- Iranian Seizure of British Yacht Pushes Oil Above $77
- Should Homeowners Be Able to Stop Paying Mortgage?
- Buffett's Predictions For Next Year—And Every Year
- The World's Biggest Debtor Nations
- Goldman Sachs Party Ban: No Gatherings of 12 or More
- Fed Tweaking Plan to Pull Money Back out of Economy
- Scientists Gone Wild: Climate Debate Turns Nasty
- Blue Nile CEO: Having 'Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Slideshow: The Real Cost of the 12 Days of Christmas
- Why Careful Shoppers Are Great for the Box Office
- Blue Nile CEO: 'We're Having the Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Best Online Retailers to Buy Now: Internet Analyst
- ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue: A Financial Success
- Cyber Monday: The Last Vestige of Dotcom Hype
- Dubai Fear is 'Noise'—Stay Fully Invested: Strategist
- Tech Comes to Holiday Shopping's Rescue?
- Timeless and Time-Tested Warren Buffett Watch Predictions
- Roginsky: The Botax Whose Time Has Come
MOST SHARED
- Timeless and Time-Tested Warren Buffett Watch Predictions
- Governments Must Take Steps To Avoid More Dubais: El-Erian
- Black Friday Sales Disappoint Investors; Amazon Up
- Tamminen: Copenhagen And Beyond
- Oil Demand Sees Year-Over-Year Rise, First Since 2007
- BofA Aims to Clearly Spell Out Credit Card Terms
- Get Paid Six Figures to Wear a T-Shirt?
- Goldman Sachs Party Ban: No Gatherings of 12 or More
- US Shoppers Spent Less Over Black Friday: NRF
- US Senator Opposes Fed Chief Bernanke Renomination
Text Size 
The wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama resigned Tuesday from the board of a food supplier for retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, a target of criticism by the Illinois senator.
Michelle Obama cited the increased demands of his campaign for leaving the board of Westchester, Ill.-based TreeHouse Foods [THS
Loading...
()
] Her position had raised questions because Obama has praised a union-led effort to change working conditions at Wal-Mart [WMT
Loading...
()
].
TreeHouse Foods said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that her resignation from the position she has held since 2005 was not due to any disagreement with the company. Last year she earned $51,200 in fees from the company, according to the couple's 2006 tax returns.
"As my campaign commitments continue to ramp up, it is becoming more difficult for me to provide the type of focus I would like on my professional responsibilities," Michelle Obama said in a written statement.
An administrator at the University of Chicago Hospitals, she has significantly curtailed her work hours to campaign for her husband.
The company supplies retail grocery chains with pickles, nondairy powdered creamer and other products. Wal-Mart was its largest customer last year, according to an SEC filing.
Obama and other Democratic presidential contenders have been critical of Wal-Mart, which has taken heat over the wages and benefits it pays employees.
The Arkansas-based company has defended its wages.
One of Barack Obama's chief Democratic rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, once served on Wal-Mart's board but since has become a critic of its business practices.
Last year, before he declared his candidacy for president, the Illinois senator courted the union-backed group WakeUpWalMart.com.
Print
Email
- Ever wished your cab driver would stop chatting and just get to where you're going? Well, that moment is closer than ever.
- UPS is giving its customers the option to offset its carbon emissions when sending a package.
- Romania's presidential campaign has been rocked by a video that may show the president striking a 10-year-old boy.
- Raising alligators is hard work, and the fickle taste of rich consumers has just made it much harder, says the NY Times.
- A recent issue of ESPN Magazine was one of its top sellers ever, and it only took scantily clad athletes to make it happen.
- The continued real estate boom in China is partially fueled by a generational flood of newlyweds.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes