Irish Gangster Whitey Bulger Captured in Santa Monica
Authorities at a multiagency news conference in Boston praised their own persistence and tenacity in the capture of legendary crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger, and credited public service announcements for leading them to the fugitive in Santa Monica.
The announcements were launched Monday and Tuesday in 14 markets across the country where Bulger and his companion, Catherine Elizabeth Greig, 60, had been spotted or had past ties.
Bulger, 81, who has been on the run for more than 15 years, fled Boston in late 1994 as federal agents were about to arrest him in connection with at least 19 killings, racketeering and other crimes that spanned the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. He headed an organized crime group that allegedly controlled extortion, drug deals and other illegal activities in the Boston area.
Jim Rogers, Custom Suits, Wynn Las Vegas, Drug Wars, Jesse Ventura, Online Gambling and Steve Wynn Again
Undisclosed Location, South America –
Jim Rogers says:
Q. Given that kind of outlook, where are you investing in China?
Jim Rogers. The only thing I’m buying in China is the RMB. I can’t just pick up the phone and buy millions of RMB as you know, but when I can buy more RMB, I do so legally. I’m not buying Chinese shares. I would like to buy Chinese shares when they collapse. I don’t know when the next collapse will come, but there’s always a collapse in every country, so I would buy more. My view toward China is different from any other investment. I buy these shares, and I plan to hold onto them for my grandchildren – my children, anyway. I hope they own them for their grandchildren, because I’m convinced that China will be the great country of the 21st century.
As dining rooms fill with T-shirt- and Converse-clad social networkers, is dressing up the new way to stand out?
Over the past several years, the dress codes abided and enforced at those ceremonies of formality and occasion, at everywhere from fine-dining restaurants to evening soirées, have become mostly unspoken, unwritten or loosened like so many Hermès ties. And just as these rules—that for so many years were out of favor—disappear, a new generation of formality-loving dandies is choosing (not being told) to dress up.
Some say the casual-Friday-everyday mandate came from the top: the White House. When President Obama took office in 2009, he quickly declared the end of George W. Bush’s jacket-and-tie requirement for staffers and the policy of no jeans, sneakers, miniskirts, tank tops or flip-flops for visitors.
Now, from Manhattan to L.A., the majority of the iconic old-school restaurants that once mandated jackets and ties for men have replaced “required” with “requested.” At the iconic Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel—a second home to Hollywood’s elite since 1912—the once strictly enforced dress code is now “no tank-tops after 10 p.m.” “A few years ago, we had a ‘no-baseball-caps’ policy after 7 p.m.,” said a Polo Lounge manager, “but after Steven Spielberg was turned away for wearing one, we dropped the policy, like, the next day.” Other proper-attire outposts such as Houston’s Da Marco and Baltimore’s The Prime Rib have also recently replaced their jacket-and-tie requirements, with “business casual” encouraged. Some mainstays are simply opening their doors entirely to the sportswear-favoring public.
These establishments tip their fedoras to many of the old haunts that have now eased their rules—and to some that have not. At the 105-year-old New Orleans restaurant Galatoire’s, a weathered plaque on the edifice reads: “Proper Attire Required: Jackets after 5 p.m. and All Day Sunday; Long Pants for Lunch Tues.-Sun.” And that’s the way it will stay, according to John Georges, the principal owner of the French Creole cuisine stronghold. “New Orleans is a town of traditions, with deep respect for them,” he said. “We’re not going to change because of the needs of out-of-towners, or because of the dressing trends of the day,” Mr. Georges said. “If you stick to your principles it pays off—in whatever economy.” In other words, some things never go out of style. A point that will certainly hit home as a new generation of wing-tipped Taleses and Wolfes hit the town, showing everyone how it’s done, again.
Revenue on the Las Vegas strip declined for the fourth straight month in February, the Gaming Control Board reported on Friday. On a year-over-year basis, revenue fell 9.6% in the month, against a 33% gain the previous year. Because the comp was so difficult, analysts didn’t think the result was awful, but they considered some numbers troubling.
The biggest culprit? Analysts are blaming baccarat, which more than doubled (in terms of revenue) last year as Chinese New Year fell in mid-February. Baccarat revenues fell 31% on the strip this February, when the Chinese New Year fell early in the month, the gaming board said. Revenue from table games excluding baccarat actually rose 2.7%.
