Billionaire hedge fund founder turned environmental warrior Tom Steyer, a leading Democratic candidate for California governor, is facing mounting questions about how he earned his wealth — notably investments in private prisons that are now being used to house undocumented immigrants facing deportation. Some of the most vicious political attacks come from his Democratic rivals…
Victims of the January 2025 wildfires unhappy with how insurers have handled their claims have filed lawsuits, protested and complained to local and state officials. This week, they got support from an unexpected ally: President Trump. “It was brought to my attention that the Insurance Companies, in particular, State Farm, have been absolutely horrible to…
As the office market bottoms out after a long fall, renters are swooping in to buy their own buildings. Occupant businesses are seizing the opportunity to become owners, especially in downtown Los Angeles, where glittering high-rises have plummeted in value since occupancy dropped during the pandemic. It has never fully recovered, but investors believe the…
Bryan Marsh was booed by the crowd as he approached the podium in Monterey Park’s City Hall. Things weren’t going as planned. In front of a wall of people holding “No Data Center” placards, he outlined how his company, Australia’s HMC StratCap, invested tens of millions of dollars and became the city’s largest landowner after…
Summer travel will be more expensive and some airlines could go out of business as the war in Iran continues to drive oil prices up. Airlines across the world have been grappling with higher jet fuel prices since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran late last month. Customers are already facing higher fares. United…
A Los Angeles jury dealt a blow to social media giants Meta and YouTube this week when it found that the platforms were negligent for designing addictive features that harmed the mental health of a California woman. Both companies plan to appeal, but the ruling has ignited uncertainty around the tech companies’ future and sparked…
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday made it harder for music and movie makers to sue for online piracy, ruling that internet providers are usually not liable for copyright infringement even if they know their users are downloading copyrighted works. In a 9-0 decision, the justices threw out Sony’s lawsuit and a $1-billion jury verdict against…
Artificial intelligence powerhouse Anthropic’s battle with the Pentagon has sparked some soul-searching in Silicon Valley that could reshape the tech sector’s complicated relationship with war and the White House. Anthropic is the San Francisco-based startup behind the chatbot Claude and some of the most powerful AI on the market. In its negotiations with the military,…