SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Nichole Mason first became concerned when she learned administrators at her children's public school were allowing transgender students to use girls' bathrooms. Her frustrations mounted when she felt her children's next school went too far with how they enforced COVID regulations during the pandemic.
Restaurants are beginning the new year with a recurring problem: labor shortages.
Chipotle said Thursday it’s looking to hire 15,000 people in North America to ensure its stores are staffed up ahead of its busy spring season.
For the past couple of years, hotel and airline loyalty programs have extended elite status in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But in 2023, that’s coming to an end. A tsunami of downgrades will wipe out some travelers’ elite status because pandemic-era offers are expiring and loyalty programs are upping the qualification requirements.
CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AP) — Just a handful of Chinese visitors were posing for photos and basking in the sun this week in the market and plazas near Chiang Mai’s ancient Tha Phae Gate, one of many tourist hotspots still waiting for millions of Chinese travelers to return.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A former Virginia Parole Board chair violated state policy and law in her handling of cases at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and could have faced criminal charges if not for the statute of limitations, the state's attorney general said Wednesday.
Boeing said Wednesday it lost $663 million in the fourth quarter as higher production costs and supply-chain problems offset rising revenue.
It was another disappointing quarter for the aerospace giant, which has yet to recover from deadly crashes involving two of its 737 Max jets and a pandemic that depressed airline demand for new planes until recently.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Chris Hipkins was sworn in Wednesday as New Zealand's 41st prime minister, following the unexpected resignation last week of Jacinda Ardern.
In a country with more guns than people — and one emerging from three years of isolation, stress and infighting amid the pandemic — Americans are beginning 2023 with a steady barrage of mass slaughter.
NEW YORK (AP) — One day in January, a once-regular customer at Fuel Training Studio in Newburyport, Massachusetts, stopped in to take a “shred” class. She hadn’t stepped foot in the gym since before the pandemic.
BANGKOK (AP) — Growing numbers of people in Asia lack enough to eat as food insecurity rises with higher prices and worsening poverty, according to a report released Tuesday by the Food and Agricultural Organization and other United Nations agencies.
LONDON (AP) — Music streaming service Spotify said Monday it's cutting 6% of its global workforce, or about 600 jobs, becoming yet another tech company forced to rethink its pandemic-era expansion as the economic outlook weakens.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to name Jeff Zients, who ran the administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of Biden's term, as his next chief of staff, according to two people familiar with the matter.
BEIJING (AP) — People across China rang in the Lunar New Year on Sunday with large family gatherings and crowds visiting temples after the government lifted its strict “zero-COVID” policy, marking the biggest festive celebration since the pandemic began three years ago.
DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — A direct flight from China landed in Indonesia’s resort island of Bali for the first time in nearly three years on Sunday after the route was suspended due to the pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — After the relative quiet of the pandemic, New York City has come roaring back. Just listen: Jackhammers. Honking cars and trucks. Rumbling subway trains. Sirens. Shouting.
Over the years, there have been numerous efforts to quiet the cacophony.
The Navajo Nation has rescinded a mask mandate that's been in effect since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, officials announced Friday, fulfilling a pledge that new tribal President Buu Nygren made while campaigning for the office.
Supporters of taxes on the very rich contend that people are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic with a bigger appetite for what they’re calling “tax justice.”
Bills announced Thursday in California, New York, Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Washington and Connecticut vary in their approaches to hiking taxes, but all revolve around the idea that the richest Americans need to pay more.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Nordstrom are slipping in early trading after the upscale department store chain cut its annual profit outlook amid lackluster holiday sales that forced it to slash prices.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Still fuming over pandemic-era shutdowns, Kentucky Republicans are pushing to obtain behind-the-scenes correspondence that Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and his inner circle had about school closures at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — More than half a million New Mexicans will see the amount of money they have to spend on groceries each month shrink significantly when the U.S. government cuts off extra aid that had been doled out during the coronavirus pandemic.
Microsoft is cutting 10,000 workers, almost 5% of its workforce, joining other tech companies that have scaled back their pandemic-era expansions.
