A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 5:43 p.m.

KFC: An employee at a Missouri KFC has been canned after reportedly threatening to spit in a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy’s order. The unidentified officer said he was in the drive-thru of the restaurant in Sullivan, 68 miles southwest of St. Louis, when he overhead an employee in the kitchen tell a co-worker: “Oh, it’s a cop. Someone let me know which order is his so I can spit in all of his food.”

The deputy detailed what happened next in a Facebook post. He said he spoke to the manager at the counter inside. She went to the kitchen, spoke to the employee, then returned and told the officer another employee would prepare his meal. But she didn’t offer an apology, according to KMOV-TV, which reported the news. The station said KFC provided a statement saying “KFC’s policy is to treat everyone fairly, equally and with respect, and we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. Upon learning of this incident, the franchisee who owns the restaurant conducted an immediate and thorough investigation, and the employee was terminated” (KMOV).

The incident follows two others involving Taco Bell employees mistreating law enforcement officers over the past month. In Bakersfield, Calif., several employees lost their jobs late last month after reports they’d taunted a local police officer by making “oink oink” sounds and laughing while the officer was ordering. And in Phenix City, Ala., a cashier was fired after refusing to serve two sheriff’s deputies in mid-July.

Elsewhere in KFC, the chain is testing a new menu item, Georgia Gold fried chicken, in Pittsburgh and Mobile, Ala. The regionally inspired dish draws from Georgia and South Carolina, and has a honey-mustard barbecue flavor. The Yum unit picked Pittsburgh because it was “looking for a region that has different demographics that would replicate nationwide, and would give us a better read on how the product would perform across the country,” said chief marketing officer Kevin Hochman. Mobile was chosen because it’s “more familiar with this flavor profile,” he said.

Georgia Gold is available through Sept. 4 for $5.49 for two pieces of chicken with coleslaw and a biscuit (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

KFC isn’t the only Yum division testing a new menu item: Taco Bell is rolling out a new Cheetos-stuffed burrito in Cincinnati starting the middle of this month.

PAPA JOHN’S has the best pizza in a city famous for pies: Chicago, according to a Gawker writer whose on-the-fly review has already drawn protests. “Deep dish pizza makers are cowards who hide their ingredients under tomato sauce — a pizza paywall,” says the Gawker contributor, Curry Shoff. “The brave and noble Papa John does not hide his toppings from you, the consumer. He leaves them out in the open for only God to judge.”

Not so fast, Gawker readers were quick to reply saying the very idea Chicago is a better pizza town than, say, New York is nuts. “Chicago pizza is demonstrably inferior to New York pizza,” writes reader Johnny Dangerously. “There is no discussion, it’s like Peyton Manning vs. Ryan Leaf. That said, this Papa John’s bullshit is . . . bullshit!”

Except, maybe the Windy City is better. “Chicago pizza is every bit as good as New York pizza,” says 20% Nicer Gadzooks. “But Chicago style pizza is a different animal altogether. Most Chicagoans don’t really eat that stuff more than once a year or so (Gawker).