text:
Paper chase
William R. "Bill" Morgan still remembers the phone call that led to the most mysterious presidential fundraising episode of 1996, which led to the strangest political story of 1997, which in turn promises to spawn several entertaining crime stories in 1998.
It came on the afternoon of October 22, 1996. As usual, Morgan, a 60-year-old "historical document" dealer, was working the phone at his company, Vaduz Limited Partnership.
"You've gotta understand," says Morgan. "I was on top of the world." He had reason to be feeling good. For the better part of a decade, Morgan had been learning the ropes of the antique bond trade. Finally, after eight years of false starts and failed deals that long ago would have snuffed the hopes of a less-dogged dreamer, his ship appeared to be steaming into port.
Just 12 days earlier, Morgan had returned from London, where he had retrieved two Chicago, Saginaw & Canada railroad bonds from safekeeping at Barclays Bank. From there, Morgan escorted the two "Saginaws," as these beautifully engraved bits of 19th century history are known, to Chicago. According to Morgan, who produced contracts and plane tickets to back up his story, once he arrived in the Windy City, he turned the paper over to a lawyer for Bayvest Capital Funding Limited, a foreign concern that had contracted to pay a mind-boggling $300 million for the two 125-year-old bonds. Morgan then hopped an American Airlines jet back to Dallas to await his payoff.
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To be sure, the deal had its peculiarities. For one thing, the money wasn't coming in a single lump, but in 15 monthly installments of $20 million. And it was only to be paid out of the profits of Bayvest's own wheeling and dealing with the Saginaws.
But most curious of all was the price. While the bonds are lovely examples of intaglio printing, that hardly justifies shelling out nearly one-third of a billion dollars for them, or roughly four times the amount of the most expensive painting ever sold. (Vincent Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet, auctioned in 1990 at the height of the art market, brought a mere $82.5 million.) And since they're not artworks of unheard-of rarity and value, then why would anyone pay $300 million for seemingly worthless paper issued by a railroad that went belly-up before the turn of the century?
This riddle underlies one of the wildest tales of the '96 campaign season, a bizarre story that reads like a Donald Westlake caper novel, full of outrageous schemes and charming rogues who, if nothing else, have cornered the market in moxie. The yarn culminates with the president himself nearly lending his name to what looks an awful lot like an international con game.
And it all began with that phone call to Morgan from one R. Warren Meddoff, a fellow document dealer from Florida, who suggested a way for Morgan to spend some of his windfall: donate $5 million to the Democratic Party.
But the best part of the story is the reason why a group of historical document dealers wanted political stroke: They needed it to breathe value into the reams of antique financial instruments they were peddling.
As Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut concluded during last September's campaign finance hearings, it is a "story which, if true, is hair-raising, and it is the ultimate indictment, among the many we have heard, of the existing campaign finance system."
When Meddoff's call came, Morgan was feeling pretty comfortable about his Saginaw deal. Bayvest was faxing him good tidings: On October 17, 1996, they sent word that Morgan could expect his first $20 million by month's end.
Still, Morgan had been in sales too long to spend the money before it arrived. So he continued about his business of buying and selling old bonds, which was how, five days later, he came to be on the phone with Meddoff, a document-dealer based in Fort Lauderdale.
"So, I'm talking to Warren," Morgan recalls. "And he says, 'How's that Saginaw deal coming?' And I said 'Warren, it looks like this one's real.'"
Dressed in a deep turquoise shirt, black jeans, a beautiful filigreed tricolor belt buckle and hand-made lizard boots that Vanity Fair reported cost $4,000, Morgan, a born storyteller, pauses for emphasis. "And then Warren said, 'You know, you've got a heck of a tax problem.'"
As Morgan knew, Meddoff wished to make political contributions. Big ones. Two years earlier, when Meddoff and one of his clients were trying to close a multi-billion-dollar contract to sell old German bonds to a former Eastern Bloc country, Meddoff and the client had promised both political parties $5 million donations to help grease the international machinery in which their deal apparently was snagged.
"For two years," Morgan says, "Meddoff had been worried about that obligation to raise $5 million. So he asks me, 'Would you consider donating $5 million from your first payment to the DNC [Democratic National Committee]?'"
For a number of reasons, not the least of which was his potential tax bill, Morgan wanted to help out Meddoff and his client. After all, as Morgan recalls, his bundle from Bayvest "was more money than I could spend." More than he needed for himself. More than he needed for his three kids, all of whom were grown and embarking on careers of their own. More than he needed to accomplish his dream of retiring to a Hill Country ranch and "welding the gate shut from the inside."
"So I said, 'Tell you what,'" Morgan recalls. "'I'll consider it on three conditions. Number one, if and when I get the money. Number two, if it's fully tax-deductible. And number three, I want a letter from a top-ranking member of the IRS, saying we've analyzed it, it's OK, and it's forever unauditable.'
"He told me he was going to meet with Clinton that night, and said, 'I want your permission to open discussions.' So I said OK."
Within the next eight days, one of the president's top advisors would fax documents that could be construed as advising Morgan and Meddoff on how to circumvent tax laws--and then, recognizing the slip-up, allegedly ask Meddoff and Morgan to shred the documents.
The trade in antique bonds is based on a simple premise: Someone, somewhere will eventually make good on paper orphaned by forgotten, bankrupt enterprises and overthrown governments.
Just who will pay up isn't clear, though Morgan isn't shy about offering suggestions.
"This is a trillion-dollar conspiracy, is what it is," says Morgan, spreading his wares on the Dallas Observer's conference table. "What we're dealing with are deadbeats. Deadbeat countries. Including our own."
On the table, carefully encased in plastic, are exact color duplicates of the two Saginaws that were to produce a historic contribution to the DNC. (According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a D.C.-based watchdog group, even Big Tobacco, the largest lump-sum donator to the '96 campaign, never contributed more than $3.8 million at a time.) Appropriately enough, they are a dark bottle-green--the color of money.
"I want you to see that I'm not holding anything back," says Morgan. He's upset about the way he's been portrayed in congressional hearings and the media. Senators have described Morgan publicly as "a bizarre, questionable individual [who] needs checking out." Even Vanity Fair, which interviewed him briefly for an article that ran in its September issue, described him as "a mysterious character whose stories don't always add up."
"That hurt me," says Morgan. Personable and seemingly sincere, Morgan is a familiar mix of shrewd operator, folksy aphorist, and naif. A near-genius at working people through offering friendship and trust, Morgan wants to make sure he's not caricatured here as a rich, crude ignoramus. "See? I don't have dollar bills coming out of my pockets," Morgan says.
From the living room of his rented, single-story Richardson home, Morgan runs Vaduz Limited Partnership, the business through which he peddles these old instruments. Dishonored bonds. Disavowed bonds. Defaulted, fit-for-use-as-wallpaper bonds.
Vaduz is named for the capital city of Liechtenstein, a tiny European nation renowned for its stamp museum and its banking secrecy laws. Judging from a list of his wares, though, Morgan's business might more accurately be dubbed Four Horsemen Trading. For Morgan's inventory reads like a catalog of the world's unnatural disasters from the past 150 years, the screw-you-I'm-not-paying paper left over from 19th-century railroad bankruptcies, Chinese revolutions, and German National Socialism, to name but a few of the calamities that have made Morgan's trade possible.
The Saginaws are typical. Organized in 1872 pursuant to an act of the Michigan Legislature, the Chicago, Saginaw & Canada Railroad was supposed to provide rail service from St. Clair, in eastern Michigan, to Grand Haven on Lake Michigan. In the grand tradition of 19th-century railroad robber barons, its organizers used their legislative fiat as a license to loot. Laughably undercapitalized, the railroad survived just four years before folding in 1876. Along the way the CS&C issued bonds, secured by a mortgage on the railroad's land. (Most went to insiders or were sold at steep discounts.) In 1882, a court-appointed receiver sold the land, and a special master appointed by a federal court determined the priority of the railroad's creditors. The bondholders were wiped out.
The leftover bonds are beautiful. They feature two intricate vignettes, artists' renderings of Bunyonesque railroad workers standing amid logs and of work-shirted, muscled men building a railroad depot. Behind them, also encased in plastic, is a "Certification of Authentication" issued by Fidelity Secured Deposit Corp., a Huntington Beach, California-based company that caters to this strange world.
Yet none of this explains why they might be worth $300 million. Asked why anyone would pay such sums for pretty but hardly unique financial instruments issued by a defunct railroad, Morgan smiles knowingly. "To some, they're just beautiful documents," says Morgan. "To some, they're live instruments."
At times, he is careful to cloak his beliefs. "It's like I told that prosecutor in D.C.," Morgan says, referring to his testimony last spring before a Washington grand jury looking into alleged campaign finance violations, "I'm not wealthy. I own a lot of instruments, and I don't know what they're worth."
At other times, though, he clearly suggests that the documents have more than just aesthetic value. Morgan shows the "Certification of Authentication" accompanying the Saginaws. It contains a bunch of half-literate hocus-pocus about how the documents were "authenticated," replete with grammatical errors, misspellings, and mysterious capitalization. After that comes a history of the CS&C that seems to track the line through a litany of railroad mergers and receiverships that culminates with the nation's largest railroad, CSX.
