*By Carlo Versano*
Danny Meyer is known as a visionary in the restaurant business, but his latest moonshot has nothing to do with food ー he wants to make voting cool.
"You want it to be cool to vote and not cool to not vote," he told Cheddar in an interview a day ahead of the election, comparing casting a ballot to the act of quitting smoking. Whereas the cool kids all used to smoke, he noted, now it's the opposite: nonsmokers are the cool ones.
Meyer is executing his vision by giving all 2,500 employees of his Union Square Hospitality Group restaurant empire three hours of paid time off Tuesday to go to the polls.
New York state required employers give registered voters two hours paid time to vote (with some provisions). Meyer said he's going a step further and telling his employees to vote when and how it is convenient for them. "You don't have to prove it to us."
In considering ways to "make a statement" about how seriously his company was taking this civic responsibility, Meyer said he considered closing all his restaurants for lunch Tuesday ー but that would have taken money out of his workers' pockets. This initiative won't affect any paychecks or staffing.
"We wanted to take away whatever obstacles there may be," Meyer said.
Meyer coined the term "enlightened hospitality" to define a workplace culture that prizes both customer service and corporate responsibility. "I want our employees to be great civic citizens as well," he said. His voting initiative is part of that business strategy, which has served him well ー from his early days as owner of the popular Union Square Cafe in New York to founding Shake Shack and running some of the hottest restaurants in the Big Apple for three decades.
Getting out the vote in the hospitality industry, with its younger-skewing employees, long shifts, and hourly wages, is particularly difficult, Meyer said.
But until there's the "political will" to modernize our arcane voting processes, Meyer said it will be up to business leaders to create the template for change ー that starts by making sure employees don't lose money by exercising their civic duty. But then, he said, it's up to them.
"You don't have a right to complain unless you vote."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-union-square-hospitality-group-ceo-danny-meyer-is-getting-his-employees-to-the-polls).
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
At the core of the ongoing government shutdown is a fight over the decision to end subsidies that let some 12 million Americans get health coverage.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
