Wal-Mart offers video streaming

Wal-Mart offers video streaming

NEW YORK

Now playing: Movies at Walmart.com.

The world’s largest retailer on Tuesday started streaming many movies the same day they come out on DVD, in a second bid for a share of popular movie- rental and streaming website Netflix Inc.’s business and just two weeks after Netflix announced new price increases.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. bought video-streaming service Vudu.com 18 months ago and now offers 20,000 titles that can be viewed on almost any device with Internet access, from computers to televisions to Sony’s PlayStation3 and other Blu-Ray disc players.

Movies are available at Walmart.com to rent for $1 to $5.99 or to purchase for $4.99 and up. Wal-Mart is not offering subscriptions, making its service more similar to Apple Inc.’s iTunes, which charges $3.99 to rent newly released movies and $14.99 to buy a movie.

Apple slices to be part of Happy Meals

NEW YORK

An apple a day may keep the doctor away. But when you put it in a Happy Meal, it might help keep regulators at bay too.

McDonald’s said Tuesday that it would add apple slices and reduce the portion of french fries in its children’s meal boxes beginning this fall, effectively taking away consumers’ current choice between having either apples with caramel dip or fries as a Happy Meal side.

The move by McDonald’s, which has become a leader in moving from just burgers and fries to more-nutritious fare such as oatmeal and salads, comes as fast-food chains face intense scrutiny from health officials and others who blame the industry for childhood obesity and other health-related problems.

Recession hit blacks, Hispanics hard

ORLANDO, Fla.

The Great Recession affected Americans from all walks of life, but it took a lopsided toll on the personal wealth of blacks and Hispanics, erasing many of the gains made over the past two decades, a new report shows.

The report, released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, found that the median wealth of white households at the end of the recession in 2009 was 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households — the biggest gap since the U.S. Census Bureau began collecting such data a quarter-century ago.

From 2005 to 2009, the analysts found, inflation- adjusted median wealth fell by 66 percent among Hispanic households and 53 percent among black households, compared with 16 percent among white households, which had far more personal wealth to start with.

By 2009, about a third of black and Hispanic households had a net worth of zero or less, compared with 15 percent of white households.

In every ethnic group, the Pew researchers found, the poorest fared worst. And among blacks who already were struggling, the recession’s effect sometimes meant it was a challenge just to afford food.

Vindicator wire services