www.flsentry.com

It’s Bender time…J.P. Bender in Pompano Florida Sentry….Financial hurricane brewing…

a must read…then go through his archives and see the other financial articles….

Take heed LBTS..we may be alright this year but cuts will come…

we need to be financially savvy…frugal…that is what many voted for…they are tightening their belts and want the town to do the same ….

so as we face the budget…residents will be making a tally….they want the fiscal responsibility they were promised on the campaign trail……

Posted in Local News

Chicago….papers….still Sam Zell owned ….

www.chicagtribune.com

Front section ….

Wally Phillips died…for Chicagoans…of which I spent a large portion of my life being one…by way of the North Shore…and relations living on the north side of the city….Cubs vs. White Sox….fond memories…from his stint as a broadcaster… same as losing Jack Brickhouse…Harry Carey

Paper plane not pulp fiction….

Japan supports plan to use the ancient art of origami to make a test of aircraft…..a prototype passed a durability test in a wind tunnel last month….far reaching implications if successful…for design of re-entry vehicles or space probes for upper atmospheric exploration…. watch the folds….

Editorial

Pension funds….Chicago teachers vs. teachers retirement system of Ill. which cover teachers outside of Chicago..less percentage to the former…like so many funds …this pension fund has revenues that only meet 82% of its obligations……. this year Chicago schools diverted $131.5 million away from classroom money to the pension fund; by 2045 that number could be close to a billion….pensions…somethings gotta give… as in previous posts…

Commentary….

The Big Idea…. Finders Weepers….

the innocently named Patent Reform Act will weaken our country’s patent protections and do serious harm to innovative companies …international competitiveness will be threatened…the bill was designed by a handful of large tech integrators like Microsoft, Cisco, and Apple….take a look at past post on the new global leaders on previous post….

Business…

McDonald’s is about to roll out its Angus burger…on a broader scale in the U.S….. will have to wait in Florida…not on the list…..

Bear Stearns chairman sells entire stake of troubled firm….sold 5.66 shares at $10.84 per….the value of his stake plummeted from almost a billion last year…when it was $171.50 per …. violins….please….

Rumors about Lehman Brothers spook Wall Street….are they the next domino?……

Posted in News

A few months in ……how do they rate?

The commission has settled in…the nameplates are positioned…the computers and business cards are in their possession…..

They have sat on the dais….presented agenda items…made comments….made rulings….appointed the Boards….followed through on campaign promises…. and availed themselves to the residents …. some negatives….some positives….

so how do I think they rate… in my humble opinion…

The Mayor is having a hard time getting her bearings…the notes are more of an obvious hindrance than a help…..and it looks like they are not from her own research….. also reading from them has brought her the wrath of the Town Manager with an insinuation that cast doubt on the Town Manager and her staff…over AMR RFPs…. at times as stated in previous posts she has acted as a strong mayor…but I think she has finally realized that won’t fly….. nominated the former chair of the Master Steering Committee who will bring to the town her vast resources in preparation for when the town is ready to forward without being thwarted by fellow Board members in the past…hopefully…. participated in Easter- By- The- Sea….Sunrise Service….she should take the time to enlist someone like the new chair of P&Z to do some mock meetings….

Commissioner Silverstone has not put anything on the agenda so far and I was sure he would have a myriad of items that he has had on the back burner to bring forth once the Old Guard was removed from office… tried to keep the public from speaking at the EMS workshop….disheartening to say the least…. participated in Easter- By- The- Sea…. Sunrise Service …. I look forward to seeing what comes from him going forth…

Commissioner Clottey… has found her footing over the course of each meeting…she is making her points…having those “Columbo” moments as one reader pointed out…..is keeping her promise to the voters in the north and south to blend them together….. to find out the excess revenue information….she voted in Board members from north and south… new applicants and some that were appointed by her predecessor…. tried to have commission each appoint a member of the Board to be representative of the voters and prevent what occurred last Tuesday…. had the Town Manager give the first figures of the excess revenues last Tuesday….walked to meet the shop owners to see what they think about the bags on the parking meters ….went to both EMS services before she voted on Tuesday…..went to the VFD met with their Chief to ask questions…… she has asked questions that residents themselves wanted the answers to…..listened to constituents about the variance charges and had them reduced even more….tried to get freedom of speech restored…. repealed the land use development on hedges …… met with Minto to see what the 4 lane situation was and updates on their plans…. participated in Easter- By- The – Sea….. co- chairing July 4th….she is doing what she said she would do to those voters who took a leap from her opponent….

Commissioner Dodd…has followed through swiftly on an array of campaign promises…introducing and doing away with all Overlay Districts…. returning the term limits to what voters voted for…went to visit both EMS applicants before voting AMR last Tuesday….visited Minto to get the specifics on the 4 lanes and their park etc…. appointed to the Hillsboro Inlet board and reported back on it…. voted in new and previous members of Boards….who he felt could add diversity and expertize to each one…. turned it around for the public to speak at the EMS workshop when it seemed the incumbents were going to do otherwise… seconded Comm. Clottey in her attempt to return freedom of speech……. introduced new way to deal with Consent agenda….no “blind” items passed in the future….listened to the residents and found a compromise to have one lane on Washingtonia Ave….reimbursed 2 ex- board members for legal expenses incurred due to lack of prompt representation from the town….participated in Easter- By- The- Sea…..co-chair July 4th… he must be going down the list he has kept over the past years…. he is on a roll…..

