The world’s largest retailer is taking steps to display its home improvement prowess through a digital marketing campaign centered on a “Projects Made Simple” area at Walmart.com.

By August 2012, U.S. businesses that sponsor fully insured group health plans could share millions of dollars in rebates from health insurers who spent more on administrative expenses and profits than allowed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), finds an analysis from the not-for-profit Kaiser Family Foundation.

Millwork Products LLC, a Paducah, Ky.-based firm, has opened a new location in Wilkesboro, N.C. and hired most of the former workers of a closed Jeld-Wen facility, according to an article in the Winston-Salem Journal. 

When it comes to designing and communicating employee benefit programs, employee input and involvement can be a boon. After all, one of the best ways to gain buy-in for and to communicate employee benefit programs is to use peer-to-peer interaction. If a group of employees supports these programs and makes it a point to tell other employees, organizations can build buy-in for programs and changes more readily.

Highfield Door Sales, a Kettering, Ohio, business that installs garage door openers for nine local Lowe’s stores, has purchased and is renovating a 20,000-sq.-ft. former wine and beer warehouse store to expand its operations, according to an article in the Dayton Daily News. 

The family-owned business, which started in 2009 with just one employee, currently operates out of a leased 1,700-sq.-ft. building in this Dayton-area town.

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports will be flat in May compared with the same month last year, but is expected to see solid year-over-year increases through this summer and the back-to-school season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. 

Leviton Manufacturing Co. has prevailed in a dispute over intellectual property rights involving Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs). On April 27, the International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a general exclusion order “prohibiting the unlicensed importation of infringing ground fault circuit interrupters and products containing same.” In addition, the ITC issued several cease and desist orders prohibiting the sale of GFCIs already in the United States that unlawfully infringe on a Leviton U.S. patent.

Many employers are more than willing to hire military veterans. But many concede that they do not know all they need to know to effectively find and hire them.

Louisiana-Pacific Corp., one of the industry’s leading suppliers of oriented strand board and other building materials, announced net sales of $361.5 million for its first fiscal quarter of 2012, compared with $331.7 million during the same quarter a year ago. 

By a 4-1 vote, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on April 25, 2012, approved a new guidance on criminal background checks.

Consolidating and superseding previous EEOC guidance on criminal background checks, the guidance discourages blanket exclusions of individuals who have been convicted of crimes and encourages the use of individualized assessments of whether an employer’s criminal conduct exclusion is job related and consistent with business necessity.

Builders FirstSource, the Dallas-based pro dealer, posted net sales of $219.4 million for its first fiscal quarter of 2012, a 34.7% hike over sales of $162.8 million in the same quarter of 2011. The increase was primarily due to increased sales volume as commodity prices for lumber and lumber sheet goods in the quarter were, on average, comparable to the same period a year ago, the company said.

Last year, the original 50 Home Channel News Hardware Store All-Star honorees established a high bar and a hard act to follow. But the 2012 crop rises to the challenge. This year’s Hardware Store All-Stars, one from each of the 50 U.S. states, have at least one thing in common: Ask them what makes them special and you can bet they’ll include “excellent customer service” in the answer. From there, every path to stardom is unique.