The new feature is being rolled out nationwide despite an ongoing class action lawsuit against the policy in California, filed by Uber drivers who argue that it is discriminatory against men. Rival ride-hailing company Lyft is also facing a discrimination lawsuit over a similar offering that it introduced nationwide in 2024.

The feature, announced in a blog post, allows women to request a female driver through an option on the app called “Women Drivers.” Passengers can opt for another ride if the wait for a woman is too long, and they can also reserve a trip with a woman driver in advance. A third option allows female users to set a preference for a woman driver in their app settings, which would increase the chances of being matched with a female driver, though it would not guarantee it. Uber is also allowing its teen account users to request women drivers.

Uber’s women drivers can set the app’s preferences to request trips with female riders, and they can turn off that preference at anytime.

Uber, based in San Francisco, says about one-fifth of its drivers in the U.S. are women, thought the ratio varies by city.

Two California Uber drivers filed a class-action lawsuit against Uber in November, arguing that its Women Preferences feature violates California’s Unruh Act, which prohibits sex discrimination by business enterprises. The lawsuit charges that the feature gives its minority female drivers access to the entire pool of passengers, while leaving its majority male drivers to compete for a smaller pool of passengers. The lawsuit also argues that Uber’s policy “reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women.”

Uber filed a motion to compel arbitration in the case, citing an agreement the plaintiffs signed when joining the app as drivers. In the motion, Uber disputed that its new feature violates the Unruh Act, saying it “serves a strong and recognized public policy interest in enhancing safety.”

“This feature is a common sense solution to a long-standing request from both women Drivers and Riders who told Uber they would feel more comfortable and safer if they could choose to ride with another woman,” the company said in the court filing.

Two Lyft drivers have filed a similar lawsuit against that company against its “Women+Connect” feature, which allows women and nonbinary riders to match with drivers of the same identification.

Uber piloted the “Women Preferences” feature in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit last summer and expanded it to 26 U.S. cities in November. The company first launched a version of the feature in Saudi Arabia in 2019 following the country’s landmark law granting women the right to drive. It now offers similar options in 40 other countries, including Canada and Mexico.

Both Uber and Lyft have for years faced criticism over their safety records, including thousands of reports of sexual assaults from both passengers and drivers. In February, federal jury found Uber to be legally responsible in a 2023 case of sexual assault and the company was ordered to pay $8.5 million to an Arizona woman who said she was raped by one of its drivers.

Uber maintains that because its drivers are contractors and not employees, it’s not liable for their misconduct. But Uber says has taken multiple steps in efforts to improve safety, including teaming up with Lyft in 2021 to create a database of drivers ousted from their ride-hailing services for complaints over sexual assault and other crimes.

Uber says sexual assault reports have decreased over the years. According to reports from Uber, 5,981 incidents of sexual assault were reported in U.S. rides between 2017 and 2018 — compared to 2,717 between 2021 and 2022 (the latest years with data available), which the platform says represented 0.0001% of total trips nationwide.

Built in the mid-1970s, the house was designed by Wesley, who became Skidmore’s first Black partner in 1984.

Wesley, who died in January at age 88, worked on a host of important local and regional projects, including Orchestra Hall, Elmhurst University’s performing arts center, the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio and projects for Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, a State Street renovation and the Lakefront Millennium Project.

Set on a 0.75-acre lot, the house has four bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms, two fireplaces, a living room with a two-story wall of glass, a fireplace, an art studio, a screened porch, a wraparound deck and two primary suites.

Current owners Cynthia Ramsey Nolan and her husband, Tom, bought the home in 2002 from Wesley and his wife, Wilma.

“What drew us to this house, No. 1, was that it was designed by a regionally significant architect. We had lived in a house in Dallas designed by a regionally significant architect, and my wife got transferred up here — otherwise, we’d still be in Dallas,” Tom Nolan told Elite Street.

