Free Republic

Singer-songwriter Leon Redbone, who specialized in old-school vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley-style music, died earlier today, his family confirmed. He was 69 — although, in characteristically whimsical fashion, the official statement announcing his death gave his age as 127. Although Redbone’s pop-defying predilection for seemingly antiquated musical styles of the ’20s and ’30s made him the unlikeliest of stars, he became one anyway, appearing several times as the musical guest “Saturday Night Live” — including two spots in the inaugural 1975-76 season alone — and landing frequent appearances with Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.” Later popular successes had him...

February 08, 2007 Bush Uncle Profits From Options Scheme By MARCY GORDON ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush's uncle William H.T. Bush was among a group of directors of a defense contractor who reaped $6 million from what federal regulators say was an illegal five-year scheme by two company executives to manipulate the timing of stock option grants, documents show. Bush, known as "Bucky," is the youngest brother of former President George H.W. Bush. He was an outside, non-executive director of Engineered Support Systems Inc., a defense contractor whose profits were bolstered because of the Iraq war. The St....

BUTTE, Mont. -- A band that headlined a fair last weekend is accused of masquerading as the rock group Redbone, whose hits included the 1970s song "Come and Get Your Love." The band at the Butte-Silver Bow Fair performed under the name Redbone, but the real Redbone was playing in Wisconsin, said Ron Kurtz, Redbone's manager. "I've been in the business for 40 years, and I've never ran into anything this blatant," Kurtz said Thursday from his office in Burbank, Calif. He said the fair board was conned. Fair officials said they dealt with a man who identified himself as...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private investment firm Thomas H. Lee Partners is expected to announce on Monday a deal to buy a majority stake in Refco Group, the world's largest independent retail futures brokerage, for about $2.5 billion, sources close to the situation said. T.H. Lee's investment would give the New York-based brokerage more liquidity and possibly set it up to enhance its value through a public offering at some point in the future, analysts have said. Refco, which has operations in 14 countries and $20 billion in assets, has expanded and diversified through acquisitions like its purchase of...