Stuart G
Stuart G's JournalOlive Garden Parent Company Profits Drop
Source: USA Today
The parent of Olive Garden and Red Lobster is replacing its president after reporting a sharp drop in profits over its summer quarter.
Darden Restaurants said it earned $70.2 million, or 53 cents per share, for the three months ended Aug. 25. That's compared with $110.8 million, or 85 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Analysts expected a profit of 70 cents per share.
Sales rose to $2.16 billion, helped by the opening of new locations. That was short of the $2.19 billion Wall Street expected, according to FactSet.
The company said Drew Madsen, 57, will retire and be succeeded by the president of its specialty restaurant group, Gene Lee. The appointment is effective immediately.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/20/olive-garden-darden-restaurants/2841815/
Isn't this the company that publicly said it was against ..Obamacare...and would reduce its staff hours so it doesn't have to comply?
..something like that?...
Do you think people have decided not to go there?..I don't, won't...
Here is a link from last December that discusses this towards the end of the story.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/darden-restaurants-profit_n_2337250.html
Darden seems to say, that couldn't hurt our sales..
Another link from last December...from the Washington Post is more specific on this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/06/red-lobsters-obamacare-fail-why-ditching-health-benefits-is-really-hard/
There is a way out of the crises for Republicans..(those who care about this country)
A small number, maybe 20, vote with the Democrats in the House.. to move along and forget this confrontation that seems to be here. Yep, 20 or whatever the number of House Republicans, have to go along with the Democratic minority to prevent a close down of government....
Those that do, can say they are trying to save the country from a crises. I don't know if there are that many or is it 17, that care enough to break the backs of the idiots, but maybe there are. Maybe. But I doubt it.. It is very sad...
Boston Homeless Man Glad To Return Lost Money: Seatle Post
photo at link below:
Glen James, of Boston, right, holds a special citation while facing reporters with Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, left, during a news conference at police headquarters, in Boston, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. James, who is homeless, turned in a backpack containing $2,400 in U.S. currency, almost $40,000 in traveler's checks, as well as Chinese passports and other personal papers to police after finding the items in a Boston mall Sept. 14.
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http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/article/Boston-homeless-man-glad-to-turn-in-lost-money-4817752.php
BOSTON (AP) — A homeless Boston man who police said turned in a backpack containing tens of thousands of dollars in cash and traveler's checks said even if he were desperate he wouldn't have kept "even a penny."
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis honored Glen James on Monday, giving him a special citation and thanking him for an "extraordinary show of character and honesty."
James said in a handwritten statement he gave out at a news conference that he was glad to make sure the bag and its contents were returned to the owner.
"Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a penny," he said.
UN Report: Abuses on Both Sides of Syrian Civil War
Source: CNN
By Mariano Castillo, CNN
September 11, 2013 -- Updated 1518 GMT
CNN) -- A new United Nations report asserts that both sides in the Syrian civil war have committed grave crimes in violation of international law.
Government forces continue to attack civilian populations in what amounts to crimes against humanity, says the report, released Wednesday by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
But anti-government groups, in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad, have themselves committed war crimes, including murder, torture and hostage-taking, the report states.
The report provides details on nine massacres that it is investigating, eight believed to have been carried out by the government and one by the opposition.
As the fighting rages, "it is civilians who continue to pay the price for the failure to negotiate an end to this conflict," the agency said in a prepared statement
Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/11/world/meast/un-syria-report/
It is a civil war.
It speaks for itself..
I don't know...but maybe this from September 4, was correct???? It aint over yet...but...
I get so much of this stuff wrong. I was the one that predicted that BP would go broke after the big oil spill 
Anyway.....link to this if you wish......It was titled....."Maybe the Plan is Not to Attack, Is that possible?" It is a pretty short thread with about 10 responses. ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023596900
TIFF 13:Did Steve Mc Queen's ,12 Years A Slave Just Change the Game? : L A Times.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-tiff-12-years-a-slave-michael-fassbender-20130907,0,1493185.storyBy Steven Zeitchik
September 7, 2013, 7:00 a.m.
TORONTO -- Brad Pitt didn't say much during the question-and-answer session that followed the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of "12 Years a Slave" Friday night, just a short comment on why he produced and co-starred in the Steve McQueen period drama.
But, like his turn as an abolitionist-minded maverick amid a group of brutal slaveowners, Pitt spoke volumes as he stood on the stage with cast and filmmakers. "If I never get to participate in a film again," he said, his voice trailing off as if to imply this would be enough, "this is it for me," he finally finished.
It's a sentiment you could imagine the lead cast members -- Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o and of course Chiwetel Eijiofor, standing out amid the standouts -- sharing with Pitt. And it's a sentiment you could imagine the audience feeling. Festivals come and go; movies rise and fade. But once in a great while there's a film that feels almost instantly, in the room, like it's going to endure, and change plenty of things along the way. And "12 Years" offers that feeling.
