The Big Bang is a Political Theory Disguised as Science

For those of you who don't know yet they came up with more of what they consider evidence to support the so called Big Bang theory again recently. As usual they presented it to the public in a dramatic manner that, I suspect, few people actually understand; but it might seem entertaining to some. They introduced this new evidence by posting a video of an expert being greeted at the door by someone who informed him that his work paid off, "Stanford physicist tears up about Big Bang theory;" and they celebrated their success.

Another article from Salon might go into slightly more detail about the actual science, "Smoking gun for the Big Bang! Major scientific discovery helps prove Einstein’s last untested prediction;" it doesn't provide much more details and unfortunately their are other articles coming out at the same time that seem to contradict it based on the same discovery. According to the Salon article it seems to confirm Einsteins theory but according to NPR, "Einstein's Lost Theory Discovered ... And It's Wrong," it seems to refute Einsteins theory.

I hate it when that happens.

The Salon article seems to imply that Einstein actually endorsed the Big Bang theory; anyone familiar with scientific history probably knows that he didn't but people used his work after his death to support it anyway. They seem to think that if he lived longer he would have come to that conclusion.

But that isn't what I would consider the biggest problem with the Big Bang theory and their alleged new evidence to support it. Like most other occasions when they claim they have new evidence to support the Big Bang theory, which seems to happen on a semi-regular basis, they seem to come up with a complicated argument that I doubt most people understand but they ignore some very simple problems with the theory that have been there since they first came up with it.

I don't need an advanced degree to understand some of these simple problems.

Neither do you.

One problem is that if the universe started at a specific time and grew at a consistent pace, or even if that pace changed from time to time, then it would be of a limited, or finite size. They rarely if ever mention this.

What would be beyond that limited amount of space?

That is rarely even considered by the supporters of the Big Bang theory.

How big is the finite universe that they claim began with a Big Bang? When they came up with a two hour premiere show on it on the History Channel called "The Universe" they claimed that it was 150 billion light years wide but it only began 13.7 billion years ago; which clearly implied that it grew much faster than the speed of light at one point which is what Some accounts claim.

But that isn't the way they always presented it. When I first heard them explain how they calculated the age of the universe they claimed that they learned it was expanding as a result of the Doppler effect and they calculated, based on the rate of expansion and the size of the known universe, at that time, when they would have been all at the same location to determine the age of the universe according to this theory.

Then at some point they seem to think that it might have been older and I remember a couple of old articles that claimed it might have been twenty billion years or twenty five billion years old or even older. Presumably this was when they realized the universe was bigger so they expanded the age of the universe to correct the problem. But this didn't last and they went back to the 13.7 year old estimate and somewhere along the line they came up with the claim that it started expanding faster than the speed of light without acknowledging that previous theories to establish the age were based on the rate of expansion.

However according to an account of, Big Bang or Steady State by Matthew Bershady, Both theories assume a homogeneous, isotropic Universe has no edge and no center. This claim contradicts both the claim by the History Channel premiere that says the universe is 150 billion light years wide and the description provided above about the Big Bang theory starting at a single spot and expanding at a finite speed therefore it will always be limited in size, whether the size estimated by the History Channel is right or not. If the universe is a finite size then it should have both an edge and a center. The Steady State is compatible with the no edge and no center claim but the Big Bang theory is not.

This version of the Big Bang theory contradicts the most basic principles of geometry.

The Big Bang theory also ignores at least two of the most basic principles of physics, Conservation of energy, which claims that energy can neither be created or destroyed, and Conservation of mass which claims that mass can neither be created or destroyed although they can be converted.



Those who aren't familiar with science might not even know that the person who came up with the name "The Big Bang" was Fred Hoyle and he did it in a satirical manner as part of an argument against it, as explained in many sources including his obituary, Fred Hoyle Dies at 86; Opposed 'Big Bang' but Named It. He adopted a theory which is commonly known as the Steady State theory.

Fred Hoyle has at times been ridiculed by others including Ethan Siegal who wrote The Last 100 Years: 1950s & The Tragedy of Fred Hoyle. As I have indicated previously ridicule should not be used in scientific arguments, or at least it should be kept to a minimum if some have a hard time resisting it. However sometimes it is hard to resist and many people are predisposed to respond to ridicule; so in the long run it would be important to teach children at an early age to recognize this tactic so they're less likely to respond to it, or change their views for fear of ridicule. In this case at least Fred Hoyle's theory doesn't seem to have the obvious basic problems that the Big Bang theory does. However even Fred Hoyle's theory, or at least the way it is reported at times, seems to support the claim that the universe is expanding even if it doesn't have a Big Bang.

What makes them so sure that the universe is expanding?

They came to this conclusion as a result of the Doppler effect, which is at least the third most reliable method of measuring the distance of stars or galaxies; or in this case determining whether they're moving closer or farther away.

The most reliable method involves what they call Parallax, which involves using trigonometry to measure the distances of nearby stars. This is considered easy by some but the angles have to be very precise so I'm not quite so sure it is so easy, at least not for most of us. The second most reliable method is checking Cepheid or variable stars which are supposed to have predictable sizes so they can use the magnitude of the star to determine the distance.

The method they use to come up with the Big Bang theory Is the Doppler effect, which is more complicated and, presumably has a higher margin of error. This is especially true since they have to rely on galaxies that are millions of light years away to come to their conclusions.

Is it possible that this might not be as reliable a method when it comes to measuring direction of things that are millions of light years away? I don't know but if it is that could explain how they made their mistake. Even if it isn't then the appropriate way to address the problems with the Big Bang theory isn't to pretend they don't exist.

Regardless of how accurate the Doppler effect is this gives creationist a good argument to claim that this is the way that God created the universe, assuming you believe in either one. Surprisingly only a small percentage of them have done this and those that have rarely receive much attention in the media. The latest person, that I know of, to support this theory is Leslie A. Wickman author of Does the Big Bang breakthrough offer proof of God? Unfortunately he misrepresents Fred Hoyle's views to support his own, which seems to be a common tactic for theologians. But if you believe in the Big Bang it might actually make some degree of sense, assuming you also believe in God. The Big Bang theory establishes a beginning which most religious people believe in; the most notable exception, that I know of is Hinduism which believes in an eternally old world and universe; but they come to this conclusion through the same mythological methods that other religions come to the belief in creation, not through scientific methods.

Of course many of the questions that atheist like to ask would still need to be addressed like; who created God? What is God trying to accomplish? If he is benevolent, as religious people claim, why doesn't he maintain a open line of communication that people can confirm; and why does he allow people to fight so many wars over mistaken beliefs.

The theists usually try to avoid these questions when they can or provide lame answers and sweep them under the rug.

Unfortunately when it comes to the Big Bang theory that seems to be the same way the dominant portion of the scientific community reacts.

Now that Fred Hoyle is dead they claim that there are very few believers in the Steady State theory; actually when it comes to those that are covered by the traditional media there don't seem to be any. But that doesn't mean that they don't exist; it just means that the traditional media is no longer willing to give them any coverage. Ignoring critics and refusing to give them a chance to get their views across is hardly the appropriate way to address scientific issues.

Just because the commercial media doesn't cover these researchers that recognize the problems with the Big Bang doesn't mean that they don't exist but it does make it much more difficult to find out just how many of them there are or to present their arguments to the vast majority of the public. Wal Thornhill author of "The True State of the Universe" is apparently one of them and he bases his article on the work of Halton Arp, Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, Sir Fred Hoyle, Jayant Narlikar, Jack Sulentic and others. Whether they come up with a more relaible theory would require a good review of their work which the majority of the public hasn't done since the traditional media refuses to cover them. However even a quick look at this article indicates that, at least, they acknowledge and address some of the inconvenient facts that the traditional researchers covered by the media ignore when they can, including the following excerpt.

In recent months two of the most popular science magazines have produced special supplements. Scientific American published ‘The Secret Lives of Stars.’ New Scientist published ‘State of the Universe.’ Like most publications on astronomy they are predominantly speculative fantasy. The reason is simple: the unquestioned belief in the big bang theory. In the big bang theory cosmologists discard such basic principles of physics as ”no creation from nothing” and ”every effect must have an antecedent cause.” These principles of physics are inviolate rules. Any contradiction is tantamount to magic, a miracle, or the supernatural. So belief in the big bang theory is no more scientific than the religious belief in a creation event. The obscurantism of mathematicians merely supplants that of high-priests. Complete article

Another article that raises some doubts no longer adressed by the traditional media is posted at Faraday schools web site, If there was a Big Bang, when was it? this includes a link to another article by Professor of Engineering, John Billingsley, who raises similar doubts about the reliability of the Doppler effect or shift to the ones that I did.

This should raise a big question: Why would all these scientist line up behind a theory that has so many problems? Who gains? How? Is this a social problem where the people with the dominant amount of political power have closed minds and dig in their heals forcing those that want to be part of the establishment to go along? If so why aren't their more rational people that recognize these obvious problems? Is it possible that there are more, but they can't get attention from the media so most of us never hear of them? Or that they remain silent under pressure?

As Halton Arp said, “After all, to get the whole universe totally wrong in the face of clear evidence for over 75 years merits monumental embarrassment and should induce a modicum of humility.” - , What has Science Come to? Journal of Scientific Exploration.

Regardless of how reliable this is it has a surprising number of similarities to the dominant economic theories which recommend a permanently expanding economy on a world with limited resources. This is surely coincidental since these theories aren't dependent on each other and economists don't need scientists to support the Big Bang theory to maintain their control of the economic system, for now.

