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Hostess Brands Inc. on Friday sent out letters notifying its more-than 18,000 workers that they could be laid off in the next two months. The maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread on Friday mailed out WARN Act notices to all of its employees, a Hostess spokeswoman confirmed to Bankruptcy Beat Monday. The federal WARN Act requires companies to give employees 60 days notice before closing a facility or ordering mass layoffs. However, sending the notices doesn’t mean a company is definitely going to lay off the recipients.

A sweet tooth and a desire for fast, flashy cars might cost an alleged Lakeland thief his life. Lakeland police said Michael Leon Messer, the burglar accused of breaking into Wonder Hostess Thrift on Florida Avenue to steal pastries Wednesday, remains in grave condition today after getting shot in the head by the man whose Corvette he also tried to steal. Officers do not expect 42-year-old Messer to survive. Reports from the Lakeland Police Department show Messer and his girlfriend, Annette Mallory, 36, broke into the store at 10:30 p.m. and stole bread and pastries from the business. After dumping...

I've heard a lot of discrimination cases, but this one takes the cake! Last week in Indianapolis, a couple came under fire for turning away a special bakery order for "National Coming Out Day" at Indiana University (IU). The Just Cookies owners, David and Lily Stockton, politely explained to the caller that they didn't feel comfortable making rainbow-colored treats for a group that endorses homosexuality. As a father, David said he wanted to set the right example for his two daughters and stand by his moral beliefs. Of course, as his wife explained, anyone is welcome to come to...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A cookie shop at Indianapolis' City Market is being investigated after a university said the business refused to fill an order for a National Coming Out Day celebration. Heather Browning, a coordinator for social justice education in the Office of Student Involvement at Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis, was organizing the Oct. 7 event, aimed at encouraging coming out and discussion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. She told 6News' Joanna Massee that she called Just Cookies to inquire about getting rainbow cookies made for the event. "When I explained it to him the nature of the celebration,...

An Indianapolis cookie shop could be evicted from its longtime location for refusing a special order from a college homosexual group. The bakery "Just Cookies" has operated in a city-owned market for over 20 years. The president of the board that oversees the market told the Indianapolis Star that he would "hate to lose them" as a tenant -- but that could very well happen because owner David Stockton took a moral stand and did not want to endorse homosexual activity. Controversy arose this week after the owners of the bakery cited moral objections to a special-order request for rainbow-decorated...

Officials in Indianapolis are turning up the heat on a bakery that refused to take an order from a student group seeking rainbow-colored cupcakes for next month's National Coming Out Day. A spokesman for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said city officials are conducting an inquiry into the bakery, Just Cookies, which declined to take the order last week from a diversity group at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), which ordered the cupcakes for Oct. 11. "The city's position is, it's the city's market, it's a public place," mayoral spokesman Robert Vane told FoxNews.com. "There is no litmus test for buying...

Officials in Indianapolis are turning up the heat on a bakery that refused to take an order from a student group seeking rainbow-colored cupcakes for next month's National Coming Out Day. A spokesman for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said city officials are conducting an inquiry into the bakery, Just Cookies, which declined to take the order last week from a diversity group at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), which ordered the cupcakes for Oct. 11. "The city's position is, it's the city's market, it's a public place," mayoral spokesman Robert Vane told FoxNews.com. "There is no litmus test for buying...

This is an update and prayer request with regard to a thread posted yesterday. An Indianapolis business, "Just Cookies" is being harassed and threatened to have their lease terminated from the Indianapolis City Market because of complaints from a homosexual group. The group says "Just Cookies" denied them service due to homosexual animus. The real story is that the gay group asked the business to provide them with a special order of cup cakes decorated with rainbow icing for an event promoting homosexuality. The business refused because they don't sell cup cakes. They just sell cookies, thus the name of...

