NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS WERE DUPED BY A PONZI SCHEMER

BERNARD MADOFF established a reputation in Wall street only to be uncovered that he is a fraud and a scammer using the old Ponzi scheme. His total loot..50 billion dollars.

Deborah Coltin learned yesterday morning that the $8 million foundation she has led for a decade, which supported a wide range of Jewish programs on the north shore of Massachusetts, did not actually exist.

The foundation had invested its endowment with Bernard L. Madoff, a storied name on Wall Street. Every year, Madoff paid out several hundred thousand dollars to the foundation. But on Thursday, Madoff was charged with securities fraud after confessing to his sons that his business was a Ponzi scheme, according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The returns paid to investors came from money invested by other people. And there was almost nothing left.

It may be the largest fraud in the history of Wall Street, authorities said. Madoff is charged with stealing as much as $50 billion, in part to cover a pattern of massive losses, even as he cultivated a reputation as a financial mastermind and prominent philanthropist.

Rod Blagojevich asked to step down

The travails of the Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich who was accused of selling the position vacated by President-elect Barack Obama continue as the Attorney General asked te highest court to remove him from office.

This is from CNN

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Friday asked her state's highest court to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office temporarily.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says Gov. Rod Blagojevich needs to step down.

Moments after Madigan's announcement, news broke that Blagojevich's chief of staff, John Harris, had resigned, a spokesman for the governor said.

Blagojevich, 52, and Harris, 46, were arrested this week on federal corruption charges relating in part to the selection of a successor to President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

The governor's attorney has said Blagojevich did nothing wrong.

Madigan's office also asked the Illinois Supreme Court to strip Blagojevich of duties, including appointing Obama's Senate replacement.

"I recognize that this is an extraordinary request, but these are extraordinary circumstances," Madigan said Friday in Chicago.

Madigan said she wants Blagojevich out of office because, given the charges against him, she does not think he can do his job. The court filing asks that Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn become acting governor.

"As governor, Mr. Blagojevich's duty is to do what is best for the people of the state of Illinois, not for himself.

UK Reopening its door to Philippine Nurses

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday in Dec. 4 that the United Kingdom has re-opened its doors to Filipino nurses.

“After a lull of over a year, the United Kingdom is again hiring Filipino nurses,” Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said in an interview.

Roque said an initial batch of 160 Filipinos would be deployed to various hospitals and retirement homes in Britain.

Over a year ago, the United Kingdom adopted stricter regulations in the hiring of foreign nurses, thus virtually closing the door for the employment of Filipino nurses there.

“For a while there has been no vacancy for Filipino nurses in UK, but because of the aging population there, they realized they need our Filipino nurses to take care of them,” Roque noted.

Roque expressed confidence that the recruitment of 160 Filipino nurses in UK signals the start of growth in demand for Filipino nurses worldwide.

“We hope that more Filipino nurses will be recruited to work in UK and other countries abroad,” Roque said.

The Philippine Nursing Association reported that the country is now experiencing a surplus of Filipino nurses due to the declining demand in the United States.

Roque had previously ordered a dialogue with all the stakeholders at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) office to determine the real situation of the country’s nursing sector.

He said DOLE conducted the dialogue to determine whether there is really a shortage or a surplus of nurses so that the government could come out with appropriate measures.

President-elect Obama's Acceptance Speech

The acceptance speech was made in Chicago by Barack Obama...the first African-American to become the President of the United States.

John McCain's Concession Speech after Obama was proclaimed winner

The end of the long journey

Sarah Palin's Daughter, Pregnant

Hardly a week passes and the dirt about the Vice-Presidential candidate SARAH PALIN
was already enormous.

Latest is about the 17 year old daughter, a senior high school student who is pregnant.

Here is an excerpt of the news from CNN.

Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the father, a senior aide to Sen. John McCain confirmed to CNN Tuesday.

Republican presidential candidate McCain was aware of Bristol Palin's pregnancy before he chose her mother for his running mate, the aide said.

The aide said it was decided the campaign would reveal this information now because of rampant Internet rumors that Sarah Palin's 4-month-old baby, who has Down syndrome, was actually Bristol's.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," the statement said.

The Palins also asked the media to respect their daughter's privacy.

There is a saying, charity begins at home. Is this one way at looking at the VP where she's coming from.

Gustav Mother of Storms and Mandatory Evacuation

After Katrina, the New Orleans residents have no complaint of being asked to evacuate for the coming hurricane Gustav by Mayro Ray Nagin.

Nagin declared a mandatory evacuation that began at 8 a.m. Sunday for residents living on the west bank of the Mississippi River, and at noon for all other residents.

