Here are the stories that are Good 2 Know on Cheddar News.
CHICK-FIL-A'S REST STOP
Fast food chain Chick-Fil-A is opening a "Brake Room" for delivery workers in Manhattan. The space will have restrooms, refreshments, Wi-Fi, indoor bike docks, and phone charging stations. Any employee can enter who has completed at least one delivery for the chain within the last week. “During the last few years, the delivery function has become an integral piece of our business, particularly in major cities like New York City," the company said on its website. "The Upper East Side is seen as one of the highest delivery areas for Chick-fil-A and the highest number of Manhattan-based Chick-fil-A deliveries throughout the year in 2022 took place in December and March. The space will be open from Monday to Saturday.
Jared Caldwell, who operates a Chick-fil-A restaurant at 1536 3rd Ave. in the Upper East Side, said: “In metro areas like New York City, we see the same food delivery workers come through nearly every day of the week, several times a day, and how taking an extra second to warm-up between deliveries or offering a glass of water helps to fuel them on for their shift."
CHIPOTLE SPIN-OFF
Chipotle is launching a spinoff restaurant, called Farmesa, that will offer more nutritional bowl options for health-conscious customers. The first location will be at Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California, where a soft opening will take place later this month. "One of our strategic objectives is to create or invest in emerging culinary spaces and restaurant concepts that fit within Chipotle's food with integrity mission and make fresh food daily," said CEO Brian Niccol, "Our New Ventures team, which was created in 2022, developed a unique restaurant concept that uses classic culinary techniques with flavorful ingredients in a fast casual setting that we're excited to test and learn on before we determine a broader rollout strategy."
MORE SUGAR, MORE PROBLEMS
Research published in the journal BMC Medicine has found that diets with higher quantities of free or added sugars are more likely to lead to heart disease and stroke. For background, sugars that pop up naturally in fruits and vegetables are not considered free sugars, which are commonly found in preserves and confectionaries such as cookies and pastries. The study found that people who eat 95 grams of free sugar per day were at the highest risk.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