“We were looking to replicate the home in Dallas and while you obviously can’t do that, this was the next best thing,” he said. “We shopped the North Shore and couldn’t find anything noteworthy that wasn’t $3 million or $4 million, and we finally found this house and liked the aspect of being able to bring it back and kind of modernize it. Plus, it has a really nice lot.”

Cynthia Ramsey Nolan added that she and her husband liked the diversity of Flossmoor, plus the fact that, although the house is located in a neighborhood, it feels private.

“Because there are so many oversized windows, I like that the outside comes into the interior,” she said. “We did lots of entertaining, and this is a terrific house for entertaining purposes.”

Laurie Mead of @properties will have the listing.

The couple first listed the house last year for $799,000 and later reduced their asking price to $749,000 and then to $724,000 before taking it off the market in January. They said they want to sell the house because they are considering moving downtown.

The house had a $7,865 property tax bill in the 2024 tax year.

Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

The work will cover Sixth Street between Garfield Street and County Line Road and will separate the combined sewer system in accordance with the village’s Stormwater Master Plan. Village President Greg Hart said the work should improve drainage and reduce localized flooding.

“It will also replace the more than 80-year-old water main and sanitary sewer infrastructure and fully reconstruct the roadway pavement,” he said, adding that the project addresses infrastructure that is “well beyond its useful life.”

Hart said the village secured a $1.092 million federal Community Project Funding grant, with the help of  Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, to help offset costs related to the underground utility portion of the project.

“That funding supports separation of the combined sewer system, installation of new storm sewers, and replacement and upgrading of aging water main and sanitary sewer infrastructure, in accordance with our Stormwater Master Plan,” he said.

The section of Sixth Street to be improved currently is constructed in brick. Whether that remains when the project is completed remains to be determined.

“We are working with residents on Sixth Street to determine project details, including the materials that will ultimately be used,” Hart said. “More information will be shared once we have final grant requirements and have completed further dialogue with Sixth Street residents.”

The project is anticipated to be bid in fall 2026, with construction taking place in 2027, with the timing being dependent on the distribution of federal grant funds,

“The last major utility work on this corridor dates back more than 80 years,” Hart said. “While routine maintenance has been performed over time to maintain drivability, there has not been a full reconstruction of this magnitude in modern history. Portions of the street surface date back as far as 1891.”

Hart said the village will work to maintain access for local traffic and driveways as much as possible, while work is being done.

“However, given the scale of the project, temporary street closures and construction staging impacts should be expected during active construction,” he said. “Specific traffic control plans will be finalized closer to the start of work.”

Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. 

Anthropic filed two separate lawsuits Monday, one in California federal court and another in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., each challenging different aspects of the Pentagon’s actions against the company.

The Pentagon last week formally designated the San Francisco tech company a supply chain risk after an unusually public dispute over how its AI chatbot Claude could be used in warfare.

Elizabeth Shackelford: The Pentagon’s fight with Anthropic is about unchecked power

“These actions are unprecedented and unlawful,” Anthropic’s lawsuit says. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation.”

The Defense Department declined to comment Monday, citing a policy of not commenting on matters in litigation.

Anthropic said it sought to restrict its technology from being used for two high-level usages: mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials publicly insisted the company must accept “all lawful uses” of Claude and threatened punishment if Anthropic did not comply.

Designating the company a supply chain risk cuts off Anthropic’s defense work using an authority that was designed to prevent foreign adversaries from harming national security systems. It was the first time the federal government is known to have used the designation against a U.S. company.

President Donald Trump also said he would order federal agencies to stop using Claude, though he gave the Pentagon six months to phase out a product that’s deeply embedded in classified military systems, including those used in the Iran war.

Anthropic’s lawsuit also names other federal agencies, including the departments of Treasury and State, after officials ordered employees to stop using Anthropic’s services.

Even as it fights the Pentagon’s actions, Anthropic has sought to convince businesses and other government agencies that the Trump administration’s penalty is a narrow one that only affects military contractors when they are using Claude in work for the Department of Defense.