Gustav crossed western Cuba on Saturday and has already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean. At 2 p.m. EDT Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Gustav was a Category 3 storm centered about 270 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving northwest near 17 mph. It had top sustained winds of around 115 mph. It had weakened slightly, but forecasters expected it to grow more intense by Monday. The storm could bring a surge of up to 20 feet to the coast and rainfall totals of up to 15 inches.

A hurricane warning was in effect for over 500 miles of Gulf coast from Cameron, La., near the Texas border to the Alabama-Florida state line. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley issued a mandatory evacuation order for some coastal areas of Mobile and Baldwin counties

Forecasters said the hurricane was most likely to strike the Gulf Coast on Monday. New Orleans could get winds of up to 73 m.p.h. and possibly greater.

CNN,Washington Post ,BBC News ,Reuters,hurricane,business,OBAMA,BIDEN,PALIN

JOHN MCCAIN PICKS SARAH PALIN AS HIS VICE-PRESIDENT

Senator JOHN Mc CAIN surprised a lot of people by picking SARAH PALIN as his Vice-Presidential candidate. Could it be because he thinks that when Hillary Clinton was not nominated, the women voters were disappointed?

"She's exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second," the presumptive Republican nominee said at a Dayton, Ohio, rally of about 15,000 supporters, who welcomed the surprise pick of the relatively unknown politician with cheers and flags.

"She's got the grit, integrity, good sense and fierce devotion to the common good that is exactly what we need in Washington today," McCain said.

Palin, 44, described herself as a fighter against corruption and a bipartisan reformer in her first appearance as a candidate for vice president, an office she said she never expected to seek.

CNN,Washington Post ,BBC News ,Reuters,technology,business,OBAMA,BIDEN,PALIN

The Great Escape

The ring leader opened the door by kicking it out. The others followed. This is not from a novel nor from a movie. This is also the first time, I read a news about a great escape--led by an animal.


photocredit: freenaturepics

Fifteen camels, several llamas and a potbellied pig broke out of a circus near Amsterdam on Monday. The ringleader? A giraffe who bolted, too.

Police said the giraffe kicked open a fence and walked out.

"The other animals walked out with him," said Amsterdam police spokesman Rob Van Der Veen.

The animals were part of a traveling circus that had set up its tents in the city of Amstelveen, six miles outside the Dutch capital.

They made their break about 5:45 a.m., wandering about a residential street and riling up a neighborhood dog, police said.

MARTHA STEWART-UK visa denied

Who would expect that the business magnate, lifestyle guru, author of several books and one of the most powerful women according to a magazine is banned from travelling to UK?

True, Martha Stewart is denied of the visa because of her conviction four ears ago in the IMCLONE case.

Stewart was scheduled to meet at the Royal Academy with several figures in the fashion and leisure industry, the Telegraph reported.

The newspaper attributed the rejection of her visa to a blanket policy banning people with criminal convictions.

A representative of the British Borders Agency would not comment on Stewart, saying only that "we continue to oppose the entry to the UK of individuals where we believe their presence in the United Kingdom is not conducive to the public good or where they have been found guilty of serious criminal offenses abroad."

Pregnancy Pact for Teens

Bearing a child carries with it a lot of responsibilities. I just could not believe what youth will do just to seal their friendship. What is their objective? To have children of the same age? Who are the fathers? Is this some kind of a fad?

Here is an excerpt from msnbc.

BOSTON - An investigation has been launched into an apparent teenage "pregnancy pact" that has at least 17 high-school girls expecting babies, four times more than last year, including many aged 16 or younger.

A high school health clinic in the city of Gloucester, Mass., became suspicious after seeing a surge in girls seeking pregnancy tests. Local officials said Thursday nearly half of those who became pregnant appear to have entered into a pact to have their babies together over the year.

"Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine, which broke news of the pact on its Web site.

Tim Russert , 58

Tim Russert, the host of the NBC's "Meet the Press," died Friday, according to the network. He was 58.

The earlier report said that he succumbed to heart attack while at work while the later news corrected the cause to be heart embolism.

He just got back from Italy with his family. It was Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of NBC Nightly News who announced the news at 3;39 that Tim Russert collapsed and never recovered.

He said Mr. Russert had just moved his father, who is in his late 80s, from one facility to another in Buffalo. He said he loved his family, his Catholic faith, his country, politics, the Buffalo Bills, the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.

After Mr. Brokaw made the announcement, the network switched to Brian Williams, the anchor of the NBC News, who is reporting from Afghanistan this week. Mr. Williams broke down as he tried to describe what the loss meant to his network family.

The network is struggling through shock and grief to bring the story of Mr. Russert’s life and journalistic achievements to its viewers immediately.

