It's something shoppers don't give a lot of attention to when buying hamburger or chicken breasts: the little circle that verifies the meat has been inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But without that stamp, meat can't be sold by packers and processors.

That's bad news because the looming U.S. government sequester means meat and poultry plants won't be able to receive their inspections, potentially leading to a shortage of everything from prime rib to chicken wings.

The sequester -- slated for March 1, unless Congress finds a way to sidestep the start of $85 billion in mandated federal budget cuts -- would keep meat inspection personnel from going to work for as many as 15 days, according to a letter from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that the U.S. Department of Agriculture released and was reported by Reuters.

 

Google (GOOG) wants people to help it develop its high-tech specs project called Glass, and has put out a call for applications.

You won't get paid, though. In fact, the company is asking "explorers" to plunk down $1,500 plus tax for their own glasses and travel to New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles to pick them up in person.

That seems a little stingy for a company with nearly $15 billion in the bank. But people are jumping into the contest, sending in their applications of 50 words or less on Twitter and Google's social-networking site, Google+. The entries are due by the end of the month.

Google is clearly looking for online influencers in the contest. 

The question of who counts as a full-time worker is coming under fire from Dunkin' Brands (DNKN), which wants the government to narrow its definition under Obamacare. That's because it wants to avoid paying health insurance for Dunkin' Donuts employees who work as little as 30 hours a week.

Dunkin' Brands is lobbying the government to change the U.S. Affordable Care Act's definition of "full-time" to employees working at least 40 hours a week, instead of the 30 hours currently written into the law, Chief Executive Nigel Travis told the Financial Times. 

The latest volley from an iconic U.S. business comes as the ACA is set to go into effect next year. The law will require employers with 50 or more full-time employees (30 hours or more) to offer those workers "minimum essential" healthcare insurance. 

 

Donald Trump isn't happy with the "Dump Trump" campaign, and he's willing to put a price tag on how upset it's made him: $25 million worth of annoyance. 

After an activist named Angelo Carusone started a petition last year urging Macy's (M) to cut its business ties to Trump, more than 685,000 people signed on as supporters of the "Dump Trump" campaign. The petition claims that Trump engages in "sexist behavior," has denied "the reality of climate change" and has supported "the racially charged birther conspiracy."

Trump's attorney, Alan Garten, late last year sent a letter to Carusone, threatening him with a $25 million lawsuit unless he ends his protest. 

 

Billionaire Michael Dell is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

Dell (DELL) posted better-than-expected​ quarterly results Tuesday, which pleased Wall Street -- but raised new concerns that Michael Dell's $24.4 billion buyout offer for the company he founded more than two decades ago may be too low. The earnings, though, were hardly good.

Net income at the Round Rock, Texas, company plunged 31% in the latest quarter to $530 million, or 30 cents per share, versus $764 million, or 43 cents a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, profit was 40 cents. Revenue fell 11% to $14.3 billion. 

Here's some more news to keep you awake at night: It looks like coffee prices might go through a mood swing of sorts as the year progresses.

A global shortage of coffee beans sent prices in the U.S. percolating up to around $3 a pound in 2011. But since that peak, coffee prices have yet to stop falling. According to Brian Murphy at the Small Cap Network, it's currently trading at around $1.40 a pound.

The price drop is being attributed partly to several recent record coffee crops in Brazil, which produces about a third of the world's coffee. Reuters reports that Arabica beans, the type used mostly in brewed blends, have fallen to their lowest levels in two-and-a-half years.

 

Given the unbelievable popularity of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" novel, a line of related merchandise is perhaps inevitable. But what isn't so predictable is that the merchandise would be sold at mall stores frequented by teens and tweens.

Items based on the bondage-heavy novel are being sold at Icing, a jewelry and accessories store owned by Claire's. According to a Fox news report, those items include handcuff-themed bracelets and t-shirts with the phrase "Looking for Mr. Grey." Icing's collection also includes a classical-music CD with songs selected by "Fifty Shades" author E.L. James.

Claire's would not comment to a Fox news reporter on the issue, but emphasized on Facebook (FB) that the Icing stores are targeted to women over the age of 18. Claire's namesake stores cater to younger teens and girls. 

When the Chinese government blocked Coca-Cola's (KO) planned $2.4 billion acquisition of Huiyuan Juice in 2009, it argued that the deal would harm competition in the drinks market.  Investors had no idea at the time that a secret Chinese Army unit had hacked the networks of the Atlanta company to gain an advantage in the negotiations over the transaction.

That's one of the revelations in a frightening article published Tuesday by The New York Times on China's undeclared cyber-war on the U.S. The ramifications go beyond Coca-Cola's deal, which would have been the largest purchase of a Chinese company by a foreigner.

A group known as the "Comment Crew" or the "Shanghai Group" has targeted critical U.S. infrastructure such as water treatment plants, gas pipelines and electrical grids along with computer-security firm RSA, whose codes protect many Fortune 500 computer networks, according to the paper.