The implication is clear: CSX is somehow on the hook for these things.
And what a hook. Morgan's paperwork includes a valuation that sets the bonds' worth at seven figures.
Morgan also has hired certified public accountants to take a stab at guessing the bonds' value. In a report dated April 25, 1997, a local CPA explains in excruciating detail how he computed "[t]oday's value of the bonds [the two Saginaws], applying the Gold Standard to the amount of unpaid interest and principal due."
Welcome to the world of gold-clause accounting. Here's how it works: Like all the bonds in which Morgan deals, the Saginaws have a "gold clause" that purports to require that principal and interest are paid in "United States gold coin of the same weight and fineness" as gold coins on the date of the bonds' issuance. Based on this clause--the validity of which is at best dubious--Morgan's accountant calculated the face value of the Saginaws and the interest allegedly due on them at a cool $5,242,536.19. Per bond. (Morgan's contract with Bayvest noted it was offering amounts "substantially in excess of" the market value of the bonds.)
The only problem is, President Roosevelt declared gold clauses unenforceable in 1933. Though the law changed again in 1977, the courts have uniformly declined to enforce them in old bonds.
Still, though the reasons remain deliberately foggy, Morgan apparently isn't the only one who believes the Saginaws have more than just historical or aesthetic value. Morgan produces a folder thick with faxes from companies offering to "buy" the Saginaws, or at least to place them in one of a dozen "trading programs" administered by offshore concerns.
Bayvest is typical of these eager suitors. Ostensibly headquartered in the Channel Islands, yet another haven of banking secrecy and drop-box corporations, Bayvest's offices appear to be located in Toronto, Canada. And it appears that from safely over the border, beyond the reach of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Bayvest was faxing Morgan indications that they were extremely pleased. According to faxes Morgan produced for the Observer's inspection, the bonds had been accepted for trading in a "certain high-yield, capital enhancement financial strategy."
In response to the Observer's inquiries, Mark Mansfield, the Bayvest representative with whom Morgan apparently dealt, claimed he was "not familiar with" Morgan or his company. When Mansfield's apparent communications with Morgan are read back to him, he claims he'll "have to get back with" the reporter on whether they're genuine, and declines an offer to have the contracts faxed to him for inspection.
Asked what exactly capital enhancement strategy means, Morgan is at first vague. "What they do with them is their business. It's like I told the FBI when they asked. These things are like a gun. It isn't the gun that kills someone. It's what they do with the gun that makes them bad."
Upon closer questioning, though, he resists the obvious conclusion: that they were being offered to investors somewhere, presumably with the suggestion that they had more than historic value.
Instead, Morgan offers a more fantastic explanation. He points to repeated phrases in the contracts mentioning "Federal Reserve" programs. Morgan believes, in effect, that the bonds were to be sold to the Federal Reserve, the nation's central bank, which Morgan believes is running secret programs to "get these things off the street." He says, however, that the Fed will deny this because they don't want it to be known.
He's right--about part of it, anyway.
Harvey Rosenbloom, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, doesn't even want to be quoted. "I just don't want to give any credibility to this, even by commenting," he explains. But when some of Morgan's bonds are mentioned, Rosenbloom can't help himself; it's clear from his guffaw that he's heard it all before.
"These scams have been going on forever, before there was a Federal Reserve," he says, "and they'll still be going on when there isn't one anymore."
Far from fazing Morgan, however, Rosenbloom's response only reinforces his beliefs. "They deny it," he says. "They always do." By way of response, Morgan points to a typical clause in one of his dozens of contracts. The clause provides that "after the second year" of the "program," the bonds "are considered redeemed and sent to the Federal Reserve." Asked why the Fed would want to keep a lid on such a program, Morgan simply shrugs. "Why? I dunno. It's all a very secret business."
Morgan is correct--although the secrecy seems to have more to do with the law than with the Federal Reserve. According to three sets of experts consulted by the Observer, the historical document business smells a lot like securities, mail, and wire fraud.
By the time he came to the attention of the White House, Morgan had been trading antique bonds for eight years. "I got into it as a way to finance real estate," he says. "As you may recall, we had a banking crisis here in Texas."
Since then, he's gotten to the point where he "makes a pretty good living" off selling the bonds, which he buys for anywhere from $250 to $1,000 apiece and sells for whatever multiples he can get. (According to two traders, the Saginaws, for example, currently go for anywhere from $25,000 to $35,000 apiece, in 1997 cash, though it's unclear who exactly is willing to pay that price.)
But Morgan wasn't looking for a pretty good living. He was after the Big Payoff, which has yet to come. Yet even after eight years, he does not doubt that these "programs" actually exist. "I know they're real, because I've talked to people who've been paid," Morgan says. (He can't give names, though, because "they're all sworn to secrecy. They all signed confidentiality agreements.")
Like many of those in the business, Morgan has been looking for the Big Payoff in one form or another for most of his adult life. Morgan was raised in Lawson, a small burg near Seagoville that no longer exists; his father died when he was 3. "My mother had to borrow money to bury my father," he says. "She didn't remarry till I was 26." Obviously bright, Morgan graduated from North Dallas High School in 1955, at age 16; when he turned 17, he joined the Navy and for three years was a radar operator in an anti-submarine squadron.
After the Navy, he attended college at North Texas State, graduating in 1962. He immediately went to work teaching history at W.W. Samuells High School. He left the DISD in '66 to work for a chemical company as a sales manager. By the early '70s, he set out to make his fortune as an entrepreneur. Beginning in '73, Morgan shows up as officer and director of a series of corporations, among them laundries, restaurants, chemicals, even a hot tub dealership at Dallas' Old Town shopping center.
By the mid-'80s, like a good chunk of Dallas, Morgan turned to real estate to generate his pot of gold. In 1987, someone introduced him to a fellow named Charlie Knapp, the former head of American Savings & Loan, the first of the high-flying S&Ls. Sure, the feds were grousing about the pile of bad loans Knapp had left behind at American when they forced him out in 1985. But when Knapp vowed that his newest venture, Trafalgar Capital Corp., would become one of the largest mortgage lenders in the country, Wall Street pretty much believed him. So who was Bill Morgan to question Knapp, whose boasts had landed him on the front page of The New York Times' business section?
"He was going to finance real estate out of his supposed reservoir of cash," Morgan says. Knapp was to be the "financial partner," the source of funds; Morgan was to be the "development partner," the one who found the property and did all the work in exchange for a 50 percent share in the deals.
In 1987, while working for Knapp, Morgan met a California attorney named Lawrence W. Taggart. At the time, Taggart, a controversial former California S&L commissioner, was head of Knapp's nascent mortgage lending business, Trafalgar Capital. Despite his grandiose plans, Knapp had some very real difficulties. For one thing, real estate lending had virtually dried up, leaving Knapp and his associates scrambling for a way to finance deals.
"Larry [Taggart] was the guy who introduced me to the bonds, when we were trying to find a way to finance real estate," says Morgan.
Like most of the people with whom Morgan wheels and deals, Taggart is an interesting character in his own right. He is best known as the man who approved Charles Keating's purchase of Lincoln Savings and green-lighted Lincoln's investment in the sorts of speculative deals that eventually led to the largest S&L bailout in history. Then, only weeks after resigning as commissioner, Taggart went to work for Lincoln as a consultant. In 1986, just before signing on with Knapp, Taggart also did a stint as a $10,000-a-month consultant and lobbyist for yet another S&L, Don Dixon's Vernon Savings & Loan. By the time regulators closed Vernon in 1987, more than 96 percent of its loans were in default.
By 1989, both Taggart, who could not be reached for comment, and Morgan were out of a job. Knapp's stash of real estate cash turned out to be illusory. But what really hastened Knapp's demise was a nasty racketeering suit filed by Morgan over one of the first deals Morgan and Knapp closed. The soured deal involved the purchase of a half-interest in an Austin development, the Circle C Ranch.
"We flew to California and closed the deal," Morgan recalls. "Fifteen minutes after the closing, when we'd all left, Knapp goes in to Trafalgar Securities [the escrow agent] and pulls the deed from escrow, then gets on a plane for Phoenix. He pledged that deed to an S&L, saying he owned it free and clear."
When Morgan found out, he sued Knapp--and laid out the fraud publicly in his pleadings. "It was my job as a citizen to report that crime," Morgan says, chuckling. The FBI, who'd been angling after Knapp for years, wasn't slow to snap up the bait. "When that agent called me," Morgan says, "I asked him, 'What's your favorite color?' When he asked me why, I said, 'Because I'm about to deliver you Charlie Knapp's ass, and I want to know what color ribbon to use.'"
Knapp went to jail in 1993, largely on the strength of Morgan's testimony.
Afterward, Morgan and Taggart kept in touch. And both continued to be intrigued by the bonds, for several reasons.XXXFirst, to be sure, was the possibility they could be used to put food on the table. And for real estate brokers like Morgan, in the early '90s, it was just about the only possible funding source. Like many of his peers, Morgan had big financial woes. His corporation, Nepenthe--named for the elixir that, in Greek mythology, causes one to forget pain--was in bankruptcy, as was Morgan himself. Failed business and real estate deals had left him with several default judgments, including local, state, and federal tax liens. (Morgan blames his financial troubles on Knapp.)
