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President Donald Trump’s estranged former lawyer acknowledged Thursday that he paid a technology company to rig Trump’s standing in two online polls before the presidential campaign.

A group of Sears creditors are challenging Chairman Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund’s winning $5.2 billion bid to buy the business in a bankruptcy auction and wants to air their grievances in court.

U.S. long-term mortgage rates held steady this week, after falling for six straight weeks to reach their lowest levels in nine months.

With collective U.S. student loan debt nearing $1.5 trillion, some colleges are testing innovative solutions to help reduce student borrowing.

Chinese stocks rose Friday on signs of possible progress in negotiations over Beijing’s tariff war with Washington.

Morgan Stanley says fourth-quarter profit totaled $1.53 billion, more than double from the year-ago quarter.

The Latest on Brexit (all times local):

The number of furloughed federal employees seeking unemployment benefits jumped in the first two weeks of the shutdown, topping 10,000 during the week of Jan. 5.

More than 10,000 students skipped school again in Belgium to join a march demanding better protections of the globe’s fragile climate.

One by one, European Union nations are spending millions, hiring thousands of workers and issuing emergency decrees to cope with the increasingly likely possibility that Britain will leave the bloc on March 29 without a plan.

Facebook said Thursday it removed hundreds of Russia-linked pages, groups and accounts that it says were part of two big disinformation operations, in its latest effort to fight fake news.

Gymboree has filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time in as many years, but this time the children’s clothing retailer will begin winding down operations for good.

Ukraine’s parliament has adopted a bill spelling out procedures for transferring church property after a new unified Ukrainian church was granted independence.

Germany’s biggest rail company, under fire for its unpunctual service, is trying to mollify one disgruntled commuter by buying her “delay scarf.”

Work on a major new nuclear power station in Britain was suspended after the developer, Japan’s Hitachi, said Thursday it had been unable to agree on financing with the U.K. government.

The top U.S. and Chinese trade envoys will hold talks in Washington this month in a possible sign of progress toward ending a costly tariff battle over Beijing’s technology ambitions.

Renewed worries over the U.S.-China trade spat weighed on global stock markets on Thursday.

A weakened but defiant Prime Minister Theresa May met lawmakers from Britain’s rival Brexit factions Thursday to try to forge a replacement for her rejected European Union exit plan.

Consumer advocates and the data-hungry technology industry are drawing early battle lines in advance of an expected fight this year over what kind of federal privacy law the U.S. should have.

Japan faces unforeseen risks in guiding economic policy as its population of about 126 million ages and declines, the governor of its central bank said Thursday.

Microsoft says it will devote $500 million to address a problem its own success helped create: the severe need for affordable housing in the Seattle area.

A Tokyo court rejected Thursday another appeal by lawyers of Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn to have him released on bail.

Asian shares were mostly higher Thursday after strong earnings reports lifted indexes on Wall Street. But a report that the U.S. was investigating China’s Huawei for allegedly stealing trade secrets from American companies limited gains.

California endorsed a rule Wednesday that will allow home marijuana deliveries statewide, even into communities that have banned commercial pot sales.

The Trump administration will roll out a new strategy Thursday for a more aggressive space-based missile defense system to protect against existing threats from North Korea and Iran and counter advanced weapon systems being developed by Russia and China.

John C. Bogle, who simplified investing for the masses by launching the first index mutual fund and founded Vanguard Group, died Wednesday, the company said. He was 89.

Sri Lanka is considering a $300 million loan offer from the Bank of China as it prepares to repay foreign debts this year, a Finance Ministry official said.

When he lost his job running a mutual fund company after stocks tanked in the early 70’s, John C. Bogle decided that money managers knew very little about predicting the market — and charged way too much for that lack of knowledge.

The oil and gas industry should not be spared the pain of the partial government shutdown, according to the chairman of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee.

TSA officials say the rate of airport screeners missing work during the partial government shutdown has stabilized — but still at unusually high numbers — just before a three-day holiday weekend that is likely to bring bigger airport crowds.

The partial government shutdown is a double-whammy for Cara and Philip Mangone, a married couple from Philadelphia. Both are agents with the Transportation Safety Administration, both working full time at the Philadelphia airport. Neither knows when they might again start drawing their paychecks.

America’s largest companies added women and minorities to their boards of directors at a faster pace over the past two years, a period when sexual harassment scandals thrust workplace equality into the spotlight, a study shows.

Analysis from RentCafe showed that Thanksgiving and winter holiday spending combined adds up to an average of $1,100 per household.

Apartment developers are paying more interest on their construction loans—but that isn’t keeping developers from planning and financing new projects.

Rents are likely to rise the most for class-B apartments, and the least for class-C and -D units.

Sectors such as self-storage and student housing appear more attractive as yields for core real estate drop.

SFR investors are buying older homes, and looking at markets like Birmingham, Ala.

The REIT plans to sell off $750 million in office assets to improve its leverage ratio.

Strong NOI growth, intense competition are likely to drive up industrial real estate values in 2019.

Which government agencies are affected and what is the fallout for the commercial real estate sector?

Rents continued to rise in the U.S. medical office sector, reaching new highs as of the second quarter of 2018, according to a recent report from CBRE.

The high rate of e-commerce returns is creating new opportunities for industrial real estate developers and investors.

Invitation Homes Inc. (NYSE: INVH) has named Dallas Tanner as its president and chief executive officer, according to a release. Tanner, who will also become a member of the board of directors with the move, previously served as executive vice president and chief investment officer for the company. He took on the role of interim … Read more

HomeServices of America Inc. has named Gino Blefari chief executive officer, the Minneapolis-based homeownership service provider said Wednesday. Blefari has been CEO of HSF Affiliates, an Irvine, Calif.-based subsidiary of HomeServices, for over three years. He replaces Ron Peltier, who founded HomeServices in 1998. Peltier will serve as executive chairman of the company. “In today’s … Read more

Developers will scramble in the next few weeks to see whether plans to turn a 107-year-old Franklinton church into affordable housing remain financially viable. Homeport wants to tear down part of the 18,000-square-foot West Side Spiritualist Church, 79 McDowell St., and convert the space into 50 residential units. But there are concerns about keeping some … Read more

When it comes to the country’s hottest housing markets, Silicon Valley still holds the top spot, but Denver isn’t far behind. A new report from Seattle-based Zillow ranked the top 10 housing markets in 2019 and found that Denver is No. 3. To find the country’s hottest housing markets, Zillow looked for cities with strong … Read more

Knock, a startup that helps customers find a new home, has received a $400 million investment to support a national expansion plan and hiring spree. The New York-based company received new funds in a Foundry Group-led series B financing round. Knock expects to use the capital to double its 100-person headcount. Other investors who participated … Read more

Oakland-based Roofstock, which helps investors buy single-family rentals across the country without ever seeing them firsthand, has hired a former Tesla leader as its vice president of operations. Fiona Taylor will oversee the firm’s rapid growth and hiring at both the Oakland headquarters and a Dallas office, which it established last summer with the purchase … Read more

A look at this week’s real estate goings-on.

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann is reportedly making money on properties he owns and leases back to the co-working giant. The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources on Wednesday who said that Neumann, an Israeli-born entrepreneur, has made millions of dollars by leasing multiple properties he owns a stake in back to WeWork. This raises conflict … Read more