In the latest sign of weak financial controls in Miami-Dade government, the county must pay back $3.6 million in federal grant funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after a federal audit found that county officials couldn’t show the money was properly used.

The county’s latest problems with HUD — which administrators unveiled at a County Commission meeting Thursday — come just two years after the federal agency returned control of the troubled Miami-Dade Housing Agency to county hands after 15 months under HUD supervision.

The disclosure angered several commissioners — particularly in view of unrelated financial woes at the Miami-Dade Transit Agency, which has seen all federal grant reimbursements stop after an audit found shoddy financial management and weak internal controls.

-Martha Brannigan, MiamiHerald.com
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ATLANTA, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ — Raving Brands, a leading, multi-concept franchiser for the food and beverage industry, is bringing its “2005 Tour Days” program to the Los Angeles area, August 18, 2005, to extend its singular and successful franchise experience among the market’s hungriest franchisee prospects. Created to introduce and entice potential partners to its portfolio of fun, healthy and fresh restaurant concepts, Raving Brands “Tour Days” offers an in-depth look at each of Raving Brands’ seven established and emerging brands, and what it takes to be part of one of the nation’s hottest and fastest-growing franchising enterprises. **And, as an added — and unprecedented — incentive, Raving Brands will waive the franchise fee of up to $25,000 USD to “Tour Days’” first, qualified franchisee applicant.

During their one-day stop in Los Angeles, senior executives from Raving Brands’ management team will share the company’s specific plans for the Greater Los Angeles market along with how the company exercises its commitment to franchisee success — from its passion for product excellence to its innovative real estate and operations models.

“Our business model is very different than most in the marketplace,” explains Raving Brands COO Steve LaMastra. “We own one corporate unit per concept and office out of them as well. This keeps us very intimate with each brand each and every day and allows us to focus 100 percent of our energy in making our franchisees more successful.”

Interested entrepreneurs are invited to attend the “Tour Days” group presentations as well as set up one-on-one meetings where they can address and discuss specific topics, including franchising guidelines and considerations, associated financial investments and agreements, and marketing, training and other supporting, system-wide business operations.

“Our corporate structure operates on the principle to make each concept an engaging and unique experience for its customers,” explains Raving Brands Vice President of Marketing Brian Curin. “In a top market like Los Angeles, which is highly competitive yet also affords huge growth potential for all our concepts, it is imperative that we enter this market with franchisee partners who not only have a passion for foodservice, but also who truly share our dedication to creating ‘raving fans’ — whether their goal is to own one store or one-hundred stores.”

The Raving Brands “2005 Tour Days” event will take place at the Westin Century Plaza Hotel & Spa on Thursday, August 18, at 10:00 a.m. and 4 p.m. To learn more and to register for “Tour Days,” please visit www.ravingbrands.com or call 404.844.3225.

About Raving Brands

Founded in 2000, Atlanta-based Raving Brands currently consists of seven concepts: five fast-casual and two beverage-focused dining establishments. The company’s fast-casual concepts include: Moe’s Southwest Grill, a winner of Nation’s Restaurant News 2004 Hot Concepts! Award, Mama Fu’s Asian House, a 2004 Nation’s Restaurant News “Fast 50″ brand, Doc Green’s Gourmet Salads and Shane’s Rib Shack. PJ’s Coffee/PJ’s Coffee and Wine Bar, Planet Smoothie and Planet Smoothie Cafe represent the portfolio’s beverage concepts. Raving Brands has one additional concept being rolled out this year — Boneheads Grilled Fish and Piri Piri Chicken. Collectively, the Raving Brands portfolio expects to open more than 1,000 locations nationwide by 2008. For additional information, visit www.ravingbrands.com.

**Potential applicant for whom the franchise fee of up to $25,000.00 USD will be waived must meet Raving Brands financial qualifications and is responsible for all other funding of the signed units, including the opening and ongoing operation costs.

Source: Raving Brands

CONTACT: Kirsten Clausen, +1-213-438-8726, kclausen@golinharris.com, for
Raving Brands

Web site: http://www.ravingbrands.com/

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Profile: financial services

LONDON, September 6/PRNewswire/ — New Marie Curie Cancer Care wristbands will be available at your local
Lloyds TSB branch from 19 September. Pop in to collect the first wristband
available from Marie Curie Cancer Care for just a GBP1 donation with all
proceeds going to Marie Curie Nurses, who care for terminally ill cancer
patients, giving them the choice of dying at home supported by their
families.

Dorothy Millham, Lloyds TSB, said: “These eye catching, attractive blue
and yellow wristbands are very popular with both adults and children. I hope
our customers hurry into their local branch to make a donation and pick up a
wristband. Just GBP15 pays for one hour’s care in a cancer patient’s home so
every donation counts.”

Marie Curie Cancer Care was chosen by Lloyds TSB employees as their
charity of the year. All the funds will contribute to the Lloyds TSB
Investing in Care target of GBP1m to raise money to support 70 local Marie
Curie Nurses who provide high quality nursing totally free to cancer patients
and their families. Find out what is happening at your local branch by
contacting Hannah West, see details below/include your local fundraising
initiatives here.

Around 40% of people will develop cancer at some time in their life and
each year cancer claims the lives of 150,000 people in the UK. Research shows
that 64% of us would like to be cared for at home if we were terminally ill,
but only 25% of terminally ill cancer patients currently achieve this. Marie
Curie Nurses care for around 15,000 patients per year.