A conspiracy theory connecting the two would have to be much bigger which is highly unlikely.

But they have something else in common too; some of the best alternatives have come up with their own theory for economics as well, although it isn't widely reported. Some people like Bill McKibben have recommended a Steady State economic system where they provide only as many goods and services as they need and do as much locally as they can to minimize waste. This theory would only have an expanding economy when it provides rational benefits. It wouldn't expand the economy by reducing the quality of products so that they fall apart and have to be replaced more often then increase it even more by spending more money on advertising to convince consumers they're getting their money's worth when they aren't.

If anyone is interested they can Google "Big Bang or Steady State" or check the following articles on the subject including one that claims there is asthmatically evidence to support the big bang theory. In order to find that evidence you'll have to go to the more complicated paper behind it; this article doesn't give the details, nor does it acknowledge the simple contradictions I cited previously like most articles supporting the Big Bang theory.

Halton Arp's discoveries about redshift - Electric Cosmos

Halton Arp articles

Mathematic Proof That The Universe Had A Beginning

Brilliant Blunders: How the Big Bang Beat Out the Steady State Universe

Ideas of Cosmology: Big Bang or Steady State?

Is the U.S. Wagging the Dog in Ukraine, Syria, Venezuela, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey etc.?

Over the past three, or perhaps I should say fifteen, years one country after another has been having uprisings in the streets at the grass roots level as a result of oppression, environmental destruction and economic inequality, among other things. Most of these conflicts have almost certainly not been covered properly in the traditional media, and unless some people are good at sorting through the alternative media outlets they probably don't get much better information.

A lot of these conflicts seem to have an enormous amount in common although there are always some details different and there may be a few where they have been more receptive to grass roots pressure although in most cases that doesn't seem to be the case. In many cases it seems as if they might be efforts between two authoritarian forces trying to take advantage of the grass roots efforts to seize power; and unless there is an enormous amount of pressure the victor might only be willing to a token amount of reform to the grass roots uprisings that enabled regime change, or forced existing governments to make some concession.

A lot of people including, Nafeez Ahmed, the author of the excerpt below, seem to think that we might be heading for global war or riots; and they might be right assuming you don't think it is already happening; however there may also be an opportunity for major reform if the people at the grass roots level can influence the changes in many governments and have much more influence in the transition. Unfortunately in the mean time those currently in power are almost certainly distorting the news given to the majority of the public and making it seem as if some of the violence going on is probably much worse than it seems, while downplaying other violence and environmental destruction and economic inequality. They also continue to offer the same solutions that created these problems in the first place and pretend they're the only solutions with the possible exception of slightly more moderate versions of those solutions.

Get Ready for the Global Riots by Nafeez Ahmed / The Guardian

From South America to South Asia, a new age of unrest is in full swing as industrial civilization transitions to post-carbon reality.

If anyone had hoped that the Arab Spring and Occupy protests a few years back were one-off episodes that would soon give way to more stability, they have another think coming. The hope was that ongoing economic recovery would return to pre-crash levels of growth, alleviating the grievances fueling the fires of civil unrest, stoked by years of recession.

But this hasn’t happened. And it won’t.

Instead the post-2008 crash era, including 2013 and early 2014, has seen a persistence and proliferation of civil unrest on a scale that has never been seen before in human history. This month alone has seen riots kick-off in Venezuela, Bosnia, Ukraine, Iceland, and Thailand.

This is not a coincidence. The riots are of course rooted in common, regressive economic forces playing out across every continent of the planet – but those forces themselves are symptomatic of a deeper, protracted process of global system failure as we transition from the old industrial era of dirty fossil fuels, towards something else. Complete article

Perhaps one of the best indicators of the problems and potential success of these reform efforts are in Latin America where many of these reforms began close to if not more than fifteen years ago and some of them have had a significant amount of success although they still have more reform that needs to be done and there are still efforts by those that have been losing their grip on power to roll back what improvements they have accomplished.

I suspect a lot of people weren't even aware that these reforms were taking place while the media was focused on the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq among other things; I know that I didn't know about a lot of these activities until years after they took place and I started hearing about them through alternative media outlets.

A major part of the reason these reforms have been so slow might be due to the opposition from the US government which was supporting many of the old regimes and has also been supporting them for decades including the support of Pinochet and the Nicaraguan Contras. Perhaps if the US government wasn't distracted by their excessive war on terror in the mid-east they might have had even more success subverting the reforms in Latin America.

Now, however they're facing more grass roots reform efforts all over the world and many of them are rising up, somewhat, independently. By this I mean that they all seem to be organized at the local level but many if not all of them are being triggered by some of the same causes which are impacting people all over the world. In the past the US ahs often claimed that they want to be able to fight two wars at any given time. I don't know how they cam up with that figure or why they seem to think they need to get involved in many conflicts all over the world but now they might have much more to deal with. With people raising protest all over the world they can't suppress them all.

Even though the commercial press and the political establishment don't seem to be giving credit to grass roots efforts for some of the limited changes they're making there might be some signs that they're starting to slowly have an impact especially at the local level. Some of these successes have been described in Slow Democracy and Deep Economy; and there is some indication like the recent all night discussion on Global warming in the US Senate that the government is responding although on a limited level and they're not given credit to the grass roots efforts that preceded that discussion.

It's hard to imagine why they seem to be digging in their heels so much since it isn't in anyone's best interest even their own to continue with the epidemic amount of environmental destruction and economic inequality. Presumably the most likely explanation is that they've been repeating their own lies to us and each other for so long that they have become to believe them and some of them don't realize how much damage will inevitably happen if the amount of environmental destruction escalates too much and at the same time it is accompanied by economic inequality and instability all over the world.

On the after noon before their all night session while there were still plenty of Republicans in the chambers Jeff Sessions seemed to be using a chart to argue against the legitimacy of Global Warming. His chart showed the levels of Carbon Dioxide rising faster than the warming of the temperatures and he seemed to be arguing that since they didn't completely correlate their was problems with the Global Warming theory and that we didn't need to address it. Anyone that is familiar with the discussion over the past couple of decades might know that they acknowledged long ago that the more appropriate term should be Climate Change since although most of the trends are towards rising temperatures, at times they might go down and they might not rise consistently. Another problem with his argument is that even if Global Warming or Climate Change isn't a problem, which I doubt, the rise in carbon dioxide that he was citing still is. It contributes to hundreds of thousands if not millions of premature deaths every year. On top of that there are many other problems with pollution, but most of them are taking place where people don't have political power, so they seem to feel that they can continue to ignore them.

Now that their are people rising up all over the world it is a matter of time before they realize that they can't continue to ignore them much longer. This is actually in their best interest even if they don't realize it themselves since if the environmental damage continues to escalate they won't be able to keep it out of their own back yards indefinitely.

Even the Democrats that claim they want to make some changes aren't giving credit to those that deserves it, nor are they promoting the changes that are needed, at least not completely. When Diane Feinstein had her chance to speak she seemed to spend a lot of time taking credit for supporting reforms and letting people know that she supported Obama's reforms as well.

I got news for her Obama hasn't done much except to come up with a lot of rhetoric while pushing the industry agenda and many people will see right through that.

When Richard Blumenthal spoke the morning after their all night session he didn't indicate that he was willing to acknowledge many of the most important problems either. He kept repeating the claim that he believed that addressing Climate Change can be done with "economic growth" thanks to all the green jobs that it would create. Their might be some truth to this, creating more green jobs by increasing solar wind and geothermal will be helpful and this type of economic growth is worthwhile, since it is beneficial to the public; however he fails to acknowledge that an enormous amount of the economic growth that we've had over the past few decades isn't beneficial to society at all and a lot of it is contributing to the problem with pollution. A shocking percentage of economic growth can more accurately be described as economic fraud that is designed to benefit only one segment of society that is reaping all the profits while wages are being suppressed and quality of merchandise is deteriorating.

We grow cotton in the US and ship it abroad to be processed; after being woven into cloth it is shipped again and often winds up in Bangladesh, half way around the world so they can take advantage of low wages. the quality of these products is being reduced since they use thinner material that wears out faster so consumers have to replace them over and over again. then the merchandise ahs to be shipped back and go through a complex distribution process instead of taking advantage of factory direct which was much more common thirty years ago.

They call this efficient.

Instead of investing in activities that benefit society they invest in activities that will shift all the wealth to those with political power.

While the commercial media and the government are providing selective coverage for some of these problems and exaggerating them in a manner that suits their purposes they're ignoring some of the most effective solutions and many more protests that don't suit their purposes. Their solutions are extremely limited if they work at all and some of the more credible sources only receive attention at the grass roots level or if they're covered by the media at all the coverage is much lower profile.

Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed isn’t the only one with much better solutions than the political establishment but he does much a better describing some of the details in just a couple of his articles, The crisis of civilization is an unprecedented opportunity and The End of the World As We Know It? The rise of the post-carbon era, than the political establishment and the media establishment does in months if not years of their non-stop coverage that selectively provides an overwhelming amount of coverage for the ideology of a small percentage of the public with a narrow agenda that isn’t working at all.

When it comes to coverage of an enormous amount of environmental damage and many stories where there is a limited amount of success at the grass roots level Earth First! Newswire, which the political establishment would like to either ignore or portray as fringe, or even a terrorist organization, does a much better job compiling an enormous number of stories that receive little attention from the mainstream media and when they do cover them to do so as isolated incidents without acknowledging how often they happen. Once people look at the data it is hard to imagine that they are the fringe people while the establishment ignores all the destruction.

