Meet The Team / David Koeppel

Can ordering fast food get even faster? In a busy and increasingly impatient world, standing in line or waiting at the drive-thru may eventually be replaced by text-messaging food orders.

Starting today, 31 Subway franchises in Southern California are rolling out a three-to-four-month pilot program where with just a few finger taps, customers will be able to order menu items like the turkey breast and black forest ham sub.

Here's how it works: Participating Subway restaurants in Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield and Santa Barbara will get text message orders and in less time than it takes Jared to do 20 ab crunches, an automatic confirmation message will be sent back to customers, letting them know how long it will take for their meal request to be ready. If all goes right, a customer can then pick up their order without waiting in line.

Hell hath no fury like a McDonald's customer denied their Chicken McNuggets. Just ask Melodi Dushane, who wanted to celebrate the New Year with some fast food at a McDonald's in Toledo, OH.

The East Toledo resident pulled up to the drive-thru the morning of Jan. 1 and was told that there were no McNuggets available, reported the Associated Press. Yet that was enough to enrage the 24-year-old, who reportedly punched her fist through the drive-thru window. Toledo police say that the restaurant's night manager was unable to restrain the out-of-control Dushane, who was treated for injuries at a local hospital and promptly arrested. She pleaded not guilty to a charge of felony vandalism and was released.

Apparently, a fast food manager's salary wasn't enough. James Ellis Roush, a 30-year-old former shift manager at a Taco Bell in Florence, Ala., is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the restaurant's safe and then fleeing the building. Local police told the Times Daily that it was all captured on security videotape.

But a week later, police are still searching for Roush, whose abandoned car was found on Monday in the parking lot of a nearby Holiday Inn. An arrest warrant has been issued for first-degree theft of property. Police tell AOL that the alleged burglar may be hiding out in Kentucky.

Police say that Roush entered the Taco Bell at 7 a.m. on Dec. 31, opened the safe and took the deposit money left from the night before. Police questioned Roush's girlfriend, who claimed to have last seen him at 3 a.m. the same morning.

To many, Ronald McDonald is seen as international symbol of fun and good cheer. But lately he's not so popular among a group of Swedish parents who don't want him or the McDonald's corporation in their children's classrooms.

Reports in Swedish newspapers this week are saying that several schools have been using McDonald's (for possibly as long as four years) branded worksheets to teach fifth grade students English. Apparently, the worksheets contain passages that read like thinly veiled "advertising copy" according to one parent. The passage includes a brief history of the first McDonald's established in London.

The text also reportedly advises students to substitute carrots for French fries to eat with their burgers, and encourages them to snack on Big Macs while watching football.

Watch out Jared: Taco Bell has a new spokeswoman who's claiming that the chain's lower-calorie Mexican food helped her shed 54 pounds. It's one of the few fast-food promotional campaigns since Subway's Jared commercials to strongly imply that the menu is not only healthier, but can also help customers lose weight.

Taco Bell's new ads feature Christine Dougherty, who says that the restaurant's Fresco menu contributed to her weight loss. Instead of noshing on turkey subs like Jared Fogle, Dougherty has been munching on tacos and burritos. The Fresco menu has a choice of seven items, including a Fresco bean burrito (340 calories) and Fresco crunchy taco (150 calories).

On its Web site, Taco Ball issues a disclaimer that its "drive-thru diet menu" is really not a diet at all.

"As you know, the Drive-Thru Diet menu is not a weight-loss program," Dougherty is quoted as saying. "I didn't want to cut out my fast food, so I started choosing Fresco items from the Drive-Thru Diet® menu and making other sensible choices. I reduced my daily calorie and fat intake by 500 calories to 1250 calories a day and after two years, I ended up losing 54 pounds. These results aren't typical, but for me they were fantastic."