Stewart Parnell has waited for years to see if the federal government would go after him for a nationwide salmonella outbreak that allegedly began at his company. Tuesday, he got his answer.

A federal grand jury has indicted Parnell (pictured), who owned the Peanut Corp. of America, along with his brother and two other former employees. The company is considered to be ground zero for a 2009 salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and made hundreds of others ill, according to The Associated Press.

The indictment charges the four employees with numerous offenses, including conspiracy, wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Parnell's company has gone bankrupt after several lawsuits from salmonella victims. 

Wal-Mart's (WMT) struggles, as seen in its latest quarterly report, are obviously not good news for shareholders of the world's largest retailer, but they might not be bad news for the country as a whole. That's because many of Wal-Mart's rivals are doing just fine.

When the U.S. economy started to tank, the Bentonville, Ark., company's low prices attracted cash-strapped consumers. But now, as the economy continues to rebound, consumers may be less worried about prices and more attuned to other aspects of their shopping experience such as customer service, which has never been a forte of Wal-Mart.

According to Wal-Mart, many people continue to struggle because of the rise in the payroll tax and delays in getting tax refunds from the IRS.  

The finding of glass fragments has prompted Kellogg (K) to recall some Special K Red Berries cereal, a version of the classic cereal that includes "deliciously sweet strawberries." It's geared toward health-conscious consumers, who presumably wouldn't view cut lips as a health benefit. 

The recall involves 36,000 boxes and three sizes of the product, which had been distributed across the U.S. to some grocery stores, Reuters reports. No injuries have been reported, the company said. 

Kellogg didn't say how the glass was found or what caused the problem, but it's the second grocery-store product to encounter a recall due to glass this month alone.

 

The Oscar trophies handed out at the upcoming Academy Awards cost about $400 each to produce and weigh 8.5 pounds. Their economic weight, however, has a huge impact all across Hollywood and its environs, benefiting a wide spectrum of businesses that serve the movie and entertainment industries.

Analysts say Oscar time injects tens of millions of dollars each year into local businesses and economies in LaLa Land --  some estimates run to $130 million -- pumping cash into everything from hotels to catering to transportation.

In Los Angeles ahead of the Oscars, bubbles Britain's Sky News, “hotel vacancies become non-existent despite massively escalated rates. Restaurants book up and caterers pour out case upon case of the good bubbly. Neither love nor money will hire a town car or limo this week if you didn't book months ago."

 

The nearly constant headlines about horse meat making its way into so many products in Europe sure are stirring a lot of controversy -- and passion. Giant multinational companies like Nestle (NSRGY), which makes the Buitoni ravioli and tortellini that were found to have horse meat, have landed in this uncomfortable spotlight.

And Nestle has plenty of company, with household names like Burger King (BKW) and Wal-Mart (WMT), also getting drawn into the controversy.

These stories made me think about a visit I made to Iceland in 2009, which was where I first saw whale as a menu item and where I had my first bite of minke whale. I've never condoned or condemned whaling before, and this particular specimen had been killed well before I came upon it.

 

Who doesn't think "fashion" and the U.S. Postal Service? I sure do.

The beleaguered quasi-governmental agency has been able to stretch the limits of sartorial splendor through creative uses of blues and grays. Now, the USPS is branching out further into the world of fashion. As The Washington Post and other media outlets have noted, the service is launching a line of apparel and accessories next year under a licensing agreement with Wahconah Group.

The line is called “Rain Heat & Snow," named after those nasty elements that the USPS says won't "keep these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." 

The USPS says in a press release that "the agreement will put the Postal Service on the cutting edge of functional fashion." 

Comcast (CMCSA), the largest cable company, Tuesday announced that it would no longer accept gun advertisements in response to the recent mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. That doesn't mean, though, that those commercials will disappear entirely from the company's airwaves.

The ban by Comcast only applies to commercial time sold by Comcast Spotlight, the advertising-sales division of Comcast Cable that sells local spots on national cable channels.

But advertisements on networks such as The Sportsman Channel, which feature programs about hunting and shooting, and Outdoor Channel, which The Sportsman Channel's corporate parent is in the process of buying, are not covered by the policy. 

Whether it was the first time you put in a game without having to blow on a cartridge or the last time you hijacked a tank and ran over every gang member in Vice City during a dorm-room Grand Theft Auto session, Sony is relying on gamers' #PlayStationMemories​ to push its soon-to-be-announced​ PlayStation 4.

There's still a whole lot of time between now and June's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, which is why Sony (SNE) is uncorking its PlayStation 4 on Wednesday night and asking Twitter followers to get the hype machine cranking. Quite frankly, Sony could use the help.

According to video-game industry statistics site VGChartz, Sony's PlayStation 3 is likely so named because it's finishing its console's generation mired in third place worldwide. The 72.8 million consoles sold to date worldwide lags behind the 74.3 million Xbox 360 consoles Microsoft (MSFT) has sold (Microsoft owns and publishes moneyNOW, an MSN Money site) and is a shadow of the 99 million Nintendo Wii consoles sold since the mid-2000s. Sony's gaming division's revenue declined 15% year over year, and the division itself has been plagued with problems since its online PlayStation Network was breached and went offline for a bit in 2011.