Free Republic

McDONALD'S may serve Happy Meals at its 30,000 sites around the globe, but it's a pretty safe bet that meal times — and the hours in between — are less than joyful at the company's headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill. Customers are defecting, franchisees are complaining, and shareholders are fleeing. Mention the Golden Arches on Wall Street, and be prepared for a bunch of "fallen arches" jokes. Jack M. Greenberg, the chief executive of McDonald's, and his team have tried just about everything to bolster the company's sales, profits and share price. They have bought chains like Chipotle Mexican Grill,...

NEW YORK - Making arches more golden is easy; making your workers more professional is hard. That is the problem facing McDonald's, which has 30,000 restaurants and more than 360,000 employees around the world. Today, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based fast-food giant warned once again that it would see lower-than-expected profit. The world's biggest restaurant chain said it expects earnings of 38 cents to 39 cents per share in the third quarter, well below Wall Street's prediction of 42 cents per share, according to market research firm Thomson First Call. The news sent McDonald's shares down more than 10% in midday...

<p>Several of the nation's highest-profile corporations sued a South St. Paul man in federal court Thursday, alleging that he is a "cyber squatter" exploiting their famous or distinctive trademarks to promote his views against abortion.</p> <p>A second lawsuit, also filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, by the Minneapolis School District makes a similar complaint against a New York man.</p>