NATION

NATION
Judge dismisses suitsby Merrill Lynch investors
NEW YORK -- A federal judge has tossed out lawsuits by investors who allege Merrill Lynch & amp; Co. was responsible for the money they lost on two companies whose stock prices plummeted after the Internet bubble burst.
U.S. District Judge Milton Pollack said the two lawsuits were filed by investors who were no more than "high-risk speculators" who never would have sued had they made money during the dot-com crash rather than lost it. The suits claimed former star analyst Henry Blodget and others at Merrill Lynch misled investors by hyping stocks in their research reports to lure investment banking business.
Wal-Mart includeshomosexual policy
NEW YORK -- Wal-Mart Stores has decided to revise its workplace anti-discrimination policy to include gay and lesbian employees, according to a newspaper report.
The change was disclosed Tuesday by the Pride Foundation, a Seattle gay rights organization that invested in Wal-Mart and then worked to get the policy expanded, according to a story in today's editions of The New York Times.
The change means nine of the 10 largest Fortune 500 companies now have rules prohibiting discrimination against gay employees, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The one exception is the Exxon Mobil Corporation.
Company officials said Wal-Mart was sending a letter to its 3,500 stores to give word of the change.
Shareholders must OKexecs' stock options
WASHINGTON -- Corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Stock Market will have to get shareholder approval before giving executives company stock or options under rules approved this week by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The rules mark the first time that shareholder approval would be required before a company can hand out shares of stock or options to buy stock to its executives, packages that can be worth millions of dollars. The rules had been drafted and approved by the NYSE and Nasdaq.
Stock options have been blamed by some for contributing to corporate abuse.
Associated Press