As New York City copes with the knowledge that it will soon host the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks, there is growing concern about the security of the city and its inhabitants.

The towering prison where Mohammed will be held and the courtroom where he will be tried are a short walk from the site of the Twin Towers and not far from Wall Street. It doesn't take Nostradamus to see how the combination of a prominent location, a showy trial and a bustling city could have terrorists licking their lips.

The ongoing battle for internet bookselling heated up on Thursday. Walmart (WMT) CEO Raul Vasquez is trash-talking Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos (pictured), according to the New York Post: "If there's going to be a Walmart on the Web," Vasquez said, "it's going to be Walmart.com."

Oooh -- it's on.

The comment is the latest salvo in this fall's highly publicized pricing war between the titans. In October, Walmart.com dropped the price of 10 bestselling books to $10. Amazon followed suit; Walmart countered with $9, and Amazon followed. Walmart downed the ante to $8.99, and Amazon backed off -- only to see Target.com match Walmart.com, which ducked down to $8.98. Vasquez sums up his company's pricing strategy: "If they react and match our prices, we're going to continue to lower our prices."

Costco (COST) customers looking for "the real thing" now have to look elsewhere: The warehouse retailer said on Monday that it's no longer buying Coca-Cola (KO) products. Once stores run out of their dwindling supplies, they won't be restocking.

Costco is playing hardball; negotiations between the two companies to reach a recession-ready wholesale price have apparently broken down. Costco acknowledges this problem on its Web site: "Costco is committed to carrying name brand merchandise at the best possible prices. At this time, Coca-Cola has not provided Costco with competitive pricing so that we may pass along the value our members deserve."

The town of Pontiac, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, sold the 80,300-seat Silverdome on Monday, along with 127 acres of nearby land. The massive stadium complex, which once hosted the Detroit Lions, the Detroit Pistons, and the Michigan Panthers, cost more than $55 million to build in 1975.

Its selling price in 2009? $583,000.

The Silverdome isn't just a stadium; it's a historical site. In addition to hosting two huge sports franchises, the Silverdome was also the site of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the first World Cup ever to be played indoors. It held numerous Cherry Bowl games, the 1979 NBA All-Star Game, and Superbowl XVI. It has hosted major cultural figures ranging from Michael Jackson to Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin to Pope John Paul II.

Earlier this month, Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. According to a memo sent to Allen's staff by his sister Jody, he has begun chemotherapy and is optimistic about his chances of beating the disease.

This is not Allen's first experience with cancer: 26 years ago, he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. At the time, he was chief technical officer for Microsoft, which he founded in 1975 with high school friend Bill Gates. He left the software company to fight the disease, but ultimately decided not to return. While his $11.5 billion fortune, generated by his early investment in Microsoft, pales beside that of Gates, it has still been sufficient to land him the number 17 spot on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans.

For Holiday Inn franchise owners, 2010 is starting to look a little bleak. At its annual meeting on Thursday, the chain's owner, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), told its American franchisees that, recession or no, they need to renovate. At the very least, every outlet has to install new lighting and signs, renovate its lobby, and buy new pillows, towels, and bedclothes. For older hotels, the changes will be more extensive.

Most of Holiday Inn's 3,300 hotels have already undergone these changes, but the owners of 300 have been dragging their feet. One large reason for their procrastination arises from the cost: The $150,000 to $250,000 renovations have to be financed by the individual outlets. In today's tight credit market, many franchisees are having a hard time raising the money.

Ikea looks like a model of openness and visibility. From its voluminous warehouse-size stores to its furniture's clean lines, the retailer presents a vision of honesty and total disclosure. Even founder and President Ingvar Kamprad (pictured) seems to be an open book: a simple farmer's boy from rural Sweden who overcame dyslexia and alcoholism to become one of the world's wealthiest men. Yet, even as he's risen to the top of the business world, he still has an old Klippan sofa and a Billy bookshelf in his living room, showing that he remains a humble, salt-of-the-earth type who hasn't forgotten his roots.

Not according to Johan Stenebo. Kamprad's former personal assistant, Stenebo reveals in a new book published in Sweden that the budget-furnishings monolith seems to have quite a few sordid secrets. The Truth About Ikea has yet to be translated into English, yet it's already sent ripples through the media, as Ikea fans learn that all may not be sunshine and meatballs at their favorite cheap, simple, eco-friendly big-box home-furnishings store.

Military bases and the neighborhoods surrounding them often seem like the ultimate refuge of middle- American values. Run with military efficiency and discipline, the well-trimmed yards, cleanly-paved roads and orderly layouts convey an ideal image of life as it should be: safe, peaceful and friendly.

However, as the horrific shootings in Fort Hood demonstrate, this perception of structure and normalcy may be deceptive. According to a study by NeighborhoodScout, which offers neighborhood-by-neighborhood crime analyses, some of America's military towns have crime levels that place them among the country's most dangerous neighborhoods. While the danger in these areas is much more heavily skewed toward property crimes like vandalism and theft than violent crimes like murder or rape, the statistics are startling.

Bill Gates offered a revolutionary observation on Wednesday in Manhattan, during a discussion on philanthropy at the 92nd Street Y lecture hall. Wall Street pay, he says, is "often too high."

Gates's wisdom on Wall Street's compensation problem seems obvious enough, but his perspective on the theory is a little more inventive than most. The pay crisis, Gates says, is largely the result of a 1993 law that capped executive salaries: "It was a bad milestone in controlling executive salaries when that $1 million cap went on."

On Tuesday, CVS (CVS) drugstores agreed to pay the State of New York $875,000 to settle a case alleging that it sold expired food, over-the-counter drugs, and infant formula. This settlement follows a $1.3 million settlement between New York State and Rite Aid (RAD), suggesting that this crop of expired-product sales may be just the tip of the iceberg.

This isn't the first time CVS has been cited by New York's attorney general for selling expired items. In 2003, the chain handled the problem by signing an "Assurance of Discontinuance," stating that it would "refrain from selling expired OTC drugs" and would institute "procedures to ensure that OTC drugs were identified and removed from CVS stores and directing and training employees involved in stocking of OTC drugs in these procedures."