Business

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A conservation group is predicting that ambitious Asian export plans by U.S. coal mining companies could lead to a more than tenfold spike in coal trains through the Northwest. The Western Organization of Resource Councils said Wednesday that roughly 60 coal trains per day could pass through cities including Billings and Spokane, Wash...

2012 will be the last of Kmarts 30-year-presence in the city of Missoula.

Current laws prohibit merchants from adding surcharges to credit card transactions, even though the merchants themselves are dinged with fees for accepting the cards. But thanks to a lawsuit brought by retailers against card-issuers, all that could soon change.

Online shoppers often cite the convenience of purchasing items from web retailers like Amazon, but another perk to cyber shopping is that buyers often don’t have to pay sales tax. Thanks to a congressional bill, though, that could soon change.

Earlier this year, Maine teenager Julia Bluhm launched a petition asking Seventeen magazine to stop using photo manipulation tools like Photoshop on pictures of its models. And now the publication has vowed to “show real girls as they really are.”

The NBA is abuzz over Dwight Howard’s demand to be traded to the Brooklyn Nets.

Before you sign up for a new credit card, wouldn’t it be great to know which companies have the happiest customers? Thanks to a new publicly-available complaint database, now you will — and much of the work has already been done for you.

Mobile devices have been a boon to shoppers looking to get the best deals they can, but a practice called “showrooming” — in which consumers check out items at brick-and-mortar stores before buying them for less online — is becoming a real headache for some retailers.

When you drink your favorite sodas, you’re getting more than just a kick of caffeine. France’s National Institute of Consumption tested 19 popular carbonated soft drinks and found that 10 — including Coke and Pepsi — contained a very small amount of alcohol.

Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, Ford, Chevy, Nissan… All these brands claim to sell the best cars on the market, boasting reliability, endurance, speed and the like. But when it comes to what the general public thinks, which of these brands actually lives up to their claim?