Money

Sears' estate and new owner settle dispute over bankruptcy sale for $18 million

The estate of bankrupt Sears Holdings has agreed to settle a lawsuit over the $5.2 billion sale of its Sears and Kmart chains to former chairman and CEO Edward Lampert for about $18.3 million. Lampert and his hedge fund formed a new company, Transform Holdco, to buy most of Sears' remaining assets, including 425 stores, last year. Disputes between Sears and Transform over certain terms of the ...

One-hit wonder? Tax-cut bonus bump is long gone and wage growth has slowed, too

Remember the tax-cut bonuses? Two years ago, after President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress approved a new tax law, hundreds of companies said they would share the bounty with workers. AT&T, American Airlines, Comerica and Southwest Airlines were among the companies doling out $1,000 bonuses. Other major employers, including Walmart and Bank of America, joined in. In all, over $4 ...

Using marijuana is legal in Illinois — but it can still get you fired

CHICAGO - Now that recreational pot is legal in Illinois, marijuana enthusiasts may feel like it's finally time to emerge from hiding. But people with jobs - or looking for them - might want to stay in the shadows for now as companies figure out how to handle employees who partake. In Illinois, employers are allowed to fire workers who bring cannabis to the office, show up impaired or fail ...

JCPenney store sign

America has turned its back on big department stores

Somehow, in the midst of a monster holiday shopping season, America's biggest department stores managed to lose sales. Despite several attempts to revamp their images, department stores have gotten the cold shoulder from shoppers. This trend isn't new. It has…

American Airlines will give $30 million from Boeing 737 Max settlement to workers

American Airlines has reached a confidential deal with Boeing over the grounding of 737 Max jets for 2019 and will give $30 million back to employees through its profit-sharing distribution in March. The settlement only covers damages that Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines incurred in 2019 because there is no timeline for when the Federal Aviation Administration will clear the Max for ...

California truck drivers score millions from Walmart after US Court of Appeals verdict

A Fresno, Calif., law firm has scored a major victory with a U.S. Court of Appeals decision upholding a multi-million-dollar verdict for about 700 Walmart truck drivers. Lawyer Nicolas "Butch" Wagner of Fresno successfully represented the California truck drivers who filed a class-action lawsuit against the mega-retailer nearly a decade ago for short-changing their pay. About 100 of the truck ...

Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

The last two years have witnessed a wave of walkouts, petitions and other workplace actions at video game and tech companies. But despite this swell in labor activism, employees at no major video game studios and only a handful of tech offices have formally voted to form or join a union. A new campaign launched Tuesday by one of the nation's largest labor unions - and spearheaded by one of the ...

Head of MGM film studio steps down in latest shake-up

Jonathan Glickman, the longtime president of MGM's film division, is leaving the company, according to a Friday memo sent to staff. Glickman, who has led film development and production for eight years at the Beverly Hills-based company, will leave his post February 1 for a production deal with the studio, according to the email sent my MGM's board of directors. The company did not say why ...

Tesla deliveries rise to record as car buyers rush for subsidies

SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla Inc. delivered a record 112,000 cars in the final three months of 2019, as buyers rushed to take advantage of subsidies being dialed back or eliminated altogether in three key markets this year. The electric-vehicle maker handed over 92,550 Model 3 and 19,450 Model S and Model X electric vehicles in the fourth quarter, according to a statement, eclipsing its previous ...

Bill Gates ends the decade pushing for higher taxes on the rich

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, the world's second-richest person, said he wants his fellow billionaires to pay much higher taxes. U.S. lawmakers should close loopholes, raise the estate tax and hike the capital-gains tax so that it equals the rate on labor income, Gates wrote Monday in a year-end blog post. He also called for states and local governments to make their taxes "fairer" ...

Midwest manufacturing crawls back into growth territory in December

With boosted sales and orders, conditions for manufacturers in Minnesota and eight other central states crawled back into growth territory in December, nudging up confidence levels after a difficult fall season, a closely watched economic report said. Creighton University's nine-state Mid-America Business Conditions Index rose to 50.6 in December from November's disappointing 48.6, according ...

Ring, Amazon sued by man who says hacker bothered his kids

A man is suing doorbell maker Ring and its parent company, Amazon, after he says a hacker communicated with his children over the internet-connected camera he had bought as "additional security" for his family. In a lawsuit seeking class-action status, John Baker Orange of Alabama said his three kids, ages 7, 9 and 10, were playing basketball when they heard someone comment about their play. ...

Mark Cuban says cremation diamond company he backed isn't a scam despite expert claims

Dallas billionaire investor Mark Cuban has denied that the cremation diamond company he backed on ABC's "Shark Tank" in October is a scam, telling Page Six he's a "big believer" in the product. The Austin, Texas-based company Eterneva appeared on Shark Tank in October, promoting a company that would create diamonds from the ashes of customers' loved ones. Cremation has already overtaken burial ...

Netflix's 10-Year 4,000% Rally Underlines Shift to Streaming

NEW YORK - Over the past 10 years, Netflix Inc. has led a revolution in the way the world consumes entertainment, and in doing so, it ruled over Wall Street. The shares have soared nearly 4,100% since the end of 2009, a gain that at one point made Netflix a larger company than Walt Disney Co. by market value. No other S&P 500 component has experienced a return that approached anything like ...

Med-tech industry anxious as local communities push on toxic chemical use

What if one person's cancer treatment caused another person to get cancer? That's the essence of the difficult risk-benefit calculation playing out in communities across the country, where recent changes in how carcinogens are classified at the federal level has caused alarm over the use of colorless ethylene oxide (ETO) gas to sterilize medical devices at plants in their neighborhoods. Device ...