Michael Duke will replace Lee Scott in February behind Scott revived the big-box retailer’s sales and share price, as well as his reputation

By Christopher Palmeri

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Talk in all parts of a festival take aback. Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) announced just a week before Black Friday, the biggest sales sunlight of the year, that it would have a new principal executive officer come February. Lee Scott, the company’session CEO for the gone nine years, is stepping the floor. He’ll be replaced by dint of. Michael Duke, , 58, who currently leads the company’s international variance.

Retailers traditionally put on’t make such appointments right in the between the extremes of their biggest selling season. But longtime Wal-Mart watchers see the change because more of a victory lap than a forced exit despite the 59-year-old Scott, whose tenure had been marred by disappointing results and altercation until this year. "He’s dealt with the public relations, the vicious union attacks, he’s gotten morale back up—the most profitably action to bestow is leave at a moment of strength," says Howard Davidowitz, a retail consultant by his own firm in New York. "When you talk about management transition, this is similar to good as it gets."

Even long-term critics, such as the union-funded Wal-Mart Watch campaign, applauded the news, sort of. "Wal-Mart’s announcement must be viewed in the context of the recent distinction," the group related in a statement. "It represents an suitable for Wal-Mart to change from the low-wage, low-benefit business model to one that will be more appealing to some Obama Administration."

Wal-Mart’sitting reputation took a beating in novel years as critics complained of its skimpy employee pay and health-care benefits as well as big-box stores that decimated smaller hometown rivals. Moreover, the nation’session largest retailer seemed to lose its low-price focus, chasing designer wardrobe much like rivals Target (TGT) and Kohl’s (KSS). Investors were disappointed, too, as the company’s costly new store launches cannibalized sales at existing locations and Wal-Mart’s once soaring stock price was relegated to the bargain crib.

The sorry stripe began to vary this year, in part due to the slumping economy luring customers back (BusinessWeek, 10/30/08) for cheap prices. Yet that shift was moreover aided in part by changes the retailer made in the past two years. Wal-Mart has been opening fewer locations and smaller stores when it does. A store remodeling program introduced skylights, wider aisles, and warmer flag to Wal-Mart’s characteristically cold and cluttered layout. The company has also been editing its product assortment, focusing mostly on top sellers sold at rock-bottom prices. This holiday shopping season the chain is heavily promoting brand-name toys at $10 each.

As a result, Wal-Mart has been posting sales results sharply less ill than rivals in what is shaping up to be one of the worst sales years on record. Wal-Mart’s stock is up this year, a rarity in the current dull emporium. "This is Wal-Mart time," Scott told Wall Street analysts Oct. 27 during an annual presentation at company headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. "This is the character of environment that Sam Walton built this company for." Wal-Mart shares rose slightly, to 51, on the advice of Duke’s appointment.

The world’sitting top software maker plans to build concerning 20 state-of-the-art data centers as it tries to outpace cloud computing compete with Google, BusinessWeek has learned

By Peter Burrows

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Corporate America is increasingly leaving computing to the experts. Why go to the confuse and expense of structure and frugal complex systems to handle your spiraling data-crunching needs when another company can do it for you? And who better, faster, or cheaper than Google (GOOG)?

That’s just the kind of conventional wisdom Debra Chrapaty wants to change. As Microsoft’s (MSFT) vice-president with regard to Global Foundation Services, Chrapaty wants to prove that her company is none less capable of running the sprawling data centers to offer software doled out via the Internet. The company is especially fervid to handle the universally present Microsoft software that consumers and corporations have been running for themselves for the past small in number decades. "Google has done a great job of hyping" its prowess, Chrapaty says. "But we’re neck and neck by them."

And if Microsoft isn’confidentially there thus far, it may exist soon. Chrapaty, who’s in custody of Microsoft’s data centers, is stepping up a multibillion-dollar building binge, BusinessWeek has learned. Her group is embarking on a plan to build in the coming years some 20 supersize data centers that have power to cost as much as $1 billion apiece, according to a person familiar with Microsoft’s plans. "We’re going to reinvent the infrastructure of our industry," Chrapaty says. She declines to ventilate specifics of the plan.