Making that distinction clear is crucial for the privately held Anthropic because most of its projected $14 billion in revenue this year comes from businesses and government agencies that are using Claude for computer coding and other tasks. More than 500 customers are paying Anthropic at least $1 million annually for Claude, according to a recent investment announcement valued the company at $380 billion.

Anthropic said in a statement Monday that “seeking judicial review does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security, but this is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers, and our partners.”

Shares of Hims & Hers Health Inc. jumped more than 40% in Monday morning trading.

Early last month Hims & Hers said that it was going to launch a cheaper, off-brand version of the weight-loss pill Wegovy, just weeks after drugmaker Novo Nordisk launched its highly anticipated reformulation of the blockbuster medication. At the time, Novo Nordisk vowed to sue Hims, calling the new product “an unapproved, inauthentic, and untested knockoff” of semaglutide, the chemical name for Wegovy.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/health/

But just two days later, Hims dropped its plan to offer the cheaper, off-brand version of Wegovy. That move came a day after the Food and Drug Administration threatened to restrict access to the ingredients needed to copy popular weight-loss medications.

The FDA permits specialty pharmacies and other companies to make compounded versions of brand name drugs when they are in short supply. And the booming demand for GLP-1 drugs in recent years prompted companies like Hims to jump into the multibillion-dollar market for the drugs, with many patients willing to pay cash.

In 2024, the FDA said that GLP-1 drugs were no longer in a shortage, which was expected to put an end to the compounding. But companies like Hims relied on an exception to keep selling their versions of the medications because the practice is still permitted when a prescription is customized for the patient.

As part of the deal the two companies reached that was announced on Monday, Hims will offer oral and injectable versions of Wegovy and Ozempic on its platform later this month. Hims will also stop advertising compounded GLP-1 drugs on its platform or in its marketing.

Novo Nordisk said in a statement that it is reserving the right to refile its lawsuit in the future.

Archos, who grew up in the family restaurant business, had already opened several successful Wildberry Pancake and Cafe locations in Chicago and the suburbs, and was convinced his hospitality experience would serve him well in the nascent cannabis industry.

The budding entrepreneur has since turned Chicago-based Verano from a pipe dream into one of the largest publicly traded cannabis companies in the country. And he still owns seven Chicago-area restaurants.

“I love the restaurant business, and everything that I’ve learned in the restaurant industry is directly applied to our success in the cannabis industry,” Archos, 46, said during a recent interview at Verano’s new Chicago headquarters.

One maxim has certainly applied to both businesses: you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

From opening the first cannabis cultivation facility in the state more than a decade ago to building a vertically integrated company that ranks third in retail sales nationally, Archos has surmounted myriad regulatory and operational hurdles.

But as the industry matures, there are new challenges, with cannabis sales in the U.S. and Illinois declining last year for the first time in the era of regulated markets. Like many companies, Verano is facing pricing pressure, declining revenue and a falling stock price. And it has yet to turn a profit.

Archos remains bullish, however, on a cannabis unicorn that started as a side hustle.

“We have the people, we have the processes, we have the product.” Archos said. “We’re on the path, and I believe in this plant.”

In the 30 years since California approved the use of medical marijuana through Proposition 215, legal weed has spread across the states, while remaining illegal at the federal level.

Recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states and medical marijuana has the green light in 40 states, with Texas the latest to approve its sale last year. The total legal cannabis market generated about $30 billion in retail sales in 2025, according to industry data.

Illinois became the 20th state to authorize medical marijuana operations in 2013. It legalized recreational marijuana at the beginning of 2020.

In the summer of 2014, Archos sought one of 22 medical marijuana cultivation licenses, finishing up his application with an all-nighter and driving to Springfield to hand-deliver it by the deadline. The state granted Archos a license in February 2015 to grow marijuana in Albion, a tiny community in southeastern Illinois.

Backed by family and friends, Archos bootstrapped the startup cannabis operation, originally called Ataraxia, and began building a 52,000-square-foot indoor facility “in the middle of a cornfield,” he said.

