Al Sharpton's after Darden's this time

Image via Wikipedia
The Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network called Monday for major investors to dump Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, saying managers of a Cleveland-area Olive Garden sexually harassed women, discriminated against new moms, hired illegal immigrants and didn't adequately discipline a manager who had sex with employees.

The group plans to send letters this week to mutual-fund companies such as Vanguard, asking them to drop their holdings in Darden, said Richard Jones, a Midwestern representative for the National Action Network.
"We want to put pressure on the investors," Jones said. "We want them [Darden] to change the management and the culture in these stores."

Read More:

Can hotel pizza fliers be dangerous? Walt Disney World thinks so

There's a push in Florida to encourage a police crackdown on unsolicited pizza menus and other fliers in hotels, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

What's so dangerous about a flimsy piece of paper that advertises a $9.99 pizza pie and a 1-800 number?
The handouts are really said to be a ruse by criminals to convince hungry tourists to give out their names, credit-card information and hotel room number. They apparently pose such a threat to both tourists - and Florida's $60 billion-a-year tourism industry - that even Walt Disney World's backing legislation designed to fight them, the paper says.

Read More:

Boston W Hotel owners stave off lender's foreclosure effort

A US Bankruptcy Court judge rebuffed Prudential Insurance Co.'s efforts to foreclose on the developer of the W Hotel & Residences, which filed bankruptcy protection last spring after being unable to sell most of its Theatre District condos.

Judge Joan Feeney ruled that the developer, SW Boston Hotel Venture, is making progress stabilizing its finances and should be allowed to continue to do so without the threat of foreclosure by Prudential. The insurance company had provided a $192 million loan for the development of the W Hotel and 123 condominiums on Stuart Street in Boston, and is the primary creditor in bankruptcy proceedings.

SW Hotel Venture "has shown sufficient progress during this Chapter 11 case to support the conclusion that there is a reasonable possibility of a reorganization within a reasonable time," Feeney wrote in a 50-page ruling issued today.

Read More:

Mexico charges 5 for hotel blast that killed 7

CANCUN, Mexico -- Prosecutors in Mexico have filed charges against five employees and contractors at a Caribbean coast hotel where a Nov. 14 explosion killed five Canadian tourists and two Mexicans.
The assistant attorney general of the state where the hotel is located says investigators found an unauthorized extension of a gas line under the hotel lounge where the blast occurred.

Read More: