CEO Summit on Saving an Industry in Crisis - American Press Institute: "The daily newspaper industry stands at a precipice. Rocked by declining print circulation and advertising, disruptive Internet technologies and competition from a variety of new players and industries, the traditional bedrock of American journalism faces a classic change-or-die scenario. Whole swaths of the American populace have abandoned newspapers or are growing up without the habit of reading them. And while the Web sites of news organizations are attracting more readers than ever, the online advertising business is nowhere close to making up for the steep slide in print.

None of this is news, yet the industry's response to date continues to be fitful, ranging from simple cost-cutting in some companies to paralysis and denial in others, to commitment to change and innovation in still others.

To help newspaper companies find strategies and ideas for re-invention, 50 top executives gathered at the American Press Institute for a day-long summit guided by two corporate turnaround experts."
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This is interesting reading. More interesting than newspapers, now that I think about it.

The Hartford: The Hartford : Investor Relations : The Hartford Announces Agreement To Acquire Federal Trust Bank And Application To U.S. Treasury Capital Purchase Program

The Hartford: The Hartford : Investor Relations : The Hartford Announces Agreement To Acquire Federal Trust Bank And Application To U.S. Treasury Capital Purchase Program: "HARTFORD, Conn., Nov 14, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: HIG) today announced that it has applied to the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) to become a savings and loan holding company and has applied to participate in the U.S. Treasury Department's Capital Purchase Program (CPP).

In conjunction with these applications, The Hartford has signed a merger agreement to acquire the parent company of Federal Trust Bank for approximately $10 million and will also provide an additional amount to recapitalize the bank. Federal Trust Bank, a federally chartered, FDIC-insured savings bank is owned by Federal Trust Corporation, a unitary thrift holding company headquartered in Sanford, Fla. The completion of this acquisition will satisfy a key eligibility requirement for participation in CPP."
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Hartford, a $26 billion company, is buying a little bank for $10 million so it can call itself a "savings and loan holding company" and get its snout in the bailout trough.

Spam Turns Serious and Hormel Turns Out More - NYTimes.com: "AUSTIN, Minn. — The economy is in tatters and, for millions of people, the future is uncertain. But for some employees at the Hormel Foods Corporation plant here, times have never been better. They are working at a furious pace and piling up all the overtime they want.

The workers make Spam, perhaps the emblematic hard-times food in the American pantry."
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Spam, spam, and more spam, plus an occasional zoo animal. Recession vittles.

Um, it's a rooster, not a chicken :: Porter County :: Post-Tribune

Um, it's a rooster, not a chicken, or "When election boards go bad": "Several readers wondered whether there was a political bias implicit on their ballots in Porter County.

On the ballot, toward the top, were small designs associated with the political party labels. Republicans had an elephant. Libertarians had the Statue of Liberty. But next to Democrats? A chicken?"
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They defend this by saying it was a "rooster." A rooster is still a chicken.

Print Version

Washington state landowner draws Secret Service attention for bonehead political sign: "The U.S. Secret Service is being asked to review a sign a Bonner County landowner put up which suggests a 'free public hanging' of President-elect Barack Obama and several other political figures.

The handmade cardboard sign also features a noose fashioned from a length of nylon rope.

'That's a political statement. They can call it whatever they want, a threat or whatever,' said Ken Germana, who installed the sign on his property off Golden Gate Road in southwestern Bonner County.

Obama's name is the most prominent on the sign, although it also bears the names of former Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry, current U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and civil rights activist and former presidential candidate Al Sharpton."
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It is a political statement, but it is also evidence of a room temperature IQ.

A Depression-Style California State Budget - California Progress Report: "A recent story on the Depression in the Washington Post discussed how the Depression first entered American households, such as the day people switched from electric lighting to cheaper kerosene lamps, the day beans replaced beef on the dinner table, and the day extended family members moved in. The most grisly story in the article was in 1932 in Detroit, when the city shut down its zoo and slaughtered its animals to provide food for a starving population."
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Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Record Loss Forces Freddie Mac to Tap $100 Billion Fund - Financials * US * News * Story - CNBC.com

Record Loss Forces Freddie Mac to Tap $100 Billion Fund - Financials * US * News * Story - CNBC.com: "Freddie Mac reported a $25.3 billion quarterly loss on Friday as the housing slump worsened, forcing the second-largest provider of U.S. home loan funding to draw on a $100 billion Treasury Department lifeline.

