Free Republic

Wal-Mart Buyers Up All Night In SARS Strategy CHICAGO (Reuters) - Middle-of-the-night videoconferences are now the norm as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Arkansas-based merchandise buyers work around SARS travel restrictions to purchase goods from China. At an analyst meeting in New York on Monday, Wal-Mart's treasurer, Jay Fitzsimmons, said the illness had no "significant" impact on its Asian stores or supplies, but it was forcing employees of the world's biggest retailer to get a bit more creative. "Buyers have to be up in the middle of the night for videoconferencing" with China-based suppliers, Fitzsimmons said. He added that suppliers were shipping...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. female employees said in a lawsuit seeking lost pay and damages on behalf of as many as 1.6 million female workers that they had to visit strip clubs while on business and were called "little Janie Qs" by male managers.</p>

Hearing postponed on mice at Wal-Mart A hearing notice said that head pharmacist Teresa Bushnell told officials she had caught four or five mice at the pharmacy. By JEFF STURGEON THE ROANOKE TIMES    The head pharmacist at the Franklin Road Wal-Mart in Roanoke must explain to state officials why a customer picking up a prescription claimed to see a mouse on the counter.     Seven weeks after the alleged incident last July, inspectors documented six alleged legal violations related to sanitation, security, record keeping and medication labeling, state records show.     Head pharmacist Teresa Bushnell of Roanoke was to attend...

Wal-Mart to Pay $750G to Resolve Lawsuit Friday April 25, 2003 6:30 PM WASHINGTON (AP) - Wal-Mart has agreed to pay a $750,000 penalty to resolve a government lawsuit that said the company failed to report safety hazards from defective exercise ``glider´´ machines. Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., also agreed to better track information about product safety hazards, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Justice Department said Friday. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman did not immediately return calls seeking comment. In May 2001, the two agencies accused Wal-Mart of failing to report hazards with Weider and Weslo brand exercise gliders, despite...

Federal judge dismisses Wal-Mart lawsuit SAN JUAN (AP) – U.S. District Court Judge Juan Perez Gimenez dismissed the lawsuit filed by Wal-Mart and Supermercados Amigo last year against Justice Secretary Anabelle Rodriguez when she halted the transaction because she said it did not comply with the Puerto Rico Antimonopoly Law. Perez Gimenez had previously decided that the Justice Department could not halt the transaction because Wal-Mart was sheltered by the right of freedom of business, but the Justice Department alleged that state laws should be backed by the federal courts. With that argument, the Justice Department appealed Perez Gimenez's decision...

U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan Associated Press Bagram, Afghanistan — A U.S. soldier was shot and killed in a gunbattle Friday with in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province, a U.S. military spokesman said. The soldier was not identified pending notification of his family. The gunbattle at Shkin, near the border with Pakistan, involved at least 20 gunmen believed to be Taliban loyalists, Col. Roger King told The Associated Press. The gunmen attacked a patrol of about 35 U.S. soldiers who had been investigating what they deemed to be "suspicious activity" in the area, Col. King said at Bagram, the headquarters of...

'Passionate' council votes to appeal Wal-Mart ruling By LYDA LONGA Staff Writer Last update: 25 April 2003 DELAND -- A unanimous vote to appeal a circuit court decision that clears the way for a Wal-Mart Supercenter in New Smyrna Beach drew hearty applause from the audience at Thursday's Volusia County Council meeting. County Council members said they owed it to their constituents to appeal the February ruling by Circuit Judge Edwin Sanders. "There are some things I have to get passionate about, and this is one of them," said Joe Jaynes, vice chairman of the County Council. "There is an...

Indiana Workers Could Benefit From Wal-Mart Lawsuit Thousands of current and former Wal-Mart employees in the state of Indiana could share in millions of dollars in if the huge discount company loses a lawsuit, according to an attorney. Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retail employer, is accused of denying hourly employees overtime and refusing to give them promised lunch breaks and rest breaks. On the day that Wal-Mart held its grand opening of a new superstore in Fishers, employees state-wide are learning that a Marion County judge has granted a motion to allow a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart. Anyone who has...

Russian official predicts 'catastrophic' events April 24 2003 A top Russian Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying yesterday in Tokyo that a "catastrophic" development of events in the US-North Korean nuclear standoff was imminent and could occur within the next day. "It is probable that, as early as tomorrow, there will be a catastrophic development of events," Itar-Tass quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov as saying. He added that the standoff had "reached an extreme stage" but did not give a more detailed explanation about his warning. Losyukov holds the Asian affairs brief in the ministry. His comments came...

Rumours thrive on images of sex and short skirts From Richard Lloyd-Parry in Karbala HE MAY not have seen it himself, but Ayatollah Salih Altaiee has it on the best authority that terrible things are happening in the southern city of Basra. "Sex pictures," he says, in his home 350 miles away. "They have been distributed to young children and to women by the soldiers of Britain." And this is only the start. "The female soldiers wear dresses which are very short," the Ayatollah continues. "My assistants have come from Basra to tell me this. "These things go against Islam...

