Money speaks and apparently that is O. K. with Missouri Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt.
Blunt, who was recently reelected House Majority Whip, is among the House Republicans working to remove a law, which hasn't even gone into effect, that would require the food industry to label what country meat, fruit, and vegetables come from.
The big problem, apparently, is that the food industry does not want to pay the cost to do this, but is willing to do it "voluntarily."
The law was part of the 2002 farm bill and is supported by U. S. farmers and ranchers who would naturally like Americans to know when they are buying food that did not originate in America.
In addition to the money that the businesses say it would cost them, the chances for the bill, which was scheduled to go into effect in 2006, were also hurt by the defeat of South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle, who championed the proposal.
House Republicans already managed to get the law delayed until 2006. Now they want it eliminated permanently. An Associated Press article quotes Blunt as saying, "I can't find any real opposition to doing exactly what we want to do here."
The Minot, N,D. Daily News quotes Rep. Earl Pomeroy, a North Dakota Democrat, as saying, "To me, this looks like a big, wet kiss to some of their major contributors in the food processing industry, at the expense of farmers and ranchers."
It also appears to be at the expense of Americans who would like to know just where the food they are eating comes from.
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Another picture of the Sears/K-Mart merger is beginning to emerge in printed reports. The deal is all about real estate, those reports say. The Denver Post quoted Faith Hope Consolo, vice chairman of New York retail consulting firm Garrick-Aug Worldwide as saying, "They will have some of the most valuable real estate in the country."
Eddie Lampert, the billionaire investor who owns the controlling interest in K-Mart has sold 50 K-Mart stores to Sears for nearly $575.9 million over the past year, the Post story said. He now says he will continue to sell stores from K-Mart and Sears' combined 3,500 locations.
An article in today's New York Times business section paints a bleak picture of the merger and tells officials with Wal-Mart and Target that they have little reason to worry.
"Mr. Lampert," the article said, "is a hedge fund manager who will control about 40 percent of the combined company. While he is credited with bringing K-Mart out of bankruptcy in May 2003, analysts note that he did this largely through cost cutting, closing stores and casting off real estate. Same-store sales continued to tumble on his watch, dropping 12.8 percent in the third quarter."
Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz and Associates, a New York consulting firm, told the Times the merger will produce "a cadaver."
Davidowitz continued, "He doesn't invest in stores. He cuts costs; he cuts expenses. And by the way, here's another thing he cuts: customers."
The situation with the Joplin and Pittsburg Sears stores may be status quo for the time being, but unless these experts are wrong, the long-range view is not promising.
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The federal Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against former Hollinger International CEO Conrad Black, according to The Chicago Tribune. Hollinger International, based at the time in Canada, owned The Neosho Daily News and The Carthage Press, under its U. S. subsidiary, American Publishing.
The SEC is asking that Lord Black and his top assistant, David Radler, give back millions of dollars in what they referred to as "ill-gotten gains."
An internal investigation conducted by Hollinger officials indicated that he used millions of dollars of company money to finance his lavish lifestyle and that he allegedly extorted millions in non-compete agreements from companies to which he sold newspaper properties.
Among the companies that paid Black for the non-compete clause was Liberty Group Publishing, which was formed in 1998 from dozens of smaller newspapers owned by Hollinger. Liberty currently owns the Daily News, the Press, the Big Nickel, the Neosho Post, the Miller Press, and the Greenfield Vedette in this area. Liberty is currently for sale with the second round of bids taken in late October.