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Former Gov. Brereton Jones has borrowed heavily from a financially distressed bank that he and several other Democratic Party leaders founded in 2001, according to interviews and bank records. Federal regulators have criticized the directors of Frankfort-based American Founders Bank, including Jones, for inadequate supervision. The bank was badly managed and suffered "hazardous lending and lax collection practices," which left it with far too many unpaid loans, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Among the specific concerns cited was improper reporting and recordkeeping of insider loans to bank directors and executives. The FDIC issued a cease-and-desist order to the...

Poll of 418 highly likely voters conducted 12/16 and 12/17: Romney 28% Huckabee 25.1% Thompson 10.8% McCain 6.9% Paul 5.5% Giuliani 5.1% Tancredo 3.7% Hunter .5% Undecided 14.4%

This is quite interesting. I have been suspicious of Drudg lately. Sorry if anyone has already posted this. http://www.prezcast.com/2007/12/matt-drudge-romney-insider.html

DES MOINES, Iowa - On the verge of joining the presidential race, Republican Fred Thompson on Friday unapologetically defended his career as a Washington lobbyist paid to influence the government on behalf of an abortion-rights group, a leftist Haitian leader and other special interests. "Don't confuse the lawyer with the client," Thompson told The Associated Press. The former Tennessee senator and actor discussed his eclectic career path, the war in Iraq and his ambitious plans to reshape the GOP during a 30-minute interview after introducing himself to Iowa Republicans in classic Midwest fashion: He toured the state fair with popular...

A [St. Louis] businessman masterminded a scheme in the late 1990s to bring illegal immigrants to clean floors at Wal-Mart stores across the country. Wal-Mart paid at least $82.2 million over three years to shell companies set up by businessman Christopher Walters, federal agents discovered. Walters' companies in turn paid subcontractors who hired illegal immigrants from countries stretching from Poland to Mongolia. When investigators dug into the scheme, Walters cut a deal and became a star cooperating witness in a criminal probe targeting Wal-Mart. He told investigators that a Wal-Mart executive told him to set up the shell companies, and...

Youthful US bankers charged over huge insider trading scandal Tue Apr 11, 3:40 PM ET US authorities charged a clutch of hotshot young traders connected to Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch over what they described as one of the biggest insider trading cases ever uncovered. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the "brazen" trading scheme -- which ran the gamut of topless dancers, covert information and stolen magazines -- netted the individuals at least 6.7 million dollars. The top US market regulator said the masterminds were Eugene Plotkin, 26, a research analyst in the fixed income division of Goldman...

Frist accumulated stock in family company Questions of conflict of interest raised Wednesday, October 12, 2005; Posted: 10:56 a.m. EDT (14:56 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- Over a period of four years, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist accumulated stock in a family founded hospital chain that produced tens of thousands of dollars in income -- all outside the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest, documents show. The stock was held in a family partnership largely controlled by Frist's brother, Thomas, who founded HCA Inc. along with the senator's late father. Frist, R-Tennessee, has long maintained that he...

FOR congressional Republicans, this season's politics bears a strong resemblance to its weather, with storms of investigations blowing up and sweeping in from all directions. Aside from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's legal woes, the tempests include the arrest of White House budget staffer David Safavian for allegedly lying to investigators about dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. A probe of the role of Bush administration figures, including Karl Rove, in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame continues. On top of that add the investigations by the Security and Exchange Commission and a U.S. attorney of stock sales by...

While insiders at HCA Inc. were selling millions of dollars of their own stock this year, they were also painting a sunny picture of the company's outlook for investors. Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the sale of HCA stock by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., whose family founded the company that grew into the nation's largest for-profit health care chain. The SEC turned its initial inquiry into a formal investigation of the company, HCA announced Thursday. The company said it is cooperating with investigators.

ABC insiders deny there's any connection between real-life presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and their new TV show "Commander in Chief" - where Geena Davis makes her debut tonight as America's first woman president. But it turns out the show's lead writer is a longtime Clinton campaign insider who held a top job in Hillary's press office. "Writer Steve Cohen used to work for her in the 1990s, serving as the then-first lady's deputy communications director," reports the Village Voice. "I have no doubt she is capable, qualified, and ready to be the president of the United States should she choose...

