By Sally French | NerdWallet At the airport, long lines for check-in, security screenings and even getting food can feel like a giant waste of time — and potentially disrupt even the most meticulously planned itinerary. But with planning, you can skip some of the most annoying lines, and in some cases, get reimbursed if the line-skipping privilege requires an application fee. Here are five common airport bottlenecks and how to avoid them for free or cheap. 1. Check in It is the year 2024, which means there’s a mobile version of all sorts of travel services. That includes the ability to check i ..read more

By Chris Isidore | CNN Renee Berry has been working at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee since 2010, shortly after it opened, long enough to see the majority of her co-workers twice vote against joining the United Auto Workers union. She thinks the third vote taking place this week will be different. “It’s a totally different ball game,” she said. “The atmosphere is different. You see more pro-union than anti-union [workers]. A whole lot of people who were anti-union in the past have switched.” The union vote at the Volkswagen plant will mean more than whether the 4,300 hourly wor ..read more

PALO ALTO — Tech companies have revealed plans to chop hundreds more jobs in the Bay Area, in an unsettling reminder that the crucial industry’s layoffs have yet to run their course. SAP America and Checkr, both software companies, have decided to slash 368 jobs in two Bay Area locations, officials notices on file with the state Employment Development Department show. Here are the details of the latest job cuts, their location, and their proposed timing, based on posts on the EDD’s website: — Checkr is cutting 260 jobs in San Francisco. Checkr supplies a software platform to conduct background ..read more

By Wyatte Grantham-Philips | Associated Press NEW YORK — Sometime in the next few days or even hours, the “miners” who chisel bitcoins out of complex mathematics are going to take a 50% pay cut — effectively slicing new production of the world’s largest cryptocurrency in half. That could have a lot of implications, from the price of the asset to the bitcoin miners themselves. And, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict.Here’s what you need to know. WHAT IS BITCOIN HALVING AND WHY DOES IT MATTER? Bitcoin “halving,” a preprogrammed event that occurs roughly ..read more

By Alex Tanzi | Bloomberg Almost half of households in Riverside, California, can’t afford usual expenses and about a third had trouble paying an energy bill in the last year, according to a Census Bureau survey. Among the 15 largest US metro areas, Riverside had the highest share of respondents facing key measures of financial stress. In addition, one in seven said there was sometimes or often not enough to eat at home in the previous seven days, the latest Census household pulse survey shows. Located about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, Riverside is at the heart of a warehousing-industry hub ..read more

Maria Halkias | (TNS) The Dallas Morning News Walmart, the largest U.S. employer with a workforce of 1.6 million, is slowly building a network of in-store clinics, believing it has a place in America’s health care system. Next week the largest U.S. retailer will open two health clinics in DeSoto and Fort Worth targeting seniors and families with services for comprehensive primary care, behavioral health and dental care. Ten clinics will be open this summer in Dallas, Fort Worth, Garland, Mesquite, North Richland Hills and Plano. Eight more are in the works around Houston. Health care has to be ..read more

Electric rates, gas rates, water rates — they go up. And up. And up. Policing these regularly scheduled consumer agonies — or rubber-stamping them, as critics often charge — is the job of the California Public Utilities Commission. This powerful regulator is charged with ensuring that rate hikes and policy decisions are fair and justified. Not sure the PUC is up to the task alone? Layers have been built in to the system to keep a watchful eye on the regulator that’s supposed to keep a watchful eye on the utilities. The first layer is the PUC’s Division of Public Advocates, which we call the in ..read more

By Lisa Respers France | CNN One thing about Taylor Swift is she will rip her own heart open and spill the blood in the form of her song lyrics. Welcome to “The Tortured Poets Department.” Her latest music continues Swift’s tradition of sharing insight about her feelings and relationships in her songs. The double album seems to splill quite a bit of tea, and the Swifties can’t drink it fast enough. Let’s take a look at a few of the songs and who her diehard-fan base has determined they are about. “The Tortured Poets Department” The title track could easily be thought to be about British actor ..read more

By Craig Trudell | Bloomberg Tesla recalled 3,878 Cybertruck pickups to rework or replace accelerator pedals that can dislodge and cause the vehicle to unintentionally accelerate, increasing risk of a crash. The carmaker received notice of two customer claims related to the issue, according to a recall report submitted to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The company said that when high force is applied to the Cybertruck’s accelerator, the pedal may dislodge and become trapped by interior trim. Related Articles Business | Pepper balls fired at Gaza war protesters near Te ..read more

The job markets in the Bay Area and California powered to robust job gains in March, a hiring upswing that — for now — ward off the dismal job losses that the nine-county region and the state suffered in February. The Bay Area gained 4,200 jobs in March, an increase fueled by hiring surges in the South Bay and the East Bay, according to a new government report. The Port of Oakland in a drone view, April 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) The March job gains in the Bay Area represented a welcome counterpoint to the loss of 3,500 jobs in the nine-county region in February. The South Bay ..read more