This week in Walmart news:

The fight over Walmart building a store near an important civil war battlefield in Virginia heated up with historians, politicians and actors calling for Walmart to consider a different location for the proposed store. Walmart in turn, refused to even consider a move.

A woman near New Orleans is suing Walmart because a nutria, a large beaver like rodent, was wondering around the store and she injured herself when she encountered it. Apparently the store staff knew about the animal, even nicknaming it "Norman".

Walmart's same store sales for the month of April rose five percent, more than the expected two percent, continuing their streak of doing very well in this bad economy. Despite the cheery numbers for April, Walmart announced they would stop reporting monthly sales numbers and instead only announce quarterly numbers.

The Huffington Post had a piece about Mike Duke, Walmart's new CEO, who apparently signed a controversial petition in support of a ballot initiative that would have, essentially, banned gay people from adopting children.

Walmart opened up 3 small format convenience stores in China as a test for the small format. An anonymous employee says they are considering opening up to 1,000 of the small stores in the next five years.

And finally, the Nassau county District Attorney closed the investigation of Walmart over the fatal and tragic stampede on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving last year. Walmart struck a deal with the DA to avoid admitting any fault and prosecution. In return, Walmart will institute safety standards at their stores in New York state, pay $400,000 to a victims fund, and $1.5 million to the county social services and nonprofits. The victims of the tragic event, however, were not satisfied with Walmart's deal and it sounds like they will go forward with their lawsuits against the giant retailer.