There are almost certainly additional websites reporting on other issues including the movement for Single Payer, Anti-War protests, the excessive rise in costs for education and many other issues which are being covered much better at the grass roots level in alternative media outlets than either the commercial media or the political establishment. While they keep the public distracted with their distortions and exaggerations there is much more going on that they aren’t reporting.

For the most part the traditional commercial media doesn't report on any of these things except as isolated incidents that are quickly forgotten and presented as if they're rare. The recent episode of This Week With George Stephanopoulos is far more typical of the kind of coverage that the commercial media provides now. I watched it for the first time in quite a while but I can't tell you much about what they discussed, which is part of the problem. the reason I can't tell you what much about what they discussed is because they talked so fast that I couldn't keep track; I suppose I could have focused really carefully or taped it and reviewed it slowly, or perhaps the best way to deal with modern media, assuming you think they say anything worthwhile, is to skip the show and look up the transcript on the internet when it is available.

What I could tell is that they had the same cast of characters that show up on all the commercial media outlets although some of them were from different networks and they talked as fast as they could constantly interrupting each other before switching speakers. These media pundits often change from one network to another but they rarely if ever invite any of the more credible commentators that do a much better job covering the issues and on the rare occasions that they do they don't give them much time.

All I could tell is that they discussed the latest obsession du jour, which happened to be Ukraine and Malaysia Flight 370, as fast as they could, presumably without pointing out many facts that didn't suit their agenda.

I'm no longer sure whether or not This Week With David Brinkley ever did a much better job covering the news; but I am sure that they did a much better job pretending to cover the news, at least.

Regardless of how good a job they do they have been sponsored by the financial industry and oil companies among other powerful corporations and they rarely if ever cover the financial scandals and environmental destruction that these coronations have been involved in properly. This is typical of the rest of the commercial media, as well, which is also sponsored by the same powerful corporations.

While they've been covering the news in this manner so that no one can keep up, or if they focus enough to keep track of what they say when they talk so fast they don't have time to actually think about it, there has been an enormous amount of other activities going on including many grass roots efforts to implement real reform at the local level.

I don't know how much of these local reforms and efforts to educate the public about the most important activities are going on but I do know that the commercial media isn't paying attention to them and some of them are being reported on alternative media outlets.

At some point perhaps soon it is possible that they might become so wide spread that even the commercial media may not be able to ignore it. This happened when both the Egyptian protests overthrowing their government and the Occupy Wall Street protests seemed to come out of no where without any warning to many of us; however there were some hints at the time even in the commercial media that this wasn't the case. On one occasion, presumably live, a reporter asked one of the Egyptian protesters why this happened without any notice and caught them by surprise and the protester looked confused and said he didn't understand it because they had been trying to get the attention of the media for months and they wouldn't pay any attention. The situation was similar with the Occupy Wall Street protests which the media didn't report on until they began; The first notice on the internet where all could see it was at least two months before the protest began yet the media acted as if they were surprised. this is highly unlike the media reaction for the Tea Party protest which received coverage while they were in the planning stage.

As I mentioned earlier ECHELON was reported long before that and since then they reported PRISM in a much higher profile manner so there is little if any doubt that the espionage agencies that refer to themselves as "intelligence" agencies knew about these before they happened and if they wanted to they could ahve tipped off the media which obviously wasn't even trying to report the news.

It is almost certain that similar incidents will happen in the future until there is major reform in the mass media that enables it to report news fairly.

Ironically it is even in the best interest of those in power if this happens because the environmental and economic damage they continue to ignore will eventually catch up with them. Until then they will almost certainly continue to "Wag the Dog" about one obsession du jour or another including some of the following stories including some that might be from alternative outlets more reliable than the traditional media as well as some that might be the traditional media accusing those that disagree with them of distorting the truth:

Syria “Wag the Dog”. Towards a Major Mideast War?

Constructing "Venezuela" protests: a photo gallery [updated]

“Wag the Dog” – The Sequel Set in Syria

Indy Media Venezuela - wag the dog

Foreign Policy Association: Wag the Dog? Venezuelan Troops to the Border, Again

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Russia Wags The Dog With Ukraine Disinformation Campaign Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, financing by the CIA and tacit support by the News Media

Obama’s War Against Civilization

Michelle Obama pushes token advertising restrictions while ignoring research that calls for more

The National Education Policy Center has just come out with their latest report about the impact on advertising in schools and how it has a negative effect on education. This is just one of many studies into this problem including some from Susan Linn, Juliet Schor and Roy Fox among others. These researchers have far more peer review than the lobbyists that have much more access to government officials including Barack and Michelle Obama. The following is an excerpt from the article introducing the full report.

While Policymakers Do Little, Marketers Are Busy in Schools

BOULDER, CO (March 11, 2014) -- Schoolhouse commercialism continues virtually unabated, despite the harm it does, and neither federal nor state lawmakers are moving to further control the practice, according to a new report released today.

The pervasiveness of commercialism in education has become so broad, its threat so great, and its reported benefits so minor that the report’s authors call on policymakers to ban any such activity unless an independent, disinterested body can certify that it does not harm children’s education.

The recommendation is contained in Schoolhouse Commercialism Leaves Policymakers Behind – The Sixteenth Annual Report on Schoolhouse Commercialism: 2012-2013. The report is published today by the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education.

This year’s report, by Professor Alex Molnar along with Faith Boninger, Joseph Fogarty, and Ken M. Libby, is the latest produced by Professor Molnar, who has been studying schoolhouse commercialism for more than two decades. Molnar, Boninger and Libby are all affiliated with the CU Boulder. Fogarty is principal of Corballa National School in County Sligo, Ireland.

At the root of the threat commercialism poses to education is its very nature, the authors write. Commercialism is “a value system that promotes profit above all other concerns and that seeks to transform all relationships into commodities that can be exchanged for money,” they point out. Consequently it “poses profound threats to the well-being of children and the civic purposes of public education.”

Given the threats of its harm, lawmakers and other policymakers, including school officials themselves, might be expected move forcefully to rein it in, they write – yet they have not done so. The authors suggest a combination of reasons for that: fierce corporate opposition to such legislative or regulatory restrictions, and lack of concern, particularly on the part of the education sector itself. Complete article

A couple of weeks ago Michelle Obama was Pushing Ban on Junk Food Advertising in Schools which is extremely limited in it's scope and it ignores some of the biggest problems which is explored in the enormous amount of research about the negative impact that corporate advertising is having on schools and even that it is impacting the curriculum that is being taught.

Instead of consulting with either The National Education Policy Center or Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, founded by Susan Linn they seem to have consulted with Change Lab Solutions, which I have not previously heard of myself. They seem to cite the following potential roadblock to reform; however they don't seem to do nearly as good a job trying to overcome it as they could or should nor do they seem concerned about the vast majority of additional advertising in school that causes major problems.

“Although the First Amendment restricts what government can do about advertising in public places, a well-crafted law prohibiting all marketing activities or the marketing of certain types of products at schools would likely survive a First Amendment challenge,” it said. “Because of the unique educational mission of schools, the First Amendment leaves a lot of leeway for the government to regulate the types of commercial messages that are allowed on school grounds.” Complete article

In several previous posts including The First Amendment Often Protects Bribes More Than Speech I cited an attempt by Adbusters to by some tome to promote a "buy nothing day" but the networks refused to air it. The courts apparently ruled that although Adbusters has the right to free speech the networks aren't under any obligation to allow them to use the public airwaves to promote their views and Adbusters was limited to the internet and much lower profile methods. I don't know whether or not they tried to promote this suggestion in schools but I doubt if the courts would be more sympathetic to them their.

If the networks can refuse to sell time for views they don't agree with why should schools be able to if they have an enormous amount of research to prove that it is the best interest of children not to put corporate advertising ahead of education, which is what schools are supposed to be for?

If anything it should obviously be the other way around. The government gave the commercial access to the public airwaves free of charge; when they first did this they required some degree of public service, although it wasn't nearly as much as they should have. That limited amount of public service in return for free access to the exclusive access the the airwaves has been eliminated in the movement to "deregulate" or what some people including Robert McChesney call it "reregulate" in favor of corporate interests that happen to donate an enormous amount of money to campaigns.

The bigger problem clearly isn't that they're censoring advertising; it is that by limiting the more credible research to sources that have a much lower profile and providing little or no coverage of them in the traditional media they're censoring them. the cost of adverting is a business expense which is passed on to consumers; so since consumers ultimately pay for those ads, if anything they're the ones that should be partially limited or held to accuracy in advertising standards.

Corporations clearly seem to have much more right to free speech or to censor those they disagree with than people.

This isn't the first time that Michelle Obama has put corporate interests ahead of the best interest of children or the majority of the public, while pretending to look out for their best interests. Over a year ago she went to Wal-Mart to promote her "Lets Move" campaign, which might seem very good to some people, and in some ways it is, but it also has serious problems. Wal-Mart has been using this in what looks like an ad since then on their website, "First Lady Michelle Obama Celebrates Walmart’s Progress on Making Food Healthier and More Affordable." It recieved much more media attention at the time which also appears as an ad in most cases since most of it wasn't critical; however one notable exception is, "Why is Michelle Obama praising Wal-Mart in Springfield, Mo.?"

Wal-Mart only gets a small percentage of their produce from relatively local sources and an enormous amount of it isn't nearly as fresh as their advertisements say they are; on top of that they have had numerous problems with recalls of bad food and other issues and (Dangerous Ingredients:) 54% of Food Sold at Walmart is Banned by Whole Foods Market; not that I think Whole Foods Market is probably the best source for food; I suspect that many small local outlets are even better.

