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Unemployment ticks down in Washington, Micron committing $10B to research facility in Boise, Brundage to turn waste water into snow, blueberries recalled from Publix, Anthropic targeting IPO soon, Starbucks trades lower after terminating hundreds more jobs.

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Walmart stock tumbles 9% after outlook disappoints Wall Street (CNBC)

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Washington state unemployment fell slightly in July, adding over 20,000 jobs (KUOW)

The latest jobs report for Washington state shows slight hiring growth and a dip in unemployment for the first time in more than a year and a half. Though unemployment in the state remains higher than the national average, labor economists called the news “bright” and credited World Cup-related hiring for the bump.

The unemployment rate dropped from 5.2% in June to 5% in July, according to the state’s Employment Security Department. Unemployment had been rising steadily in Washington from a low of 4.3% in January of last year.

The state also added around 21,00 jobs, the largest uptick in hiring that Washington has seen since January 2026.

She added that leisure and hospitality had seen a steady addition of jobs since May, adding a total of around 10,700 jobs, particularly in food and drinking establishments.
State and federal government jobs saw the biggest losses in the last month, shedding about 1,400 positions, followed by cuts in the mining and logging industries.

Amazon to expand drone service to nearly 500 cities after targeting 1 million deliveries this year (CNBC)

“Amazon said Wednesday it plans to offer drone deliveries in nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of the year, a sign of momentum for a project that’s been slow to develop since founder Jeff Bezos first laid out his vision for the service almost 13 years ago.

The planned expansion for Prime Air would represent a sixfold increase from its current footprint, the company said in a blog post.

Amazon’s latest update comes five months after David Carbon, vice president of Prime Air, spoke confidently about the program and laid out ambitious growth plans in an internal all-hands meeting, according to a recording obtained by CNBC.

Carbon projected at the time that Prime Air will make 1 million deliveries this year, and said Amazon has the “highest demand drone delivery service in the industry.” The company said Wednesday it made hundreds of thousands of deliveries so far this year, and makes thousands daily.

Bezos, who stepped down as CEO five years ago, pledged in 2013 to build a network of drones to deliver small packages in 30 minutes or less. Since then, the program has faced regulatory delays and staff cuts, as well as technical challenges and pushback from some communities where it conducted early pilots.

Amazon in 2024 received a critical greenlight from regulators to conduct long-range drone deliveries, and over the past year has expanded beyond initial markets near Dallas and Phoenix to 11 metro areas, with six other locations coming online soon. Residents in some of those markets continue to raise concerns about drone noise and privacy and how those issues could hurt property values.

Amazon’s drones are capable of delivering packages that are up to 5 pounds and within a 7.5-mile radius of its facilities. The company has recently expanded the number of items eligible for drone delivery by integrating its drone operations into some robotic sort centers, which are larger and store more products than the same-day delivery hubs where drones have historically been housed.”

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