Free Republic

Mendacious: Given to or marked by deliberate concealment or misrepresentation of the truth. John Garamendi is running for Lt. Governor and to supplement an apparent mendaciousness, he is praying for induced selective memory loss. Some fifteen years ago, as California insurance commissioner, Garamendi seized the assets of the Executive Life Insurance Company. In doing so, he allowed a questionable junk-bond player and a French government-owned bank to realize a humongous windfall despite a bunch of annuities and policyholders getting the short (and dirty) end of the stick. It is beyond troubling that the man who is ‘supposed’ to be the...

LAS VEGAS - Harrah's Entertainment Inc., the world's largest casino operator, said Monday it has received a $15.05 billion offer for the company from private-equity firms Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group. The private-equity firms are offering $81 per share in cash, a 22 percent premium to Harrah's closing stock price on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. After the news, Harrah's shares surged $9.52, or 14.3 percent, to $75.95 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Harrah's said it has established a special committee of independent directors to review the offer and has retained UBS Securities...

The state Republican Party has launched a television ad attacking state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi for mishandling the collapse of the Executive Life Insurance Co. The ad targeting Garamendi, a Democrat running against Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, for lieutenant governor, began running Aug. 28 in the Sacramento and Los Angeles media markets. (snip) ANALYSIS: The GOP advertisement attempts to weaken Garamendi, a former gubernatorial candidate and statewide officeholder, by exploiting what is perhaps his greatest political vulnerability. Garamendi has long been dogged by criticism for allegedly mishandling the collapse of the Executive Life Insurance Co. In 1991,...

A City Council panel recommended Monday that Los Angeles provide $266 million in subsidies and loans to the developers of a 55-story hotel next to the Convention Center, but opponents threatened a referendum drive to put the matter before the city's voters. The financial deal was endorsed on a 4-0 vote by members of the council's Ad Hoc Committee on the Convention Center Hotel, with Councilman Tom Labonge and others saying that the project would make the center more competitive and breathe new life into downtown. (snip) The project also was endorsed by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and...

The state's giveaway sale of Executive Life and the insurer's fat portfolio of junk bonds is the gift that keeps on giving - political headaches, that is. State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who seized the troubled insurer in 1991 and then approved its sale, desperately wants to deflect the onus for the multibillion-dollar debacle that left tens of thousands of disabled and retired annuitants twisting in the wind. But try as he might to shift the burden onto the French buyers, it appears they will at most cede only a tiny fraction of their huge profits from the transaction. A...