The Obama administration and many other politicians have been doing much more than this to restore an oligarchy system run by what we used to call Robber barons, and they are no longer even doing a good job pretending to pass on the advantages of "competition" to consumers. Instead they have decided up the market and forced workers to compete against each other around the world without passing on much if any benefit to consumers except in a few minor examples where people speak out loud enough to get token amounts of reform or merchandise replacements when they fall apart due to incredibly shoddy manufacturing.

In addition to the research done by The National Education Policy Center there is more at Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and although I haven't been peer reviewed as well as they I have also covered this more under the author tag "Marketing to Kids," with many more citations along with my own comments. This research indicates that advertising has all the characteristic of indoctrination and instead of educating children they're encouraging them to becoming obsessed with buying as much as they can without scrutinizing the accuracy of the ads. In the most extreme cases they're almost certainly contributing to annual black Friday riots and even incidents where kids are being killed over "$200 Air Jordan's;" many of these children don't realize that the $200 value is based almost entirely on advertising and that the sneakers or any other product aren't worth nearly as much as advertising seems to imply.

Wal-Mart Crime report February 2014

A new study came out indicating that reductions in crime were higher in the nineties where Wal-Mart didn’t have stores or expand the ones they had than at the locations where there was a Wal-Mart or they expanded. The study found that. “on average, communities with Walmarts had 17 more property crimes and two more violent crimes per 10,000 people than those communities without Walmarts.” I reviewed this more in Wal-Mart’s crime problem, Rolling Back Safety more than prices? where I explained that although this study is helpful they could have done better with additional data that is available and I reviewed some of that.

There were several shooting incidents at Wal-Mart’s this month including one where an employee shot a customer. There was also a shop lifter that plowed into several vehicles with her car while attempting to escape after being caught trying to steal $119 worth of goods and another that was caught with bomb making materials, although they weren’t quite complete. As usual there were also quite a few bomb threats as well where nothing was found.

A previous Wal-Mart shooting from 2012 went to trial this month where at least two people testified that the shooter said, ‘I killed a cop.’ This isn’t the only time that police have been put at risk as a result of the high crime problems at Wal-Mart there have been numerous other incidents where police have been attacked while responding to incidents and a few where they have been charged with crimes for either over reacting with abusive force, on at least one occasion lethal, or in some cases they have been the perpetrators.

It seems to me that it would be in their interest as well as every one else’s to address the problems at Wal-Mart and try to figure out how to prevent them from happening in the first place instead of waiting until after they do and punishing people after the fact while ignoring potential contributing causes from the decisions made in corporate offices and by those who take their campaign contributions.

There is also a lawsuit pending for a previous incident where the security at Wal-Mart caught a shoplifter with “$56.92 worth of body wash, socks, underwear and jeans” and held him on the 135-degree asphalt for eight and a half minutes in handcuffs until he died. There have also been numerous other incidents where petty theft has escalated endangering both customers and employees.

Many people might not be too sympathetic when the victim is a shoplifter; however if people consider the studies that indicate the Wal-Marts are a major contributing cause to increased poverty and outsourcing and that they are rarely held to the same standards when they get caught abusing employees or with fraudulent advertising it might not seem reasonable to use excessive force causing someone his life over relatively inexpensive basic necessities.

In a rather amusing story a former teenage employee came back to Wal-Mart and convinced the management that he worked for another store and was there to help and returned to work stealing $30,000.

How did he pull that off?

Could it be that they have a cult like atmosphere and people are indoctrinated to follow orders and are easily susceptible to these scams?

A former member of “Students in Free Enterprise,” or SIFE, has written a book about their corporate culture and discussed it with Josh Eidelson at Salon. He isn’t the first to report about their tactics training their employees; Bob Ortega, Barbara Ehrenreich and several others have reported some of the symptoms of cult activity although this is the highest profile report that I have seen yet to actually call it by that name. There is a strong possibility that these tactics are related to their high crime problems and they discourage critical thinking in their employees which also creates a lot of other problems.

Perhaps that is why some Wal-Mart workers have a hard time understanding simple things like when you instal a gun case that is locked and the key is taped to the back during shipping you're supposed to remove the key before putting guns in it and making it available to the customers so that some of them won't simply use the key and shoplift nine guns.

Perhaps that is also why a new survey has come out indicating that Wal-Mart is the worst major department store or supermarket compared to their competition. This could also be why their sales have also taken a major hit.

There is reason to believe that Wal-Mart has gained it’s dominance in the market thanks to help from their political allies and plenty of tax breaks; this month a Wisconsin lawmaker threatened to deprive a town of funds for a convention center that was already approved unless they allowed Wal-Mart to expand.

With their current sales and crime problems as well as the bad coverage for other reasons it is hard to imagine that their support from political connections could remain as strong much longer especially if their customers are abandoning them.

They may be able to count on the media to minimize the coverage of these incidents for a little while but if they do the media will also lose what is left of their credibility along with Wal-Mart.

Their credibility might not be any better than Mike Rowe’s is now that he has come out with his new advertising campaign for Wal-Mart and instead of attracting customers he seems to have outraged a lot of people and he claims the E-Mails he is receiving are like “a bag of dog crap set ablaze on my front porch.”

If his non-profit group wasn’t supporting one of the most oppressive corporations in the retail business he might have more sympathizers and fewer people that would be skeptical about whether he deserves non-profit status while supporting a profitable corporation.

Strange things happen at Wal-Mart!

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In 2006 Wake Up Wal-Mart did a study, "Is Wal-Mart Safe?" based on incidents in 2004, (PDF) about crime at Wal-Mart which showed that it increased when Wal-Marts opened up and that crime was higher at Wal-Mart than at other retailers. Since then Wal-Mart Shootings began compiling a list of gun related incidents at Wal-Mart and demonstrated that they have a large number of them, including on average more than one shooting per week somewhere in the country. I also added my own review about why I think that Wal-Mart policies have been contributing to higher crime in a blog, Wal-Mart high crime rate continues uninvestigaterd and have provided additional information under the author tag Walmart Crime Watch.

Stacy Mitchell has also compiled a list of other studies about Wal-Mart and how they impact society, Key Studies on Big-Box Retail & Independent Business. To the best of my knowledge Wal-Mart has done as little as they seem to get away with, often relying on rhetoric that isn't backed up with action, when it comes to addressing any of their critics concerns, including crime. The following are a list of incidents that occurred in February 2014. According to the "Is Wal-Mart Safe?" the average store in their sampling had 250 incidents per year, indicating that these are only a fraction of the crime reports at Wal-Mart, and presumably, the ones most likely to make the news on the internet nationwide. This isn't statistically representative, as the 2006 study or some of the studies cited by Stacy Mitchell; but it does provide some additional information that may help recognize how many problems there are at Wal-Mart.

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Walmart shoplifting boosts number of reported crimes in Bossier La. City 02/01/2014

Some Walmart customers in Bossier City have sticky fingers.

The Airline Drive Walmart reported a shoplifting spike from 94 cases in 2012 to 477 last year, an increase of 407 percent. Bossier City police spokesman Mark Natale said the number of shoplifters did not jump, but more were caught after the store instituted a more aggressive effort for targeting and catching thieves.

There were 10,529 reported crimes across the city last year compared to 10,098 in 2012. That increase largely is due to the increased number of reported shopliftings, according to a department report released Friday. Complete article

Conway Ark. police: Wal-Mart employee arrested in store shooting

A Conway Wal-Mart employee has been arrested after, police say, he shot a woman multiple times Saturday night. Conway police arrested 29-year-old Myron Terrell, of Conway, about an hour after officers said he walked inside of the business at 1155 Skyline Drive, shot at Conway resident Lori Martin multiple times and fled the store, the police deparment's spokesman LaTresha Woodruff said. Martin was taken to Conway Regional Health System to be treated for her gunshot wounds and is in "critical, but stable condition," according to Woodruff. No one else inside of the store was injured in the shooting, and it was not immediately known how many people were inside. Complete article

He told detectives he felt threatened by her and that she had harassed him his whole life, however, he was unable to give any facts to back up his claim. Walmart Shooting Victim Still Critical, Suspect Charged With Attempted Capital Murder 02/03/2014

Witnesses Describe Scene Inside Walmart Shooting 02/02/2014

"What I want to say about him (Myron Terrell)...is I'm praying for him," he said. ..... "It's a blessing," he said. "God is definitely on our side helping us out." Walmart Shooting Victim Off Ventilator, Says First Words to Husband 02/06/2014

Conway Ark. Walmart Shooting Victim Tied to Previous Violent Attack 02/14/2014

CONWAY, AR -- Is there more to the story of a wife and mother shot six times at a Conway Walmart?

Lori Martin and her husband Adam have a history of violence, according to the Conway Police Department.

The first incident report obtained by Fox16 dates back to a 2012 domestic disturbance.

Adam Martin, the narrative reads, had scratch wounds on his face that were later determined to be from his wife.

Lori admitted to police they had an altercation and when Conway police asked why Adam lied about the wounds, he said, "He did not want his wife to get in trouble."

Later that year Lori was arrested for shoplifting and Adam was hospitalized after a stabbing. Complete Article

As indicated in excerpts from the Affidavit for Myron Terrell 02/03/2014 the police may have become suspicious of the behavior of Adam Martin when he declined to accompany his wife to the hospital.