Notes to Editors:

Lloyds TSB is one of the UK’s largest corporate givers with a community
programme valued at over GBP35m in 2004. The Investing in Care campaign is a
key part of our community investment and aims to raise GBP1m to support 70
Marie Curie Nurses.

Marie Curie Cancer Care provides high-quality nursing, totally
free, to give terminally ill patients the choice of dying at home supported
by their families.

Get involved and take on a Marie Curie Cancer Care Challenge
Event. For details, please contact the charity’s Events team on the events
hotline: +44-(0)870-240-1021 or visit the charity’s website:
www.mariecurie.org.uk/events

Marie Curie Cancer Care – Registered Charity Number: 207994

Source: Marie Curie Cancer Care

Anna Fairbairn, Marie Curie Cancer Care Communications, anna.fairbairn@mariecurie.org.uk. Photography is available on request from Hannah West, Director, Hannah West Communications,
Tel: +44-(0)1628-524949, email: hannah@hannahwestcommunications.com

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Profile: financial services

By participating in 22 of the 26 presidential e-government initiatives and eight of nine Office of Management and Budget ‘lines of business,’ the department is making significant contributions to shared services initiatives, the IT executives said. The lines of business projects are an OMB-led effort to consolidate and centralize federal IT systems, including those for financial management and human resources. “

Card Programs to Be Activated and Loaded Through Morgan Beaumont’s SIRE Network

BRADENTON, Fla., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Morgan Beaumont, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: MBEU) , a premier technology solution provider to the Stored Value and Debit Card market and owner of the SIRE Network(TM), today announced an agreement with Symmetrex, Inc., a leading financial payments transaction processing company. As specified in this agreement, Symmetrex will serve as the Issuing Processor for certain stored value debit card products developed by Morgan Beaumont that will be activated and re-loadable on the company’s branded, nationwide cash loading platform, the SIRE Network. One such program will be a prepaid MasterCard(R) Debit card product issued by Meta Payment Systems that will be marketed to unbanked Hispanic consumers in the US.

Cliff Wildes, CEO of Morgan Beaumont, stated, “Symmetrex is uniquely positioned to enable Morgan Beaumont to deliver even more innovative and competitive prepaid debit card solutions to the unbanked consumer market. This strategic relationship with Symmetrex will allow us to further expand our card programs that will leverage our SIRE Network national footprint and provide consumers with easy access to a retail value load solution.” Wildes added, “This alliance further strengthens Symmetrex’ position as a premier processor of consumer reloadable card products.”

The first program to be launched with Symmetrex will be the ServiBancos Debit MasterCard(R) Card. According to Jeff Kratsch, director of marketing, “The program was originally announced as ‘Tesoro;’ however, we felt that ServiBancos better conveyed the story of this financial product, including its convenience, to the millions of consumers that will benefit from its use.”

Morgan Beaumont, Inc. is a Technology Solutions Company located in Bradenton, Florida. The company is one of the premier providers of Stored Value and Debit Card Solutions in the United States. The company has developed POS and PC based software that connects merchants with multiple Stored Value Processors and Issuing Banks, in addition to private transaction networks and IVR and CRM technology. Morgan Beaumont is a MasterCard Third Party Processor Member Service Provider (TPP MSP) and a Visa Independent Sales Organization (ISO). The company owns and operates the SIRE Network, a national network of Stored Value and Debit Card load stations located throughout the United States. To learn more about Morgan Beaumont, please visit http://www.morganbeaumont.com/ .

“Safe Harbor” Statement under Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Statements about the expected future prospects of our business and all other statements in this release other than historical facts, constitute forward-looking statements. You can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “seeks,” “approximately,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” or “anticipates” or similar expressions which concern our strategy, plans or intentions. All statements we make relating to estimated and projected earnings, margins, costs, expenditures, cash flows, growth rates and financial results are forward-looking statements. In addition, we, through our senior management, from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning our expected future operations and performance and other developments. All of these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may change at any time, and, therefore, our actual results may differ materially from those we expected. We derive most of our forward-looking statements from our operating budgets and forecasts, which are based upon many detailed assumptions. While we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, we caution that it is very difficult to predict the impact of known factors, and, of course, it is impossible for us to anticipate all factors that could affect our actual results. Some of the factors that we believe could affect our results include: general economic and market conditions, including the lingering effects of the economic slowdown and services revenue; the overall condition of the bank card industry, including the effect of any further consolidation among financial services firms; the regulatory, credit and market risks associated with our operations; the integration of acquired businesses, the performance of our businesses; the effect of war, terrorism or catastrophic events; the timing and magnitude of sales; the timing and scope of technological advances; the ability to retain and attract customers and key personnel; and the ability to obtain patent protection and avoid patent-related liabilities in the context of a rapidly developing legal framework for software and business-method patents. The factors described in this paragraph and other factors that may affect our business or future financial results and when applicable, are discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 10-K, a copy of which may be obtained from us without charge. We assume no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking statement made by us or on our behalf as a result of new information, future events or other factors.

Contacts: Jeff Kratsch, Director of Marketing
Morgan Beaumont, Inc.
941-753-2875 Ext. 2711

Ken Dennard, Managing Partner
ksdennard@drg-e.com
DRG&E; / 713-529-6600

Source: Morgan Beaumont, Inc.

CONTACT: Jeff Kratsch, Director of Marketing of Morgan Beaumont, Inc.,
+1-941-753-2875, ext. 2711; or Ken Dennard, Managing Partner of DRG&E;,
+1-713-529-6600, or ksdennard@drg-e.com , for Morgan Beaumont, Inc.

Web site: http://www.morganbeaumont.com/

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Profile: financial services