Our blogs about
America's Wars
War on Iraq
War on Drugs
War on Afghanistan
War on Columbia
War on Philippines
War on Venezuela

MORE
Matrix Masters
Blogs
World Events
Katrina's Aftermath
US News
Bush Crime Family News
Science & Health
Earth News
Free Speech
News from Africa
News from Palestine
Bill of Rights Under Attack

Support Bloggers' Rights!

Lorenzo's
Random Musings
. . . about Chaos,
Reason, and Hope

 

Voters in L.A. Suburb Reject Wal-Mart Supercenter
(Dan Whitcomb, Reuters April 7, 2004)
[COMMENT: With all the news coming out of Iraq right now, it is easy to miss other important stories. One of the biggest scourages in the US is the rape of workers and small businesses by Wal Mart. This story is the first small victory We The People have won over this massive corporate machine. Remember, shopping at Wal Mart is like chewing off your own paw.]

Voters in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood on Tuesday rejected by a 2-1 margin a ballot measure that would have allowed Wal-Mart to build a sprawling shopping center in the heart of their town. . . . In voting down the referendum, residents appeared to have taken their cue from elected officials in working-class Inglewood, who fought bitterly to keep Wal-Mart from building a supercenter there, despite the promise of 1,200 jobs and millions of dollars in sales tax revenue. . . . "This was a major victory," said Jerome Horton, a state assemblyman representing Inglewood. "This was a test site for Wal-Mart. This would have set a national precedent and developers all over the nation were watching to see whether or not a developer could exempt themselves from complying with local laws. This was a much bigger issue than just jobs." . . . With all 29 precincts reporting, election returns showed 33.8 percent of voters in favor of Measure 04-A and 66.1 percent opposed. Some 3,000 absentee ballots remained uncounted, but a spokeswoman for the Inglewood city clerk said those votes were unlikely to change the result. . . . The Inglewood City Council had prompted Wal-Mart to appeal to the voters by passing a law to thwart the world's largest retailer and its "big-box" shopping center -- which would have occupied a plot of land the size of 17 football fields -- on the grounds that it would put local mom-and-pop stores out of business and pay lower wages to its employees. . . . Opponents of Measure 04-A, who included four of Inglewood's five council members as well as religious leaders, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, said the ballot initiative was a bid by Wal-Mart to bully its way past the city's democratic review process.

posted by Lorenzo 4:21 PM