5-ish players to watch in the first round of the College Football Playoff

  College football fans around the country are preparing to settle into their seats – most of them at home, some of them in on-campus stadiums for the first time…

Online dating is about to radically change

Personalized chatbots dating other chatbots on your behalf. AI concierges fielding questions about potential matches. Advanced algorithms predicting compatibility better than ever before. Dating apps are on the cusp of…

We dialed 1-800-ChatGPT. Here’s what happened

 1-800-CHATGPT on Wednesday, a female voice on the other end provided a recipe for chocolate chip cookies and summarized the Civil War. But the voice did not seem open to…

Starbucks workers’ union to strike on Friday in LA, Chicago and Seattle

The workers’ union representing more than 10,000 Starbucks baristas said that union members will go on strike in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle on Friday morning. Workers United, which has…

Crypto has a chance to join polite society — if it can get out of its own way

  Since the election, it’s been Christmas morning for the crypto faithful. After years of complaining that digital assets have been unfairly constrained by hostile regulators who just don’t get…

Chili’s is America’s unlikeliest restaurant comeback story

Chili’s, the 49-year casual dining chain that American diners forgot and Wall Street turned its back on, has made a stunning comeback. It’s America’s hottest restaurant chain, a sentence that…

The US housing market has had a tough year. Here’s what could save it

  America’s housing market is finishing a year of high prices, sluggish sales and elevated mortgage rates. But there are factors that could give it a boost next year. The…

Big Lots will soon start ‘going out of business’ sales at its remaining locations

Big Lots is preparing to close its remaining 963 locations after a sale to save the bankrupt retailer fell through. The company previously announced it was selling “substantially all” of its assets…

The Fed’s go-to inflation gauge ticked up less than expected last month

  The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge moved slightly higher in November — but not as much as economists were expecting, an indication that price hikes aren’t accelerating in a…

A tale of two Syrians: One finally made it back, another is too fearful to return

Ahmad Morjan was desperate to hug his mother for the first time in more than 13 years but, when he reached the door of his childhood home, he found her…