Sgt. Casey Dunn: I heard him telling his wife that he would see her at the hospital. I advised him that he could ride with the ambulance or we would give him a ride. He refused and told me that he needed to get his car. I told him that we would help him get back to his car but that he needed to go with his wife. He refused once again and then stated that he had to check on his daughter before he could go to the hospital. I asked him where his daughter was and he stated at home asleep. I grew concerned that there was a child at home alone so I asked him how old she was and he stated that she was 16. I did not understand his prioritization of the issues at hand so I once again told him he needed to go with his wife. He once again refused and told me that he would go to his house, check on his daughter and then he would go to the hospital. I went ahead and advised Officer Waits to go to the hospital to collect any evidence. ….

Officer Charles Waits: I walked out with him after he retrieved his wife purse and cellphone. He walked over to his vehicle and put his wife purse inside. He then smoked a cigarette and paced up and down in front of the door. He called family and had them go to his house and check on his daughter. He informed them what had happened and asked them to come to the scene. After using the phone he returned inside the store. I explained to him that MEMS would be transporting his wife for further treatment and he would likely be able to ride to the hospital with his wife. He declined the offer. He stated that family was responding to check on his daughter and then he was going home to get her then he would respond to the hospital. I felt this was very odd. I tried to reason with him and he again declined. A few minutes later, Sgt. Dunn suggested that he ride with his wife. I explained to him that Mr. Martin was declining. Sgt. Dunn also tried to explain to him that he could go with his wife. Mr. Martin again declined. Sgt. Dunn then requested that I follow the ambulance to the hospital and stay with the victim. I followed the ambulance to Conway Regional Medical Center.

DNA helps police solve Connellsville Wal-Mart theft case 02/02/2014

A Pittsburgh man has been charged in a retail theft and hit-and-run at a local store that took place over four years ago. DNA led police to an arrest.

Charges were filed on Friday against Andre Edward Burse, 48, of 1405 Westmoreland St. at District Judge Richard Kasunic II's office.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Burse and another man entered the Connellsville Wal-Mart at 12:39 a.m. Sept. 26, 2008, gathered merchandise and concealed it in white plastic bags.

They allegedly left the store without paying for the items.

Two Wal-Mart employees confronted the men while they were loading the items into a white car. One of the men got into the driver's side of the car and began erratically backing up, striking the two Wal-Mart employees and knocking them to the ground, leaving them injured. Complete article

3 arrested in chase after stealing from Ariz. Wal-Mart 02/02/2014

Cross-dresser robs Georgia Walmart at gunpoint 02/02/2014

Upstate NY man, 73, dies in car crash after Walmart shift 02/03/2014

Woman arrested after undressing in NC Walmart parking lot 02/03/2014

Bomb threat shuts down Skowhegan Me. Walmart for second time in a week 02/03/2014

Male cross dresser sought in Walmart robbery in Oconee County Ga. 02/03/2014

Caught On Camera: Man Steals iPad Minis From Fla. Wal-Mart 02/03/2014

Police looking for man in NC Walmart robbery, assault 02/03/2014

Crash closes entrance to Walmart in North Versailles Pa. 02/04/2014

Man, woman charged with lightbulb theft from Ill. Walmart 02/04/2014

Alabama Man Charged In Walmart Theft Suspected In Similar Cases 02/04/2014

Good Samaritan helps deputies nab purse snatching suspects outside Woodlands Tx. Walmart 02/04/2014

Worker's quick action saves Iowa Walmart during arson fire 02/04/2014

Two employees of North Bergen NJ Walmart caught under-ringing 02/04/2014

40 mile police chase ends in Wash. Walmart parking lot 02/04/2014

Walmart to give NH city $101K to restore trail system, pave street 02/04/2014

Deputies: SC Walmart employee charged with stealing DVDs, action figures 02/04/2014

WinCo, ‘Walmart’s Worst Nightmare’ Is Expanding Massively in Tx. 02/05/2014

Police: Pickens SC armed robber rocks suit, tie in Walmart holdup 02/05/2014

Why Walmart is getting too expensive for the middle class 02/04/2014 Overall, retail sales rose 4.2% in 2013, or about 2.7% after accounting for inflation. .... The company recently cut its profit outlook, with analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ expecting just a 2.1% gain in sales when Walmart reports its quarterly earnings on February 20. That’s for a company that has consistently outcompeted nearly every other retailer except, perhaps, Amazon. Walmart’s stock has suffered, rising just 4% during the past year, while the S&P 500 index rose 17% during the same timeframe.

Man caught in Iowa with hundreds of scientific calculators from Walmart 02/05/2014

Some initial confusion at Penn. WalMart in Pittsburg over charging for paper bags 02/0/2014

Police: Man arrested in NC Walmart robbery, assault 02/05/2014

2 accused of taking cart full of electronics from Vt. Walmart 02/05/2014

Woman charged in NH Walmart shoplifting incident 02/05/2014

Couple tries to steal TVs from Ga. Walmart 02/06/2014

Wal-Mart Ally Ark. Senator Pryor Breaks With Obama on Wage Increase 02/06/2014

Suspect wanted for stealing DVDs from Virginia Beach Walmart store 02/06/2014

Fire inside Iowa Walmart caused $1 million damage, worker says 02/06/2014

1 injured when RV explodes in Wash. Walmart parking lot 02/06/2014

Arrest Made In Double Murder At Murfreesboro Tenn. Walmart 02/06/2014

Man flashed woman in parking lot of Wentzville Missouri Walmart, police say 02/06/2014

Thief takes $27,000 in cell phones from Ala. Wal-Mart 02/06/2014

Exclusive: Former teenaged employee tricks Ok. Walmart stores out of nearly $30,000 02/06/2014

NORMAN, Okla. – A 17-year-old is facing charges after he tricked three Walmart stores out of nearly $30,000.

Police aren’t releasing his name because he is a juvenile, but Norman police finally caught up to him Jan. 30 in Norman and arrested him.

The teen stole from the Walmart stores in Dec. after conning managers into believing he worked there.

“You would think a store manager would catch on to something like that,” said shopper Vernon Boyce.

After reading the police report, you realize no one noticed or suspected anything. The report says at a Moore Walmart he “…acted as if he was a general manager from another store.” Wearing the company’s name tag and all, he told the manager “…he was doing an inventory of the store before general managers came to inspect them after the holidays.”

Surviellance cameras caught the teenager. The report says he was “…alone in the cash office…” It says he took “… multiple bundles of cash, stuffing them inside his pockets and clothes.” He even hugged the manager before he walked out.

Sgt. Jeremey Lewis says this is one for the books.

“He’s obviously confident in what he’s doing and has a good story,” said Sgt. Lewis. The teen knew the drill because police say he worked at a Walmart in Oklahoma City until he was fired for stealing money. Complete article

James Lawlor stole $342 in cat food from Walmart in Clearwater Fla. 02/05/2014

Cops: NC Walmart worker stole from store 02/07/2014

UPDATE: Ga. Police ask help finding suspect in $27,000 theft 02/07/2014

KPD searching for two men who reportedly shoplifted six tablets from Tenn. Walmart 02/07/2014

Port St. Lucie Fla. police seeking two who robbed woman in Wal-Mart parking lot 02/07/2014

Escapee caught in Ms. Walmart 02/08/2014

Walmart denies selling expired food in Nicaragua 02/07/2014

The Nicaraguan affiliate of Walmart rejected Friday the complaint by a consumer group that said the retail giant is selling expired food in this country.

"In the year 2013 we had more than 40 reviews (of our supermarkets in Nicaragua), and the authorities never said that we had expired products," the manager of Corporate Affairs at Walmart for Mexico and Nicaragua, Eduardo Garcia, told Efe.

Leaders of the Consumer Defense Institute, or Indec, met in front of the Walmart-owned supermarket Pali with products they said were recently bought there and that were apparently expired.

The Walmart executive in Nicaragua cast doubt on Indec's claims.

"What caught our attention is the fact that we've never had a formal complaint from them. At the end of 2012 we asked them to inform our personnel, but we never received a reply from them as we do from the authorities," Garcia said. Complete article

If Wal-Mart didn't spend so much time denying things, even when there is overwhelming evidence against them, then more people might believe them if they actually do have a case.

This Ca. lawsuit threatens to end Walmart’s exploitative ways 02/07/2014

San Diego Ca. mother suing Walmart for millions after son dies following altercation with store security 02/05/2014

SAN DIEGO - A San Diego woman is suing Walmart for millions of dollars after she says they killed her son.

Only 10News has obtained police dash cam video that shows her son being held face-down on the pavement in the blazing heat in June 2012.

As police rolled up on scene just outside a Walmart store in Covina, they came up on a Walmart security guard dressed in a blue polo shirt. Police later learned the security guard had been kneeling on top of a man face-down on 135-degree asphalt for eight and a half minutes.

"Hey, can you hear me? Sit up," said a Covina police officer is heard saying on the video.

As the security guard got up and walked away, officers tried to communicate with 41-year-old Jose Marcos Picazo.

What they did not realize is that he was already dead.

"I'm very depressed," said Emma Mercado, Picazo’s mother. "I'm very sick, so I just want justice."

According to witness accounts, Picazo was screaming, "I'm dying, I'm dying" while he was pinned to the ground, hands cuffed behind his back, for some of that time by two Walmart employees.

"I want these guys in jail," said Mercado. "They're killers."

