Business

The New York Times reports: The grocery chain Albertsons said on Wednesday that it had backed out of its $25 billion merger with Kroger and sued its rival for failing to adequately push for regulatory approval, after both a federal and state judge blocked the deal on Tuesday. The deal, which would have been the biggest grocery store merger in …

Fox Business reports: Dollar Tree said Wednesday it may adjust or even eliminate certain products if President-elect Trump’s proposed tariffs take effect. The discount retailer, which has high exposure to China, told analysts it has a “wide range of potential actions” it can take to mitigate additional tariffs if they materialize, including changing product details or sizes and even getting …

Stateline reports: The National Milk Producers Federation says it’s too early to say how it would cope with mass deportations under the Trump administration. But the group states it “strongly supports efforts to pass agriculture labor reform that provides permanent legal status to current workers and their families and gives dairy farmers access to a workable guestworker program.” Immigrants make …

The Dallas Express reports: A judge in Texas has issued a nationwide injunction blocking the Corporate Transparency Act. The law pushed by the Biden Administration allegedly aimed at increasing corporate transparency and cracking down on financial crimes like money laundering. The injunction, issued by Judge Amos L. Mazzant III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, …

Variety reports: Mattel is being sued for mistakenly printing the URL for a pornographic site on the packaging for special-edition “Wicked” dolls. According to court documents, a South Carolina resident is launching a class action lawsuit after purchasing the toy for her young daughter, who visited the X-rated website that had “nothing to do with the ‘Wicked’ doll.” “These scenes …

CNN Business reports: The Container Store’s future is in jeopardy. A weak housing market and steep competition have squeezed the chain. The Container Store, which first began in 1978 and has grown to around 100 US locations, now faces a critical holiday shopping season to save it from bankruptcy. Credit rating agencies rank the Container Store as one of the …

CBS News reports: An Arizona produce company is recalling whole cucumbers distributed in 26 states and Canada because they could contain salmonella. In a filing posted by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, SunFed said the recalled cucumbers were sold between Oct. 12 and Nov. 26 and are being pulled from store shelves over possible contamination by the bacteria. …

Via press release from the FDA: Handsome Brook Farms is voluntarily recalling retail units of the Organic Pasture Raised 24-Count Eggs sold under the Kirkland Signature brand name because these eggs have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened …

Axios reports: As a record number of travelers fly this Thanksgiving, some may wind up enjoying new Biden-era refund rules that could be on the chopping block after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. Trump and his appointees will likely try to defang consumer protection efforts at the Transportation Department (DOT) and across the federal government, as they did …

Reuters reports: The FBI has been investigating a longtime Exxon Mobil consultant over the contractor’s alleged role in a hack-and-leak operation that targeted hundreds of the oil company’s biggest critics, according to three people familiar with the matter. The operation involved mercenary hackers who successfully breached the email accounts of environmental activists and others, the sources told Reuters. Some environmental …

USA Today reports: Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has made further preparations for giving away his fortune after his death. Buffett, 94, plans to donate 99.5% of his remaining wealth, valued on Friday at $149.7 billion according to Forbes magazine, to a charitable trust overseen by his daughter and two sons when he dies. In …

Reuters reports: Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard [photo] said on Wednesday that a 25% across-the-board tariff proposed by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would cause the loss of 400,000 jobs and slow growth in the United States, while also hitting Mexican exports. “It’s a shot in the foot,” he said in a morning press conference, adding that Mexico wanted more regional …

Axios reports: For the fifth year in a row, the majority of the nation’s largest retailers will keep their doors closed on Thanksgiving. Shopping for last-minute ingredients ahead of the holiday meal is limited with Walmart, Target, Trader Joe’s, Publix and many grocery stores closed Thursday. Walgreens stores nationwide will be closed on the holiday for the second year. COVID …

Newsweek reports: In response to Trump’s planned tariffs, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, “To compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard from our friends and closest allies, the United States of America. I found his comments unfair. I found them insulting. It’s like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.” Ford warned that …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The door to the plant’s giant casting furnace, which melts metal to be molded into the Model Y’s parts, wouldn’t shut, spewing toxins into the air and raising temperatures for workers on the floor to as high as 100 degrees. Hazardous wastewater from production—containing paint, oil and other chemicals—was also flowing untreated into the city’s …

The Guardian reports: “We’re all living through the enshittocene, a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit,” author Cory Doctorow said earlier this year. In 2022, Doctorow coined the word “enshittification”, which has just been crowned Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year. The dictionary defined the …

The Associated Press reports: Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is rolling back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, joining a growing list of major corporations that have done the same after coming under attack by conservative activists. The changes, confirmed by Walmart on Monday, are sweeping and include everything from not renewing a five-year commitment for an equity racial center …

Yahoo Finance reports: McDonald’s is pulling out all the stops to rebuild its reputation and lure customers back after an E. coli outbreak linked to slivered onions in its Quarter Pounder hamburgers. The fast-food giant has reportedly earmarked $100 million for recovery efforts, including marketing and franchisee support to address the fallout. The outbreak infected more than 100 people across …

Reuters reports: U.S. farm industry groups want President-elect Donald Trump to spare their sector from his promise of mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on immigrants in the United States illegally. So far Trump officials have not committed to any exemptions, according to interviews with farm and worker groups and Trump’s incoming “border czar” Tom …

NPR reports: Texas’ business and economic sectors say mass deportations could upend some of the state’s major industries that rely on undocumented labor, chief among them the booming construction industry. “It would devastate our industry, we wouldn’t finish our highways, we wouldn’t finish our schools,” said Stan Marek, CEO of Marek, a Houston-based commercial and residential construction giant. “Housing would …