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NEW YORK – Bernard Madoff and his wife had $823 million in assets at the end of last year, including $22 million in properties stretching from New York to the French Riviera, a $7 million yacht and a $2.2 million boat named "Bull," according to a document his lawyers filed Friday. The document, prepared for the Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of last year, was contained in papers filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an effort to get Madoff freed on bail. Among the couple's assets: a $12 million half share in a plane,...

As parents pack their youngsters off to college, they might ask themselves whether it's worth both the money they will spend and their children's time. Dr. Marty Nemko has researched that question in an article aptly titled "America's Most Over-rated Product: Higher Education (www.martynemko.com/articles/americas-most-overrated-product-higher-education_id1539)." The U.S. Department of Education statistics show that 76 out of 100 students who graduate in the bottom 40 percent of their high school class do not graduate from college, even if they spend eight and a half years in college. That's even with colleges having dumbed down classes to accommodate such students. Only 23 percent...

WASHINGTON - President Bush says he has no doubts about launching the unpopular war in Iraq despite the "high cost in lives and treasure," arguing that retreat now would embolden Iran and provide al-Qaida with money for weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States. Bush is to mark the fifth anniveresary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on Wednesday with a speech at the Pentagon. Excerpts of his address were released Tuesday night by the White House. At least 3,990 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003. It has cost...

This is a continuation of the article posted here ---------------------------------------------------- Isn't a master's degree the new bachelor's?" I hear this all the time when I visit college campuses. In some ways, the answer is yes. The number of master's degrees conferred is expected to rise 30 percent over the next 10 years, and 40 percent of college graduates will enroll in a graduate program within a decade after college. But does graduate school pay off? I'll unabashedly ignore the value to humanity of pure research and the liberal arts in answering this question, and focus instead on the hard economics...

Right now, all over the country, high school students and their parents are scheming to get into the Ivy League. Young people are groomed practically from birth to be attractive to mysterious and all-powerful admissions committees guarding the gates of the eight universities that comprise the Ivies. Articles and books are written on packaging strategies, which classes and activities are "in" and which are now "passé," which provide an edge, and which might harm a student's chances. There is even a psychological malady known as The Yale Syndrome, a sort of obsession with college admission that creates an unusually proximate...

Drugs Worth Millions Stolen From Area CompanyUPDATED: 12:07 am EDT August 10, 2006 WAKE COUNTY, N.C. -- Federal, state and local authorities are investigating an interstate drug heist, after millions of dollars in medications never made it to their intended destination. Authorities said that the alleged heist occurred at Longistics Corporation in Wake County near Research Triangle Park late Saturday. According to police, at least three suspects targeted the company, which handles shipments for the health care industry, and stole two tractor-trailers full of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. "The FBI estimates that the total value of the prescription and non-prescription...

ARLINGTON, Texas (March 6, 2006) -- Marines from Recruiting Station Fort Worth participated in a recent ground breaking ceremony for a military veteran’s memorial to be constructed at Veterans Park in Arlington, Texas. The recruiting station provided a color guard, including members Sgts. Fernando Duran, William Lemoir, Chris Simms and Robert Bell. All four are recruiters assigned to the station. Also on hand for the ceremony were RS Fort Worth’s Commanding Officer, Maj. William Gray and Sgt. Maj. Mitchell Nared. The memorial project is scheduled to be completed in late spring 2006.

Master Sgt. Jay Phelps and Sgt. Teresa Burroughs hold the 25-pound block of gold they discovered in their office at FOB Speicher. Staff Sgt. Jesse C. Riggin Printer-friendly version TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 7, 2006) – A unique challenge for two Soldiers arose recently with the discovery of a very special doorstop in the terrain team’s work space: a 25-pound block of solid gold. “I noticed it during the relief-in-place with the unit before us, sitting under the table in the office,” said Sgt. Teresa Burroughs, a terrain analyst in the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne...

CAMP AL QAIM, Iraq (Nov. 18, 2005) -- The UH-1 Huey helicopter is one of the oldest aircraft in the Marine Corps’ war arsenal. Like its counterpart, the AH-1 Cobra, Hueys have been around since the days of Vietnam, and in Iraq, the helicopters named for utility are living up to their title. At Camp Al Qaim, Iraq, a detachment from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369 provides the rotary wing close-air support for the ground forces in the area. They know firsthand the importance of the less glorified cousin of the Cobra. Hueys fly with crews of four, two...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2005 – Specially recruited and trained Iraqi forces are making their mark in operations against insurgents in Iraq's Anbar province, a senior U.S. military officer said Nov. 6 in Baghdad. These "Desert Protector" troops operate in western Anbar province alongside more than 2,000 regular Iraqi security forces, U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Don Alston, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, told reporters. The protectors are Anbar residents, recruited by the Iraqi government and given weapons and other training that they employ to fight insurgents operating in their backyard, Alston said. Currently, 29 Desert Protectors are trained, Alston said....

