After the coffee. Before what better be the last visit to the chiropractor.
Icahn kicks pill. The British Columbia Securities Commission has voided the poison pill that movie company Lions Gate was hoping would derail investor Carl Icahn's takeover efforts. Icahn has made a $7 per-share offer for Lions Gate, which has an April 30 deadline that may be extended. Lions Gate, meanwhile, may sue the Canadian commission. More on the back-and-forth between Lions Gate and Icahn from Bloomberg and the Financial Times.
Sumner's rerun. Last year, Viacom and CBS topper Sumner Redstone was interviewed at Michael Milken's big conference. He made a bunch of jokes about living forever and took swipes at News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch's love for newspapers. You'd think he'd have come up with some new material, but no, he just rehashed all the same old stuff this year. The only difference is Larry King wasn't the one interviewing him. Now that would've been fun as they could have given each other dating tips. Bloomberg has coverage as I skipped this one (glad that idea proved to be the right move).
The family who watches together. The Wall Street Journal uses ABC's Family Channel as a hook for how television these days is presenting loving relationships between parents and kids rather than constant clashes. Executives at Family Channel and the obligatory academic say its because this generation of parents really coddles their kids and is much more involved in their lives versus previous generations. That may be, but it was also because the TV industry recognized it was better commercially to have shows that the whole family could identify with, and that meant including parents that real parents might actually enjoy watching. As for this generation's "helicopter parents," who hover over their kids, I guess that makes me slightly more grateful for my "flyover" parents.
Conan speaks! First he tweeted. Then he performed. Now Conan O'Brien will actually talk, sitting down with "60 Minutes" on Sunday to discuss what he's up to these days. Of course, with the tweets, tour and an obsessive press, we already know. He's still legally limited from saying a whole heck of a lot about, well, you know what and you know who, but we're sure that somehow he and CBS will get his digs in. I'm more curious to know if as part of the piece David Letterman or Jay Leno agreed to be interviewed or were asked. Details from the Wrap.
Trojans vs. Bruins. We include this link for all you USC and UCLA alumni. Variety's Brian Lowry (a UCLA grad) writes about the challenges Teri Schwartz, the new dean of UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television, will have trying to compete with USC's School of Cinematic Arts and its Annenberg School for Communication. As for me, I went to New York University, where all the film graduates learn the most important words they'll need to know for their careers: Do you take milk with your coffee?
Inside the Los Angeles Times: DreamWorks Animation endured a 65% drop in profit in the first quarter, primarily because it didn't have a big holiday release last fall. News Corp. is not looking to sell its extreme-sports network Fuel TV after all. That's because it is now under sports chief David Hill, and he wants to keep it. History Channel chief Nancy Dubuc will now add Lifetime to her résumé and will be overhauling the network.
– Joe Flint
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The United States may be mildly embarrassed about its difficulties with science and technology literacy, but it is still struggling with how to fix it. A perspective published in Science tackles one likely hurdle: vocabulary and reading comprehension of scientific text. In the article, Catherine Snow of the Harvard School of Education asserts that it's the students' failure to comprehend the highly conceptual and precise wording that exists in academic publications that is making science hard for them. We need to assess why we force students to deal with jargon if we want the quality of science education to move forward.
Snow defines academic language as the polar opposite of casual conversations: dense sets of text that often using grammatical structures that embed ideas within ideas (”The wheel was invented. It made transport easier,” as opposed to “The wheel's invention made transport easier”). She notes that, even though modern textbooks make a point of defining difficult academic terms, they often do so via similarly difficult terms, creating a kind of bottomless comprehension pit.
As an example, she cites a textbook definition of torque that uses the words “product,” “magnitude,” “force,” and “lever”—words that a student will probably have encountered before torque, but are difficult to synthesize when used all together. By contrast, a webpage on torque proved much easier to read because of its expressive, personal tone and casual language.
Still, Snow asserts that we shouldn't abandon textbooks in favor of Wikipedia—while science and tech vocabulary can be hard to swallow at first, the words are far more precise, help us communicate efficiently, and avoid redundancy, which would be a far worse crime than difficulty. Imagine if instead of saying “electron,” we had to say “a tiny piece of matter that has a negative charge.” (It's worth noting that even this definition has conceptual words that you'd have to learn before you'd know what an electron is.)
So what are kids supposed to do with all of these impenetrable words and concepts nested within one another? Snow says that education systems need a new focus on scientific terms—not just what they mean, but how they're used. We also need to deal with words used to talk more broadly about science like “data,” disprove,” and “interpret.” While students can't meet all of the demands of academic language by middle or high school, a system that nails down understanding of these words would provide a solid foundation to build on later. And that seems necessary if the students are to pursue science- or technology-related careers.
Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1182597 (About DOIs).
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(May 22) — An Air India Express plane trying to land in the rain at a hilltop runway in southern India overshot the runway and crashed at dawn today into a forested ravine below. Nearly 160 people are feared dead but at least eight …
2 Responses to “Breaking news: Carter out, Laperriere in?” 1. ta2dgurlnj Says: May 21st, 2010 at 2:23 pm. I hope Pronger, Coburn and Parent can stop making assists for the Habs in game 4. That would be great. 2. ta2dgurlnj Says: …
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Tagged: bill bartmann May 22, 2010
The Personal Systems Group (PSG) accounted for over one-third of HP's revenue in fiscal 2009, with $10.6 billion. With quite a bit of costs involved, it eked out $530 million in revenue for that year. Palm issued guidance just this morning, warning investors that its numbers for fiscal Q4 2010 (three months ending in May) could come in below its early estimates. It could reap as little as $90 million in revenue for this quarter, on account of “slow sales of the Company's products, which has resulted in low order volumes from carriers. Palm also expects to close its fourth fiscal quarter with a cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments balance between $350 million and $400 million,” as Palm disclosed to the SEC this morning.
That's a staggering plummet from $350 million in revenue in the previous quarter, certainly due to more than just “seasonality.” Palm lost $22 million for that quarter. Current R&D costs for Palm were estimated by a JP Morgan analyst at $190 million annually — a figure which HP's Jim Burns promised would increase. So with HP's PSG earning upwards of $134 million per quarter, and increased R&D costs to come, one can imagine Palm draining PSG's entire profit for at least the remainder of this year.
That's why it's so important to determine just who will be responsible for providing that R&D. Among the few questions that analysts were allowed today were a few that probed into the fate of Palm's current R&D team. The fact that HP execs responded by saying Palm's executives' careers were safe, was a bit ominous.
Speaking on behalf of Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein, HP's Bradley passed on his excitement. “He's very excited about staying and building out, actually executing his vision for the webOS into a broader market,” he said, “and I think HP brings those capabilities to him to do that. And I think it's fair to say his team is excited as well.”
When pressed by an RDC analyst as to whether HP intends to acquire Palm's R&D team whole, and then keep it whole or integrate its members into the company, Bradley was forced to concede that his plan appears to be to maintain one and only one R&D team. “We intend to operate as a business unit, which is in line with the way we're structured today,” he responded, before reiterating Rubinstein's and Palm executives' desire to stay on.
“Palm's operating at a loss right now,” added Burns at one point, “so we got work to do.”
At one point, Bradley said HP could not go into specifics as to its future roadmap for Palm OS until it completed the deal and received the necessary regulatory approval. Estimates as to when that could take place were all over the map, extending into the beginning of HP's fiscal 2011 (this December). Only when the final signatures are affixed to the paper will we start to see guidance about such important issues as: the fate of HP's existing iPaq line (some may recall it actually has one — it consists of Windows Mobile phones at the moment); integration of webOS with existing HP hardware such as its Slate tablet; and just how HP plans to expand Palm's presence, as Bradley promised at one point, into the commercial space to compete against RIM.
“I think you have to break it up along product categories. While Palm currently has the Pre and the Pixi smartphones, we see that as one space that is very consumer-oriented, and we'll look at how we leverage both our retail and commercial channels to broaden the distribution of those sets of products,” HP's Todd Bradley told Cross Research. “I think the tablet/slate products are such new markets, we see opportunities broadly for consumers. But at the same time, having just finished up our partner conference, enormous interest on behalf of channel partners with specific vertical deployments in things like health care and education. So I think you'll see these products deployed in both segments, consumer and commercial. Again, we'll talk about that time line as we get closer to completion.”
If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’sMashable Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.
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BarflyTV Bar Content Manager at TouchTunes Interactive Networks in New York, NY.
The BarflyTV Bar Content Manager supports the function of the Content Department by servicing each of BarflyTV’s accounts with a customized bar banner used for dynamic messaging in every venue.
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Director, Recruitment at Initiative in Los Angeles, CA.
Leading L.A. based advertising agency seeks talented Manager for our Innovations Team, which develops marketing and digital breakthroughs to help our clients navigate the emerging media and evolving technology landscape.
