ORLANDO-Robert I. Earl, the $600,000-a-year chairman of the 11-year-old, locally based, celebrity-themed restaurant chain, denies any wrongdoing and suggests any investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission will clear the company as well.

ORLANDO-Leesburg, FL developer George Pringle plans to purchase the land from Noel Griffin Jr. for his newest planned community, Mount Royal, which would have 950 homes, an 18-hole golf course and an undetermined amount of commercial on Griffin Lane, south of State Road 44 near Eustis, FL. The site is 28 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.

ORLANDO-Embarrassed elected officials are asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement today to investigate a two-year-old land deal in which locally based Forte-Macaulay Development Co. purchased the dirt for $1.2 million or 40 cents per sf and sold it the same day to the county for $7.25 million or $2.45 per sf. Melbourne, a space industry hub, is 50 miles south of Downtown Orlando.

ORLANDO-David Goldstein, Les Aron and Robert Goldfinger have been promoted to senior investment associates for producing annual high volume since joining the firm in 1998.

ORLANDO-U.S. Bankruptcy Court Trustee Bill Cuthill Jr.'s suit alleges Windels, Marx, Lane & Mittendorf should have known that one of its lawyers, James P. Conroy, was part of the defunct Orlando firm's 10-year scheme to sell unregistered mortgage-backed securities to 2,203 global investors that resulted in $214 million Evergreen Security Ltd. couldn't account for.

ORLANDO-The granddaughter of a 92-year-old property owner sold the two-acre tract and bungalow to the theme park in 1987 for $1 million, but the owner, who can't read or write, didn't get a penny of the money or learn of the sale until 1994. He claims he never authorized the sale and never signed a transfer deed on the transaction.

ORLANDO-Despite a fourth-quarter net loss of $21.9 million or a loss of 16 cents per share, the 71-year-old, Jacksonville, FL grocer ended fiscal 2002 on June 26 with net earnings of $86.9 million or 62 cents per diluted share versus $45.3 million or 32 cents per diluted share in 2001.

ORLANDO-Osceola Circuit Judge Jeffords D. Miller has ruled the 50-member Orlando/Kissimmee Hotel Motel Association can't interfere with contract negotiations the county is having with Orlando-based Xentury City Development Co. to erect a $100 million, 500,000-sf convention center on Osceola Parkway and International Drive South, minutes from Walt Disney World.