The word "reinvent" is a dumb term, having an overtone of redundancy. After all, when you have invented something, it exists. You can revise it or change it, but you can't "reinvent" it after you have already invented it. I never heard the term when I first entered the workforce. But somewhere in the 1970s or so, corporate executives-began using the word, and using it a lot. Then as now, the nation had its usual economic ups and downs, but suddenly after one downturn, our nation was heavily laden with companies that had reinvented themselves. What happened is that after...

Hurricane-Felled Timber Worth Billions United Press International U.S. timber companies are scrambling to harvest tons of timber felled by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The companies are moving as quickly as possible to recover the millions of trees before they rot, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Industry analysts estimate that more than 20 billion board feet are down, enough to build 1 million houses. Timber down in Louisiana is worth $900 million; in Mississippi, the felled timber is worth $2.4 billion, experts estimate.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A judge refused a request by Ameriquest Mortgage Co. founder Roland Arnall to limit his ex-wife's look into his net worth as part of her attempt to get a higher divorce settlement. Sally Arnall's attorney, Vicki Greene, asked Superior Court Judge Richard E. Denner to approve a broad investigation into the finances of Arnall, who is President Bush's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. "We want to assess all the assets that were not disclosed or undervalued," Greene said. But Leonard J. Meyberg Jr., lawyer for the Ameriquest founder, told the judge Wednesday that...

We did it... We protested churchill. There was a collection of pro-Churchill moonbats that showed up, and we protested them as well.

TROUBLE SPEAK Ward Churchill copied 'original' art piece Takes a swing at TV reporter who confronted him -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 26, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Professor Ward Churchill Adding to a growing list of allegations, controversial University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill appears to have violated copyright law by claiming a reknowned artist's work as his own. Churchill, whose integrity has been challenged since news broke earlier last month of his paper blaming victims of 9-11 for the attacks, made an Indian-theme serigraph in 1981 called "Winter Attack" and printed 150 copies. But one of the buyers,...

PUT SOME PRESSURE ON PROF CHURCHILL AND U OF C ACT NOW: Please express your concerns about Professor Churchill by sending POLITE AND THOUGHTFUL emails to the Department of Ethnic Studies - The University of Colorado, Boulder, to UC’s Board of Regents, to UC’s Interim Chancellor, and to Colorado’s Governor. Please also contact Colorado’s state house members and U.S. House and Senate reps. Remember, being rude and hurling insults will get you nowhere. Intelligent and thoughtful comments will have an impact. For more info, click here.

Sen. Clinton: Lab has proved its worth, but we can't take anything for granted By STEVE JONES Staff writer Declaring that "no place is safe" in the upcoming round of military base closures and mission consolidations, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed to "do everything that we can do to make sure the merits" of Rome Lab "are seen." New York's junior senator spoke before about 300 community leaders Friday afternoon at the Radisson Hotel in Utica. Clinton put retention of the Air Force Research Laboratory at the top of her list of concerns during a speech to the Mohawk Valley...

Recently a friend noticed the political sticker on my car and asked, ''Why are you voting for him?'' I replied, ''Because I'm a Christian.'' He said, "I don't trust people who mix their religion and politics.'' I answered, ''I don't trust people who don't! If your religion doesn't affect the important choices of your life, it's not worth much. And if your politics are opposed to your religious values, something is wrong with one or the other--maybe both.'' Far too long have Christians allowed the voices of the liquor industry, organized gambling humanist education, loose morals, sexual perversion, pornography, criminals'...

NICEVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) said on Tuesday that abolishing the U.S. income tax system and replacing it with a national sales tax was an idea worth considering. "It's an interesting idea," Bush told an "Ask President Bush" campaign forum here. "You know, I'm not exactly sure how big the national sales tax is going to have to be, but it's the kind of interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously." Republican economists who speak regularly to the White House have said that the Bush campaign has been mulling the idea of an overhaul...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A majority of U.S. voters now say it was not worth going to war in Iraq and feel the United States is getting bogged down there, according to a Los Angeles Times poll published on Friday. In the survey of 1,230 registered voters conducted across the country from Saturday through Tuesday, 53 percent said it was not worth going to war in Iraq while 43 percent said it was and 4 percent said they did not know. The sample has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. The paper said the survey was the first...