Business

A storage failure at a coal-fired Duke Energy plant sent tens of thousands of tons of ash into a North Carolina river last year. Now, the company wants to move its stored waste to two abandoned mines.

Ellen Pao was vying to be one of the few women at the top of the venture capital world. Then she was fired. Now she's suing, in an industry where women often say they are sidelined and passed over.

Heirloom peach trees, and an essay about them, turned one California farm into a landmark of local food. It's now the scene of another unconventional choice: a daughter's return to take the helm.

Cocoa is unusually susceptible to disease. Every year, a third of the crop is destroyed, even as the appetite for chocolate grows. That's why the world needs the International Cocoa Quarantine Centre.

Public passion is all well and good, but it will take more than big talk to get to Mars by 2025, space specialists say. Even several rockets' worth of cash won't easily solve the technical challenges.

Once family-owned, luxury fashion houses have been gobbled by conglomerates. Industry watchers say designers have suffered from a pressure-cooker environment that focuses intensely on the bottom line.