High court unsure how to stop gerrymandering

WASHINGTON— Supreme Court justices, hearing arguments Wednesday in a Maryland gerrymandering case, signaled again they are troubled when politicians draw election districts solely to give their party more seats in Congress.

But they appeared equally frustrated over the question of what — if anything — the court should do about it.

The Maryland case seemed to most of the justices to represent an extreme and obvious example of partisan gerrymandering, which, unlike racial gerrymandering, has not been outlawed.

The constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering is the most significant question before the court this term. Since the 1980s, the justices have repeatedly criticized politicians for drawing election districts that entrench their party in power. But they have also repeatedly failed to rule that such politically motivated redistricting violates the Constitution.

Truckers’ pay surges

Wages are on the move for America’s truckers as the freight transportation industry contends with driver shortages and increased demand for shipping services.

A recent study by the American Trucking Associations of more than 100,000 employees and contractors showed the median salary of a U.S. truckload driver increased about 15 percent to $53,000 from 2013 to 2017. Pay for a private fleet trucker jumped almost 18 percent to more than $86,000.

Ariz. governor and Uber

PHOENIX— Emails released Wednesday between Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s staff and Uber executives shed new light on a cozy relationship between the first-term Republican and the company whose autonomous vehicle recently was involved in a fatal crash.

The previously unseen emails released by the governor’s office were first reported by The Guardian newspaper. They show that Mr. Ducey’s staff worked closely with the company as it began experimenting with autonomous vehicles thatthe company began testing on public roads in August2016 without informing the public.

The governor’s staff pushed back, saying Mr. Ducey’s embrace of Uber and autonomous vehicles was one of his administration’s most visible and public initiatives and that there was no secret testing.

Family Dollar settles suit

Discount retailer Family Dollar has agreed to pay $45 million to settle a gender bias lawsuit that dates to July 2002.

According to the settlement, 37,000 female managers of Family Dollar stores alleged that they were paid less than their male counterparts for doing the same job, a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963. According to details in the settlement, 49 female store managers and their counsel filed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charges that alleged a pattern and practice of discriminatory wages paid to women as a class at Family Dollar since July 2, 2002.