Filed under: AT and T (T) , Merck and Co (MRK) “If you’re a retiree or otherwise focused on income, dig into the holdings that make up our Incredible Dividend Machine; this portfolio is designed to home in on champion dividend payers,” says Richard Band . The editor of Profitable Investing explains, “We’re looking for the highest yields available, consistent with safety. Three that currently stand out are Merck ( MRK ), AT&T ( T ) and Pinnacle West ( PNW ).

Best Buy’s CEO Brian Dunn said Tuesday that consumer traffic at its stores is lumpy with customers splurging for big tech launches and then pulling back. Apparently, Sprint’s HTC 4G Evo is shaping up to be a big event.

Filed under: Kimberly-Clark (KMB) , Stocks to Buy The shares of ( KMB ), which I first discussed here on June 22, 2009 , at a price of $51.06, have meandered over the past three months at or near $62, as the market sorts out the health of the U.S. economic recovery, creating a decent price at which to consider the shares if you missed the $51 level.

Filed under: Consumer Experience , Competitive Strategy , Starbucks (SBUX) , McDonald’s (MCD) , AT and T (T) , Technology Starbucks ( SBUX ) CEO Howard Schultz said Monday that beginning July 1, the coffee king will offer free WiFi in all company-owned stores. This is a change from the current policy, which allows two free hours to customers with a registered SBUX card, or free unrestricted service for AT&T ( T ) customers.

At a session in the Cloud Leadership Forum in Silicon Valley, the CIO of NASA Jet Propulsion laboratory talks about the benefits and concerns of using a private cloud for such critical data.

Filed under: Competitive Strategy , Google (GOOG) General Motors continues to recover from a disastrous 2008 and 2009, and in that respect its latest quarterly numbers indicate it is partially on the way to becoming a consistent profit maker. But, it has a very long road ahead