Greg's Stack-of-Stuff

[Greg]

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Best in Class

By Karen Rutzick
govexec.com
December 8, 2005

In a federal employee's pay and benefits utopia, the government would pay higher salaries, provide more substantial health care subsidies, cover dental and vision costs, offer more retirement investment options and contribute more to employee retirement plans.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation does all of that. The agency took top honors for pay and benefits in rankings published this fall by the Partnership for Public Service, and it's easy to tell why.

The rankings, which were compiled using data from the Office of Personnel Management's 2004 Human Capital Survey, were based on employee satisfaction with pay, retirement, and health benefits. The FDIC received a score of 84.2 out of 100, more than 11 points ahead of the Office of Management and Budget, which came in second.

What's so special about the FDIC's compensation?

For starters, its 4,700 employees get paid more than typical federal employees, says Glen Bjorklund, the agency's deputy director in the division of administration. The FDIC has a 15-grade system which mirrors the General Schedule, but the agency's exemption from standard civil service rules allows it pay higher salaries at each grade level to attract top-level bank examiners and other employees.

An FDIC Level 15 job opening for a senior IT project manager in Washington has a range from $95,971 to $155,221. A standard GS-15 position in Washington tops out at a salary of $135,136.

There's more. In addition to the benefits offered to federal employees across government, including the Thrift Savings Plan, the two retirement pension plans, health coverage and annual leave, the FDIC boasts a number of supplementary offerings.

FDIC employees, for example receive dental and vision coverage. Unlike the governmentwide coverage that's in the works for next year, FDIC subsidizes the premiums. And, if employees opt out of the dental and vision coverage, in some cases they even get compensated.

In addition to the Thrift Savings Plan option, the FDIC runs its own 401(k) retirement savings plan through T. Rowe Price. The plan offers 15 different no-load mutual fund options and a matching contribution from the agency, although employees still can't exceed the Internal Revenue Service restriction on 401(k) contributions, including contributions to the TSP.

What's more, the FDIC even matches contributions from employees in the Civil Service Retirement System, which is the older of the two pension plans and has a more generous pension and less of a focus on the TSP. CSRS employees don't receive any government contributions to their TSP accounts.

The FDIC participates in the governmentwide Federal Employee Health Benefits program, but whereas the Office of Personnel Management subsidizes around 72 percent of total FEHBP premiums, FDIC pays for an average of 85 percent.

Agency employees are also set up with accounts worth $650 each year to cover "life-cycle" needs, such as premiums for health benefits, gym membership or a mountain bike.

Bjorkland attributes the above-average compensation package to a need to retain high-quality workers and to the FDIC's requirement to negotiate pay and benefits with an employee union, in this case the National Treasury Employees Union.

The generous package has one downside, however. Bjorkland said that $690 million of the agency's $1.1 billion budget is spent on compensating employees.

"It's a major cost issue for us," Bjorkland said. "But we've always believed that we hire the best, and we want to hold on to them and provide a good lifestyle and work style. We expect a lot out of them."

Despite these advantages, the FDIC still only ranked 25th on the Partnership for Public Service's overall Best Places to Work rankings.

"There are other things at play that are bigger drivers of employee satisfaction than pay and benefits," said John Palguta, the Partnership's vice president for policy and research. "What you want to do is make sure that you're paying fairly and are at least within the general marketplace."

The top ten agencies for pay and benefits satisfaction are listed below. The Veterans Affairs Department ranked last in this category.

1) FDIC
2) OMB
3) SEC
4) NASA
5) Nuclear Regulatory Commission
6) GSA
7) Commerce
8) AID
9) OPM and SBA (tied)

©2005 by National Journal Group Inc.

 

[Greg]

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[Greg]

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Blue Chip raises US growth forecast, cuts inflation

Sat Dec 10, 2005 12:59 AM ET

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Top forecasters raised their U.S. growth outlook and cut inflation expectations for the fourth quarter and into 2006, but warned consumer spending could drop in the final months of 2005, a survey released on Saturday showed.

Panelists surveyed in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter bumped up their projection for gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter to a 3.2 percent annual rate, up from 3.0 percent predicted a month ago but still well below the third-quarter's robust 4.3 percent pace.

They also raised their outlook for 2006 growth to 3.4 percent from 3.3 percent forecast in November, saying inflation would be lower than first thought and corporate spending and profits stronger.

The panelists remained pessimistic about consumer spending in the final three months of the year, predicting an anemic 1.0 percent increase, and said personal consumption expenditures could even shrink once inflation is taken into account.

"Unless spending picks up considerably in December, real consumer spending risks suffering its first quarterly contraction in 15 years," the newsletter said.

But they said a rebound in business inventories and still-healthy capital spending would offset some of the consumer weakness and a probable drag from trade on growth in the fourth quarter.

Housing was seen as a wildcard in the fourth-quarter outlook. Building permits have fallen to the lowest level since April, suggesting the pace of growth in residential investment might slow appreciably in the final three months of the year.

"However, reconstruction efforts along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast could produce a rebound, if only temporarily, in housing starts for November and December," Blue Chip said.

As 2006 begins, lower inflation, improving job growth and faster wage gains are expected to boost consumer spending, fueling 3.5 percent economic growth in the first quarter and 3.4 percent in the second, the survey showed.

"While near-record high natural gas prices will produce some nasty home heating bills this winter, headline inflation is set to decline in coming months, boosting gains in real incomes and spending," the newsletter said.

It forecast the Consumer Price Index to increase only 2.3 percent on a fourth-quarter over fourth-quarter basis in 2006, down from its predicted 3.9 percent rise in 2005, as energy prices decline. Core inflation, which strips out energy and food costs, will rise 2.4 percent on a December-over-December basis in 2006, similar to the 2005 gain.

The Blue Chip consensus said the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at least three more times -- slightly more than anticipated by financial markets -- taking the federal funds target to between 4.75 percent and 5.0 percent. It currently stands at 4 percent after 12 straight quarter-point increases since June 2004.

About 23 percent of the panel think the Fed will cut rates by the end of 2006, however.

While the housing market is expected to cool next year, the job market should be healthy, Blue Chip said. Nonfarm payrolls were forecast to post average monthly gains of 179,000 in 2006, slightly higher than in 2005.

"However, the unemployment rate is not expected to fall much from current (level of 5 percent) as more people seek to rejoin the labor force," the newsletter noted.

