>>Providence Strike Latest
(Portland, OR) -- The largest healthcare worker strike in state history could soon be over. Providence and the Oregon Nurses Association reached a tentative agreement for nurses at the eight Providence hospitals in Oregon late Tuesday… And last night, both sides announced a deal to get Hospitalists from St. Vincent Medical Center back to work. Ratification votes will be held over the next two days. Doctors and nurses at Providence women’s clinics struck a tentative deal last weekend and are expected to return to work Thursday.
>>Ahead Of The Bell (New York, NY) -- The opening bell rings this morning on Wall Street after stocks closed higher on Wednesday. That came as big tech companies like Alphabet and AMD posted losses in their latest earnings results. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 317 points to end at 44-873. The S&P 500 rose by 23 points to 60-61. The Nasdaq gained 38 points to 19-692. Investors today will be keeping an eye out for e-commerce giant Amazon to release its fourth quarter results. That happens after the closing bell.
>>USPS To Resume Accepting Packages From China, Hong Kong
(Washington, DC) -- The U.S. Postal Service will start accepting packages from China again. The announcement on Wednesday is a reversal of a move made yesterday to pause the reception of parcels from China and Hong Kong. The USPS announced this pause in response to newly-imposed tariffs on Chinese goods. These tariffs close a loophole that previously allowed packages worth less than 800-dollars to be shipped without a tax. The agency says it will work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to create a collection mechanism that complies with the tariffs.
>>Bill Would Cap Credit Card Interest At 10%
(Washington, DC) -- A new bill in the Senate would cap credit card interest rates at ten percent. Introduced by Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders and Missouri Republican Josh Hawley this week, the cap would be in effect for five years if it becomes law. Credit card industry lobbyists, who argue that interest rate caps actually hurt consumers, will likely oppose the bill. The average credit card interest rate is more than 20 percent and Americans owe more than one-point-one-trillion dollars. >>Amazon Event This Month, Alexa Update Expected (New York, NY) -- Amazon is planning to hold an event on February 26th in New York City, where its expected to give an update on its Alexa digital assistant. The company has been working to come out with a new version of the assistant with more advance artificial intelligence capabilities. Amazon has lost billions of dollars on Alexa and its devices business since it launched in 2014.
>>Google Launches Gemini 2.0 Models
(Mountain View, CA) -- Google is giving everyone access to it's latest AI model. Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental was launched on Wednesday along with other versions of the program. Google says the Experimental tool can handle complex prompts and can comprehend "world knowledge" better than it's previous models. It's also designed to use Google Search when gathering information. This comes as similar programs have been released by Open AI and Chinese startup DeepSeek.
>>Workday Cutting Over 8% Of Staff
(Pleasanton, CA) -- Workday is cutting its staff. In a memo to employees on Wednesday, the company said it's laying off over 17-hundred workers. That's around eight percent of its roster. The HR platform called the move "difficult, but necessary" pointing at the implementation of AI as a way to expand operations. Those affected are set to receive at least 12 weeks pay. Other tech-based companies that recently faced job cuts include Salesforce, Cruise and Amazon.
