Business

A major home improvement store chain has agreed to settle a lawsuit that charged the company with improperly handling and disposing toxic waste at some of its California stores. Lowe’s will pay $18.1 million to settle the matter, which was investigated by the Los Angeles County Districts Attorney’s Office and …

Officials with the United Food & Commercial Workers Union say more talks are needed to settle the dispute between the union and three of Southern California’s major supermarket chains. Talks began in early February, and since then no more than two talks a week have taken place, and some weeks …

Manufacturing in the Inland Empire is officially struggling. The region’s purchasing managers index in March was 49, according to data released today by the Institute of Applied Research & Policy Analysis at Cal State San Bernardino. That was the first time since August that the index was below 50, the …

National retail sales rose 3.6 percent for the week that ended Saturday compared with the previous week. That’s the good news. The bad news is year-to-year sales for the week that ended Saturday were up 0.6 percent, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain …

One of the Inland Empire’s strangest landmarks is about to be brought back to life. In Baker, the world’s largest thermometer is expected to glow again sometime this summer, three years after it fell into disrepair and went dark, according to a report originally published in The Press-Enterprise. The 134-foot …

So says the annual report by a Los Angeles real estate firm on the cost of doing business in the western United States. However, one economist says the issue is overstated. San Bernardino is among the 20 most expensive cities in the western United States in which to do business, …