But like almost everyone who touches the bonds, part of the allure was the cloak-and-dagger intrigue behind the instruments.
While the bond traders may not be international law experts, they certainly are a fascinating bunch, and they move in a fascinating world, full of revisionist history and bogus documents.
Weimar Republic bonds present an excellent example.
Like many ancient instrument dealers, Morgan cut his teeth on Weimar Republic bonds. Germany issued them between the two wars, mostly to finance the crushing reparations the nation was obliged to pay under the Versailles Treaty of 1919. From the start, Germany had trouble meeting these obligations. Payments were rescheduled several times during the '30s, and on the eve of World War II, Hitler disavowed them entirely.
After the war, Germany and the occupying powers reached a series of accords on payment of Germany's pre-war debt. Experts in international law say that in these situations, getting new regimes to pony up for the debts of their predecessors is dicey. Although the international community can pressure the successors, principles of international sovereignty limit what can be done.
In 1953, Germany and its occupiers did reach an agreement known as the London Debt Accord. Unfortunately, according to one expert who teaches international law and finance and has attended courses at The Hague, "the London Debt Accord is totally ambiguous." Germany's position is that it reaffirmed its debts--but only a percentage of the original amount of those debts, and even then only if certain conditions for redemption were met within a limited period of time. The vast majority--perhaps 99 percent--of bondholders never met these conditions, and cannot today meet Germany's terms for redemption.
As a result, there are millions of Weimar bonds floating around, almost all of questionable value.
A major alleged source of the bonds involves a fantastic tale of paper stolen from or abandoned by Holocaust victims, stored in caves in the Eastern Bloc, and smuggled across Checkpoint Charlie in the '60s.
"I think it was in the early '60s," says Dr. Joseph V. D'Angelo, a 75-year-old West Palm Beach, Florida, doctor and businessman best known as the inventor of a home saliva AIDS test. (According to news reports, the test does work, though D'Angelo is not marketing it in the United States and has not sought approval from the Food and Drug Administration.) "I was in Romania, and a man came into the clinic. He had a German bond. He said, 'I know where there are a lot of these.'
"I bought the bond for $5. I wanted to know what he was talking about," D'Angelo said in a telephone interview. "So I went through Checkpoint Charlie, and he showed me a cellar built into a hill. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. They were stacked up to the ceiling."
According to D'Angelo, the bonds had come primarily from German death-camp victims. "I know that is the case, because in many cases I saw letters to children, letters to grandchildren, from people who had never come back from the camps."
D'Angelo mentioned his adventure to another American staying at his Berlin hotel, a trader whose ex-wife just happened to be the East German commandant at Checkpoint Charlie.
"She was very militaristic," D'Angelo says, "a real rough one. We started negotiating. She wanted $2,700 per suitcase of the bonds." Eventually, he says, they brought the stash--300,000 pieces--over the border in a car.
D'Angelo says he sold many of his bonds "years ago, when they went for a dollar or two." (He once sold 10,000 to a winery, which wrapped its bottles with the paper.) And while he believes that the German government will eventually be forced to settle something on the majority of bondholders, he is worried by some of what he sees going on. "There are lots of shady characters in the business now," he says. "They all have a peculiar role that they play.
"A lot of it [the figures being floated] is B.S. But I do know of some deals that have gone down. Still, I'm a little concerned about the gold clause business, that sort of thing."
Naturally, Morgan and his colleagues see things differently. With a passion that rivals Republic of Texas members, this tiny clique of laymen and lawyers, who are experts in neither private international law nor international finance, argue ceaselessly over the meaning of the London Debt Accord and whether the reunification of Germany might have triggered repayment of obligations. And that's before they get around to arguing about the effect various treaties, laws, executive orders, public statements, and constitutions may have on gold clauses.
But all their arguments are little more than idle wind when it comes to persuading today's Germany to honor the old regime's obligations. To do that requires considerably more clout than that carried by men such as Morgan and Meddoff. It requires unheard-of political muscle when it comes to persuading the State Department to convince Germany to voluntarily pay up to retire the old regime's obligations. Hence the plan for hefty donations to U.S. political campaigns.
In the early '90s, Morgan was meeting many characters from the strange new world of historical bonds. One of those was a Dallas attorney named Jim Choate.
"I had a client nine years ago who brought one of these [Weimar Republic] bonds in and asked me if I thought it was collectible," Choate recalls. "It was being offered to him as collateral for a loan."
Now 62, Choate, who for many years was a trial lawyer in Dallas, was at first suspicious. "I said I couldn't issue an opinion fast enough for him to be able to make a decision," Choate continues. "The fellow who brought the bond to me also brought a couple of memos done by a law firm in New York." (That memo, along with Choate's, is among the assorted pieces of paper in a homemade "German Gold Bearer Bond" book being circulated by dealers around the world.)
"So I got interested in them. It took me a couple of years before I got comfortable enough to write the opinion you've seen."
Choate is referring to an opinion on whether the Weimar Republic bonds can be collected upon. He has issued the opinion to dozens of traders around the world. It purports to show why "certain Pre-World War II gold bearer bonds issued by various German entities during the period from 1924 to 1936" are collectible. The opinion--a selective recitation of history and possible arguments--drew belly laughs from the legal and financial experts contacted by the Observer.
"It's sort of a late-life crusade for me, to make them honor their debts," Choate continues. He neglects to mention that it could be an immensely profitable crusade if his views of history and international law were to prevail, since at some point during the early '90s, he, too, began to buy and sell Weimar bonds. Though he began with the German bonds, he has since expanded into others: Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, even American railroad bonds. He also makes a good living issuing opinions and travels around the world testifying as an expert witness in court cases involving various sorts of paper.
Morgan and Choate soon hooked up with historical document dealers on the East Coast. In 1989 or 1990, a consultant at the Boca Raton, Florida, office of Bear, Stearns introduced Morgan to Warren Meddoff, former air traffic controller turned car-dealership manager turned real estate broker who wanted to turn historical-document dealer. At the time, Meddoff, who had recently been canned by the real estate brokerage he worked for, was interested in Weimar Republic bonds. Like Morgan, Meddoff was working his way into the business as a broker for bond-owning and -holding principals.
Somewhere along the way, Meddoff acquired as a client a Miami businessman named Jed Baron. Baron, now 40, is the son of one Alvin Barone. According to news reports, Barone, an associate of Jimmy Hoffa's, served time in federal prison in the late '70s for taking kickbacks from the Teamsters.
In '91, Baron moved to Las Vegas. A wealthy young man, he apparently began buying up Weimar bonds, using a corporation called Jelico. (It's sometimes hard to tell who actually owns the bonds, since, as Morgan explains, many dealers get the serial numbers and try to do deals claiming they own the bonds--and then try to buy the bonds from the actual owners if they hook a deal.) According to Meddoff's testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Baron's partner in the bonds is a San Diego-based businessman.
By late '94, Meddoff, Jelico, and the San Diego businessman were trying to unload Weimar bonds on former Eastern Bloc countries.
By 1995, Meddoff, Baron and the San Diego man had a contract to sell 493,000 Weimar Republic bonds to the badly strapped Republic of Bulgaria. According to Meddoff's testimony before the Senate committee this fall, they "approached the Bulgarian government to utilize documents that we had in our group's possession to...offset debt to Germany."
In other words, at the suggestion of Meddoff and his clients, Bulgaria intended to use the full face value of the bonds--$3 billion, based of course on the gold clauses--to set off against debts it owed Germany.
Before they could complete the deal, however, someone in Bulgaria apparently got wise. "I [was] informed by high-level officials within the Bulgarian government," Meddoff testified, "that they had been approached by individuals from our embassy...[who] were saying, 'Well, maybe you shouldn't go ahead with this deal.' "
Naturally, Meddoff and his associates thought their elected representatives could help.
In February 1995, Meddoff sent a letter to then-Sen. Bob Dole. The letter offered to donate $5 million to the Republican's presidential bid, if and when the Bulgarian deal closed. It also mentioned the trouble they were having with meddlesome U.S. embassy personnel. "You have been previously notified of individual government employees interfering in this transaction, contrary to policy...We appreciate your attention to this matter and will keep your staff informed of our progress."
Around this time--early 1995--Meddoff may have made the same offer to the Clinton White House. "I'm fairly confident...that there was a letter directed to then-chief of staff at the White House, which I believe at that time was Leon Panetta," Meddoff testified in deposition this summer.
Within the bond dealers' rumor mill, the letter to Panetta apparently grew into a meeting. Morgan says he was told by more than one person that Meddoff and his clients had a meeting with someone at the White House around that time--or so they all said. "Depending on which version you believe," Morgan relates, "someone in the White House said, 'If we do this for you--help you collect--what's in it for us?' And that's when Meddoff promised them a contribution." (Meddoff did not return repeated phone calls seeking his side of the story.)
Neither political party responded to Meddoff. The Bulgarian government fell, and with it went the contract.
