Taco Bell

Taco Bell is going gourmet. The Irvine, Calif.- based fast food chain plans to roll out its new Cantina Bell menu to nearly all 5,600 locations on July 5, according to a story in Nation's Restaurant News. The menu was created by chef Lorena Garcia, who was a judge on "America's Next Great Restaurant" on NBC last year and is slated to appear on "Top Chef Masters" on Bravo, the chain said. "Lorena worked incredibly hard as a member of our team to make this happen, starting with 26 recipes and eventually we ended up with eight," Brian Niccol, chief marketing and innovation officer, said in a statement.

The following is compiled from local police reports. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. If you have any information about these crimes, call the Wilkens Police Station at 410-887-0872. Baltimore National Pike, 6200 block, Feb. 22, 9:49 p.m. Man pointed gun at Taco Bell employee who ran. Nothing taken. Whitfield Road, 300 block, Feb. 19, between 10:50 p.m. and 11:05 p.m. Wallet and cell phone stolen by man armed with handgun.

A 26-year-old cancer patient has filed a $500,000 lawsuit, accusing his former employer -- Taco Bell -- of discriminating against him because of his illness.Thomas Callahan of Greenbelt charged in a suit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that he was fired from his job at the restaurant in Columbia's Hickory Ridge village the day after telling his manager that he would begin receiving radiation treatment for testicular cancer.Mr. Callahan has been battling the disease since April 1991, according to court documents.

Maryland State Police and Sheriff's Office reports: Aberdeen Dwayne Webb, 44, of the 500 block of Pleasantwind Drive, was charged Sunday with second-degree assault. Shelby Barnes, 24, of the first block of Church Green, was charged Sunday with failing to display a registration card on demand, driving an uninsured vehicle, resisting arrest, failing to obey a reasonable police order and disorderly conduct. Aaron Lee, 31, of the 300 block of South Law Street, was charged Friday with possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

An armed robber left a Laurel Taco Bell empty-handed yesterday after the manager told him that she did not have keys to the safe, county police said.The manager called police to the store in the 2600 block of Old Annapolis Road shortly before 3 a.m. She told officers a man broke the west side glass door to get inside, jumped over the counter and pulled out a silver handgun.He demanded money from a safe, but the manager told him she did not have the keys, police said. The man fled in a waiting car that sped off toward Baltimore-Washington Parkway, police said.

An employee of the Taco Bell in the 8000 block of Veterans Highway was cut on the left hand, right arm, neck and chest during a robbery Thursday morning, police said.A man walked up to the drive-in window around 1 a.m., ordered food, then reached into the open cash register. The employee, Kenneth Schmansky, 26, tried to hold onto the man's arm, but the man started stabbing him with a large knife, police said.The man broke away and fled with an undetermined amount of cash. Mr. Schmansky was treated at North Arundel Hospital and released.

A man who may have been armed with a handgun robbed a Taco Bell in Linthicum Sunday afternoon of an undisclosed amount of cash, county police said yesterday.The man walked into the restaurant in the 5100 block of Raynor Ave. shortly after 1:30 p.m. He pointed his right hand, which was wrapped in a dark shirt, at the cashier and demanded money, police said.The cashier complied, and the man ran out the front door and toward a motel in the back of the restaurant. The cashier told police that the man appeared to have a gun.Needle used as weapon in $50 robberyTwo men held a needle to the throat of a Baltimore bar owner Monday night and robbed him of $50 after he drove them to a house in Ferndale, county police said yesterday.

Raymond Schaefer Correctional officer Baltimore County Detention Center, Towson Salary --$40,000 Age --43 Years on the job --One How he got started --After almost 20 years in the restaurant business, most recently as a general manager of a Taco Bell, Schaefer decided he wanted a career with more stability. He said he had gone through corporate ownership changes over the years and his benefits and pay were reduced at Taco Bell. "The main reason was stability here. It's guaranteed." Training --Schaefer went through a six-week training program that focused on academics, self-defense, communication skills and legal issues.

Taco Bell Corp., the nation's largest Mexican fast-food chain, started its sales comeback in the fourth quarter of 2001. Last year, sales at Taco Bell restaurants open for at least 12 months rose 7 percent, and so far this year same-store sales are up 1.5 percent. Along the way, Taco Bell, best known for selling tacos and burritos for less than $1, has gone upscale by introducing a $2.99 Chicken Caesar Grilled Stuft Burrito and the Southwest Steak Border Bowl for $3.49. "We're repositioning the brand," said Greg Creed, Taco Bell's chief marketing officer.

POLICE* Westminster: A Manchester Avenue resident reported that some one broke the glass of his storm door in an attempt to gain entry to the house Friday. The damage is estimated at $500.An employee of Taco Bell on Baltimore Boulevard told police someone passed a counterfeit $10 bill to purchase food Monday.

