Features

A Florida city agreed to pay $600,000 in ransom to hackers who took over its computer system, the latest in thousands of attacks worldwide aimed at extorting money from governments and businesses.

The Latest on an environmental rule covering coal-fired power plants (all times local): 10:35 a.m.

The Trump administration is close to completing one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules.

Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. officials say the utility discovered around 1,000 high-priority safety risks on its transmission lines and distribution poles during several months of inspections and most have been fixed.

The Democratic-controlled House has passed a $1 trillion spending bill that amounts to an opening bid in a guns vs. butter fight with the Trump administration.

Facebook is getting a taste of the regulatory pushback it will face as it creates a new digital currency with corporate partners.

The homeless crisis in Los Angeles is reaching a boiling point with 36,000 homeless people, a 16 percent increase over the last year.

President Donald Trump has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to economist Arthur Laffer, whose theories on tax cuts have guided Republican policy since the 1980s.

Maine lawmakers began their last scheduled day of legislative work Wednesday by hoping to tie up work on marijuana sales, renewable energy and online sports betting.

The Federal Reserve seems poised to pivot from keeping interest rates steady to holding out the option of cutting rates if it were to decide that the economic expansion needs support.

General Motors is trying to avoid recalling potentially deadly Takata air bag inflators in thousands of full-size pickup trucks and SUVs for the fourth straight year, leaving owners to wonder if vehicles are safe to drive.

The sponsor of a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana in New York says the proposal will not pass this session.

___ Fed leaves its key rate unchanged but hints of future cuts WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged but signaled that it's prepared to start cutting rates if needed to protect the U.S. economy from trade conflicts and other threats.

These days, the news about local news seems relentlessly bad: Newsroom employment, down by nearly half over the past 15 years.

Mario Draghi is credited with saving the euro through decisive action as president of the European Central Bank.

Stocks rose modestly on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve reaffirmed that it is prepared to cut interest rates if needed to shore up the economy.

The president of the pilots' union at American Airlines says Boeing made mistakes in its design of the 737 Max and not telling pilots about new flight-control software on the plane.

Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily on Wednesday: Adobe Systems Inc., up $14.43 to $291.21

A group led by St. Louis Blues chairman Tom Stillman now owns 100 percent of the reigning Stanley Cup champions.

The Federal Trade Commission is in the late stages of an investigation into how Google's YouTube handles children's videos, a probe prompted by complaints that the company failed to protect kids who used the service and improperly collected their data.