Vice Mayor McIntee…..his shining moments so far …his questions of BSO …some gotcha moments of misrepresentations in their EMS power point…his questioning of AMR and what he expects from them…. making Marc Furth Official Town photographer….low points….unfortunately many more than I thought there would be and some I could not even fathom….starting with his demeanor on the dais…body language….. his introduction of not letting those who come to the podium address the commissioners by name….trying 2 times to keep people from speaking …1st at the EMS workshop…and again when it resumed last Tuesday…to keep non residents from speaking… introducing cell phone allowance and insurance….too soon as a new commission …. his treatment of the former chair of the Master Steering Committee after she was nominated and seconded…… a move that reenacted all the OG were guilty of… still fighting a fight that is over…steeped in animosity over the past few years….at times he can not seem to let it go…. it is time….. participated in Easter- By- The- Sea…Sunrise Service….. time to reassess and become a statesman …..

EMS is decided…..AMR….

VFD has the opportunity to be the primary fire suppression service by September 30th….

Boards are appointed…and unless someone appointed declines….they are ready to serve at the pleasure of the Commission….with guidance from the Commission…..

The fork is in the road….time to step away from the past……come to the middle and give the voters what they are waiting for….cohesiveness……..forward thinking…. ideas and action…..

how do readers rate them? …contact me….

UPDATE: Comm. Dodd contacted me…he relayed to me that Comm. Silverstone had talked to both newly elected commissioners…before they were sworn- in…pre- sunshine… that he would not be putting anything on the agenda right away in order to allow the new commissioners to put on what they needed to…a courtesy that was not offered to him when he was elected… and one he felt was the right thing to do…

Thanks, Comm. Dodd for the clarification…

Comm. Silverstone…I still look forward to seeing what you bring forth in the future…

Posted in Local Politics, Opinions

Today might be a bludgeoning on the infamous site or go nowhere for lack of a second…how apropo…

Futures out today…will comment after it hits internet….Pelican will have to wait …not available online….

Papers….web news….scoops….and more….

keep checking in….

1st up…opinion piece …How do they rate?…. to be on mid to late morning…Chicago time….

quick message to those that send comments….they are traceable… by my server….so think about what you want to send….would not want to embarrass any “fine, upstanding” citizens….who got this site mixed up with the Sun Sentinel Topix blog!

Posted in Miscellaneous

www.chicagotribune.com

Sun-Sentinel …..kin

Metro section…

Park District proposals may rein in its volunteers…

volunteers will be required to have background checks…supply 3 non- family references and agree not to grant media interviews….and LBTS board volunteers thought the Tues. night appointee process was rough!

City to pay Millenium contractor $11 million…

.a “bargain” down from the original $70 million…another chapter in the turbulent history of  Millenium Park…a project that began in 1998…for $150 million…last projected final cost….$500 million….the cost increases of the north end sewers…seem tame in comparison!

Buildings ti dim lights for climate change…Chicago joins many other cities …  Atlanta, Phoenix and San Francisco….with notable inclusions…John Hancock Tower….Navy Pier…and all McDonald’s arches….

Judge OKs firing of test bullets at range off Lake Michigan….luminescent tracer bullets…. as part of an environmental groups lawsuit seeking to halt the use of lead bullets into Lake Michigan….650 thousand rounds of ammunition are fired annually…..the tracer bullets will light up once discharged to show where they land…the environmental group contends the bullets land in the lake creating potential danger to the environment and the North Chicago water supply….there was even arguments that the tracer bullets did not travel as far the regular bullets  and will skew the results… will it look like fireflies out there?

Front section….

Testing dinner bell as fish bait…

scientist are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves  by swimming into a net when they hear a tone that signals feeding time….a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration…$270 thousand….the reason to bolster the depleted black sea bass and defray the costs of fish farming….Pavlov dogs….comes to mind…..

The news media vs. the innocent…

remember Steven Hatfill…a person of interest who was splashed across the media….he fought back..his life ruined…still in the throes of  getting to the bottom of who the “sources” were…he is close…a judge is ordering a USA reporter to comply or face $5000 a day in fines…newspapers are behind keeping sources confidential…but this case may be the one that changes that…a first amendment expert at U of Chicago thinks the press has overstepped …sources did not blowing the whistle on government wrongdoing but doing something wrong in revealing information on the identity of a suspect…opinion of a tribune editorial staff member….press is protecting the guilty at the expense of the innocent…. about time!

Posted in News

www.nytimes.com

Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison

Evidence has come forward that Thomas Edison and his historic “Mary Had A Little Lamb” may not be the 1st….

a French man may have beat him to it ……

E’douard Le’on Scott de Martinville a parisian typesetter and tinkerer went to his grave convinced credit for his breakthrough had been improperly bestowed upon Edison….

Friday David Giovannoni an American Audio Historian will present findings and play the recording at Stanford University….

worth a read….

