Thomson company settles discrimination case

Thomson dealership will pay $140,000

Stokes-Hodges Chevrolet Cadillac Buick Pontiac GMC in Thomson will pay $140,000 to settle a race discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency said Thursday.

The agency alleged the Thomson car dealer, officially S&H Thomson Inc., allowed a white male management consultant to subject an African-American sales manager to a racially hostile work environment over a four-month period.

In the suit and consent decree, S&H Thomson Inc. denied any liability or wrongdoing.

EEOC spokeswoman Terrie Dandy said the agency did not file suit against the consultant who allegedly committed the harassment.

"It is the employer's responsibility to provide a workplace free of discrimination and harassment. The employer failed to stop the racial harassment once notified," Ms. Dandy explained.

Brake manufacturer bringing 280 jobs to SC

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A company that makes brakes for General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Nissan plans to add about 280 jobs at a South Carolina plant.

The State newspaper reported Thursday that Japanese-based Akebono Brake Corp. is consolidating some of its business in Lexington County.

Akebono spokesman Brandon Kessinger says the company is expanding the plant near the Columbia Metropolitan Airport that it bought from The Bosch Group. Kessinger says the company is essentially doubling the employment at the plant.

He says much of the work and equipment is coming from the closing of a Knoxville, Tenn., plant Akebono bought last year.

Lexington County officials say the company plans to spend $28 million on the expansion.

Feds step up probe of Monsanto Company

ST. LOUIS --- The Justice Department has intensified its antitrust investigation into Monsanto Co., demanding internal documents that outline marketing tactics of the world's biggest seed company.

The demand, disclosed Thursday by Monsanto, formalizes a months-long investigation into possible antitrust violations at the company, which has gained unprecedented power in the multibillion-dollar market for biotech seeds. It has already provided millions of pages of documents to the department and is cooperating with the agency's civil probe, spokesman Lee Quarles said Thursday.

In other news

TREASURY SECRETARY Timothy Geithner is set to testify before a House probe into his role in deals that sent billions of bailout dollars to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other big banks. Staffers for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform say Mr. Geithner is confirmed to appear at a hearing Jan. 27 on the bailout of American International Group Inc.