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Miami Herald
14-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Popular beverage chain franchisee files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
The Covid pandemic resulted in a massive shutdown of restaurants in March 2020 that led to 1,000s of dining establishments closing permanently. Most restaurants that survived the pandemic closures and reopened needed to adopt Covid policies and procedures for health safety, which included social distancing. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter The fast-food industry wasn't hit as hard by the pandemic as the casual restaurant sector, since many chains were already designed with take-out and drive-thru systems that were utilized by restaurants when they reopened after the pandemic subsided. Related: Popular local Dairy Queen rival files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Casual restaurants did their best to offer limited take-out and curbside pick-up systems, but some restaurant concepts, such as buffets, were not designed for such systems, did not adopt them, and many went out of business. The fast-food sector, however, has faced financial distress since the Covid-19 pandemic subsided. Restaurants have encountered rising labor and food costs driven by inflation, debt payments have significantly risen as interest rates increased, and consumers have re-evaluated their priorities for dining out. Popular burger fast-food chain Jack in the Box has felt the impact of a pullback by diners since Covid and in April launched its Jack on Track plan that calls for the closing of 80-120 underperforming restaurant locations by Dec. 31, 2025. The company said it would eventually close another 70-80 underperforming stores thereafter, based on respective franchise agreement termination dates. The fast-food chain has already begun the process of closing restaurants, as it in May closed its three remaining Jack in the Box locations in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Economic problems have forced some fast-food restaurants to file for bankruptcy Frozen beverage fast-food chain Egees in December 2024 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed five of its locations, four in Tucson, and one in Phoenix. The company blamed lingering effects from the Covid-19 pandemic for its financial distress. Another fast-food restaurant owner, Rita's Italian Ice franchisee Greene Family Enterprises LLC, which owns a St. Johns, Fla.-based franchise, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 9, seeking to restructure its debts. Finally, Tropical Smoothie Cafe franchisee JND Tropics LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, seeking to reorganize its business. Related: Popular nationwide beauty chain files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy The Phoenix-based restaurant franchisee filed its Subchapter V petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona, listing $1 million to $10 million in assets and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities, including debts owed to creditors Applepie Capital, Arizona Department of Revenue, and the Tropical Smoothie Cafe corporation. More bankruptcy: Iconic auto repair chain franchise files Chapter 11 bankruptcyPopular beer brand closes down and files Chapter 7 bankruptcyPopular vodka and gin brand files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy The franchisee indicated in its petition that funds would be available for distribution to unsecured creditors. The debtor qualified for a streamlined reorganization as a small business debtor with debts under the statutory threshold of $3.424 million. The franchisee did not indicate a reason for filing for bankruptcy protection. Tropical Smoothie Cafe, which was established in 1997, offers a variety of smoothies, including Fruit Blends, Super Veggies, Tropical Treats, and Balanced Fusions; several breakfast items, wraps, flatbreads, sandwiches, and salads. The Atlanta-based smoothie franchise chain has over 1,500 locations in 44 states and Washington, D.C. The chain opened 161 new cafes in 2024, with 70% launched by existing franchisees. Tropical Smoothie Cafe also signed 247 new franchise agreements last year, according to a January statement. "This past year proved to be an incredible year for Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and I couldn't be prouder to be part of this brand," Tropical Smoothie Cafe CEO Max Wetzel said in a statement. "Reaching 1,500 cafes open is no small feat, and the remarkable growth driven by the brand is a testament to our entire team and franchise network," Wetzel said. Related: Major trucking company files Chapter 11 bankruptcy The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Buzz Feed