Archos then brought his chefs and restaurant managers with him to visit cannabis operations in Colorado to learn the ropes of the business, from growing to processing to retail.

“I took the grow side as my piece,” Archos said, assuming the dual roles of CEO and inaugural cannabis cultivator.

In July 2015, Ataraxia received state authorization to begin growing marijuana, becoming the first operational cannabis cultivation facility in Illinois. The company formed a partnership to open the state’s first dispensary in nearby Effingham.

Since then, the rechristened Verano has grown exponentially to 160 dispensaries under the Zen Leaf and MUV banners and 15 production facilities across a 13-state footprint, with 3,900 employees nationwide.

Florida is Verano’s largest market with 83 MÜV medical cannabis dispensaries. Verano has 10 Zen Leaf dispensaries in the Chicago area and the downstate cultivation facility, which has been expanded to 200,000 square feet.

But Verano’s business has lost some financial ground in recent years.

In 2024, Verano generated $879 million in revenue, down from more than $938 million the previous year, according to the most recent published annual report. The company, which saw a nearly 7% revenue decline and a widening net loss through September, is expected to report its full-year 2025 earnings March 12.

When Verano went public in February 2021, it raised $100 million through an offering that valued the company at $2.9 billion, trading under the ticker symbol VRNO on the Canadian Securities Exchange.

The stock, which traded upwards of $30 per share when it went public five years ago, fell into penny stock territory last year and currently trades at about $1.60 per share on Cboe Canada, giving the company a market cap of about $430 million in U.S. dollars.

While Archos sees potential revenue catalysts in the next two years for Verano, reaching profitability may take more time.

The expected launch of adult-use cannabis sales in Virginia may boost revenue for Verano this year, while approved medical cannabis sales in Texas will open up new revenue opportunities for the company in 2027, Archos said. But the company will likely invest significant capital to launch the business, further deferring profitability, Archos said.

“When you tack on a Texas and you win a license with 30-plus million people, we might spend a quarter billion dollars there building out,” Archos said. “So it’s hard to pin a profitability date when we have so many opportunities ahead of us, we have to keep reinvesting in the business.”

More broadly, the cannabis industry is facing headwinds, but the climate may be improving.

Last year, recreational cannabis sales in Illinois fell by 12.5% to $1.5 billion, according to a report by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. It was the first annual decline in sales since the state legalized recreational marijuana in January 2020.

Nationally, marijuana sales declined by $1 billion in 2025, according to Beau Whitney, chief economist at Whitney Economics, an Oregon-based cannabis research firm.

“Practically every state has an oversupply of cannabis at the raw material level, at the cultivation level, and because there’s so much supply, then it’s driving down prices,” Whitney said.

The sale of intoxicating hemp products has also tamped down legal cannabis sales, Whitney said.

The legal cannabis market dispensed $30.9 billion in adult-use and medical products last year, or about a third of the total $96 billion in THC sales across the U.S., according to the BDSA Market Forecast. The illegal cannabis market remained the largest segment at $40.1 billion, while intoxicating hemp accounted for $21.8 billion. But those hemp sales may soon go up in smoke.

The intoxicating hemp market was created by the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp with low THC concentrations from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act. But manufacturers found a way to develop hemp-derived intoxicating products that packed enough punch to become a convenience store alternative to cannabis.

Last year, Congress closed the loophole, which is expected to dry up the intoxicating hemp market as of November. That could create new upside for the legal cannabis market to fill at least some of the void beginning in 2027.

“We think ‘27 is going to be a good story, with hemp shutting down, or at least being limited and regulated the right way, as we are,” Archos said.

Federal rescheduling could also boost the bottom line for Verano and other cannabis companies.

In December, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Attorney General to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III in the Controlled Substances Act. That would dramatically ease the federal tax burden on cannabis companies, which currently cannot deduct the costs of selling their products.

If rescheduling is enacted, it is projected to save Verano $80 million per year in taxes alone, Archos said.

“It’s a huge difference for us right now,” Archos said. “It’s a real number.”

