CORPORATE WELFARE

Now hear this: The entire "state of Vermont -- and its charm -- is threatened by a corporate behemoth, a nonprofit preservation group warned on Monday," The Associated Press reports. "The alleged culprit: Wal-Mart."

Because of plans for several new Wal-Mart Supercenters across the state, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has placed the entire state of Vermont on its 2004 list of the most endangered historic places in the United States.

There are 10 other sites on this year's list, including Nine Mile Canyon in Utah, but "Vermont is the only state ever to make the annual list in its entirety."

Meantime, Wal-Mart keeps making headlines, including a report in this morning's New York Times that "Wal-Mart Stores collected well over $1 billion in state and local government subsidies during its decades-long expansion from a regional discount chain to the world's largest retailer, according to a report scheduled to be released today by a group that monitors job-subsidy programs."

The company isn't being accused of "doing anything illegal or anything unusual in the corporate world." After all, taxpayer handouts to huge companies with equally huge governmental influence are just one of the many time-honored practices in the U.S. corporate welfare system.