Wal Mart

WASHINGTON -- The House easily passed legislation yesterday blocking retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. from establishing their own banks. Republican Rep. Paul E. Gillmor said he sponsored the bipartisan bill to close "the last loophole" allowing commercial companies to own a type of bank known as an industrial loan company, or ILC. Chartering such banks permits companies "to make an end-run around the bank laws" that otherwise would impose tight regulations, the Ohio congressman said on the House floor.

Amid a groundswell of community opposition, Wal-Mart announced yesterday that it has backed out of a plan to build a 121,000-square-foot Supercenter in Crofton. After meetings with County Executive John R. Leopold and property owner William Berkshire, a spokesman for the retail giant noted that despite making several concessions, "it has become clear to us that there are various views about a project of this size and scope at this specific site and its relationship to the County's long-term development profile."

WASHINGTON -- The nation's top banking regulators urged Congress yesterday to prevent companies such as the Home Depot Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from branching into banking. Although Congress has kept commercial companies and banks separated for five decades, it has allowed an exception for limited-purpose banks known as industrial loan companies. Now, with a growing number of retailers opening ILCs, Congress must "close, and not just narrow, the loophole," said Donald L. Kohn, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve System.

Two years ago, Wal-Mart began a counterassault on its critics, launching a re-imaging campaign to thwart those who had successfully painted an unsavory picture of the company as an employer who didn't treat or pay its workers well, among other things. The world's largest retailer embarked on a public relations blitz, introducing initiatives to portray it as more environmentally friendly, more in tune with the communities where it was building and as a better employer to its workers. The strategy has succeeded in some areas, but the company remains a target of criticism on other fronts.

Maryland won't challenge a federal court decision striking down the state's "Fair Share" health care act, ending a two-year effort to force Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to pay more for employee health care, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said yesterday. Gansler - who made the announcement standing alongside representatives of the O'Malley administration, the comptroller's office and labor groups that pushed for the first-of-its-kind law - said he concluded that an appeal was likely to fail.

A recall of pet food tainted with melamine, a chemical used to make plastic products, has been widened to include 22 types of dog biscuits, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. The biscuits, made by Sunshine Mills Inc., contain wheat gluten imported from China that contained melamine, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the FDA. Sunshine Mills of Red Bay, Ala., manufactures branded and private label dry pet food and biscuits. The recalled biscuits include Nurture Chicken and Rice Biscuit, Ol' Roy Peanut Butter Biscuit and Pet Life Large Biscuit.

A union-backed activist group called yesterday for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to drop opposition to the inspection of all cargo containers that come through U.S. ports for bomb-making materials. Wake Up Wal-Mart, which has long targeted the giant retailer's pay and benefit policies, held news conferences in 15 cities yesterday to unveil a new television ad and draw attention to one of the nation's largest importers. The group does not represent port or Wal-Mart workers, although the union backers have sought to organize the retailer's work force.

Few efforts illustrate the breadth of Wal-Mart's ambitions - and the fears that they at times generate - as much as a nearly decade-long drive to establish its own bank. Yesterday, Wal-Mart Stores abruptly abandoned plans for its own bank, withdrawing its application to obtain a special banking charter after heavy criticism from lawmakers, the banking industry and watchdog groups. "We don't plan to do this again," said Jane J. Thompson, Wal-Mart's president for financial services. "The bank is behind us. We will use our partners to roll out new products."

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has revamped its plans in Crofton and now wants to build the Baltimore region's fifth Supercenter, adding a supermarket to the retail chain's traditional shopping component - after repeatedly denying an interest in offering low-cost groceries. A revised proposal recently submitted to Anne Arundel County shows a store of about 121,000 square feet - about 22,000 square feet smaller than the one first offered - but adding about 29,000 square feet for groceries. In late January, the retailer, which opened a Supercenter in Aberdeen in 2005, announced plans to open three more in the region.

State Comptroller Peter Franchot will join other states in changing a policy that's costing Maryland "tens of millions" of dollars in taxes by allowing businesses to use investment trusts to deduct rent expenses. "It's an abuse that allows big companies to cheat on state taxes, and it's wrong, so we're going to begin to audit these companies," Franchot said. "These practices are going to no longer be permitted, and we're going to seek to level the playing field for all Maryland businesses."