Business investment was projected to grow 7.9 percent next year, down from 8.9 percent in 2005, with equipment and software spending up 8.6 percent.

© Reuters 2005

 

[Greg]

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Wall St Week Ahead: Stocks hope Fed will play Santa

Fri Dec 9, 2005 06:40 PM ET
By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - For the stock market, getting the stalled Santa Claus rally back on track next week will depend on the Federal Reserve's call on interest rates, retail sales and resurgent energy prices.

Another quarter-point rate increase is expected at Tuesday's Fed meeting.

But investors are hoping the Fed will change its statement and indicate its long streak of rate increases will end soon.

"Everybody's kind of set on the fact that we're going to see an increase. It's kind of baked into the cake. The language is going to be key, and investors are expecting we're near the end of this cycle," said Christopher D. Johnson, director of quantitative analysis at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Anthony Chan, managing director and senior economist, at JPMorgan Asset Management, said, "If the Fed says it sees more upside inflation risk, that would be devastating to the market."

Crude oil prices, meanwhile, ended the week below $60 a barrel, after rising above $61 on Friday. Forecasts that extremely cold weather could linger for another two weeks in the U.S. Northeast, the world's largest heating oil market, reignited fears about the impact of higher energy costs on consumers and corporations.

January crude oil futures (CLF6: Quote, Profile, Research) fell $1.27 to settle at $59.39 a barrel on Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

NYMEX January natural gas futures (NGF6: Quote, Profile, Research) tumbled 68.2 cents to close at $14.312 per million British thermal units on Friday following a two-day spike of 11 percent.

This week, the blue-chip Dow average dipped into negative territory for the year. But strategists polled by Reuters still expect the Dow to end the year with a gain of about 2 percent.

The S&P 500, meanwhile, is nearly where strategists expect it to finish the year.

All three major indexes ended the week lower, with the Nasdaq snapping a 7-week streak of gains, its longest weekly winning streak in nearly six years. The Dow ended down 0.91 percent for the week, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.45 percent, and the Nasdaq dropped 0.73 percent.

"This week, what we experienced was a catch-up because the Santa Claus rally came in earnest, almost a towering force, and it had to take a breather," Chan said, adding that "it gives the market a firmer footing from which to make a much deeper move next week as it starts to chew on some fundamental data."

WILL THE FED BE NAUGHTY - OR NICE?

Wall Street is likely to be in a holding pattern until the announcement from Tuesday's Fed meeting.

Stock investors big and small are hoping the Federal Open Market Committee will give them a gift -- in the form of some change in wording or a new phrase or two that will signal that rate increases will end sometime early next year.

Since June 30, 2004, the central bank has raised interest rates 12 consecutive times. That campaign of credit tightening has pushed the benchmark federal funds rate up to 4.00 percent from a historic low of 1.00 percent.

Another quarter-percentage-point rate increase -- No. 13 -- is expected at the FOMC's Tuesday meeting, which happens to be Dec. 13.

A Reuters poll published on Thursday found that a majority -- 11 out of 20 economists polled -- expected to read at least some changes in the language of the Fed statement issued at the end of the Dec. 13 Fed meeting, while a few expect no change until January or March.

HOLIDAY SALES, CPI TOP DATA MENU

The coming week will bring a holiday menu brimming with data, with November retail sales on Tuesday and the November U.S. consumer price index on Thursday.

Economists in a Reuters poll expect that retail sales rose 0.5 percent in November, after October's 0.1 percent decline.

The strong Thanksgiving week helped November sales, though reports were mixed on sales over the Black Friday weekend in the three days after the holiday.

But November's retail sales data will be just a dress rehearsal for future reports on holiday spending.

"Everyone's waiting to see what that final weekend before Christmas brings," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

CPI, the widely tracked gauge of inflation at the consumer or retail pricing level, is forecast to have dropped 0.4 percent in November after rising 0.2 percent in October, according to a Reuters poll. Excluding food and energy costs, the core CPI for November is likely to have risen 0.2 percent rate, matching October's increase.

Data from the Fed on industrial production and capacity utilization for November will be released on Thursday, while the U.S. international trade deficit for October will be reported on Wednesday.

Still, the market could find it tough to push forward next week, despite the economic indicators and other news, Pado said.

"We're in this sort of mid-December slump, and what the big funds will be doing is getting rid of positions that did not perform," Pado said.

"Then there's window dressing, which is when the funds try to dress up their portfolios at the end of the year by buying the stocks that look good."

Among the sectors that analysts have said could see gains are financial services, energy and technology.

"The financials really kicked in a couple of months ago," said Tim Heekin, director of trading at Thomas Weisel Partners, a San Francisco investment bank, and the sector "will be strong, along with tech and energy right through the end of the year."

© Reuters 2005

 

[Birchtree]

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Greg,

I like it when you are staying busy hunting down the good stuff - thank you, you really save me valuable time while trying to stay in touch myself. I also like your new more aggressive fund allocations - right on.

Dennis

 

[Greg]

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US dollar: What's going on?

Surjit S Bhalla | BS | December 10, 2005 | 14:04 IST

The US dollar has defied all forecasts. The dollar index is trading at a 7-month high, and this at a time when its current account deficit is approaching 7 per cent of GDP. The Japanese yen, the euro and the Indian rupee are trading at 19-month lows.

If there are any fundamentals that are driving the dollar to these multi-year highs, I don't know of them. Let's consider interest rates.

European interest rates have begun to rise again, after having declined since October 2000. Japanese interest rates are scheduled to increase from their near zero levels of the last four years. Let's consider stock markets. This calendar year, European stocks have risen about 20 per cent, Japanese stocks about 30 per cent. US stocks, despite the year-end rally, are barely in positive territory.

Let's consider growth rates. US growth is slowing down marginally, whereas both Japan and Germany are no longer the sick men of the world.

The Indian growth rate has exceeded 8 per cent for the first time in a year not following a drought, and India has just displaced the US as the second-most attractive FDI destination. Yet on December 6, the dollar traded at 121 yen, 1.17 euros, and 46.35 rupees. As Marvin Gaye would say, "What's going on?"

Besides these fundamental factors (interest rates, GDP growth, stock markets), there is another small surprise in the fundamental mix-up -- the value of the Chinese yuan. After complaints from all over the world for its mercantilist exchange rate, and therefore trade policies, the Chinese finally 'relented' and signalled to the world that they were ready to play by the 'rules of the game.'

