BREAKFAST BRIEFING // CHICAGO

Bias suit hits suburban firm A Buffalo Grove manufacturer employing only two blacks out of morethan 400 workers is the target of a lawsuit alleging racialdiscrimination filed Monday by the federal government. The U.S.Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Mid-West AutomationSystems Inc., a designer of integrated precision assembly systems, onbehalf of Ned Hutson, a black electrician who was denied employmentin 1994. Mid-West Automation did not return a call for commentMonday. The government says the facility's only two black workerswere hired after Hutson filed a complaint in October, 1994.Local 726 elects Carey backersTeamsters Local 726 has elected a slate of officers backed bysupporters of Teamsters President Ron Carey. IncumbentSecretary-Treasurer Daniel Stefanski was re-elected as his slategarnered 1,458 votes, compared with 600 votes received by a slatebacked by supporters of James P. Hoffa, and 144 votes garnered for aslate of independent candidates.Sportmart's River North site soldSportmart's eight-story building at 620 N. La Salle was sold througha sealed-bid auction to Captec Financial for more than $6 million,according to David Kaufman & Co. The 70,000-square-foot buildingpreviously was owned by MC Sports. Sportmart Inc. has operated astore in the building since 1994, when MC Sports closed its store.Carson's buy gets antitrust OKCarson Pirie Scott & Co. and Proffitt's, Inc., announced theirproposed merger was granted an early termination of the waitingperiod under the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust act. Both chains havescheduled special shareholders' meetings Jan. 30 to vote onProffitt's plan to acquire Carson's and operate it as a separatedivision.UAL rises on profit forecastShares of UAL Corp., the parent of United Airlines, rose $5.37 1/2to close at $89.50 on the New York Stock Exchange after ChairmanGerald Greenwald told analysts that the company's fourth-quarterearnings should meet or exceed a First Call consensus estimate of$1.58 per fully distributed share. Fully distributed earningsaccount for all shares of UAL that will be distributed during thecarrier's employee stock ownership plan. United also said it hopesto produce a double-digit percentage increase in earnings per sharein 1998. Burnett wins Disney Hispanic jobLeo Burnett Co. said its Hispanic marketing unit won Hispanicadvertising responsibilities in the United States for Walt DisneyWorld. It didn't say how big the account is. The Chicago-basedagency has worked with Disney World since 1994.Online store software availableSoftCart Store Builder, developed by Mercantec Inc., the Lisleelectronic storefront software company, will be available startingJan. 1 on Microsoft FrontPage, do-it-yourself Web developmentsoftware from Microsoft Inc. The software will be available initiallyfor $99 at Mercantec's Web site at www.mercantec.com/frontpage andfrom some Internet service providers.Merc names several execsThe Chicago Mercantile Exchange named Mario Alberico, formerly withAndersen Consulting, as senior vice president for marketing theGlobex overnight trading system. In addition, the Merc promotedDavid Gomach to senior vice president and chief financial officer,Richard Baker to vice president of regulatory systems development,Tina Lemieux to vice president of currency and interest ratemarketing, Raymond Repede to vice president and controller, andKimberly Taylor to vice president of risk management.