Posted in Web News

change of plans…in Chicago it snows at the end of March…..

Lake effect…beautiful snow…. haven’t experienced it in 14 years…..

so decided to share an article written in the April issue of Vanity Fair magazine…

my airplane read….used to be a subscriber…..now just a fair weather /in the airport purchaser…

interesting article….

The Claim To Camelot…by David Friend… who broke the “Deep Throat” story….

Jack Worthington a Texas- born financier who believed he was the son of JFK….after an encounter with his mother who informed him he was not the son of the man who he thought was his father….

was it a legit story….

It’s a read that has twists and turns and characters that have connections to many presidents and those that appeared briefly as historical footnotes….that is so much more than 6 degrees of separation…the Kevin Bacon game…

The attorney that contacts the magazine….Douglas Caddy…the original lawyer for the Watergate burglars…

The mother…a member of a family intertwined with LBJ politically …who could have had trysts with the president…

The man who would be the president’s illegitimate son has the facial features to make it seem a possibility…

The attorney has more connections…later found by the reporter….he had once been a lawyer in the Nixon White House…. and represented a man who accused LBJ of conspiracy to commit murder….

brought along to a meeting with the reporter, attorney, the subject of the story…a woman…who turns out to be the former wife of President Bush’s brother Neil…Sharon Bush….

A side story… Sharon Bush and husband were to have a dinner party at their home in 1981…a guest was to have been Scott Hinkley…brother of Reagan’s would be assassin…the dinner was canceled due to the infamous shooting taking place the night before it was scheduled…..

The attorney went to Georgetown and was involved in the Goldwater- Buckley…Young American’s for Freedom… then went on to Nixon….having Howard Hunt call him during Watergate….and represented the accused men who broke in….wrote several books…..one about political clout of organized labor…

as a writer he sought advice from Lucienne Goldberg…who was the the literary agent…now of Lucianne.com…who advised Linda Tripp to tape Monica Lewinsky…

He did represent a man who accused LBJ of murder….JFK’s murder….

another side story a longtime attorney at LBJ’s Texas law firm wrote a book in 2004 claiming LBJ killed JFK…..was Barr McClellen…father of Scott McClellen…President Bush’s former press secretary….

In this book…McClellen says payoffs happened at a ranch ….same ranch that years later Vice President Cheney shot his friend duck hunting at….the photographer assigned to Cheney…David Boher…son of Judith Exner….a mistress of JFK….

so what was the end of all this intrigue….no match…. after searching for DNA on Ebay…and hitting dead ends….finally using hair that was supplied by a man who claims to have the largest collection of hair from historical figures….such as Napoleon,Geranomo…..and more to clone in the future…..

another strange aside…the evening before…I watched Hoax on cable…Richard Gere movie about Clifford Irving and his fraudulent book about Howard Hughs….also mentioned by the reporter in the article….

LBTS  has  its own 6 degrees of separation…..Old Guard….New Guard…supporters…..former supporters…. former friends…. former employees…. former members of organizations…..felons……and even murder…..just no illegitimate sons of presidents….at least none we know of…..

Posted in Miscellaneous

 No not Wheaties….

Herb Peterson the inventor of the Egg McMuffin  dies at age 89…

he invented the breakfast specialty 1972….. he had a thing for eggs Benedict…introduced then on Santa Barbara California….  ended up opening 6 Mc Donald Franchises…..

died of natural causes….

Posted in Web News

www.sunsentinel.com

a two-fer…..

just as yesterday’s small article…again today…under Broward…

Lauderdale By The Sea Private Ambulance Service Hired ….no reporter named…the vote with Mayor dissenting ….and cost….

no discussion entry on this one….they are now on topic on old blog and new….same folks…same pro and con….

we are really ahead of the curve and will be hailed for leading the way or we are about to free fall… drama to say the least…

comparison….when you walk up to the check out line…long line…you are waiting in it….someone walks up to the empty line…..and stands…

either that person is an idiot… can he not see the long line?…..or does he know something the others do not?……and then a cashier shows up……or not!

Posted in News

Good Morning from Chicago…

where it is a cool 30 degrees and Lake Michigan is a sight to behold from the bcbythesea daughter and son- in- laws apartment….

did the obligatory Michigan Avenue shopping  ritual….a beautiful day around 50 degrees out…tourists galore…

the place to be for the teens- 30 somethings …a store called H &M on Michigan Ave…no website to order from I am told but cheap prices and packed to the gills with customers….like the scenes they’ve been showing from the discount bridal dresses after the doors open….on TV last week!

Thanks again for all the input on the missed workshop and Commission meeting from Tues….interesting from so many perspectives….

I did finally see a few segments…thanks to my daughter’s Dell…my Mac will be having a visit from my computer doctor next week…it is certainly a withdrawal feeling not to see it after not missing any meetings for so long!

Once I get it all…I will update….probably over the next days….so keep checking…

the mailer continues to amaze …loyal reader numbers and responses…incredible….thanks!

today…the Shedd Aquarium….

Later….news/opinions/maybe a scoop or 2/papers from Chicago…..

Posted in Miscellaneous