Author: Editor

The clock is ticking for some student-loan borrowers to find a new repayment plan.September 29 is the first deadline for certain borrowers to transition off the SAVE plan, a Biden-era income-driven plan that gave borrowers cheaper monthly payments and a shorter timeline to debt relief.If borrowers do not select a new plan themselves, they’ll automatically be transferred to a standard repayment plan and face the most expensive monthly payments.President Donald Trump’s administration eliminated SAVE, and beginning July 1, student-loan servicers started notifying borrowers of their 90-day timeframe to transition to a new plan. The borrowers who received those first notices…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rania Zheng, a 34-year-old former senior technical product manager at Amazon living in Bellevue, Washington. Zheng was laid off from Amazon in October 2025 and now runs her own wellness-travel business. The following has been edited for length and clarity.When I learned last October that I was being laid off from Amazon after nearly six years, I was surprised. However, it didn’t feel like the end of the world.Layoffs had become common across the tech industry. I’d heard stories from friends who had been impacted at other companies. I also didn’t…

Getting fired after a reorganization at his firm wasn’t ideal, but Marty Yabrow and his wife, Angie, wanted to make the best of it, so in 2024 they booked a three-city trip to Europe. Then, one morning while Marty was filling out a planning spreadsheet with hotels and restaurants, Angie asked out of the blue, “Why don’t we just move there instead?” Marty was quick to react.”I deleted that spreadsheet, and I started a new one,” he says.Despite some initial misgivings from their financial advisor, Marty, 68, crunched the numbers and found that it was not only financially possible but…

America’s middle class is always hustling — and now, they’re side hustling.The share of Americans with more than one job has been steadily rising for the last several years, and is still hovering at elevated levels. But the population holding multiple jobs looks different from before the pandemic, with a growing cohort of more traditionally stable Americans now seeking multiple income streams.The second job is no longer just a survival tactic for the lowest earners, or a nice income boost for the highest earners — it’s increasingly showing up for college-educated, middle-income Americans and the women of the workforce, who…

Salesforce could be on the hunt for acquisitions to beef up its AI capabilities.The software giant has recently been in talks to buy Listen Labs, an AI-powered customer research platform for around $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks have not been finalized and could ultimately be unsuccessful, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.Salesforce and Listen Labs did not respond to requests for comment.Listen Labs was founded in 2023 by Alfred Wahlforss and Florian Juengermann, who first met as undergraduates at Harvard University while building an AI avatar app that went viral, attracting…

“Spider Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey.”Sony (L) | Universal (R)Hollywood has a new summer record. The domestic box office tallied $4.76 billion in ticket sales during the period between May 1 and Sept. 7, the highest haul in cinematic history. The key moviegoing season, which starts the first weekend in May and runs through Labor Day weekend, is a pivotal piece of the theatrical calendar, typically responsible for 40% of the total annual domestic box office.The previous summer record was cemented in 2013 when films including Disney and Marvel’s “Iron Man 3,” Illumination’s “Despicable Me 2,” Warner Bros.’…

AI agents can do lots of tasks. Landing you a table at one of New York’s trendiest restaurants might not be one.JC Bahr-de Stefano, principal at Better Tomorrow Ventures, a fintech-focused VC firm, learned that after he connected an AI tool called Instinct to his Resy account in hopes of getting a reservation at 4 Charles Prime Rib, the West Village steakhouse where diners gobble up reservations within seconds of them appearing online.Instinct, which is an invite-only service at the moment, communicates with users via text. The bet was that Instinct could check for open tables at 4 Charles much…

MELBOURNE, Australia — The Los Angeles Rams will play the first-ever regular-season NFL game Down Under this week, but the team has been quietly building its profile in the country for the past five years. “We basically have full activation rights here in many ways that we would … in Los Angeles,” Kevin Demoff, president of the Rams, told CNBC. “We consider this an extension of our city, our market, our brand.” In 2021, the LA Rams purchased NFL marketing rights for the Australian market as part of the league’s Global Markets Program. It allows the team to use logos…

New York City is facing a second lawsuit from private grocers over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s city-run supermarket initiative.The latest case, filed in federal court Wednesday morning, alleges that the administration’s plan to roll out five government-funded stores will undercut local competitors in violation of US antitrust laws. The suit is led by the trade group National Supermarket Association, with backing from other retailers and private grocers.It follows a lawsuit filed last month at the state level, in which the Multicultural Business Coalition said the Mayor’s Office is creating an unfair business environment for NYC vendors. NYC businesses say they can’t…

What counts as a college town? Depends on who you ask.For some, the presence of a large public university is a non-negotiable. For others, having a large enough non-student population is an immediate disqualifier. Some towns might not have as strong a connection to their central university as others, and some might have broader historical reasons for attracting residents.Definitions vary, but under nearly all of them, Ann Arbor, Michigan, is close to what it means to be a textbook case of a college town.A recent WalletHub study ranked Ann Arbor the second-best college town in the US, behind Austin.The Midwestern…