BUSINESS BRIEFS
Discrimination suit settled
Advertiser Staff and News Services
A Nevada-based home furnishings rental company that operates several stores on O'ahu has settled charges of sexual discrimination filed on behalf of two female employees that worked at the company's stores in Waipahu and Wahiawa, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced.
The company, Canyon Rent to Own, denied any wrongdoing, but agreed to pay a total of $71,000 to assistant store manager trainee Kelly Blanchard and office administrator Karin Ho.
The company also agreed to commit to a "zero-tolerance policy against sex and national origin discrimination and retaliation, to review its complaint procedures, and to provide anti-harassment training to all of its employees," according to a press release from the EEOC.
The suit was filed by the EEOC in Sept. 2004 in U.S. District Court for Hawai'i after the agency found that a charge of discrimination had merit, and first attempted to reach a settlement.
INFLATION JUMPS 1.9% IN SEPTEMBER
WASHINGTON — Wholesale inflation rose by the largest amount in 15 years last month, and there are worrisome signs that soaring energy prices from the hurricanes are beginning to spill over to the rest of the economy.
Prices at the wholesale level rose 1.9 percent, the Labor Department reported yesterday, the biggest increase since the first Persian Gulf War in 1990. Like the 1.2 percent September jump in consumer prices announced last week, the biggest in 25 years, the surge was led by energy costs reflecting widespread shutdowns of production following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
GROCER EXPANDS FISH WARNINGS
Safeway, the nation's fifth largest grocery store chain, announced yesterday that it has expanded its mercury-in-seafood health warnings to its stores nationwide.
Previously, Safeway only posted mercury-in-fish warnings in California, as required under state law.
Now, customers in Safeway stores will receive fish advisories at seafood counters based on a federal health advisory.
Since 2002, Turtle Island Restoration Network, an environmental and health nonprofit, has been pushing for the posting of mercury-in- seafood warning signs nationwide.
