Nassau County prosecutors announced today that Wal-Mart will avoid criminal charges for any wrongdoing in contributing to the Black Friday stampede inside a Long Island store that left one employee dead and several others injured. Instead the retail giant will pay out nearly $2 million to community programs and create a fund to compensate victims injured amidst the chaos, as well as instill new crowd-control measures throughout local stores.

After five days of gains, the stock market is looking at a lower open today. CNBC reports, "The major indexes indicated drops approaching 2 percent." Joseph Poon, head of Mcquarie Private Wealth Asia, referred to data from the retail industry, "The market is really spooked I'm afraid. We just have to see some stability… the US consumer is usually the guy that's going to pull us back." While sales
All the Thanksgiving advertisements for Black Friday sales were just as successful at drawing out the usual hordes of shoppers yesterday. But the general consensus around town was that the crowds weren't making it all the way to the register as sales appeared to be down on the retail's big annual day. The Post talked to 