Rescheduling may also lead to improved banking access for cannabis companies and the ability to be listed on U.S. exchanges.

Verano and Chicago-based competitors Green Thumb and Cresco Labs — three of the largest multistate operators — all trade on Canadian exchanges because marijuana is still a federally controlled substance.

Being classified as an illegal substance presents other challenges for cannabis companies, from being unable to offer credit card purchasing at dispensaries to difficulties leasing office space.

Verano encountered the latter when it outgrew its River North office and began looking for new space for its Chicago headquarters several years ago. Some building owners were unable to get banking approval for a lease with a federally “illegal” business.

In August 2023, Verano moved into the fourth floor of a new building on Hill Street in the Near North neighborhood, choosing Old Town Park by Canadian developer Onni to get a 12-year lease for its headquarters.

Verano was the first office tenant in the building, occupying 25,000 square feet in the mixed-use complex, which includes an adjacent 41-story apartment tower.

The bright industrial space features an open floor plan, meeting rooms and whimsical art on the walls, including a living Verano sign made of green plants – not the smoking kind.  About 100 workers spanning finance, marketing, real estate and research keep the office hopping on a daily basis.

Archos occupies a corner office with huge windows overlooking the “L” tracks, where trains rumble by regularly, creating a classic Chicago backdrop for guiding the cannabis company.

One room serves as an incubator, where the latest marketing designs are tested out, including a new sniff jar to give customers a whiff of their flower before buying. Verboten in Illinois, it has yet to launch in any Verano market.

“This is our sandbox for things that we want to do in retail,” said Robert Cohen, executive vice president of retail strategy at Verano. “And then we turn around and talk to the compliance team on what can we do, where.”

Last year, Verano introduced bodega-style shopping at Zen Leaf dispensaries in Arizona, which allows customers to grab products off the shelf in a more hands-on retail shopping experience, Cohen said.

But it will likely take more than sniff jars to boost stagnant revenue and investor interest in the cannabis industry.

“This is kind of a make-or-break period for marijuana in the United States right now,” Whitney said. “Because of the uncertainty and the lack of progress of cannabis reform, and all of this uncertainty caused by the hemp industry, investors are not as interested in the U.S. market.”

Archos, who now primarily lives in Florida with his family, including two teenage children, maintains a residence in Chicago to manage his businesses.

After nurturing Verano from startup seedling to unicorn, Archos is hopeful the marijuana industry is finally ready for federal reform, ushering in a new era of medical research, expansion and profitability. But he is prepared to lead his work family into the future, whatever that may bring.

“We’re supporting each other, even through the tough times and this cannabis roller coaster ride,” he said. “There’s been plenty of tough moments and tough times, but I feel like we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, was at $101.19 shortly after trading resumed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, up 9.2% from its settlement price of $92.69 Friday.

West Texas Intermediate, the light, sweet crude oil produced in the United States, was selling for about $107.06 a barrel. That’s 16.2% higher than its Friday settlement price of $90.90.

Both could rise or fall as market trading continues.

The increases followed U.S. crude prices jumping by 36% and Brent crude prices rising 28% last week. Oil prices have surged as the war, now in its second week, ensnared countries and places that are critical to the production and movement of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf.

Roughly 15 million barrels of crude oil — about 20% of the world’s oil — typically are shipped every day through the Strait of Hormuz, according to independent research firm Rystad Energy. The threat of Iranian missile and drone attacks has all but stopped tankers from traveling through the strait, which is bordered in the north by Iran, carry oil and gas from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE have cut their oil production as storage tanks fill due to the reduced ability to export crude. Iran, Israel and the United States also have attacked oil and gas facilities since the war started, exacerbating supply concerns.

The last time U.S. crude futures traded above $100 per barrel was June 30, 2022, when the price reached $105.76. For Brent, it was July 29, 2022, when the price hit $104 per barrel.

The global surge in oil prices since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on March 1 has rattled financial markets, sparking worries that higher energy costs will fuel inflation and lead to less spending by U.S. consumers, the main engine of the economy.

