Legislative, Regulatory & Legal

St. Paul, Minn. -- Gander Mountain will open a 52,000-sq.-ft. store in Kaleen, Texas, and a 45,600-sq.-ft. store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on March 12, giving it 156 stores nationwide.

The Tulsa location marks Gander Mountain's entry into Oklahoma. The Killeen store continues Gander’s major expansion into the Texas market, and will be its 20th store in the state.

Mitigate litigation by prevention measures, proper investigation

Toano, Va. – Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) is publicly calling for federal agencies to investigate the formaldehyde levels in wood flooring sold at Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. Nelson, highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, sent an open letter to the heads of Consumer Product Safety Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Trade Commission.

Los Angeles - Factory workers of American Apparel established a coalition of workers to advocate for their rights before new corporate management. Hundreds of workers met on Feb. 28 to organize themselves into the "Coalition of American Apparel Factory Workers United to Save American Apparel."

Mahwah, N.J. - Ascena Retail Group Inc. has named board member Randy L. Pearce to the newly created role of lead independent director. As lead independent director, Pearce will preside at executive sessions of the independent directors, will serve as liaison between the independent directors and the chairman of the board and between the independent directors and senior management, and will call meetings of the independent directors.

New York – A Dutch court has reportedly set aside a $449.5 million arbitration payment Tiffany & Co. had been ordered to make to Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group AG in December 2013. According to the New York Times, a three-member panel of judges ruled in favor of a counterclaim Tiffany filed in March 2014.

Hangzhou, China – Alibaba Group holdings Inc. is reportedly saying it did nothing wrong after the government of Taiwan ordered the Chinese e-commerce giant to leave the country by August 2015. According to Bloomberg, the Taiwan Investment Committee gave the order because it says Alibaba tried to skirt Taiwanese restrictions on mainland China-based companies doing business there by registering its local affiliate as a Singapore-based firm.

Matthews, N.C. – Howard Levine, CEO of Family Dollar Stores Inc., intends to reduce his holdings of company stock for the second time in a month. In an SEC filing, Levine said he will sell up to two million shares of Family Dollar stock in an effort to diversify his portfolio.

In February 2015, Levine sold about 1.77 million shares of Family Dollar stock for $134.5 million. Family Dollar is in the process of being acquired by Dollar Tree Inc.

New York -- The "60 Minutes" episode alluded to in last week's Lumber Liquidators earnings conference call was apparently more damning than some analysts expected.

As a result, the company's shares tumbled Monday morning, with pending news prompting a pause in trading that resumed again after the stock price fell more than 24%.

When Lumber Liquidators executives talked about earnings in a conference call last week, they alluded to an upcoming "60 Minutes" investigation of the company's business practices. Turns out, the CBS report was a lot more damning than some analysts expected.

The company's shares tumbled drastically on Monday, with the stock price falling more than 24%.