Starbucks sets day for anti-bias training
NEW YORK -- Starbucks plans to close more than 8,000 U.S. stores for several hours next month to conduct anti-bias training for nearly 175,000 workers, a response to a public uproar over the arrests of two black men at one of its stores in Philadelphia.
The announcement Tuesday came after the arrests sparked protests and calls for a boycott. A video shows police talking with two black men seated at a table. After a few minutes, officers handcuff the men and lead them outside as other customers say the men weren't doing anything wrong. Philadelphia-area media said the two were waiting for a friend.
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson called the arrests "reprehensible" and said he wanted to apologize to the two men face-to-face. The company and a lawyer for the two men said they did meet and that Johnson delivered the apology. Starbucks also said the employee who called police no longer works at the store, but it declined to give details.
Johnson also promised to revamp store management training to include "unconscious-bias" education. Starbucks said its U.S. company-owned stores and corporate offices will be closed on the afternoon of May 29 for the training, which will eventually be incorporated into the instruction process for all newly hired employees.
-- The Associated Press
Factories' output up slightly in March
WASHINGTON -- U.S. factory output edged up 0.1 percent in March as strong production gains in motor vehicles and electronics were partially offset by declines in food and textiles.
The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that factory output slowed from a 1.5 percent gain in February, though it has risen 3 percent over the past year. Overall industrial production, which includes mines and utilities, rose 0.5 percent in March. Utility production jumped 3 percent, while mining output increased 1 percent.
Stable growth worldwide has led to increased demand for consumer goods and business equipment, driving much of the additional business seen by manufacturers. The gains during the past 12 months have been led by automobiles, home electronics and metal products. But furniture, clothing and aerospace production has fallen over this period.
-- The Associated Press
Health officials back pot-based drug
WASHINGTON -- A medicine made from the marijuana plant reduces seizures in children with severe forms of epilepsy and warrants approval in the United States, health officials said Tuesday.
British drugmaker GW Pharmaceuticals is seeking permission to sell its purified form of an ingredient found in cannabis -- one that doesn't get users high -- as a medication for rare, hard-to-treat seizures in children. If successful, the company's liquid formula would be the first government-approved drug derived from the cannabis plant in the U.S.
The Food and Drug Administration's approval would technically limit the treatment to a small group of epilepsy patients. But doctors would have the option to prescribe it for other uses, and it could spur new pharmaceutical research and interest into other cannabis-based products. Man-made versions of a different marijuana ingredient have previously been approved for other purposes.
Across three studies involving more than 500 patients, Epidiolex generally cut the number of monthly seizures by about 40 percent, compared with reductions between 15 percent and 20 percent for patients taking a dummy medicine. Most patients in the study were already taking at least three other medications to try to control their seizures.
-- The Associated Press
Home Depot sued over retirement funds
ATLANTA -- A lawsuit filed in federal court against Home Depot alleges that the hardware giant permitted mismanagement of retirement funds affecting more than 200,000 people and costing their accounts at least $140 million.
The complaint against the Atlanta-based company was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta by attorneys for Jaime Pizarro and Craig Smith. But the plaintiffs aim for class-action status, which would mean inclusion of every employee and former employee affected.
The key allegations involve investments chosen for $6.5 billion in the Home Depot pool that provides retirement payments to former employees. The plaintiffs argue that those investments, which are supposed to keep those savings growing as robustly as possible, have instead been consistently placed with funds that do not perform well.
Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes declined to comment on the substance or specifics of the allegations, limiting the official response to an endorsement of the company's retirement plans.
-- Tribune News Service
Supreme Court tosses data privacy case
The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed Microsoft's data privacy lawsuit against the Justice Department, a move that was expected after a new law made the decision moot.
The case involved the right of the U.S. government to obtain information held digitally overseas. Microsoft originally contended it could not turn over customer emails the Justice Department sought in 2013 as part of an ongoing narcotics case because the emails were stored in an Irish data center.
As the case wove its way through lower courts, and finally to the high court in February, Microsoft was part of a contingent of tech companies and law enforcement agencies that pushed for a new law to set rules for data-storage providers and governments to access digital data held across borders.
That law, called the Cloud Act, passed as part of Congress' budget bill last month. It allows U.S. data providers to turn over information stored internationally if the law enforcement request was legitimate and no foreign law would be breached.
-- Tribune News Service
Business on 04/18/2018