___
McCarthy rejects Senate spending bill while scrambling for a House plan that averts a shutdown
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is digging in on his refusal to take up Senate legislation designed to keep the federal government fully running beyond midnight Saturday. He’s also acknowledging that stark divisions within his own conference hamper that chamber’s ability to do its job. Congress is at a crossroads days before a disruptive federal shutdown. It would halt paychecks for millions of federal workers, including 2 million active-duty military troops and reservists, and close down many federal offices. The White House, meanwhile, is telling its workers to prepare for a shutdown, according to communications obtained by The Associated Press.
___
US government estimates economy grew last quarter at a 2.1% rate, unchanged from previous projection
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a 2.1% annual pace from April through June, extending its sturdy performance in the face of higher interest rates, the government said Thursday, leaving its previous estimate unchanged. The second-quarter expansion of the nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — marked a modest deceleration from the economy’s 2.2% annual growth from January through March. Consumer spending, business investment and state and local government outlays drove the second-quarter economic expansion. The economy and job market have shown surprising resilience even as the Federal Reserve has dramatically raised interest rates to combat inflation, which last year hit a four-decade high. ___
Food prices are rising as countries limit exports. Blame climate change, El Nino and Russia’s war
Restrictions on food exports are spilling over from rice and wheat to other essentials. This ranges from Tanzania’s limits on shipping onions to its neighbors and Morocco’s restrictions on tomatoes to ongoing bans of some kinds of rice in Asia. Countries are trying to protect their own supplies as the combined effect of the war in Ukraine, El Nino’s threat to food production and the increasing damage from climate change takes a toll. Experts say food stocks that the world is able to draw on have diminished in the past two years and that increased volatility is now the “new normal.”
___
Court rejects Donald Trump’s bid to delay trial in wake of fraud ruling that threatens his business
NEW YORK (AP) — An appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s bid to delay a civil trial in a lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general. Thursday’s decision by the state’s intermediate appellate court allows the case to proceed days after a judge ruled the former president committed years of fraud and stripped him of some companies as punishment. The decision clears the way for Judge Arthur Engoron to preside over a non-jury trial starting Monday in Manhattan in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil lawsuit. Trump is listed among dozens of possible witnesses, setting up a potential courtroom showdown with the judge whose fraud ruling threatens to upend his real estate empire.
___
Inside scientists’ mission to save America’s wine industry from climate change
ALPINE, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. West Coast produces over 90% of America’s wine, but it’s also prone to wildfires — a combustible combination that spelled disaster in 2020 for the industry and one that scientists are scrambling to neutralize. Sample a good wine and you might get notes of oak or red fruit. But sip on wine made from grapes that were penetrated by smoke, and it will likely taste like someone dumped an ashtray into your glass. Wine experts from three West Coast universities are working to meet the threat, including developing spray coatings to protect grapes, pinpointing elusive compounds that creates that nasty ashy taste and deploying smoke sensors to vineyards.
___
Stock market today: Wall Street ticks higher as pressure eases from the bond and oil markets
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street ticked higher to trim its sharp loss for September after pressure squeezing it from the oil and bond markets relaxed a bit. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% Thursday. The Dow gained 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.8%. A drop in oil prices took some heat off the stock market, a day after crude reached its highest price of the year. Treasury yields also relaxed after giving up earlier gains from the morning to give the stock market more of a breather. Big Tech stocks in particular felt relief. Meta Platforms and Nvidia helped lead the market.
___
Billionaire Ryan Cohen takes over as CEO at GameStop, adding to chairman role
Billionaire Ryan Cohen, the largest individual investor in GameStop, is taking over as CEO at the video game retailer. Cohen is already the board chairman and the company’s largest individual investor. The CEO job at GameStop, which became one of the most well-known meme stocks to create a frenzy among retail traders on Wall Street, has become a rotating door with the company trying to survive as technology upends the gaming industry. In June, the company fired CEO Matthew Furlong, the former Amazon executive who was brought in two years ago to turn the struggling chain around. Shares of Gamestop Corp. spiked 7% Thursday before the opening bell.
___
Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service bows out as its red-and-white envelopes make their final trip
The curtain is finally coming down on Netflix’s once-iconic DVD-by-mail service, a quarter century after the birth of a concept that obliterated Blockbuster video stores while providing a springboard into video streaming that has transformed entertainment. The DVD service that has been steadily shrinking in the shadow of Netflix’s video streaming service will shut down after its five remaining distribution centers mail out their final discs Friday to the fewer than 1 million remaining subscribers. It marks the end of a service that began when a first-class stamp cost 32 cents, less than half today’s price, and went on make its red-and-white envelopes a welcome sight in mailboxes.
___
New California law raises minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour, among nation’s highest
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law raising the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour. The raise takes effect April 1. It applies to fast food restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide. It does not apply to restaurants that make and sell their own bread. California is now among the first states to have a minimum wage specifically for fast food workers. California’s minimum wage for all other workers is $15.50 per hour. That’s among the highest in the country. Newsom has not said if he would sign into law a similar wage increase for health care workers.
___
The S&P 500 rose 25.19 points, or 0.6%, to 4,299.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 116.07 points, or 0.3%, to 33,666.34. The Nasdaq composite added 108.43 points, or 0.8%, to 13,201.28. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gained 15.41 points, or 0.9% to 1,794.31.