A year later, though, Meddoff and company were at it again. In February 1996, Meddoff attempted to set up a meeting at the White House over a new Bulgarian deal. To that end, he sent the president, unsolicited, a copy of the contract they had signed.
"I thought the president would want to know about a contract of that size," Meddoff later said of the $11 billion deal. (As before, it fell through.)
According to Meddoff's Senate testimony, the White House never responded. At the same time, though, he was telling Morgan a different tale. In the summer of 1996, Meddoff faxed Morgan a hilarious memo designed to look as if it came from Leon Panetta, White House Chief of Staff from 1993 until just after the '96 election. Written on what looks like official White House stationery, the letter, dated February 9, 1996, purports to advise Meddoff about how the president wishes the Weimar bond situation to be handled.
The letter states that the president believes that American courts would not only order Germany to pay up, but also to pay up based on gold clause calculations. This the government cannot allow, "Leon" explains, since international financial mayhem would surely follow. "Leon" instead suggests a time-honored capitalist strategy: dump 'em on the Russians. ("We strongly suggest that you pursue acquisition by the Russian Federation...")
"Each one of these things is a different game," Morgan explains, showing some of the different bonds he owns or has access to. Today he has brought along Asian instruments: two Chinese nationalist government bonds, as well as copies of Japanese bank CDs he says he received from "the Vatican's representative."
The Chinese bonds, issued on September 14, 1912, just months after the imperial Chinese government fell, were among the first issues of the Chinese nationalist government. In 1949, the Chinese nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, finally retreated to Taiwan. The People's Republic of China disavowed the bonds.
Issued in London on a satiny white paper that appears to contain silk, the instruments are printed in black with red highlights and are, if possible, even lovelier than the Saginaws. "Their calculated gold value is a half a billion dollars," says Morgan. "Apiece. And it's because of the change of status of Hong Kong, and because China needs to put its economy on a Western basis, that they need to get these things off the books."
Perhaps. But the problem is that this game has been played before. And with little or no luck, thanks to a very simple legal principle: sovereign immunity. The bottom line is that in a dozen cases, some involving Chinese nationalist bonds, federal circuit courts have uniformly held that foreign governments have immunity from bondholders' suits.
Which is why, in the end, all the debates and talk of "dirty tricks" are so much sound and fury. Take the Weimars, for example. If Morgan and his colleagues are correct and Germany is determined to deny all claims, they aren't going to have much luck collecting there. And since the odds of getting any U.S. court to entertain a lawsuit on the bonds are almost nil, there's no way to enforce payment.
Nevertheless, many of the players insist that Germany will eventually be forced to pay something on the bonds. And they're faxing offers around the world, with promises of gold-clause-based payoffs based on "sinking" funds that may no longer exist and secret, "quick-pay trading program[s]" administered by central government banks, most notably our own.
The real reasons for all the secrecy, though, may have little to do with conspiratorial theories of international banking. Two of the securities and international law experts the Observer consulted say that the contracts smell of fraud. "This is one cut above the old Nigerian letter scam," says one international lawyer who specializes in investment banking at a major Dallas firm. "The only thing that's more speculative than this would be selling interests in buried treasure, based on they think they've got the map."
"We're seeing real problems with these foreign bonds, ancient bonds," says Harold Degenhardt, district administrator in the Fort Worth office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Degenhardt points to recent actions the SEC has brought against a Miami brokerage that was trying to trade the Weimar bonds, as well as a recent New York case against a number of people trading in fraudulent Japanese bonds and Argentinean certificates of deposit.
In a recent case, a California lawyer and several of his clients were convicted of fraud for attempting to sell financial instruments allegedly issued by the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank in Japan. The prosecution's theory was that the lawyer and his clients "deliberately closed [their] eyes to the fact that these financial instruments were worthless" because they were fake. The defendants had a fantastic story about a secret fund administered by Gen. Douglas MacArthur after the war, which was supposed to be used to rebuild Japan but instead was returned to Japan by President Nixon in a secret deal to get elected.
The instruments seem to be the same ones that some of Morgan's associates are peddling. Indeed, after showing the copies of the CDs, Morgan launches into the same fantastic historical tale.
Told about the the case of the California lawyer, Morgan responds that his associate's Japanese instruments are different from the fraudulent ones. When it is pointed out that there do seem to be many fraudulent documents floating around in his business, Morgan first panics. "I never represented they were real," he says of the obvious frauds, such as the alleged Panetta letter. He then points out that he sells all documents with no representations other than as to authenticity. Finally, he results to emotional manipulation: "I came to you with the open palm of friendship," he says, "and now you're gonna bushwhack me."
And while Morgan seems to genuinely believe in the validity and worth of his instruments, he does ignore a lot of red flags.
For example, Morgan produces a blatantly fake New York Times story parroting the party line about the Weimar bonds. The story, which Morgan's "Vatican representative" purportedly got "killed" through his connections, carried a dateline of April 28, 1995, and the byline of one George Preston.
The New York Times has never had a correspondent named George Preston.
Meanwhile, even the man who says he smuggled many of the Weimars through Checkpoint Charlie fears that the gold-clause madness is simply a means of perpetrating fraud.
"The worst part of this is that there are people selling these things based on the gold equivalents," says D'Angelo. "I think that's probably illegal, and I'm pretty concerned about that sort of thing." He cites the Peruvian bonds as an example. "The going price for the Peruvians now is $3-$5 million in cash. There are a lot of scams being played, a lot of people using these as collateral at inflated values and putting them on the balance sheets of companies."
Indeed, last spring British authorities shut down an insolvent insurance company whose primary asset was the Weimar bonds--carried at calculated gold values, of course.
"It's just like P.T. Barnum said," says D'Angelo. "There's a sucker born every minute." But perhaps none bigger than those inhabiting the DNC.
When Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson wrapped up campaign finance hearings this fall, what followed from Meddoff's phone call was legend--at least among those who followed the campaign finance scandals.
On the evening of October 22, 1996, Meddoff, by day a vice president and "director of government affairs" for a Danish-owned corporation, by night a historical document dealer and financial consultant to third-world republics, attended a $1,500-a-plate campaign dinner at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida. After the president spoke, Meddoff made his way to the front of the ballroom and handed Clinton a card. On the back was a succinct message: "My associate is prepared to donate $5 million to your campaign.
The "associate," of course, was Morgan.
According to Meddoff's testimony before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs this fall, the president took "two steps, looked at the card, turned around," and then came back to Meddoff. "Let me have another one of those cards for my staff," said the president. Two days later, Clinton's deputy chief of staff, Harold Ickes, dialed Meddoff from the White House. It was the opening serve in a furious courtship of phone calls and faxes between Meddoff and Ickes, during which time the number Morgan was to donate grew from one payment of $5 million to $5 million per payment--a breathtaking total of $75 million.
This panhandling process climaxed on October 30 and 31, with Ickes placing a desperate phone call to Meddoff. "They had an immediate need for funds," as Meddoff later recalled the conversation, "could we possibly send [them] out within the next 24 hours. He asked for, you know, a million and a half."
Meanwhile, back in Dallas, Morgan had his own problems: Bayvest had defaulted on the contract.
"Warren's calling me, saying he's getting calls from Ickes at 10, 2, and 4, they're throwing bolts of lightning at him from the White House,'" Morgan recalls. "So I said, maybe we can get an advance."
Morgan believed that if he could demonstrate he had White House connections, Bayvest might be encouraged to push through its dealings with the Saginaws.
"Warren says, 'The White House wants to know how they can help.' So I said, 'Maybe they could write a letter.' Then Warren said, 'Would you like one signed by the president himself?' And I said, 'Yeah, that'd be nice.'"
Instead, Ickes faxed Meddoff and Morgan a list of charitable organizations that support Democratic causes to which the money was to be wired (in addition to $500,000 to the DNC). Ickes then turned Meddoff over to Democratic National Committee Chairman Donald Fowler to complete the deal.
Unlike Ickes, though, Fowler smelled a rat. For one thing, there was Meddoff's day job as legislative liaison for a Danish company. Then there was the fact that no one knew who these guys were. Yet even then, Fowler and the DNC were willing to pursue the donation until Meddoff started babbling about the Central Intelligence Agency.
"I asked him for references," Fowler later recalled before the Senate. "He told me, 'Here are a few numbers you can call, but if they answer something about the CIA, don't be surprised.'...After I hung up from that telephone conversation, I forgot about that contribution."
Instead, Meddoff alleges, within the hour Harold Ickes called him back, concerned over the fax about the donations. "He just said, 'I shouldn't have sent that,'" Meddoff testified this fall. "'Could you please just shred it?'" (In his own testimony before the Senate committee, Ickes later denied Meddoff's allegation--sort of--saying he didn't recall giving Meddoff any such instructions.)
In the end, neither the DNC nor Morgan ever saw any of the buckets of cash promised from the Saginaws. But Morgan, ever hopeful, hasn't given up yet. Whether he is self-deluded, a scam artist, or a little of both is an open question.
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Early Access of MK0518 in Combination With an Optimized Background Antiretroviral Therapy (0518-023)
This treatment has been approved for sale to the public.