They appreciated their currency by a minuscule 2.1 per cent on July 21, 2005. This appreciation, by all accounts, was too insignificant to make a dent in the overall mercantilist trade imbalance.

Even the major US investment banks -- who, perhaps due to $ signs, have been reluctant to point out in their research that the Chinese currency is today significantly more undervalued than the yen was at the time the world was forced to take notice in 1985 -- were expecting some movement in the Chinese currency after the initial 2 per cent pinprick.

But this was not to be. While there is internal dissension, and significantly from the Chinese Central Bank, the powers that be in China know how it can laugh its way to the bank at the expense of growth in other countries. So it has kept the yuan under wraps -- i.e. only a 0.5 per cent appreciation against the dollar since the momentous day of July 21.

This lack of movement has not only disappointed American politicians but also policy makers around the world. To date, when currencies did go out of whack, there was a correction induced by either the market (e.g. the famous Soros play on the British pound in September 1992, or the Thai baht devaluation in July 1997) or by policy makers, e.g. the Plaza agreement pertaining to the yen, and to a lesser extent, the European currencies, in 1985.

But none of these historic landmarks has affected the Chinese view of exchange rates: "Listen, we have tied ourselves to the dollar through thick and thin, and we did the world a favour by not devaluing along with Asian currencies in 1997."

If the policy is one of fixed exchange rates, then how can the question of a 'favour' arise, especially if fundamentals favour an appreciation (as it did with China) or fundamentals favour a depreciation (as was the case with Thailand). If the concern is with the "need" of devaluation in 1997, the Chinese conveniently forget that they pioneered the concept of large-scale 'beggar thy neighbour' devaluations, i.e. in 1980 one dollar bought 1.5 yuan, in 1990 4.78 yuan, and in 1994 8.62 yuan.

The last devaluation was 80 per cent in nominal terms, and 30 per cent in real terms!

Since 1993, the Chinese currency should have further appreciated in nominal terms, to reflect differences in inflation and productivity growth. But the Chinese authorities, obviously, are not moved.

They have thumbed their reserve dollars at the world, gleefully adding that they could cause major financial instability by dumping dollars if provoked enough. Given this Chinese power play, and intransigence, Marvin Gaye might have said, "You know we've got to find a way, To bring some fairness (lovin') here today."

And this is what I believe happened to the US dollar over the last few months. Perhaps aided by a wink-wink and a nod-nod from both developed and developing country policy makers, the 'world' has decided that if China does not come to the table, the mountain will go to China.

Since the world needs a Chinese revaluation, and China won't do it on its own, the world will do it for China. Note the exchange rate changes in the table since mid-July, the time of the beginning of the so-called Chinese reval.

The yen has depreciated by 7 per cent, the euro by 2 per cent; this, when the expectation was that both would appreciate by at least 10 per cent (remember the targets of 100 yen to the dollar and 1.40 for the euro?). Besides the Philippine peso, the ostensibly ultra-strong Asian currencies have generally stayed flat, or depreciated -- with the Indian rupee depreciating the most, 6.1 per cent.

It must be that the Indian authorities have (correctly) decided that if undervaluation was so good for its major competitor, China, it should also be good for India. In Latin America, Brazil shows an oversized appreciation, but this is more a function of the very large devaluation that occurred there in the last few years.

How long can this unusual adjustment pattern continue? Until China realises that globalisation is a multi-player game.

© 2003 rediff.com India Limited.

 

[Greg]

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Christopherson in place as Agriculture Department CFO

12/09/05
By Mary Mosquera,
Washington Technology

Charles Christopherson took the reins as chief financial officer at the Agriculture Department this week, where he will oversee $128 billion in assets and $77 billion in total annual spending.

Deputy CFO Patricia Healy has been acting CFO since Ted McPherson left Agriculture for the Education Department two years ago.

Christopherson's duties involve accounting and reporting responsibilities for program funds totaling more than $90 billion. Among the CFO programs and offices, the National Finance Center processes the payroll for one-fifth of the federal workforce—550,000 individuals—and operates components of the more than $100 billion Thrift Savings Plan for federal employees, the world's largest 401(k) retirement plan.

Prior to coming to USDA, Christopherson was president of CB Solutions LLC, a Texas-based business consulting firm specializing in high-technology, accounts-receivable collections.

He earned a bachelor of science degree from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and an M.B.A. from the University of Oregon.

© 1996-2005 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc.

 

[Greg]

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Katrina evacuees accused of cooking meth in Gulf Shores motel

12/10/2005, 4:43 p.m. ET

GULF SHORES, Ala. (AP) — Two Hurricane Katrina evacuees were arrested and charged after they were found cooking methamphetamine in a Gulf Shores motel room paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, authorities said.

Gulf Shores Police Narcotics Investigator Tommy Green said the Pascagoula, Miss. man and woman were charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Green said Jason Alan Cook, 22, was pulled over for a traffic violation Friday morning and the arresting officer found he was in possession of meth and drug paraphernalia.

Cook led police back to the Phoenix All Suites where investigators found Jamie Lyn Murphy, 25, and a makeshift meth lab, Green said.

"It was a very dangerous, volatile situation that could've been tragic if they'd have had a fire or explosion," he said.

Murphy, who also was charged with possession of marijuana, had rented the room through a FEMA hurricane displacement program, according to Gulf Shores police.

Police did not know how long the two had been staying at the hotel, Green said.

FEMA spokesman Jay Eaker confirmed that Phoenix All Suites billed the agency.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

 

[Greg]

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Jury sides with white fire captains in Mobile discrimination suit

12/10/2005, 2:11 p.m. ET

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — A federal jury has awarded four white fire captains in Mobile $135,000 each in a discrimination suit over promotions.

The officers in the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department claimed they were passed over for promotion two years ago that went to a black co-worker.

The plaintiffs, Melvin Stringfellow, Stanley Vinson, Kenneth Tillman and Onrie "Diddy" Brown, sued the city last year after they failed to win promotion to district chief.

The promotion instead went to Johnny Morris, a black co-worker with less education, less experience and lower scores on the promotion exams, according to testimony.

Attorney Paul Carbo, who represented the city, said he disagreed with the jury's decision Friday to award money to all of the plaintiffs. He said he plans to take up the issue in post-trial motions.

