Articles by Jonathan Stempel

Southern California Edison to Pay $80M to US Over 2017 Wildfire

Southern California Edison agreed to pay the United States $80 million to cover costs and damages incurred by the U.S. Forest Service from the 2017 Thomas wildfire in California’s Los Padres National Forecast, the Department of Justice said on Monday. …

Warren Buffett Says Berkshire ‘Built to Last’ Though Eye-Popping Gains Are Over

Warren Buffett on Saturday moved to reassure investors that his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway would serve them well over the long term, even as he mourned the recent passing of his longtime second-in-command Charlie Munger. In his widely-read annual letter to …

Woman Drops Lawsuit Alleging Billionaire Financier Raped Her

A woman who accused billionaire Leon Black of raping her two decades ago at the Manhattan mansion of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has ended her lawsuit against the Apollo Global Management co-founder. Cheri Pierson dismissed her claims …

Tinder, Other Match Dating Apps Encourage Compulsive Use, Lawsuit Claims

Match Group was sued on Wednesday in a proposed class action claiming that its dating apps Tinder, Hinge and The League are designed to addict users, generating more profit for the company, rather than help them establish relationships. The plaintiffs …

New York Attorney General Triples Size of Crypto Fraud Lawsuit to $3 Billion

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday expanded her lawsuit against Digital Currency Group and other cryptocurrency defendants, tripling the size of their alleged fraud scheme to more than $3 billion. James had in October sued DCG, its Genesis …

Build-A-Bear, Maker of Warren Buffett’s Squishmallows Face Off in Court

Warren Buffett is taking on Build-A-Bear. Jazwares, the Berkshire Hathaway-owned maker of the popular Squishmallows plush toys, sued Build-A-Bear Workshop on Monday, calling its new Skoosherz plush toy line “knockoffs” that infringed its intellectual property rights. Not to be outdone, …

Amazon Steers Consumers to Higher-Priced Items, Lawsuit Claims

Amazon.com was sued in a proposed U.S. class action accusing the online retailer of violating a consumer protection law by steering hundreds of millions of shoppers to higher-priced items in order to earn extra fees. According to a complaint filed …

Appeals Court Overturns $366M FedEx Race Bias Verdict

A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out a $366.2 million verdict against FedEx in a case brought by a Black sales manager who said the package delivery company fired her in retaliation for accusing her supervisor of race discrimination. …

Boeing Is Sued by Shareholders Following MAX 9 Blowout

Boeing has been sued by shareholders who said the company prioritized profit over safety and misled them about its commitment to making safe aircraft, prior to the Jan. 5 mid-air cabin panel blowout on an Alaskan Airlines 737 MAX 9. …

J&J Agrees to Resolve Talc Investigations in 42 States

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday said it had reached a tentative settlement to resolve probes by U.S. states into whether it misled consumers about the safety of its talc products, which thousands of lawsuits claim can cause cancer. The deal …