BrownCafe

United Parcel Service Inc. is investing in marketplace startup Ally Commerce, which helps brands without retail operations establish direct-to-consumer e-commerce sites, bypassing retailers. Ally has garnered $8.4 million in funding in two rounds, including the UPS investment, which weren’t specified.

A Maryland woman who said she was treated unfairly by her employer, United Parcel Service or UPS, because she was pregnant has reached a settlement with the company after the case went all the way to the Supreme Court.

An attorney for the woman, Peggy Young, announced the resolution Thursday but didn’t specify the terms.

UPS also said in a statement that the parties had reached an agreement — and said a new UPS pregnancy accommodation policy implemented in January had helped the two sides settle.

Bobby Ray Talavera said he was just trying to pee into a cup in the back of his UPS truck when he looked up and found himself staring into the lens of a tiny, hidden camera up high on a wall.

Talavera assumed this was a UPS urination sting. Turns out, he wasn’t so lucky.

Talavera, 41, of Plant City was arrested last week by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and charged with misdemeanor theft and tampering with evidence in a joint local and federal investigation in regard to Department of Veterans Affairs narcotics that have been disappearing from UPS trucks.