It has taken nearly a decade, but the class action suit brought on behalf of over one million women looks, almost, like it’ll make it to court reports Women’s eNews. That day in court is likely to bloody Wal-Mart.

According to a new study by the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, Wal-Mart, with 4,796 employees on the list, was the largest user of public health care last year.

Via Independent Street, I see a new study on how Wal-Mart affects small retailers. The study found that when Wal-Mart comes into town, local mass merchandisers, supermarkets and drug stores all see significant sales declines.

The retail giant can afford to increase wages for its employees, but instead keeps them so low that new Wal-Mart stores mean drops in average retail earnings across counties and states.

Despite Wal-Mart’s newfound corporate emphasis on sustainability, undercover investigations in China by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) have found that Wal-Mart is turning a blind eye to illegal timber sources in its supply chain which threaten some of the world’s last great natural forests. Wal-Mart’s ‘no questions asked’ sourcing policy is having particularly dangerous consequences for the high conservation value forests of the Russian Far East and the endangered species dependent on them, including the world’s largest cat, the Siberian tiger.

On the second anniversary of the "21st Century Leadership" speech made by Mr. Lee Scott, Wal-Mart CEO, the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) releases its research report on the Ethical Standards and Working Conditions in Wal-Mart’s Supply Chain.

Nearly two years ago, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott announced a bold initiative to turn the world’s largest company green. A long-anticipated fi rst progress report on these sustainability goals is expected to be released soon. In advance of the company’s report, 23 environmental, farm, labor, and other civil society groups have offered their own critiques of Wal-Mart’s approach to sustainability.

There was a time in the United States when the vast majority of Americans either belonged to the middle class, or knew that it was within their grasp. The American Dream—of working hard and building a better life for your children— was not a myth, but in fact a reality. And it was this reality that made America the envy of the world. For the first time in modern human history, a society had distributed prosperity broadly while preserving fundamental freedoms.

Using anti-union tactics that largely comply with US law, Wal-Mart begins creating a hostile environment for labor organizing often from the moment workers and managers are hired. The company begins with proactive worker and manager training, a central part of which frequently involves setting out the company’s aggressive anti-union stance.