Howard County detectives are offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information that helps identify two masked men they say shot a Columbia Taco Bell manager early Sunday. Gary M. Graham, 42, of Columbia, remains in critical condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center after he was shot multiple times. Just after midnight, Graham and another employee had walked outside of the fast-food chain restaurant on the 7100 block of Minstrel Way to confront a suspicious person when police say two masked men appeared near a trash bin. One fired at Graham, who was struck several times in the torso.

Howard County police are investigating a shooting early Sunday morning at a Taco Bell restaurant on Minstrel Way in Columbia. Police responded at about 1 a.m. to reports that a manager had been confronted and shot multiple times by two unknown men outside the restaurant. Employees at the store called police. The manager, whom police did not identify, was flow by Medevac to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center where he was listed in critical condition. Howard County police said an investigation continues.

Taco Bell is going gourmet. The Irvine, Calif.- based fast food chain plans to roll out its new Cantina Bell menu to nearly all 5,600 locations on July 5, according to a story in Nation's Restaurant News. The menu was created by chef Lorena Garcia, who was a judge on "America's Next Great Restaurant" on NBC last year and is slated to appear on "Top Chef Masters" on Bravo, the chain said. "Lorena worked incredibly hard as a member of our team to make this happen, starting with 26 recipes and eventually we ended up with eight," Brian Niccol, chief marketing and innovation officer, said in a statement.

A 19-year-old man charged in a Monday evening stabbing at an Edgewater Taco Bell turned himself in Tuesday to the Anne Arundel County Police Southern District, officials said. Tyrell Markell Dailey of the 100 block of Tydings Drive in Edgewater faces attempted second-degree murder and related charges in the stabbing of a 21-year-old Annapolis man. Officers were called at about 7:45 p.m. Monday for a reported stabbing at a Taco Bell at 3091 Solomons Island Road in Edgewater, where, on the parking lot, they found a man wounded in the torso.

Police in Anne Arundel County were looking for a 19-year-old man in connection with a stabbing Monday evening at a Taco Bell restaurant in Edgewater. A girl, 17, who police say was with him at the time of the incident, was arrested shortly afterward. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Tyrell Markell Dailey of the 100 block of Tydings Drive in Edgewater. The warrant charges Dailey with attempted second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

Glen W. Bell Jr., the innovator and entrepreneur who tapped an unsated hunger for Mexican fare as Americans discovered fast food, creating Taco Tia, El Taco and in 1962 his signature Taco Bell, has died. He was 86. Mr. Bell, who had had Parkinson's disease since 1985, died Sunday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., north of San Diego, the company announced. No cause of death was given. "We changed the eating habits of an entire nation," Mr. Bell said in his 1999 biography, "Taco Titan: The Glen Bell Story."

Police logLong Reach: 8700 block of Cloudleap Court: A man described as a black male, 6 feet tall and weighing 160 pounds, robbed a Taco Bell Wednesday. Witnesses said he was wearing a green jacket and hat, a scarf pulled up to his nose, baggy pants, a black baseball cap and boots.

Howard County police are looking for a man who robbed a drive-through window clerk at a Taco Bell restaurant in Jessup Tuesday evening and fled with $175 in cash.About 6:45 p.m., a gunman on foot approached the Taco Bell window in the 8600 block of Washington Blvd. and pulled the window open. Brandishing a handgun, he ordered the clerk to turn over cash from the register, and then fled with the money.The suspect is described as a 19- to 25-year-old black male with a gold tooth. He was wearing a black hooded sweat shirt and black leather jacket.

Glen W. Bell Jr., the innovator and entrepreneur who tapped an unsated hunger for Mexican fare as Americans discovered fast food, creating Taco Tia, El Taco and in 1962 his signature Taco Bell, has died. He was 86. Mr. Bell, who had had Parkinson's disease since 1985, died Sunday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., north of San Diego, the company announced. No cause of death was given. "We changed the eating habits of an entire nation," Mr. Bell said in his 1999 biography, "Taco Titan: The Glen Bell Story."

OKLAHOMA CITY -- If anyone still doubts the correlation between obese America and our fast-food culture, consider Oklahoma City, where the mayor has asked residents to join him on a diet. The city best known to many Americans as the site of Timothy McVeigh's horrific act of terrorism in 1995 is also the fast-food axis of the nation and the eighth-fattest, with an obesity rate of 25 percent. Mayor Mick Cornett is hoping to change that. On New Year's Eve, he challenged citizens to lose 1 million pounds and launched an interactive Web site where people can sign on and track their weight loss (thiscityisgoingonadiet.