MINNESOTA: Anti-Gay Preacher Told To Stop Raising Money At Walmart

Anti-gay Minnesota preacher Bradlee Dean, who last week came to national prominence for his prayer before the state legislature, has been told by Walmart that his ministry may no longer solicit donations in their parking lots. Also, Dean has lost one of the Christian radio networks that ran his show.

Wal-Mart and Salem Communications have severed ties with two entities run by pastor Bradlee Dean, who made headlines last week for a controversial prayer before the Minnesota House of Representatives. David Brauer reports that AM 1280 The Patriot, owned by Christian broadcaster Salem Communications, dropped Dean’s “Sons of Liberty” radio show, and Nick Pinto writes that Wal-Mart has told Dean’s ministry, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, that it can no longer fundraise in the parking lots of its Minnesota locations. MinnPost’s Brauer notes that Dean was fired from AM 1280 before he gave his controversial speech before the House. The station pulled Dean after he engaged in a six-minute song mocking African Americans and then likened President Obama to Osama bin Laden. “For a minister to do that made no sense,” station manager Ron Stone told MinnPost. Dean is in talks to move to Clear Channel owned KTLK, but that station says that Dean would have to make changes to his show.

According to a Walmart spokesperson, Dean had registered to solicit funds under a false name.

(Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

NEW YORK CITY: National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Joins Battle Against Walmart

As I've reported here for months, Walmart is engaged in a pitched battle with unions and city leaders in their attempt to bring an outlet to New York City. Today the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force came out against the retail giant.

“With the expansion of Wal-Mart stores comes the expansion of antiquated employment policies,” the Task Force said in a statement, “that provide little to no protections for, and at times even hostility toward, their LGBT employees.” The Task Force criticized Wal-Mart for denying employee benefits to same sex-partners and for failing to prohibit discrimination based on gender identify. By comparison, the group said two other chain stores with a strong presence in New York, Costco and Walgreens, did much better. “It may be a local debate for New York City, but Wal-Mart is a largest private employer in country,” said Rea Carey, the executive director of the Task Force. “To have Wal-Mart as a substantial employer there, and an employer that lacks these basic protections, then a lot of people who need work, who seek work, simply won’t feel comfortable.”

Walmart contends that it does treat its gay staffers fairly and points to the existence of its long-running LGBT employees group.

Stonewall Dems: Walmart Is Homophobic

As Walmart ramps up its media blitz against the New York City government, hoping to finally gain a foothold in the nation's largest market, the Stonewall Democrats have issued a statement denouncing the company as homophobic.

"Walmart represents a culture of intolerance and insensitivity towards LGBT employees and issues that is unwelcome in New York. Just last year more than 100 Walmart stores were found to be promoting a children's book that suggested that gay people can overcome “sin” and convert to heterosexuality with the help of counseling. Walmart CEO Mike Duke signed a petition in his home state of Arkansas that was aimed at preventing adoption by gay and lesbian parents. The 2011 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates corporations on LGBT issues, gave Walmart 40%. That failing grade is in marked contrast to other retailers like Macy's and Costco which both received 100%. "Walmart's values are not our values and they are certainly not New York's. Stonewall Democratic Club is committed to building a city that is free from intolerance towards all LGBT people - a city that remains Walmart free."

A Walmart spokesperson has denied the charge, saying that the company supports its LGBT employees. Today the company launched its second round of radio and newspaper ads urging the public to fight attempts to keep Walmart out of New York City.

NYC: Walmart Launches "Let Us In" Site

Walmart has launched a new website intent on convincing New Yorkers to pressure city leaders to allow the retailing giant a foothold in the nation's largest market. The site is being accompanied by a massive radio campaign.

Many New Yorkers woke up Monday morning to a radio advertisement by Walmart blasting “special interest” groups for pressuring the City Council to derail its efforts to open shop in the city. Turn down new jobs and stop people from paying lower prices to satisfy some special interest?” the 60-second spot asks. “That's everything people hate about politics.” That ad, and a second one that zeroes in more on the retailers' low prices, will run for a week on 14 city radio stations, including WFAN, WCBS and WINS. A print ad that trumpets the results of a recent Walmart-sponsored poll showing 71% of New Yorkers favor the retailer's entry into the city will run in 30 community newspapers, plus the Daily News and New York Post.

Labor unions and many city council members are vehemently opposed to allowing Walmart into town. The company is said to be looking at sites in Queens and Brooklyn. A recent report by NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Hunter College concluded that three jobs are lost at nearby small stores for every two jobs created by new Walmart locations. Additionally, city and state services are strained by Walmart employees unable to afford insurance.

Wal-Mart Wants New York City

Wal-Mart's years-long battle to gain a foothold in New York City has been ramped up a notch with their hiring of Mayor Bloomberg's former campaign manager, who will battle unions and community groups before the City Council next month.

