With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• Bloomberg reports that "Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. agreed to pay $192.5 million to resolve investor claims that some of the drugstore chain’s executives misled them about its 2015 bid to acquire rival Rite Aid Corp."
According to the story, Walgreens "will pay Rite Aid shareholders to settle a federal class-action lawsuit accusing the company of making false statements about how likely it was regulators would approve the deal, according to a court filing published late Tuesday. Those statements artificially inflated Rite Aid’s stock price and when the merger fell apart in 2017, investors lost millions of dollars, according to the filing in federal court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania."
• Business Insider reports that Dollar General has agreed to write a $1 million check to settle a 2017 lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), saying that the retailer "violated disability-discrimination laws by rescinding job offers to some applicants with high blood pressure or poor eyesight."
According to the story, "The EEOC said the medical examinations were 'extensive, and often, highly invasive,' and included taking vital signs, a drug test, a vision test, a review of current medications, 'and a physical examination, including, in some instances, genital examination of job applicants.'
"The retailer rescinded job offers for some qualified individuals with disabilities, even when these wouldn't affect their ability to safely carry out the job, the EEOC's suit claimed. These included offer-holders whose blood pressure exceeded 160/100 or who didn't have at least 20/50 vision in both eyes, according to the lawsuit."
Before agreeing to pay the fine, Dollar General maintained that ehe examinations were for "legitimate, non-discriminatory business reasons and not for any unlawful or improper purpose."
When was the last time Dollar General was in the news for anything other than being accused of running largely substandard stores, treating its employees badly, and generally accepting mediocrity in everything except store count growth?