An Indianapolis bakery is under fire from the gay and lesbian community over a choice not to serve a diversity group. A campus organization said it was denied service in what's become a flashpoint in the fight for equal rights. This is what they were after: a mulitcolored cupcake to celebrate "National Coming Out Day" next month; a rainbow confection to honor the diversity on the campus of IUPUI. But the student who had the order placed at Just Cookies was told no. "We're right on the cusp of being equal with anyone else, I don't know why they would...

Nine people including one foreigner were killed and 45 injured in a suspected bomb blast in the German Bakery at Koregaon Park which also houses a Jewish prayer house and the Osho Ashram here this evening. Pune Police Commissioner Satya Pal Singh said there were five women among the victims. The blast took place at the German Bakery, an old business establishment, at around 7:15pm. Initial reports have suggested that the Indian Mujahideen is being suspected to be behind the blast. "There was a bomb blast. There have been eight deaths and 33 people were injured", said Pune joint commissioner...

Workers at the Stella D'oro cookie factory in the Bronx were still in shock Thursday as the news sunk in that the business had been sold and was moving to Ohio. They wondered how they'd pay their rents and mortgages, how they'd find another job in today's recession and what they'd do without health insurance. "My family is going to suffer," said Evelyn Rivera, a packer at the plant for the past two years. "This is so sad. The company has been here for more than 70 years." Machine operator Juan Torres, 51, said he doesn't know if he'll have...

Workers at the Stella D'Oro plant in the Bronx rallied Saturday to fight for their jobs. They say the owners' decision to close the factory this fall is a clear case of union-busting. Stella D'Oro workers say the decision to close the factory, after eight decades, is a blatant case of retaliation for a strike they had waged for ten months, and the thought that all 138 union jobs could be eliminated is a shock to them.

FORT LAUDERDALE — On a typical Saturday, Elite Cake Creations delivers 18 wedding cakes from Miami to Palm Beach. But it recently added a novelty to its traditional line: divorce cakes. No milestone should go unnoticed — even divorces, said Beatriz Otero, who co-owns the Pembroke Pines, bakery with her brother, Jorge Garcia. Divorce cakes look and taste like wedding cakes, but the cake-top depicts scenes of domestic discord, not bliss. A heart-shaped cake broken in pieces features a groom standing on one piece, the bride on another. A cake made to look like the blackened walls of a prison...

OAKLAND — Former employees and supporters of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery have scheduled a rally for Aug. 2 — the one-year anniversary of journalist Chauncey Bailey's killing — to call for an investigation into the business's demise. "This is the anniversary of the closing of the bakery and the event is about getting to the truth, getting to justice and making sure that whoever is guilty of any crime be brought before the bar of justice, because right now the truth is not being told," said rally organizer Henry Clark. The date was chosen to commemorate "police attacking...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Police said they recovered firearms linked to the slaying of an Oakland journalist during a series of early morning raids Friday targeting members of a Black Muslim splinter group that operates a chain of bakeries. Colleagues said Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, 57, had been working on a story about Your Black Muslim Bakery before he was ambushed and slain Thursday morning near the Alameda County courthouse in downtown Oakland. Before dawn, officers raided the Muslim group's headquarters at the original bakery on San Pablo Avenue, as well as three houses in Oakland. They arrested seven people on charges including...

OAKLAND, Calif. — A veteran journalist and newspaper editor who was shot to death on his way to work reportedly received threats before he was murdered in what police are calling a premeditated hit, according to The Oakland Tribune. Chauncey Bailey, 57, editor of the Oakland Post and a former reporter for The Oakland Tribune, was shot about 7:30 a.m., police said... Oakland Police spokesman Roland Holmgren said police don't have a motive for the killing, but it did not appear to be random. He also said it's not clear whether the attack had anything to do with Bailey's journalism...

Scores of heavily armed police raided the Your Black Muslim Bakery in North Oakland and houses associated with the business early today seeking suspects and evidence in killings, shootings, robberies and a kidnapping, authorities said. Almost 20 people - including Yusuf Bey IV, the head of the organization - were detained for questioning and several guns were recovered at the bakery in the 5800 block of San Pablo Avenue. No one was hurt in the raids, which began at 5 a.m. Police said they have arrest warrants for several men with ties to the organization but were still trying to...

