storyblocks video production assistance company up to date on the latest. And even ... Read More

By Jefferson Graham USA Today With many of us trying to find new ways to make working at home palatable during a pandemic, you’ve got to love Jeremiah Owyang’s solution. The independent tech analyst needed space to... Read More

By Kelly Tyko USA Today Starbucks will close up to 400 company-owned locations over the next 18 months while also speeding up the expansion of “convenience-led formats” such as curbside pickup, drive-thru and mobile-only ... Read More

By Kelly Tyko USA Today Businesses, homes and cars damaged or vandalized in the uprisings and civil unrest after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis will be covered by most insurance policies. With few exceptions, au... Read More

By Michael Braga USA Today Elizabeth Anderson is the kind of person who goes out of her way to help people in need. Old folks stuck at home? She’ll clean their bathrooms and vacuum their carpets. Neighbors with hungry kids? ... Read More

By Dalvin Brown USA Today Yelp is making it easier for users to locate black-owned businesses amid renewed calls for racial equality in America. The app known for crowd-sourced reviews is launching a tool within the next two weeks... Read More

Peter Pham has been calling his contacts lately.  He misses his favorite part of attending conferences: working the room. So, in the middle of a pandemic, he’s keeping touch the old-fashioned way — by reachin... Read More

By Nathan Bomey USA Today A deep dive into the jobs report released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides clues on why the numbers turned out better than expected. The sharp improvement in jobs figures fr... Read More

By Jessica Menton USA Today Wells Fargo, one of the largest lenders for purchases of new and used cars, is no longer making auto loans to most independent car dealerships, a sign the bank is concerned about defaults in the wake o... Read More

By Max Garland Memphis Commercial Appeal FedEx’s business-to-business traffic fell significantly in the U.S. as COVID-19 lockdown measures across the country took effect, Chairman and CEO Fred Smith said in a livestreamed ... Read More

By Mitch Albom Detroit Free Press We are facing a new silent enemy. One that could take us down quickly. It is not COVID-19. It is our patience. Americans are not a patient people. Our news cycle is 24 hours; a big story... Read More

By Jessica Menton USA TODAY Even with the economy freezing up and layoffs surging, there are hopeful signs for recovery following this sudden collapse in American commerce caused by COVID-19. Stocks posted their best month sin... Read More

By Nathan Bomey USA TODAY Handshaking is a key part of Michelle Ngome’s networking game as a marketing professional. Which is why Ngome, president of the African American Marketing Association and host of the “Net... Read More

By Jefferson Graham USA Today Your favorite restaurant, now closed or only accepting take out orders due to the coronavirus, may never reopen, according to a top exec with reservation service OpenTable. Steve Hafner, CEO ... Read More