09-06-2025
- Automotive
- Buzz Feed
Car Mechanics Reveal 10 Things They Never Do With Their Cars
Your car can be one of the most expensive and important investments you'll ever make, but many of us don't give our vehicles the kind of maintenance attention they need. Mechanics and technicians would know: As the doctors of cars, they see it all. 'My job is to give you an overall state of health of your car, so you can make educated decisions on what to do with it, and to alert you to things that you may not know about, and that you won't necessarily recognize or see,' said Bogi Lateiner, a Phoenix-based master automotive technician and the owner of Girl Gang Garage, a network that provides hands-on training for women in the trades. Too often, technicians say, we are making maintenance decisions ― or failing to do so ― in ways that create potential safety hazards and can lead to costly mistakes. We spoke with car repair experts about their own big 'won'ts' as lessons for us all: 1. I won't neglect car maintenance. Of all the mistakes she sees, Lateiner told HuffPost this is the most common. 'They think, 'It's not a big deal.' And they can deal with it later,' she said. 'In reality, preventative maintenance is going to be always less expensive than the repair.' Lateiner said she would never ignore regular oil changes, for example. 'Oil is the lifeblood of your car,' she explained. 'Its job is to keep your engine cool and lubricated.' 'When the engine oil starts to get thick, or it breaks down, when the additives in [the oil] stop doing what they're supposed to do... the engine can break prematurely and deteriorate in either minor or massive catastrophic ways,' she said. 'So keeping fresh oil in there is really just crucial.' Lateiner recommends changing the oil about twice as often as the 15,000-mile intervals that car manufacturers typically recommend. 'I cut those oil change intervals in half most of the time,' she said. 'The longest I would go is 8,000 miles on a full synthetic oil change on a European car with high-quality oil.' 2. I won't rely solely on car maintenance reminders. Speaking of oil changes, Robin Reneau, owner and lead technician of Georgia Auto Solutions in Conyers, Georgia, said she would never rely on the oil change reminder sticker to determine when her oil should actually get changed. 'You might not always drive the same amount of miles within the recommended oil change interval, leading to either premature or overdue oil changes,' Reneau told HuffPost. Variability in driving conditions also can make these generic reminders unreliable. 'Factors such as frequent short trips, towing or driving in extreme temperatures can accelerate oil degradation, requiring more frequent changes than indicated on the sticker,' Reneau said. 'Over time, engine wear can affect oil performance differently, necessitating changes sooner than anticipated.' Instead, Reneau said she checks her car's oil level and condition to track her oil consumption and determine when she should change it. 3. I won't use aftermarket car parts. Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts are specifically designed by the car manufacturer for your vehicle, while aftermarket parts are produced by other companies and are typically cheaper. Grace Claudio, a New York-based master automotive technician for BMW Manhattan, told HuffPost you should avoid using aftermarket parts because they end up costing you in the long run. Claudio gave the example of an aftermarket battery that the car does not register, so the car still thinks it has a faulty battery and will not operate correctly as a result. 'I've had it where things come apart, and it makes it worse than it already was,' Claudio said. 'And then it's more of an expensive repair.' 4. I won't use coolants or fuels that are different than what my manufacturer recommends. Cars are programmed to work with certain types of fluids, and Lateiner said car owners should always stick to the ones the manufacturer advises. 'That goes for your coolant, your oil, the type of fuel that you use,' she said. 'So if your car is asking for 91-octane [gas], you have to use 91-octane.' When a car owner uses fuels that are different than what the vehicle was designed for, it leads to bigger repair issues. Lateiner said she's seen European cars with weird symptoms that disappeared once they'd gotten their oil changed to the proper one. 5. I won't buy any over-the-counter product that promises to stop a leak. Lateiner warned against using products that promise to stop leaks in engine oil, coolant, power steering fluid and flat tires. 