The Wall Street Journal

Marriott International's luxury hotels are continuing to outperform. The hotel company said Tuesday that global revenue per available room--a key industry metric--was up 0.5% during the recent quarter, despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty. Strong international trends helped offset some weakness in Canada and the U.S, where reduced government travel dinged earnings. The company is still experiencing robust demand for its luxury hotel offerings, which go for higher rates, CEO Anthony Capuano said. Marriott narrowed its full-year earnings outlook after logging higher profit and revenue in the third quarter. Want to know more? Read my latest for The Wall Street Journal:

A state governor howls about a $53 million contract buyout as more college football head coaches get fired by impatient schools. Columnist Jason Gay thinks the cycle can’t help but get worse.

What does a song embedded in the wounded psyches of English soccer fans have to do with a fight over an African leader's corpse? Everything, it turns out. In today's A-hed, nicholas bariyo explores the latest bizarre twist in an increasingly bizarre story gripping southern Africa.

I traveled more than 2,000 miles to see the frontier of America's tech boom up close. It wasn't a billion-dollar chip factory or a secretive Silicon Valley AI lab, but rather a city of just 8,000 people in northeast Oregon. Umatilla was not long ago known for a former chemical-weapons depot nearby, a state prison on the city’s outskirts and the strip clubs once dotting its main drag. But a growing fleet of Amazon data centers has turned the surrounding region into an unlikely nerve center for one of the most expensive infrastructure build-outs in U.S. history. Thousands of construction workers have descended on RV parks and hotels in recent years to build a regional data-center hub for Amazon Web Services. The project pipeline is so long that some newcomers put down roots. Local budgets ballooned with Amazon-linked revenues and taxes from new residents. Business surged for suppliers of concrete and fencing. The need for technicians, electricians and more has helped mint new members of the middle class in a job market previously geared toward manual labor in fields and warehouses and factory work turning the region’s bountiful potato harvests into french fries. Growth has also brought some pain. The costs of housing and child care are rising beyond reach for many blue-collar people. New demand for services and infrastructure has left local governments rushing to keep up. In Umatilla, a public spat over how to manage a deluge of new revenue devolved into a legal fight between the mayor and other city leaders. I had a great time visiting folks in Umatilla and nearby Hermiston, who let me into their lives for a few days to learn about the opportunities that come with a boom--as well as the challenges it might pose for communities elsewhere now vying for a piece of the action. Read my latest The Wall Street Journal feature here: https://lnkd.in/d6GJEgdm

From Opinion: Will the Supreme Court stop Donald Trump from usurping Congress’s power over taxes and tariffs?

Rick Perry's $17 billion startup aims to build four big nuclear reactors, but first it's building a lot of natural gas power. It has a 5,200-acre site in Amarillo, Texas where it has started building an AI data center and power campus. The former governor/energy secretary/presidential candidate cofounded Fermi in January and it went public last month. Perry is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Co-founder Toby Neugebauer says: “Our customers want power now—they want nuclear later. So what we offer at this site is the easiest place to permit nuclear reactors and to construct. We also offer them the ability to get going immediately.” My latest, free link: https://lnkd.in/gCrejqcu

Pizza Hut has worked hard to turn around its business, its parent company says, but might need a new owner to really succeed. Restaurant conglomerate Yum Brands is looking at various options for the Pizza Hut brand, which could include selling it. Pizza Hut's the second-largest pizza-restaurant operator in the U.S. but has struggled to stand out, and on Tuesday reported its eighth consecutive quarter of declining same-store sales. Via Heather Haddon, The Wall Street Journal

Hormel Foods is cutting 250 corporate and sales jobs as part of a restructuring, the food company that owns brands including Planters, Skippy and Spam said Tuesday.

Yum Brands is evaluating strategic options for its Pizza Hut business, including a possible sale of all or parts of the struggling brand.

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