Wal-Mart marks milestone

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recently marked the 40th anniversary of the opening of its first store in Rogers, Ark.

The store, pictured above, opened July 2, 1962, with 25 employees. Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, which has grown to become the world’s largest company, now has 1.3 million workers. Wal-Mart has stores in all 50 states and is the largest retailer in Canada and Mexico.

Survey: Poll finds investors wary of chief executives’ motives

The results of a recent survey confirm that corporate CEOs are losing investors’ esteem amid all the reports of accounting irregularities.

In the poll of 300 investors across the United States, 56 percent said they think America’s chief executives are working to better their own economic prospects, rather than those of their companies or shareholders.

Three out of five investors polled said they’re convinced companies are purposefully withholding information from the public to maintain their stock price, according to the survey by InsightExpress, an online market research firm. And 54 polled believe CEOs are aware of their companies’ accounting and investment activities.

Motley Fool: Name that company

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Summer: Workers make time for fun

Work is a time-consuming affair, but it doesn’t mean some people are devoting every waking hour to climbing up the next rung on the ladder of success.

In fact, most people have a few guilty pleasures and favorite ways to keep the pace of work from becoming too frenetic and frenzied. In a survey of 952 Americans by Moet & Chandon, 22 percent said they’d be willing to play hooky from the office if it meant doing something fun this summer.

Twenty-one percent said they don’t mind stretching their lunch hours a little, while 9 percent said they’d skip out of the office early to meet a friend for drinks.