“Today’s numbers are disappointing,” wrote Hudson Securities analyst Robert LaFleur. “During 4Q10 earnings season we heard commentary that Chinese New Year was very strong. While, drop was basically flat and the comp was tough the strong growth in baccarat that had been sustaining the Strip through much of the downturn appears to be evaporating.”
Organised crime is moving south from Mexico into a bunch of small countries far too weak to deal with it
FOR most of the 20th century, the small countries of Central America were a backwater, a tropical playground for dictators and adventurers. In the 1970s and 1980s they turned briefly into a violent cockpit of the cold war as Marxist-inspired guerrillas battled US-backed tyrants. Places like El Salvador and Nicaragua generated daily headlines around the world and bitter partisan battles in Washington. When the cold war ended, peace and democracy prevailed and Central America slipped back into oblivion. But its underlying problems—which include poverty, torpid economies, weak states, youth gangs, corruption and natural disasters—never went away.
Now violence is escalating once more in Central America, for a new reason. Two decades ago the United States Coast Guard shut down the Caribbean cocaine route, so the trade shifted to Mexico. Mexico has started to fight back; and its continuing offensive against the drugs mafias has pushed them down into Central America.
Whatever the weaknesses of the Mexican state, it is a Leviathan compared with the likes of Guatemala or Honduras. Large areas of Guatemala—including some of its prisons—are out of the government’s control; and, despite the efforts of its president, the government is infiltrated by the mafia. The countries of Central America’s northern triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) are now among the most violent places on earth, deadlier even than most conventional war zones (see article). So weak are their judicial systems that in Guatemala, for example, only one murder in 20 is punished.
U.S. Government Moves To Shut Down World’s Biggest Online Poker Companies
Federal prosecutors today unsealed a sweeping indictment against Isai Scheinberg and Raymond Bitar, founders of the world’s biggest online poker companies, and moved to try to shut down their businesses.
The indictment filed by Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, charges Scheinberg, the founder of PokerStars, and Bitar, the founder of Full Tilt Poker, as well as nine other individuals, accusing them of operating illegal gambling businesses. Federal prosecutors also filed a civil lawsuit seeking $3 billion in civil money laundering penalties, alleging the online poker companies disguised money they received from U.S. poker players as payments to online merchants selling jewelry and golf balls.
The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan moved to try to shut down the online poker business in America by seizing five Internet domain names, including pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com, used by the three main companies facilitating online poker games in the U.S. In addition, a federal judge issued a restraining order against 76 bank accounts in 14 countries utilized by those online poker firms.
Billionaire Steve Wynn Makes Big Online Poker Bet With PokerStars
In a dramatic move that will forever change the online poker landscape, billionaire Steve Wynn has announced he is joining up with PokerStars, the world’s biggest online gaming company, to establish a strategic relationship that aims to regulate online poker in the U.S.
“We are convinced that the lack of regulation of Internet gaming within the US must change,” said Wynn, chief executive of Las Vegas casino company Wynn Resorts, in a statement. “We must recognize that this activity is occurring and that law enforcement does not have the tools to stop it.”
And
How Casino Mogul Steve Wynn Went All In On Online Poker and PokerStars
Nearly two years ago billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn met Isai Scheinberg, the founder of PokerStars, the world’s biggest online gaming firm, for the first time. Scheinberg generally avoids traveling to the U.S., but the meeting took place on Wynn’s boat while it was anchored in the Mediterranean Sea. Over a three-hour lunch, Scheinberg tried to convince Wynn that the two of them should work together to regulate online poker in the U.S. with an eye toward setting up a joint venture.
It was a tough sell. Wynn had for years opposed online gaming. He was not a big user of technology. When Wynn needed information from the Internet he would just ask his secretary to find it. He also thought it would be tough to regulate online poker. “If the Internet people got in trouble it would bring the wrath of the government down on us in the live gaming community out here in Las Vegas,” Wynn recalls thinking prior to the meeting. “I didn’t see the business opportunity, I just saw problems.”
During their lunch Wynn found Scheinberg to be quiet and reserved, carefully precise with his language and paying close attention to detail. Still, Wynn didn’t take the meeting too seriously. He did, however, take up Scheinberg’s offer to learn more in the ensuing months about how PokerStars conducted business. Wynn says what he learned shocked him, especially the company’s ability to identify any abnormal activity on its web site and stop it. “I only had misconceptions, I had no idea on a number of issues,” says Wynn. “They are highly regulated [in Europe] and I found out they had 1,300 employees and the average salary is $110,000 because they are so intellectual in the design of the programs. One of my concerns was about young people playing. It turns out they have more control about young people playing than we do.”
