This is a crosspost from AFL-CIO Now Blog.

One of the first things that comes to mind when thinking about Wal-Mart is the mega-retailer's shoddy treatment of workers, including its sorry job safety record.

Should Universities profit from murder and toxic pollutants?

Students at UFL are on hunger strike to push administrators to invest the University's Endowment, $1.2 billion, in Socially Responsible Investments. SRIs screen companies for bad behavior, such as union-busting, polluting, and making weapons.

765 Universities in the U.S. hold collective endowments topping $340 billion. Florida's endowment is the first domino in this chain.  These students have enormous potential to curb corporate bad behavior, but it hasn't reached critical mass yet.  A victory in Florida will likely launch a chain reaction at other Universities.  Eleven members of the Students for a Democratic society are on hunger strike until that reaction ignites

Harvard's endowment alone topped $30 billion this year.  A billion here and $30 billion there, pretty soon you're talking real money.

Kossacks have the critical mass to ignite this reaction.  I know this is a little off topic for Kos, but it's the best thing you'll do all month.  Please pitch in and put the blogosfire to good use!  Call Bernie today.

This is NOT good news.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc's Sam's Club warehouse division said on Wednesday that it is limiting the sale of Jasmine, Basmati and Long Grain White rices to four bags per member visit.

The retailer said the limits are due to recent "supply and demand trends," and it is working with its suppliers "to address this matter to ensure we are in stock."

Costco did the same in Bay Area

And at least one Bay Area store is asking customers to hold back on their rice purchases. Costco has posted signs asking customers to follow their regular rice-buying habits.

The rice price increase is a result of a domino effect, NBC11's Noelle Walker reported. Drought in Australia led to a severe decline in rice production that in turn led the world's largest rice exporters to restrict exports. That spurred higher rice prices and hoarding in Asian countries, NBC11 reported.

Hillary Clinton served on the board of Wal-Mart from 1986 to 1992. Pennsylvania voters should consider how Wal-Mart has impacted their lives before voting in this primary.  

I'm working with Wake-Up Wal-Mart, and I want to share this story with you (which I also shared at MyDD):

It isn't enough that they chased a brain-damaged former employee through the courts for the contents of the family's bank account.

It isn't enough that they're pretending to go green even as their CEO Lee Scott has been caught on tape admitting they're doing nothing of the kind.

It isn't enough that they acquire fully 3/4 of their goods from Chinese sweat shops as the American economy recedes below the horizon.

No: the Bentonville Behemoth has to verbally abuse its most vulnerable customers too. Full story after the jump.

Something to think about on this tax day... where will more than a quarter trillion dollars go over the next few years?

^{Answer: The [Food &] Farm Bill.}

The corn kernels you eat, whether on the cob, frozen or canned is sweet corn and is less than 2/10th of 1% of the corn grown.

Independent Lens will be showing the documentary film, King Corn (lots of really good stuff to explore at that link) which was released last October. About a couple guys who buy an acre to see what it takes to grow corn. This is an important film (and pretty fun) since the [Food &] Farm Bill is currently in Congress being reconciled (not too late to call).

 THE PROFIT DRIVEN INDUSTRIAL FOOD COMPLEX
There's actually a huge deficit in nutrition since corn has been tampered with. It's bred for energy (starch) but not actual food value. It gets cows and other animals fat in a hurry which is good for other food industries on the bottom line (though they too are nutritionally deficient in comparison to their more humanely raised counterparts)

So, what do we really think industrial corn does for us whether eaten directly or indirectly via a factory farmed animal? We end up fat yet still hungry. Why? We need to eat more to meet our bodies vitamin and mineral needs.

