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ANNISTON, Ala. -- Officials with the parent company of Olive Garden restaurants say they're sorry if a decision regarding an Alabama Kiwanis club's desire to display the American flag caused any concern. The comments come after 80-year-old Marti Warren of Anniston said she wasn't allowed to bring an American flag into an Olive Garden for a planned Kiwanis Club banquet in the east Alabama town of Oxford.

The President’s wife is telling us how to eat. This is a scary thought. ALG’s Rebecca DiFede has decided that we simply must put the Team Obama Spotlight on Michelle Obama.

President Obama had lunch today with "four business leaders to discuss ideas to grow the economy and create jobs," according to the White House. The participants met to "discuss the importance of working with the private sector to promote job training efforts, including ways that companies have been partnering with higher educational institutions to develop curriculum and programs that ensure graduates will have the appropriate background and skills to succeed and get hired within the companies." Curiously, one of the participants, businessman Clarence Otis, could have used today's affair to provide President Obama a "teachable moment" (a favorite phrase of...

Today, a top national restaurant chain partnered with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move childhood anti-obesity campaign. Last year, that same company received a waiver exempting it from some of the most stringent mandates of ObamaCare. Michelle Obama visited an Olive Garden restaurant in Hyattsville, Maryland today as Darden Restaurants announced that it would reduce the amount of calories and sodium in its menu by 20% over the next decade. Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse, Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze, and Seasons 52, received a waiver from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on October...

The First Lady has scored another victory in the battle of the bulge. The CEO of Darden Restaurants, which owns eatery chains Olive Garden and Red Lobster as well as LongHorn Steakhouse and Capital Grille, said on Thursday the company will work to reduce fat and sodium by 10% over the course of the next five years and 20% over the next decade.

Not content with going after the nation's children, its grocery stores, the food pyramid and McDonalds, Michelle Obama is now going after the country's most beloved restaurant chains Olive Garden, Red Lobster and its sister restaurants have pledged to serve healthier meals by cutting calories and sodium in its meals by 20 per cent over a decade. And if the little ones desire some French fries they will only be able to do so with adult supervision. Among promised changes for children, Darden Restaurants Inc said a fruit or vegetable side and low-fat milk will become standard with kids' meals...

SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City woman has been charged with a third degree felony for allegedly asking an undercover police officer to give her drugs in exchange for an Olive Garden salad in a to-go box. The 33-year-old woman approached the undercover officer who was working on the corner of 200 South and 300 West in Salt Lake, according to charging documents. The woman was carrying a white food container and asked the undercover officer for $10 worth of cocaine, according to the charges. She "stated that she wanted some cocaine, but she only had $2 and...

LAKELAND, Fla. – Olive Garden restaurants are making changes after a toddler was served alcoholic sangria instead of orange juice at a Florida location. News of the incident comes after an Applebee's in Michigan accidently served a margarita to another toddler. Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants says the mix-up happened March 31 in Lakeland. Jill VanHeest says she took her 2-year-old son Nikolai to the hospital after his eyes turned red and dilated and he began acting up. She said he was given fluids and released a couple hours later with no lasting effects.

Never-ending pasta bowls and Cheddar Bay biscuits are on their way to the Middle East. Orlando-based Darden Restaurants on Tuesday revealed plans to open Red Lobsters, Olive Gardens and LongHorn Steakhouses in seven Middle Eastern countries. It will be Darden's first foray into international territory other than in Canada, where Darden operates some restaurants, and Japan, where a separate company runs 25 Red Lobsters. Darden has an agreement with Americana Group, which will develop at least 60 restaurants in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates during the next five years. The first should open...

One family got more than unlimited breadsticks when they visited a Boynton Beach Olive Garden Saturday night. Richard Bennett and his family were having dinner at the Olive Garden at 1001 N. Congress Avenue when Bennett claims Paul Blankenfield started to make comments about his son, according to the police report. "Can you control your kid, I'm trying to have dinner," Bennett told police Blankenfield said several times. Bennett said he tried to ignore Blankenfield, but when Blankenfield began to curse, Bennett told him that his 11-year-old son had autism. To which Blankenfield replied, "So what?" The confrontation got physical...

t might not be good for America's waistline, but froufrou dining off petite plates is out. The recession has made us hungry for family-size piles of comfort food.. Like other segments of the retail economy, the restaurant industry has struggled over the past two years as unemployment has soared and consumers have curtailed spending. The National Restaurant Association's performance index shows that the industry has been shrinking for 23 months in a row. High-end bistros have fared the worst, with sales at fancy restaurants like Ruth's Chris and Morton's Steakhouse off by 20 percent or more, as corporate customers pare...