In the U.S., a gallon of regular gasoline rose to $3.45 on Sunday, about 47 cents more than a week earlier, according to AAA motor club. Diesel was selling for about $4.60 a gallon, a weekly increase of about 83 cents.

The price of natural gas has also climbed, though not as much as oil. It rose about 11% last week and ended Friday at $3.19 per 1,000 cubic feet.

If oil prices stay above $100 per barrel, some analysts and investors say it could be too much for the global economy to withstand.

Over the weekend, Israel’s military struck oil depots in Tehran and four oil storage tankers and a petroleum transfer terminal.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said the war’s impact on the oil industry would spiral, warning it soon could become harder to produce and sell oil.

Iran exports roughly 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, mostly to China, which may need to look elsewhere for supply if Iran’s exports are disrupted, another factor that could increase energy prices.

In his State of the Union address less than two weeks ago, the Republican president confidently told the country: “The roaring economy is roaring like never before.” The latest batch of data on jobs, pump prices and the stock market suggests that Trump’s roar has started to sound far more like a whimper.

There is a gap between the boom that Trump has predicted and the volatile results he has produced — one that could set the tone in this year’s midterm elections as he tries to defend his party’s majorities in the House and Senate. With Trump’s tariffs drama ongoing, the war in Iran has suddenly created inflationary concerns regarding oil and natural gas. To the White House, it is still early in the year and stronger growth is coming.

No signs of a jobs boom

“WOW! The Golden Age of America is upon us!!!” Trump posted on social media Feb. 11 after the monthly jobs report showed gains of 130,000 jobs in January.

Since then, the job market has evaporated in worrisome ways.

Friday’s employment report showed job losses of 92,000 in February. The January and December figures were revised downward, with December swinging to a loss of 17,000 jobs. Monthly data can be rocky, but a trend has emerged that shows an enduring weakness. Without the health care sector, the economy would have shed roughly 202,000 jobs since Trump became president in January 2025. Still, his administration notes that construction job gains outside of the housing sector point to future hiring growth.

Trump often brags that jobs are going to people born in the United States, rather than to immigrants. But the latest report punctured some of that argument.

The unemployment rate for people born in the U.S. has climbed over the past 12 months to 4.7% from 4.4%. This means a greater share of the people who Trump said would get jobs because of his immigration crackdown are, in fact, searching for work.

Prices at the pump are going up

“Slashing energy costs is among the most important actions we can take to bring down prices for American consumers,” Trump said in a February speech in Texas just before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. “Because when you cut the cost of energy, you really cut — you just cut the cost of everything.”

The president has repeatedly told Americans that keeping gas costs low would be key to defeating inflation. He has talked up the decline, citing figures that were far below the national average to assure the public that driving was getting cheaper.

But the strikes against Iran that began Feb. 28 have, for the moment, crushed that narrative. Prices at the pump have jumped 19% over the past month to a national average of $3.45, according to AAA. The investment bank Goldman Sachs warned in an analyst note that, if higher oil prices persist, inflation could rise from its 2.4% reading in January to 3% by the end of the year.

The administration is banking on plans to contain any energy price increases, essentially betting that either the conflict will end shortly or the administration can succeed in getting more tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump advisers on Sunday sought to assure anxious Americans that surging fuel prices are a short-term problem.

“We never know exactly the time frame of this,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN’s “State of the Union. “But in the worst case, this is a weeks, this is not a months thing.”

Stocks are off their highs

“You know, we set the all-time record in history with the Dow going to 50,000,” Trump said Thursday at the White House.

This frequently repeated talking point has grown stale. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, one of Trump’s preferred measures of success, has dropped 5% over the past month. Stocks are up during his presidency, just as they were previously when Democrat Joe Biden was president. The recent decline could be reversed if the war with Iran ends and companies see solid profits over the next year and beyond. The recent dip, however, should be a warning sign as the administration has stressed the importance of more people investing in the stock market through vehicles such as “Trump accounts” for children.

