Business and Economic News

Number of laid-off workers seeking jobless aid stuck at 1.3M
Unemployment remains painfully high in the U.S. even as economic activity slowly picks up. That reality will be on display Thursday morning when the U.S. government releases data on the number of laid off workers who sought unemployment benefits last week, as well as how retailers did in June.
NPR radio ratings collapse as pandemic ends listeners' commutes
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the public broadcaster lost about a quarter of its radio audience in the second quarter of 2020, compared with a year earlier. Even so, digital audiences surged.
Walz announces $100 million in COVID-19 housing aid
The $100 million is the state’s single biggest designation of federal COVID-19 relief funds, along with $26 million previously designated for emergency homeless aid. 
 3M developing paper-based coronavirus test that could give results in minutes
Maplewood-based 3M says it is working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a point-of-care test for the COVID-19 that could make diagnosing infections nearly as simple as a home pregnancy test.
Small businesses worldwide fight for survival amid pandemic
As economies around the world reopen, legions of small businesses that help to define and sustain neighborhoods are struggling. Whether they can survive will have reverberations not just for the economy but for the communities where they serve as gathering places and provide key services.
The customer is always right. Except when they won't wear a mask
In the age of COVID-19, most people follow social-distancing and mask-wearing guidelines when they enter retail stores and restaurants. But then there are the nightmare customers who won't comply.
Minnesota AG's office settles with Frontier Communications
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says his office has settled an investigation into possible deceptive practices in Frontier Communications' billing and sale of internet services. Frontier agreed to fully disclose its prices for internet service to new customers before they take service.