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CHICAGO -- The corporate owner of the Denny's restaurant chain is being sued again for racial discrimination, this time for an alleged incident at a suburban Chicago restaurant.Six black women charge that they were mistreated because of their race during a Dec. 7 stop at a Denny's restaurant in Oak Lawn, Ill., according to their lawyer, David Kremin.The suit contends that six adults and five children stopped into Denny's Oak Lawn restaurant earlier this month, following a Bible study class.

A Denny's restaurant manager who was stabbed repeatedly during a brazen daylight robbery was in critical condition last night at Maryland's Shock Trauma Center, authorities said. The manager, identified by police as Michaele Frederick of North East, walked out of the restaurant in the 8000 block of Belair Road about 9:30 a.m. to make a deposit at a bank, said Cpl. Michael Hill, a county police spokesman. The 51-year-old man had just opened the driver's door of his Chevrolet Tahoe when the robber approached and stabbed him, Hill said.

A Denny's restaurant near Baltimore-Washington International Airport and its manager were accused in lawsuits yesterday of sexual harassment, the latest in a string of harassment and racial-discrimination allegations against restaurants in the chain.A former waitress and a former supervisor claim that the manager of the Denny's at 1365 Mellon Road in Hanover touched them in sexual ways.Each of the suits filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court seeks $200,000 in punitive damages and $200,000 in compensatory damages.

Baltimore County police said yesterday that they were looking for a man who might have been involved in a shooting last week outside a restaurant on Reisterstown Road. A man was shot in the left shoulder outside a Denny's restaurant, police said, after he and a group of friends left the restaurant at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 27. In the parking lot, a man had approached the group and accused the victim of staring at his girlfriend, police said. An argument escalated into a fight, police said, and the man with the girlfriend pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired one shot at the victim.

Four minutes after a 45- year-old Severn woman walked out of Denny's restaurant on Route 175, her mother walked in to look for her, a relative said. That was about midnight Sept. 10. Almost a week later, no one has heard from Valerie Ann Littleton, and her family believes she may have become the victim of a crime. "She vanished into thin air," her father, Kingsley Gorman, 70, said yesterday. "I'm convinced it was foul play." A Denny's employee found her pocketbook - filled with pictures of her 18- and 13-year-old daughters and personal documents including her driver's license - in a trash can at the restaurant the next morning.

Letters, calls and the roar of the crowd:B. Emmanuel Coates, Baltimore: Shame on you for making light of the charges of discrimination against Denny's restaurant. If it were left to people like you and your perception of equality, Rosa Parks would still be sitting on the back of the bus.COMMENT: As an admirer of Rosa Parks, I am grateful for this opportunity to review a little history:In 1955, Parks, 42, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., in defiance of the city's segregation laws.

Baltimore County police said yesterday that they were looking for a man who might have been involved in a shooting last week outside a restaurant on Reisterstown Road. A man was shot in the left shoulder outside a Denny's restaurant, police said, after he and a group of friends left the restaurant at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 27. In the parking lot, a man had approached the group and accused the victim of staring at his girlfriend, police said. An argument escalated into a fight, police said, and the man with the girlfriend pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired one shot at the victim.

Four minutes after a 45-year- old Severn woman walked out of Denny's restaurant on Route 175, her mother walked in to look for her, a relative said. That was early Wednesday morning. Almost a week later, no one has heard from Valerie Ann Littleton, and her family believes she may have become the victim of a crime. "She vanished into thin air," her father, Kingsley Gorman, 70, said yesterday. "I'm convinced it was foul play." A Denny's employee found her pocketbook - filled with pictures of her 18- and 13-year-old daughters and personal documents including her driver's license - in a trash can at the restaurant the next morning.

When Jerry Richardson and son Mark were last in Baltimore - a check of an appointment calendar shows it was May 14, 1990 -- a disturbing situation occurred in a downtown restaurant, Burke's Cafe, famous for food and drinks. Service was bad. It took forever. Not long enough for the Richardsons' clothes to go out of style but more time than anyone should have to spend waiting for a crab cake or sandwich.This reporter was with them. In fact, we led the Richardsons there, in a walk up Light Street, after they expressed a desire for "Maryland seafood."

The latest Denny's incident doesn't involve racism so much as some of the most dubious customer relations ever documented. The customer is always right, yes? Not in the case of Sheryl Neal and Cashmere Hardy, who refused to pay a $7.09 bill after what they say was a disgusting food experience and were carted off to jail as a result.Ms. Neal alleges that on July 3, 1992, she found a long hair in her waffles at the Denny's restaurant in Severn and sent them back. Something like this has happened before in thousands of establishments.