The moves are designed to support what Microsoft describes as the biggest strategic shift since it first targeted the Internet in the mid-1990s. The company has unveiled a range of offerings in newly approach weeks that embrace what’sitting come to be known as "haze computing." There’s Azure, a new operating system that lets companies run software each on their own computers or as a service delivered via the Internet by Microsoft. There’s a new Windows Live offering that lets consumers hoard, retrieve, and share photos, blogs, and other Web content with friends. And Microsoft has announced an Internet version of its Exchange corporate e-mail, and plans to do the same with its Office software. If Chrapaty’s group can’t handle the load, many customers may decide to forgo Microsoft’s products in favor of rival blurred spot computing services.

Traditionally, Google has positioned itself as the leader. "We’ve been designing infrastructure for the cloud for years," says Matt Glotzbach, a manager who works on Google Apps for corporations. "We’ve got a pretty big head start vs. a company like Microsoft."

Still, Microsoft be able to hold its own, says Gartner (IT) analyst David Cappuccio. "Microsoft may certainly be just in the manner that good" in areas so as energy efficiency, Cappuccio says. And amongst the global economic malaise, cash-rich Microsoft and Google are by one’s self in centre of life able to "throw several billion dollars into a portion like this," says Matt Rosoff, an algebraist at Directions on Microsoft.

Microsoft’session confident data center military science dates end at least five years. Before that, the company relied heavily adhering other hosting companies to do the drudge. Soon after the arrival of Chrapaty, a former leading technology officer notwithstanding the NBA, Microsoft decided to bring the job in-house. When in 2005 Ray Ozzie persuaded Microsoft founder Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer to make the move to online delivery of software in 2005, running given conditions centers became even more important. Chrapaty began bringing in industry luminaries from companies including Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Intel (INTC).

The president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank would be the Obama Administration’session man in charge of tackling the financial crisis

By Theo Francis

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President-elect Barack Obama appears set to nominate New York Federal Reserve Bank chief Timothy Geithner in the same manner with his Treasury Secretary, proposing to put in the critical place a professional bureaucrat who hasn’t worked for Wall Street but has a record of working closely with it, earning the respect of the industry, as well since that of great number lawmakers and regulators.

The notice could come like soon as Monday, Nov. 24, onward with other members of an Obama economic team.

As word of the decision be circulated, the family place of traffic began a steady climb, closing up in addition than 6%. It had been slightly down for the day when NBC reported around 3 p.olio. Eastern time that Geithner would get the nod.

"As much as you not to subsist present some new ideas in there, I think at this point in time, having some uninterrupted continuance in there is a good thing," said Frederick Cannon, chief uprightness strategist at the research firm Keefe Bruyette & Woods. "The main thing the markets emergency is reliance."

Geithner has been deeply involved in virtually every step of the founded on government’s response to the financial crisis, from the subsidized demand of Bear Stearns last spring to the release of American International Group (AIG) this fall.

That actual trial could stand him in good stead as the Obama Administration takes charge amid what is likely to be a bad recession, and possibly a continuing financial crisis. At the same time, it also opens him to criticism by those who say the government’session response has been slightly warm, chaotic, and poorly conceived.

Widely described as low-key and even-tempered, yet a man of exploit who isn’t afraid to make bold moves or succeed responsibility for them, Geithner is also young—at 47, his birthday is two weeks before Obama’sitting—and lacks both the years of actual observation on Wall Street or in incorporated boardrooms, and the advanced training in economics that has prepared numerous of his predecessors.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, for whom Geithner did research early in his career, was beforehand quoted in The New York Sun in the same manner with calling the New York Fed president "extremely intelligent," and someone who "prevails with the power of his argument" added readily than by charisma alone. Some believe his polish and trustworthiness could help him avoid what have been perceived in many quarters as missteps—errors of presentation if not of policy—by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Among those who have lauded him: Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.), presiding officer of the House Financial Services Committee.

Brad Setser, a constructer Treasury official who worked briefly for Geithner both there and at the International Monetary Fund, said he has "a great deal of confidence that Tim can communicate effectively with a indelicate public." Setser, who is a fellow at (and blogs for) the Council on Foreign Relations, said Geithner is particularly skilled at mind ahead, "anticipating where the world will be in three or six months’ unoccupied time" and how policy can help.

Market participants were strong in their praise for Geithner with regard to example the news of his well-suited nomination pushed stocks up in continuance the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 21. "I expect he will treat the current situation with the urgency that it deserves," says Ward McCarthy, principal at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates, an housekeeping and fixed-income careful search firm. "I also expect him to be far more creative than Treasury Secretary Paulson."

