Crown Books

A stockholder of Crown Books Corp. accused the company, its officers and directors and Prudential-Bache Securities--the underwriter of the firm's initial public offering--of misrepresenting and omitting important information in the prospectus. The class-action suit filed in New York seeks unspecified damages and charged that, rather than increasing capital expenditures for new store openings and inventory, Crown planned "to maintain the proceeds of the public offering . . .

THE title of the artfully crafted, terrifying new novel "The Double Bind" comes from an expression coined by anthropologist Gregory Bateson, a reference to his "theory that a particular brand of bad parenting could inadvertently spawn schizophrenia," explains Laurel Estabrook, the main character. "Essentially, it meant consistently offering a child a series of contradictory messages: telling him you loved him while turning away in disgust....

Discount retailer Crown Books said it will close 28 underperforming stores as part of the company's strategy to return to profitability. The company said it will have 62 stores after the closures. "This past Christmas season was difficult for the retailing sector, including the book industry," said Charles R. Cumello, Crown's president and chief executive. Crown's same-store sales for November and December were down 3%. About 450 full- and part-time employees will be affected by the closures.

BACK in 1978, after graduating from high school, about 20 of my friends went off to be college athletes. Some went with full scholarships, some went as walk-ins. Almost all were black. That fall, I visited two of my best friends, who were playing football for a Riverside County junior college. They'd been recruited by a celebrated coach and promised that they would be part of a great team. It was cold the night they played and won.

Crown Books, the beleaguered discount book chain that will close nearly all of its San Fernando Valley outlets within the next few weeks, may be back on the scene as early as next year, a company spokesman said. Steve Pate, vice president of operations at the Landover, Md.-based chain, said that once the company sheds scores of unprofitable stores, including eight in the Valley, Santa Clarita and Thousand Oaks, it will begin opening stores again.

Crown Books, the discount book retailer whose plans to accumulate more May Department Stores Co. stock had unsettled May Department Stores' directors, has sold all of its 440,000 shares for about $18.8 million. Officials of Crown, which operates a chain of more than 170 bookstores, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Leonard Straus, chairman of Thrifty Corp., which owns 34% of Crown Books and had joined forces with Crown to buy May Department Stores stock, also was unavailable.

Thrifty Corp., which agreed last month to be bought by Pacific Lighting Corp., said Monday that it has sold its interests in Crown Books, a discount book chain, and Trak Auto West, a discount auto parts chain. Leonard H. Straus, chairman of Thrifty, a Los Angeles-based chain of drug and discount stores, said that "Pacific Lighting and we both felt it was best to dispose of these interests. . . .

May Department Stores Co. said Thursday that Crown Books Corp. and certain affiliates, including Los Angeles-based Thrifty Corp., have notified the St. Louis-based retailer that they intend to buy an undisclosed amount of the company's shares.

It is a battle mean and nasty enough to be soap opera--a tale of two generations struggling for the control of a billion-dollar retailing empire that encompasses such disparate chains as Crown Books and Trak Auto. The ongoing Haft family wars pit a street-smart father who amassed a fortune in real estate and discount drugstores against his Harvard Business School-educated son, whose genius is in marketing. At stake is ultimate control of Dart Group Corp.

Herbert H. Haft removed his wife and son from the board of the family holding company Dart Group Corp. on Monday, making them casualties in the widening feud over the leadership of the Washington-area-based retail and real estate empire. Haft is the 72-year-old family patriarch and majority shareholder of Dart, the multimillion-dollar company that controls the Crown Books, Trak Auto and Shoppers Food Warehouse retail chains.

I keep reading about layoffs: Chrysler, J.C. Penney, Crown Books and more--but never any government agencies! Why not? Government produces nothing. All wealth is produced in the private sector by businessmen. Since each government job is supported by at least two private-sector households, government should eliminate at least one job for every two lost in the private sector. Otherwise, our economy will degenerate into a full-bore socialist state where everybody works for the government and nobody produces anything.

Discount retailer Crown Books said it will close 28 underperforming stores as part of the company's strategy to return to profitability. The company said it will have 62 stores after the closures. "This past Christmas season was difficult for the retailing sector, including the book industry," said Charles R. Cumello, Crown's president and chief executive. Crown's same-store sales for November and December were down 3%. About 450 full- and part-time employees will be affected by the closures.

Buying books online is pretty much where the whole idea of e-commerce got started. Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) opened for business in 1995 and has since been joined by hundreds of new-, used- and rare-book dealers. Prices are not necessarily better than bricks-and-mortar bookstores, especially when you consider the price of shipping. But the selection and convenience of buying books online cannot be beat. Best site to shop: Amazon remains the best and most entertaining of the bunch.

"Rainforests of the World" is a readable, beautifully illustrated patchwork of old and new facts about a vast and complex subject. Its title, however, is a bit misleading: A book that actually described all of the world's tropical and temperate old-growth forests that receive more than 80 inches of rainfall during a year would dwarf the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Crown Books, the beleaguered discount book chain that will close nearly all of its San Fernando Valley outlets within the next few weeks, may be back on the scene as early as next year, a company spokesman said. Steve Pate, vice president of operations at the Landover, Md.-based chain, said that once the company sheds scores of unprofitable stores, including eight in the Valley, Santa Clarita and Thousand Oaks, it will begin opening stores again.

Crown Books Corp., which filed for bankruptcy about a month ago, said Tuesday it will soon begin closing dozens of bookstores, including 16 in Orange and Los Angeles counties. The stores will be shuttered as soon as Crown gains permission from the bankruptcy judge, said Steve Pate, vice president of operations for the Landover, Md.-based company. "We will close the doors and then return the merchandise to the vendors," he said.

Falling victim in the latest round of a corporate family's feud, Robert Haft--known nationwide for his televised commercial pitches for Crown Books--was removed Thursday from the company's board. Dart Group, a Landover, Md.-based firm that has controlling interest in Crown Books, said Haft, 40, was removed "pursuant to the chairman's authority to act by written consent under Delaware corporate law." Haft's 72-year-old father, Herbert H. Haft, is chairman of Dart Group.

Crown Books Corp., its sales slumping and its cash running low in the face of intense competition from the likes of Borders Group Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc., said Tuesday it is in danger of failing and might seek the protection of bankruptcy proceedings. The Landover, Md.-based operator of 180 bookstores, including more than 50 in Southern California, said it is trying to renegotiate its financial arrangements with its main book vendors and its lenders to get more breathing room.

Crown Books Corp., which filed for bankruptcy about a month ago, said Tuesday that it will soon begin closing dozens of its stores, including 16 in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The stores will be shuttered as soon as Crown gains permission from the bankruptcy judge, said Steve Pate, vice president of operations for the Landover, Md.-based company. "We will close the doors and then return the merchandise to the vendors," he said.

From where I sit writing this review, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I can walk to the campus of Columbia University in only five minutes. While I might have to dodge rats and drunken frat boys, it's hard to imagine that the greatest dangers to my safety are the professors themselves. Yet this is the premise of Jonathan Rabb's debut thriller, "Overseer." There is a plot afoot to destroy the United States.