The New York Times

Javier Hernandez writes: “He called Wal-Mart ‘one of the great corporate citizens in this country.’ He praised its efforts to conduct background checks before selling guns. He flatly rebuffed suggestions that the company was killing jobs. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took on the role of ardent defender of big-box America on Tuesday at a news conference announcing a $4 million donation by Wal-Mart to a city program that offers summer jobs to young people.”

Chen & McGinty report: “The number of discrimination cases filed by city employees in New York has risen even as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has adopted a far less adversarial tone than his predecessor did in dealing with the city’s vast work force.”

Fernanda Santos writes: “Tying student achievement and school financing in a new way, the city’s schools chancellor has reversed an unpopular move by his predecessor, allowing individual principals to roll over all the money they save from one year to the next — but only if their schools perform well on the city’s controversial progress reports.”