Police say the Walmart security guards had been watching Picazo inside the store and followed him out with $56.92 worth of body wash, socks, underwear and jeans he had not paid for. Complete article

Decades of Greed: Behind the Scenes With An Angry Walmart Manager 02/06/2014

Kevin Hunt: Wal-Mart Wouldn't Match Walmart.com Price, But Toys 'R' Us Did 02/08/2014

Craigslist sale led to gunfire in Fla. Wal-Mart lot 02/05/2014

Wal-Mart attempted robbery leaves Northport Ala. man jailed 02/07/2014

Social media tip leads detectives to Fla. Walmart thieves 02/07/2014

Police Seek Man Who Used Stolen Credit Card At OKC Wal-Mart 02/07/2014

Walmart shooter struck vehicle, no injuries Mustang Ok. police say 02/07/2014

Couple Charged with Stealing from Ky. Walmart 02/07/2014

Food Lion, Walmart hit in Mooresville NC armed robberies 02/08/2014

Man flashes Ga. Wal-Mart shopper 02/06/2014

Brandon Fla. woman tricked out of $25,000 in jewelry and cash at Walmart on Causeway Boulevard? 02/05/2014

Lawsuit may proceed against Wal-Mart's Whitehall Township Mich. 'superstore,' judge rules 02/04/2014

Id. Walmart worker charged with burglary 02/07/2014

Ca. Walmart Flasher Flees After Female Victim Strikes Him In "Exposed Genitals" 02/03/2014

Woman looking for a “steal” at Ok. Walmart arrested for theft 02/08/2014

Pa. Wal-mart's waste, farmers' treasure Farming cooperative hopes to expand compost program 02/08/2014

Shoplifters threaten employee with handgun in Ohio Walmart 02/08/2014

Shoplifters steal $1,000 worth of goods from Lockport NY WalMart 02/09/2014

Woman charged with leaving toddler in car while she shopped at Iowa Wal-Mart 02/09/2014

Police make arrest in Avon Ind. Walmart abduction assault 02/10/2014

Johnson City Tenn. Man charged with theft after shoplifting items from local Walmart 02/10/2014

Walmart study says Supercenters are good for California 02/10/2014 “It’s no surprise a study commissioned by Wal-Mart would reach conclusions favorable to Wal-Mart,” said Jacques Loveall, president of UFCW Local 8 in Roseville, in a prepared statement. “Independent studies have done a thorough and convincing job of establishing Wal-Mart’s disastrous effects on local economies.”

No Walmart, no state help with KI Center, Wisc. state lawmaker says 02/11/2014

Brooksville Fla. Walmart closed following fire 02/11/2014

Operation Homefront Receives $50,000 from the Walmart Foundation 02/11/2014

Woman Robbed With Gun To Her Head In Port St. Fla. Lucie Walmart Parking Lot 02/11/2014

Bomb Threat at Wagoner Ok. Walmart was false alarm 02/11/2014

Forbes: Raising The Minimum Wage Would Be Good For Wal-Mart, And America 02/11/2014

Woman arrested for attempted theft at Tenn. Walmart 02/11/2014

NC City temporarily stops using Walmart bus stop following scuffle, miscommunication 02/1/2014

Wisc. State legislator is 'bullying' city over Walmart, county supervisor says 02/11/2014

Do you know this person, who stole a cart full of merchandise from Central Square Wal-Mart? 02/12/2014

Union City police looking for man who attacked woman at gunpoint in Ca. Walmart Parking-lot 02/12/2014

High Point NC Walmart on North Main Street robbed at gunpoint 02/12/2014

Police: Thieves steal jewelry, donuts from NC Walmart 02/12/2014

'Fire' at SC Walmart actually smoky air exchange, say officials 02/1/2014

Mayor says loan deal on Wisc. Walmart site was a mistake 02/13/2014

Shots fired in Tx. Walmart parking lot after Craigslist buyer snatches iPhone 02/13/2014

Half dozen guns stolen from Tenn. Walmart 02/13/2014

Shoplifter captured after striking officer in Epping NH Wal-Mart parking lot, escaping in car 02/14/2014

Gallipolis Ohio Walmart Bank Robber Pleads Guilty to Holdup 02/14/2014

Tenn. Walmart Money Center Robbed By Man In Ski Mask 02/14/2014

Mother, daughter and friend charged with shoplifting at Walmart in Derry NH 02/14/2014

Cops: Thief robbed Gwinnett Ga. Walmart with knife 02/14/2014

Police seek man connected to Utah Wal-Mart aggravated robbery 02/14/2014

Dems to Wal-Mart: Quit tobacco 02/14/2014

Men steal $6,500 worth of iPhones from Aurora Ohio Walmart 02/14/2014

Bomb threat causes two-hour evacuation at Wasilla Alaska Walmart 02/14/2014

Falling prices: Dollar stores now cheaper than Walmart 02/12/2014

Mike Rowe Touches the "Third Rail" of Retailing: Walmart 02/12/2014

Forbes: Opinion: Walmart Is Far From A Victim Of 'Partisan' Labor Board 02/12/2014

Galt City Ca. Manager Jason Behrmann expects large increase in tax revenue from new Walmart 02/15/2014

Counterpunch: The High Cost of Wal-Mart 02/14/2014

A Walmart Worker Explains Why Walmart's Customer Service Is Horrible 02/12/2014

Walmart’s Labor Practices Backfire 02/10/2014

A new study shows Walmart Supercenters are good for California communities. 02/12/2014 "The Hatamiya report was commissioned by Walmart for the specific purpose of rehabilitating its reputation, which has been shredded by reports of widespread abusive treatment of its workforce and independent studies documenting Walmart's devastating effects on urban, suburban and rural economies," Loveall said.

What Can Walmart Tell Us About The U.S. Economy - Part 2 02/14/2014 Like many American companies, Walmart (WMT) has been aggressively repurchasing its shares in order to boost the share price and show earnings per share growth in excess of net income growth. Over the February 1, 2013 - October 31, 2013 period, Walmart spent a total of approximately $5.8 billion to repurchase 77.9 million shares of its own common stock. ...

Video catches driver plowing into cars in Ga. Walmart parking lot 02/14/2014

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — There was an amazing scene outside a local Walmart as an accused thief began using her car as a weapon, damaging several cars.

It was described as a demolition derby. Police say as two shoplifting suspects fled the store, one ran and the other jumped in her car and started plowing into other vehicles.

Snellville police said surveillance video showed Ashley Bender and a friend as they left the Walmart without paying for their goods. In the video, a store employee followed the duo and within seconds, they ran. When the friend took off on foot, Bender jumped in her car. The video captured her circling in the lot several times. On one pass, she banged into a parked Oldsmobile. Two more circles, then she slammed into an entire row of cars.

“Clearly, that was about as reckless as you can be. Obviously she wasn't looking where she was going and that's why we think she was looking for the other lady,” said police chief Roy Whitehead.

Bender and her heavily damaged Camry tried to leave the scene, but police were able to catch up with her.

“It was a very dangerous situation, especially as she's going around that parking lot. Especially for a misdemeanor amount of $119. That's what was taken in the theft,” Whitehead said. Complete article

Armed confrontation at Ariz. Walmart 02/14/2014

Wal-Mart outlook hit by store closings, food stamp cuts 02/01/2014

Man allegedly flees Ca. Walmart Supercenter with alcohol 02/13/2014

New Wal-Mart ads tout manufacturing return, the ‘Working Man’ 02/10/2014 The more money they spend on these ads the less they have for activities that benefit the consumer.

Man accused of hitting Ok. Walmart employee with truck 02/14/2014

Car Crashes Into Harrisburg Ill. Walmart 02/14/2014

Cops: Duo pepper sprayed SC Walmart employees, stole money cart 02/14/2014

Police search for man who robbed Fla. Walmart 02/13/2014

Gadsden Ala. man charged with robbery after Walmart incident 02/14/2014 Jordan said Fletcher told the staff he was not going to jail. He pulled out a chipping hammer and threatened the staff, allegedly lunging at them with the hammer. He then ran to his blue Ford Ranger and left.

Man Purchasing Pellet Gun Robs Ga. Walmart With Knife 02/15/2014

17-Year-Old Fired From Ok. Walmart Scams Store Out Of $39,000, Police Say 02/11/2014

Walmart stores in Connecticut reportedly charging tax on tax-exempt gun safes 02/16/2014

Fight at an Arizona Walmart leads to man shot to death 02/17/2014

Orleans Sheriff's deputy fires gun at robbery suspect at Algiers La. Walmart 02/16/2014

Residents rally to bring Wal-Mart to West Louisville Ky. 02/17/2014

Tenn. Walmart Employee Accused Of Replacing Cash With Counterfeit 02/17/2014

Report: Thief attempts scooter heist at Ga. Walmart 02/17/2014

Two charged with stealing jewelry from Elizabeth City Va. Walmart 02/17/2014

4 arrested after teen is beaten, robbed outside downstate Del. Wal-Mart 02/17/2014

Woman robbed in Burlington NC Walmart parking lot 02/17/2014

Memphis Tenn. man charged with abusing 3-year-old at Bartlett Walmart 02/17/2014

Crews battle fire inside Newport RI Walmart 02/17/2014

Alleged thief admits beating at Ind. Wal-Mart last November 02/17/2014

Why Is Walmart Paying Chris Christie's Pals? 02/18/2014

Walmart removes, recalls questionable hamburger meat in Montana and Wyoming 02/18/2014

Research: Crime Stats, Staffing Problems Plague Walmart 02/18/2014

Who Is Behind New Pro-Walmart Group? 02/17/2014

Walmart’s Epic Fail: Commercial Promoting Pro American Factories Uses Song By Canadian Band 02/17/2014

Early morning fire closes Hometown Pa. Walmart 02/18/2014

Walmart puts up $250,000 for ballot fight in SD 02/17/2014

Mom of woman stabbed to death in SC Walmart files lawsuit 02/17/2014

Former "Green" Mayor Manny Diaz Now Representing Walmart's Fla. Midtown Push 02/18/2014

Nestlé Recalls Hot Pockets Sold at Walmart, Stop & Shop, Martin’s and Giant 02/17/2014

Water trouble at Hawaii Walmart 02/18/2014

Man Stabbed During Fight Over Walmart Parking Spot, Hartford Conn. Police Say 02/17/2014

Condoms the Target for Shoplifting Teen at Ga. Walmart 02/17/2014

Suspect wanted in Uniondale NY Wal-Mart theft 02/17/2014

Ark. Walmart Self Checkout Machine Mistakenly Gives $10s Not $1s in Change 02/18/2014

‘I killed a cop,’ officer testifies Brandon Daniel said at police station 02/18/2014

5:30 p.m. update: Brandon Daniel appeared to have a blank stare and his speech was slurred and lethargic, moments after he shot and killed Austin police officer Jaime Padron, witnesses testified Tuesday.