The stock market has become a barometer of how people feel about the economy, with stock investors tending to have more confidence and those without money in the markets being more pessimistic.

Joanna Hsu, the director of the University of Michigan’s surveys of consumers, noted that in February a “sizable” increase in sentiment among people owning stocks “was fully offset by a decline among consumers without stock holdings.”

Productivity is up, but workers aren’t benefiting

Trump can point to a win in that the economy has become more productive — generating more value for each hour of work. That is a positive sign for long-term growth in the U.S. and a reflection of its strong tech sector.

Business sector labor productivity climbed 2.8% in the fourth quarter of last year, the Labor Department reported Thursday. But the challenge is that the gains might not be spread to workers in the form of higher pay as labor’s share of income last year fell to the lowest level on record, noted Mike Konczal, senior director of policy and research at the Economic Security Project, a nonprofit aligned with liberal economic issues.

Economy grew at a faster pace under Biden

“Under the Biden administration, America was plagued by the nightmare of stagflation, meaning low growth and high inflation — a recipe for misery, failure and decline,” Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

The scoreboard tells a far different story, one that makes Biden’s track record in 2024 look better than Trump’s performance last year. The U.S. economy grew at a 2.8% pace during Biden’s last year, compared with 2.2% under Trump in 2025.

As for inflation, the primary measure used by the Federal Reserve is the personal consumption expenditures price index. It was 2.6% in both 2024 and 2025.

Trump has staked his economic argument on doing better than Biden. But while he has avoided the inflation spikes that haunted Biden’s presidency, he has not delivered stronger growth or more hiring.

With Iran’s theocracy under assault for more than a week, the country’s Assembly of Experts chose the secretive, 56-year-old cleric with close ties to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as the new supreme leader. The Guard has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled Iran for 37 years, was killed during the war’s opening salvo.

The appointment marked a new sign of defiance by Iran’s embattled leadership after more than a week of heavy U.S. and Israeli bombardment, suggesting that Tehran is not close to giving up on what it considers a fight for the country’s existence.

World markets plummeted following the news, and Brent crude oil, the international standard, surged to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday, about 65% higher than when the war started, before retreating.

Iran’s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have also all but stopped tankers from using the key shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil is carried. Fire broke out at an oil facility that Iran attacked in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain’s only oil refinery was apparently also hit, and Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted several drones attacking its Shaybah oil field.

In Israel, sirens blared multiple times on Monday as Iran’s drones and missiles were unrelenting. A man was killed in central Israel in a missile strike, the first such death in Israel in a week, and a woman was wounded.

Israel said it struck the Iranian city of Isfahan, hitting command centers for the Revolutionary Guard and its volunteer Basij force, as well as a rocket engine production facility and missile launch sites. There was no immediate confirmation from Iran.

New Iranian leader seen as even more hard-line than his father

The younger Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the war started, was long considered a potential successor — even before the Israeli strike killed his father. His wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, was killed in the same Israeli strike that killed the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Political figures within Iran have criticized handing over the supreme leader’s title based on heredity, comparing it to the monarchy overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But top clerics in the Assembly of Experts apparently voted for continuity.

Khamenei, who is seen as even more hard-line than his late father, will now be in charge of Iran’s armed forces and any decision about Tehran’s nuclear program.

While Iran’s key nuclear sites are in tatters after the U.S. bombed them during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, it still has highly enriched uranium that’s a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Khamenei could choose to do what his father never did — build a nuclear bomb.

Israel has already described him as a potential target, while U.S. President Donald Trump has called him “unacceptable” and dismissed him as a “lightweight.”

Both the Revolutionary Guard and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah issued statements in support of Khamenei.

Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani, speaking to Iranian state television, praised the Assembly of Experts for “courageously” convening even as airstrikes continued in Tehran. He said the younger Khamenei had been trained by his father and “can handle this situation.”