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First received: September 14, 2006
Last updated: April 21, 2016
Last verified: April 2016
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
This is a treatment use study to provide early access to MK0518 for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in patients who have limited or no treatment options due to virological failure, resistance, or intolerance to multiple antiretroviral regimens. Enrollment in this study is patient driven. Investigators are not proactively assigned. There is no target sample size and duration of the study is indefinite. For information on how to enroll in the study, see link below.
|HIV Infections
|Drug: raltegravir
|Study Type:
|Expanded Access What is Expanded Access?
|Official Title:
|Early Access of MK0518 in Combination With an Optimized Background Antiretroviral Therapy (OBT) in Highly Treatment Experienced HIV-1 Infected Patients With Limited to No Treatment Options
Resource links provided by NLM:
MedlinePlus related topics: HIV/AIDS
Drug Information available for: Raltegravir Raltegravir potassiumU.S. FDA Resources
Further study details as provided by Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.:
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|16 Years and older (Child, Adult, Senior)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- HIV positive patients who have limited or no treatment options and have documented resistance
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patient has previously been on MK0518 therapy
Contacts and Locations
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below. For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00377065
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00377065
Sponsors and Collaborators
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.
|Study Director:
|Medical Monitor
|Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.
More Information
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017
|Responsible Party:
|Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00377065 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|September 14, 2006
|Last Updated:
|April 21, 2016
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
HIV Infections
Lentivirus Infections
Retroviridae Infections
RNA Virus Infections
Virus Diseases
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes
Immune System Diseases
Raltegravir Potassium
Anti-HIV Agents
Anti-Retroviral Agents
Antiviral Agents
Anti-Infective Agents
HIV Integrase Inhibitors
Integrase Inhibitors
Enzyme Inhibitors
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017

subset: commoncrawl


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You are most familiar with the natural items in your backyard, so you might want to make your own scavenger hunt list. But if you check out our backyard scavenger hunt list in case it works for you.
Backyard Scavenger Hunt with drawings (best for small children)
Backyard Scavenger Hunt list only
If you attach the pencil or crayon by a string, that makes it easier for the person seeking the objects.
Give each person a bag or bucket to hold their found objects.
This makes it more challenging and fun. You can send your scavenger hunters out with a measuring tape or ruler, or you can have them measure it against their body. For example, "find a blade of grass longer than your longest finger."
Most scavenger hunts take place during the day, when most wildlife are hiding. You can still have your participants look for signs of wildlife, such as nibbles on a nut, scat or wildlife homes.
Especially for younger children who will tire quicker, do a quick run through with your scavenger hunt list to see if these items can be found easily in your location. Be sure to add some easy finds, such as "moss on a building," to keep everyone's energy going.


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Kennedy Acrylic Necklace Stand
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Create a rotating display of your favorite necklaces and bracelets with our clear acrylic stand. Keep it simple, or personalize it with an initial and a choice of fun prints.
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- Wipe with a soft, dry cloth.
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Resurgent concerns about emerging drought over major crop-growing areas of Southern Brazil and Argentina powered the grain and soybean complexes sharply higher Wednesday. Bulls may also have been joined by technically-inspired buyers, especially after the nearby March future seemed to use its 10-day moving average (MA) as a springboard to higher levels. Otherwise, there was not a great deal of news concerning the corn outlook, which probably explains the modest price fluctuations posted after the CBOT pit session commenced. We still suspect many traders are waiting for the Thursday morning release of the weekly Export Sales data before they reconsider their positions. March corn closed 10 3/4 cents higher, at $7.40 1/4, as the Wednesday pit session concluded, while December advanced 6 cents to $5.93/bushel.
Some wire service reports cited fresh news of soybean sales to China for a portion of the Wednesday jump by soybean futures, but the fact that those deliveries were deferred to the 2013-14 crop year robbed the news of its market-moving power. The possibility that large areas of Argentina and Southern Brazil could experience hot, dry weather through early February was the more likely driver of the early futures surge. Having moving average (MA) support limit recent intra-day losses very likely encouraged technical buying as well. On the other hand, the March future could not sustain its early move above its 100-day MA, which may now serve as tough resistance. As with their counterparts in the corn pit, soybean traders are probably anticipating the weekly Export Sales reports to be released tomorrow morning. March beans soared 27 cents to $14.78 3/4 at the Wednesday close, while March soyoil spiked 0.89 cents to 52.60 cents/pound and March meal jumped $9.0 to $432.7/ton.
The persistent drought over the winter wheat fields of the U.S. Southern Plains dominated futures market conversations again Wednesday. The importance of the crop to be harvested from those fields will obviously be a major factor in pricing wheat during the coming weeks. When combined with the corn and soybean strength stemming from forecasts for South American dryness, the resulting wheat futures gains posted Wednesday were not terribly surprising. Of course, the weekly Export Sales data could change things tomorrow morning. March CBOT wheat futures surged 10 cents to $7.87/bushel by the end of the Chicago pit session, while March KCBT wheat gained 10 1/4 cents to $8.40 3/4 and March MGE futures vaulted 7 1/4 cents higher to $8.69.
Virtually all signs point to persistently tightening fed cattle supplies through March, but CME live cattle futures have clearly performed rather poorly lately. The main obstacle to a major rebound in CME futures has arisen from surprisingly weak wholesale prices and the underlying implication of weak demand. Indeed, in the absence of a major rise in beef prices, the cattle market seems likely to struggle. On the other hand, cash values reportedly posted a three-cent weekly jump to 125 cents/pound around noon Wednesday. Some bulls may have been shocked by the lack of bullish reaction in the Chicago pit, but we would remind readers that the nearby February future ended the day almost three cents premium to those spot values. Still, the potential for seasonal cash strength seems likely to support futures during the days and weeks just ahead. February cattle closed 0.27 cents lower, at 128.00 cents/pound, while April ended the day 0.05 cents lower at 132.92.
Hog futures have apparently suffered from disappointing developments in the cash hog and wholesale pork markets lately. Recent slippage in the CME lean hog index has exemplified that phenomenon, especially since bulls have been hoping for a sustained seasonal advance into mid-February. That may yet happen; in fact, swine values reportedly rose sharply in the Western Corn Belt Wednesday morning. When combined with the surge posted by pork loin values Tuesday afternoon (and its bullish impact upon carcass prices), that probably explains the moderate strength exhibited by CME lean hog futures late Wednesday morning. On the other hand, the lack of bullish leadership from the cattle market, particularly on a day when cash prices jumped three cents, probably caused the late hog slide. February hogs were unchanged at 87.10 at their Wednesday settlement, while June futures closed 0.10 cents lower, at 98.07.


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Drummer, DJ and sex-tape trailblazer and star of his own cautionary tale, Tommy Lee will hit Gryphon at the Hard Rock for a performance on Saturday night. Which has prompted the wits at Pangaea next door to hold a lookalike contest for his former co-star, Pamela Anderson, the same night.
Because, even at the Hard Rock, a rock star gets lonely.
Lee will be joined by DJ Aero for several sets of his signature brand of dirty house music. For table reservations and info, call 954-581-5454 or go to Gryphon-Club.com.
The contest at Gryphon's sister nightclub to find the woman who best simulates Anderson's attributes begins Saturday night at 12:30 a.m. and is open only to those 21 and older. The grand prize is a "Party Like a Rock Star" package, which may or may not include Tommy Lee. For a table and other info, call 954-581-5454 or go to Pangaea-Lounge.com.
Get daily updates on South Florida entertainment and things to do at SouthFlorida.com and on Twitter at @BenCrandell.


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Members of law enforcement are currently conducting a search in the area of Garey Avenue and Pearl Street in Pomona, the Pomona Police Department reported.
Members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were following a stolen vehicle when the driver of the car abandoned the vehicle and fled into the adjacent neighborhood shortly before 9 a.m., said Pomona police Sgt. Vince Terrell.
Deputies contacted the Police Department requesting assistance with the search.


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DHEA is a hormone and part of a steroid pathway. There are concerns that using it as a supplement may increase the risk of hormone-sensitive cancers, including prostate, breast and ovarian cancers. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has banned DHEA use among athletes.
DHEA has been linked to:
Supplements such as DHEA can also cause serious adverse effects when mixed with prescription or nonprescription drugs.
DHEA supplementation doesn't have proven benefits in older adults and might cause adverse side effects. Don't take DHEA to prevent, delay or reverse age-related changes in your body or to boost athletic performance.
Instead, remember that there's no substitute for a healthy lifestyle. Maintain a healthy weight, eat a balanced diet, include physical activity in your daily routine, and seek regular health screenings.
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Westbury mayor David Windess will be taking on his first ever half marathon in March, when he runs the Bath Half Marathon on behalf of Bath Cats and Dogs Home.
Cllr Windess has been training for the event, which takes place on March 2 and covers a two lap 13.1 mile course straddling both sides of the River Avon, for the past four months.
His training with a personal trainer has resulted in him losing two-and-a-half-stone and he aims to finish the race in two hours and 45 minutes.
He has already raised £380 for Baths Cats and Dogs Home, which is one of his charities of the year, but hopes to raise more in the lead up to the event.