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An Intermediate to Senior Social Media Marketing Specialist works with our search marketing and optimization senior leads and teams as well as client agencies, support people, and in some cases the clients themselves.
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The Senior SEO Analyst develops and provides effective Search Engine Optimization strategies for client websites, with the goal of generating increased targeted Web traffic and higher lead generation.
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Experian Interactive Media, an Experian company, is looking for a Media Buyer to join our Online Marketing team.
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The Clear Channel NY Integrated Media department is looking for an Interactive Producer for our New York stations – Z100, 106.7 Lite fm, Q104.3, Power 105.1 and 103.5 KTU. This position is based in our Tribeca offices.
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The Clear Channel NY Integrated Media department is looking for a Server Side Developer for our New York stations – Z100, 106.7 Lite fm, Q104.3, Power 105.1 and 103.5 KTU
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TMG, based in Washington, D.C., and one of the country’s leading custom-media firms, is seeking a Social Media Health Journalist for a leading health/wellness brand.
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Junior PHP Developer at StyleCaster in New York, NY.
StyleCaster is looking to hire a Junior PHP Developer.
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Digital/Developer at Ketchum in Washington DC.
The Technical Lead of Digital will be responsible for overseeing the technical function of the Ketchum Digital team in the Washington, DC office.
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Data Applications Manager at Netcentric Campaigns in Washington DC.
The Data Applications Manager’s main responsibility will be to oversee the design and development of a Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application that will drive a variety of online applications designed to network a community working to prevent childhood obesity.
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The ideal candidate for this position will be someone who is able to build and run complex, scalable, automated systems by composing existing software, operating systems, and devices via the use of configurations and code.
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Community Account Manager at Media Temple in Culver City, CA.
In this role, you’ll be the primary point of contact between our VIP clients, select partners and various internal departments.
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Social Media Manager at Rosetta Stone in Arlington, VA.
As the Social Media Manager, you will be responsible for directing social media strategy across the company and leading Rosetta Stone’s newly-formed Social Media team.
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The ACD is responsible for leading the Ketchum Digital creative teams in the development of visual design, user experience, brand identity, and content development for print, Web, video and other multimedia solutions.
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The Digital Strategist is responsible for problem solving and planning related to digital solutions for client engagements and new business development.
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Manage the fulfillment of web-based project deliverables and ensure project integrity and success throughout its entire life cycle.
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Peter Mayer Interactive, the online communications arm of Louisiana’s largest ad agency, Peter Mayer Advertising, is seeking an Interactive Strategist.
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Work with the world’s premier brands to build their presence on major social networks.
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Liverpool boss plotting sensational move for Real Madrid legend, Tottenham and Man City chase Ashley Young and Arsenal target Marseille midfielder.
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Tagged: bill bartmann May 21, 2010
It can be a good deal for everyone except the property owner. Selling the debts to investors can help governments efficiently ease budget woes without having the added expenses of debt collection, foreclosing and being a landlord.
Investors, meanwhile, can rake in hefty profits. That's because they can tack on fees and steep interest rates, which can amount to 18 percent annually in Baltimore.
In Valentine's case, legal fees and other charges climbed past $3,600 - nearly 10 times her original bill.
Investors purchased an estimated $30 billion of real estate tax debt held by governments across the country in 2009, double the amount a year earlier, according to the Florida-based National Tax Lien Association. Altogether, 29 states and the District of Columbia can sell tax lien debt to investors.
Lien sales in Baltimore have nearly doubled since the housing bubble of 2006. On Monday, the city sold 12,689 liens - a probable record. Properties ranged from boarded-up shells and vacant lots to row homes in gentrified neighborhoods and some commercial buildings.
Last February, Vicki Valentine was evicted when she couldn't pay $3,603.41 to rescue her Baltimore home. Valentine's wasn't a typical foreclosure — the mortgage was paid off. But when she failed to pay a $362.28 water bill, the city auctioned her debt off in a tax lien sale. An investor now owns her home.
City records show that one in five of these liens on properties is for unpaid taxes or other municipal bills amounting to $1,000 or less. If Baltimore's 2009 tax sale is any indication, hundreds will stem from delinquent water bills; there were 666 such liens last year.
Although the brisk tax lien trade thrives beneath the radar, largely unnoticed, it has occasionally drawn scrutiny from law enforcement authorities.
Some of Maryland's most prominent tax sale investors have been swept up in a criminal investigation into bid rigging at the sales. Federal prosecutors allege that those investors agreed in advance which properties to bid at some auctions, improperly reducing the money earned by municipalities.
So far, Justice Department prosecutors have secured three convictions in the ongoing investigation. At a May 4 sentencing hearing for two of the defendants, a witness for the government was lawyer John Reiff, part-owner of the company that currently owns Valentine's lien. He was not charged in the case.
Investing in liens can be risky, with profit on a particular property anything but certain. Investors generally compensate for such uncertainty by buying in large volumes, sometimes at a clip of thousands of liens each year.
Two of the investors who pleaded guilty in the bid rigging case made at least $10 million from fees and other costs collected from owners of some 6,000 property liens they bought over six years, according to federal prosecutors.
Prosecutors said in court filings they suspect bid-rigging occurs in other areas of the country. A JPMorgan subsidiary called Xspand and at least two other companies received grand jury subpoenas last year as part of a Justice Department anti-trust investigation in New Jersey, according to Bloomberg.
'Unintended Consequences'
Some state lawmakers have questioned the fairness of the tax sale foreclosure process, which often sticks homeowners with thousands of dollars in legal fees and other costs. But cities and counties in Maryland earlier this year fended off an effort to keep water bills out of the tax sale, arguing that without the threat of losing homes many people would fail to pay their bills.
Revenue collectors defend their tax sales as a necessary, if sometimes distasteful, means for feeding the public treasury. In aging cities such as Baltimore, there's also hope that new owners will rehab decaying or abandoned properties, restoring them to the tax rolls.
Investors say they aren't the bad guys - they're providing a service that helps plug holes in municipal budgets. Homeowners should face consequences for failing to pay their bills, they argue, noting that people faced with losing property have many opportunities to redeem it. The mounting fees, they say, reflect the costs involved in navigating complex legal requirements, tracking down property owners and taking them to court to enforce the liens. In Valentine's case, they noted, a judge approved the fees.
“We are essentially the city's bill collector,” said lawyer and tax lien investor Reiff.
Critics of tax sales question the morality of government tax collectors acting to enrich private investors at the expense of property owners with low incomes or facing hard times. They ask whether it's the best way to compel people to honor their debts — especially involving relatively paltry public utility bills.
After all, when water bills go unpaid, some cities and counties simply shut off service. In Baltimore, officials often leave it on. Another alternative would be to have private collection agencies track down debtors.
“This is a case where good intentions have led to severe unintended consequences,” said Debra Gardner, of the Public Justice Center in Baltimore, a non-profit advocacy group for minorities and the poor.
Asked about Valentine's story, David Vladeck, director the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection in Washington, said it was “just horrifying to me.”
While noting that his comments did not reflect agency policy, Vladeck said he believed more recession-wracked homeowners across the country could face a similar plight. “It's beyond tragic that this poor woman lost her home.”
Pleas - and More Fees
Valentine was incredulous when the price to keep her property shot past $3,600. Jobless and lacking the savings to pay, she said she could do little to stave off the day of reckoning.
That day arrived on February 3, when a Baltimore City Sheriff's Department deputy served her with a court-issued “writ of possession” stripping her claim to the home.
Valentine, a former mental health counselor and rehab specialist with four children, said she moved back to her childhood home about a decade ago to care for her ailing father, Charles L. Turner. A retired brewery worker, he had Alzheimer's disease.
As his condition worsened, he tended to hide bills from the family. (City records confirm that Turner often fell behind in meeting his obligations during the final years of his life and nearly wound up in the tax sale as early as 2000 over unpaid water bills and property taxes.)
When her father died in 2003, Valentine took over the home and stayed there with her son, Dimitrian, now 17. She said she fell into a serious depression in the wake of her father's deteriorating health and death, and was unable to work or pay her bills on time. She has worked only sporadically since his death. Though she made partial payments on the water and sewer account in 2006, she acknowledges her failure to pay a bill of $462.28 in full. She went down to city hall and paid $100, but never took care of the balance.
When the deadline passed for paying up, the city added 2005-2006 property taxes of $287.92, interest and city tax-sale processing charges. That brought the total she owed to $710.57, according to city records.
