Greed or just ...?

A minor Chinese official rose to infamy after anticorruption detectives discovered more than $20 million worth of renminbi in cash, 37 kilograms of gold bars and 68 property ownership documents in his family home, according to The New York Times' Sinosphere blog. Ma Chaoqun was arrested with his brother in February, and five other family members also have been apprehended.

But the official's mother, said her son is honest and that the bounty belonged to her deceased husband, a doctor who accrued the wealth by dabbling in side business ventures.

She said her son was the victim of a vendetta plot, planned by his boss to prevent him from exposing an alleged embezzlement scheme. The mother said she packed the cash into more than 40 boxes after her husband died in 2012 and stored them in a closet in the family home. "My husband thought it was too much trouble going to the bank to get money," Zhang said, "Some of the money hadn't been touched for years and was growing moldy,".

Ma was the general manager of a state-run water supply company in northern China. He had a negative reputation among the locals who depended on water service. Residents told Xinhua that Ma demanded money for water services. If the payment was too low, water would be cut off. 

A low level official, huh. You'll be the judge.

Just a thought.

Scoop...?

The Wall Street Journal has learned of a new federal law enforcement program that uses cell signals to track criminal suspects.

The Justice Department is scooping up data from thousands of mobile phones through devices deployed on airplanes that mimic cellphone towers, a high-tech hunt for criminal suspects, according to people familiar with the operations.

The U.S. Marshals Service program, fully functional since 2007, operates Cessna aircraft from at least five metropolitan-area airports, with a flying range covering most of the U.S. population.

The technology in the two-foot-square device enables investigators to scoop data from tens of thousands of cellphones in a single flight, collecting their identifying information and general location, and activities.

Phone companies are cut out in the search for suspects. Law enforcement has found that asking a company for cell-tower information to help locate a suspect can be slow and inaccurate.

Calling it "a dragnet surveillance program," Christopher Soghoian, chief technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, said: "It's inexcusable and it's likely - to the extent judges are authorizing it - they have no idea of the scale of it."

Whatever it is, we need to know all about it. Its success and failure.

Just a thought.

Olive oil.....

Olive oil is great for your health and a staple of the Mediterranean diet. It’s still steeped in mystery and confusion. 

All olive oils have roughly the same amount of calories and fat. “Light” refers to the color and flavor of this oil, and is highly refined.

Extra virgin olive oil has a lower smoke point than others. It’s perfectly safe for sautéing at medium temperatures. It is the purest form of olive oil, and contains the most health supportive oleic acid so there’s no need to use it only for salad dressing.

A slightly bitter taste can indicate the presence of antioxidants.  With a fresh extra virgin olive oil, you should taste, olives, and also some grassy or fruity notes.

The oil goes rancid quicker with heat and light. Look for dark-colored glass or tin container, and store it in a cool spot, away from sunlight.

It’s better to buy olive oil in smaller quantities to use it up within about 6 weeks.

For quality, look for seals from the USDA, the North American Olive Oil Association, the California Olive Oil Council, or the Extra Virgin Alliance. The fridge test is no go. Just a thought

Exception...

U.S. stock prices rose, hovering near record highs, while crude fell below $80 a barrel for the first time in four years on further signs of a slowdown in China's economy.
Brent crude has fallen more than 30 percent since June 2014, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said demand for its members' oil could drop by about a million barrels per day in 2015 due to the U.S. shale boom.

Falling energy costs, while positive for consumers, have raised concerns about profits of major oil companies and their capital spending, analysts said.

The price of WTI oil around $75/Barrel. This is half the price of oil per Barrel on 2007. While the Temp was 90 F on August 2014, the oil price was $108/Barrel. Today the temp reaches 40F, and the oil is $75/Barrel.

A lot has happened since then. US use of natural Gas and Oil output from shale increased despite falling global prices as drillers become more efficient.

By the end of this winter, prices of oil will be around $50/Barrel or less, a change the world hasn't seen recently in any thing. The revenue will dwindle greatly for the producer Countries, oil companies, buying oil stock on margin, etc and will result in economical difficulties.

Just a thought.

Low level Marijuana?

NY Police Commissioner announced that officers will now be allowed to issue simple summonses for certain low-level marijuana offenses, rather than making arrests.
The policy allows Criminal Court summonses for anyone found in possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana in a public place open to view.

Such offenders will just get a ticket and will not be handcuffed, fingerprinted or photographed. “This policy will allow officers, in the case where they do find it appropriate to give a summons, to continue on with their work,” de Blasio said.

The new policy does not apply if someone is smoking marijuana out in the open, or if it is intended for dealing rather than personal use. Those with outstanding warrants or  wanted, or have no identification, will be arrested, Bratton said. He would rather narcotics officers dedicate their focus to the heroin epidemic.