<p>April 22, 2003   A Marion County judge's ruling today allows up to 113,000 current and former Wal-Mart and Sam's Club employees to take their claims of unfair labor practices to a jury.</p> <p>Judge Gary Miller's order certifying a class action lawsuit against the retail store means Hoosier workers can seek back pay for time they claim they were forced to work "off the clock.</p>

Children held at Camp Xray, US admits The US military has revealed it is holding juveniles at its high-security prison for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, known as Camp Xray. The commander of the joint task force at Guantanamo, Major General Geoffrey Miller, says more than one child under the age of 16 is at the detention centre. However, Maj Gen Miller has revealed little more about their welfare. Maj Gen Miller says the US is holding "juvenile enemy combatants" at the centre, confirming rumours of children being held. He has refused to reveal how many there are, their...

Wal-Mart's Seiyu posts net loss for 02/03 Tue April 22, 2003 03:16 AM ET TOKYO, April 22 (Reuters) - Seiyu Ltd, a Japanese affiliate of Wal-Mart Stores Inc WMT.N , said on Tuesday it fell into the red in the business year that just ended, hit by sluggish sales and a flopped department store investment. Japan's fourth-largest supermarket chain posted a group net loss of 90.84 billion yen ($754 million) for the year that ended on March 31 after a net profit of 5.2 billion yen the year before. Revenue edged up 2.8 percent to 1.14 trillion yen. The net...

Iowa professor studies effect of Wal-Mart on other businesses By RENEE RICHARDSON Senior Reporter Professor Kenneth Stone has been studying Wal-Mart and how the company affects communities for at least 15 years. "They are the 800-pound gorilla, so to speak," Stone said of the retail giant. Stone began his first formal analysis of Wal-Mart's effect on other businesses in 1988 in Iowa. A decorated Vietnam veteran, Stone has been a professor of economics at Iowa State University in Ames since 1985. He has a doctorate in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois. And his research has been used in...

Pressure on Blair over reliability of weapons reports Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent Monday April 21, 2003 The Guardian The Conservatives said yesterday that Tony Blair had a moral obligation to investigate whether the intelligence services had misled the government into believing Saddam Hussein was harbouring weapons of mass destruction, (WMD) the stated cause of the war in Iraq. The defence minister Lewis Moonie rejected the call but conceded that it might take a long time to find any weapons. Britain is now suggesting that an independent country authenticates the discovery of the weapons by British or American troops. The...

<p>Two things, competency and customer awareness, usually determine business success. Inept management has ruined more than one company. Oddly, though, it's easier to hide incompetence for a time than it is to mask poor customer consciousness. This is abundantly apparent at retailers where distinguishing the good from the bad usually is relatively easy.</p>

F.B.I. Spy Case Highlights Problem With Informants By ERIC LICHTBLAU WASHINGTON, April 19 — A widening spy scandal involving a veteran agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a prized informant in Los Angeles is part of a much broader institutional problem that has led to the disciplining of several hundred agents in recent years for improper dealings with informants, law enforcement officials say. The vast majority of these cases have never been made public, but law enforcement officials who have reviewed the problem say the F.B.I. has grappled with recurring episodes in which agents have had sexual or...

FBI convulsed by spy story of sex and lies From Chris Ayres in Los Angeles THE Los Angeles businesswoman in plastic-framed glasses and navy-blue blazer hardly resembles a modern Mata Hari. Yet she has been accused of using sex to obtain secrets for China while earning more than £1 million as an FBI spy. The allegations against Katrina Leung, said by prosecutors to have had secret affairs with her FBI bosses, have brought inevitable comparisons with the Dutch dancer accused of working for both the French and German secret services during the First World War. Mata Hari was executed by...

Expert Thieves Pillaged Iraqi Museums JOCELYN GECKER Associated Press PARIS - Professional thieves, likely organized outside Iraq, pillaged the nation's priceless ancient history collections by using the cover of widespread looting - and vault keys - to make off with irreplaceable items, art experts and historians said Thursday. The bandits were so efficient at emptying Iraqi libraries and museums that reports have already surfaced of artifacts appearing on the black market, some experts said. Certain thieves apparently knew exactly what they wanted from the irreplaceable Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections, and exactly where to find them. "It looks as if...

Levi Strauss stands accused Levi Strauss has shifted production abroad to cut costs Two ex-employees of Levi Strauss are suing the clothing firm, alleging they were sacked for refusing to cover up fraudulent accounting practices at the jeans maker. The suit was filed by tax lawyer Richard Schmidt and accountant Thomas Walsh in the San Francisco Superior Court. Levi Strauss has denied their allegations. Corporate America has been rocked by a series of scandals in the last 18 months as false accounting triggered the collapse of some its most revered names, including Enron and Worldcom. *False claims* Levi Strauss chief...