Cllr Windess said: "I will make sure I finish even if it's on my hands and knees, but hopefully that won't be the case. I'm looking forward to it. I'd like to do it in two hours and 45 minutes – or 25 minutes faster.
"It's the first half marathon I have ever done and it's going to be hard work, but I've got to make sure I don't get carried away and set off too quickly. It's all for a great cause."


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Mike ChappellThe Indianapolis Colts added experience at cornerback, acquiring Cassius Vaughn in a trade with the Denver Broncos. In exchange for Vaughn, the Colts sent fullback Chris Gronkowski to the Broncos.
Vaughn, is heading into his third season. The past two years, he appeared in 22 games, starting three. Vaughn and former Detroit Lions cornerback Alvin Hall are the only undrafted players since the era of the common draft to return a kickoff and interception for a touchdown in their career.


text: Mountaineers take down No. 9 Georgetown By Dave Hickman January 7, 2012 Story Share AP Photo WVU's Truck Bryant (25) is fouled by Georgetown's Henry Sims during the second half Saturday. MORGANTOWN - Bob Huggins was quick with the quip Saturday afternoon when someone asked him about his West Virginia basketball team's success against ranked opponents."It's great coaching,'' he couldn't help but say, just to raise a few eyebrows and get a laugh from the room.He was also just as quick, though, to give credit where it was just as rightly due. And so after watching yet another virtuoso performance from a player who has been involved in most of those big wins since Huggins returned to his alma mater, he couldn't hold back his praise for Kevin Jones."People need to enjoy watching him because it's been a long time since we've had a guy putting up numbers like that,'' Huggins said. "He doesn't hunt shots. He just plays to win.''Jones had another of those monster performances - this time 22 points and 16 rebounds - as West Virginia handed No. 9 Georgetown a 74-62 loss in front of a crowd of 10,526 at the Coliseum. It snapped the Hoyas' 11-game win streak, but shouldn't have been all that surprising. The Mountaineers have now won five straight against the Hoyas and Georgetown has been ranked every time.According to Jones, there's no real secret to WVU's success against the Hoyas. In fact, in a Big East in which so many schools tend to crack the Top 25, games against ranked opponents are looked at not so much as challenges, but opportunities."I would like to think we get up for them,'' Jones said. "But the important thing is that it's another resume-builder for us. You take as many of these as you can get.''For West Virginia (12-4, 3-1 Big East), the win was the 20th against a ranked opponent since Huggins arrived for the 2007-08 season. True, WVU has also lost 28 games against Top 25 teams in that span, but even a 20-28 mark against ranked teams is not too shabby.Jones wasn't the only one who came up big, of course. Truck Bryant, he of the feast-or-famine performances, had a bit of both in just one afternoon Saturday. After struggling in the first half, he scored 19 of his 25 points in the second as the Mountaineers pulled away from the Hoyas after leading by slim margins most of the day. West Virginia also shot 50 percent from the floor and held Georgetown (13-2, 3-1), one of the Big East's best-shooting teams, to just 40.4 percent and 2-for-14 from 3-point range."This is probably the best job we've done for the longest period in guarding,'' Huggins said. "And they're hard to guard, obviously. But we still have some lapses.''By the time the Mountaineers had any serious lapses against the Hoyas on Saturday, though, it was already too late. West Virginia hadn't trailed since falling behind 4-0, but had struggled to remain tied or hold slim leads most of the rest of the way.That finally changed when freshmen Gary Browne and Aaron Brown combined on a pair of free throws and Brown's 3-pointer stretched the margin to 49-41 with nine minutes to play. Bryant got involved with a 3-pointer, a drive and a pair of free throws, and it was 62-49 with less than 41/2 minutes to go.That pretty much put the outcome to rest, although that was when the Mountaineers suffered the lapse that bothered Huggins, giving up a pair of inside baskets to cap a 9-0 Georgetown run that closed it to 62-58 with 2:28 to play. That was worrisome given that the Hoyas were coming off a Wednesday win over No. 20 Marquette in which they overcame a 17-point deficit.But West Virginia broke a Georgetown press that had been a problem and Browne got a layup out of it. Then when the Mountaineers almost stunningly made 10 free throws in a row - they are next-to-last in the Big East in free-throw shooting and were 12-of-21 to that point - the suspense was over. "For large stretches this year I think we've been a very good defensive team. And we were not a good defensive team today,'' Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "They executed and our attention to detail on the defensive end wasn't where it needed to be to win the game.''In addition to the combined 47 points from Bryant and Jones, West Virginia also got 12 from Browne. The Mountaineers won the rebounding battle 37-31, and forced 10 Georgetown turnovers in the first half. The Hoyas settled down and turned it over just five times after that, while WVU had nine of its 17 turnovers in the second half.For West Virginia, there's not much time until the next test against a ranked opponent. The Mountaineers on Monday play No. 8 and defending national champion Connecticut at the XL Center in Hartford.Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or email@example.com. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 Facebook founder visits Charleston restaurant 2 Innerviews: Dual-identity surgeon riding high in horse racing world 3 Photos: Teens make buttons of favorite banned books at Kanawha library 4 Rhode Island bank claims Justice companies owe $4.2M on helicopter loan 5 Congressional opioid investigation targets drug wholesaler Miami-Luken Season looking good after a resume-padding victory Previous Story Prep basketball -- How they fared Next Story


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Nov. 12, 2010
Inks Lake State Park Golf Course to Close
BURNET — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has decided not to renew the contract for the leaseholder who operates the nine-hole Highland Lakes Golf Club at Inks Lake State Park. The current contract expires Nov. 30.
With play at the park's golf course static in recent years and more resort golf courses having been built in the area during the past 20 years, Texas State Parks leadership decided the roughly 60 acres of prime lakeside property at the increasingly popular park could be put to better use. Highland Lakes Golf Course, which has been operated by Michael Ocel since 2008, averages 16 players per day.
"Visitation to the state park continues to grow," says park superintendent Terry Rodgers. "We are looking for better ways to use that land, perhaps for additional hiking trails, interpretive programs and additional camping. In recent years, play at the golf course has been declining, but overall park attendance has been growing."
Park visitation hit 170,000 in fiscal year 2010. State park planners are looking into the different ways the former golf course acreage might be utilized to best benefit park customers.
The golf course originally was leased in 1958 under a 50-year contract. When the lease expired in 2008, it was extended for two more years. The course is located on park property two miles north of the park headquarters. Access to the course is outside of the park's camping areas.
The Inks Lake State Park golf course is one of three courses located within a Texas state park. Lockhart State Park operates a nine-hole layout, while a private concessionaire operates an 18-hole course at Bastrop State Park.
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Wondering what you should be paying for a walk? Check out our standard dog walking rates for a comparison.


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The History of X-Men on TV
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Marvel Anime: X-Men - The Complete Series DVD Review
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December 30, 2011
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December 24, 2011
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December 17, 2011
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December 10, 2011
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December 2, 2011
Dexter, Chuck, Community, Walking Dead, Beavis and Butt-head, Game of Thrones and many more are headed to San Diego.
Episode 112
Jan 6, 2012 Charles calls out to the X-Men around the world to defend.
Episode 111
Dec 30, 2011 Mash and Neuron subdue most of the X-Men; Hisako has a startling memory.
Episode 110
Dec 23, 2011 The X-Men battle Hedgehog while chasing Mastermind.
Episode 109
Dec 16, 2011 The source of the mutations is revealed; Emma confronts Jun and reveals his true identity.
Episode 108
Dec 9, 2011 A giant monster threatens Yui, but it holds a secret.
Episode 107
Dec 2, 2011 Hisako's former teacher is attacked while the team checks the Blackbird.
Episode 106
Nov 25, 2011 The X-Men arrive in Japan to study secondary mutations.
Episode 105
Nov 18, 2011 Emma joins the X-men and Hisako's training begins; Professor X examines Emma's past telepathically.
Episode 104
Nov 11, 2011 Professor X tests Emma Frost once he discovers the U-Men captives form secondary powers.
Episode 103
Nov 4, 2011 The X-Men find Emma Frost and discover that she was hired to help Hisako control her powers.
Episode 102
Oct 28, 2011 The U-Men bait the team into a trap by kidnapping another mutant.
Episode 101
Oct 21, 2011
About This Show
- Summary
X-Men is an anime-style television program which is part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse.
Genre: Anime
Network: G4
Time Slot: Fridays at 11pm
Status: Airing
Original Air Date: Oct 21, 2011


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Ginger enjoys people and other dogs. She is welcoming going to her forever home so she can protect her new family and participate in lots of fun times.
If you are interested in adoption, please come visit us! You may go to our website at www.fortheluvofpaws.org, which gives directions on the 'Contact Us' page and print out an application from the 'Adoptions' page.
Special Program:
Pets for Disabled Veterans (service related disabilities). A companion animal is provided to the veteran with a reduced adoption fee. Screening process and home check required; fenced yard for dogs required; cats must be indoors only. When available, we provide help with food, treats, toys; also provide transportation to a veterinarian, if needed.
