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Dollar General has agreed to cough up $42,500 to settle a lawsuit claiming a manager at a Georgia store fired a staffer “immediately” after finding out she was pregnant, and citing “health reasons” in her separation notice.

In September 2020, Calleigh Rutledge was working as a sales associate at a Dollar General in Baldwin, Ga., when she told the store manager that she was pregnant, according to a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Georgia federal court last month.

“Immediately after learning of her pregnancy,” the manager said: “Since you are pregnant, you can no longer work here,” according to the EEOC, though Rutledge reportedly never requested maternity leave or suggested that she was unable to work during her employment.

Later that evening, the store manager called Rutledge to apologize for firing her, and said she would inquire about whether she could return to work for “light duty” at two hours per day the EEOC claimed in the court documents obtained by The Post.

The EEOC cited a text exchange between Rutledge and her manager, where the mother-to-be said she needed to work more than two hours per day in order to make enough money for her and her baby.

“Will that be safe? How many hrs are you thinking?” the manager replied, to which Rutledge said she wanted to keep her schedule the same throughout her pregnancy, the filing showed.

“Rutledge was never again placed on the work schedule,” according to the lawsuit, and just days after revealing her pregnancy, Rutledge received a separation notice stating her discharge was due to “health reasons.”

The EEOC shared that Dollar General agreed to settle the pregnancy discrimination lawsuit with $42,500 in a press release on Wednesday.

Of the sum, $29,750 will cover compensatory damages while $12,750 goes towards back pay damages.

It’s unclear if Rutledge sought to get her job back as a Dollar General cashier.

The federal agency also said Dollar General agreed to revise its anti-discrimination policies, provide annualtraining to its managers on Title VII — which protects employees from discrimination in the workplace — and allow the EEOC to monitor complaints of discrimination.

Representatives for Dollar General and the EEOC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The Tennessee-based discount chain hasn’t been having a good year so far.

Year-to-date, Dollar General’s share price has tanked nearly 60%, to $101.83, and it’s been getting slammed by retail theft and waning consumer demand.

The company warned Wall Street in August that its profits may plunge as much as 34% this fiscal year — compared to its previous forecast for an 8% decline — as it cut its full-year outlook for the second time.

Our revised guide is really a function of the slower transactions that were seeing, and higher expected shrink, Dollar General CFO Kelly Dilts said on a call with analysts after the company reported quarterly earnings that fell short of Wall Street estimates on Aug. 31.

The reference to shrink an industry term for stolen or damaged goods follows a troubling trend cited by other major retailers who have blamed the scourge of organized retail theft for impacting their bottom line.

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Science

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch of Private Griffin Moon Lander Pushed to 2026 Amid Testing Phase

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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch carrying Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 lunar lander has been delayed to July 2026 due to ongoing testing. The mission, part of NASA’s CLPS program, will deliver multiple rovers and cultural payloads to the Moon, marking a key milestone for private lunar exploration.

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Science

Russian Cosmonauts Complete Second Spacewalk to Install New Experiments on ISS Exterior

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Two Russian cosmonauts completed a six-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station, installing plasma and semiconductor experiments, servicing hardware, and preparing for future missions. The EVA, lasting nearly seven hours, marked the 277th in ISS history and advanced ongoing scientific research aboard the orbital outpost.

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Environment

California hits back as CARB takes legal action against truck brands

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California hits back as CARB takes legal action against truck brands

Following a lawsuit brought against the California Air Resources Board (CARB) by major heavy truck manufacturers over California’s emissions requirements, CARB has struck back with fresh lawsuit of its own alleging that the manufacturers violated the terms of the 2023 Clean Truck Partnership agreement to sell cleaner vehicles.

Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar and Volvo Group North America sued the California Air Resources Board in federal court this past August, seeking to invalidate the Clean Truck Partnership emissions reduction deal they signed with the state in 2023 to move away from traditional trucks and toward zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). The main point of the lawsuit was that, because the incoming Trump Administration rolled back Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policies that had previously given individual states the right to set their own environmental and emissions laws, the truck makers shouldn’t have to honor the deals signed with individual states.

“Plaintiffs are caught in the crossfire: California demands that OEMs follow preempted laws; the United States maintains such laws are illegal and orders OEMs to disregard them,” the lawsuit reads. “Accordingly, Plaintiff OEMs file this lawsuit to clarify their legal obligations under federal and state law and to enjoin California from enforcing standards preempted by federal law.”

After several weeks of waiting for a response, we finally have one: CARB is suing the OEMs right back, claiming that the initial suit proves the signing manufacturers, “(have) unambiguously stated that they do not intend to comply.”

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They want to sell Americans more diesel


Peterbilt Model 589; via Peterbilt.

In its lawsuit, CARB argues that monetary damages alone would not make the people of the State of California whole as far as damages are concerned, citing that the stated goal of the 2023 Clean Truck Partnership was, “to achieve emissions reductions that cannot be measured strictly in financial terms,” according to ACT-News.

The agency is asking the court to compel the truck companies to perform on their 2023 obligations or, failing that, to allow CARB to rescind the contract and recover its costs. A hearing on the truck makers’ request for a preliminary injunction was held Friday, with another court date set for November 21, when CARB will seek to dismiss the case brought forth by the truck brands. The outcome of these cases could shape how state and federal government agencies cooperation on emissions rules in the future.

You can read the full 22-page lawsuit, below, then let us know what you think of CARB’s response (and their chances of succeeding) in the comments.

SOURCES: CARB; via ACT-News, Trucking Dive.


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