Burger King

A fast-food lunch turned dangerous for several people in Center City yesterday when a car driven by an 85-year-old man plowed into the Burger King at 8th and Market streets, injuring seven people and leaving a pile of shattered glass and broken bricks in its wake. "I heard the engine roar and saw the vehicle come toward me," said Timothy Humphrey, 54, who left the restaurant just before the crash. "I ran to avoid the vehicle. " Jesse Pfeffer, 26, and his fiancée, Annamarie Moss, 21, also narrowly avoided being hit by the Mercury Grand Marquis, which police said crashed into the restaurant after exiting the parking lot across 8th Street.

Seven people were injured, including one critically, when a car crashed into the dining room of a Burger King Monday afternoon in Center City, police said. The maroon sedan veered onto the sidewalk on Eighth Street just south of Market Street and plowed into the fast-food restaurant around 2:40 p.m., police said. The car had just exited a parking lot across the street when it suddenly smashed through the brick and glass exterior and into patrons seated in the dining area. Police said the driver was an 85-year-old man from Glenolden, Delaware County.

NEW YORK - Shares of Burger King Holdings Inc. soared nearly 17 percent Wednesday after published reports said the fast food chain was in talks to be acquired by a private equity firm. Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that 3G Capital was among parties interested in pursuing a deal with Burger King. Neither publication named its sources. Earlier in the day, The Wall Street Journal reported that the interested party was a different firm, 3i Group PLC. When 3i denied its involvement, Burger King momentarily lost much of its hefty stock gains it made during the morning.

SO OBAMA didn't make the obligatory stop at Pat's or Geno's. I applaud him on skipping the two tourist traps that are the McDonald's and Burger King of cheesesteaks in the city. There are other joints to get a great cheesesteak, including Jim's, D'Allessandro's and John's Roast Pork. Bryan Flannery, Chalfont

IT IS ESSENTIAL to all organizations, no less Burger King than our national government, to hire those who can demonstrate that they are qualified for the job at hand. Judges are of particularly importance because court decisions have such a critical effect on our lives as citizens, and no judge affects our lives more than one who sits on the U.S. Supreme Court. If Harriet Miers is unable to actively and concretely demonstrate her qualifications to be a Supreme Court justice, our senators have a responsibility to reject her candidacy for the Supreme Court.

At a time when fitness is a national obsession, even fast-food fans are becoming more health-minded. In a Harris Interactive survey of 1,900 adults last November, one-third of the respondents reported eating less often at fast-food restaurants than they had a year earlier. Asked why, almost two-thirds said they were shunning burger joints in order to eat more nutritiously. Quick, turn up the grill. Jazz up the flavors. Toss a salad, bring on the poultry, and modify the fries.

Burger King Corp. is temporarily closing playgrounds at 650 of its U.S. restaurants to replace netting that surrounds the play areas after the death of a 4-year-old boy who became entangled in the equipment. The child crawled on a net at a Burger King in St. Louis and was trapped in an off-limits area of the play structure, the company said. The boy died April 29 after the accident. Burger King will install "no-climb" nets on the sides of the play structures accessible to children, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said yesterday.

Burger King Corp. and Alcone Marketing Group are recalling 400,000 "Rattling, Paddling Riverboat" Kids Meal toys distributed nationwide in January and February, Burger King said yesterday. The red plastic boats, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, contain a metal pin with a plastic cap that attaches the paddle wheel to the boat, the No. 2 hamburger chain said in a statement. The pin may come out and pose a choking hazard to small children. Alcone Marketing Group, based in Irvine, Calif.

Police said yesterday that they plan to charge a 15-year-old male freshman with making two bomb threats at Pottsgrove High last week, forcing the school's evacuation. The boy is also considered a suspect in a bomb threat that prompted the Pottsgrove superintendent to close five district schools on Tuesday, Police Chief Ray Bechtel of Lower Pottsgrove Township said. The suspect, identified to authorities by a schoolmate, was released to his parents last night, Bechtel said.

Commerce Bank is moving forward with plans to put a branch office, a Burger King restaurant, and two stores on a five-acre plot on Route 130. The property borders the old Willingboro Plaza, which the township and ReNEWal Realty are turning into a Town Center anchored by a Merck-Medco automated mail-service pharmacy and a $6 million township library. Plans submitted to the township by Site Development Inc. of Mount Laurel propose replacing an existing building with a Commerce branch, a Burger King, an AutoZone, and an unidentified store.