The City of Baltimore washed its hands of Valentine's debt in May 2006 when it sold the lien to Sunrise Atlantic LLC, an arm of the BankAtlantic in Fort Lauderdale. The Florida bank has bid on tax liens in a range of states, from Florida to Illinois, though it has largely sold off its Maryland lien portfolio and is not implicated in the bid-rigging case. BankAtlantic did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Unlike mortgage foreclosures initiated by banks, there's no appealing a tax sale debt once it is sold off; a property owner has no option other than to abide by the investors' terms and pay the fees. The lien holders also have little incentive to be flexible about repayment terms.
Maryland law gives property owners six months to redeem a tax lien with only minimal added costs. But if they don't pay by then, lien holders can sue to seize the property and stick the homeowner with a slew of fees, including legal bills incurred in taking the matter to court. Sunrise Atlantic filed such a case on Valentine's home in Baltimore City Circuit Court in December 2006, records show.
More than a year later, the court awarded the property to Sunrise Atlantic.
At that point, Valentine sent a handwritten letter to the court, begging for mercy and more time to repay.
In the letter, dated Feb. 9, 2008, Valentine described being unable to work because of depression and other problems. “For now, this is the roof over my son and my head. I am trying to get the money together to catch up on my delinquent bills.” She added: “Please allow more time to pay all bills connected with the foreclosure of said property.”
But the longer she waited and the more she protested, the more legal fees and other charges she incurred.
In 2008, Baltimore attorney Anthony De Laurentis, who represented Sunrise Atlantic, submitted itemized charges to the court: $305.91 in interest on the lien; a $1,500 bill for responding to Valentine's requests to cut the fees and other legal work; more than $1,000 in assorted expenses, including $325 for a title search of the property and $79 for photocopies, according to court records.
The price list passed muster with a judge, who on Sept. 19, 2008 ordered that Valentine pay $3,603.41 - or forfeit her property.
She asked for another hearing, which delayed the process for more than a year.
While the case dragged on, the Florida bank started divesting its tax lien certificates from Maryland, eventually transferring the lien on Valentine's home to a firm called Montego Bay Properties. Part of the firm is owned by a trust set up to benefit members of the family of lawyer De Laurentis. Reiff, one of De Laurentis' law partners, also owns part of the firm.
In an interview in their Baltimore office, De Laurentis and Reiff said 90 percent or more of property owners eventually pay whatever is necessary to keep their homes.
They said most of the properties they take over are vacant and thus nobody is displaced. They also said they had repeatedly tried to settle the matter with Valentine and showed Investigative Fund reporters a thick file of court papers and other records as well as notes of more than a dozen contacts with her to make arrangements to clear the debt.
“We bent over backwards for her,” Reiff said, adding that his staff had tried for more than two years to “work something out” to no avail.
Feds Say Bids Rigged
Though Valentine had no way of knowing it, some investors rigged the 2006 Baltimore tax sale auction that led to her eviction, federal prosecutors alleged in court.
The roots of that conspiracy run deep, prosecutors said. For years, a handful of Baltimore real estate lawyers and their investment partners quietly dominated Maryland tax sale auctions, with few questions asked about their bidding tactics or collection policies.
That changed after The Baltimore Sun used city records and court filings to report in March 2007 that hundreds of mainly low-income city residents had been kicked out of their homes over small unpaid bills, ranging from water and sewer charges to minor environmental citations. Some people were driven from family property because they couldn't afford to pay thousands of dollars demanded by lien holders.
The Baltimore newspaper also documented for the first time that while dozens of parties bid in Baltimore tax auctions in 2006 and 2007, just three investment groups had won about two-thirds of the liens.
Prosecutors went on to charge three men with conspiring to rig bids at 21 auctions in Baltimore and four other jurisdictions, including Montgomery and Prince George's counties in the suburbs of Washington D.C. between 2002 and 2007. All three have since pleaded guilty. No other charges have been filed.
Another investment group involved in the conspiracy was DRT Fund, according to court filings by federal prosecutors. DRT is owned in part by De Laurentis and Reiff. DRT participated in a dozen of the 21 fixed auctions, though not the Baltimore City auction in 2006 in which Valentine's lien was sold, according to court filings.
The Justice Department filed no charges against DRT, which came forward in the fall of 2007 and “fully and truthfully reported their own wrongdoing and that of their co-conspirators and terminated their part in the conspiracy,” prosecutors wrote in court papers filed last month.
DRT went on to sign an amnesty agreement with the Justice Department that commits it to “pay restitution to any person or entity injured as a result of the bid-rigging activity being reported in which it was a participant,” court records state.
Neither De Laurentis nor Reiff would discuss DRT's settlement with the Justice Department.
Water Bill Woes
Some lawmakers have tried for years, with modest success, to rein in the tax-sale fees that can steamroll low-income homeowners. Maryland legislators passed a bill in 2008 that raised the minimum lien sold from $100 to $250. But a bill to prohibit cities and counties from selling delinquent water bills to investors failed in the state Senate earlier this year by a single vote.
Legislators also rejected a bill that would have prevented the sale of any lien of less than $750, as happens in some other locales outside of the state.
Both bills failed, lawmakers said, largely due to fierce opposition from tax collectors and officials in Baltimore, which conducts the largest tax sale in the state.
Andrea Mansfield, of the Maryland Association of Counties, testified that the tax sale process provides “a much-needed device to ensure that property owners remit payment for their fair share of taxes and charges connected to public services.”
Eliminating water bills from the tax sales would result in more “deficient accounts,” and lead to “increased rates on citizens who properly pay,” she wrote.
Sen. James Brochin, a Democrat from Baltimore County who co-sponsored the legislation that would have banned the sale of delinquent water bills to investors, vehemently disagrees. “It's just disgusting. It's highway robbery. It's dead wrong. It's immoral,” he said.
While city officials publicly defend the practice, he said, in reality “they're humiliated and embarrassed by it. Deep down they know how immoral it is.”
Baltimore's mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, declined requests for an interview on the topic with the Investigative Fund.
City officials were more talkative earlier this year when they sought to block lawmakers from banning the sale of water bill liens. Mary Pat Fannon, a lobbyist for the mayor's office, said in prepared testimony for a February 5 hearing that the city had begun offering repayment plans for water bills to help homeowners avoid tax sale.
She said that the 666 water bill liens sold by Baltimore City in 2009 was way down from the 1,129 sold to investors the previous year and credited the repayment plans for the reduction.
And she went further, testifying that nobody had lost a home due to an unpaid water bill from either sale in 2008 or 2009. What Fannon neglected to mention: Because of the lengthy transfer process in the courts, it was too early for those groups of property owners to begin losing their homes. Most tax sale lawsuits have taken longer than two years to resolve through the courts.
Fannon also said that without the tax sale, the city would need to file debt collection lawsuits against each delinquent property owner, which she said “would be very expensive, time consuming and flood the courts.”
Two days before Fannon's testimony at the state capital, Valentine stood watching as her belongings piled up on the sidewalk in Baltimore.
A Neighborhood's Decline
More than three years after Valentine's small debt drew her into the tax sale, neither the city nor the investors seem to have won much.
The property is unlikely to be fixed up any time soon. Instead, it adds to a sense of decay that permeates some parts of urban Baltimore. On Valentine's old block in the Sandtown neighborhood, all but a handful of houses, abandoned long ago, are boarded up.
Such decline has summoned other ills. “Drugs moved in and replaced the good with the bad,” said Valentine, who is living temporarily with her mother. Many of her possessions are in storage.
De Laurentis and Reiff now hold a “writ of possession” for a property that's in need of substantial repair. Though the home is assessed at $46,000, in such dilapidated condition the investors said they probably would have trouble selling it for more than $16,000.
In addition, investors could be on the hook for a $7,000 water bill of their own. Just how that happened is unclear; there may have been an undetected leak in Valentine's home. Last month, the city finally turned off the water.
If the investors take the final step to secure a deed to the property, they would have to pay the city roughly $6,300, which the city is then supposed to turn over to Valentine. The law entitles original property owners to receive at least some compensation.
De Laurentis and Reiff say they're still willing to work with Valentine to resolve the matter. Reiff said he gave her a key to the new lock so she could have more time to remove her belongings as a good faith gesture.
“We'll definitely work something out with her,” Reiff said.
Crain's Chicago Business:
After loading up on debt near the top of the market, the owner of the landmark Allerton Hotel is all tapped out at the bottom.
A joint venture led by San Francisco-based Chartres Lodging Group LLC has defaulted on $70 million in loans on the 443-room hotel, according to a foreclosure suit filed at the end of April.
Read the whole story: Crain's Chicago Business
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Tagged: foreclosure May 18, 2010
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Most Viewed
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- Credit Crisis Timeline
- Switzerland threatened with bankruptcy
- Letterman’s Top 10 George Bush moments
- Is the State of California bankrupt?
