Month: April 2010

If there is any financial reform, thank Goldman Sachs

Posted by dcrim – April 30, 2010

We certainly wouldn’t want to reform any part of our financial system. Not with these guys in charge.

Maybe it’s time, as Barbara Kiviat of Time magazine suggests, to break up the big banks.

Ezra Klein of Newsweek writes that the market’s rules consist of making as much money as you can without going to jail.

This is a world in which people are applauded for “blowing up the customer” — that is to say, offloading a crap product on a dim investor.

But it’s not the world the rest of us live in. And if Wall Street doesn’t realize that quick, financial regulation might turn out very badly for them.

Is the Internet good or bad when it comes to political discourse?

Posted by dcrim – April 22, 2010

David Brooks, resident conservative of the New York Times, takes an interesting look at how the Internet may be affecting political discourse. Instead of leading to a “more ghettoized, polarized and insular electorate,” as many have suggested, Brooks points to a study that surmises the Internet may be responsible for a “free-wheeling multilayered Mad Max public square.”

Writes Brooks: “… if there is increased polarization (and there is), it’s probably not the Internet that’s causing it.”

Never a dull moment with the Blagojevich case

Posted by dcrim – April 21, 2010

Calling the feds “cowards” and “liars” must mean the insanity defense has begun.

U.S. Postal Service question: Deliver mail, or dump it in the river

Posted by dcrim – April 19, 2010

The U.S. Postal Service is hemorrhaging money, laying off employees and talking about reducing delivery to five days a week to keep from going broke.

So it couldn’t have been welcomed news Monday when it was reported that a Southeast Missouri man who worked for Postal Service admitted to dumping mail along a river instead of delivering it last year.

The Associated Press reports Lance W. Kinder of Oran pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to one felony count of delay or destruction of mail. The U.S. Attorney’s office says Kinder dumped the mail sometime between Aug. 1 and Nov. 5 of last year. Sentencing is set for July 20. Kinder faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

An Oran man and his son said they found the undelivered mail along the Diversion Channel last Thanksgiving. Authorities said there were about 600 to 1,000 pieces of mail that should have been delivered to people in Sikeston, Dexter, Kennett, New Madrid and other Bootheel towns.

Any wonder why people prefer e-mail?

‘Stache advocates make case for receiving tax break

Posted by dcrim – April 14, 2010

Tax policy professor John Yeutter and the St. Louis-based American Mustache Institute believe it’s time for mustached Americans to get their share of the federal stimulus money.

On the eve of the Thursday deadline to file income tax returns, the professor and the AMI — a tongue-in-cheek group dubs itself “the world’s only facial hair advocacy and research organization” — are pushing for a $250 annual tax incentive for people with mustaches. The funds would be used for mustache grooming supplies.

The Associated Press reports the AMI says the tax current system “provides a disincentive for the clean-shaven to enjoy the mustached American lifestyle.” The AMI says the stimulus money could be used not only for trimming instruments but for wax, combs and mirrors.

As the proud owner of a mustache for more than three decades, this is a tax loophole I can support.

Site provides casino scorecard for Missouri, Illinois

Posted by dcrim – April 13, 2010

If you want to learn the payouts of your favorite casinos in Missouri and Illinois and see which establishments are visited the most, click here.

No shortage of stories from first day of the Masters

Posted by dcrim – April 9, 2010

Fred_CoupleSo much for Tiger Woods being rusty. Sure, he left a few putts out there Thursday in the first round of the Masters, but he still shot a 4-under 68 despite being under the glare of TV cameras and a normally tame gallery at Augusta National.

Otherwise, it was turn-back-the-clock day. Fred Couples, the 1992 champion (pictured at right with then-wife Deborah) and now a full-time member of the Champions Tour at age 50, became the oldest man to ever lead the Masters. That honor would have gone to 60-year-old Tom Watson, who finished at 5-under earlier in the day, had it not been for Couples.

Couples is one of the nicest guys in professional golf, and he has a swing duffers everywhere would kill for. There will be plenty of sentiment for him to hang around the top of the leaderboard until Sunday afternoon, just as many people were pulling for Kenny Perry a year ago.

And you can bet CBS is hoping Woods will be in contention. His return after five months of personal turmoil and humiliation is THE storyline of the tournament, and winning his fifth green jacket would go a long way toward mending his tattered image.

New Nike ad puts Tiger Woods in different light

Posted by dcrim – April 8, 2010

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes the new Nike ad featuring Tiger Woods, with a voiceover we’re led to believe is his late father, Earl Woods, has more questions than answers.

No other week in sports compares to this one

Posted by dcrim – April 5, 2010

This may be the best single week in sports.

Although the Red Sox and Yankees played the first game of the season Sunday night (and it was relaxing to watch a meaningful game for the first time since November), most Major League baseball teams begin their seasons today. As a friend once told me in comparing MLB to the National Football League, football is an event, while baseball is a companion.

Butler will try to cap its improbable run tonight when it plays Duke for the NCAA basketball championship. Can’t say it has been the most anticipated Final Four of all time, maybe because there really were no great teams this season, but I suspect most of America will be rooting for a mid-major to walk away from the biggest prize of all. And I say that despite having the utmost respect for Coach K.

Finally, the Masters tees off Thursday. The first major is the best of them all, in part because it is played at the same venue every year. There will be the Tiger Woods sideshow, but this is one tournament that can hold an audience no matter who is atop the leaderboard. There’s just something about Augusta National and the history of the tournament. Some of the best weeks of my professional life were spent there. I think Steve Looten will agree.

It’s never good to show up drunk for a DUI sentencing hearing

Posted by dcrim – April 2, 2010

It doesn’t always take Horatio Caine to bring criminals to justice. To wit:

• A 49-year-old Montana man who apparently was intoxicated when he came to court for his trial on a felony drunken driving charge has pleaded no contest to his 11th DUI.

Thaylin Shawn Pierce, of Billings, entered the plea Thursday. He’s free on bond until his sentencing June 22. The Billings Gazette reports Pierce was charged in November 2008 after he tried to drive after being kicked out of a casino. His trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday, but the judge suspected Pierce was intoxicated.

A breath test showed Pierce had a blood-alcohol level of 0.093 percent. Negotiations for a plea agreement began. One of the conditions was that Pierce had to return to court sober the next morning to enter his plea. Pierce has nine previous drunken driving convictions in Colorado and another one in Wyoming.

• The people who witnessed a robbery attempt at an Oregon convenience store didn’t need to describe the muggers. They just needed to point.

The Mail Tribune reports the two men accused of trying to rob someone at knifepoint were arrested when they returned to get their car while officers were interviewing witnesses.

Medford police Lt. Bob Hansen says a man leaving the store late Tuesday was accosted by two men. One brandished a knife and demanded money. The would-be robbers fled when the man ran back into the store and called police.

Hansen says officers were interviewing witnesses in the parking lot when the suspects showed up. Though the men were wearing different clothes, witnesses identified them as the robbers. The men, 19 and 20 years old, were jailed on charges of attempted first-degree robbery.

• Prosecutors say an Ohio inmate’s letter to his mother included detailed instructions on how to sneak drugs to him — but lacked the correct ZIP code.

Ottawa County Sheriff Bob Bratton says the letter was returned to the Port Clinton jail where corrections officers read it along with the other incoming mail. Donald Dudrow III of Toledo was indicted Thursday on charges of attempted drug trafficking and trying to get drugs into a correctional facility.

The Portsmouth Daily Times reports Dudrow already was in jail on a probation violation.