"It's our basic position that there was only one promotion at issue, and that they all couldn't have gotten the promotion," he said.

An attorney for the officers, Ed Smith, said he was "appreciative of the jury and think they — where others couldn't — did the right thing."

The eight-member panel, which included one black juror, ruled unanimously that Fire Chief Steve Dean discriminated against the captains. They awarded $10,000 to each plaintiff in lost wages and benefits and $125,000 to each for emotional pain and anguish.

Chief U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade later could add more money to compensate the men for wages they would have earned in the future had they been promoted.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

 

[Greg]

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Surfin' USA dealt heavy blow by factory closure By Jill Serjeant

Thu Dec 8, 9:44 AM ET

The southern California company that helped turn surfing into a mass popular sport has closed for business, marking the end of an era immortalized by The Beach Boys and Baywatch.

Gordon "Grubby" Clark, who with surfboard pioneer Hobie Alter invented the foam and fiberglass process that made surfboards lighter, faster and more responsive, stopped production and sales from his Laguna Niguel factory on Monday after 44 years in business.

In a seven-page letter to suppliers seen by Reuters on Wednesday, Clark cited weariness in a lengthy battle with environmental regulators over the manufacture of the foam blanks, or rough surfboard shapes, that go inside about two-thirds of U.S.-made surfboards.

"For owning and operating Clark Foam, I may be looking at very large fines, civil lawsuits, and even time in prison," Clark, 73, said in the letter.

Clark said authorities in California and Orange County, where his factory is located, were waging an ever tougher crackdown on the company's use of a toxic chemical called TDI, which can cause breathing problems.

The sudden decision to close hit California's normally laid-back surfer dudes hard.

"It is like taking the tires off cars. It was a real sudden impact for the entire industry including Asia and Europe and everywhere that sells foam surfboards," said Jefferson Wagner, of Zuma Jay Surfboards on Malibu's legendary Zuma Beach.

"A major component of the surf board is no longer available. There is one other guy in southern California making these but nowhere near that volume level. There is a large manufacturer in Australia but they'll never be able to handle the volume in the United States," Wagner said.

In 1958, Clark and Alter developed the first reliable method for mass producing the core of surfboards, using polyurethane foam plastic in a departure from the balsa wood used since the sport's Hawaiian origins.

Clark established Clark Foam in Laguna Niguel in 1961 and it rapidly became the world's largest maker of foam surfboard blanks, fueling an explosion in both the sport and southern California's beach lifestyle.

Cheaper, mass produced alternatives from Asia have been making inroads into the surfboard market for several years.

But many surfers say there is no comparison to U.S.-produced boards, which can sell for up to $900.

"Those boards are all mass produced and there is no quality control. Hard-core surfers can tell the difference and they can't live with that," said Wagner.

Demand has already soared for U.S. boards, with stores reporting prices rising by between 30 and 50 percent because of the expected supply shortage.

"One guy came in and bought four and another bought 12 this week," Wagner said.

Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc.

 

[Greg]

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HILLARY'S SECRET WAR
The real story behind the Clinton body count

July 13, 2005

Editor's note: The following is an eye-opening look into New York Times best-selling author Richard Poe's revealing book, "Hillary's Secret War." Whereas Edward Klein's book on the New York senator reveals previously unknown aspects of her personal life, Poe's expose focuses on how Hillary Clinton and the left's "shadow government" have labored to put her and her far-left agenda in the White House by controlling the still-uncensored flow of real news to Americans – via the Internet.
If that sounds too fantastic to be true, read on.


By Richard Poe
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"When Clinton lied, nobody died," says a popular bumper sticker.

While untrue, the slogan makes good propaganda. Democrats can repeat it ad infinitum without fear of rebuttal from Republicans. No conservative in public life is willing to broach the topic of the Clinton body count in 2005. Yet the Clintons are more vulnerable on this issue than on any other.

Nixon's articles of impeachment did not accuse him of ordering the burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. They accused him only of covering up the burglary, after the fact.

Likewise, no one can prove that Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster met his death through foul play. It is quite possible that he committed suicide. However, it has been proved beyond doubt that the Clinton White House obstructed, corrupted and undermined every effort to investigate Foster's death.

Nixon was held accountable for his obstructive acts. The Clintons were not.

A nation in denial

British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is one of the most knowledgeable investigators of the Foster cover-up. The Cambridge-educated Evans-Pritchard is less easily dismissed than many Clinton critics. He covered war-torn Central America for the Economist and the Sunday Telegraph. As the Telegraph's Washington bureau chief from 1992 to 1997, he "was known in Washington for accuracy, industry and courage" in the words of Washington Post pundit Robert Novak.

Evans-Pritchard has commented on the cocoon of denial into which many decent, well-meaning people retreat when their governments go bad. He has seen it in many countries. "You tell the people in San Salvador that their air force is carpet-bombing the campesinos, they say that's impossible," he remarked to New York Times Magazine writer Philip Weiss. Evans-Pritchard saw a similar self-delusion proliferating in Clinton's America.

According to Evans-Pritchard, he became "radicalized" in Nicaragua. "I could see that what the [foreign] press was writing was not true about the Sandinistas," he told Insight magazine in 1997. "They had a love affair with the revolution. They were all sitting around Managua and going to parties with Sandinista officials. There was a very romantic side to it all. But out there in the countryside, the Sandinistas were doing horrible things to the campesinos ... people were being killed in quite large numbers."

Evans-Pritchard did what his colleagues would not. He traveled the countryside and interviewed campesinos. They were only too glad to tell him about Sandinista atrocities. "For the first time in my life, I realized that what you read in the papers is not true, and this quite shocked me. I started writing from a different point of view, and I found myself very quickly in a big dispute with my colleagues, and it never ended."

In Clinton's America, Evans-Pritchard saw journalists behaving little differently from their colleagues in the Managua press corps. "The way [American reporters] cover Arkansas is exactly the way they covered Nicaragua, which is they didn't go out into the hills and talk to ordinary people," he noted in 1997.

Evans-Pritchard undertook the task himself. He presented his discoveries in a 1997 book titled, "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton: The Unreported Stories" – in my view, the most accurate, thorough and fearless account of Clinton corruption yet produced. It offers a detailed expose of the Clintons' ties to drug lords and death squads, in an America rapidly descending into Salvadoran-style lawlessness.

"To a foreign eye, America looks like a country that is flying out of control," writes Evans-Pritchard.