- The Dummy’s Guide to the US Banking Crisis
- Marc Faber: I advise every American to hold his gold outside of the United States
- Top ten predictions for the 2009 global economy
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- Byron Wien: Ten Surprises for 2009
- The recession is over but the depression has just begun
- The Swedish banking crisis response – a model for the future?
- The top 25 European banks by assets
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- Quantitative easing: printing money like mad to ward off deflation
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Environment | As the oil has continued to leak into the Gulf of Mexico, bad news about the attempts to stop the flow has continued to leak out, too. But this weekend, finally.
When the Wall Street Journal used Foursquare to report that New York's Times Square was being evacuated, the location-based social network proved its worth as a tool for journalists. Foursquare, Gowalla and other services let users …
Read our Kingdom Hearts PSP in September News for PSP.
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Tagged: online stock trading and investments May 17, 2010
Anyone with an average income has to be very budget conscious these days. And if you have bought an iPhone or iPod touch, you no doubt went over your gadget budget purchasing one of them. But that’s okay, because there are three useful finance apps for the devices that will help your management and monitor your personal expenses, and they won’t cost you a penny.
There are several free finance management apps in the App Store, but I chose to examine the ones that don’t limit you to the number of transactions you can make.
CashFlow Free
First up is the ad-supported CashFlow app. It’s an easy to set up application that allows you to track your income and expenses and export data in CSV/OFX format via e-mail. It includes a built-in numeric keypad, and it keeps track of your payee names and expense categories so that you don’t have to re-enter them each time you make a new transaction for the same data.
You can also export weekly and monthly budget reports, as well backup and restore via Wi-Fi. And if need be, you can set a PIN code for security.
The ease of use of CashFlow allows you to input data a few seconds before or after you make a transaction. It’s really that simple.
Balance
Balance is similar to CashFlow and is ad-free. This free version, though, limits you to just one account. This app is great for replacing the paper-based checkbook register that you might still be using. However, its shortcoming is that it doesn’t save payee names and categories, so that means re-entering data that you have previously typed.
You can also export reports to your computer in spreadsheet format.
Balance is not as good as CashFlow, but it’s an option say for keeping track of a secondary account credit card where you might not be inputting data on a daily basis.
Spend Lite
One of the best ways to monitor your spending is to keep a budget, especially for non-discretionary items and services that decrease your cash flow very quickly. Spend Lite is an almost perfect, easy to use budget manager.
You begin by setting up budgets for items and services you want to monitor. In the free version, you can set unlimited budgets for daily or weekly spending. In the paid version, you can set biweekly, monthly and yearly budgets.
As you spend against those budgets, Spend Lite will keep track of your spending and how much you have left for each budgeted item. You can choose to roll over your allotted amounts to the following week or day.
I used this app for several months when I first got my iPhone and really helped me decrease the amount I was spending for music, books and fast food.
Spend Lite is not like a traditional check registering book, so if you’re needing that kind of accounting, you will want to find an app that incorporates both account management and budgeting expenses. Otherwise, this easy to read and graphically well designed application does a great job. And it’s ad free.
Let us know if you use any of these or other free personal management apps on your iPhone and iPod touch. Smart gadgets like these are not cheap, so you should be keeping an eye on your spending.
Mint.com Android App Puts All Your Finances on Your Phone
Android: Personal finance uber-aggregator Mint.com just released a free Android application, and it's a must-have for Mint fans. Besides the usual glances at your accounts, spending, and budgets you'd expect, Mint brings Quick Search integration and handy home screen widgets.
Once you install Mint on your Android phone, you'll want to hit the Menu key, head into the settings, and enable a four-digit passcode lock. Mint's app shows nearly everything about the financial accounts you've shared with Mint that its web counterpart shows, so you'll want to make sure potential thieves and sneaky eyes don't get a look at your sum financial totals, accounts, and transactions.
The home screen for the application is quite a bit like the iPhone version. Apologies for the somewhat bland screenshot—it's from my own phone, with the accounts blurred, and no activity yet for May—I couldn't find a way to scroll back to April's activity:
More interesting are the search box integration, pictured up top, a home screen widget with recent data, shown at left, and the ability to add a folder with recent transactions to the home screen. All of these options must be turned on from Mint's settings, and you'll definitely want to enable a home screen lock on your phone if you're going to have your net cash worth and recent transactions available on your phone. Still, if you want to know exactly how much you just spent at Target, being able to search it and see the numbers instantly from your Android search box is mighty convenient.
Mint's Android app is a free download for Android phones. It should be available shortly in the Android Market, and from a page going live on the Mint site.
rclrcu online stock trading http://jonturkmusic.com online stock trading, dqcaah
Tagged: online stock trading and investments May 15, 2010
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There are lots of Internet Dating Sites on the Internet. There is a BBW Dating Site, there is a Christian Singles Dating Site, there is E-Harmony.com, and many, many other dating sites. I'm sure there are a lot of great ones, as I had found, and I know there are a lot of dating sites that leave something to be desired too. So, wherever you go to find a date or a potential spouse, be very careful. There are lots of unscrupulous people on the Internet, as there is in real life. I speak from experience here, I was taken for a lot of money, promised lots of things that never materialized, and made a fool of, so… believe me, I know about this. This was one character from a South American country, so please be careful. I have “been there and done that” so to speak.
First, when you contact someone, you should be careful to guard your personal information. I don't mean that you have to lie to anyone, because that is not any way to start a relationship of any kind, but just be leery of giving them anything other than your first name, a general indication of where you live, (as in Southern IL for example) and any other personal information, such as your phone number(although now-a-days, it is more safe to give them a cell phone number). You must get to know someone very well before sharing these things with them, and that could take weeks or months. Just don't be in too big a hurry for anything. Let it come slowly, securely and naturally. Correspondence on the Internet is always safer at first.
Second, if someone begins insisting that you give them any personal information, be very careful. This person may not be who or what they claim to be. If they keep insisting on this information, you should cut ties with that person. Otherwise, your safety could possibly be compromised with this person. What if they are a murderer, and this is the way they find their victims? If and when YOU decide to meet this person, it should be in a very public place and you should have someone with you. This is especially true for women, who could be overpowered by a man. Your first few meetings with this person should include a friend, a sister, a brother, or anyone who could help protect you and to size this person up too. Sometimes, someone who isn't emotionally involved with the person you are meeting, can help to determine if this person is being truthful and honest with you. Always remember, safety first, OK?
Third, if someone starts asking you to send them money, then this is an indication that they are a con-person. No one who has met on-line just a short time ago, should be asking for money, not for any reason. I had someone do that to me, and it was supposedly for something for “us”, but as it ended up, he was a con-man. He apparently made his living conning people like me, and I was not as savvy as I am now concerning this type of thing. Especially women are very vulnerable. People who have recently broken up with their partner, people who have recently lost a spouse to death, people who have never married, these kinds of people can be very trusting in seeking a new companion, sometimes because of pure loneliness. That was my case, I had lost my husband to an especially long illness and I was very vulnerable and lonely. Believe me, people do take advantage of you using things like this.
Fourth, be especially skeptical of people from other countries. Sure, there are a lot of people who are legitimately seeking someone to meet, to date, to love and to marry; but be leery of the one who is seeking to come to this country in order to become an American by marriage. I found lots of those types of peoples out there. A lot of those, or should I say, most of those were from Africa, seeking to come to America. Some even asking me to “sponsor” them, so they could come to America and live here with you being responsible for them. This is a legal and financial responsibility to take care of them. And if they get in trouble with the law, you are responsible and held accountable for their actions. So, please
do be careful.
Fifth, if someone wants to send you a check and have you cash it for them, BEWARE! I also had this happen to me. No, I didn't lose anything because I was mindful from the beginning that this was an unscrupulous person, but it happens. Here's how it happened to me. He wanted to send me two money orders to cash, as he couldn't get them cashed where he was in Africa, so he said. They were supposedly from his company in the USA. I said alright, even though I didn't believe him about this excuse. Anyway, I wouldn't give him my address because I was leery about it, so I asked permission from my Pastor to have the money orders sent to my church. They were sent there, which took a lot of time, like weeks, and the man was always IM-ing me to see if I'd got them yet. When I did get them, I took them straight to the president of my bank. She called the company who supposedly issued the money orders, and guess what? Yep, there were no money orders issued from that company with those numbers. The checks were counterfeit, as I had thought, so the bank kept them, I gave them all the information I had on this person, copies of the emails and everything I had so they could track him down. Problem is…they probably will never be able to do that. You see? If I had cashed the checks which were for $3000 each, yeah $3000 each, then I send him the cash from the US bank, (keeping $500 for myself as payment for doing this) he would have the cash and I would have to make it up for the counterfeit money orders or checks. I would have to pay all that money back myself or go to jail. So, you see? We have to be very careful. There are people all over the world, and even in our own back yards, out to get anyone they can, for whatever they can. There are all kinds of fraud that we have to watch out for and we have to protect ourselves from this, and all types of Internet Fraud.