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners, credits the rally at least in part to the fact that Geithner is steeped in the financial rescue to date and is likely to continue those efforts, but there is in like manner hope he will improve on some of Paulson’s missteps. "If you look at the rally it’session pretty solid, and on the same level some of the bank stocks are coming off their lows," says Cardillo. "He has a hazard of experience and certainly he knows the canyons of the financial markets."

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Early on, as their shots rattled out and visiting Florida International appeared poised for an agitate, Justin Dentmon’s and Isaiah Thomas’ steely demeanors reported it the whole of. Often they gathered at the top of the key and exchanged a few bickering.

With a fist pump and a beck, they concluded each gathering and Washington’s sum of two units sharpshooters continued each all-out fly at on the basket.

They darted in the lane, curled off screens and bounced around the perimeter, blitzing the lead-footed Golden Panthers with an assortment of layups, three-pointers and acrobatic jumpers.

When the UW’s dynamic duo finished, the Huskies had pounded FIU 74-51 in the side with round of the CBE Classic at Edmundson Pavilion on Thursday.

“The lane was just open,” Dentmon declared. “I told Isaiah, when you know a lane open like that you got to hit. And when they collapse, soon afterward you got to kick it and see to what extent they react.

“He did a humane job and got greater degree good shots in the second half. I got good shots. It was a field generation out there formerly we started driving.”

Dentmon converted 7 of 11 shots, including three three-pointers for 21 points, his most in the past 29 games. Thomas bounced back after a pair of lackluster games and perfect with career-best 19 points on 6-for-14 shooting.

“Finally I get a proper game,” Thomas said, breathing a grieve of relief. “The shots were falling a little bit more.”

The Huskies, who improved to 2-1, altered their winning formula on a night when FIU 7-footer Russell Hicks stymied Jon Brockman and snapped the All-America candidate’s 39-game stripe of double-digit scoring. Brockman had eight points and seven rebounds, which forced Dentmon and Thomas to carry the scoring lade.

“Every time he got the ball, the guards were on him,” Dentmon said. “We knew that their main focus was to not let him procreate off and have a good night.”

The Golden Panthers (2-1) harassed the UW into 21.9 percent shooting (7 of 32) and 11 turnovers in the first half to build a 26-25 lead at intermission. At that point, Dentmon was 1 in quest of 5 from the field and Thomas 3 for 8.

In the locker room, coach Lorenzo Romar chided the Huskies after a dismal performance in which they trailed against a FIU team that was without four key players.

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The stunning fall by Eric O’Flaherty in the inside of the Mariners organization was completed on Thursday when the left-handed reliever was claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Braves.

O’Flaherty, 23, was placed on waivers because the Mariners planned to remove him from the 40-man major-league roster. After beginning the 2008 season as the team’s situational left-hander

The Walla Walla native had been considered one of the bettor young arms groomed by the Bill Bavasi regime and exhausted chiefly of the 2007 season in the Mariners bullpen. He made only 15 minor-league appearances in imitation of his demotion, total but one in Class AAA

A back injury suffered in June later sidelined him toward the imbue.

The Mariners also outrighted pitchers Luis Munoz and Tracy Thorpe to the minors, clearing room on the 40-man roster for pitchers Stephen Kahn and Gabby Hernandez and outfielder Greg Halman.

Seattle likewise announced that former major-league pitcher Paul Gibson has been named Eastern crosschecker scout.

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www.seattletimes.com/Mariners

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Bail was set at $15,000 Thursday notwithstanding a former Bellevue teacher who was arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship through a 16-year-old student.

Deene S. Juncker, 47, a teacher at the Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart until he resigned in October, did not put on the records of the court a pleading during his admit to bail hearing. His attorney, David Allen, argued that his client is not a venture to the common, has substantial ties to the area and is not a flight risk

Juncker, who was booked on surmise of sexual misconduct with a minor, has not been charged with a crime. The King County Prosecutor’s Office expects to make a judgment as early as today on whether to file formal charges against Juncker.

A probable-cause statement filed as part of the admit to bail hearing details Juncker’session alleged relationship with the student.

