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Coca-Cola, Pepsi hit with lawsuit over recyclability of plastic bottles

Business / Business News /

Coca-Cola and its rival PepsiCo are entangled in a lawsuit filed in California that alleges they misled the public about the recyclability of their plastic bottles.

Los Angeles County filed suit against the corporations last week, claiming the two made consumers believe that purchasing their products in single-use plastic is an environmentally ...Read more

Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

UAW workers strike at Woodbridge plant in Lithonia

Business / Business News /

About 70 union production workers have gone out on strike at a Woodbridge Corp. factory in Lithonia, Georgia.

Members of the United Auto Workers Local 472 want raises and better benefits, including sick days, according to union officials and workers.

The plant makes seating and dashboard components for manufacturers of cars and golf carts. Its...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

California finalizes $122 million opioid settlement with grocery giant Kroger

Business / Business News /

California will receive $122 million in a settlement agreement with Kroger, the grocery chain and parent company of Ralphs, to resolve lawsuits over its alleged role in the opioid crisis and how its pharmacies dispensed prescription painkillers to customers.

The payment finalizes a deal the company struck last year to resolve nearly all the ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

How to approach a season of excess with financial responsibility

Business / Business News /

Americans are expected to spend a record amount (between $979.5 billion and $989 billion) on holiday gifts and décor this November and December, according to the National Retail Federation. Inflation and high interest rates are important parts of the story, but there’s not much evidence that people are planning to cut back, either.

Only 1 in...Read more

Star Tribune (Minneapolis)/Star Tribune/TNS

Minnesota city lands $5B sustainable jet fuel plant and its 650 jobs

Business / Business News /

A $5 billion facility to manufacture jet fuel for airplanes is coming to Moorhead, Minnesota.

DG Fuels, a Washington D.C.-based energy company, announced it’s putting a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant in Clay County, bringing 650 jobs to northwestern Minnesota’s border with North Dakota.

The facility, which expects to start ...Read more

Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/TNS

Michael Hiltzik: A huge bank pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money, so why weren't top executives charged?

Business / Business News /

By any measure, the lawbreaking by the U.S. subsidiary of Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank was spectacular.

The bank, which goes by the name TD Bank in the U.S., facilitated the laundering of more than a half-billion dollars by human traffickers, fentanyl dealers, a major Ponzi schemer and others. It failed to file legally mandated reports of ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Facebook parent Meta fired whistleblower after she criticized inflated, 'out of thin air' AI-revenue prediction, lawsuit claims

Business / Business News /

In late 2022, Facebook parent Meta saw ChatGPT go viral and went all in on developing its own version of generative artificial intelligence. But a whistleblower claims in a new lawsuit that after she pointed out that the social media giant’s revenue projections for the technology were inflated by $1.5 billion — a number pulled “out of thin...Read more

Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Overnight lines, mall fights and instant sellouts: Labubu toy mania comes to America

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES — Every few Fridays, in the middle of the night, a line forms outside the Pop Mart store at Westfield Century City.

It's the same scene over at Glendale Galleria. And at South Coast Plaza. Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, too.

They come by the hundreds, all vying for the latest Labubu, a furry toy character with rabbit-like ...Read more

Amazon employees challenge 5-day-a-week office return

Business / Business News /

More than 500 employees from Amazon’s cloud-computing division have asked the company to reconsider its five-day in-office mandate set to take effect in January.

In a letter sent to Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman last Wednesday, 523 employees protested the upcoming return-to-office mandate and urged Amazon executives to restore the ...Read more

Nick Wagner/The Seattle Times/TNS

Boeing Machinists approve new contract, ending strike

Business / Business News /

SEATTLE — Striking Machinists voted Monday to approve the company’s most recent contract offer, ending a strike and enabling Boeing to begin restarting work at assembly plants in Everett and Renton that have been stopped for eight weeks.

Results announced late Monday showed the offer, which needed a simple majority to gain approval, was ...Read more

November Fed meeting preview: The Fed eyes another rate cut as elections, hurricane uncertainties loom

Business / Business News /

Imagine driving a car with a windshield so muddy that your only choice is to look through the rearview mirror. It’s challenging to discern where you’re going solely based on where you’ve been. When judging what to do with interest rates, however, the Federal Reserve has no other choice.

The U.S. economy is looking a little bit brighter ...Read more

Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Labor board accuses Apple of suppressing employee discussions

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Apple has been accused by the National Labor Relations Board of trying to prevent employees from discussing pay equity and pressuring an engineer who attempted to circulate an online survey about wages to quit.

In a complaint issued last week by the NLRB’s regional office in Oakland, federal labor regulators alleged Apple has unlawfully ...Read more

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Vitamin Shoppe owner files for bankruptcy protection

Business / Business News /

Franchise Group, the company at the heart of a troubled management buyout that has devastated the stock of B. Riley Financial, has filed for bankruptcy — but plans to keep open most of its retail brands, including Vitamin Shoppe.

The retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, announcing it already had a deal with about 80%...Read more

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TikTok sued by French families over harmful content linked to teen suicides

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Seven families in France are suing TikTok over harmful content that is linked to two teenagers’ suicides.

Laure Boutron-Marmion, a lawyer for the families, said the app’s algorithm exposed the children — all girls — to self-harm, eating disorders and suicide content.

Two of the children, both 15 years old, died by suicide. Four of the ...Read more

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Missouri judge dismisses Build-A-Bear's case against Squishmallows

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A Missouri judge has dismissed Build-A-Bear’s lawsuit against Squishmallows parent company, California-based Kelly Toys Holdings.

Earlier this year, Kelly Toys Holdings and its affiliate companies sued Build-A-Bear Workshop over alleged infringement of trade dress rights. Kelly Toys Holdings’ lawsuit, which was filed in California, states ...Read more

Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times/TNS

Boeing Machinists head to the polls in decisive vote that could end strike

Business / Business News /

Striking Boeing Machinists union members are voting today on the company’s latest bid to end their strike, now in its ninth week.

The Machinists went on strike Sept. 13, idling Boeing’s assembly plants in Renton and Everett as the plane-maker’s cash reserves dwindle. Union members rejected two prior offers, believing they could win ...Read more

Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Las Vegas' housing crisis taking center stage this presidential election

Business / Business News /

The Las Vegas Valley’s affordability and housing crisis is taking center stage this presidential election, a UNLV political scientist, said.

One demographic, in particular, should be paid close attention to as the election nears: Latinos, said John Tuman, executive associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and professor of political ...Read more

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China files WTO complaint over the EU's electric car tariffs

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China has lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the European Union’s final tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports, escalating a dispute that’s straining an already fraught relationship.

Beijing brought the case to the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism on Monday to “safeguard the development interests” of the...Read more

TYGER WILLIAMS/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Gopuff now accepts SNAP payments

Business / Business News /

There's a new place to shop with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Gopuff, the Philadelphia-founded on-demand delivery service, is now accepting SNAP payments, the company announced Friday.

"We are honored to now allow SNAP-eligible families access to the groceries they need in the fastest and most affordable way," said ...Read more

Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Hundreds of lawsuits allege Abbott Laboratories' formula for premature infants made babies sick. But is the formula to blame?

Business / Business News /

To Dioselina Salto, the first two weeks of motherhood were amazing, even though she spent much of it in the hospital after her daughter was born prematurely.

She visited her daughter Janelle twice a day, held her close to her own skin and pumped breast milk for her, which doctors supplemented with specialized formula.

But a midnight call from ...Read more