Ralphs Grocery sued by California for allegedly revoking job offers from ex-convicts
CNN
The state of California has sued Ralphs Grocery for allegedly rescinding job offers from hundreds of job applicants with a criminal history, accusing the company of violating state law.
The state of California has sued Ralphs Grocery for allegedly rescinding job offers from hundreds of job applicants with a criminal history, accusing the company of violating state law. California’s Civil Rights Department alleges that Ralphs violated a 2018 law that bans most employers from asking job candidates about their criminal histories before making them an offer. The department accuses Ralphs of canceling hundreds of offers due to applicants’ prior convictions, including for a single misdemeanor count like excessive noise or cannabis possession, according to the lawsuit filed in state court Thursday. The suit is the first of its kind in California, according to the department. Neither Ralphs nor its parent company Kroger immediately responded to CNN’s request for comment. “We can’t expect people to magically gain the economic and housing stability needed to reintegrate into their communities and stay out of the criminal legal system without a fair chance at steady employment,” CRD director Kevin Kish said in a statement, “particularly when the job has nothing to do with a past offense.” California’s Fair Chance law states employers must first extend a conditional job offer before making a criminal background check—and the offer can be revoked only if the conviction has a direct relationship to the job responsibilities.
Trump is threatening to take “strong action” against Iran just after capturing the leader of Venezuela. His administration is criminally investigating the chair of the Federal Reserve and is taking a scorched-earth approach on affordability by threatening key profit drivers for banks and institutional investors.
Perhaps no data point better encapsulates the American economy right now than this nugget from Delta’s quarterly earnings:
China recorded the world’s biggest ever trade surplus in 2025, as well as a 20% jump from 2024, capping off a year in which the world’s largest manufacturer defied US trade pressure by ramping up exports to other global markets.
Saks Global, the parent company of luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, filed for bankruptcy protection late Tuesday, according to court documents filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Houston, Texas.
China on Wednesday reported a strong export run in 2025 with a record surplus of nearly $1.2 trillion, as producers braced for three more years of a Trump administration set on slowing the production powerhouse by shifting US orders to other markets.
Microsoft says it will ask to pay higher electricity bills in areas where it’s building data centers, in an effort to prevent electricity prices for local residents from rising in those areas. The move is part of a broader plan to address rising prices and other concerns sparked by the tech industry’s massive buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure across the United States.
US consumer prices rose 2.7% annually in December, closing out a year that saw slight progress on inflation but continued affordability concerns for many Americans.
The BBC is taking steps to have Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against it dismissed, a court document showed.
Amazon executives laid out their vision for Alexa’s future in an interview with CNN at the CES tech convention, where the company launched a new Alexa website and updates to other Amazon products.
After cutting interest rates three times in a row last year, the Federal Reserve indicated last month it probably won’t lower interest rates again for a while. A months-long pause, cemented by key economic data released Friday, may indeed be the best-case scenario for the world’s largest economy.
What is Corporate America so afraid of?
President Donald Trump wants to juice the economy with dramatically lower interest rates, to take credit for a booming stock market and, perhaps most of all, for his handpicked Fed chair to get off the stage.
Apple plans to use Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence model to power its updated version of Siri, which is set to launch later this year, the two companies announced Monday.