'It's a Band-Aid. It is a temporary solution at best, and very, very often, it winds up causing more damage than good,' Lateiner said. 'The ones for tires will make an absolute mess of your rim, and the person doing your tire change is going to hate you.' 6. I won't change my car's exterior without considering the climate where I live. Some people like to do car wrapping on their vehicles, where cars get covered in a special vinyl film as a way for owners to change up the look without using paint. But Cheyenne Ruether, a Las Vegas-based master auto body technician, said she prefers painting over wrapping a vehicle, especially in sunny states such as Nevada. 'Because the UV rays here are so extreme... they often cause cracking or delaminating' relatively quickly, Ruether said. 'And they are a huge pain to remove.' 7. I won't layer a rubber floor mat that does not fit on my driver's side. Claudio said she sees a lot of customers who will layer a rubber floor mat on top of the regular carpet floor mat on the driver's side to keep their car clean. The problem is that too often, these rubber floor mats are not fitted properly and cause a safety hazard. 'The floor mat on the driver's side will get stuck on the accelerator and then you can't stop the car, or it will get stuck behind the brake and then it's hard for you to brake the car,' she noted. Instead, Claudio recommends taking out the carpet floor mat and picking a floor mat that fits correctly around the accelerator and brake pedal. 8. I would never ignore a car's warning light. 'Our cars today especially are designed to self-correct a lot of things,' Lateiner said. When the cars can no longer self-adjust for issues, the internal codes will turn on a warning light to alert the driver. 'That's the only way the car has of telling us that something is wrong, before it gets so wrong that you're on the side of the road,' Lateiner said. 'Listen to your car, because it is trying to talk to you.' If you see a warning light, you should look up what it means in your owner's manual, Lateiner explained, because some lights could indicate issues you can address on your own. Depending on the problem, you can also ask your local car shop about what they recommend doing next. 'If you're financially not in a position to do a real fix, you can say, 'I'm not in a position to fix this right now. I really just need to know, is this safe to continue driving? How much time do I have?'' Lateiner said. 'It's always better to know than to not know.' 9. I won't replace tires with used car tires. Claudio said clients can make the mistake of replacing old tires with used tires. She's seen used-tire sellers give customers a tire that's not the correct size, or one with a bubble in the sidewall. 'A lot of times they put a tire on there that's pretty bad,' Claudio said. She said to watch out for tires that look like they are cracking, or that have worn tread on the inner and outer parts. Even if your used tire looks normal, its age could pose a hazard. Tire manufacturers like Michelin recommend replacing tires no later than 10 years after their date of manufacture. Many car manufacturers also recommend replacing a tire at least every six years, regardless of condition. To check a tire's age, look at the four-digit Tire Identification Number on the sidewall. The second two digits indicate the year the tire was made, and the first two digits indicate the week. (A TIN of '0719,' for example, would mean the tire was made during the seventh week of 2019.) 10. I won't lie to a car mechanic about the issue I'm having. It's the job of car technicians and mechanics to diagnose what's wrong with your vehicle, so don't make their job harder by fibbing. 'We get it all the time ... 'I don't know what happened. It just suddenly started making this weird noise,'' Lateiner said. 'And then we look at it like, 'Clearly you've been off-roading with your very low-profile car.'' 'The more accurate information you can give us, the quicker we can get to the actual problem, because you're not sending us on a wild-goose chase,' she continued. To give more helpful details, Lateiner recommends keeping track of when you hear the 'weird noise.' If you're having trouble describing the sound, Lateiner recommends taking an audio or video recording that you can show your technician, or taking someone on a test drive with you so they can hear it too. Ultimately, maintaining a car properly can involve upfront costs and extra research, but it should save you headaches in the long run. HuffPost.