In Conclusion: So please, enjoy yourself in your endeavor to date, to love and to marry, but be smart, be careful, and most of all, be safe. Believe me, I've learned my lessons the hard way.
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Tagged: dating May 13, 2010
Tired of all the commercials for flowers and diamonds for Mother's day? Mother's day has become big business. This year, US consumers are expected to spend $14.6 billion dollars on Mother's Day — second only to the December holiday season.
But do we really value mothers in our culture? The true answer to that question is not to be found in how much money we spend on cards and gifts, but in examining the health, safety, and quality of life mothers experience every day of the year.
Sociologists for Women in Society, an international organization of sociologists and social scientists who work together to improve women's lives, publishes a series of factsheets that provide us some insight into the reality of mother's lives. For example:
*An estimated 41% of the wage gap is due to the different effects of marriage and children on men's and women's careers.
*Women often must choose between having a career and having a family, a choice men do not have to make.
*Intimate partners physically assault approximately 1.3 million women annually in the U.S.
*Black, Hispanic, and Asian women are more likely to die of pregnancy complications than white women.
*Daily, 1600 women and more than 10,000 newborns worldwide die from preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
*In 2008, the U.S. ranked behind 41 countries for its rate of infant mortality and behind 32 countries for its rate of maternal mortality.
If we as a society truly valued mothers and mothering, what would we need? I turned to some of my colleagues in SWS and asked them what they wish for mothers on this Mother's day:
“I wish that all mothers had access to affordable health care and medicine for their children.”
(Susan, Iowa)
“The US is the only country in the industrialized world that does not have state supported child care and hence the number of hours women spend in care giving in the US is completely off the charts in relation to countries in Western Europe. So for me a real conversation about care work, valuing it, counting it as part of GDP, and making it everyone's responsibility would be a start.”
(Manisha, Connecticut)
*”I wish that I didn't have to worry as a single mom about trying to pay for my children's college education at the same time that I have to save for my own retirement. Please give all custodial parents some social security “extra credit” for having spent time raising our children, instead of maximizing our earnings.”
(Jennifer, Iowa)
“My mother wishes for a society where she can be a grandmother. She wishes for universal child care, comprehensive health care, and paid family leave so that her two daughters, who are in their 30s, are highly educated and have promising careers, can manage to have children of their own.”
(Kris, Florida)
“Mothers need clean water for their children: Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water. The United Nations reports 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhea.” ( take action )
(Mary, CA)
“As a mother I would like to know that no mother should ever worry about being separated from her children due to poverty, violence, or hateful anti-immigrant laws.”
(Julie, Washington)
“It seems that a lot of us moms find ourselves struggling to 'balance' work and family. It may not be easy, but it seems vital that we stop feeling guilty about needing to and/or wanting to compartmentalize these different aspects of our lives. For Mother's Day, I wish for all moms who are slicing up their proverbial pie charts of life to remember not just to divide our energy and time between family and work but also to reserve at least a little slice for our own, personal health, wellbeing, and joy…and not just on the second Sunday of May!”
(Adina, CA)
“I wish we could pay tribute to birth mothers who are not 'counted' as mothers by most people…and the need as well to protect the right to choose whether or not to become a mother, rather than forcing it upon 'womenkind'…motherhood comes in a variety of contexts and definitions - be it the label, the identity, the concept, or simply the choice of whether or not one becomes 'mother'.”
(Andrea, Kansas)
“I wish people didn't assume that a childless woman in her 30s is childless by choice or is reveling in her childlessness…I wish that we could talk more comfortably about infertility and un-chosen childlessness in general as much as we do about contraception, abortion, or single-parenthood.”
(Jane, Florida)
“I wish all mothers could be free to marry the person they love, even if that is another mother.”
(Liz, NY)
“I wish no mother had to worry each day about whether her children would be stopped by the police because of the color of their skin.”
(Jackie, AZ)
“I wish no mother would have to worry about being deported and not knowing when she would see her children again”
(Donna, OR)
“My Mothers' Day wish is that our culture would stop seeing the need for Work-Family reforms as a Mother's Day issue and start seeing it as an EVERY day issue — for fathers as well as mothers and for single, childless individuals, who actually spend more time taking care of aging parents and kin than do their married counterparts.”
(Stephanie Coontz )
Safe homes, healthy food and water, quality affordable health care and childcare, freedom from violence and fear, these are what mothers need. These are what we all need. Once these basic needs are met, then we can think about cards and gifts.
Recommended websites:
*The Council on Contemporary Families: www.contemporaryfamilies.org
*Moms Rising: www.momsrising.org/
*Girl w/ Pen: girlwpen.com
*Sociologists for Women in Society: www.socwomen.org/
Author/Historian Stephanie Coontz: www.stephaniecoontz.com
For Mother’s Day – Spreading the Art of Laughter
by Tom Purcell
I handed my debit card to the owner of a barbecue restaurant. He saw my name on the card.
“Is your mother’s name Elizabeth?” he asked.
When I nodded, he burst out laughing. And then proceeded to confess to a prank, motivated by my mother, that he’d pulled on my family 30 years ago.
My mother, you see, is a little bit “out there.” People would refer to her as “eccentric” if she were as wealthy financially as she is wealthy otherwise.
Her greatest wealth is her art of laughter.
She knew laughter’s benefits long before scientific studies confirmed them. When she wasn’t laughing herself, she was teaching us how.
Most nights after dinner, we sat around the table, relating stories about we’d done and laughing aloud.
While many parents in our neighborhood went out on Saturday nights, my mother preferred to stay home.
We’d make banana splits and watch the Carol Burnett show, and as Tim Conway’s old-man routine made me laugh so hard that I’d fall off the couch, she’d watch me, delighted that I was learning her art so well.
She collected friends even more eccentric than she. One lady, Marty, had five children — my mother had six. Both had been housewives their entire adult lives — both wanted to try their hand at writing.
My mother soon published a few magazine articles — Erma Bombeck-style housewife humor. She and Marty wrote a play, “Betty’s Attic,” that a local theater company performed.
They sold jokes to Phyllis Diller. They were thrilled to see her do their jokes at a live show — delighted by the laughter their jokes provoked.
The writing never produced much money, though, so my mother concocted another plan to generate extra cash. Did she get a part-time job, like normal moms in our neighborhood?
No, she dressed up like Miss Piggy, Big Bird, Raggedy Ann or Clown Clara and staged children’s parties for parents desperate to pay her. It was easy for her to bring instant order to a room of 40 kids or more.
She was soon staging three parties every Saturday — all of them as Clown Clara, to avoid costume changes.
As fate would have it, though — and I’m not making this up — a thief dressed as a clown had been robbing area banks.
But she still was surprised when a cop roared into a driveway where she had just pulled in for one of her gigs, jumped out and began barking at her.
It took some time to clear up the confusion — at one point, the cop thought my mother was in cahoots with the guy who’d hired her to stage his kid’s party. But when everybody finally figured out what was going on, she had but one response: a giant burst of laughter.
Which brings us back to the barbecue restaurant.
The fellow who owned the joint had lived in a neighborhood near ours during my mother’s Clown Clara period. A teen then, he was friends with my sister Mary.
He and his buddies, aware that my mother dressed as a clown — everyone in our neighborhood knew about Clown Clara — could not fend off the temptation to prank-call our home.
Late at night, after sneaking beers in the woods, he’d call our house, disguising his voice as Mickey Mouse.
“Is Clown Clara there?” he’d say, his friends laughing aloud in the background.
It happened 30 years ago — and he’s still laughing about it.
That’s my mother: spreading the art of laughter wherever she goes.
©2010 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. His copyrighted column is licensed to run on TMV in full.
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Tired of all the commercials for flowers and diamonds for Mother's day? Mother's day has become big business. This year, US consumers are expected to spend $14.6 billion dollars on Mother's Day — second only to the December holiday season.
But do we really value mothers in our culture? The true answer to that question is not to be found in how much money we spend on cards and gifts, but in examining the health, safety, and quality of life mothers experience every day of the year.
Sociologists for Women in Society, an international organization of sociologists and social scientists who work together to improve women's lives, publishes a series of factsheets that provide us some insight into the reality of mother's lives. For example:
*An estimated 41% of the wage gap is due to the different effects of marriage and children on men's and women's careers.
*Women often must choose between having a career and having a family, a choice men do not have to make.
*Intimate partners physically assault approximately 1.3 million women annually in the U.S.
*Black, Hispanic, and Asian women are more likely to die of pregnancy complications than white women.
*Daily, 1600 women and more than 10,000 newborns worldwide die from preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
*In 2008, the U.S. ranked behind 41 countries for its rate of infant mortality and behind 32 countries for its rate of maternal mortality.