We also operate a thrift shop in downtown Kingman, Paws-itively Charming Thrift Shoppe & Pet Boutique, which benefits the community by selling gently used items at very affordable prices and the proceeds go directly to the care and comfort of our animals. It is staffed entirely by wonderful, friendly volunteers. 99% of the inventory is donated by the public in Kingman and surrounding areas and Las Vegas, Nevada; the other 1% is handmade and commercial pet products. It has been called 'the best little thrift shop anywhere' by many of our customers. We have on-going raffles and aluminum can drives to help raise funds for ongoing operating costs. We provide a large array of literature on spay/neuter, adopting and caring for a pet, training, etc.
For the Luv of Paws is a member organization; annual membership is $15 (individual), $25 (family), $250 (lifetime); We provide membership cards and logo T-shirts are available for a charge. Membership forms can be picked up at the thrift shop or online on our website.
We are always looking for volunteers who would enjoy working in the shop for a few hours a day, a full day or as a fill-in for our regular volunteers; it's a fun place to spend a few hours of your time, whether volunteer or customer.
Volunteers are also needed at the sanctuary for property upkeep, socializing, walking and/or training our dogs, cleaning pens, catteries, brushing/grooming/nail clipping; building projects, etc.
We also need donations, including alfalfa hay pellets, which we use as cat litter,(1800 lbs. used a month); cat/dog food, canned and/or dry; rawhide and other treats, new or used toys; paper towels, baby wipes, detergent, bleach, borax, etc. Our wish list is posted on our web site. Donations can be dropped off at the shop, 204 No. 4th Street in Kingman, at the rescue or we will gladly come pick them up.
All donations, goods or monetary, are tax deductible and donors are provided with written receipts.
Appointments can be made to come out to the sanctuary to see all of our precious animals. We require the appointment be made at least 24 hours in advance. Sundays are open to the public without appt from noon to four pm.
We have mega yard sales (three days) three times a year in April, August and December. Dates are posted at our shop and on our website as soon as they are set. The yard sales are also publicized in the Standard Weekly and Kingman Daily Miner one week before the sales.
Please call 928-897-7304 if you would like more information about any of our scheduled or upcoming events.
Thank You!
Your message has been sent to For the Luv of Paws Domestic Animal Rescue & Sanctuary.
You'll receive a copy, too, at to help you keep track of which pets you've inquired about, and which shelters and rescues you've emailed.
NOTE: Some shelters have physical locations you can visit; some of these shelters may only have pets for a limited time, so please do not wait for a reply—just go visit the shelter! Other organizations are rescue groups run by busy volunteers who may take a while to reply. You can find information about the shelter or rescue group caring for this pet, and their adoption procedures, on the pet's details page on Adopt-a-Pet.com.


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Achieving Cultural and Generational Chemistry with Millennials
February 26, 2014
Tru Pettigrew, founder and CEO of Tru Access, discussed the importance of bridging cultural and generational gaps with both consumers and employees.
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Investors are always searching for ways to "beat the market," and while naysayers abound, studies have shown that individuals can indeed produce superior returns in their portfolios. The best part is that it does not take advanced degrees and high-powered computers to do it.
If half the battle in the stock market is recognizing whether a bull or bear market is in place, then the other half is choosing the right sectors and the right stocks. This is the basis for relative strength or relative performance investing. Find the sectors and stocks that are outperforming the market, ride them until they stop outperforming and then find the next leading area. Indeed, relative performance is represented by not one but two letters in William O'Neil's CAN SLIM stock selection methodology. "L" stands for leader or laggard versus other stocks, and "M" stands for leader or laggard versus the market.
It is not difficult to uncover the leaders in the market, but that tells us what has already happened. Fortunately, the stock market has inertia, a term borrowed from physics stating that bodies in motion tend to stay in motion. Leaders tend to keep leading and laggards tend to keep lagging. Charles Kirkpatrick, a certified market technician, has shown that this simple concept, combined with relative earnings growth, beat the market for a period of over 17 years. His research served as the basis for a stock screen highlighted in the November 2009 AAII Journal ("Building Stock Screens Using the Kirkpatrick 'Relative' Approach," by Wayne A. Thorp, CFA).
There are two basic methods of finding the current leaders. The first is to rank the individual performances of all stocks over a specified period of time. Of course, we can weed out undesirable stocks using such criteria as earnings growth, trading volume, market capitalization and price, but the goal is to produce a manageable list of strong candidates for further analysis. The second method, which I will discuss momentarily, is to look for good sectors first.
AAII provides the ability to rank stocks based on price momentum and other criteria in its Stock Investor Pro fundamental screening and research database program, so I won't spend time describing how to rank stocks here. What is most important is that one ranking list can alert you to any stock that is strong regardless of its sector: Whether a stock is in healthcare, mining or technology, a ranking does not discriminate.
I want to step back from stock selection for a moment to add some context. You may have heard the term "bottom-up investing." This is part of the process where you find good stocks, determine whether they cluster in any sector and then apply what you have learned in forming an overall market opinion. Are you finding an above-average number of retail stocks? That tells you a bit about the overall market health. How about gold stocks? Perhaps that is a precursor to inflation, but I don't mean to stir the pot on one of the more hotly debated arguments of the day.
Of course, there is more to it, but it starts at the individual stock level—at the bottom of the market pyramid, to invoke a visual representation.
Conversely, a "top-down" approach starts with a market opinion and then moves down to the sector and stock levels. While rankings are also appropriate, I find that graphical comparisons using charting software can quickly hone in on the strongest sectors and stocks. They also add a good deal of flexibility in that they are not locked into a fixed look-back period. The user need not determine a precise period in advance and can just let his or her eye assess the appropriate span. One look can quickly determine if one sector is outperforming another over a variable period of time.
In other words, a chart displaying three months of data for Google (GOOG) versus the Standard & Poor's 500 index could show the stock lagging the market for many weeks and only recently starting to emerge as a leader. This would not show up on a three-month ranking list, for example, when a stock such as Priceline.com (PCLN) has been beating the market for months on end.
But looking at a chart, your eye would see the change immediately. And the sooner you see it, the more time you have to do further research to back up what the chart indicates. Did the company just report good earnings news or a new product? The market reacts quickly to such events, even if they do not flash across your favorite investing website's news feed.
The drawback, of course, is that we cannot analyze more than a few stocks at a time. This is why charts are better suited to hone in on winners like bloodhounds, rather than finding "the" next big winner. Using charts to find the next big winner is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.
It also becomes an issue of style. Are you more comfortable with numbers or pictures? Do you prefer knowing the market's mood first or do you believe that good stocks will perform no matter what else is happening, extreme events such as war and nuclear meltdown excluded?
Let's dive a bit more deeply into the graphical representation of relative strength. The formula is a simple ratio of one stock or sector divided by another stock or sector, and the result is plotted on a chart. Standard technical analysis tools can be applied, but the most important indicator is the trendline. When the trend of the relative strength ratio is rising, we know that the first stock or sector is outperforming the other. Conversely, when the trend is falling, the opposite is true.
Graphical relative strength analysis starts with determining which sectors are strong relative the market and which are weak. Since there are only a limited number of sectors, such as consumer discretionary and financial, it does not take long to create ratios of each to the S&P 500, or whatever benchmark index you prefer. I like to start with something easy—say, the nine Standard & Poor's sector exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
For example, a chart of the Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) divided by the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) from August 2010 through March 2011 shows two distinct phases of relative performance (see Figure 1).
From September to early November, the technology sector outperformed the market by 6%. Investors owning the tech ETF beat the market over that period of time.
However, it is clear that the relationship changed in November and technology lagged the market by the same percentage through March. Where did the money flee? Relative strength charts of industrials and energy began to rise at just that time.
Wouldn't it be worthwhile to know when this sector rotation was happening in its early stages? Of course, the answer is yes.
At the time this chart was produced, the trend for technology performance was still down. Inertia, as mentioned, suggested that technology was still not the place to be.
One sector that began to outperform when this article was originally written in late March 2011 was gold and silver mining. It is no surprise to anyone with even a remote interest in investing that gold and silver prices have been soaring. In such an environment, mining shares tend to outperform. But don't take my word for it. Let's look at the relative strength chart of the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) relative to the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) (see Figure 2).
In December of 2010, gold was still trading above $1,400 per ounce, yet the relative strength of the gold miners ETF started to fall. It moved below the short-term rising trendline that had guided it higher for most of the year and it signaled that investors were moving money out of gold stocks. But in January 2011, even though gold itself had not yet found a bottom, the relative strength of gold stocks began to climb. Investors were back.
Sure enough, gold turned higher and gold stocks started to climb. We cannot say that investors cleaned up on gold stocks, but those who went back into the metal rode it to a fresh new high. However, even though the absolute gains were muted for the stocks, they still beat the market for the first quarter of 2011 and continued their outperformance into early April. Relative strength for the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF broke down on May 2, 2011. This was an early warning for investors, as the ETF declined in price the following day.
I recommend that investors form a major market opinion first. Is it a long-term bull market or bear market? Bear markets should not deter investment, but being aware of them is important in order to determine how aggressive you should in order be and how much leeway you should allow for stocks with less than ideal characteristics. Bull markets can hide the flaws of many stocks, but bear markets are merciless.
