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In a further clarification of yesterday’s remarks that a rebuilt New Orleans would be a “chocolate” city, Mayor Ray Nagin today said he’s planning to recruit Hershey Foods to establish a candy manufacturing plant in the hurricane-ravaged region. The Democrat mayor’s latest clarification builds on yesterday’s explanation that his remarks are not racist because chocolate is made with dark chocolate and white milk forming “a delicious drink.” “We’re in the very, very early stages of discussions with Hershey,” Mr. Nagin said, “It’s still in the pre-meeting, pre-phone call stage. But that’s what this chocolate city concept is all about. It’s...

Filed at 11:49 p.m. ET PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Board members of the charitable trust that controls Hershey Foods Corp. said late Tuesday they would not sell the nation's largest candy maker after rejecting all offers. ``The trust board has rejected all the bids that it received. It is asking the company to end the process of exploring the sale,'' Hershey Trust Co. spokesman Rick Kelly said, reading a statement from the trustees. All 17 trustees met behind closed doors in a suburban Philadelphia hotel Tuesday to conduct regular board business and discuss the secretive process of seeking bids on its...

Filed at 2:40 p.m. ET HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A state judge issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday against the possible sale of Hershey Foods Corp., after the state attorney general expressed alarm that a sale could go through without state review. A spokesman for the charitable trust that controls the nation's largest candy maker said it would appeal the decision. ``We're disappointed in the decision and we intend to appeal,'' said Rick Kelly, a spokesman for the Hershey Trust Co., which controls 31 percent of Hershey Foods Stock and 77 percent of the Hershey Foods voting stock. The order...

HERSHEY, Pa. - Hershey Foods Corp. workers, residents and government officials rallied yesterday to protest the possible sale of the nation's largest chocolate-maker, saying it would devastate the company and the community. "We look at this ultimatum and say 'nuts,' " U.S. Rep. George Gekas (R., Pa.) of Dauphin County said at the lunchtime rally, which drew hundreds of people to Hershey's Chocolate Town Square. "I can't believe they're thinking of selling it," Sandy Farmer, a local real estate agent, said. The Hershey Trust Co., which controls 77 percent of Hershey Foods' voting shares, announced last week that it was...

July 25 — There may be a big deal stirring in candy land. The trust that controls Hershey Foods Co., an American icon that is the nation’s largest candy and chocolate maker, is exploring a sale of the company, it said in a press release Thursday. Sources familiar with the matter said such a deal could fetch more than $10 billion. For years, the storied company has been a bystander during a food-industry consolidation, widely regarded as untouchable because of the trust’s loyalty to its mission and its hometown of Hershey, Pa. But now tumult in the corporate world has...

Filed at 7:27 p.m. ET LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An environmental group sued chocolate manufacturers Wednesday, contending chocolate contains potentially hazardous levels of lead and cadmium and should carry warning labels. The suit, by the nonprofit American Environmental Safety Institute, alleges chocolate products expose consumers -- especially children -- to potentially dangerous levels of the metals. A state investigation last year discounted the lawsuit's claims, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers have found children younger than 6 who eat lots of chocolate take in 6 percent or less of the total daily amount of lead allowable by law. An...