Los Angeles Times
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
South Dakota is on track to spend $2 billion on prisons in the next decade
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Two years after approving a tough-on-crime sentencing law, South Dakota is scrambling to deal with the price tag for that legislation: Housing thousands of additional inmates could require up to $2 billion to build new prisons in the next decade. That's a lot of money for a state with one of the lowest populations in the U.S., but a consultant said it's needed to keep pace with an anticipated 34% surge of new inmates in the next decade as a result of South Dakota's tough criminal justice laws. And while officials are grumbling about the cost, they don't seem concerned with the laws that are driving the need even as national crime rates are dropping. 'Crime has been falling everywhere in the country, with historic drops in crime in the last year or two,' said Bob Libal, senior campaign strategist at the criminal justice nonprofit the Sentencing Project. 'It's a particularly unusual time to be investing $2 billion in prisons.' Some Democratic-led states have worked to close prisons and enact changes to lower inmate populations, but that's a tough sell in Republican-majority states such as South Dakota that believe in a tough-on-crime approach, even if that leads to more inmates. For now, state lawmakers have set aside a $600-million fund to replace the overcrowded 144-year-old South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, making it one of the most expensive taxpayer-funded projects in South Dakota history. But South Dakota will likely need more prisons. Phoenix-based Arrington Watkins Architects, which the state hired as a consultant, has said South Dakota will need 3,300 additional beds in coming years, bringing the cost to $2 billion. Driving up costs is the need for facilities with different security levels to accommodate the inmate population. Concerns about South Dakota's prisons first arose four years ago, when the state was flush with COVID-19 relief funds. Lawmakers wanted to replace the penitentiary, but they couldn't agree on where to put the prison and how big it should be. A task force of state lawmakers assembled by Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden is expected to decide that in a plan for prison facilities this July. Many lawmakers have questioned the proposed cost, but few have called for criminal justice changes that would make such a large prison unnecessary. 'One thing I'm trying to do as the chairman of this task force is keep us very focused on our mission,' said Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen. 'There are people who want to talk about policies in the prisons or the administration or the criminal justice system more broadly, and that would be a much larger project than the fairly narrow scope that we have.' South Dakota's incarceration rate of 370 per 100,000 people is an outlier in the Upper Midwest. Neighbors Minnesota and North Dakota have rates of under 250 per 100,000 people, according to the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice advocacy nonprofit. Nearly half of South Dakota's projected inmate population growth can be attributed to a law approved in 2023 that requires some violent offenders to serve the full-length of their sentences before parole, according to a report by Arrington Watkins. When South Dakota inmates are paroled, about 40% are ordered to return to prison, the majority of those due to technical violations such as failing a drug test or missing a meeting with a parole officer. Those returning inmates made up nearly half of prison admissions in 2024. Sioux Falls criminal justice attorney Ryan Kolbeck blamed the high number of parolees returning in part on the lack of services in prison for people with drug addictions. 'People are being sent to the penitentiary but there's no programs there for them. There's no way it's going to help them become better people,' he said. 'Essentially we're going to put them out there and house them for a little bit, leave them on parole and expect them to do well.' South Dakota also has the second-greatest disparity of Native Americans in its prisons. While Native Americans make up one-tenth of South Dakota's population, they make up 35% of those in state prisons, according to Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit public policy group. Though legislators in the state capital, Pierre, have been talking about prison overcrowding for years, they're reluctant to dial back on tough-on-crime laws. For example, it took repeated efforts over six years before South Dakota reduced a controlled substance ingestion law to a misdemeanor from a felony for the first offense, aligning with all other states. 'It was a huge, Herculean task to get ingestion to be a misdemeanor,' Kolbeck said. Former penitentiary warden Darin Young said the state needs to upgrade its prisons, but he also thinks it should spend up to $300 million on addiction and mental illness treatment. 'Until we fix the reasons why people come to prison and address that issue, the numbers are not going to stop,' he said. Without policy changes, the new prisons are sure to fill up, criminal justice experts agreed. 'We might be good for a few years, now that we've got more capacity, but in a couple years it'll be full again,' Kolbeck said. 'Under our policies, you're going to reach capacity again soon.' Raza writes for the Associated Press.
