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When fast food restaurants across California have to start paying workers $20 per hour on April 1, one major chain will be exempted from the mandate—and it just so happens to have a connection to a longtime friend and donor to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Panera Bread is poised to get a boost from a bizarre clause in the fast-food minimum wage law that exempts "chains that bake bread and sell it as a standalone item," Bloomberg reports, adding that "Newsom pushed for that break, according to people familiar with the matter." That exemption stands to benefit Greg Flynn, owner and...

Talk about fortuitous! In a strange turn of events, one of Gavin Newsom’s biggest donors hits the jackpot, and when the state-mandated $20 minimum wage for certain fast-food workers takes effect in April, this lucky duck employer won’t be subject to complying with the increase, thanks to an “obscure” exemption in the statute. Here’s the story, from Fox News yesterday:A major donor to Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to reap the benefit of an obscure exemption to the state’s new $20 minimum wage regulations for the fast food industry that will allow some of his restaurants to continue...

Panera Bread has shuttered the last of its ideologically driven "pay what you want" restaurants. The socialist-tinged ventures were called "Panera Cares" and the higher-ups have finally figured out that "caring" is not synonymous with "viable business model." On February 15, the final Panera Cares, located in Boston, will close.The website Eater gives Panera Cares' history and provides the company's motivation behind the now-defunct mission: The chain opened its first donation-based community cafe in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2010. Under the model championed by the company’s founder Ron Shaich, the restaurant operated like a typical Panera, but offered meals...

The bakery-café chain panera Bread has issued a nationwide recall of its cream-cheese products, after samples showed evidence of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium. Listeria infections kill hundreds of people each year and are particularly dangerous for pregnant women and their unborn children (hence the recommendation that pregnant women should avoid soft cheeses). Panera (PNRA, +0.00%) was keen to point out that the bacterium was only found in samples of one variety of its cream cheese, made on one particular day—samples from the production days before and after seemed to be fine. However, better safe than sorry, so Panera is recalling...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Panera Bread dropped Thursday after the restaurant and bakery chain's outlook for the year disappointed investors. The company said business investments, higher medical costs and increased minimum wages will squeeze its profit margins and that earnings per share could decline in 2015.

Panera Bread is going to start using kiosks to input customer orders. The fast-casual chain will start adding about eight kiosks per restaurant, writes Venessa Wong at Bloomberg Businessweek. Customers will also be able to order by phone. As a result, there will be one to two fewer cashiers in restaurants. Panera Bread CEO Ron Shaich said that the new system would help accuracy of orders. Customers would also be able to customize their food. Shaich told Businessweek that it won't be cutting back on workers. The former cashiers will now carry food to customers' tables.

A Panera Bread location in Nashua, New Hampshire, is receiving kudos for going above and beyond to help an ailing woman. On Aug. 7, Brandon Cook, whose grandmother has terminal cancer, wrote a post on Facebook about how his local Panera went out of its way to make his grandmother her favorite soup. A day later, his mother, Gail, shared the post and tagged Panera in it. Apparently, Brandon's grandmother is not a fan of the soup that was being served at the hospital, and really wanted a bowl of Panera's clam chowder. Only problem: The chowder is served only...