I've been calling that, Starving Obesity.

~~~~

The following is slightly reworked from another comment I made several weeks ago and have recycled several times threatening each time to turn it into a diary. One thing I've learned in life is don't make empty threats so here goes:

Wake Up Wal-Mart is reporting that Wal-Mart is lobbying for Congress to pass the (Mark Penn-approved) Colombian Free Trade Deal.  According to their blog:

[Wal-Mart gets] to send manufacturing down to Colombia without paying taxes on the goods coming back in to the states, and they don't have to worry about those pesky unions springing up since there is a pretty long history of union organizers dying before they get anything serious going.

I'd also add that Wal-Mart gets 70% of its products from communist China, which is a notorious abuser of human rights.

For decades, Wal-Mart has used Flagler Productions, a small company based in Kansas, to record their internal meetings.  In 2006, Wal-Mart suddenly stopped using their services - wiping out about 95% of their total business. As a consequence, Flagler is struggling to stay afloat and recently made the decision to open its archives to attorneys, unions, activists, and anybody else with a few bucks in their pocket.  Needless to say, Wal-Mart is not happy. So, what exactly is on the tapes? From the KC Star:

Those moments never meant for public display include a scene of male managers parading in drag at an executive meeting, a clip used by union-backed critics at Wal-Mart Watch for a recent advertisement castigating the retailer's attitude toward female employees.

"The videos provide insight into the company's real corporate culture when they're not in the public eye," Wal-Mart Watch spokeswoman Stacie Lock Temple said Tuesday.

Much of the interest in the candid videos is coming from plaintiff lawyers pursuing cases against Wal-Mart.

"The rarity is that it exists at all," said Brad Seligman, lead attorney in a massive class-action lawsuit that alleges Wal-Mart discriminated systemically against female employees.

"Once in a while you come upon documents that are helpful in a case," the Berkeley, Calif.-based lawyer added. "What's amazing about this is that this company has a video record going back many years showing senior management in at times fairly candid situations."

It's a dream come true for plaintiffs and attorneys who are suing Wal-Mart.  But, what does Wal-Mart think about the archives being sold? As you might imagine, they are not amused.

"Needless to say, we did not pay Flagler Productions to tape internal meetings with this aftermarket in mind," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore said.

She declined to comment on any legal steps the company might be considering.

Flagler says Wal-Mart has no legal power over the videos because the two sides did not sign a contract when founder Mike Flagler was hired in the 1970s to produce Wal-Mart meetings and management conferences.

Ouch! Wal-Mart forgot to sign a contract spelling out the terms of their production services.  I've leave it up to the legal eagles on this board to offer a more informed opinion, but this can't be good.....for Wal-Mart. The article notes there are periodic discussions with Wal-Mart in regards to buying the archive outright. So, if you have an interest in the collection, you'd better get in touch with them sooner than later. In the meantime, strike one for the little guy!

JDalton has posted an essential history of the recently-concluded Debbie Shank ordeal, here.

I say recently concluded, because Wal-Mart has finally relented from its campaign to raid its former employee’s bank account— but the sad fact is that the ordeal is far from over.

It isn’t the Bentonville Behemoth’s fault that Mrs. Shank was injured by a truck, or that the accident has left her irreparably brain damaged, or that her son has perished in Iraq— but it is most certainly the company’s fault that it pursued her family year after year and caused them untold additional trauma, all over a sum that amounts to a drop in Wal-Mart’s $11 billion bucket but which is everything— everything— to the tragically beleaguered family Shank.

It’s that very tragic aspect that has made this story so iconic, that has rallied so many others behind it, that has ultimately led Wal-Mart to yield rather than face a boycott that might affect its bottom line.

The peace sign, which turns 50 this year, still reasonates.

Wal-Mart deserves every bit of the outrage aimed at it, but if you really want to understand the issue, understand how Wal-Mart got the legal rights it successfully asserted.

It's tough to say that anybody "won" in the Debbie Shank case. Her and her family's life will never be the same, and it's questionable as to whether Wal-Mart actually learned anything.

But I think it was a victory in the sense that the grassroots successfully rallied to a righteous cause and picked up enough momentum to prompt a national TV pundit to pressure and ultimately sway Wal-Mart.

I see the course to victory as taking three steps.  Correct me if you think I'm wrong.

In my view, Wal-Mart is pretty much an evil empire, so I get no pleasure in saying that they are not necessarily the bad guy this time.

NOT APRIL FOOLS!!! Just got a message from walmartwatch.org. Very good news for this much suffering family.

But we still need to continue to pressure them. This is not a fight that can be won with one case at a time approach.

The good news below the jump:

Backing down from an avalanche of bad publicity led by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Wal-Mart has decided not to pursue its $470,000 judgment against a brain-damaged former employee.

I have noticed there is no outrage against Wal-Mart here at Kos. Where are the diaries calling for boycott, where are the emails? Are we so preoccupied with our own candidates that we could let this slip by? I have already emailed Wal-Mart, but thousands of emails might make a difference. I also asked Mike Moore to help. In case you haven't heard the story, here it is:

 I wish I could say I am sorry about being so blunt, but in truth, I am not. I think we are forgetting why we are progressives as we fight the good fight. The Clinton/Obama bashing of each other. (there is enough sin to go around) has a) made us all look like fools, I am right there in that mix and b) made some us forget why we HAVE to have a Democart win the white house. Why we have to win the senate back and why we need more in the House.
 This election is (to me) about THREE things; the war, cleaning up Washington DC, Health Care/Ecomony. That my friends covers alot of the social injustices done to women, blacks, whites, children, working class, vets and nation. So having each other just FIGHT back and forth about who bashed whom first is stupid and we need to call and call and call on the two to go back to talking about what is fucking important.