Oakland grocers set to fight vandals Police say they will have more details this week in the attacks on two liquor stores By William Brand, STAFF WRITER NATION OF ISLAM minister Tony Muhammad, standing in front of Muhammad Mosque 26 in Oakland on Saturday, says the Nation had no part in the destruction inside two West Oakland liquor stores Wednesday night. (GREG TARCZYNSKI) OAKLAND — The president of the Yemini American Grocery Association said Saturday that grocers have the right to defend themselves if their stores are invaded like two West Oakland markets were hit Wednesday night. The association, which...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - One week after Kansas City-based Interstate Bakeries Corp. announced Wednesday it was consolidating its Florida profit center and cutting 600 jobs, the company said it plans to close its Charlotte, N.C., plant, and cut an additional 950 positions. Interstate Bakeries, best known for its Wonder and Hostess brands, is one of the largest wholesale baking companies in the country. It has eliminated 2,200 jobs from its 32,000-member work force since declaring bankruptcy in September. The company said its moves in the Mid-Atlantic region are part of an effort to drop unprofitable products and routes, and streamline...

Biodynamic food is grown out of a spiritual understanding of nature A bakery is fighting plans for a phone mast because it claims radio waves will ruin its "cosmic bread". Artisan Bread say emissions from the antenna will disrupt "subtle forces" which help to make the loaves. The bakery plots planetary movements and uses a special calendar to work out the best time to make the bread. But it is claimed the shop in Whitstable, Kent, would lose its special licence because the mast is too close to the premises. Bakery owner Ingrid Greenfield, who supplies exclusive shops including...

(11/27/04 - HOUSTON) — Police are investigating the owner of a bakery in the city of South Houston. Investigators believe he used his business to sell drugs. After posting bail, Martin Orduno went back to work at his La Esperanza Bakery in South Houston. Last Thursday, an anonymous tip led Houston police to the store where drugs were allegedly being sold. South Houston police say they found what they were looking for. South Houston Police Chief Herbert Gilbert said, "About 12 bags of cocaine, it field tested as cocaine, and also 19 white tablets." Investigators say the tablets turned out...

Five Starving Supermodels Busted for Bakery Robbery Thursday October 16, 2003 A BUNCH of ravenous supermodels raided a bakery and wolfed down cakes, pastries and bread -- then passed out on the crust-littered floor. "They didn't touch the cash register, just the pastries and breads," says Paris police Detective Jean-Luc Rousseau. "There were five of them, all as skinny as bed slats, and they broke into the bakery and started gorging themselves. "I think they must have been hungry -- very, very hungry." Says devastated bakery owner Francois Duchard: "It's all gone -- every bit of food is gone. "They...

Local baker says rival stole his bread and butterEspionage, Philly-style: A N.C. man wanted the secret to a better hoagie, authorities say.By Michael Currie SchafferInquirer Staff Writer Industrial spies in Bavaria heist automotive designs. In the Silicon Valley, they take computer programs. And around here, apparently, hoagie-roll recipes.An underhanded search for a better bun, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor said yesterday, helps to explain why Mazen Fathi Said was being held on $2 million bail last night.Said, who operates a small bakery in Greensboro, N.C., has been arrested on charges of burglary, theft of trade secrets, and related...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 8/20/02 Kabul, bakery, Independence Day parade, National Museum, Little League baseball, Kandahar, Zhare Dasht, Bagram, bakery, Shiberghan, Red Cross, Islamabad, Fazal-ur-Rehman, Haq, Teerat, Pakistan, Karachi, Shamzai, Washington, legal action ===================== Kabul =================== In Kabul, at the Independence Day parade. commemorating Afghanistan's independence from the British in 1919. Some crowd control, some men dancing with guns. In Kabul, at the parade, both women and Afghan bodybuilders, freed by the USA, took part. at the Kabul National Museum, Buddhist statues. They have been hidden and recovered from smugglers. The Taliban broke or stole ~...