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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StockDung who wrote (17470)	4/8/2006 10:51:33 PM
From: SEC-ond-chance	Respond to of 19428

if convicted, Kafar and Thawani could be permanently barred from the securities industry. And the SEC will seek a return of all illegal profits and the imposition of civil monetary penalties. Wow, that is real deterrence!

To: StockDung who wrote (17470)	4/9/2006 11:06:48 PM
From: SEC-ond-chance	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

03/01/06 -- RALEIGH) - There have been major changes at some local health clubs after a Eyewitness News Troubleshooter investigation uncovered exposed broken equipment and unsanitary conditions, including mold. Also on abc11tv.com: We looked into hundreds of complaints about the Beyond Fitness health club chain. After our original investigation, Beyond Fitness' owner said to give him two weeks and things would improve. Since our stories aired, there have been changes. This time, Beyond Fitness welcomed us into their gyms to see for ourselves what changes we made happen. Our cameras had full access to all nine Triangle-area gyms. We chose three for random visits, with fitness instructor Suzanne Brown giving us the tour. "Everything is operational, everything works," she said. The first stop is the Beyond Fitness on Spring Forest Road in Raleigh, where our undercover camera previously found mold on the front window frame. The frame is now clean and freshly painted. Another issue we found during our undercover investigation was a lack of cleaning supplies, but they are now easy to find. The condition of the equipment was another major complaint of customer. Earlier, we found broken workout machines and "out of order" signs at every Beyond Fitness, including the Creedmoor location, where six treadmills weren't working. Two weeks later, all of the stair-steppers had been fixed and all of the treadmills, except for one. Brown said a fix is in the works. As for cleaning supplies, we found them at the Creedmoor gym, but not at one station. Brown quickly found some sanitizer and paper towels and fixed the problem. "You want to know you have cleaner so you don't have to sit in someone's sweat," she said. We even got access to the bathrooms, where many members had described a lack of supplies, and plumbing issues. "There's paper towels, well-stocked, fixtures have been cleaned. Everything is operational," Brown said. "The plumbing is fixed." Our third stop, the Duraleigh Road Beyond Fitness, where all the equipment was working. A much-different picture from what we found during our undercover investigation. "I think your story brought to light issues that needed to be brought to light," Brown said. "Some things that needed to be taken care of immediately, and I think those things have been taken care of." But there's still work to do. During our follow-up visit, we found several weight machines with padding still worn and torn. Brown said the issues would be addressed. She also says our investigation will help the gym better serve it's members in the future. They have added suggestion boxes. "I want everyone to know we do care and we did fix what the problems were," Brown said. "It's a process to keep everything working all the time. Sometimes, it takes something big and dramatic to get everyone back on the same page and everything working right, and they've certainly made an effort to do that in the last two weeks." We're told more changes are in store. Owner Randall Rohm has confirmed that he has signed a letter of intent to sell, which he says will bring millions of dollars into Beyond Fitness for renovations and for expansion. The planned Beyond Fitness in Wake Forest will not be opening. Rohm said all paid Wake Forest memberships will be refunded, and those people will get a free one-year membership to the other nine Beyond Fitness clubs.