08-06-2025
- Politics
South Dakota is on track to spend $2 billion on prisons in the next decade
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Two years after approving a tough-on-crime sentencing law, South Dakota is scrambling to deal with the price tag for that legislation: Housing thousands of additional inmates could require up to $2 billion to build new prisons in the next decade. That's a lot of money for a state with one of the lowest populations in the U.S., but a consultant said it's needed to keep pace with an anticipated 34% surge of new inmates in the next decade as a result of South Dakota's tough criminal justice laws. And while officials are grumbling about the cost, they don't seem concerned with the laws that are driving the need even as national crime rates are dropping. 'Crime has been falling everywhere in the country, with historic drops in crime in the last year or two,' said Bob Libal, senior campaign strategist at the criminal justice nonprofit The Sentencing Project. 'It's a particularly unusual time to be investing $2 billion in prisons.' Some Democratic-led states have worked to close prisons and enact changes to lower inmate populations, but that's a tough sell in Republican-majority states such as South Dakota that believe in a tough-on-crime approach, even if that leads to more inmates. For now, state lawmakers have set aside a $600 million fund to replace the overcrowded 144-year-old South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, making it one of the most expensive taxpayer-funded projects in South Dakota history. But South Dakota will likely need more prisons. Phoenix-based Arrington Watkins Architects, which the state hired as a consultant, has said South Dakota will need 3,300 additional beds in coming years, bringing the cost to $2 billion. Driving up costs is the need for facilities with different security levels to accommodate the inmate population. Concerns about South Dakota's prisons first arose four years ago, when the state was flush with COVID-19 relief funds. Lawmakers wanted to replace the penitentiary, but they couldn't agree on where to put the prison and how big it should be. A task force of state lawmakers assembled by Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden is expected to decide that in a plan for prison facilities this July. Many lawmakers have questioned the proposed cost, but few have called for criminal justice changes that would make such a large prison unnecessary. 'One thing I'm trying to do as the chairman of this task force is keep us very focused on our mission,' said Lieutenant Gov. Tony Venhuizen. 'There are people who want to talk about policies in the prisons or the administration or the criminal justice system more broadly, and that would be a much larger project than the fairly narrow scope that we have.' South Dakota's incarceration rate of 370 per 100,000 people is an outlier in the Upper Midwest. Neighbors Minnesota and North Dakota have rates of under 250 per 100,000 people, according to the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice advocacy nonprofit. Nearly half of South Dakota's projected inmate population growth can be attributed to a law approved in 2023 that requires some violent offenders to serve the full-length of their sentences before parole, according to a report by Arrington Watkins. When South Dakota inmates are paroled, about 40% are ordered to return to prison, the majority of those due to technical violations such as failing a drug test or missing a meeting with a parole officer. Those returning inmates made up nearly half of prison admissions in 2024. Sioux Falls criminal justice attorney Ryan Kolbeck blamed the high number of parolees returning in part on the lack of services in prison for people with drug addictions. 'People are being sent to the penitentiary but there's no programs there for them. There's no way it's going to help them become better people,' he said. 'Essentially we're going to put them out there and house them for a little bit, leave them on parole and expect them to do well.' South Dakota also has the second-greatest disparity of Native Americans in its prisons. While Native Americans make up one-tenth of South Dakota's population, they make up 35% of those in state prisons, according to Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit public policy group. Though legislators in the state capital, Pierre, have been talking about prison overcrowding for years, they're reluctant to dial back on tough-on-crime laws. For example, it took repeated efforts over six years before South Dakota reduced a controlled substance ingestion law to a misdemeanor from a felony for the first offense, aligning with all other states. 'It was a huge, Herculean task to get ingestion to be a misdemeanor,' Kolbeck said. Former penitentiary warden Darin Young said the state needs to upgrade its prisons, but he also thinks it should spend up to $300 million on addiction and mental illness treatment. 'Until we fix the reasons why people come to prison and address that issue, the numbers are not going to stop,' he said. Without policy changes, the new prisons are sure to fill up, criminal justice experts agreed. 'We might be good for a few years, now that we've got more capacity, but in a couple years it'll be full again,' Kolbeck said. 'Under our policies, you're going to reach capacity again soon.'