Webster's Dictionary defines famous as "widely known," but also "honored for achievement," while infamous is defined as "having a reputation of the worst kind," a synonym for "disgraceful." In the big business of celebrity journalism today, there is no discernible difference between fame and infamy. Today's celebrity journalism is only interested in that which is interesting, no matter how vile the atrocity. It will make all kinds of excuses for the infamous if they can be milked for Nielsen ratings points. Worse yet, it will pay the infamous for the privilege of wallowing in their vomit-inducing lives. Some of today's...

Shareholders are suing ChoicePoint Inc. and its top executives after the company's share price fell sharply following news that identity thieves had gained access to personal information about some U.S. residents that was held by the personal data vendor. A class-action lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of those who bought ChoicePoint shares between April 22, 2004, and March 3, 2005, Radnor, Pa.-based law firm Schiffrin & Barroway LLP said in a statement Friday. The suit charges Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint and three top executives with keeping key information from the...

Monday, January 03, 2005 almost fUNnny . . . Day 9 of the tsunami crisis. I know I had promised to lay off the UN for a bit . . . but I can't. As one reader commented on a previous Diplomad posting on the UN, "it's like watching a train wreck" -- you know it's horrible, but you've just got to look at it. In this part of the tsunami-wrecked Far Abroad, the UN is still nowhere to be seen where it counts, i.e., feeding and helping victims. The relief effort continues to be a US-Australia effort, with Singapore...

The Clinton-Kerry-Clinton “Connection” by Col. Bob Pappas, USMC, Ret. The Clintons are on the Kerry bandwagon, or so it seems, after all, they and their former team are full swing on the Kerry campaign team or in support of it; there are Paul Begala, Joe Lockhart, and James Carville to name a few. Additionally, Ms. Clinton makes periodic statements supporting the erstwhile Senator; and, it is widely known that Mr. Clinton has had a number of lengthy conversations with Kerry in regards to his “campaign.” But, why? It is widely assumed, if not known, that Ms. Clinton has Presidential aspirations...

My daughter is set as the producer for the election night news coverage of the Presidential race on her Emmy winning High School cable station.

Forbes.com Corporate GovernancePoliticians On Board by Virginia Citrano, 08.11.04, 2:55 PM ET NEW YORK - Memo to John Kerry: If your plans for November don't work out, you might want to give Sam Nunn a call. The famed former senator from Georgia has made a second career for himself sitting on the boards of leading U.S. companies. According to data compiled by BoardEx, Nunn now serves on the boards of ChevronTexaco (nyse: CVX - news - people ), Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ), General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ) and, in a nod to...

David Wilhelm, top outside adviser to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, says he filed paperwork to give up being a registered lobbyist and plans to sell his ownership in Wilhelm & Conlon, a public affairs consulting firm. Quitting politics? Hardly. Still boyish at 47, Mr. Wilhelm is actually ascending to a higher and more elite rank of political operative, one who gives advice informally and reaps personal financial rewards from long association with elected leaders. Mr. Wilhelm has long wanted to launch a venture capital fund aimed at downtrodden areas of the Midwest, not easy to do with his modest business credentials,...

RE: BUTTERFLY BROKEN ON A WHEEL [John Derbyshire] VERY interesting e-mailbag on my Martha Stewart postings. They are running about 2-1 in support of my pro-Martha position -- somewhat to my surprise, as I thought I was being dramatically contrarian here. Interestingly, e-mails from professionals in the securities business are pretty solidly with me -- I have appended a good example down below. Points often made: ---It is not against the law to be a rich, obnoxious, not-very-honest woman, not even if your politics are Clintonian-Democrat. ---Not only was Martha not charged with "insider trading" (whatever THAT is supposed to...

