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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.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ended one of its toughest years in more than a decade yesterday with a better-than-expected profit for the holiday quarter and a fairly upbeat forecast for this year. Even so, it finished the year with only a slight gain at stores open at least a year, 2.1 percent. That key measure of retail performance was the company's slowest since it began recording same-store sales increases in 1980. Investors, however, were buoyed by the news. "I would not be surprised if they're at a low point," said Victor Hawley, portfolio manager at Reed, Conner & Birdwell of Los Angeles, which holds about 850,000 shares in Wal-Mart worth about $42 million.

Melissa I. Frainie, a Wal-Mart clerk and Reisterstown resident, died Monday of a stroke at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was 35. She was born Melissa Ireland in La Plata and was raised in Mount Airy. She was a 1990 graduate of South Carroll High School in Winfield and attended Carroll Community College. "Despite numerous hospitalizations and limited mobility, Melissa never let any adversity stop her from living a full life," said her husband of eight years, Mike Frainie, a financial services specialist with AAA Mid-Atlantic.

WASHINGTON -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. chief executive Lee Scott joined one of his toughest critics, labor leader Andrew L. Stern, yesterday to unveil a political campaign to promote universal health care coverage. The two longtime antagonists are helping lead a coalition of labor and business leaders in trying to get Congress to end the nation's reliance on employer-backed health insurance and develop a system for providing universal low-cost coverage within five years. "What unites us here today is our shared belief that it will be a far greater America when we get affordable health care for all Americans," Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, said at a news conference at a Capitol Hill hotel.

On May 21, 2003, Wal-Mart transferred ownership of its Ellicott City store to a Delaware-registered affiliate. No money changed hands, legal records show. Why would the giant retailer go to the trouble of pushing paper in the Howard County courthouse simply to move property from one company to another under the same corporate umbrella? Pull up a chair and hear the latest tale of tax loopholes, reduced state revenue and really smart lawyers. As it wrestles with approaching deficits, Maryland may be losing millions in taxes because Wal-Mart and probably other companies have stashed deeds to local real estate in out-of-state affiliates.

Baltimore-area supermarkets are bracing for new competition and could face pressure to lower prices after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said this week it would open three grocery stores in the region. The addition of so many stores at once means area shoppers could see some grocery costs fall across the region, retail consultants said, as existing supermarkets adapt to the world's largest retailer and its low-pricing power. The mammoth stores -- called supercenters -- essentially combine supermarkets with traditional Wal-Marts in buildings that are two to three times the size of normal grocers.

A day after announcing it was building a Supercenter in Cockeysville, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said yesterday that it is opening two more of its megastores in the Baltimore area. The world's largest retailer said it plans to open the new stores at 3601 Washington Blvd. in Arbutus and at 407 George Claus Blvd. in Glen Burnie. The stores are expected to open in the fall. On Tuesday, Wal-Mart said it would close its Hunt Valley Town Center store this fall to make room for a new Supercenter at 10400 York Road.