VOL. 126 | NO. 114 | Monday, June 13, 2011
Citing excessive leverage, poor sales results and an inability to spend money to upgrade restaurants, the Memphis-based owner of the Perkins restaurant chain has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Duncan-Williams Inc. looks to expand headquarters, staff
Late last year, the president of Duncan-Williams Inc. started something called the “great things list,” a new tradition at the firm founded by his father and which has grown into one of the premier broker-dealer firms in the Southeast U.S.
When Linda Lauer was an accounting major at the University of Memphis, her goals were pretty straightforward: major in accounting, get a bachelor’s degree and become a certified public accountant.
The financial services business seems like a tough one to be in these days.
David Waddell, Kerr Tigrett and Chad Cunningham recognized opportunity amid the Great Recession two years ago.
As Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. searched among city council members and municipal union leaders for a budget consensus late last week, his administration was making another pitch – to taxpayers.
Angelica Corp., which wants to build a specialty linen processing facility in Memphis, and Americraft Carton Inc., which wants to make a major capital investment in its existing Memphis facility, will seek tax breaks Wednesday, June 15, for their projects.
GTx Inc., a Memphis-based pharmaceutical company, has announced an agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin Phase III clinical trials to evaluate Ostarine, a drug designed to prevent and treat muscle wasting in cancer patients.
Until about six months ago, Bentley Pembroke and Phil Dagastino represented office landlords on an individual basis.
Many of the city’s most influential citizens gathered Thursday, June 9, to celebrate the Memphis girls and women who embody the “Strong, Smart and Bold” motto of Girls Inc. of Memphis.
Memphis-based Pinnacle Airlines Corp. has a rebranded business unit that provides professional ground services to other regional and charter air carriers.
LOCAL COLUMNISTS
Somewhere along the way you take a key fork in the road and it is the wrong one. You decide to burn yourself out. Why?
Last week, we spotlighted the Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief, which is the first comprehensive bereavement center for children, adolescents and adults in the region. This week we will explore an organization working to “vigorously equip youth to maximize their potential through intellectual and character development”: Knowledge Quest.
THE MEMPHIS NEWS
Alternative medicine grows as complement to traditional health care
Asking some folks to close their eyes and imagine the process of lying still while having stainless-steel wire needles inserted into their skin might leave them feeling as if they’re, well, sitting on pins and needles.
If you want an idea of just how far we have to go in our perception of complementary and alternative medicine, let us offer a peak into the making of our cover story on alternative medicine.
Beale Street Caravan will celebrate the legacy of Memphis blues this month by highlighting the success of one of the genre’s younger rising stars.
Acre is the most highly anticipated restaurant to open regionally since, well, since Wally Joe opened in May 2002 and closed early in January 2007, with executive chef Wally Joe announcing that he was looking for a new space. That was, of course, four and a half years ago.
Memorial Day tends to be regarded as the official start of the American Outdoor Grilling Season, though fanatics, of course, fire up the grills all year round. Now that we’re in June, though, many ordinary mortals are smoking up the patio and backyard with the pungent aromas of roasting meat and fish. My most recent effort regarded pork tenderloins marinated in soy sauce, dry sherry, honey, orange juice, rice wine vinegar, shallots and rosemary for three hours and then grilled about five minutes on each side. That was great.
MEMPHIS AREA
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi transportation commissioner Mike Tagert says a groundbreaking will be held June 23 at the Marshall -DeSoto county line for the first section of four phases of the Interstate 269 Loop.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) – The recent announcement of hundreds of new jobs coming to Tennessee is further indication the state's economy is growing stronger, says a top economist.
NASHVILLE (AP) – An automotive parts supplier is expanding in East Tennessee and creating 100 jobs.
REGIONAL
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – While scientists have been battling to keep a ravenous, invasive fish species out of the Great Lakes, some worry that spring floods along the Mississippi River may be spreading the Asian carp downstream.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) – Pandora raised the price range of its initial public offering Friday by at least a third and boosted the number of shares to be sold by as many as a million, demonstrating again a seemingly insatiable demand from investors for a stake a new slate of Internet companies.
NEW YORK (AP) – Citigroup Inc. has become the latest victim in a string of high-profile data thefts by hackers targeting some of the world's best-known companies.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) – The federal budget deficit is on pace to break the $1 trillion mark for a third straight year. Record deficits are putting pressure on Congress and the Obama administration to come up with a plan to rein in government spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal court upheld a recent decision by government regulators to close a loophole that had allowed cable TV operators to withhold sporting events and other popular programming from satellite TV providers and other rivals.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve wants a broader group of banks to provide details each year about their finances, part of an effort to ensure banks can meet their capital requirements and avoid another financial crisis.