Regional anger grows as energy infrastructure is hit and oil prices spike

Saudi Arabia lashed out at Iran following a thwarted drone attack on its massive Shaybah oil field, saying Tehran would be the “biggest loser” if it continues to attack Arab states.

In the UAE, authorities said two people were wounded by shrapnel from the interception of Iranian missiles over the capital, Abu Dhabi.

Iran also attacked Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, where it hit a residential area, wounding 32 people, including several children, according to authorities. Another attack appeared to have started a fire at Bahrain’s only oil refinery, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.

Bahrain has also accused Iran of damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online. Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.

On Monday, Bahrain’s state oil company declared force majeure for its oil shipments, the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported, a legal maneuver releasing a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances. It insisted that local demand could still be met.

In Iraq, air defenses downed a drone as it attacked a U.S. military compound inside the Baghdad International Airport, a security source told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. No injuries or damage were reported. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but Iran-backed militias have previously targeted the base.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military said a service member died of injuries from an Iranian attack on troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1. Seven U.S. soldiers have now been killed.

The U.S. State Department early Monday ordered nonessential personnel and families of all staff to leave Saudi Arabia following the escalation in attacks.

Eight other U.S. diplomatic missions have ordered all but key staff to leave: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the consulates in Karachi, Pakistan, and Adana, Turkey.

Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon

Smoke billowed over Beirut after Israel carried out airstrikes on its southern suburbs Monday.

Ahead of the strikes, the Israeli army said it would operate against targets associated with the Hezbollah-linked financial institution al-Qard Al-Hasan — which Israel said finances the militant group — and repeated its warning to residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to flee.

The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials. Another person died in Israel of an asthma attack on her way to a shelter. Israel reported its first soldier deaths on Sunday, saying two were killed in southern Lebanon, where it is fighting Hezbollah.

Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press journalists Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank; Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut; Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida, and Qassem Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed reporting.

Under the data center ordinance, a data center facility that is inactive for more than 15 consecutive months should be decommissioned and restored to pre-development conditions, unless otherwise approved by the Plan Commission following a public hearing.

The data center owner would notify the Plan Commission of the proposed date of when the center would stop operations and an anticipated timeline for decommissioning.

Under a submitted decommissioning plan, the data center owner would offer a proposal with the physical removal of all structures and equipment; the recycling, reuse, or lawful disposal of solid waste; and site stabilization, according to the ordinance.

The operator will also include a decommissioning cost estimate prepared by an Indiana State Licensed Professional Engineer, and the operator will prove having sufficient funds to cover the costs.

Under the battery energy storage systems ordinance, it has the same 15-month inactive standard for decommissioning, decommissioning plan and cost estimate and coverage. The ordinance includes additional removal language to include removing batteries and testing soils after equipment has been removed to ensure there was no contamination.

The Plan Commission has held two meetings to discuss a proposed data center in Eagle Creek Township about six miles away from Lowell High School.

Sentinel Data Centers, a New York-based company with established data centers on the East Coast, is proposing to build a data center on 160 acres of land outside of Lowell on the south side of Indiana 2 just east of Clay Street, said project attorney David Westland.

The data center would be near other industrial uses, like a nearby battery storage facility, Westland said. Tensaka, a Nebraska-based renewable energy company, received county zoning approval last year to develop a 300 megawatt battery storage facility on 35 acres of land near the same intersection, according to Post-Tribune archives, and NIPSCO would be interconnected to the grid.

The proposed data center follows the county’s comprehensive plan, Westland said. The due diligence period for the project will last through 2026, Westland said.

Lake County Councilman and Plan Commissioner Randy Niemeyer, R-7th, said data center projects have been known to raise questions and concerns from residents. Niemeyer said that the developer of the data center in unincorporated Lake County has agreed “to slow walk” the project, he said, to answer questions and allow the county to approve necessary ordinances.

“It’s important for everybody, the citizens and the elected officials, to be really educated on this stuff. We’re working to make sure that all that information is developed and made available before it comes to a vote,” Niemeyer said.

akukulka@post-trib.com