Friday June 19, 2009 Several Advertisers Withdraw CBS Support in Wake of Letterman-Palin “Joke” By Peter J. SmithNEW YORK, June 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Alaska governor Sarah Palin may have accepted late-night comedian David Letterman’s belated apology for making a rape joke about her 14 year-old daughter, but a grassroots campaign has continued to put pressure on CBS to fire the comedian. The campaign as of yesterday had generated 52,000 petitions requesting CBS fire Letterman, and it appears that two major advertisers, and a possibly a third, have chosen to withdraw support from CBS over the controversy. John Zeigler,...

A spokesman for the Olive Garden disputed a report from Politicothat the restaurant chain pulled its advertising from the David Letterman show due to jokes about Sarah Palin’s daughter. “Information reported today by Andy Barr of Politico regarding Olive Garden’s advertising on the Late Show with David Letterman was erroneous. No authorized spokesperson for the company confirmed the information in his report,” said Olive Garden spokesman Rich Jeffers in an email to The Vote. “The Olive Garden media schedule is planned months in advance. The schedule for the Late Show with David Letterman was completed earlier this month. We take...

Following a week of back and forth between CBS late night comic David Letterman and Sarah Palin over a crude joke he told about the Alaska Republican governor’s daughter, the Olive Garden restaurant says it is cancelling all of its scheduled ads on Letterman’s “Late Show” for the rest of the year. In an email to a Letterman critic obtained by POLITICO, a spokeswoman for the Italian restaurant chain wrote that “there will be no more Olive Garden ads scheduled for ‘The Late Show’ with David Letterman in this year's broadcast schedule,” citing the talk show host’s “inappropriate comments.” “We...

Following a week of back and forth between CBS late night comic David Letterman and Sarah Palin over a crude joke he told about the Alaska Republican governor’s daughter, the Olive Garden restaurant says it is cancelling all of its scheduled ads on Letterman’s “Late Show” for the rest of the year.

As first reflected upon through Twitter, Wednesday, June 10, 2009: "Our hearts and prayers go out to the shooting victims at the National Holocaust Museum. The museum itself remembers and honors the lives lost in one of the world's most horrific genocides. To have an act of intolerance further spread hatred at this place of reflection, further adds to the grief. My heart goes out to all those impacted, especially the brave guards who acted so selflessly to prevent further injury. May God Bless the Jewish community." Governor Sarah Palin

Saturday July 22, 2006 the Freeper Motorhome (60' with Hot Tub on the top) arrives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.The Robinsons arrive at the Ronald Reagan Library on Saturday. FR Security Personnel (in sunglasses left rear and under FR hat in foreground left) check area as Jim and family enter facility. Jim and Shelia Check out the Library.

Talk about your tossed salad and flying meatballs. A night out at a local Olive Garden Restaurant landed six people in jail after two families who've had a long-standing beef with one another brawled inside the restaurant. Valerie Baca, Lawerence Bettale Jr., Rene Bettale, Lawrence Bettale Sr. and two teens were arrested after an off-duty police officer used a Taser gun to control the fight. Westminster police said two families who've been feuding were seated near one another Wednesday night and it came to a boiling point when one of the families was leaving and made a snide remark or...

Flying Meatballs: Feuding Families Have Food Fight At Olive Garden Families Had Been Feuding For Some Time, Police Say UPDATED: 8:37 am PDT September 9, 2005 Talk about your tossed salad and flying meatballs. A night out at a Colorado Olive Garden Restaurant landed six people in jail after two families who've had a long-standing beef with one another brawled inside the restaurant. Valerie Baca, Lawerence Bettale Jr., Rene Bettale, Lawrence Bettale Sr. and two teens were arrested after an off-duty police officer used a stun gun to control the fight. Westminster, Colo., police said two families who have been...

<p>The Calabasas Hills-based company said it found listeria monocytogenes in one batch of white chocolate raspberry cheesecake sold to the Olive Garden Italian restaurant chain.</p> <p>The Olive Garden chain is owned by Darden Restaurants Inc. of Orlando, Fla.</p> <p>The batch could have been served in as many as 19 Olive Garden restaurants in Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, the Cheesecake Factory said.</p>