The company attributed much of the record loss to a write down of tax-related assets, essentially conceding it will not return to profitability soon. Writing down the assets left the company with a negative net worth, in which liabilities exceed its assets, requiring it to tap the Treasury backstop.

Freddie Mac said after tentative signs that the housing market was stabilizing in the second quarter, conditions worsened 'dramatically' during July through September.

'The percentage decline in home prices was particularly large in California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada, where Freddie Mac has significant concentrations of mortgage loans,' the company said in a securities filing. Freddie Mac said the rising unemployment rate was the main culprit for the worsening housing market."
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Let's see...California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. What do those four states have in common?

Oh, yes. Almost all their new housing is in CIDs. Does this mean that the prices have fallen more for CID housing than for new conventional neighborhoods?

Pledge of Allegiance divides Vermont town

Pledge of Allegiance divides Vermont town: "The brouhaha in the Vermont school began in September, when parent Ted Tedesco began circulating petitions calling for the return of pledge recitation as a daily practice in the 19th-century schoolhouse, which has 55 children in kindergarten through sixth grade.

School officials agreed to resume it as a daily exercise, but not in the classroom.

'We don't want to isolate children every day in their own classroom or make them feel they're different,' said Principal Michaela Martin.

Instead, starting last week, a sixth grade student was assigned to go around to the four classrooms before classes started, gathering anyone who wanted to say it and then walking them up creaky wooden steps to a second-floor gymnasium, where he led them in the pledge.

About half the students chose to participate, Martin said."
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Maybe the citizens of Woodbury, Vermont, would be more comfortable pledging allegiance to the United Nations flag.

Malaysia Property News - Real Estate, Property, Residential, Office, Condominium: Be resilient to face slowdown, builders told

Malaysia Property News - Real Estate, Property, Residential, Office, Condominium: Be resilient to face slowdown, builders told: "PETALING JAYA: Developers must be optimistic and resilient in facing the current slowdown in the property market, says Country Heights Holdings Bhd founder and vice-chairman Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew.

“The sector is facing a slowdown as the result of the current economic conditions. Though we do feel cautious, we must not be pessimists,” he said during the CEO roundtable session at the summit."

Town of Batman suing Batman over use of Batman (Wizbang Pop!): "The mayor of Batman, Turkey, is suing Warner Bros. and The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan for using the Cape Crusader's name without the city's permission."
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Maybe Hooker, California, should file some lawsuits too.

ILLINOIZE: State and city budgets falling fast

ILLINOIZE: State and city budgets falling fast
The map that accompanies this post shows 41 states facing budget shortfalls.

9NEWS.com | Colorado's Online News Leader | Golden decides lights on trees are OK: "GOLDEN - The Golden City Council voted unanimously on Thursday night to only allow secular items on city property for the holidays this year. The city made the decision because the lights on Washington Street stirred up controversy. A local rabbi asked that a Hanukkah menorah be added to the decorations on the main street, but the city resisted, saying it didn't want religious symbols. Current decorations in the city include lights on trees, garland, snowflakes and snowballs. The rabbi countered that Christmas lights are religious in nature. The city disagreed and Thursday night's resolution allows the lights to stay up. There is one exception. A Santa Claus that is traditionally on the arch over Washington Street will stay because of its historical nature. The figure has been there as a tradition for many years."
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Christmas lights: OK
Santa: OK
Garland, snowflakes, and snowballs: OK
Menorah: NOT OK

I think I get the distinction they are trying to make here, but the end result is a secularized celebration of the Christian holiday called Christmas, but no public celebration of Hanukkah. In my ideal world there would be all sorts of religious symbols along with the secular ones. Given that the stores will all be going broke this Christmas and corporations will be doing mass end-of-year layoffs, we could all do with a little prayer anyway. It's free, after all. So I'll put one up here.