It is under Clinton that an armed militia movement involving tens of thousands of people has mushroomed out of the plain ... People do not spend their weekends with an SKS rifle, drilling for guerrilla warfare ... in a country that is at ease with itself. It takes very bad behavior to provoke the first simmerings of armed insurgency, and the militias are unmistakably Clinton's offspring.

Regarding Vincent Foster's peculiar death and the ensuing cover-up, Evans-Pritchard wrote in 1997, "The Foster case is taboo for American journalists. In private, many concede that the official story is unbelievable, but they will not broach it in print ... It has nothing to do with party affiliation. If anything, Republican journalists are even more susceptible to the spell."

'Cleaning house'

Jerry Luther Parks was reportedly watching a news bulletin on the death of Vincent Foster when he turned from the television and muttered, "I'm a dead man." His son Gary was with him in the room. It was July 21, 1993. The White House Deputy Counsel had just been found dead in Fort Marcy Park, about seven miles from the White House, across the Potomac River in Virginia. Foster had been shot through the head, said the bulletin, an apparent suicide.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard interviewed the Parks family extensively. In "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton," he reports that Parks was a nervous wreck for the next two months. He packed a gun and drove evasively to shake off any possible pursuers. At one point, Parks told his family that Bill Clinton was "cleaning house" and that he was "next on the list." Parks had been security chief for Clinton-Gore campaign headquarters in Little Rock, Ark., in 1992.

On Sept. 23, 1993, as Parks was driving to his suburban Little Rock home along the Chenal Parkway, a white Chevrolet Caprice with two men inside drove alongside and peppered Parks' car with semiautomatic gunfire. Parks's car ground to a halt. A man emerged from the white Chevy, fired two rounds into Parks' chest with a 9-mm pistol, then sped off.

Several witnesses watched the murder. The killers were never found. As with so many other "Arkancides" – the name given to the long list of suspicious deaths among Arkansas associates of the Clintons – Big Media ignored the event.


One of the last people to see Vincent Foster alive was Linda Tripp, who then worked as a secretary for Foster's boss, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum. Tripp testified before Kenneth Starr's grand jury on July 28, 1998, that the reason she had leaked Monica Lewinsky's story to Michael Isikoff at Newsweek was that Tripp hoped the spotlight of national publicity might protect her from physical harm.

"I am afraid of this administration," Tripp told the Grand Jury.

I have what I consider to be well-founded fears of what they are capable of ... I had reasons to believe that the Vince Foster tragedy was not depicted accurately under oath by members of the administration ... I knew based on personal knowledge, personal observations, that they were lying under oath. So it became very fearful to me that I had information even back then that was dangerous.

"But do you have any examples of violence being done by the administration to people who were a threat to them?" asked a juror.

Tripp named Jerry Parks. "[T]he behavior in the West Wing with senior staff to the president during the time the Jerry Parks [murder report] came over the fax frightened me. He had been killed," said Tripp. The "flurry of activity," the closed-door meetings, and the "hush-hush" atmosphere in the White House all struck her as ominous and frightening.

"Maybe you had to be there," said Tripp.

[The news of Parks' death] was something they wanted to get out in front of. There was talk that this would be another body to add to the list of 40 bodies or something that were associated with the Clinton administration. At that time, I didn't know what that meant. I have since come to see such a list.

Some skeptics might discount Tripp's fears as fanciful, even hysterical. But Tripp was no hysteric. On the contrary, she had been trained to deal with stress and intrigue to a greater degree than most. According to the New York Times, Tripp worked for "highly classified Army intelligence and commando units in the 1980s," including as an aide to the top-secret Delta Force. "'ve worked on the covert side of the Department of Defense," Tripp told congressional investigators. In short, Linda Tripp was a spook, a professional denizen of the intelligence underworld. Her observations should not be lightly dismissed.

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

 

[Greg]

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Welles: Looking back at 2005
It has been a year of mixed blessings for federal employees and retirees

By Judy Welles
Published on Dec. 12, 2005

At the beginning of this year, I predicted that 2005 would bring a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. Although some of that came true, particularly in the battles about pay for performance, it has mostly been a year of mixed blessings for federal employees and retirees.

It was a weary but heroic year as federal employees volunteered for other duties and donated leave to those who needed time off to help during hurricane disasters. It got ugly, too, with the specter of New Orleans' flood victims and the questions about the government's response, which are still under examination.

Some had feared significant erosion on the subject of competitive sourcing, but it did not come to pass. The Republican Study Committee proposed cutting retiree benefits, but the proposal went nowhere in 2005. It may rear its head again in 2006.

Pay increases for federal and military employees went up, as did health insurance premiums. But more people used health savings to defray some health care costs and paid premiums with pre-tax dollars. Despite a concerted effort, premium conversion legislation to give retirees the same benefit of paying for health insurance with pre-tax benefits died on the table.

Pay-for-performance plans stalled at the Homeland Security Department because of union litigation but moved ahead successfully in areas of the Defense Department, notably at the Navy Department.

Dental and vision benefits, which many hoped would be available for this year's open season, were delayed a year. But the Office of Personnel Management announced that flexible spending accounts would be expanded and could cover dental and vision costs for those who choose.

The Thrift Savings Plan's new L funds were a popular alternative. The Lifestyle Funds provide appropriate investment allocations based on when people intend to withdraw funds. Retirees invested more than $1 billion in those funds in the first four days they were available. Also this year, TSP open seasons ended, so participants could change enrollment or contributions at any time.

While Congress focused on the costs of disaster assistance in the worst hurricane season ever, it ignored the battle to eliminate the onerous Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision. Those provisions permit Social Security benefits to offset part of Civil Service Retirement System benefits for those eligible for both.

Federal travelers conducting agency business got an 8-cent increase in gas reimbursement, bringing the amount to 48.5 cents a mile. But it will fall to 44.5 cents a mile for 2006.

Surveys showed employees feel they do important work and are generally satisfied with paid vacations, health benefits and alternative work schedules. But few felt satisfied with telework or child care subsidies. Also, few believe that the government properly recognizes high performance, and they don't give high marks to managers. All in all, not much changed. Best wishes for the new year!

Welles is a retired federal employee who has worked in the public and private sectors. She lives in Bethesda, Md., and writes about work life topics for Federal Computer Week.

