Friday, December 27
Nordstrom to go private in $6.25 billion deal with founding family, Mexican retailer
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Nordstrom to go private in $6.25 billion deal with founding family, Mexican retailer

The Mexican department retailer El Puerto de Liverpool and Nordstrom's founding family agreed to a $6.25 billion takeover agreement, and Nordstrom announced on Monday that it will become a private company. The deal, which is anticipated to finalize in the first half of 2025, was unanimously authorized by the company's board of directors. According to the agreement, Liverpool will hold 49.9% of the business, while the Nordstrom family will own 50.1%. According to a press statement, common stockholders will get $24.25 in cash for every share of Nordstrom common stock they own. According to a news statement from Nordstrom CEO Erik Nordstrom, the company has been operating on the fundamental tenet of helping consumers feel good and look their best for more than a century. The company is embar...
Consumer protection board sues Walmart and fintech firm over gig-worker driver pay access
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Consumer protection board sues Walmart and fintech firm over gig-worker driver pay access

Walmart and a financial technology company are being sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on charges that they unlawfully coerced drivers into using expensive deposit accounts in order to get paid. According to the agency, the drivers who were a part of Walmart's Spark Driver gig-work platform were coerced by Walmart and its vendor, Branch Messenger, into using Branch Messenger's bank accounts in order to receive their pay. If they refused to utilize this service, they would be fired. The CFPB further claims that drivers had to go through a convoluted procedure in order to receive their money, and that Walmart and Branch Messenger misled employees about the possibility of same-day access to their earnings. The CFPB claims that even when drivers were able to access their money, ...
Man charged in woman’s burning death on NYC subway was deported from U.S. in 2018
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Man charged in woman’s burning death on NYC subway was deported from U.S. in 2018

According to federal officials, a guy who was charged with murder in connection with the death of a lady who was set on fire in a New York subway car was in the country illegally and had already been deported. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials reported that New York police arrested 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, a Guatemalan national, in connection with the attack on Sunday. He arrived in Sonoita, Arizona, on June 1, 2018, was deported from the United States, and was sent back to Guatemala on June 7, 2018, according to ICE. ICE says it does not know where or when Zapeta-Calil illegally returned to the country. According to the NYPD, the Brooklyn resident was charged on Monday with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and first-degree arson in connection with the...
Bill Clinton is hospitalized for observation and testing after developing a fever
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Bill Clinton is hospitalized for observation and testing after developing a fever

A top adviser informed NBC News on Monday that former President Bill Clinton was hospitalized in Washington after he became ill with a fever. "After developing a fever," Clinton, 78, "has been admitted to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital for testing and observation," according to Clinton's deputy chief of staff, Angel Ure. "He is in good spirits and grateful for the care he is receiving," Ure a stated. Clinton, the 42nd president, has a source who described the issue as "not urgent." According to the source, "the former president will be fine," "He wanted to get looked out after getting a fever. He is conscious and awake. Since leaving office in 2001, Clinton has experienced several health scares. At New York-Presbyterian Hospital, he had a quadruple bypass operation in 2004. In 2010...
Read the Ethics Committee report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz
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Read the Ethics Committee report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz

The long-awaited report on the House Ethics Committee's inquiry of former Representative Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. Since 2021, the panel has intermittently looked into a number of charges against Gaetz, including those pertaining to sexual misbehavior, drug usage, improper gift-giving, providing preferential favors to those with whom he had personal relationships, and hindering the House Ethics investigation. Gaetz's resignation from Congress in November following his announcement as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. attorney general marked the conclusion of the probe. (Only current members of Congress are subject to the Ethics panel's jurisdiction.)When information regarding the testimonies of women who addressed the Ethics committee surfaced on November 21, Gaetz withdrew his name...
Biden administration withdraws student loan forgiveness plans. What borrowers should know
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Biden administration withdraws student loan forgiveness plans. What borrowers should know

Two significant efforts to provide student loan forgiveness have been canceled by the Biden administration. The secretary of the U.S. Department of Education would have been able to cancel student loans for a number of borrowers under the proposed regulations, including those who had been making payments for decades and others who were having financial difficulties. Millions of Americans' student loan debt might have been lowered or removed as a result of the combined actions. Weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the Education Department announced its plans to remove them in notifications published in the Federal Register on Friday. Due to operational difficulties in putting the suggestions into practice, the department announced in writing that it was ending the rulemak...
TSA finds ‘surprising number of prohibited items’ in woman’s bag, including 82 fireworks, 3 knives
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TSA finds ‘surprising number of prohibited items’ in woman’s bag, including 82 fireworks, 3 knives

According to officials, security at Los Angeles International Airport prevented a passenger from bringing "a surprising number of prohibited items" on a flight headed to Philadelphia, including numerous firearms and dozens of pyrotechnics. A woman was identified by Transportation Security Administration personnel for passing her carry-on luggage through the X-ray machine at Terminal 4 at approximately 10 p.m. on December 15, according to the agency. The TSA stated in a statement Friday that the officer "was shocked" to discover "82 consumer grade fireworks, three knives, two replica firearms, and one canister of pepper spray" in the luggage. Whether the tourist was detained or denied access to her trip to Philadelphia was not immediately apparent. Jason Pantages, the TSA's federal security...
IRS to send 1 million taxpayers up to $1,400 in ‘special payments.’ How to know if you’re eligible.
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IRS to send 1 million taxpayers up to $1,400 in ‘special payments.’ How to know if you’re eligible.

According to an announcement made last week, the IRS will begin issuing automatic special payments of up to $1,400 to one million taxpayers later this month. People who are entitled for the money but did not claim the 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit on their tax returns for that year would get the payouts. People who did not receive one or more economic impact payments—also referred to as stimulus checks—that were delivered by the federal government in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak are eligible for the Recovery Rebate Credit, a refundable tax credit. According to the IRS, the maximum payout will be $1,400 per person and will change depending on the situation. An estimated $2.4 billion will be paid by the agency overall. In a statement, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel stated, "After reviewing...
Amber Heard speaks out about Blake Lively allegations against Justin Baldoni: ‘I saw this firsthand’
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Amber Heard speaks out about Blake Lively allegations against Justin Baldoni: ‘I saw this firsthand’

In reaction to Blake Lively's complaint against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, Amber Heard told NBC News on Monday that she "saw this firsthand" and that social media is where lies turn into the truth. In an undated complaint to the California Civil Rights Department, Lively accused the film's director, Baldoni, of sexual harassment, fostering a hostile work environment, and attempting to damage her reputation through a targeted social media campaign. According to the complaint, Baldoni recruited Melissa Nathan, a well-known public relations crisis manager, who was employed by Johnny Depp during his high-profile defamation trial against his ex-wife Heard. Heard, who resides in Spain, stated in an exclusive statement to NBC News that social media is the perfect example of the a...
House repairs, a car, grandkids: Where Evanston’s reparations payments are going
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House repairs, a car, grandkids: Where Evanston’s reparations payments are going

EVANSTON, Illinois. Kenneth Wideman has spent his entire life in Evanston, in the 5th Ward, a community bounded by elevated railroad tracks and a canal. His parents relocated there from South Carolina as part of the Great Migration, a 60-year-long exodus of 6 million Black people from the Jim Crow South. In the 1940s, when Wideman was born, Evanston was the biggest Black suburb in the state, with the 5th Ward housing 95% of the city's Black residents. But there was a reason why that neighborhood was so heavily populated by Black people. Through targeted zoning, the city started evicting Black residents from areas beyond the 5th Ward in 1919. Subsequently, federal authorities enabled discriminatory banking practices and racially restrictive housing laws, which deterred lenders from offeri...