RE: BUTTERFLY BROKEN ON WHEEL [John Derbyshire] Readers are chiding me for my support of Martha: "Rich rhymes-with-rich... arrogant... female Kerry, DYKWIA?.... little people need protection in the market... integrity of the market... yada yada." Well, fiddlesticks. I'm a conservative, and my first presumption is that my main enemy is State Power. This was an exercise in State Power, DYKWIA writ much larger than any individual in this country can write it. Stewart's offenses were trivial, not worth prosecuting. Investor confidence? Insider trading? (Which she was not even charged with!) Gimme a break. The markets are a lottery, and the...

Updated: 4:01 p.m. ET March 05, 2004 NEW YORK - Martha Stewart was convicted Friday of obstructing justice and lying to the government about a superbly timed stock sale, a devastating verdict that probably means prison for the woman who epitomizes meticulous homemaking and gracious living. In a statement, Stewart said she would appeal the verdict.More...

<p>January 5, 2004 -- DES MOINES, Iowa-Howard Dean acknowledged yesterday that he sold $15,000 in stock in five Vermont banks in 1991 after getting "inside information" from a state banking regulator soon after he became Vermont governor. Dean yesterday portrayed the sale as a bid to avoid a conflict of interest - not an attempt to profit from inside information.</p>

<p>It was nearing midnight on Arnold Schwarzenegger's third Friday as governor when the former bodybuilder and actor faced his first legislative defeat, the rejection by Democrats of his plan to refinance the state's debt and place a new spending limit on the ballot next March. With a deadline for getting his measures on the ballot just minutes away and the outcome clear, Schwarzenegger left his office on the Capitol's first floor to visit Republican lawmakers who had stood by him through a disappointing round of negotiations.</p>

When You Run Out of Ideas... by Doc Farmer I've been racking my brain for the past hour, trying to come up with ideas for my next column. I know I'll have to create something funny, pithy, humorous, and witty because that's what my editor wants. And from what I've been able to gather, that seems to be what the readers want as well. Man, the pressure! It's hard to come up with new stuff all the time, so those of you who think that writing is an easy gig can think again. Sometimes it's really simple--something interesting (or annoying)...

If he does run, Daniels knows he will face questions concerning IPALCO. State securities investigators have asked Daniels and about 30 other former executives of IPALCO to provide information about their sales of stock leading up to the utility's acquisition by Arlington, Va.-based AES Corp. Daniels was a board member during deliberations in 2000 that led to the sale. IPALCO also is the subject of a lawsuit by former employees who suffered losses in their retirement funds when a large debt burden and worldwide drop in power prices caused AES shares to plummet after the merger closed in March 2001....

Get Off Stewart's Case By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. Published 6/11/2003 12:03:00 AM Washington -- Vaguely written laws are a great benefit to two kinds of people, the inveterate criminal and the bullying prosecutor. Law-abiding citizens do not want vaguely-written laws. They want to know what is permissible and what is not. The criminal, however, is encouraged to work every angle of the law if the law is vague, and the bullying prosecutor uses such laws to prosecute, often to prosecute innocent people caught in the gray areas of these vague laws. Both the inveterate criminal and the bullying prosecutor...

<p>Federal prosecutors have finally distilled criminal charges from the Martha Stewart matter, though too late to see themselves portrayed in the recent CBS celebridrama about her. Too bad for Hollywood: The fingerprinting and arraignment that followed yesterday's indictment would have made a vivid scene, though a sad and foolish chapter in Ms. Stewart's otherwise accomplished life.</p>

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN JAN 05, 2003 19:25:38 ET XXXXX WHITE HOUSE ANGER AT BOOK BY BUSH 'AXIS OF EVIL' SPEECHWRITER; CONCERN MEDIA TOUR WILL MUDDLE MESSAGE; FRUM DESCRIBES PRESIDENT AS 'TART' **World Exclusive** Former Bush speechwriter David Frum -- credited with the phrase 'Axis of Evil' -- has infuriated top officials at the White House with his controversial new book, the first insider account of the W. Bush Administration, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Frum helped make international headlines when President Bush's 2002 State of the Union address linked international terrorists to Iran, Iraq and North Korea. But...