If we as a society truly valued mothers and mothering, what would we need? I turned to some of my colleagues in SWS and asked them what they wish for mothers on this Mother's day:
“I wish that all mothers had access to affordable health care and medicine for their children.”
(Susan, Iowa)
“The US is the only country in the industrialized world that does not have state supported child care and hence the number of hours women spend in care giving in the US is completely off the charts in relation to countries in Western Europe. So for me a real conversation about care work, valuing it, counting it as part of GDP, and making it everyone's responsibility would be a start.”
(Manisha, Connecticut)
*”I wish that I didn't have to worry as a single mom about trying to pay for my children's college education at the same time that I have to save for my own retirement. Please give all custodial parents some social security “extra credit” for having spent time raising our children, instead of maximizing our earnings.”
(Jennifer, Iowa)
“My mother wishes for a society where she can be a grandmother. She wishes for universal child care, comprehensive health care, and paid family leave so that her two daughters, who are in their 30s, are highly educated and have promising careers, can manage to have children of their own.”
(Kris, Florida)
“Mothers need clean water for their children: Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water. The United Nations reports 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhea.” ( take action )
(Mary, CA)
“As a mother I would like to know that no mother should ever worry about being separated from her children due to poverty, violence, or hateful anti-immigrant laws.”
(Julie, Washington)
“It seems that a lot of us moms find ourselves struggling to 'balance' work and family. It may not be easy, but it seems vital that we stop feeling guilty about needing to and/or wanting to compartmentalize these different aspects of our lives. For Mother's Day, I wish for all moms who are slicing up their proverbial pie charts of life to remember not just to divide our energy and time between family and work but also to reserve at least a little slice for our own, personal health, wellbeing, and joy…and not just on the second Sunday of May!”
(Adina, CA)
“I wish we could pay tribute to birth mothers who are not 'counted' as mothers by most people…and the need as well to protect the right to choose whether or not to become a mother, rather than forcing it upon 'womenkind'…motherhood comes in a variety of contexts and definitions - be it the label, the identity, the concept, or simply the choice of whether or not one becomes 'mother'.”
(Andrea, Kansas)
“I wish people didn't assume that a childless woman in her 30s is childless by choice or is reveling in her childlessness…I wish that we could talk more comfortably about infertility and un-chosen childlessness in general as much as we do about contraception, abortion, or single-parenthood.”
(Jane, Florida)
“I wish all mothers could be free to marry the person they love, even if that is another mother.”
(Liz, NY)
“I wish no mother had to worry each day about whether her children would be stopped by the police because of the color of their skin.”
(Jackie, AZ)
“I wish no mother would have to worry about being deported and not knowing when she would see her children again”
(Donna, OR)
“My Mothers' Day wish is that our culture would stop seeing the need for Work-Family reforms as a Mother's Day issue and start seeing it as an EVERY day issue — for fathers as well as mothers and for single, childless individuals, who actually spend more time taking care of aging parents and kin than do their married counterparts.”
(Stephanie Coontz )
Safe homes, healthy food and water, quality affordable health care and childcare, freedom from violence and fear, these are what mothers need. These are what we all need. Once these basic needs are met, then we can think about cards and gifts.
Recommended websites:
*The Council on Contemporary Families: www.contemporaryfamilies.org
*Moms Rising: www.momsrising.org/
*Girl w/ Pen: girlwpen.com
*Sociologists for Women in Society: www.socwomen.org/
Author/Historian Stephanie Coontz: www.stephaniecoontz.com
For Mother’s Day – Spreading the Art of Laughter
by Tom Purcell
I handed my debit card to the owner of a barbecue restaurant. He saw my name on the card.
“Is your mother’s name Elizabeth?” he asked.
When I nodded, he burst out laughing. And then proceeded to confess to a prank, motivated by my mother, that he’d pulled on my family 30 years ago.
My mother, you see, is a little bit “out there.” People would refer to her as “eccentric” if she were as wealthy financially as she is wealthy otherwise.
Her greatest wealth is her art of laughter.
She knew laughter’s benefits long before scientific studies confirmed them. When she wasn’t laughing herself, she was teaching us how.
Most nights after dinner, we sat around the table, relating stories about we’d done and laughing aloud.
While many parents in our neighborhood went out on Saturday nights, my mother preferred to stay home.
We’d make banana splits and watch the Carol Burnett show, and as Tim Conway’s old-man routine made me laugh so hard that I’d fall off the couch, she’d watch me, delighted that I was learning her art so well.
She collected friends even more eccentric than she. One lady, Marty, had five children — my mother had six. Both had been housewives their entire adult lives — both wanted to try their hand at writing.
My mother soon published a few magazine articles — Erma Bombeck-style housewife humor. She and Marty wrote a play, “Betty’s Attic,” that a local theater company performed.
They sold jokes to Phyllis Diller. They were thrilled to see her do their jokes at a live show — delighted by the laughter their jokes provoked.
The writing never produced much money, though, so my mother concocted another plan to generate extra cash. Did she get a part-time job, like normal moms in our neighborhood?
No, she dressed up like Miss Piggy, Big Bird, Raggedy Ann or Clown Clara and staged children’s parties for parents desperate to pay her. It was easy for her to bring instant order to a room of 40 kids or more.
She was soon staging three parties every Saturday — all of them as Clown Clara, to avoid costume changes.
As fate would have it, though — and I’m not making this up — a thief dressed as a clown had been robbing area banks.
But she still was surprised when a cop roared into a driveway where she had just pulled in for one of her gigs, jumped out and began barking at her.
It took some time to clear up the confusion — at one point, the cop thought my mother was in cahoots with the guy who’d hired her to stage his kid’s party. But when everybody finally figured out what was going on, she had but one response: a giant burst of laughter.
Which brings us back to the barbecue restaurant.
The fellow who owned the joint had lived in a neighborhood near ours during my mother’s Clown Clara period. A teen then, he was friends with my sister Mary.
He and his buddies, aware that my mother dressed as a clown — everyone in our neighborhood knew about Clown Clara — could not fend off the temptation to prank-call our home.
Late at night, after sneaking beers in the woods, he’d call our house, disguising his voice as Mickey Mouse.
“Is Clown Clara there?” he’d say, his friends laughing aloud in the background.
It happened 30 years ago — and he’s still laughing about it.
That’s my mother: spreading the art of laughter wherever she goes.
©2010 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. His copyrighted column is licensed to run on TMV in full.
There's a piece on some recently-announced iPad apps in the New York Times, mentioning a number of companies who have dared defy Apple's edict to remain.
Read our COD: Black Ops for Wii confirmed News for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii.
On Fox News' America Live this afternoon, Megyn Kelly and Brit Hume were discussing President Obama's remarks about tech devices like the iPad, casting him as a tech-phobic hypocrite who uses the devices himself, when Hume suddenly …
Tagged: making money May 12, 2010
Its a Lindsay “Sober, Relevant, A-list Celebrity” Lohan Post
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: Dina Lohan On Lindsay's Money Management - “We Needed To Clean House And Start Over”
Dina Lohan is going on the record about her daughter Lindsay’s reported financial troubles. In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com, the Lohan matriarch denies her daughter owes $600,000 in credit card debt, but does reveal that there have been some shakeups among those keeping tabs on Lindsay’s bank account.
“She is not going into credit card debt. Absolutely not. And her business managers… I actually am in contact with them every day,” Dina told RadarOnline.com. “And you know Lindsay will spend money but she has people that run what she does. We had another manager that we’ve now moved. We kind of cleaned house and we have somebody else who… I mean everyone was great but we just needed to clean house and start over. So Lindsay doesn’t really pay her bills. Someone else does, so they wouldn’t let her do that.
“And in the interim, you know, a bill may be a little late or not, you know, but that’s pretty normal. That happens to me, that happens to everyone,” Dina continues. “Lindsay isn’t in charge of her finances, other people are and we are keeping a close eye on the people who are managing her.”
When it comes to reports of Lindsay’s all-night partying, Dina says the stories are fabricated and overblown.
“People don’t understand how the press manipulates and how they make something look as it seems when it’s completely opposite,” she told RadarOnline.com. “What you read in the press is completely fabricated. If a girl… any child… a girl in the business goes out one night, you’ll see magazines for the next two weeks and they’re wearing the same outfit. So it’s the same night!”
Despite Dina's positive outlook on Lindsay's current life, there is no denying that in recent years, the actress’ film roles have declined significantly‹both in quantity and quality. Her last movie Labor Pains, went straight to DVD. Is Lindsay hurting for money? Dina says absolutely not.
“She has her 6126 clothing line which is doing amazing,” she says. “We’re in Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales… she designs everything from soup to nuts. She just signed a deal with a hand bag company-same company- and it’s flourishing. She also has her Sevin Nyne tanning spray and a couple of movie offers in the pike.”