But Daniel smiled and winked at officer Albert Arevalo as he took him away from the location, asking if he would get his motorcycle back and in what county the crime had occurred, Arevalo told jurors.

“He asked for a possible sentence for his actions,” the officer recalled on the stand. “He wanted to know whether he was going to get life or death.”

Once at the Police Department’s downtown headquarters, Arevalo said Daniel made the statement, “I killed a cop.” .....

4:25 p.m. update: In the early hours of April 6, 2012, Brandon Daniel ambled through a North Austin Walmart, swaying through the aisles and dropping items, before he encountered a store employee and Austin police officer Jaime Padron, as seen in a security camera video played Tuesday in the courtroom. .....

11:30 a.m. update: On the stand Tuesday, Walmart employee Lincoln LeMere described the deadly struggle between officer Jaime Padron and Brandon Daniel, inciting tears and gasps from the audience as he remembered Daniel had chuckled after the shooting.

He looked over at Padron, who lied lifeless on the floor of the North Austin store, laughed and said, “‘I killed a cop,’” LeMere told jurors on the first day of testimony of a capital murder trial for Daniel, charged in the April 2012 killing of the officer. Complete article

Daniel guilty of capital murder in Officer Padron slaying 02/21/2014

Deputies seek suspect in theft of wallet at Lehigh Walmart 02/18/2014

Serial Shoplifter Goes to Prison for Attempted Theft From Md. Walmart 02/18/2014

McDonald’s, WalMart ads in Wash. parks? 02/18/2014

Man Arrested For Alleged Arson at Pa. Walmart 02/18/2014

Suffolk Va. police search for suspects in attempted Walmart theft 02/18/2014

Suspect surrenders in Newport RI Walmart arson 02/19/2014

Tenn. Wal-Mart murder suspect's hearing continued until March 02/19/2014

Walmart denies reports saying it is considering minimum wage increase 02/19/2014

Chandler Ariz. Walmart shooting: Husband died protecting me, widow says 02/19/2014

Ga. Wal-Mart smash & grab couple caught on camera 02/19/2014

Gunmen rob a man outside a Texas Walmart 02/19/2014

Hazel Green Ala. residents fear new Walmart will increase deadly wrecks unless traffic plan improved 02/19/2014

Ask Joe: Should Walmart reimburse shoppers for wind related damage? 02/19/2014

Crimeline: Police seek female duo in NH Walmart thefts 02/19/2014

Man charged in NH Walmart shoplifting 02/19/2014

Wal-Mart Forecast Trails Estimates on Weak Economy 02/20/2014

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the world’s largest retailer, forecast profit this year that trailed analysts’ estimates as the sluggish U.S. economy and government benefit cuts threaten to restrain sales.

Profit per share in the year through January 2015 will be $5.10 to $5.45, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said today in a statement. The average of 28 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg was $5.55 a share. ....

Wal-Mart fell 1.8 percent to $73.52 at the close in New York. The shares have dropped 6.6 percent this year, compared with a 0.5 percent decline for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Fourth-quarter net income fell 21 percent to $4.43 billion, or $1.36 a share, from $5.61 billion, or $1.67, a year earlier, the company said today. Excluding some items, profit was $1.60 a share. The average of 22 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg was $1.59.

Revenue increased 1.5 percent to $129.7 billion in the quarter ended Jan. 31. Analysts projected $130.2 billion. Sales at Wal-Mart U.S. stores open at least 12 months excluding fuel fell 0.4 percent. Complete article

Infant Dies After Needing Medical Attention At Pa. Walmart 02/20/2014

Mass. Walmart worker faces charges for stealing, then returning money 02/20/2014

Hogs turned into cannibals; comparing Whole Foods and Walmart; catfish standards: food safety roundup 02/20/2014

‘Tech savvy’ Augusta teen to be charged over Skowhegan Me. Walmart bomb threats 02/20/2014

TSU football player shot outside Tenn. Walmart in road rage incident 02/20/2014

Woman wanted for Short Pump Va. Walmart purse snatching 02/20/2014

Police make second arrest in Murfreesboro Tenn. Walmart double murder 02/20/2014

Watch out for fake offers for $100 Walmart and Target gift cards 02/20/2014

Tx. Walmart Store Lowers Dog Food Display Amid Safety Concerns 02/21/2014

Wal-Mart's China syndrome a symptom of international woes 02/21/2014

Robber snatches purse in Gateway Road Ga. Walmart parking lot 02/21/2014

Man, woman sought in NH Walmart ATM theft 02/21/2014

Wal-Mart says it’s ‘neutral’ on a minimum wage hike. Lobbying disclosures suggest otherwise. 02/21/2014

Man accused of groping woman in Butte Montana store 02/21/2014

Clarksville Tenn. man charged with robbing woman in Walmart parking lot 02/21/2014

Oregon Shoplifter doesn't have to pay Walmart to put goods back on shelf: Northwest courts roundup 02/21/2014

Glendale Ariz. police seek public's help in purse snatching in Walmart parking lot 02/20/2014

Four Pharmacy Workers Arrested At Aledo, IL Walmart 02/21/2014

How many of the groceries sold at Walmart would be banned by Whole Foods? 02/18/2014

12 NEWS DEFENDERS: Wal-Mart sends corporate executives to Troy Ala. store 02/21/2014 We found filthy conditions, poor customer service and merchandise nearly non-existent. Less than 48 hours after WSFA 12 News Defenders uncovered the conditions, executives from the Wal-Mart corporate office came to the city to see for themselves.

St. Anthony Minn. Walmart Reopens After Bomb Threat 02/22/2014

Oakland Ca. residents arrested after Martinez Walmart theft, car chase 02/22/2014

Hendersonville Tenn. Police Seek To Identify Walmart Theft Suspects 02/23/2014

Walmart and The Container Store Have Something Surprising In Common 02/23/2014 The Container Store started a fund for employees in need and got a lot of pats on the back. A Walmart store took up donations for employees in need during the holidays, and was pilloried for the effort. Two companies with two identical goals, have two very different outcomes.

Police: Man had bomb-making materials near Cedar Park Tx. Walmart 02/24/2014

CEDAR PARK, Texas (KXAN) – Two people were arrested after police found homemade bombs in a car at a Cedar Park Walmart parking lot.

Cedar Park police officers were responding to a call about a hit-and-run wreck at 7:30 p.m. Sunday when a woman made the call from the Walmart near U.S. Highway 183 and FM 1431.

In the meantime, Nicholas Domingo Salinas, 31, pulled up in a separate car to join her in the parking lot, police said. Salinas claimed to be friends with the woman, but police say their stories didn’t add up.

“He had come to the Walmart parking lot to assist a woman who had been involved in a hit-and-run in the parking lot,” said Cedar Park Police Chief Sean Mannix. “However, security footage at the parking lot showed that no collision had in fact occurred.”

Salinas then agreed to let police search his vehicle. Officers said they found drugs, drug paraphernalia and two homemade pipe bombs.

“It doesn’t appear that he was out last night targeting a location to use it,” Mannix said. “It appears that those devices had been running around his car for some time. It’s very unusual.” Complete article

Aurora Ind. police seek several people in Walmart jewelry theft 02/24/2014

Tewksbury Mass. Walmart evacuated due to bomb scare 02/24/2014

Walmart’s Big Push to Go Small—and Destroy Your Neighborhood Dollar Store 02/24/2014

Virginia Beach Police looking for Walmart shoplifting suspect 02/24/2014

Years after past fights, Walmart adding gas station near newest Fla. Supercenter 02/24/2014

Police: Woman stole from Metro-East Missouri Walmart also caught with drugs 02/24/2014

Police investigate a possible bomb threat at Fayetteville Ark. Walmart 02/24/2014

Ocoee Fla. Walmart cashier accused of passing counterfeit money 02/25/2014

Will new NC Walmart turn U.S. 301 into Skibo Road? 02/25/2014

Man Sought Who Exposed Himself to Girl at Ohio Walmart 02/25/2014

Suspects Wanted for Stealing TVs From Md. Walmart 02/25/2014

Birmingham Ala. police seek man who snatched elderly woman's purse at Montclair Wal-Mart 02/26/2014

Walmart Doubles Down on Hydrogen Fuel Cells 02/27/2014

Nine ‘Assault’ Rifles Stolen From Memphis Tenn. Walmart 02/27/2014

Did They Use A Key? 9 Guns Stolen From Tenn. Walmart Gun Safe 02/27/2014

Crime Stoppers unsolved case: Shoplifting at Walmart in north Springfield Missouri 02/27/2014

California man shoots himself in the leg in Walmart parking lot 02/25/2014

Drug addict admits NY Walmart theft scheme 02/27/2014

Reidsville NC police investigate larcenies at Walmart, Sheetz 02/28/2014

TV star’s ugly Wal-Mart defense: Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe goes nuclear 02/28/2014

“Dirty Jobs” star Mike Rowe pushed back against Wal-Mart critics Monday, comparing a mass email campaign to “a bag of dog crap set ablaze on my front porch” and urging that “unhappy” workers apply for scholarships from his foundation because their “jobs could very well become obsolete in just a few years.”