 

[Greg]

imported post

Hurricane Katrina blows in tax breaks

By Curtis Rockwell
hattiesburgamerican.com
Dec 14, 2005

When Pine Belt residents prepare their income tax returns for 2005, they could be eligible for several tax breaks designed to ease the pain of Hurricane Katrina.

The tax break package were included in the Hurricane Katrina Emergency Relief Act that President Bush signed.

Some tax breaks now in place are available to people who suffered casualty losses, withdrew funds from retirement accounts and sheltered storm evacuees for more than 60 days free of charge.

In addition, the breaks protect displaced evacuees from losing their child tax credit or earned income credit due to lost wages as well as rewarding employers who hired displaced workers with certain tax credits.

"I think without a doubt, the biggest benefit to most people will come in the casualty loss break," said Annette Turner, a Hattiesburg certified public accountant.

"In the past, that was a provision that no one talked about much. Because the way the law was worded, not many people could take advantage of it. But now it will be very feasible for a lot of people."

Basically, the casualty provision waived an adjustment tied into a person's adjusted gross income. For example, an owner of a $2,000 lap top that was stolen if the owner had an adjusted gross income of more than $20,000 could not claim the item; now the full amount can be deducted.

"That is definitely one of the new deductions people should take a long look at, because basically they can deduct the full amount of uninsured losses," said Matt Odom, a spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service.

"There are several that could be very helpful to taxpayers, much as they were designed to be. The casualty loss along with the retirement funds provision, I think, are two of the key deductions."

As for the retirement funds, a person under the age of 60 that withdrew money from an IRA, a 401K plan and thrift savings plans because of the storm will not suffer the normal 10 percent early withdrawal penalty.

"There are still some technical corrections being made on some of these provisions, mainly because Congress passed it so fast so people could take advantage of it," said Jim Koerber, a CPA with Smith, Turner and Reeves in Hattiesburg.

"In the case of the retirement funds, one does not have to pay taxes on the amount of money withdrawn if they pay that principal amount back within three years."

Both Turner and Koerber conducted a seminar on the Hurricane Katrina tax breaks at the end of October at the Payne Center on the Southern Mississippi campus.

Due to the expansive amount of deductions included in the tax break package, they urged everyone who thought they could be affected in some way to confer with their tax consultants for more information.

Each also stressed the fact that you cannot "double-dip," or claim losses on income taxes that had already been covered by insurance companies.

In addition, taxpayers who filed for extensions this year before the storm hit were given an automatic extension from Oct. 15, normally the "drop-dead date" according to Turner, to Feb. 28.

Construction company owner Chuck Roberts, who has hired several workers that came to the Hattiesburg area because of the hurricane, said he will look into the tax breaks.

"I just really started hearing about them," said Roberts, whose workers have been helping in the recovery efforts in the Pine Belt.

"I hired three guys from the Coast and two more from down in south Louisiana since the storm hit, and if I can benefit from giving them a job thanks to the new legislation I'd be silly not to take advantage of it."

 

[Greg]

imported post

Winn-Dixie's creditors want all of company's stock

Associated Press
Dec. 15, 2005

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Winn-Dixie's creditors want a bankruptcy judge to give them all the supermarket chain's stock -- which would leave its current stockholders with nothing.

The creditors committee's demand is contained in court documents in which they oppose Winn-Dixie's third request for a 90-day extension to file a business plan. The creditors say the supermarket giant should only be granted another 30-day extension.

In a Chapter eleven reorganization case, secured and unsecured creditors are paid before stockholders since shareholders are the owners of the company. If there isn't enough money to pay the creditors, they are sometimes issued common stock.

In over-the-counter trading, Winn-Dixie shares were trading at 85 cents per share, down nine cents.

The creditors committee has also tried to have a committee of shareholders dissolved. The issue is still before a U.S. District Bankruptcy judge.

A hearing on the extension is scheduled for today.

 

[Greg]

imported post

Pryor's flawed legacy

by Stanley Crouch

Monday, December 12th, 2005
New York Daily News

This past Saturday Richard Pryor left this life and bequeathed to our culture as much darkness as he did the light his extraordinary talent made possible.
When we look at the remarkable descent this culture has made into smut, contempt, vulgarity and the pornagraphic, those of us who are not willing to drink the Kool-Aid marked "all's well," will have to address the fact that it was the combination of confusion and comic genius that made Pryor a much more negative influence than a positive one.

I do not mean positive in the way Bill Cosby was when his television show redefined situation comedy by turning away from all of the stereotypes of disorder and incompetence that were then and still are the basic renditions of black American life in our mass media.

Richard Pryor was not that kind of a man. His was a different story.

Pryor was troubled and he had seen things that so haunted him that the comedian found it impossible to perform and ignore the lower-class shadow worlds he had known so well, filled with pimps, prostitutes, winos and abrasive types of one sort or another.

The vulgarity of his material, and the idea a "real" black person was a foul-mouthed type was his greatest influence. It was the result of seeing the breaking of "white" convention as a form of "authentic" definition.

Pryor reached for anything that would make white America uncomfortable and would prop up a smug belief among black Americans that they were always "more cool" and more ready to "face life" than the members of majority culture.

Along the way, Pryor made too many people feel that the N word was open currency and was more accurate than any other word used to describe or address a black person.

In the dung piles of pimp and gangster rap we hear from slime meisters like Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent, the worst of Pryor's influence has been turned into an aspect of the new minstrelsy in which millions of dollars are made by "normalizing" demeaning imagery and misogyny.

What is so unfortunate is that the heaviest of Pryor's gifts was largely ignored by so many of those who praised the man when he was alive and are now in the middle of deifying him.

The pathos and the frailty of the human soul alone in the world or insecure or looking for something of meaning in a chaotic environment was a bit too deep for all of the simpleminded clowns like Andrew Dice Clay or those who thought that mere ethnicity was enough to define one as funny, like the painfully square work of Paul Rodriguez.

Of course, Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam is the ultimate coon show update of human cesspools, where "cutting edge" has come to mean traveling ever more downward in the sewer.

In essence, Pryor stunned with his timing, his rhythm, his ability to stand alone and fill the stage with three-dimensional characters through his remarkably imaginative gift for an epic sweep of mimicry.

That nuanced mimicry crossed ethnic lines, stretched from young to old, and gave poignancy to the comedian's revelations about the hurts and the terrors of life.

The idea of "laughing to keep from crying" was central to his work and has been diligently avoided by those who claim to owe so much to him.