Next, look at major sector indexes or ETFs versus the S&P 500; you can easily get by with just a dozen or so comparisons. Further, if you set the securities and indexes up and save them in your favorite software package, you will be able to quickly page through the figures once a month to see if anything has changed.
If you are curious to learn more, compare the Russell 2000 to the S&P 500 as well to get a feel for which market capitalization group is leading. Knowing that small-cap technology is leading and big-cap consumer staples are lagging, for example, can quickly point you to the strongest corners of the market.
Finally, when you have found the one or two leading sectors, drill down into their respective industry groups. Most have dedicated indexes, if not ETFs, to make this relatively easy—semiconductors and software in the technology sector, for example, or pharmaceuticals in the healthcare sector, or retail in the consumer discretionary sector.
Many investors will find this level to be deep enough, as they prefer to use ETFs in their strategies. Others will want to drill down to the company level to find the best hotel company in the travel and leisure industry, or to find the best railroad firm in the transportation sector.
Once you have found your candidates, and they have passed all the fundamental and technical screens you wish to use, save their relative strength charts so you can look at them weekly or even daily to know when it is time hold or time to move on.
Bruce from CO posted over 6 years ago:
I like your article. Please tell us where we can find the data and software to create the ratio charts for the top down analysis.
Thanks, Bruce
Charles Rotblut from IL posted over 6 years ago:
Joe Lan wrote a column in this issue listing several charting websites and software programs.
Here is a link to it:
Walter from TX posted over 6 years ago:
Bruce, I like the sector SPDR charts. Go to
http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectortracker/?do=htmlsectortracker. I think you will find this very usefull. Walt
David from PA posted over 6 years ago:
Would using Stock Investor Pro be the software to use to produce these charts? or would we be able to produce them with any good, free stock screen software?
James from OH posted over 6 years ago:
This is a good introductory article on Relative Strength.
In the past year, correlations have been fairly high (as reported elsewhere). I suggest that when that is the case, an investor might as well put his/her money in the investment that is rising the fastest.
However, one needs to always bear in mind that, just because its Relative Strength is rising, it doesn't mean the price of an investment is rising. It could be that the investment one is comparing to is falling much faster. After finding an investment with rising Relative Strength, one should always look at the price of the investment to make sure it is rising, too. - - - When the market has been losing 30%, an investor should never find it satisfying that he/she outperformed the market by losing only 20%.
Which brings me to the one statement in the article that I have a major quibble with, "Bear markets should not deter investment." There may be long term investors who want to invest their money and never pay attention to it for 10, 20, 30 years. - - - The rest of us are doing what we can to avoid bear markets / big losses. If you were one of those rare people who had invested in the 5% of the stocks that rose in price during the bear market that started in late 2007 and carried through early 2009, then you probably don't need to be reading articles on investing.
Russell from MO posted over 5 years ago:
need more information on how to divide one stock by another.
Gil from LA posted over 5 years ago:
I may sound like a walking Fidelity.com commercial, but I swear I have no stake in them.
I just used them for twenty years or so, and have no intention of changing.
Any person who opens an account with Fidelity, even a very small one, has immediate access to a enormous number of features.
My favorite feature is that I can enter or click on the symbol for any stock or fund and get a quote. If its a stock I can just click on the little graph and up pops a snapshot graph that is more sophisticated. At the bottom I can choose a period of time anywhere from one day or two days, a week, one month, six months, a year, two years, three... or on the whole life of the stock. I can click at the top on any index box, but I just click on NASDAQ because the other two come so close to walking in its tracks, over any extended period, that it tells me, in a sense, what "the market" is doing. The graph of the stock I'm evaluating is boldly displayed and, at this point, I can see how its price has performed in relation to the NASDAQ. Then, I like to have in mind a couple of stocks I know have been beating the market and, in recent months the two I like to compare any and every other stock to are DLTR and AAPL. It's hard to find any other stock in the past month, six months, year, two years... that has beat them. But I'm interested in looking farther into any stock that over any of those speans of time has come anywhere close to measuring up to them. These two, also, have been relatively less volatile than most other stocks, and have tended to ride over slumps better... so there's another comparison, as instantly visible as can be.
If there are other brokerages that offer anything better, go for them. I'm just sharing how simple and easy it is with this particular brokerage service. There are other brokers that charge less in buy and sell fees but, so far as I know, they don't offer all the free features I use on a daily basis.
With practice, you can go down a list of stock symbols, clicking on the symbol, then clicking to go to snapshot mode, and know a large proportion of all you need to know to cull out a stock, or know whether it is worth doing some really nit picky analysis of.
If others have a brokerage, or some software, or some other kind of source for getting so very much valuable information in a minute or two, more power to you.
I just wanted to let you know about the one I really, really appreciate and use many times each market day.
Richard l. Huitema from IL posted over 5 years ago:
The article doesn't mention that a Relative Strength measurement implies a time interval, since it is a ratio of performances, each of which is the difference between the current price and a former price.
FreeStockCharts, one of the sites Charles mentioned Joe Lan wrote about, gives RS charts with user-specified intervals; on a chart, click Add Indicator to select Relative Strength and Daily to change the interval. The URL is:
Or, get 52-week relative strength charts from S&P for all nine sectors (plus a few more) at:
Sorry, you cannot add comments while on a mobile device or while printing.


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More than just Monuments Tour which is the most popular. It brings to life the monuments and memorials of the National Mall, with day and twilight options.
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The Arlington Cemetery Tour where you will see all the highlights of this national and fascinating place.
Enjoy! Jonathan
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Washington DC Bed and Breakfast accommodations. We are centrally located, 10 minutes walk to DuPont Circle metro/subway, 1 mile north west of White House.


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BRAIN - Home Intervention Trial (BRAIN-HIT)
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- How to Read a Study Record
We plan to test a home-based parent-provided early developmental intervention (EI) both in infants with mild to moderate birth asphyxia and in infants without perinatal complications who will constitute a healthy comparison group in a randomized controlled trial. The trial will evaluate the effect of a resource-intensive early intervention (EI) program on the outcomes in infants born in rural communities in Zambia, India, and Pakistan. It will consist of frequent interaction (every 2 weeks the first year and every 4 weeks the second and third years) between parents and the parent trainer. The control group will receive enhanced health counseling (HC).
The overall goal will be to implement and evaluate an EI program for infants following birth asphyxia, which is sustainable in developing countries. The challenge will be to adapt programs demonstrated to be effective in developed countries to the circumstances of the developing world, while reducing the demands on resources. Because there are limited data on normative development and EI programs in developing countries, a group of infants without perinatal complications will also be randomized to the same conditions in order to provide a comparison of what may be achieved from the intervention in healthy infants in developing countries. A final aim will be to address individual variation in EI effects that could be due to child and/or family characteristics.
A randomized controlled experimental design will be used, in which infants who survive following birth asphyxia are randomly assigned to either EI or enhanced health education counseling (HC). The trial will randomize infants to a home-based parent-provided early developmental intervention (EI) with frequent home interaction between parents and parent trainers vs. HC. A group of infants without birth asphyxia or other major perinatal complications also will be randomized. Children will be examined by masked examiners at three time points (12, 24, and 36 month's assessments).
|Other: Early intervention counseling Other: Health education counseling
|Phase 4
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: Single (Care Provider)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:
|Brain Research to Ameliorate Impaired Neurodevelopment (BRAIN): Home-based Intervention A Multicenter Trial of the Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research
- neurodevelopmental outcome [ Time Frame: 36 months ]
- The improvements in cognitive, social, and motor development will be larger in the infants who have had birth asphyxia compared to those without birth asphyxia. [ Time Frame: 12, 24 and 36 months ]
- The effects of EI in infants with and without birth asphyxia will be moderated by child and family characteristics. [ Time Frame: 12, 24 and 36 months ]
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|June 2007
|Study Completion Date:
|June 2010
|Primary Completion Date:
|May 2010 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
Experimental: 1
Home intervention program
Other: Early intervention counseling
Bi-monthly home visits by counselor
Active Comparator: 2
health education counseling
Other: Health education counseling
World Health Education health education counseling program at home visits,twice per month
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|up to 28 Days (Child)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- birth asphyxia
- birth weight of at least 1,500g
- neurological examination consistent with normal, Stage I or II on the Ellis scale (Ellis, et al. 2000)
- willing to participate in an intervention program for 36 months.
Exclusion Criteria:
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00639184
|JN Medical College
|Belgaum, India
|Aga Khan University
|Karachi, Pakistan
|University of Zambia
|Lusaka, Zambia
|Study Director:
|Marion Koso-Thomas, MD
|Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
|Principal Investigator:
|Wally A Carlo
|University of Alabama at Birmingham
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
|Responsible Party:
|NICHD Global Network for Women's and Children's Health
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00639184 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|March 18, 2008
|Last Updated:
|July 29, 2014
Keywords provided by NICHD Global Network for Women's and Children's Health:
neurodevelopmental outcome
home counseling
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Pathologic Processes
Wounds and Injuries
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017