Department store chain ordered to pay former employee $300,000

Younkers Department Stores will have to pay nearly 300-thousand dollars to a former employee in Cedar Rapids. Fifty-seven-year-old Wilma McGrane worked at the LinnDale Mall in Cedar Rapids, but after 22 years with the company, she was fired. McGrane sued, and after a weeklong trial, a federal jury found Younkers guilty of sex discrimination. The jury awarded McGrane 116-thousand dollars in back pay and 165-thousand for emotional stress. An attorney for Younkers says the company does not believe the evidence in the case was consistent with the verdict.