The CEO of United Airlines said Wednesday that other airlines won’t be able to handle all the flights they plan to operate this year, leading to more disruptions for travelers.
Scott Kirby said airlines that operate as if this is still 2019, before the pandemic, are bound to struggle.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sales for the holiday 2022 season slowed more than expected from its blistering pace a year ago as higher borrowing costs and higher inflation made shoppers pull back, according to the nation's largest retail trade group.
LONDON (AP) — Formula One confirmed Tuesday that it will not replace the canceled Chinese Grand Prix, leaving the 2023 season at what is still a record 23 races.
The race in Shanghai was canceled for the fourth straight year in December, when China had some of the toughest pandemic-related restrictions of any country.
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona State had mojo on its side, a roster full of sharpshooting, freewheeling players veering toward a third straight NCAA Tournament for the first time in five decades.
The pandemic stopped the Sun Devils, like everything else, in their tracks.
Delta Air Lines said Friday that it earned $828 million in the fourth quarter and that consumers are still snapping up flights and making purchases with their airline-branded credit cards.
The Atlanta-based airline said momentum has carried over into the new year, as the travel industry continues to recover from the worst of the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as 7,000 nurses return to work at two of New York’s busiest hospitals after a three-day strike, colleagues around the country say it’s just a matter of time before frontline workers at other hospitals begin walking the picket line.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Cameron Norrie will play in the final of the ASB Classic for the second time in four years after beating American Jenson Brooksby 6-3, 6-4 in a semifinal Friday.
Norrie also was a finalist in 2019 when he lost the championship match to American Tennys Sandgren.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday launched an online appointment system as the only way for migrants to get exceptions from pandemic-era limits on asylum — the U.S. government's latest major step in eight days to overhaul border enforcement.
DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines raised its forecast of fourth-quarter revenue and profit Thursday, boosted by higher fares and full planes capped off with a busy holiday travel period.
American earned $1.12 to $1.17 per share in the fourth quarter, nearly double its previous forecast.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Dr. Nirav Shah, the director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention who became the face of the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is leaving for a high-ranking post in federal disease control, officials said Thursday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The biggest companies have less of a stranglehold on the stock market — and likely on your 401(k).
The 10 most valuable U.S. stocks now account for less than a quarter of the S&P 500, 24.4%.
BERLIN (AP) — Travelers whose package tours were ruined by the imposition of restrictions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic may be entitled to at least a partial refund, the European Union's highest court said Thursday.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Dr. Val Arkoosh, an anesthesiologist who led Pennsylvania’s third-most populous county through the pandemic before mounting a failed run for U.S. Senate, will be nominated to lead the sprawling Department of Human Services under the incoming Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Former Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak will join the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics as a Pritzker fellow, where he will lead seminars on leadership based on lessons learned as governor, the university announced Wednesday.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — State and local governments will soon gain new flexibility to spend billions of federal coronavirus relief dollars on things not directly related to the pandemic, including new roads and bridges and aid to people affected by wildfires, floods and other natural disasters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers no longer have to walk through metal detectors before gaining access to the House floor. And any time they do vote, they will have to do so in person — no more voting by proxy from home.
BANGKOK (AP) — Three Cabinet ministers welcomed Chinese tourists with flowers and gifts as they arrived Monday at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport after China relaxed travel restrictions.
The high-profile event reflected the importance Thailand places on wooing back Chinese travelers to help restore its pandemic-battered tourism industry — before COVID-19 struck, they comprised about one-third of all arrivals.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Thousands of Catholic devotees, many donning protective masks and bearing candles, joined a night procession through downtown Manila early Sunday to venerate a centuries-old black statue of Jesus Christ, which was not paraded to discourage an even larger crowd amid lingering fears of COVID-19.
Joan Cohrs missed her chance to grab a prescription at her usual drugstore by about 30 seconds.
Cohrs walked up to the counter of an Indianapolis CVS pharmacy shortly after a metal curtain descended, closing it for lunch.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans kicked off its annual Carnival season Friday, a weekslong celebration of joyous street parties, lavish balls and colorful parades — complicated this year by concerns over crime and a depleted police force that last year forced a shortening of Mardi Gras parade routes.