Is Dina in a state of denial? Maybe. Or maybe she would just rather deal with her family’s personal issues behind closed doors.
“I’m not going to talk about any personal issues with my children,” she says. “But I’m speaking for any single mother or couples across the world, when I say that I just want my kids to be healthy, happy and safe. I’m a religious person and I pray for them all the time. But you have to let them go. You have to let them fall and get hurt and then get back up and then be there for them. I really don’t like going back but it’s time that we have to stand up for ourselves and tell the truth, and the facts are the facts.”
I don't know how to make the video embed or if it is possible, so please click here to see it
source is same as video link
Mint is a great online service for managing your finances and accounts that together with its accompanying iPhone app boasts a pretty significant 2 million users. While the web-based services are accessible to anyone regardless of what handset they own, users of Mint lacking in the iPhone department had long wondered when they would get to have their cake and eat it too, and it looks like they soon will be able to fill up on the sweet, minty treat.
Ask and though shall receive, as Mint states the upcoming Android version of their application is in direct response to requests from users of the service:
“Customer feedback and requests help determine upcoming products and features from Mint.com. In the coming months, the Mint team plans to address user requests, adding support for thousands of additional financial institutions and an Android application to expand its mobile presence beyond its award-winning iPhone application.”
Some people may not be all that big on the idea of allowing a 3rd party access to your accounts and financial information, but for the many making Mint the #1 personal finance app available, the service is a must-have. Mint allows you to control and track your budget, make adjustments, and view trends and history in your spending. The mobile app gives you quick access to this information wherever you go so you will always know if you have the excess cash for those impulse buys.
Mike Fuljenz
There are many ways to manage your personal finances, and a lot of them are very useful. The way you choose depends on the goals you hold for yourself.
Being able to manage your own personal finances is not simply about creating wealth for yourself, it is about creating all that you could possibly need in order to achieve your life's purpose. When you ready to start managing your personal finances, you need to make a goal for yourself that you will be trying to reach every step along the road.
When you are setting a goal, you need to keep a couple of things in mind. How much debt are you in? You should definitely work to get yourself out of debt, even if you have other goals as well. What is your plan for retirement; even if your first goal is to rid yourself of debt, you, like most Americans, need to have a plan for retirement. You wouldn't want to be tight on money in the years that you are supposed to relax.
Now that you have a goal in mind, you should start your planning. Remember, you need to have a plan before you can take another step to managing your personal finances. '
First, evaluate your current financial situation. From here you will have the ability to chart what you need to do to reach your future goals. There are 7 simple steps that will help you to reach your future goals.
1) You need to take a good look at what your financial situation is right now.
2) You need to establish what your future goals are.
3) You need to develop a plan that you will follow to reach your goals.
4) KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid, have an easy way to keep your records.
5) Keep an eye on your income and expenses.
6) Have a plan to deal with debt.
7) Measure progress as you move through your plan, you may have to alter it to reach your goals.
The best way to aid in reaching your goals is to starting saving as much as you can spare on a monthly basis, and avoid dipping into your savings account except when you really need to. For example, try saving about$100 dollars each month. If you can't really afford this much right now, make it lower, if you can easily afford this much, make it higher. What this will do is that, in addition to increasing your ability to reach your financial plans, it will ensure you that you will have something to help you when you retire.
If you were to start saving $100 per month when you are in your early twenties, you would have at least a quarter of a million dollars set aside for your retirement. Of course that is only true if you didn't start taking money from your account.
As you can now see, managing your finances can be as easy as just setting aside a couple hundred dollars once a month, if you make a plan and follow it; you can become debt free, and have nothing to worry about at retirement.
(May 7) — Romaine lettuce being sold in 23 states and the District of Columbia is being recalled after at least 20 people have fallen ill with dangerous E. coli bacteria — including three life-threatening cases.
Read our Call of Duty: The War Collection spotted News for Xbox 360.
(May 7) — In an unexpected turnaround, Moscow said today that \'imperfections\' in international law led it to free 10 Somali pirates captured by a Russian warship after they hijacked a Russian oil tanker.
Tagged: online stock trading and investments May 8, 2010
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Today, I am visiting Washington High School in Phoenix to present “The Fundamentals of Finance” seminar, in partnership with Plastyc, to encourage responsible money management skills. In conjunction with the seminar, we're posting these financial tips for teens:
Earn money
Besides gift-money or money you get from your parents, earn some more from a summer or part-time job that does not interfere with your school work. If you are creative, come up with your own things to sell. I (Amar'e) used to shovel snow in the winters in New York and babysit neighborhood kids to earn some extra dollars.
Save most
You are going to work really hard cleaning up an office, babysitting or helping a family friend to make the money you earn, so save what you can. We know money is tight right now and it may seem like you should spend it while you have it. We suggest saving most of it so that you can have money for something you want in the future. Money used to burn through my hands as a teenager until I (Amar'e) realized that I liked the feeling of having money in my bank account in case I needed it.
Spend some
Buy what you need. Look around for the best deals, look online, decide which options are best for you. As I (Patrice) tell my son, don't buy something just because everyone else has it. Be different and creative when making purchases.
Don't borrow
You may have no choice later, but avoid going into debt for as long as you can. There is no benefit for you in owing your parents or your friends money, unless it's for something important such as college or starting your own business as I (Patrice) did.
Watch out
Most check cashing services charge too much, and bank accounts and cards can be loaded with fees. There are plenty of comparison sites that can tell you what the lowest cost accounts and cards are, without having to read all the fine print. One example we can both recommend is www.bankrate.com.
The internet is more than an information or communication gateway because every day opportunity for making money presents itself.
Carrying on business in today's world is never complete until you are able to register your presence online. This way, you achieve maximum exposure to customers, clients and potential buyers in real time no matter the geographical spread or location.
There is every possibility that you can hit it BIG and make a lucrative sum of money doing business on part time basis or full time.
Searching through the internet which I must say is an Herculean task to undertake promises you every tool required to launch your presence online to the global community that make use of the internet for one purpose or another.
Every day a lot of information about goods, products and services that are available can be accessed and made use of for profit making online. You can cash in on these to make some money for yourself.
You will agree with me at this point that gaining knowledge and being granted access to useful, relevant and important information is neither sufficient nor complete when there is no commensurate response and effort on your part to utilize such.
You can only benefit and profit when you get to work. Hard work pays my friend and you need to get started without delay soonest.
What is your ambition, your desire, your hopes and aspirations in life? Is it to make it big and/or to be financially independent? How does being able to provide the basic necessities of life for yourself and your family sound to you?
When considered does it hold any appeal at all? What do you think of being able to lead the kind of lifestyle you have always dreamed of?
You can get to achieve all your heart's desires and realize your dreams by making the right choice and taking action on it. It all starts with a step.
So, what are you still waiting for because it is time to roll up your sleeves and get involved right away. You can make money the smart way that is devoid of stress, hardship and grit work.
The internet is indeed a financial vault and smart people get to access it as they transact one business or the other day by day.
Many opportunities people exploit to amass wealth and riches, fame and fortune online are neither new nor strange rather, these are familiar things only done better or repackaged for that special appeal.
Looking inwards or at your self and the skills you possess, are you good at a vocation or hobby? Do you have a flair for marketing? Or perhaps, there is a hidden talent, a hobby, a rare gift you exhibit (may be the very one people around you have labeled a weakness or shortcoming on your part)?
For example, people who can't keep their mouths shut are doing voice recordings and pod casts online making money by it. Singers are busy earning legitimate income on the internet with You-tube videos, etc.
Dear Soon to become a wealthy entrepreneur, you must realize that the things you get to do daily or as a routine may well serve as the door to making a fortune on the internet starting from today. It all borders on your enthusiasm and disposition towards making money online.
What do you know to do; Can you read, write letters or compose poems; point a camera and shoot good pictures; good at teaching or coaching? Are you good at singing, repairing things, organizing shows, birthdays or get together?
The best part is you can do business from the comfort and convenience of your home safely and securely on the internet. This is the whole idea behing work at home jobs and opportunities.
Do you have a passion for editting or arranging things? Get online and get paid doing what you know to do for a fee today and it will surprise you that someone out there needs you, your product, service and/or skill.
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Today, I am visiting Washington High School in Phoenix to present “The Fundamentals of Finance” seminar, in partnership with Plastyc, to encourage responsible money management skills. In conjunction with the seminar, we're posting these financial tips for teens:
Earn money
Besides gift-money or money you get from your parents, earn some more from a summer or part-time job that does not interfere with your school work. If you are creative, come up with your own things to sell. I (Amar'e) used to shovel snow in the winters in New York and babysit neighborhood kids to earn some extra dollars.
