: Real Or Inflation-adjusted Earnings Rise 0.4% In December

An anti-affirmative action group has sued McDonald’s over a scholarship program for Hispanic and Latino students a week after the company said it was ending some of its corporate diversity, equity and inclusion practices. The lawsuit, which alleges the scholarship program unlawfully discriminates against students of other races and ethnicities, was filed in federal court in Tennessee by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, a group helmed by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum.

Halted for nearly a month in the wake of a river spill, demolition at the future site of the permanent Bally’s Chicago Casino complex resumed Friday after the city approved a new plan for razing the last vestiges of the Freedom Center. Disappointing results from the first full year at the temporary Medinah Temple facility may make supplanting the former Chicago Tribune printing plant with the planned $1.7 billion gambling palace an even higher priority for both Bally’s and the city, which has reduced its casino tax revenue projection for 2025. “Our focus is getting into the permanent, getting that done,” Chris Jewett, Bally’s senior vice president of corporate development, said Monday.

If you can’t beat them, join them. That seems to be the approach of some cannabis companies as the hemp industry has cut into their market. One of the largest cannabis companies in the country, Green Thumb Industries, announced Friday that it will open a hemp products store selling edibles and margaritas at the Salt Shed concert hall in Chicago. The announcement comes days after Illinois lawmakers tried and failed to regulate hemp products, leaving the industry largely unregulated and continuing to grow quickly.

After an app update rollout that can best be described as disastrous, Sonos is seeking a new CEO. The company announced today that Patrick Spence, who had been CEO for eight years, is stepping down. In its announcement, Sonos said its board of directors and Spence "agreed" on the decision while saying it was unrelated to the company's fiscal Q1 2025 earnings, which it will report next month. Spence joined Sonos as chief commercial officer in 2012 after leaving Blackberry.

WGN-Ch. 9 entertainment reporter and critic Dean Richards in October sold his four-bedroom, 4,072-square-foot house in the Northwest Side Avondale neighborhood for its $949,900 listing price. The Emmy-winning Richards, who also hosts the “Dean Richards’ Sunday Morning” program on Sunday mornings on sister station WGN-AM, has been with Channel 9 since 1991 and has reviewed films for the station since 1998.

When Patz’s Market in Hebron closed in November 2017, the small town in southern Porter County was left without a grocery store. The family-owned store had been a staple in the community for more than 50 years and was located in the Country Square Plaza shopping center on the city’s north side when it closed; the location is now home to First Church of Hebron. “If my wife tells me to stop for a gallon of milk, potatoes and a loaf of bread, normal stuff, I had to stop at two or three locations along the way,” said Hebron Town Council President John Spinks Jr., who represents Ward 3. The closest grocery retailers are in Valparaiso, Crown Point and DeMotte.