Mayor to town folk: You're too stupid to work with - Yahoo! News: "ST. ANTHONY, Idaho – You can't call Bill Beck the mayor of 'stupid' town anymore. The former St. Anthony mayor resigned from his post at a city council meeting Wednesday night, but not before telling off the townspeople and his fellow city council members.

Councilman Bryan Fullmer told the Standard Journal that Beck walked into the start of the meeting and announced his surprise resignation to the audience. Fullmer said Beck then told the audience that he was tired of people who were too stupid to understand, and turned and told council members that they were too stupid to work with, too.

Fullmer said Beck continued by telling the town to go to hell."
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I give him 10 out of 10 for sincerity, but I think there was a certain lack of tact. Fred Pilot found this saga.

Breitbart.tv » Illinois 8th Grader’s T-Shirt Experiment Documents Anti-McCain Bias
After living in Oak Park for 8 years, I am not surprised at all by this. It is the most intolerant place I've ever seen. The kids are brainwashed from birth ("Democrat good. Republican bad. Liberal good. Conservative bad. Unitarian Church good. Born again Christian bad. Oak Parkers good and tolerant. All other white suburbanites bad and intolerant.") and the groupthink in the public schools is astounding. This girl has tremendous courage to have retained her capacity for independent thought, let alone taking a risk like this.
Here is the John Kass column that broke the story.
Here is Kass' follow-up story.

That $300 Billion Hope For Homeowners Isn’t Working - Realty Check with Diana Olick - CNBC.com

That $300 Billion Hope For Homeowners Isn’t Working - Realty Check with Diana Olick - CNBC.com: "Here’s the reality: In the last two weeks, FHA received exactly 69 applications to the H4H program. Since the start of the program, a little over a month ago, it has received 111. Now I’m no mathematician, but that doesn’t exactly extrapolate out to 400,000 over three years or even 19,000 over one year or even over a few months."
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OK--so can we have the money put back in the Treasury?

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Poll: Obama facing high expectations « - Blogs from CNN.com
And who set those high expectations, pray tell?

Post office $2.8 billion in the red: "WASHINGTON (AP) - The Postal Service ended its fiscal year $2.8 billion in the red, battered by a faltering economy that cut the amount of mail being sent."
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What the heck, bail them out too.

Cities panic as consumers stop spending and home values fall - San Jose Mercury News

Cities panic as consumers stop spending and home values fall - San Jose Mercury News: "Sales tax revenues are plunging as frightened consumers stop spending and car dealerships go out of business. Property tax revenues are drooping as home prices fall. The fees local governments get from builders are disappearing as housing construction grinds to a halt.

The collapse of financial foundations has many Northern California cities scared to death — and for good reason. They're facing a future of unrepaired potholes, reduced library hours, less-manicured parks and a drop in the number of cops and firefighters."
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Public and private local governments are in trouble, at the same time. Not good news for anybody. Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link.

City Council: Detroit needs $10-billion bailout | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

City Council: Detroit needs $10-billion bailout | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press: "The Detroit City Council passed a resolution today calling for a $10-billion bailout for the city of Detroit."
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They just got $47 million from HUD to deal with the foreclosure crisis. Back for a lot more.

Michael Jackson gives Neverland to corporation - Yahoo! News

Michael Jackson gives Neverland to corporation - Yahoo! News: "LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson has given up title to his Neverland ranch, transferring the deed to a company he partly controls.

The singer filed a grant deed on the ranch Monday that makes the new owner an entity called the Sycamore Valley Ranch Co. LLC, Tom Pearson of the Santa Barbara County clerk-recorder's office said Wednesday.

Sycamore Valley Ranch Co. is a joint venture between Jackson and an affiliate of Colony Capital LLC, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction who was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity.

The person could not say what would become of the 2,500-acre property in the bucolic, oak-studded hills of Santa Barbara County's wine country, 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles."
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If they sell it build a subdivision, it could turn out like in the movie Poltergeist. Who knows what is buried down there?