On this commercially-driven day of tipping ones hat to dads, why would any father want their kid to work at Wal-Mart? Yet, again, the Beast of Bentonville has been found to be exploiting kids. Not the first time and likely not the last–it’s a continuation of the culture of crime at the Beast.

Turns out that a state investigation in Connecticut found 11 violations of child labor laws at the Beast’s stores, including “instances of teenagers illegally operating heavy machinery and working late into the evening,” according to The New York Times’ June 18th story (registration required). Apparently, this is not the end of the story: the state attorney general is looking into more child labor allegations.

We know the Beast’s response will be something like, “this is bad, we had no idea.” Does anyone still take those “we didn’t know” p.r. comments seriously, from a company that knows the temperature in every one of its thousands of stores? I repeat a point I’ve made before: these kinds of violations are going to continue until breaking child labor laws is seen in the same light as financial misdeeds and top executives start doing jail time.