Midnight in the food-stamp economy

SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - At 11 p.m. on the last day of the month, shoppers flock to the nearest Walmart. They load their carts with food and household items and wait for the midnight hour. That's when food stamp credits are loaded on their electronic benefits transfer cards. "Once the clock strikes midnight and EBT cards are charged, you can see our results start to tick up," says Tom Schoewe, Wal-Mart Stores Inc's chief financial officer.

Brazil Supreme Court blocks U.S. boy's return

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A Brazilian Supreme Court judge blocked the return to the United States of a 9-year-old boy at the center of an international custody dispute on Thursday, saying the boy's own will must be taken into account. The judge granted a habeas corpus request preventing Sean Goldman from leaving Brazil until he has expressed his own will in court. Brazil's O Globo newspaper said on its website that the case would now be delayed until February.

U.S. military drone security breach "fixed": official

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has closed a security breach that allowed insurgents to hack into data feeds from pilotless "drone" aircraft that provide real-time video of war zones, a U.S. defense official said on Thursday. The comments followed a report in the Wall Street Journal that revealed Shi'ite fighters in Iraq used software that cost as little as $26 to intercept the video feeds, potentially allowing them to monitor U.S. military operations.

Bengals' Henry dies from injuries in fall

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry died on Thursday from injuries suffered in a fall from a pickup truck, police said. Henry died at 6:36 a.m. EST at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where he had been taken by paramedics after the fall on Wednesday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said.

U.S. death sentences at three-decade low: report

DALLAS (Reuters) - U.S. courts will hand down fewer death sentences in 2009 than any year since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, according to a report released on Friday by the Death Penalty Information Center. The number of U.S. convicts put to death in 2009 rose from 2008, a trend attributable to a seven-month moratorium on executions that was lifted in April of last year.

Marijuana activists seize on California fiscal jam