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Next year's restaurant industry trend predictions are in, and they include avocado coffee (an Indonesian delicacy), gourmet egg sandwiches and Burger King Whoppers made with Halloumi cheese instead of burgers. Why it matters: As the pandemic lingers, it's shaping what ingredients are available as well as how we eat, with newfound habits that we once thought were temporary turning out to be permanent. Driving the news: A new forecast from Technomic, a food service industry consultancy, predicts that many trends of the past year — like ghost kitchens, meal kits and restaurants selling groceries — will likely persist. "We continue...

Kyle Dishman can't afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General, where he can make $40 stretch into a week's worth of groceries and the occasional can of motor oil for his Chrysler 300. He sticks with pasta, frozen pizza and canned vegetables, fully aware that "any food you can buy for only $1 is not the greatest for you." But Dishman says prices have gone up so much that he's started rationing his food. "When you only have a certain amount to spend, it's like, why not just go to the dollar...

European, Asian and Canadian companies are taking advantage of the weaker dollar to buy their U.S. counterparts at a record pace, increasing investment in the United States but also raising fears about a potential loss of jobs and autonomy. "We could be looking at the world's largest tag sale if we continue to see declines in the dollar," said Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist at DataCore Partners. In the latest large deal aided by a weak dollar, Commerce Bancorp, which is based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, agreed Tuesday to be acquired by Toronto-Dominion Bank of Canada in a cash-and-shares deal...

H&R Block Inc.'s (HRB:H&R Block, Inc News, chart, profile, more Last: 19.79+0.59+3.07% 9:15am 08/22/2007 Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: HRB19.79, +0.59, +3.1%) Block Financial Corp. unit withdrew a net of $650 million from its working capital lines of credit to cover capital needs during the credit crunch. The Kansas City, Mo., company said it withdrew $200 million on Aug. 16 and an added $850 million on Aug. 20, using the money to pay off the previous loan. The company said in recent weeks "the credit market has become increasingly constrained and unstable," cutting...

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Shares of Countrywide Financial Corp. dropped as much as 19 percent Wednesday on market rumors the mortgage company has been unable to raise money from the commercial paper market. Countrywide officials were not immediately available for comment. "People are buying Countrywide puts very aggressively on Wednesday off of rumors that the commercial paper market could be closed to them," said William Lefkowitz, options strategist at brokerage firm vFinance Investments. Puts are options that allow an investor to sell a stock at a preset price by a certain date. Another trader attributed the drop in the stock...

May 13, 2005, 8:59 a.m. Harry Reid Steps Over the Line — Again The GOP calls his description of a Bush nominee "deeply unethical." As the Senate edges closer to a showdown on the issue of Democratic filibusters of the president's judicial nominees, Republicans on Capitol Hill are angry at remarks by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid which they say smeared one of those blocked nominees. During a debate about the filibusters Thursday, Reid, who has made a series of controversial statements about President Bush, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and others in recent months,...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.We couldn't help but be struck by the real message conveyed by a recent brief in the Washington Post Sunday business section on job gains and losses near the nation's capitol. The item juxtaposed the shuttering of General Motors' van assembly plant in Baltimore with the announcement that new high tech jobs were being created in Northern Virginia. At first glance, these developments seemed like an unalloyed triumph of the New Economy and a clear sign that traditional manufacturing is fading into irrelevance. After all, the Post writer emphasized that the GM...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON - A nearly 13 million-year-old ape discovered in Spain is the last probable common ancestor to all living humans and great apes, a research team says in Friday's issue of Science magazine. A husband-and-wife team of fossil sleuths unearthed an animal with a body like an ape, fingers like a chimp and the upright posture of humans. The ancient ape bridges the gap between earlier, primitive animals and later, modern creatures. This newest ape species, Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, is so significant that it adds a new page to ancient human history....

Low wages lure Mr. Coffee to Mexico, far East Lillie Scott said goodbye to more than just workplace friends and her job of 26 years when Mr. Coffee shut the doors of its cavernous gray factory in a tidy Glenwillow industrial park. When Scott's $9-an-hour job making coffee makers four years ago was transferred to Mexico and Mississippi with 338 others, she and many workmates also bid farewell to financial security. Her sporadic jobs as a home health aide never last long enough to get benefits, and the $800 she gets in monthly unemployment between jobs doesn't cover her rent...