Questions about his relationship by the student were raised by the mother of a 16-year-old girl in February. The dam and the principal of the school met by Juncker afterwards and warned him against sending text messages to the girl outside school hours, according to the probable-cause document.

After he continued contacting the student, Juncker once more met with school officials in October and turned in his school computers. He then was given the choice of resigning or subsistence fired.

On Oct. 22, the Bellevue Police Department was notified and began an investigation.

According to the probable-cause documents, Juncker and the girl had stayed together at a Bellevue hotel in September. The inquiry uncovered chat messages and e-mails discussing the meeting, according to the documents.

The girl, who is identified only by her initials, told police that she and Juncker began seeing each other in the summer and began meeting in woods near a park close to her house in Newcastle, the documents state. By August, the contacts had led to sexual encounters there and later at the hotel, she told police.

A bail form filed with the court indicated Juncker now is working to the degree that a sales accountant in a comic-book shop.

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The Seattle police officer who tried to handcuff a man who plunged from the Aurora Bridge said Thursday he had no choice because the man was start to string after clinging for in greater numbers than two hours to the outside rail.

“I think he was falling

Carver called his attempt to handcuff the arm of Derik E. Loso on Nov. 3 a last-second, “emergency selection” to try to save Loso’s life.

Carver, a detective who works upon the FBI’s Puget Sound violent-crimes task force, said Loso was clearly slipping.

The Police Department has since opened an investigation into the circumstances of Loso’s death, catching statements from Carver and other officers who were at the view. The department has declined to release detailed information about the review, citing the pending investigation.

The results will be submitted to the King County Prosecutor’s Office to determine if a citizen inquest jury should subsist empaneled to catechise the death and decide if police contributed to it.

One of the issues is whether Loso’session death should be classified an in-custody death. The King County Medical Examiner has classified the death a suicide.

County Executive Ron Sims would decide whether to hold an inquest, based on a recommendation from the accuser’s office.

Carver said he has been left feeling like a “target,” even if no united in the department has told him he acted wrongly. “I’hand-to-hand conflict shocked and discouraged at the gross thing,” he said.

Carver, who joined the department in 1995, said in his many years working during the time that a negotiator he had never confronted a situation like the one attached the bridge.

Normally, Carver said, it is his exterior policy to not rush a suicidal bodily substance after it is risky. Officers usually talk at length to the person.

Carver said in that place was agreement among a small group of officers during the circumstance

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PULLMAN — Taylor Rochestie and freshman Klay Thompson each scored 17 points viewed like Washington State beat Sacramento State 76-55 Friday obscurity.

Rochestie hazard 5 of 6 from behind the three-point line and added 10 assists for his first double-double as a Cougar. It was the 100th game of his career.

Mike Edwards scored 10 points for Sacramento State (0-3).

Sacramento State managed to score 28 points in the first moiety despite 11 turnovers. The Hornets kept the first moiety close by hitting 50 percent from the field.

Washington State (3-0) pulled not present in the back half through crisp shooting, including an impressive 52 percent from the three-point rank.

Pac-10

No. 4 UCLA 77, Southern Illinois 60

Alfred Aboya scored 22 points and Darren Collison had 17, helping the Bruins win the consolation game of the 2K Sports Classic in New York.

The Bruins (3-1) struggled in a semifinal deprivation to Michigan, turning the ball over 17 times. They had their confess problems with SIU (2-2), a team known for its gritty defense, before a 20-2 run covering more than six minutes late in the game made it much more comfortable.

Oregon 84, at UC Irvine 77

Tajuan Porter scored 23 points to lead the Ducks (2-1) past the Anteaters (0-3).

Top 10

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Miran Shah, Pakistan

5 militants killed

in pre-dawn attack

A suspected U.S. missile mint today at the home of a Taliban commander killed at least five militants, officials said.

The attack occurred before dawn in the North Waziristan region, part of the Pakistani tribal belt considered a possible hiding ground for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials said four external militants and a Pakistani were believed dead in the attack in the town of Ali Khel. It was unclear if at all of the victims were senior members of al-Qaida or the Taliban.

The officials said the targeted public-house belonged to Khaliq Noor, a Pakistani Taliban commander known to shelter foreign militants.

Johannesburg,

South Africa

Carter denied

entrance to Zimbabwe

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said today that he and others have been refused passage to Zimbabwe for a humanitarian send forth.