Both chambers of the Maryland legislature have approved a bill that would require Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health insurance.

The legislation applies to companies with more than 10,000 employees in the state that do not already spend at least eight percent of their payroll on health benefits.

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By an 18-1 vote, the City Council in Madison, Wisconsin, endorsed a measure that would limit retail stores to a footprint of no more than 100,000 square feet. Stores may be larger if they are multi-story or have structured or underground parking.

A 100,000-square-foot store covers about the same land area as two football fields and typically requires at least twice as much land for the parking lot.

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If a new ordinance limiting big-box retail development in the town of Bennington, Vermont, is endorsed by voters in an April referendum, two lawmakers say they will introduce bills to extend those restrictions statewide.

In January, the Bennington Select Board voted unanimously to ban stores over 75,000 square feet and to require retail development projects larger than 30,000 square feet to pass a community impact review.

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Wal-Mart is attempting to skirt a size cap law in Calvert County, Maryland, by erecting two side-by-side stores.

The law limits stores in the town of Dunkirk to no more than 75,000 square feet. Wal-Mart has proposed a 74,998-square-foot store adjacent to a 22,689-square-foot garden center.

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Arizona Chain Reaction (AZCR), a coalition of nearly 600 independent businesses, has launched a campaign of phone calls and emails to urge state lawmakers to enact legislation that would curtail cities’ ability to offer tax breaks and subsidies to chain retail developments.

"We’ve got bidding wars going on among cities out here," said Kimber Lanning, owner of Stinkweeds, a music store in Tempe, and founding member of AZCR.

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