“How I see it
Anything you wanna be you can be it
If your mind can preceive it
And your heart really believe it
Then you half way there and all you got to do is do it
And if you give it all you got there ain’t really
Nothing to it” – Dead Prez
Many people out there hate on the “Act as If”/”Manifesto Destiny” method of living one’s life. I guess people just don’t like when you try to better yourself and people don’t like change.
“Everybody look at you strange say you changed
Like you work that hard to stay the same “ – Jay-Z
Well, I am here to say that “Act as If” works. Here are three examples:
Hollywood Agent
Back when I was in college, I took a younger kid under my wing and showed him the ropes. He was a cool kid, and reminded me of myself, so I kind of made him my “little brother”, of sorts. He was really into Hollywood and moved up there right after he graduated.
He got a job in the entertainment industry in talent. He always acted like he was going to be a big shot in HWood. I remember when he first started doing it, people used to hate on him.
Later I heard he became the youngest Agent ever at one of the Majors.
Where is he today?
He now represents one of the actors that I respect the most in the world (and I have respect for very few of them) and is the heir-apparent to run Hollywood. I don’t even have to mention the quality of girls he swoops today.
(Interesting Side Note: Over the last few years, we have been hanging out again here and there. Since he is now the man in Hollywood, he sometimes tries to flow me attitude. I have to slap him down real quick every time. After all, I showed him the ropes when we were young proto-type G’s on the rise. He might be the Prince of Hollywood, but when we are in the same room together, he is still #2.)
CEO
I knew another kid in college who was always a little more serious than the rest of us, who were mostly into partying, drugs, traveling and surfing. He got dissed a lot for studying and being organized; things like that. He was a pretty good surfer also, but not near the best.
Where is he today?
I recently re-connected with him. He is now CEO of a major Surf Company (everyone knows what it is). He made it happen.
“If you follow your dreams you can accomplish anything
If you always do your best then your destiny is king
Of the world” – Dead Prez
Want another example of “Act as If” working?
I would be a prime example (and I don’t mean Prime 112 in Miami Beach either).
For as far back as I can remember, I have always acted like an International Playboy. Even when I was a teenage two-bit Bean flipper.
I would talk about Custom Suits even before I had them. I would talk about Big Bankrolls even before I knew what one was. I would talk about swooping models, even back when I was swooping models. (That last one is a bad example).
International Playboy to the fullest, Oh my Brothers.
Act as If.
“And what you get is what you see
In your mind visually
And manifest physically
If you stick to it shit’ll work out terrificly”
Life is like twistin’ a blunt, it’s how you roll with it
Just figure out what you want and go and get it
anybody tryin’ to stop you
For tryin to do for you That’s your enemy dun
The sun be right up in your crew” – Dead Prez
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
Goldline Hired 3 ‘Boiler Room’ Salesmen Sued By SEC
Congress will open hearings Thursday into the controversial sales practices of Goldline, the precious metals dealer that pioneered the practice of weaving its sales pitches into broadcasts by popular conservative political personalities such as Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, the New York Democrat who called the hearings, described Goldline sales tactics as a “profound rip-off” in an interview with ABC News. He plans to focus on methods that have turned the sale of gold coins into a multi-million-dollar bonanza for Goldline and other firms, especially in recent years as economic uncertainty has turned gold into a hot investment. The company, which is sending a top executive to testify, has said Weiner’s attacks are motivated by “a political agenda.”
But ABC News has learned the hearings may also draw attention to some of the controversial figures involved in the company, and activities they engaged in prior to taking jobs on the Goldline sales force.
Among them are three Goldline sales associates who were taken to court in the 1990s by the Securities Exchange Commission on allegations that they used deceptive mass mailings and what are sometimes called “boiler room” tactics to defraud 115 mostly elderly investors out of $1,180,000 over 13 months, according to court records. The scheme allegedly involved selling shares in a 1-900 telephone line. Investors were allegedly promised 24 percent returns after a four-month period or a 203 percent return after a sixteen-month period — estimates the SEC called highly misleading and false, the court papers say.
Paul Land, Charles Boratgis and Morrey Wasserman settled the case without conceding guilt, but agreed to return all the money they had been accused of obtaining through their allegedly fraudulent scheme.