Save most
You are going to work really hard cleaning up an office, babysitting or helping a family friend to make the money you earn, so save what you can. We know money is tight right now and it may seem like you should spend it while you have it. We suggest saving most of it so that you can have money for something you want in the future. Money used to burn through my hands as a teenager until I (Amar'e) realized that I liked the feeling of having money in my bank account in case I needed it.
Spend some
Buy what you need. Look around for the best deals, look online, decide which options are best for you. As I (Patrice) tell my son, don't buy something just because everyone else has it. Be different and creative when making purchases.
Don't borrow
You may have no choice later, but avoid going into debt for as long as you can. There is no benefit for you in owing your parents or your friends money, unless it's for something important such as college or starting your own business as I (Patrice) did.
Watch out
Most check cashing services charge too much, and bank accounts and cards can be loaded with fees. There are plenty of comparison sites that can tell you what the lowest cost accounts and cards are, without having to read all the fine print. One example we can both recommend is www.bankrate.com.
http://stocktrading.JONTURKMUSIC.COM, http://realestatemutualfunds.JONTURKMUSIC.COM, http://reitmutualfunds.JONTURKMUSIC.COM, http://buystockonline.JONTURKMUSIC.COM
Tagged: franchise May 1, 2010
The $64,000 question is whether it is still correct to stick with our winning 'Ice Age' strategy to overweight government bonds given that both Dylan and I see the likelihood for a structural take-off in inflation before the decade is out. But I remain o/w bonds.
Of course the author knows that this is deliberate central bank policy, but I remain confused as to why no one ever states so. The moment the outcome becomes blatantly obvious, even to 30- and 40-something credit bubble-baby fund managers, all bets will be placed accordingly and the outcome will fulfill itself.
Our long term inflationist views are not at all inconsistent with the mounting near term risk of a dip into outright deflation as/when the current cyclical upturn falters.
I agree, the only question is one of timing. And that timing is also, for now, up to the central bankers, and therefore known only to them and their friends and family list, otherwise called “Wall Street”. As the debt-to-GDP and other measures become more and more damning, even that timing choice will be stripped from them, and then it will be the turn of the “legislators”, also in the service of “Wall Street”, to take control by any means necessary.
One of the key things to remember in Japan's lost decade was that, however low bonds yields got, they were able to go even lower in the following cyclical downturn. The long bull market in US government bonds continues to see a pattern of lower cyclical lows and lower cyclical highs. In that sense a technical analyst would define the bond bull as fully alive with all its faculties fully intact
And that is why I still believe it is wise to hedge your inflation portfolio with a substantial amount of cash and easily liquidated cash equivalents. Given the huge, structural, global fiscal challenges that are obvious to everyone, there are really only two bets: severe deflation, and a currency collapse / hyperinflation. Hedge one with the other and hope to see tomorrow. On Japan specifically, however, it seems that the endgame of Japan Scenario might soon be revealed as sovereign default.
In the end, persistent deflation is the midwife of hyperinflation. Governments will not survive a persistent deflation, certainly not government which is borrowing more money into the future and not less.
Scroll down to the second chart on this page, the one titled “Argentine Inflation 1995 - 2009″
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?p=106493
Then, if you can stand it, check out the next chart, titled “Argentine Exchange Rates 1995 - 2009″
It’s called “bait-and-switch”–the sales tactic of conning customers into believing they’re getting a good product, but then delivering shoddy goods instead.
America, we’ve been conned.
Government actuaries—the official bean counters for national health care—just released the bad news from analyzing how President Obama’s new law affects medical costs and insurance. Their verdict? “More Americans will be covered, but costs are also going up,” is how the Associated Press summarized it.
The higher expense is on top of the prior expectations of already-rising costs,
The minimum increase from Obamacare is one per cent higher, they report, but the maximum is likelier to be far greater, the analysts warned, because the legislation’s projected Medicare savings are probably “unrealistic and unsustainable,” just as The Heritage Foundation and many others have been saying.
So who are these guys who are sounding the latest alarm? They’re the professional actuaries at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), who typically operate with far greater independence than others who make official government projections. The Congressional Budget Office, for example, must follow rules handed down by Congress. The Office of Management and Budget is an extension of the White House and therefore governed by the President.
The new CMS analysis by law operates independently, and its report carries this disclaimer: “The statements, estimates, and other information provided in this memorandum are those of the Office of the Actuary and do not represent an official position of the Department of Health & Human Services or the Administration.”
How downright refreshing! Actual analysis rather than political propaganda!
So what’s the difference between CMS’ conclusion of higher costs and the sales job used to pass Obamacare? Obama delivered on his campaign pledge to spend taxpayers’ money on the uninsured (or at least 34-million of them), but he totally reneged on the larger promise to make medical care and insurance more affordable.
Even if you accept that 45-million are uninsured (a deceptive figure), it still represents only 15 percent of 300-million-plus Americans, meaning that 85 percent have coverage. For them, Obama won votes by repeatedly promising to reduce costs by $2,500 per year per family. The President flunked by that measure; the CMS report confirms that his plan pushes costs higher instead.
The damage goes even beyond that, however. As Kaiser Health News reported, “The report also warns that Medicare cuts could drive 15 percent of hospitals into debt and could drive people out of Medicare Advantage plans by as much as 50 percent.”
These are part of why the instant unpopularity of the new law is likely to grow even stronger. The Heritage Foundation has taken the lead to explain both why Obamacare should be repealed and how it can be repealed. The backlash keeps growing against the deceptions used to pass the legislation as well as against its actual provisions.
Unfortunately, it is not unusual for politicians to promise one thing and then deliver something totally different. But the enormity of this law—re-shaping one-sixth of our economy—places Obama’s bait-and-switch in a class by itself.
Former Senator Norm Coleman (R, MN) said it well in an article for Politico. Remembering how Obama put-down his critics at the White House Health Care Summit by saying, “The election is over,” Coleman wrote that the proper retort should have been, “Does that mean your campaign promises are null and void?”
Judging by how Obamacare raises costs rather than lowering them, the answer is a resounding, “Yes.”
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Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #10
-Wastebasket full of snotty Kleenex you went through while crying over his sorry ass, gift wrapped.
Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #9
-Ads for penis enlargement cut out and glued to walls randomly about his apartment.
Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #8
-”Fresh” pack of condoms with teeny pinholes left in his night stand drawer.
Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #7
-Peanut Butter And Jelly Inside Pockets Of All Pants.
Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #6
-Bee Hive Under Toilet Seat.
Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #5
-Black Ink In Favorite Shampoo.
Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #4
-Fake positive test results for new girlfriend's social disease mailed to him in official looking envelope.
Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #3
-Itching powder in underwear to confirm suspicion brought on by letter.
Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #2
-Replace toothpaste with Hemorrhoid cream.
Top Ten Valentines Day Gifts To Leave For The Cheater #1
-Super Glue everything on all counters, to the counters, in the exact position they normally are in.
Source :
the devious mind of jpsixbear
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Read our Free Realms still in development for PS3 News for PlayStation 3.
Read our Sony registers inFamous 2 domain News for PlayStation 3.
Breaking news: I am not white!
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Tagged: counters April 30, 2010
Previous Posts
April 23rd, 2010 6:32 PM
Looks like Michelle Bombshell McGee does something new every week to extend her 15 minutes of fame and keep her name in the news.
But she's not the only one. Other celebrity mistresses are doing the same thing.
To check out the latest stunts celebrity mistresses are pulling to keep their names in the news see Celebrity Mistress Update – The Latest Report On Celebrity Mistresses In The News at http://bit.ly/d06yba
There are so many celebrity mistresses now that you almost need a scorecard to keep track. If you like Mistress Trivia, check out The Mistress Quiz at http://bit.ly/9qc6aC and see how many of the 22 mistresses you can match with the famous man they cheated with.
On a more serious note, you might want to check out the 2 part article at http://bit.ly/90CC0E entitled Modern Day Mistresses Who Ruined Their Lover’s Lives. These women are truly toxic, but cheating men - even famous ones - never learn.
April 21st, 2010 3:23 AM
Someone knock her off for what she has done. She is such a low life, how can they allow her to be famous for being a low life, that means it normalises ruining a first class oscar winner and now low life scum bags will all try this trick. Get some laws, ban the low lifes from access to hollywood!
April 20th, 2010 8:19 PM
And that is the only thing she is going to be known for. Her kids are going to be so proud. Stupid B***h.
April 20th, 2010 5:03 AM
I'm all for trying to saving a marriage especially when children are involved. but there is a pattern here. we can all see the kind of low class chick jessie prefers… 'celebrity cheaters'!! OMG how do they live with themselves ruining peoples lives. money talks especially in this case cause jessie is butt **** ugly inside and out.