REGION

REGION

Bistro GQ opens

CANFIELD — The Quaranta family, with 65 years in the restaurant/lounge business, opened its newest venture today, the Bistro GQ, at state Route 46 and Shields Road in the Addison Reserve Plaza. The family also operates the Caffé Capri Italian Bar & Grille on Market Street in Boardman.

The new restaurant is managed by Lynn Quaranta-Guerrieri and her husband, Frank Guerrieri, with help from her brother and his wife, Ron and Carolyn Daprile Quaranta Jr., and family patriarch, Ron Quaranta Sr.

The new restaurant, which initially is open only for dinner, features steaks and seafood entries, along with gourmet salads and nightly pasta and Italian specials.

NATION

States target drinks

HARTFORD, Conn. — Ohio is among the states whose attorneys general are asking federal regulators to crack down on the makers of energy drinks containing alcohol and caffeine, accusing them of misleading advertising for a product that can pose serious health and safety risks.

In a recent letter to John Manfreda, the administrator of the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, attorneys general from 28 states, Guam and the District of Columbia warn that aggressive marketing of alcoholic energy drinks targets young people who are buying energy drinks without alcohol.

The attorneys general singled out three manufacturers: SABMiller PLC’s Miller Brewing Co. for Sparks and Sparks Plus; Anheuser-Busch Cos. for Bud Extra; and Charge Beverages of Portland, Ore., for its Liquid Charge and Liquid Core drinks.

Julian Green, a spokesman for Miller Brewing, said Sparks was created only for customers who are of legal drinking age.

Defaults affect S&Ls

WASHINGTON — Mortgage defaults are slamming the savings and loan industry, although thrifts should be able to weather the housing market downturn, federal regulators said Tuesday.

Troubled assets — loans that are 90 or more days past due — jumped to $14.2 billion last quarter, up from $9.2 billion in the same quarter last year, the Office of Thrift Supervision said. And troubled assets rose to 0.95 percent of total assets in the quarter, up from 0.62 percent in the second quarter of 2006.

The numbers are particularly attention-getting considering that thrifts, which take in savings deposits and make mortgage loans, are not big players in the subprime mortgage sector of loans made to borrowers with riskier credit.

From Vindicator staff and wire reports