Wednesday Morning One Liners...

Grocery

Newsday writes on rising costs businesses are facing, focusing on Pathmark and other LI Supermarkets.

Plans call for Fairway to open other four stores in the metropolitan area and hire 2,000 employees. There also are plans to enhance Fairway's private-label business.

Wal-Mart Stores on Tuesday reported quarterly earnings that slightly exceeded analyst estimates, but cited a tough economy while providing a cautious outlook for the second quarter.
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A meat packing plant in the midst of an UFCW organizing campaign has been raided by I.C.E., resulting in the arrests of hundreds.

Responding to Wal-Mart Stores’ expansion of its generic drug program to include 90-day supplies for $10, the Kroger Co. said yesterday it would match the offer in all of its banners.
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Whole Foods Market here said yesterday it expects to complete its rebranding of Wild Oats by the end of the fiscal year, though it will spend another couple of years completing remodeling activity at some locations.
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The North American organic coffee market reached $1 billion in 2007, according to Daniele Giovannucci, author of the North American Organic Coffee Industry Survey.
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A&P’s Food Basics banner will host its annual family festival from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, May 24.
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Politcal

After a landslide victory in West Virginia, Hillary Clinton emailed supporters to say, “[T]he pundits declaring this race over have it all wrong."

Here's are article highlighting the racism Obama volunteers face on the campaign trail.

Obama added 2 more super delegates this morning.

Bush-appointee William Donaldson, Clinton-appointee Arthur Levitt and Reagan-appointee David Ruder plan to announce they're backing Obama Wednesday.

Why labor still rules in New York-and what that will mean this November This is the way things are in New York politics, and the way they have been for decades, though on the national level, few unions would ever consider backing the GOP for much of anything

Mayor Bloomberg has given public money to City Council members

Suffolk lawmakers pass worker status billThe Suffolk Legislature Tuesday passed its much-debated worker status bill, marking the end of a months-long debate over whether the county should require its 17,000 licensed contractors to verify their employees' immigration status.

ALBANY — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York is appealing to Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders to hold firm against two bills that the city believes would cost as much as $300 million a year. The mayor made his case last week in separate letters to the governor, the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.One bill would allow members of District Council 37, an umbrella group of New York City municipal unions, to retroactively buy into an early retirement plan that was offered in 1995, giving city workers a second chance to retire at 55. Read the entire story here

City Council member Darlene Mealy insists her sister's nonprofit group hasn't received a dime from taxpayers - but it wasn't for lack of trying.

Developments

Whole Foods announced in its quarterly report today that it will be opening a store in Closter, NJ. That will be closer to many Rocklanders than the current Edgewater or White Plains locations. Read the story here

The Hudson Yards deal has been declared dead.

Policy

A White House official yesterday told Reuters that high global food prices will likely be a persistent problem for the next two to three years, as the world replenishes depleted stores of grains and soybeans.
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Arguing that the 2007 Farm Bill is still too generous with federal subsidies to large commercial farmers, Grocery Manufacturers Association CEO Cal Dooley is urging lawmakers to oppose the Food and Energy Security Act of 2008, which is linked to the Farm Bill.
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More...NY Post writes on the Farm Bill from Hell.