Retail Sales Up Slightly In June After May Drop

Many areas in North Carolina were hit hard by the storm, including Spruce Pine, an area crucial to the semiconductor industry. Hurricane Helene’s path of destruction last week is still being felt in a number of states and the long-term impacts of the storm are still being assessed. Over 100 people have been reported dead from the storm so far (a number that’s expected to increase) and an untold number of homes were destroyed.

The coming work stoppage threatens to significantly snarl the nation’s supply chain, potentially leading to higher prices and delays for households and businesses if it drags on for weeks. The union representing U. S. dockworkers has signaled that 45,000 members will walk off the job at midnight, kicking off a massive strike likely to shut down ports across the East and Gulf coasts.

A merger of Kroger and Albertsons would cost Colorado consumers as much as $500 million a year because of a lack of competition, a lawyer from the Colorado Attorney General’s office argued Monday at the start of the state’s trial seeking to block the grocery chains from combining. Together, the two companies account for at least 50% of all the supermarket sales in Colorado, said Arthur Biller with the attorney general’s office.

New research funded by Amazon but conducted independently by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology looks at AI from the worker’s perspective. Is AI going to take your job? Getting replaced by automation may be a common fear for many employees, but perhaps surprisingly, many also see the potential benefits—and they feel it may benefit them in the long run.

Faced with a choice between investing more in its new wireless business, which needs additional capital and time to catch on with consumers, or holding onto its legacy satellite and streaming television services, which generate cash but are shrinking, Englewood-based EchoStar Corp. has decided to go all in on wireless. Long-time rival DirecTV on Monday said it will pay $1 and assume $9.75 billion in EchoStar debt to acquire Dish Network and its Sling TV streaming service.

Global online sports betting company bet365 has opened its new U. S. headquarters in Denver, according to a Monday morning announcement by Gov. Jared Polis and the Global Business Development Division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. The U. K.-based company, which doesn’t capitalize the first letter in its name, is focusing on growing brand awareness within the U.