As he revealed in his last performance films, Pryor understood the prison he had built for himself and the shallow definitions that smothered his audience's understanding of the humanity behind his work.

But, as they say, once the barn door has been opened, you cannot get all of the animals to return by whistling. So we need to understand the terrible mistakes this man of comic genius made and never settle for a standard that is less than what he did at his very best, which was as good as it has ever gotten.

 

[Greg]

imported post

2005 sees several noteworthy changes in personal finance

December 16, 2005
By Michelle Singletary
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Can it be another year is nearly over?

Typically in the last weeks of December, I like to reflect on my personal financial life. I take stock (sorry, just like that pun) of whether I followed all the advice I got during the year from my financial adviser. (I did.)

OK, I did 75 percent of what she told me to do.

Year-end also is a time to catch up on what's happened in personal finance. Here's a rundown of some noteworthy money matters from 2005:

• New bankruptcy rules. It's now harder to declare yourself broke. Under the new law that went into effect this year, debtors have to meet a means test to be eligible for Chapter 7. Under the old bankruptcy rules, most people decided for themselves which type of bankruptcy they wanted to file. And most chose Chapter 7, where you can generally wipe out all your unsecured debt. Now more people may have to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, in which you have to pay back some of your debts.
  
• Credit reports became free to everybody. It used to be only residents in seven states could get their credit reports for free. Everyone is now entitled to get free credit reports once every 12 months from the three nationwide credit bureaus — TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. To order your free credit reports so you can look out for fraudulent accounts or charges go to www.annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228.
  
• Minimum credit card payments increased across the board. Federal regulators ordered credit card issuers to increase the minimum monthly payments consumers have to make. The regulators want the banks and other financial institutions to require that cardholders cover at least 1 percent of their outstanding balance each month. This is in addition to any finance charges or fees owed.
  
• Savings rate falls below zero. In October, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported a negative national personal savings rate of 0.7 percent. That means people are spending more than they make by using credit cards, borrowing against the equity in their homes, tapping their savings or selling assets, such as stocks. "Americans are not saving as much as they used to and this spells potential disaster (in) the future," said Phillip Fournier, vice president of Legacy Advisors, an investment management and financial planning firm based in McLean, Va.

I once had a reader ask me if it was OK to take out a home equity line of credit instead of creating an emergency savings fund. His theory was if he got into financial trouble, he could just draw down on the line of credit.

He could do that.

But the point of having a savings cushion is so that it can carry you through a financial disaster or hardship using your own money — not borrowed funds.

• Investing in lifecycle mutual funds was up. Assets in lifecycle funds have more than doubled since 2000, making it one of the fastest-growing parts of the mutual fund world. Lifecycle funds were added this year to the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan and the funds have become a huge hit.

Lifecycle funds are a way to diversify your retirement savings plan by relying on professionally determined investment mixes that are tailored to when you think you will need the money.

Surveys show people often don't change their asset allocations once they sign up for a retirement plan because they don't know what to do. Investing in a lifecycle fund is essentially like putting your retirement account on automatic pilot — except there is a pilot. It's just not you. And we all know that saving for retirement is going to be important since there is a projected shortfall in Social Security in the near future.

• Seventy years ago this year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. And thankfully this past year, President Bush was pushed back from making a change to the Social Security safety net by creating personal accounts. It was a plan that had lots of problems.

Seventy years later the need is still great for a social safety net.

If time is money, I hope in 2006 you'll take the time to learn more about personal finance.

 

[Greg]

imported post

SpaceX plans Monday launch
Takeoff couldn't come during a worse time for Boeing


By Eric Fleischauer
Decatur Daily

A potential rival of Boeing Co. hopes to do Monday what strikes and technical problems have prevented Boeing from doing recently: Launch a rocket.

If it goes forward Monday, the launch will be SpaceX's first. The customers are the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force. It will carry a satellite that it hopes will measure space plasma, which can adversely affect GPS and other space-based civil and military communications.

California-based Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said SpaceX's planned launch will not affect Boeing.

"We wish them the best as they try to enter this difficult market," Beck said.

Space X recently filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking a proposed joint venture, dubbed the United Launch Alliance, between Boeing and its satellite-launch competitor, Lockheed-Martin Corp. If the troubled venture passes muster from the Air Force and the Federal Trade Commission, Lockheed's production facility for its Atlas series of satellite-launch rockets would move to Decatur, adding hundreds of jobs.

Beck called the lawsuit meritless. He said Boeing and Lockheed continue their efforts to obtain approval of the venture.

"We understand that the Department of Defense and the Air Force are meeting soon, within days, to decide what they will recommend to the Federal Trade Commission. If they recommend it, we hope we will receive (FTC) approval."

Boeing and Lockheed said their alliance would reduce production costs, thus benefiting governmental customers.

SpaceX claimed it would increase the cost of governmental contracts by reducing competition.

Difference in price

Of greatest concern to Boeing, SpaceX's Falcon 1's price tag is $6.7 million. It has less lift capacity than Boeing's Delta 2, but competes directly with Orbital Sciences' Pegasus rocket, which costs about $30 million. A successful launch, though, could accelerate production of the Falcon 5, which competes directly with Boeing's Delta 2. Boeing's Decatur-made Delta 2 costs about $60 million per launch.

The Falcon 5, SpaceX says, will cost about $12 million.

Decatur strike

The SpaceX launch could not come at a worse time for Boeing. Its 305 hourly workers at the Decatur plant — the only facility that assembles Delta rockets — have been on strike since Nov. 2. Another 1,200 workers are on strike in Florida, California and Alabama. Most work on the Boeing Delta rocket program.

Beck said there "are no negotiations planned at this time" with the machinists union.

Bob Wood, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the strikers are resolute. Other union members are donating toys to the picketers to give to their children for Christmas, Wood said. The striking workers lost their health insurance Dec. 1.

Of the rockets that were being assembled at the time the strike began, only one is proceeding on schedule. Despite machinists' complaints, Boeing plans to supply a solid-fuel propellant stage for the launch of the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft next month.

The Boeing stage is part of the Lockheed Atlas 5 that will launch the satellite. Boeing supervisors and managers are making the final modifications before a planned January launch.

Grounded missions include a rocket that was to carry an advanced weather satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a NASA atmospheric science mission and a classified flight for the National Reconnaissance Office.