Hamilton Spectator
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
South Dakota is on track to spend $2 billion on prisons in the next decade
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Two years after approving a tough-on-crime sentencing law, South Dakota is scrambling to deal with the price tag for that legislation: Housing thousands of additional inmates could require up to $2 billion to build new prisons in the next decade. That's a lot of money for a state with one of the lowest populations in the U.S., but a consultant said it's needed to keep pace with an anticipated 34% surge of new inmates in the next decade as a result of South Dakota's tough criminal justice laws. And while officials are grumbling about the cost, they don't seem concerned with the laws that are driving the need even as national crime rates are dropping. 'Crime has been falling everywhere in the country, with historic drops in crime in the last year or two,' said Bob Libal, senior campaign strategist at the criminal justice nonprofit The Sentencing Project. 'It's a particularly unusual time to be investing $2 billion in prisons.' Some Democratic-led states have worked to close prisons and enact changes to lower inmate populations, but that's a tough sell in Republican-majority states such as South Dakota that believe in a tough-on-crime approach , even if that leads to more inmates. The South Dakota State Penitentiary For now, state lawmakers have set aside a $600 million fund to replace the overcrowded 144-year-old South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, making it one of the most expensive taxpayer-funded projects in South Dakota history. But South Dakota will likely need more prisons. Phoenix-based Arrington Watkins Architects, which the state hired as a consultant, has said South Dakota will need 3,300 additional beds in coming years, bringing the cost to $2 billion. Driving up costs is the need for facilities with different security levels to accommodate the inmate population. Concerns about South Dakota's prisons first arose four years ago, when the state was flush with COVID-19 relief funds. Lawmakers wanted to replace the penitentiary, but they couldn't agree on where to put the prison and how big it should be. A task force of state lawmakers assembled by Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden is expected to decide that in a plan for prison facilities this July. Many lawmakers have questioned the proposed cost, but few have called for criminal justice changes that would make such a large prison unnecessary. 'One thing I'm trying to do as the chairman of this task force is keep us very focused on our mission,' said Lieutenant Gov. Tony Venhuizen. 'There are people who want to talk about policies in the prisons or the administration or the criminal justice system more broadly, and that would be a much larger project than the fairly narrow scope that we have.' South Dakota's laws mean more people are in prison South Dakota's incarceration rate of 370 per 100,000 people is an outlier in the Upper Midwest. Neighbors Minnesota and North Dakota have rates of under 250 per 100,000 people, according to the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice advocacy nonprofit. Nearly half of South Dakota's projected inmate population growth can be attributed to a law approved in 2023 that requires some violent offenders to serve the full-length of their sentences before parole, according to a report by Arrington Watkins. When South Dakota inmates are paroled, about 40% are ordered to return to prison, the majority of those due to technical violations such as failing a drug test or missing a meeting with a parole officer. Those returning inmates made up nearly half of prison admissions in 2024. Sioux Falls criminal justice attorney Ryan Kolbeck blamed the high number of parolees returning in part on the lack of services in prison for people with drug addictions. 'People are being sent to the penitentiary but there's no programs there for them. There's no way it's going to help them become better people,' he said. 'Essentially we're going to put them out there and house them for a little bit, leave them on parole and expect them to do well.' South Dakota also has the second-greatest disparity of Native Americans in its prisons. While Native Americans make up one-tenth of South Dakota's population, they make up 35% of those in state prisons, according to Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit public policy group. Though legislators in the state capital, Pierre, have been talking about prison overcrowding for years, they're reluctant to dial back on tough-on-crime laws. For example, it took repeated efforts over six years before South Dakota reduced a controlled substance ingestion law to a misdemeanor from a felony for the first offense, aligning with all other states. 'It was a huge, Herculean task to get ingestion to be a misdemeanor,' Kolbeck said. Former penitentiary warden Darin Young said the state needs to upgrade its prisons, but he also thinks it should spend up to $300 million on addiction and mental illness treatment. 'Until we fix the reasons why people come to prison and address that issue, the numbers are not going to stop,' he said. Without policy changes, the new prisons are sure to fill up, criminal justice experts agreed. 'We might be good for a few years, now that we've got more capacity, but in a couple years it'll be full again,' Kolbeck said. 'Under our policies, you're going to reach capacity again soon.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
