Government

A federal grand jury in New Orleans has returned a second round of indictments in an ongoing investigation of individuals staging automobile accidents with tractor-trailers, charging 11 people on seven fraud counts in connection with two incidents from 2017.

U.S. consumer confidence dropped in August to the lowest since 2014 as consumers soured on employment and business conditions, indicating Americans are becoming despondent amid persistently high joblessness.

Hurricane Laura is poised to strengthen rapidly and come ashore along the Texas-Louisiana coast as a tree-snapping Category 3 storm, forcing residents to flee their homes despite the threat of COVID-19.

For the second week in a row, the price of diesel remained essentially flat compared with the prior week, dipping just one-tenth of a cent to $2.426 a gallon, the Energy Information Administration reported Aug. 24.

WASHINGTON — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers Aug. 24 that he has warned allies of President Donald Trump that the president’s repeated attacks on mail-in ballots are “not helpful,” but denied that recent changes at the Postal Service are linked to the November elections.

The Kansas Department of Transportation recently introduced a new program to support projects that use technology to improve mobility and safety.

Environmentalists and Alaska natives are challenging the Trump administration’s decision to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, arguing the government gave short shrift to the impact on polar bears and the region’s other wildlife.

The Trump administration on Aug. 24 gave American Airlines Group Inc. emergency approval to deploy a new weapon against COVID-19: a surface coating that kills coronaviruses for as many as seven days.

Back-to-back tropical storms pose a combined threat to the U.S. Gulf Coast this week, where more than half of offshore oil production is already shut and residents from Texas to Florida are warily watching the skies.

Oil is poised for the first weekly decline this month as signs of stumbling recoveries in major economies from Europe to Asia threaten to delay a demand rebound.