| Legislators discuss issues with public
Butler is advocating a no interest unsecured loan from Entergy's customers to Entergy. He is doing this at a time of severe credit problems. If you got a loan of this sort you would be asked to pay 20% or upwards, with fees and penalties. From the London U.K. Telegraph:"It is hard to imagine a more plain-vanilla outfit than the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages bridges, bus terminals, and airports. The authority is a public body, backed by the two states. Yet it had to pay 20pc rates in February after the near closure of the $330bn (£166m) “term-auction" market. It had originally expected to pay 4.3pc, but that was aeons ago in financial time." Loans to public bodies are usually considered the most secure loans of all, being guaranteed by the government's abilitly to use the future labor of taxpayers as collateral.
NFL | 'There's a lot of love in those boos,' T.O. says
Those boos, they ain't really boos, man. There's a lot of love in those boos. They ain't got no choice but to boo me because I'm on the other side. I guarantee you if I were to get traded to the Eagles right now, they would love me. . . . "Maybe I can get them to chant my name again in that stadium. At the rate things are going up there, they just might do that." 49ers. The NFL fined kicker Joe Nedney $7,500 for making an obscene gesture at his home fans during Sunday's game against New Orleans. Nedney blamed frustration for his sly gesticulation in the third quarter of San Francisco's 31-10 loss to the Saints at Candlestick Park, the Niners' fifth consecutive defeat. Lions. Quarterback Jon Kitna and his wife dressed up Monday as a naked man and a fast-food drive-through attendant at teammate Mike Furrey's Halloween party, depicting an embarrassing moment for one of Detroit's assistant coaches.
Wild Card -- Tuesday PM
Two men have claimed that West sexually molested them when they were boys and West was a deputy sheriff and Boy Scout leader in the 1970s. West has called the molestation allegations "flat lies." Click here. David Postman/Seattle Times continues to blog the Washington guv election trial in Wenatchee (last update at 10:02 a.m.) here. 1. Eric Devericks/Seattle Times doodles re: John McCain's 2008 campaign slogan here, and David Horsey/PI gets it right about controlling terrorists here. 2. Transgendered Paula K. Reynolds-Eblacas, a 38-year-old Spokane woman, who sometimes grows a full beard as a symbol of her activism for human rights, was arrested Thursday and charged with felony stalking of another woman, according to Tom Clouse, SR, here. 3.
12:27 a.m.: L.A. man arrested in Madison County sentenced in fraud ...
One of two California men arrested in Madison County and indicted on federal bank fraud charges connected to a multi-state scheme was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday. 12:27 a.m.: L.A. man arrested in Madison County sentenced in fraud case The Herald Bulletin .
Could Democrats Face Iraq Backlash?
The Washington Post reports police "said the death toll was certain to rise with the recovery of bodies trapped in vehicles under tons of concrete or in the murky river. The recovery effort proceeded slowly, impaired by strong currents, stiff winds and perilous wreckage, including chunks of concrete, mangled steel, and a jumble of cables and electrical wires." The New York Times also says the search for other survivors "was halted repeatedly as currents picked up, debris shifted and the waters grew impossibly cloudy." The Chicago Tribune also says the "search missions bogged down in hazardous conditions Thursday," and added that officials said "the going will be slow." The CBS Evening News said the "dangers divers face are extreme -- avoiding mountains of twisted steel and concrete and cars.
US Treasuries continue to rally
They expect the Fed to cut rates further to ease the strains. In this respect, the testimony of Bernanke (see below) and the press conference of Trichet were very interesting, even if they didn't immediately affect the markets. While Bernanke did spoke again of roughly balanced risks to growth (downside) and inflation (upside), it is clear that his concerns about financial markets and downside risks dominate those about inflation that got only one small paragraph in his statement. ECB president Trichet stressed, as usual the upside risks to inflation, but more telling he did its utmost best to downplay the sharp past and near future rise in headline inflation (see below). Interestingly, Cisco said that the orders from the financial and car sectors have fallen off a cliff, suggesting that business expenditure might be retreating, an important factor in the economic outlook.
Dollar stronger at noon
THE dollar was higher at lunchtime today, despite a late-morning dip following the release of weaker than expected capital expenditure figures. At 12noon (AEDT), the Australian dollar was trading at $US0.8835/39, up from yesterday's close of $US0.8757/62. During the morning, the Australian dollar traded between a low of $US0.8827 - reached just after the release of the private capital expenditure data - and a high of $US0.8920. New private capital expenditure fell 6.5 per cent in real terms, seasonally adjusted, in the September quarter to $19.638 billion, from an upwardly revised $21.005 billion in the June quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said today. The Australian dollar was at $US0.8850 just before the data was released at 11.30pm AEDT, but fell to $US0.8830 shortly afterwards, RBC Capital Markets senior economist Su-Lin Ong said.
Britons Face Billion-Pound Interest Payback
One in four people is struggling with their debts as Britons collectively face a 93bn annual bill for interest. At the same time, around three million people have taken out a debt consolidation loan to try to get on top of their borrowings. Borrowing through credit cards, loans, overdrafts and mortgages has hit almost 1.4 trillion, according to comparison website uSwitch.com. An estimated 9.5m people had "maxed out" on one form of credit during the past six months, while 38% have had a credit card application rejected, the group claims. But nearly two-thirds of these failed to close down their existing credit facilities, and instead went on to rack up a further 2,300 of debt on average. Overall, the research found that the average household has now amassed unsecured debts of 4,281.
MCG & Telstra Dome Walk Up Access
Forty-four out of forty-five matches scheduled at the MCG in 2007 will allow AFL Members to simply scan their membership card and access a seat in the available areas. Walk-up areas are available on a first in first served basis, which means the earlier you arrive, the better access you have to great seats. Walk Up Seats: Level M (Undercover): Approx. 1,000 seats Level M (Open): Approx 4,000 seats Level N: Approx 600 seats Level P: Approx 1,000 seats Level Q (Prime, Rows A-J): Approx 1,300 seats Level Q (Rows K-DD): Approx 5,000 seats The number of seats estimated in each section are applicable to most matches, but are subject to change without notice. The only anticipated home and away 'Reserved Seat Ticket' match at the MCG in 2007 will be the ANZAC Day game.
US district court judge orders shutdown of whistleblower web site
In an extraordinary act of censorship, lawyers representing the Swiss bank Julius Baer (BJB) obtained an injunction against the Dynadot corporation, US domain name registrar for the Wikileaks web site. Judge Jeffrey White of the Federal District Court in San Francisco issued the injunction February 15 in a lawsuit BJB filed against Wilikeaks and Dynadot. The suit was filed after Wikileaks posted documents allegedly revealing fraudulent activities, including asset-hiding, money laundering and tax evasion schemes, on the part of the banks Cayman Islands branch. BJB claims the documents were stolen and contain customer information protected from disclosure under privacy laws. The website of BJB promotes the bank as the leading dedicated wealth manager in Switzerland, concentrating on private banking and asset management for private and institutional clients. Under the terms of the injunction, Dynadot may not release the registered wikileaks.org domain name, meaning that the Wikileaks web site cannot be reached through the related web address, www.wikileaks.org.
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