Most narrowly, that’s true on Oscar level. By 9 p.m. Friday night, just six days into September, the film had already become a top contender for various acting, writing and directing prizes, as well as the big prize. You could say that’s premature. But you probably wouldn’t if you sat in the room. (Vulture's Kyle Buchanan certainly didn't hold back.) It's equally true on a social level. “12 Years” tells the fact-based story of Solomon Northup (Eijiofor), a free man who in 1841 was kidnapped and sold into slavery, and his travails -- at once horrifying and surprising, no matter how much you think you're ready for them -- when he is trafficked to a series of Southern plantations for more than a decade.
Pat Robertson's Katrina Cash.. The Nation : September 2005
Deep within this article is this quote on how Robertson contributed to Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley who helped stop prosecution that was called against him..hit the link to see the whole story....(5th paragraph into story)
from September 19, 2005...issue of Nation
by Max Blumenthal
http://www.thenation.com/article/pat-robertsons-katrina-cash#axzz2eAAgQP6b
Far from the media's gaze, Robertson has used the tax-exempt, nonprofit Operation Blessing as a front for his shadowy financial schemes, while exerting his influence within the GOP to cover his tracks. In 1994 he made an emotional plea on The 700 Club for cash donations to Operation Blessing to support airlifts of refugees from the Rwandan civil war to Zaire (now Congo). Reporter Bill Sizemore of The Virginian Pilot later discovered that Operation Blessing's planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the African Development Corporation, a Robertson-owned venture initiated with the cooperation of Zaire's then-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
After a lengthy investigation, Virginia's Office of Consumer Affairs determined that Robertson "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications." Yet when the office called for legal action against Robertson in 1999, Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican, intervened with his own report, agreeing that Robertson had made deceptive appeals but overruling the recommendation for his prosecution. Two years earlier, while Virginia's investigation was gathering steam, Robertson donated $35,000 to Earley's campaign--Earley's largest contribution. With Earley's report came a sense of vindication. "From the very beginning," Robertson claimed, "we were trying to provide help and assistance to those who were facing disease and death in the war-torn, chaotic nation of Zaire."
Popular Leather Sofa Falls Apart, Customers Complain..Today News.. (Jennifer Convertibles)
http://www.today.com/news/popular-leather-sofas-fall-apart-customers-complain-8C11073452_____________________________________________________________________________________
This is about a furniture store that does not keep its word ...Jennifer Convertibles.
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Jeff Rossen and Josh Davis
September 5, 2013
Rose Zapotochny bought a leather sofa from Jennifer Convertibles in 2005 for nearly $1,700. But she says that within a year, it was already falling apart. “You sit on the couch and when you get up, parts of it peel off,” she said.
And it turns out she's not alone: Scores of customers are complaining about clumps of leather peeling away from couches sold by Jennifer Convertibles around the country. And many of those customers were sold a protection plan they believed would cover any problem.
Zapotochny paid $200 for her warranty. "Bumper to bumper," she said. "That's what they told me." But in the fine print, the warranty excludes "cracking and peeling."
TODAY cameras went undercover at two stores to see if the company's salespeople would disclose that exception. At one, the clerk got it right, admitting that wear and tear isn't covered, even if the leather starts cracking. "They don't cover that part," he said... But at a different Jennifer Convertibles, the saleswoman did not mention the exception. "We do have a protection plan for five years so if something happens, food and beverages, rips, cuts, tears, punctures, they're all covered: They get you a brand new sofa within five years," she said. "Definitely you should get the protection plan."
Maybe the plan is....not to attack..is that possible?
Talk about it, threaten, but in the end, no. Perhaps Putin can get rid of Assad, quietly... And maybe that will be it. Just a thought. Maybe....
How To Charge 546 Dollars for Six Liters of Salt Water.:.New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/health/exploring-salines-secret-costs.html?_r=0By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: August 25, 2013
It is one of the most common components of emergency medicine: an intravenous bag of sterile saltwater. Luckily for anyone who has ever needed an IV bag to replenish lost fluids or to receive medication, it is also one of the least expensive. The average manufacturer’s price, according to government data, has fluctuated in recent years from 44 cents to $1.
Yet there is nothing either cheap or simple about its ultimate cost, as I learned when I tried to trace the commercial path of IV bags from the factory to the veins of more than 100 patients struck by a May 2012 outbreak of food poisoning in upstate New York.
Yet there is nothing either cheap or simple about its ultimate cost, as I learned when I tried to trace the commercial path of IV bags from the factory to the veins of more than 100 patients struck by a May 2012 outbreak of food poisoning in upstate New York.
Some of the patients’ bills would later include markups of 100 to 200 times the manufacturer’s price, not counting separate charges for “IV administration.” And on other bills, a bundled charge for “IV therapy” was almost 1,000 times the official cost of the solution.
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This is incredible read, and in two pages, we are shown exactly why we need single payer health insurance in the United States right now...(well worth the time)
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Member since: Tue Dec 18, 2007, 12:07 PM
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