A candy factory violating OSHA regulations?
We always knew drowning in the chocolate river was a possibility, but at Ferrara Candy’s factory in west suburban Bellwood, workers were exposed to amputation hazards, basically because the company refused to turn off power to the machines when workers had to unstick a jam. Which you’d imagine is fairly often with candy.
The company will be paying more than $200,000 in fines, and must make amends in the next 15 days. This is in addition to the $330,000 in fines it was forced to pay for similar lack of care back in 2020, when one worker was hospitalized and another lost a fingertip. Not an appetizing way to treat your employees my dudes!
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Continuing on in a world of pure imagination, Strike has raised $80 million to expand its business, which allows ecommerce providers to process cryptocurrency payments.
Slightly more real, Sievo — which has an office of just over 30 folks in Chicago — has raised $44 million to build out its data platform, which gives shippers insight into potential supply chain disruptions. It sounds a little like a Bloomberg Terminal, but for boxes.
FourKites, meanwhile, is more about tracking your individual boxes, rather than all the boxes in the world. It just raised another $10 million to expand in the Asia-Pacific region.
Songfinch is hoping to pump some money into (controlled) creativity, creating a Cameo-esque platform where indie musicians can offer custom songs for a set fee. The founder claims to want to make a “middle class” of musicians, but consider it also says the average annual payout is just $25,000, looks like folks still shouldn’t quit their day jobs. The startup itself, however, just raised $17 million. So at least someone is profiting.
Halo is focused on a more monetizable form of creativity, specifically corporate R&D. The company has created a nice little marketplace to connect companies looking to outsource the science part of their research with the students and universities capable of taking it on. The company has raised $2.6 million, but to be honest the real money would be in taking a cut of any invention they help facilitate.
We imagine Halo will find some willing users in the just-sprouting 78 project, a new “neighborhood” of research facilities the city is hoping to stoke on what was once vacant land southwest of downtown. The first design — for the University of Illinois’ Discovery Partners Institute — has just been revealed. Given the University of Illinois’ track record when it comes to neighborhoods on the Southwest Side, and the private side of this public-private plan, we are reserving our support for this whole thing.
We love the idea of Chicago becoming the fake-meat packer to the world, truly we do. But if Next Gen Foods is going to have any successes out of its new Chicago headquarters, allow us to humbly suggest that it change the name of its signature fake chicken product to anything that is not “TiNDLE.” We’re not marketing experts (yes we are), but Tindle is not it, and no amount of fanciful capitalization will make it so.
Foxtrot took a little stumble in its ever-growing expansion plans, laying off 26 employees, or 3.5% of staff. Though we hate to see a layoff story, it’s also worth noting that this figure puts the company’s size at roughly 745 people, which would have been hard to fathom even five years ago.
Jobs, Glorious Jobs
Wealth Management Content Marketing Strategist at Northern Trust
You would work with a fellow newsletter reader (💃) at a bank (🤑) telling other people how to manage their money and presumably learning a bit about wealth in the process (💰).
Communications and Digital Media Director at the Joffrey Ballet
Make and manage a communications strategy, pretty much — the job post doesn’t include a lot of specifics, which sounds good to us. Comms like nobody’s watching? Another plus: A dear friend loved working at the Joffrey but moved away and misses it every day. Can’t say the same about any job, like, ever.
Inspiration of the Week
“Everyone has a hustle, whether it’s legitimized as a Fortune 500 company or part of an unsanctioned economy. Yet informal entrepreneurship is not always celebrated; in fact, it’s often the subject of excessive policing leading to serious harm or even death, as in the case of Eric Garner. … [Nick] Cave celebrates the creative problem-solving and ‘bling’ aesthetic of communities that insist on glittering visibility, no matter their economic condition.”
—No better gut punch than the one delivered by beautiful art reflecting real ugly realities. If you haven’t had a chance to take in the Nick Cave exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, go now. It closes Sunday, and it’s worth all the time you can give it.
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