Red Lobster noted, in its recent bankrupty filings, that it faced mismanagement issues over the past decade as the company looks to rebound over the coming weeks, according to the latest reports by Eater.

The revelation comes after the seafood chaint announced it will be closing dozens of locations across the U.S., including five in California in cities like Torrance, San Diego, and Sacramento.

In the last decade, the company has seen five different CEOs and has been sold twice in the last decade, according to the report.

Golden Gate Capital purchased Red Lobster for $2.1 billion in 2014 from Darden Restaurants, a spin off founded by Bill Darden. Darden founded Red Lobster in Lakeland, Florida in 1968, forming Darden Restaurants, Inc.

Golden Gate Capital is a prominent private equity firm, founded in 2000 by David Dominik and Jesse Rogers, with over $17 billion in assets under management like California Pizza Kitchen, Express and Michaels stores.

During Golden Gate Captial’s near five-year ownership, they sold off the land in a tenuous real estate deal, increasing the restaurant’s overhead by adding lease payments and dredged the popular chain into slogging debt.

In 2020, Red Lobster was sold to Thai Union, one of the world’s largest seafood producers, known for brands such as Chicken of the Sea and forced Red Lobster to focus on selling shrimp products, the report said.

Under its latest owner, the chain introduced promotions like the $19.99 all-you-can-eat shrimp scampi deal to attract customers and cut costs by using lesser ingredients.

Meanwhile, Golden Gate Capital likely made a significant return on its initial $2.1 billion investment from 2014, considering the partial stake sold and the remaining ownership they retained.

Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy on May 20, a move that could save the failing chain from shuttering its doors completely. Prior to the filing, the company began selling off assets like kitchen equipment, conducting most of it online. 

In the aftermath of it all, thousands of employees lost jobs with many more set to lose their jobs during the bankruptcy proceedings.

Red Lobster is now seeking bankruptcy protection and aims to rebound over the next several months.

The Los Angeles Police Department is asking for the public’s help in tracking down a driver who struck a pedestrian in the North Hollywood Arts District last month before fleeing the scene.

The collision at about 11:30 p.m. on April 14 occurred on Magnolia Boulevard, just east of Lankershim Boulevard.

According to police, a pedestrian was headed north across Magnolia outside of a marked crosswalk when they were hit by a blue SUV, which then “fled from the scene without stopping, identifying [the driver] or attempting to render aid to the pedestrian who sustained severe injuries.”

A $25,000 reward is available for information that can help solve the case.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Martinez at 818-644-8033.

During non-business hours or on weekends, call 1-877-LAPD-247.

To report information anonymously, call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).

The wife of a man tragically gunned down on a Metro bus in Commerce last week is speaking out and sharing her pain over what investigators are calling a random and unprovoked murder.  

The fatal May 16 shooting happened just before 5 p.m. aboard a Metro bus at Slauson and Boxford avenues.  

Authorities say the suspect, 30-year-old Winston Apolinario Rivera, got on the bus in the 6200 block of Slauson and sat behind his victim, 32-year-old Juan Luis Gomez-Ramirez.  

“As the bus came to a stop, the defendant allegedly walked to the rear exit, stopped behind Gomez-Ramirez, pointed a gun at his head and shot, instantly killing him,” prosecutors with the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. 

Sarahi Lopez, the victim’s widow, told KTLA’s Chris Wolfe that she still feels compelled to visit the crime scene, parts of which are still stained with blood from the senseless shooting.  

“With every day that passes, I feel more and more confused, like I don’t have any answers,” Lopez said in Spanish, as her attorney, Mario Acosta Jr., translated.  

Lopez said she’s been agonizing over how the deadly incident happened, say her husband and father to their 1-year-old boy, was not the type to cause any conflict with anyone.  

The couple worked as special education teachers in Mexico and had arrived in Los Angeles in February for a vacation. Wanting to stay longer, but needing cash, her husband landed a job packing clothes at a Commerce warehouse not far from where the shooting occurred.  

Rivera was captured in the 6100 block of Peachtree Street, where he was hiding under a train, officials said. The 30-year-old has since been charged by the DA’s office with murder and a special allegation that he used a firearm while committing a crime.  

“I need the killer to tell me why he did what he did,” Lopez said through her attorney. “I want him to be punished because he ended our family.”  

Gomez-Ramirez’s killing came just hours after board members of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority held a press conference to talk about their response to a spree of high-profile violent incidents on and near buses and trains. 

On May 13 alone, there were two separate stabbings aboard the Metro system. In the weeks leading up to those incidents, there was a stabbing on a train that left a grandmother dead in Studio City and another that left a bus driver and passenger in South Los Angeles injured.   

On May 5, a driver on a Dash bus, which is operated by the city of L.A., was brutally assaulted by a homeless woman in an attack that was captured on video.   

In March, a transient armed with an airsoft gun hijacked a Metro bus and crashed into the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Los Angeles. 

The family’s attorney is now working to help Lopez with immigration issues, so she can stay in the United States and participate in the trial of her husband’s accused killer. The widow is considering a lawsuit against Metro and potentially other entities.  

In the meantime, a GoFundMe has been organized to help her and her young son get by during this terrible ordeal.