Nordstrom on Monday announced it will become a private company after it agreed to a buyout deal valued at roughly $6.25 billion from Nordstrom’s founding family and Mexican department store El Puerto de Liverpool. The company’s board of directors unanimously approved of the transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of 2025. As part of the deal, the Nordstrom family will ...

The toy industry is headed for its second consecutive annual sales decline, but it’s got one thing propping it up: colorful, interlocking plastic bricks. At a time when toy companies are struggling to match the massive gains of pandemic-era sales, Lego is growing rapidly. The Danish company saw revenue jump 13% in the first six months of the year and continues to ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing Walmart and a financial technology firm, alleging they illegally forced drivers into using costly deposit accounts to receive their pay. The agency alleges that Walmart and the vendor, Branch Messenger, forced the drivers, who were part of Walmart’s Spark Driver gig-work platform, to use Branch Messenger’s deposit accounts to collect their compensation — and ...

The IRS plans to issue automatic “special payments” of up to $1,400 to 1 million taxpayers starting later this month, the agency announced last week. The payments will go to individuals who did not claim the 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit on their tax returns for that year and who are eligible for the money. The Recovery Rebate Credit is a refundable tax credit provided ...

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is suing to block the release of a House Ethics Committee report on his alleged behavior. In a complaint filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., the Republican’s attorneys maintain Gaetz’s innocence, say that the conduct detailed in the report is untrue, and claim the committee does not have jurisdiction over him because he ...

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., allegedly paid multiple women for sex, including a 17-year-old high school girl, and used illicit drugs like cocaine and ecstasy, according to a House Ethics Committee report. The 37-page report released Monday morning concluded that Gaetz violated multiple Florida state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office. ‘The Committee concluded there was substantial evidence ...

The Biden administration has lifted a $10 million bounty on the head of Ahmed al-Sharaa, leader of the group that overthrew Bashar al-Assad in Syria. In exchange, al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, agreed to a U.S. demand not to allow terrorism groups in Syria to threaten the U.S. or Syria’s neighbors.  ‘We had a good, thoroughgoing discussion on a range ...

A leading progressive House Democrat is commending President Biden’s sweeping commutation order for people on the federal death row, calling the death penalty itself ‘racist.’ ‘The President’s decision to commute the death sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row is a historic and groundbreaking act of compassion that will save lives, address the deep racial disparities in our criminal ...

Concerns over a resurgence of the Islamic State in Syria remain heightened following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime and an increase in attacks targeting U.S.-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). President-elect Donald Trump may well face another round against the extremist group as the SDF faces a reality in which it may have to divide its focus between ISIS ...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is calling out the Biden administration for spending over a trillion taxpayer dollars on ‘government waste’ this year, including on a bearded lady cabaret show, Arabic Sesame Street, and ‘girl-centered climate action.’ The Kentucky senator released his annual ‘Festivus’ report that details different ways in which the current administration spent taxpayer dollars throughout the year.  The ...