Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 31, 1992 TAG: 9203310145
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Los Amigos - "the friends" in Mexican - opened Monday in downtown Roanoke
The restaurant, in the former location of Galeria Internacional Restaurant at 505 S. Jefferson St., has been remodeled. The new owners, Bonnie Dominguez of Roanoke and her father-in-law, Dr. Fernando Dominguez of Huntington, W.Va., have applied for an Alcoholic Beverage Control Board license.
The restaurant will offer authentic Mexican food, said Tom Schwendeman, an employee. He said the staff of 10 will make their own sauces and tortillas. The restaurant will be open for lunch on weekdays and for dinner Tuesday through Saturday. - Staff report
Bank's lobbying effort criticized
An effort by NationsBank to encourage its stockholders to lobby for changes in interstate banking laws has drawn criticism from a citizens' group.
The organization, Financial Democracy Campaign of Washington, D.C., has attacked the move as "greedy grab for power."
Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank, which operates branches in Roanoke and Western Virginia, recently wrote its shareholders urging them to back legislation for interstate branching, saying a law allowing banks to operate branches in states other than where they have headquarters would permit NationsBank to combine its separate banks in nine states and reduce operating costs.
But Jim Hightower, chairman of Financial Democracy Campaign, said several recent studies challenged the effectiveness of bank consolidation. Interstate branching would encourage less disclosure of financial information, he said.
The campaign is an alliance of various groups including the National Council of Churches, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, ACORN, Friends of the Earth and the National Education Association. Some of those groups also opposed last year's merger of NCNB Corp. and C&S/Sovran, which created NationsBank. - Staff report
2 companies settle in Keating lawsuit
TUCSON, Ariz. - An accounting firm and a law firm accused with S&L chief Charles Keating in a federal civil fraud suit agreed in mid-trial to pay a total of $87 million, spokesmen said Monday.
The accounting firm Ernst & Young settled for $63 million and the international law firm Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue will pay $24 million to plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, the companies said.
Plaintiffs, including 17,000 bond holders, contend that sales people at branch offices of Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan Association peddled millions of dollars in worthless junk bonds by assuring they were government-backed.
The firms were accused of helping Keating deceive federal regulators about the health of the thrift's parent company, American Continental Corp., while the company allegedly was defrauding investors - many of them elderly - who bought ACC bonds. - Associated Press
by CNB