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Did Wal-Mart violate
election rules? Senate primary candidate on cover of Wal-Mart magazine Wal-Mart is suspected of having violated the rules which restrict business support for U.S. election candidates. 200,000 households in North Carolina received a Wal-Mart magazine with U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Dole on its cover just days before the Republican primary. Her competitor Jim Snyder is now taking action and asking for an investigation into whether campaign rules have been violated. Wal-Mart claims that they have just done a mistake. It is no secret that Wal-Mart and its owners are strong supporters of their conservative allies in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and have been supporting them to the limits of what is allowed. The company is less supportive of its own workers, though, who have to work under conditions far below those enjoyed by their unionised colleagues. Life insurance
without workers' knowledge Wal-Mart itself has recently initiated a lawsuit against American International Group Inc. and Hartford Financial Services, claiming that the insurers have to compensate them for a 150 million USD loss that the company made on so-called corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) policies. The Arkansas retail giant says that they were not properly informed about the effect of new tax laws. The COLIs are life insurance policies taken out by a company on its employees, often without their knowledge. The company then borrows back money on the premiums which it pays. Earlier, they were tax deductible, but the U.S. Congress ended this in 1996. This practice by large U.S. corporations has been considered unsound.
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