There is bigger fish to fry. Just a thought.

Dendreon.

Dendreon Corp. makes the prostate cancer treatment Provenge. It said its restructuring will allow for the continued delivery of the drug to doctors and patients.

Prostate cancer drug developer is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It

listed more than $664 million in total debts.  Its largest creditor is Bank of New York Mellon, which holds $620 million in notes.

The company has reached agreements on the terms of a financial restructuring with investors.The company will attempt to sell itself to a buyer that would continue to produce Provenge [Valeant].

The drug represented a first-of-a-kind treatment in that each dose is customized to use the body's own immune system to fight cancer. That contrasts with traditional chemotherapy drugs that attack cancerous and healthy cells at the same time.

Dendreon's vaccine costs more than $90,000 per patient and has been found to have extended the life of advanced prostate cancer patients by about 4 months in trials.

Newer prostate cancer drugs have squeezed the vaccine's potential. Competing drugs, such as Medivation Inc's Xtandi and Johnson & Johnson's Zytiga, have the added advantage of being easier to use and Cheaper.

High cost, minimum outcome will take you down and out every time. Just a thought.

The War Zone- San Fernando.

Image is not related.

Francisco Garcia had left a party at his girlfriend's house and was on a sidewalk in the San Fernando Valley around 2 a.m. when two cars pulled up. A man got out of one vehicle, smashed a beer bottle on the ground and yelled at Garcia before going back to the second car to grab a gun, police said. Garcia died at the scene. No one else was injured.
Garcia is a 21-year-old Army veteran  who return from, the war zone in Afghanistan, only few months earlier. 

Brian Enriquez, 21, told the Los Angeles Times that he, Garcia and a group of friends left Garcia's girlfriend's house when she decided to go to sleep. They headed to another gathering when the cars pulled up.

The ironies are obvious. To survive as a soldier in an overseas conflict, only to be killed in your neighborhood upon your return.

How ironic?  Just a thought.

Mitch McConnell

Speaker John Boehner, celebrating a widened majority, said he is "humbled by the responsibility the American people have placed with us."

"But this is not a time for celebration," he said. "It's time for government to start getting results and implementing solutions to the challenges facing our country, starting with our still-struggling economy.

 

The message from voters is clear: they want us to work together," Reid said. "I look forward to working with Senator McConnell to get things done for the middle class."

 

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he expects to get things done and will open the Senate floor to amendments once he takes over as the new majority leader early next year.

 

He wants to work with the president on a variety of issues, including passage of international trade agreements and tax reform, which he said Obama indicated in a phone call earlier that he was interested in pursuing.

 

He also clearly said there is no shut down of the government nor default on the Debt ceiling.

 

Let us hope for action soon and let us not start a new war.

 

Just a thought.

No End.

The sister of Boston Marathon bombing suspect was arrested in New York City for allegedly making a bomb threat, police said.

Ailina Tsarnaev, 24, was charged with aggravated harassment after a bomb threat was made by phone to another woman. The recipient, notified police of the threat. 

Ailina's boyfriend shares a child with the woman who was threatened.

On another case, prosecutors said Tsarnaeva failed to cooperate with a police officer. The officer was investigating the passing of a counterfeit bill by a group of people eating at an Applebee's restaurant in  a mall in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, on April 16, 2010. A server saw the group leaving and wrote down their license plate number.

Police traced the car to Tsarnaeva at her family's Cambridge home. When questioned, she said she did not know the names of the people she picked up from the restaurant. She also told police that she had not lied but "did not want to be a snitch," according to the report.

The stories of this family may not end here.  Just a thought.

The next Wall Street Bubble, ?

"Margin" is borrowing money from your broker to buy a stock and using your investment as collateral. It increase the purchasing power and own more stock without fully paying for it.  

You buy a stock for $50 and the price rises to $75.  On margin, paying $25 in cash and borrowing $25 from your broker will earn a 100 percent return on the money you invested. Of course, you'll still owe your firm $25 plus interest.

If the stock price decreases, substantial losses can mount quickly. For example, the stock you bought for $50 falls to $25.  On margin, you'll lose 100 percent, and you still must come up with the interest you owe on the loan.

In volatile markets, investors who put up an initial margin payment for a stock may, from time to time, be required to provide additional cash if the price of the stock falls.

The brokerage firm has the right to sell their securities that were bought on margin – without any notification and potentially at a substantial loss to the investor. If your broker sells your stock after the price has plummeted, then you've lost out on the chance to recoup your losses if the market bounces back.

In other word, the Brokerage owns everything by lending you a some.

Just a scary thought.