Tim Russert,Washington Post,BBC News,Reuters,CNN",NBC,politics

YVES STAINT LAURENT DIES AT 71

Yves Saint Laurent, who was regarded as successor to Christian Dior and made names in the fashion scene in 1958 died in Paris on Sunday.

Saint Laurent was named head of the House of Dior at the age of 21 when Dior died suddenly in 1957. His stardom in the fashion world started the following year when he introduced the trapeze dress with its narrow shoulders and wide swinging skirt.

After suffering from bouts of depression and health problems, he resigned from fashion world in 2002.

For more about YSL read Fashion Icon.

Yves Saint Laurent,Washington Post,BBC News,Reuters,CNN"

Bush is Silent on Tibet Crackdown

While Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, the two Democratic presidential contenders, issued strong criticisms of China, Bush remained silent on Tibet crackdown. He's also determined to go to Beijing Olympics to support the athletes.

Here is an excerpt from New York Times.

WASHINGTON — China’s violent crackdown on protesters in Tibet is having powerful political reverberations in Washington, where the White House is weighing how far to go in condemning the Chinese government, even as it defends President Bush’s decision to attend the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Mr. Bush has long said the United States and China have “a complex relationship,” and that complexity was on full display this week. While his administration has called for an end to the violence, and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, phoned her Chinese counterpart to urge restraint, Mr. Bush himself has remained silent.

hillary clinton,Washington Post,BBC News,Reuters,Tibet crackdown,George Bush,obama,real estate business,politics,john mccain

Obama's Clinton's Mac Cain's passport files accessed

What do these State Department Employees up to when they snooped through the files of Obama,Clinton and McCain?

Here is the exceprt of the news from MSNBC.

WASHINGTON - State Department employees snooped through the passport files of three presidential candidates — Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain — and the department's inspector general is investigating.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the violations of McCain and Clinton's passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the unauthorized access of Obama's records and a separate search was conducted.

hillary clinton,Washington Post,BBC News,Reuters,technology,business,obama,real estate business,politics,john mccain

Blackmail for Greencard

Immigrants who hope to enjoy permanent residence and ultimately the much coveted citizenship become victims of immigration agents who do not ask for money but for sex.


Read this story about a Colombian wife of an American citizen.

No problems so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his 22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December. After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question: What was her cellphone number?

The calls from the agent started three days later. He hinted, she said, at his power to derail her life and deport her relatives, alluding to a brush she had with the law before her marriage. He summoned her to a private meeting. And at noon on Dec. 21, in a parked car on Queens Boulevard, he named his price — not realizing that she was recording everything on the cellphone in her purse.

“I want sex,” he said on the recording. “One or two times. That’s all. You get your green card. You won’t have to see me anymore.”

She reluctantly agreed to a future meeting. But when she tried to leave his car, he demanded oral sex “now,” to “know that you’re serious.” And despite her protests, she said, he got his way.

The 16-minute recording, which the woman first took to The New York Times and then to the Queens district attorney, suggests the vast power of low-level immigration law enforcers, and a growing desperation on the part of immigrants seeking legal status. The aftermath, which included the arrest of an immigration agent last week, underscores the difficulty and danger of making a complaint, even in the rare case when abuse of power may have been caught on tape.

immigration,Washington Post,BBC News,Reuters,greencard,Homeland Securityreal estate business,politics

Heather Mills is richer by $48.6 million dollars after the divorce

She did not get what she demanded, 30 million as divorce settlement but she is far richer before she married Paul McCartney with $ 48.6 million.

Aside from that money, her child will be receiving $70,000 a year.

Here is the excerpt of the news.

Mills has complained that the tabloid press treats her "worse than a murderer." One paper immediately claimed it had run an instant poll showing that 90 percent of Britons believed Mills got too much money in the settlement.

McCartney, whose first wife, Linda McCartney, died of breast cancer in 1998, declined to comment on the case on Monday.

Mills has been largely out of the public eye for months except for her appearance last year on the American TV show "Dancing With the Stars." But after court Monday, she stood before the cameras and let rip with a stream-of-consciousness monologue that was sometimes hard to follow.

She trashed McCartney's lawyer, Fiona Shackleton, who represented Prince Charles in his divorce from Princess Diana. She said Shackleton "has called me many, many names."

She said the name-calling came "before even meeting me when I was in a wheelchair." Mills's left leg was amputated below the knee after a 1993 motorcycle accident. It was unclear how exactly that factored into her treatment by Shackleton.

She said the trial judge, Hugh Bennett, had calculated McCartney's net worth at about $800 million dollars, when "everybody knows" it is actually twice that much. She also mocked the judge's conclusion that she and McCartney never lived together until their June 2002 wedding; she said they had been living together since March 2000.