Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will urge the U.S. Supreme Court next week to reject the largest class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit in history, brought by female employees who seek billion of dollars.
The top U.S. court hears arguments March 29 in a suit against the world’s largest retailer for allegedly giving women less pay and fewer promotions at 3,400 U.S. stores since late 1998. Get the full story »
Howard Stern. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)
The production company and long-time agent for radio “shock jock” Howard Stern has sued Sirius XM Radio Inc. in the New York Supreme Court, alleging Stern was promised performance-based stock awards the satellite radio company refused to pay.
Attempts to reach a spokesman for Sirius XM Radio to respond to the suit were not immediately successful. Get the full story »
From Bloomberg News | A Bankruptcy Court judge ruled Tuesday that creditors can file state suits against former Tribune Co. shareholders who netted billions of dollars when the media company was taken private in 2007. Federal lawsuits are under way on the matter. The company filed for Chapter 11 in 2008.
People using Bank of America ATMs in Washington, D.C. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
Bank of America, which continues to prune its branch network nationwide, is piloting the use of video-enabled ATMs where consumers can talk to a remote teller, Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said on a visit to Chicago Tuesday.
“Branch design in the future will be different,” Moynihan, who took the top job of the Charlotte, N.C.-based megabank last year, said. He didn’t have information on where the pilots were under way. Get the full story »
Nestle AG , the world’s biggest foodmaker, expects to raise prices by 1.6 percent in 2011, the company chairman said Tuesday, similar to last year’s increase despite soaring raw material costs.
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe told Reuters Insider that the company, which makes Nescafe coffee and Gerber baby food, would spend an extra $3.5 billion on raw materials in 2011, with more than half of that would be absorbed internally. Get the full story »
A BP station at Ashland and Fullerton in Chicago, March 7, 2011. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)
U.S. retail gasoline demand rose 1.7 percent last week but remained below year-earlier levels, MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse report showed Tuesday.
Average gasoline demand by the world’s top consumer hit 9.3 million barrels per day in the week to March 18, the report showed, the second straight week of gains. Get the full story »
A number of metropolitan areas in Illinois are getting wireless speed boosts this year as Verizon Wireless, Clearwire and T-Mobile expand and upgrade their 4G networks.
Verizon announced Tuesday that it is adding 59 markets to its 4G network, launched in December in Chicago and 38 other markets. By the end of the year, Bloomington/Normal, Carbondale, Champaign, Rockford and Springfield will also be on the network. Get the full story »
A US Airways ticket counter at O'Hare, April 8, 2010. (Tim Boyle/Bloomberg)
Major U.S. airlines announced further 2011 capacity cutbacks to cope with the dramatic increase in fuel prices, with Delta Air Lines Inc. also citing the earthquake in Japan for a hit to earnings in the current quarter.
US Airways Group Inc. said it would reduce flying this year, joining United Continental Holdings and other carriers that have outlined capacity curbs. Get the full story »
After buoyant wine auctions that saw booming sales, most auctioneers believe the only bubbles in the wine market are in the Champagnes poured during the bidding.
Chicago-based wine merchants Hart Davis Hart reaped $4.9 million at its Lafite auction Saturday, reinforcing its image as the most sought-after, top growth Bordeaux. And on the same day New York’s Acker Merrall & Conduit sold $2.3 million at its auction.
“I don’t see prices going anywhere significantly except up,” said John Kapon, its head of auctions. Get the full story »
Adjustable rate mortgages are back.
After accounting for nearly 70 percent percent of all mortgages issued during the boom, ARMs vanished during the bust, totaling just 3 percent of the market in 2009. Now they make up 5 percent of all mortgages issued, and Freddie Mac predicts 10 percent by December.
Behind the comeback is a simple fact: ARMs are a great bargain right now. The most common ARM loan currently has a rate of 3.5 percent compared to 5 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Get the full story »
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Line up seven women, and at least one likely has a covert pair of shoes she bought but didn’t tell her significant other about because they cost so much.
But oh, shoe shopping certainly makes many women happier. The average American woman owns at least 17 pairs of shoes, though many women have three times that many.
Such are a few of the shoe insights that ShopSmart magazine found in their survey of 1,009 American women, offering something of a window into the female mind, or at least their credit card statements. Get the full story »
Nordex USA Inc. and Michigan-based Beebe Community Wind Farm are announcing plans for construction of a wind farm in central Michigan.
The turbines for the farm will be manufactured at Nordex’s plant in Jonesboro. The companies say in a news release that Chicago-based Nordex will provide 125 of its new wind turbines that are designed specifically for low wind sites.
Jim Tyree in 2009. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Mesirow Financial colleagues, a U.S. Senator, a governor and neighborhood folks from the South Side were among those who jammed into Old St. Patrick’s Church Monday night to attend a funeral Mass for James Tyree, the financier and Sun-Times owner who died last week at age 53.
The first of three eulogies was given by Richard Price, a longtime Mesirow executive who has replaced Tyree as chairman and chief executive of the Chicago-based financial services firm.
Price, whose voice wavered on at least a couple of occasions, said his business partner had a “desire to be hands-on,” noting that 55 of Mesirow’s 1,200 workers reported directly to him. The two executives were tight, even vacationing together with their families. Get the full story »
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who is out on medical leave, has been ordered by a federal judge to answer questions from plaintiffs’ lawyers in an antitrust lawsuit related to his company’s iTunes business. Get the full story »
Preventing another financial crisis similar to the one that shook the markets in 2008 requires a global effort and cannot be done by one nation alone, the head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Tuesday.
Gary Gensler, the chairman of the CFTC, the regulator of futures markets, said even though it is more than two years since the crisis exposed flaws in global financial and regulatory systems around the world, “significant uncertainty” still remains. Get the full story »
