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By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press Business Writer

Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.

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In a post on its website, Cracker Barrel said it will retain its old logo, which features an older man in overalls sitting next to a barrel and the words “Old Country Store.”

“We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel,” the company said in a statement. “Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain.” read more

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A group of book authors has reached a settlement agreement with artificial intelligence company Anthropic after suing the chatbot maker for copyright infringement.

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Both sides of the case have “negotiated a proposed class settlement,” according to a federal appeals court filing Tuesday that said the terms will be finalized next week.

Anthropic declined comment Tuesday. A lawyer for the authors, Justin Nelson, said the “historic settlement will benefit all class members.”

In a major test case for the AI industry, a federal judge ruled in June that Anthropic didn’t break the law by training its chatbot Claude on millions of copyrighted books. read more

By MATT OTT

AT&T will spend $23 billion to acquire certain wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, a significant expansion of AT&T’s low- and mid-band coverage networks.

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AT&T said Tuesday that the licenses cover virtually every U.S. market — more than 400 total — which the company plans to deploy as soon as possible to lure more home internet subscribers and meet its growth goals.

The deal also fortifies the long-term services agreement between AT&T and EchoStar, enabling the latter to operate as a hybrid mobile network operator providing wireless service under its Boost Mobile brand. AT&T will be the primary network services partner to EchoStar. read more

Tourism marketing agency Visit Orlando, credited with helping build Central Florida into the nation’s top vacation place, might have misappropriated nearly $20 million in tourist-tax revenue by improperly classifying the money as private rather than public funds, Orange County auditors say.

“It’s very hard to parse out from the records which funds are which,” said assistant comptroller Wendy Kittleson, who raised the possibility Tuesday during a three-hour public discussion of Visit Orlando’s spending practices with the Board of County Commissioners.

She stressed the $19.9 million figure was an estimate based on Visit Orlando’s private revenues dating back to 2019, the year county leaders signed the agency’s funding contract. The agency’s public revenues are subject to stricter spending rules than its private funds.

The guess flabbergasted Casandra Matej, president & CEO of Visit Orlando, who appeared before the commission to respond to a withering comptroller’s examination of her organization, which gets over $100 million a year in hotel and short-term lodging tax revenue to promote tourism. read more

In an unusual move, multiple groups advocating for utility customers filed an alternative proposal Tuesday that they said should resolve Florida Power & Light’s rate case. Signing onto this settlement is the Office of Public Counsel, the Legislature-appointed advocate for all utility customers statewide.

One entity that opposes the deal: Florida Power & Light.

The new proposal would roughly halve the company’s original request to hike customer rates by nearly $10 billion over four years, which is believed to be the highest rate hike request in American history. Instead, this version would result in a $5.2 billion increase.

The company filed its own proposed settlement last week, with the support of big-business groups involved in the case, such as Walmart and industrial corporations. That settlement lowered the total hikes to about $7 billion, but granted large corporations a higher percentage discount than residents next year, while the 2026 hike for small businesses tripled. read more