Steven Restivo, a spokesman for the Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., told The New York Times in its online edition Sunday that the retailer is looking at sites throughout the city. "There is a business case to be made for our growth in large cities across the country," Restivo said. "We know we have customers there, and we know we want to make access to our brand more convenient." The company is looking at parcels in all five boroughs, including some far smaller than what it typically seeks for its stores, he said. Restivo said the company could help with the city's unemployment problems, and is focusing its real estate search on low-income neighborhoods where there is a lack of access to fresh food.

Earlier this year several other big-box retailers came to Manhattan with the opening of Harlem's East River Mall, which hosts Target and Costco.

How To Buy Wine In Pennsylvania

Engadget explains how one now buys wine in Pennsylvania's grocery stores:

It's illegal to sell alcohol in grocery stores in Pennsylvania, but it's not illegal to install a vending machine that dispenses wine: as long as the user is asked to take a breathalyzer test, swipe their state issued ID or Driver License, and then show their mug to a state official sitting somewhere in Harrisburg, who is keeping an eye on the proceedings via CCTV. Simple, right? Maybe not, but it does protect the state's monopoly on liquor sales. The Pronto wine vending machine is currently only available in select grocery stores in the state, but it's just been announced that the PA Liquor Control Board has given Walmart preliminary approval to put the things in some of their locations outside of Pittsburgh.

Wal-Mart Selling Anti-Gay Kids' Book

Q Salt Lake reports that over 100 Wal-Mart stores are carrying the anti-gay children's book written by the wife of the president the Mormon anti-gay group Standard Of Liberty.

Chased by an Elephant, the Gospel Truth about Today’s Stampeding Sexuality by Janice Barrett Graham was written to “help shed the clear light of truth on today’s dark and tangled ideas about male and female, proper gender roles, the law of chastity, and the God-given sexual appetite,” according to Janice Graham in the book’s introduction. The Grahams claim that their son, Andrew, successfully changed his sexual orientation and is now a happily married man.

Andrew Graham has published his own book about being "lured" into homosexuality while a student at Brigham Young.

(Tipped by JMG reader JRN)

NEW YORK: Wal-Mart Fights OSHA

Wal-Mart has spent over $2M in attorney and court fees fighting a measly $7000 fine for that infamous Thanksgiving Day trampling case in which somebody was killed in a sales-frenzy stampede. The company is concerned that once OSHA starts successfully fining them, then they'll really have to play by the rules.

In fighting the federal fine, Wal-Mart is arguing that the government is improperly trying to define “crowd trampling” as an occupational hazard that retailers must take action to prevent. Wal-Mart’s all-out battle against the relatively minor penalty has mystified and even angered some federal officials. In contesting the penalty, Wal-Mart has filed 20 motions and responses totaling nearly 400 pages and has spent at least $2 million on legal fees, according to OSHA’s calculations. The dispute has become so heated — and Wal-Mart’s defense so vigorous — that officials at OSHA, an arm of the Labor Department, complain that they have had to devote huge numbers of staff time to the case, including 4,725 hours of work by employees in the legal office. The company has made so many demands that Labor Department officials said they would not discuss the case except on condition of anonymity because they feared being subpoenaed about their discussions with a reporter.

LAS VEGAS: Gay Wal-Mart Worker Forced To Wear Special Vest

An 18 year-old employee at a Las Vegas area Wal-Mart says that after his bosses forced him to confirm his gayness, he was made to wear a special yellow vest and was shunned by his co-workers.

Back in March, 18-year-old Fernando Gallardo got a seasonal job at a Las Vegas Walmart, hoping to make a few extra dollars. But a few weeks into the job, Gallardo says, his immediate supervisor asked him "point-blank" in front of four of his coworkers if he was gay, and from then on alienated him from the 50 other associates at that location. "I told her yes, and after that she was very rude and short with me," he tells The Advocate. Gallardo says that soon after the incident, he was stripped of many of his daily duties and asked to wear a yellow vest and walk around the store. By mid May his supervisor and two other managers stopped talking to him completely.

Gallardo, who compares the vest to the Star of David worn by Jews during WWII, has filed a complaint with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission.

Wal-Mart Close To Deal For NYC Store

After years of being blocked from a NYC location due to vigorous opposition by labor unions, Wal-Mart may have finally found a location in Brooklyn that the city cannot fight.

The site, which is currently vacant, meets many of the parameters of what Walmart is looking for in a New York City location: an as-of-right location in an outer borough, with a low-income population nearby and pent-up demand for jobs and supermarkets. Walmart is believed to be examining other unspecified sites in the outer boroughs as well. The company's attempts earlier this decade to open outlets in Queens and on Staten Island were thwarted by labor unions and community groups worried that the chain's low prices and modest wages would eat into the market share of unionized retailers like Pathmark, Key Food and Duane Reade and put mom-and-pop shops out of business. That organized effort led then-CEO H. Lee Scott to say that opening a Walmart store in New York City was not “worth the effort.”

Unions and labor activists have already announced plans to give Wal-Mart "the fight of their lives."