"We don't know how many launches will be delayed by the strike, but certainly those in the next month or two will be delayed," Beck said.

SpaceX is a private company founded by Elon Musk. He made his millions co-founding PayPal, an Internet payment system, and then selling it to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

 

[Greg]

imported post

FBI probe results key to increased funding for state Boy Scouts

BIRMINGHAM (AP) — United Way of Central Alabama board members say the organization plans to increase its 2006 contribution to the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America, but only if there's a "favorable resolution" of an FBI probe into Scout membership rolls.

Next year the United Way plans to match the $940,855 it gave to the Scouts in 2005. An additional $19,758 will stay in a United Way bank account until the investigation concludes, giving the Scouts the fifth-highest allocation.

The Scouts are being investigated on allegations they padded their membership numbers to receive more money from agencies such as United Way.

The Greater Alabama Council initiated an audit of the membership, which Scout leaders predict will be finished in the next few weeks, along with the FBI probe.

"We have been in touch with the Scouts and we have followed this very closely," Bill Hamilton, who oversees the board's allocation committee, said. "We are in communication with their board, who are business leaders in Birmingham. When they tell us they feel it is OK, we believe that."

Randy Haines, chairman of the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts, said in an e-mail statement, "We are looking forward to a progressive 2006 and are grateful for United Way's confidence in our program. The membership audit we initiated earlier this year should be completed in January."

United Way board members approved about $30 million for 69 agencies that request approval each year or noncontractual agencies.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

 

[Greg]

imported post

Late Trading May Not Send Dow Over 11,000

Sunday December 18, 4:27 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — Traditionally, the last two weeks of the year are a time of light volume but rising stocks on Wall Street. Yet this year, there may not be enough of a rise to take to the bank.

The stock market's "Santa Claus" rally marched through Wall Street through November, but seemed to have made an exit along with the Macy's parade. Stocks have been flat for weeks, with investors concerned about a difficult winter and conflicting reports about 2006.

Wall Street is still hoping the Dow Jones industrial average will crack the 11,000 mark before year's end. While generally meaningless to serious investors, it is hoped such an achievement, which would represent the best showing for the market in four years, would provide a psychological boost.

Despite the Dow Jones industrial average reaching 10,997.50 intraday on Nov. 28, the index slumped throughout December and could not mount a sustainable rally of note last week. For the week, the Dow gained 0.9 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.63 percent, but the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.19 percent as investors moved out of tech stocks and small-cap companies and into larger, less risky holdings.

There's still a chance the Dow could reach 11,000 over the next two weeks. Mutual fund and hedge fund managers will likely try to polish their year-end returns by buying up stocks in the last nine days of trading for 2005. It's possible.

But even if 11,000 happens, the Dow won't stay there long. Come the new year, the funds that bought up stocks in December will cash out in January. And there are likely enough investors out there who see 11,000 as a signal to sell to make sure the market doesn't head back there any time soon.

ECONOMIC DATA

Mediocre economic data won't help the markets much in the week ahead. On Tuesday, the Labor Department will release its producer price index, a measure of inflation on the wholesale level. The PPI is expected to drop 0.4 percent for November, after a 0.7 percent October rise, due to falling energy costs. But so-called "core" PPI, with energy removed from the equation, is expected to rise 0.2 percent after a 0.3 percent drop in October. At best, that's a middling result that will likely leave investors unimpressed.

On Wednesday, the Commerce Department will release the final word on the third quarter's gross domestic product. GDP is expected to have grown 4.3 percent in the July-September period, on par with previous estimates.

Finally, on Friday, the University of Michigan releases its revised consumer sentiment index for December, which is expected to rise to 89 from an 88.7 reading a few weeks ago. Unless the number is substantially better — or worse — the usually market-moving index is unlikely to move anything.

EARNINGS

A handful of important corporate earnings reports could boost a few sectors during the week. On Tuesday, Wall Street investment firm Morgan Stanley will release its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday morning, and investors will look closely to see what new Chief Executive John Mack is doing to reverse the firm's fortunes.
Morgan Stanley stock has climbed 19 percent from its 52-week low of $47.66 on May 13, mostly due to Mack's ascension. The company is expected to earn $1.10 per share, up from $1.09 per share last year. Morgan Stanley closed Friday at $56.88.

Investors with a stake in the retail sector will be interested in Circuit City Stores Inc.'s earnings, due out Monday morning. The electronics retailer is expected to post a 3-cent-per-share profit, reversing a loss of 3 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Circuit City shares have climbed steadily throughout the year, rising 59 percent from a 52-week low of $13.40 on Jan. 12 to close Friday at $21.25.

On Wednesday, shipper FedEx Corp. will release its earnings before the trading session, and is expected to earn $1.40 per share, compared with $1.25 per share a year ago. Despite high fuel costs, the company's stock rallied sharply in the fourth quarter of the year, rising 30 percent from a 52-week low of $76.81 on Sept. 20, closing Friday at $99.90.

EVENTS

Christmas falls on this coming Sunday, so while the bond and stock markets will be closed Monday, Dec. 26, in observance, both markets will be open during regular hours throughout this week.

 

[Greg]

imported post

Elton turns down $10m

By Rob Singh, Evening Standard

Sir Elton John has turned down £5.6 million for the exclusive rights to his wedding to David Furnish.

The singer was offered $10 million by an American company to cover his wedding on Wednesday, the Evening Standard has learned.

A friend said: "Elton was approached to do a huge thing with an American media organisation which wanted to cover everything including the build-up and the wedding day itself. They were offering $10 million, but Elton is just not interested. He wants it as private as possible."

The offer dwarfs amounts paid to other couples. The rights for Victoria and David Beckhams' wedding were sold for a reported £1 million to OK! which is said to have paid Jordan and Peter Andre £1.75 million. Sir Elton's wedding, on the day civil partnerships become legal in Britain, will be held at Windsor's Guildhall. Seven hundred guests will attend a reception at Sir Elton's Berkshire home, Woodside.

Prior to the wedding, Sir Elton's "hen night" tonight will be played a video message from Bill Clinton. The minute-long recording will be played at a cabaret party at the Too2Much nightclub in Soho. A source said: "We were running through rehearsals when the tape was played. We knew Elton had good connections, but to see the ex-US president was something else."

Mr Clinton congratulates Sir Elton, 58, and David Furnish, 42, and says: "If there were more people like Elton, the world would be a better place."