Rowe has drawn waves of praise and scorn since narrating an ad for Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the world. In the ad, “I Am a Factory,” which began airing during the Olympics, Rowe states, “We will build things and build families and build dreams.”

The Wal-Mart ad’s on-screen text touts Wal-Mart’s commitment to put “$250 billion to work to help create new manufacturing jobs in America” over the next decade. Reuters reported last September that “In many cases, Wal-Mart’s suppliers had already decided to produce in the United States, as rising wages in China and other emerging economies, along with increased labor productivity and flexibility back home, eroded the allure of offshore production.” Rowe and Wal-Mart did not respond to Wednesday inquiries.

In a Monday post on his Facebook page, Rowe offered the latest in a series of responses to critics who’ve cited recent Wal-Mart controversies. Rowe wrote that Wal-Mart’s “$250 billion investment in US manufacturing is worth talking about,” and “I’m happy to ‘shill’ for any company that gets this country back to work.” Rowe then turned to a CBS story on the controversy, taking issue with the reporter’s framing and word choice, emphasizing that he was not “empowered to speak on Walmart’s behalf in some sort of official capacity,” and then offering an open letter to Jobs With Justice press secretary Ori Korin, who was quoted in the CBS piece saying Rowe had “dismissed people’s concerns.”

Jobs With Justice, a labor-backed nonprofit, has helped organize protests in support of striking Wal-Mart workers over pay, hours and alleged retaliation. It urged its members (mostly not Wal-Mart employees) to send Rowe an email supporting Wal-Mart workers who’ve asked him for a meeting; the message drafted by JWJ says Wal-Mart workers “deserve more than their dirty jobs, and they deserve to be heard.”

Addressing Korin by name, Rowe said he was “sympathetic to your objectives and sensitive to the needs of your members,” but that having 5,048 people email his office “had the same effect as a flood of telemarketing calls during my dinner, or a bag of dog crap set ablaze on my front porch.” Rowe called it “ironic” that a group concerned about excessive workloads didn’t “think twice about flooding an unsuspecting non-profit foundation with an endless stream of form letters,” and warned that another 5,000 “just might inspire the nice woman who oversees my foundation to throw herself out the window.” Complete article

Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers 02/23/2014

Cult-like, corrupt and Christian conservative: Inside the campus group creating Wal-Mart managers 02/26/2014 XXX

Cult-like, corrupt and Christian conservative: Inside the campus group creating Wal-Mart managers 02/26/2014

For decades, the campus group Students in Free Enterprise has drawn major funding and leadership from Wal-Mart, and channeled scores of students into the retail giant’s management ranks. Renamed Enactus in 2012, the group calls itself “the world’s best-known and most successful program helping university students to create community empowerment projects …” But California State University, Chico, accounting professor and former SIFE insider Curtis DeBerg told Salon that the well-heeled group served as “really a marketing branch to support business leaders who supported SIFE,” and that his decade as one of SIFE’s Sam Walton fellows was marked by fraud, turf war and falsehood. “There’s something entirely inconsistent about servant leadership as Wal-Mart practices it,” said DeBerg, the founder of the now-rival spinoff Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship. DeBerg’s memoir, “How High Is Up?: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of a Sam M. Walton SIFE Fellow,” will be released next month.

Asked about DeBerg’s allegations, Enactus sent a statement from CEO Alvin Rohrs saying that DeBerg “has not been associated with our organization for more than a decade and we are puzzled as to why these complaints would resurface now.” Rohrs told Salon that “we take the integrity of our competitions extremely seriously” and that a three-month investigation by an “independent investigator” into the cheating alleged by DeBerg had “found no impropriety or indication of any unethical behavior.” Rohrs added, “Over the last 11 years we’ve used this incident to continue to improve and strengthen our processes to ensure the highest standards of transparency and accuracy.”

In contrast, University of California, Santa Barbara, labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein, the author of “The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business,” told Salon over email that DeBerg “offers an inside account of the cultlike character, institutional corruption and corporate conservative ideology of an organization that is a product of the founding generation of Walmart executives,” as well as “part of the cultural apparatus that sustains the entire evangelical capitalist world within which so many retail, hotel, and food processing companies make their way.” .....

Bethany Moreton, in her book “To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise,” described SIFE’s message to schoolchildren as “profits are beneficial; government is wasteful; unions are illegitimate; corporations are natural persons; free markets abhor environmental regulation but not cartels; monopsony contracts, or military-supported access to foreign raw materials.”

Was SIFE really a marketing branch to support business leaders who supported SIFE, to have faculty like me espouse these same values in our university system? Absolutely.

What SIFE didn’t count on is, when they started leaving the Bible Belt … that there might be some faculty advisers like me that didn’t subscribe to that particular value system. ....

The third thing that shocked me was in 2003, I discovered that there was cheating going on in the competitions … Four universities won prize money for a competition they hadn’t even entered. The irony there is in SIFE’s mission statement, they talk about all these business leaders, you know, wanting to inculcate corporate social responsibility into these university students. .....

Robert Rich sent me a one-page letter saying my services are no longer needed at SIFE … He said: You must take care not to defame SIFE in your future as you grow this new organization … Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship … An offshoot of SIFE that I [had] created, which SIFE now believed was a direct competitor with their university organization. Complete article

Survey Says: Walmart Is Worst Discount Retailer & Worst Supermarket 02/26/2014

Walmart may be the nation’s largest retailer and its biggest supermarket chain, but the latest results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index once again show that Big W continues to lag far behind all of its competition.

For the seventh year in a row, Walmart received the lowest score on the ASCI rankings of department and discount retailers. With a score of only 71, Walmart was at least 10 points behind category leaders Nordstrom and Dillard’s.

Since those two retailers are significantly more “high-end” than Walmart, one might conclude that customer satisfaction is tied to the price of goods being sold. But stores like Kohl’s and Dollar General received top marks in the ACSI survey, demonstrating that you need not charge top-dollar to have happy customers. Meanwhile, Macy’s received a below-average score of 75, putting it only slightly above Walmart in the list.

“[This] suggests that discounting is not necessarily associated with weak customer satisfaction, nor is high-end retailing a guarantee of the opposite,” writes ACSI about its retail results.

THE NOT-SO-SUPER SUPERMARKET
Since ACSI began including Walmart in its supermarket rankings in 2004, the store has had the lowest score each year — and 2013 was no different.

That said, Walmart’s score of 72 in the latest survey is tied for its best-ever result, though it was still 14 points below industry leader Publix (which has had the highest score for 20 years running) and six points behind the industry average of 78.

“A decade of low customer satisfaction ratings demonstrates that low price does not does compensate for quality,” writes ACSI in its report, “neither in merchandise nor in service.” Complete article

Police: 14-year-old opens fire outside Upstate SC Walmart 02/24/2014

EASLEY, S.C. —A 14-year-old boy was arrested late Sunday night after police say he ran from an Easley Walmart security officer, then opened fire on bystanders.

Easley police officers were called to the store at 115 Rolling Hills Circle just after 10:30 p.m., according to Lt. Jeremy Miller.

Officers were responding to assist another officer with a traffic stop, Miller said. While on that case, they observed a shoplifting suspect running out of the store and away from a loss prevention officer, Miller said.

The loss prevention officer had suspected the teen was shoplifting and approached him inside the store, Miller said.

"They were going to question him and call us, so we could take him into custody, but then he pulled out a gun," said Miller.

As the teen ran out of the store, officers heard two gunshots, and people shouting, “He has a gun,” according to Miller.

The teen fired at two innocent bystanders, who tried to help security catch the teen said Miller. Once outside the store in the parking lot, investigators said the teen turned and fire two shots at those men. Complete article

Up against the Walmart behemoth 02/25/2014

Four arrested in 'knock-out game' punching of boy at Brunswick Fla. Walmart 02/27/2014

BRUNSWICK | Four men in their teens have been arrested in an unprovoked attack on a 16-year-old boy at a Walmart that appeared similar to the knock-out game, Glynn County police said.

In the knock-out game, offenders randomly select strangers, usually those who cannot defend themselves, and try to knock them unconscious with a single blow. Someone records the attack on a cellphone.

One of the young men punched Alex L. Thomas inside the Walmart on Altama Connector about 1 a.m. Monday, then he and three others fled the store on foot, Scott Trautz, assistant Glynn County police chief, said in a news release. Complete article

Suspect in Lindale Tx. Walmart robbery indicted 02/2/2014

Two charged with stealing cosmetics from Route 11 NY Walmart 02/28/2014

Massena duo accused of stealing from NY Walmart 02/28/2014

Police: 'Walmart 5' arrested, charged with theft after looting Winona Minn. store 02/28/2014

Woman attempts to shoplift 330 Pizza Rolls at Ark. Wal-Mart 02/26/2014

Men accused of carrying laptops out of Sterling Ill. Walmart 02/27/2014