On the 364th day of 2003, Carroll County registered its first homicide of the year - the death of a 30-year-old Westminster man who washed dishes and helped the cooks at Denny's Restaurant and who amused his co-workers by quoting the witticisms of his favorite foul-mouthed wrestlers. Westminster police said yesterday that they are investigating the case as a homicide, a day after classifying the death of Richard Paul Atkins as "suspicious." Capt. Randy Barnes of the Westminster police said investigators changed their classification of Atkins' death after following additional leads.

On the 364th day of 2003, Carroll County registered its first homicide of the year - the death of a 30-year-old Westminster man who washed dishes and helped the cooks at Denny's Restaurant and who amused his co-workers by quoting the witticisms of his favorite foul-mouthed wrestlers. Westminster police said yesterday that they are investigating the case as a homicide, a day after classifying the death of Richard Paul Atkins as "suspicious." Capt. Randy Barnes of the Westminster police said investigators changed their classification of Atkins' death after following up on additional leads.

Every day for the past three weeks, an elderly Severn couple has circled the Denny's restaurant on Route 175 in Odenton looking for their missing daughter. Light posts in the parking lot are wrapped with faded white fliers seeking information about Valerie Ann Littleton, 45, who was last seen leaving the restaurant shortly after midnight Sept. 11. Her parents, Kingsley and Mildred Gorman, who announced yesterday that they are offering a $2,500 reward for information about their daughter's whereabouts, describe her as severely emotionally disturbed.

Four minutes after a 45- year-old Severn woman walked out of Denny's restaurant on Route 175, her mother walked in to look for her, a relative said. That was about midnight Sept. 10. Almost a week later, no one has heard from Valerie Ann Littleton, and her family believes she may have become the victim of a crime. "She vanished into thin air," her father, Kingsley Gorman, 70, said yesterday. "I'm convinced it was foul play." A Denny's employee found her pocketbook - filled with pictures of her 18- and 13-year-old daughters and personal documents including her driver's license - in a trash can at the restaurant the next morning.

Four minutes after a 45-year- old Severn woman walked out of Denny's restaurant on Route 175, her mother walked in to look for her, a relative said. That was early Wednesday morning. Almost a week later, no one has heard from Valerie Ann Littleton, and her family believes she may have become the victim of a crime. "She vanished into thin air," her father, Kingsley Gorman, 70, said yesterday. "I'm convinced it was foul play." A Denny's employee found her pocketbook - filled with pictures of her 18- and 13-year-old daughters and personal documents including her driver's license - in a trash can at the restaurant the next morning.

A Denny's restaurant near Baltimore-Washington International Airport and its manager were accused in lawsuits yesterday of sexual harassment, the latest in a string of harassment and racial-discrimination allegations against restaurants in the chain.A former waitress and a former supervisor claim that the manager of the Denny's at 1365 Mellon Road in Hanover touched them in sexual ways.Each of the suits filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court seeks $200,000 in punitive damages and $200,000 in compensatory damages.

A year ago, when six black Secret Service agents accused the Denny's restaurant in Annapolis of discrimination, reaction to the complaint split into two categories.There were those who believed that the agents experienced racial bias; after all, they were still waiting to be served an hour after arriving at the restaurant while their white colleagues, who had come with them, were finishing their breakfasts. There were also many who said they were sick and tired of hearing screams of "discrimination."

A Denny's restaurant in Salisbury last August refused to serve three African-Americans, who waited two hours after ordering breakfast and left unfed, according to a federal lawsuit filed yesterday.The incident, the suit said, occurred three months after a $46 million settlement between the restaurant chain and 58 plaintiffs nationwide who had claimed a pattern of racial discrimination. In the lawsuits, Denny's and its employees were accused of failing to serve blacks or requiring them to pay a cover charge and pay their bills before receiving meals.

A Denny's restaurant in Salisbury last August refused to serve three African-Americans, who waited two hours after ordering breakfast and left unfed, according to a federal lawsuit filed yesterday.The incident, the suit said, occurred three months after a $46 million settlement between the restaurant chain and 58 plaintiffs nationwide who had claimed a pattern of racial discrimination. In the lawsuits, Denny's and its employees were accused of failing to serve blacks or requiring them to pay a cover charge and pay their bills before receiving meals.