Republican House members, citing a report by their staff, at a hearing Wednesday aired charges that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covered up an explosion by a Chevy Volt battery, to politically aid the Obama administration and its bailout investments in General Motors. The agency&#x92;s head, David Strickland, and GM chief Daniel Akerson noted that the fire, which had occurred three weeks after the Volt&#x92;s crash test, could be reproduced only by impaling a battery with a steel rod, and then waiting a week for the damage to result in a fire. Strickland said if his agency reported every possible safety complaint without investigating first, those reports would average more than 100 every day. </p><p><span class="subhead">Google non-plussed</p><p></span>Google Inc.&#x92;s plan to make privacy policies &#x93;simpler&#x94; unleashed a fresh wave of criticism from regulators and consumer advocates that the company isn&#x92;t doing enough to protect information it compiles about users. The company said in a blog post Tuesday that it would create a uniform set of privacy guidelines for more than 60 products. But the consumer-advocacy group Common Sense Media called the policy announcement &#x93;pretty frustrating and potentially frightening.&#x94; The group said the changed would make it easier for Google to point advertisements at specific groups and might tie users&#x92; hands and make it harder for them to limit what Google can do with their information.</p><p><span class="subhead">No wee-hours greetings</p><p></span>Wal-Mart Stores has removed greeters from the overnight shift at its U.S. supercenters, chipping away at a 30-year tradition of making sure all shoppers are welcomed to the store. The move will save money and ensure Wal-Mart has the right staffing levels during peak and non-peak hours, David Tovar, a spokesman, said in a telephone interview. For the past six months, Wal-Mart has been reassigning greeters at the company&#x92;s 3,000 U.S. supercenters from the third shift, which runs from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., to other jobs.</p><p><span class="subhead">Apple still big</p><p></span>New York City attracted a record 50.5 million visitors last year, 300,000 more than officials predicted in December, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Wednesday. Visitors increased by 3.5 percent in 2011, said NYC & Co., the city&#x92;s marketing and tourism office. Tourists injected $32 billion into the economy, up from $31.5 billion in 2010, the most of any U.S. travel destination, the agency said. Hotel occupancy averaged 85 percent.</p><p><span class="subhead">Wing, no prayer</p><p></span>After 30 years of giving passengers spiritual words to reflect on while they eat their meals, Alaska Airlines is retiring the prayer cards from meal trays. The decision was made after hearing from customers who preferred not to mix religion with transportation. For a long time, Alaska Airlines got more positive comments than negatives ones. But lately, opinion has shifted on the cards, which began as a marketing too to differentiate the regional airline from competitors. The change will take effect Feb. 1.</p><p> <span class="tagline_credit">Star news services</span>