Science lecture

Science lecture

YOUNGSTOWN

Yuri Gorby, a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., will speak via a Skype lecture on “Bioprocess Earth.” The free lecture will take place in Room B112 of Cushwa Hall at Youngstown State University, at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Gas prices up 7 cents

YOUNGSTOWN

Northeast Ohio gas prices have increased by 7 cents, according to AAA East Central’s Fuel Gauge report.

This week’s Northeast Ohio average price is $2.413. That is compared with last week’s average, $2.345, and last year’s during the week of April 22, $3.674.

The Youngstown average is $2.391. The national average is $2.457.

Woman wins $13M in gender-bias suit

PITTSBURGH

A federal-court jury has awarded a southwestern Pennsylvania woman more than $13 million in a gender-discrimination lawsuit against her former employer — though the company may appeal and separately hopes to cap the damages at $300,000.

The attorney for Sandra Robertson announced the verdict Monday. It was returned late Friday.

Robertson worked for a company called Hunter Panels in Smithfield, which makes thermal-insulation panels used in construction.

She sued in 2013, claiming she was subjected to harassment and ridicule because of her sex and ultimately was fired. The company argued that Robertson was unprofessional, “abrasive and demeaning” with co-workers but that she was not treated unfairly.

An attorney for the company says, “We simply believe the wrong decision was made” by the jury.

Bird flu confirmed at 5.3M-chicken farm

DES MOINES, Iowa

Up to 5.3 million hens at an Iowa farm must be destroyed after the highly infectious and deadly bird- flu virus was confirmed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday.

The farm in northwest Iowa’s Osceola County has nearly 10 percent of the state’s egg-laying hens. Iowa is home to roughly 59 million hens that lay nearly 1 in every 5 eggs consumed in the country.

Egg-industry marketing experts say it’s too early to predict the impact on prices but that it’s unlikely to cause a spike or a shortage immediately, because the number of chickens that are to be euthanized is a little more than 1 percent of the nation’s egg-layers.

Union seeks rehiring of Wal-Mart workers

NEW YORK

A union is asking labor regulators to go to court to force Wal-Mart to rehire all 2,200 employees affected by the abrupt temporary closing of five stores a week ago.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, arguing the closings were retaliation for labor activism. Wal-Mart says it closed the stores to fix plumbing issues.

One affected store, in Pico Rivera, Calif., has been a hotbed for worker protests against Wal-Mart.

Staff/wire reports