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Trouble is living the good life in Florida. I would too, if I had a fortune of $5 Billion (with a “B”). He must have wonderful financial advice because the initial $12 Million (with an “M”) was left to him in a fund to benefit animals. That’s where the trouble began for Trouble. In a suit filed in New York, three animal – welfare groups have filed suit in Manhattan regarding the use of those funds. Named in the suit are The Humane Society of the United States; the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; and Maddie’s...

The first $136 million from the hotelier Leona Helmsley’s disputed multibillion-dollar estate has been distributed, trustees announced on Tuesday, but the bulk went to medical centers instead of dogs. Only $1 million of the estate, valued at about $5 billion, was donated to the care of dogs, which Mrs. Helmsley had designated as her primary beneficiary. “This is a trifling and embarrassingly small amount,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. “Mrs. Helmsley’s wishes are clearly being subverted.”

He's the star of the perfect Leona Helmsley anecdote. Not the old chestnut about the day the haughty hotelier was dubbed the "Queen of Mean." Not even the story behind her famously snobbish comment, a comment she hotly denied, that "only the little people pay taxes." This story is better than any of those. It involves a lavish indoor swimming pool, a silver platter of shrimp and a svelte Leona Helmsley in bathing cap and swimsuit. And Victor Colicchio was standing right there. These days, Colicchio is a well-regarded actor and screenwriter.... But to my surprise, he wasn't doing cartwheels...

DURING the Queen of Mean's heaviest troubles, closest to her was me.SNIP Her security man Ed Brady, after 16-hour days seven days a week for 20 years, suffered a heart attack possibly from stress and ended up in a lawsuit. His remarks are in a deposition. He said: * She wouldn't let help eat bananas because they were only for her. * Her firing method was to check an employee's premises, search his bags and withhold his final paycheck. * In backgammon, if you went to the john she changed the board around. * In cards, if you lost she...

Leona Helmsley, the hotelier who went to prison as a tax cheat and was reviled as the "queen of mean," died Monday at age 87. Helmsley died of heart failure at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn., said her publicist, Howard Rubenstein. Helmsley and her husband, Harry, ran a $5 billion real estate empire that included managing the Empire State Building. She was tried in 1989 on tax evasion charges in a sensational trial that included testimony from disgruntled employees who said she terrorized both menial and executive help at her homes and hotels. Her image was sealed when a...

(02-08) 09:45 PST WASHINGTON D.C. -- A political odd couple, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and White House spokesman Tony Snow, today slammed critics of Pelosi's bid to use a government plane that can fly her nonstop between Washington and her home district in San Francisco. "This is a silly story, and I think it's been unfair to the speaker,'' Snow told reporters. E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein@sfchronicle.com.

Critics charge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is abusing the perks of power by asking for a jumbo military jet with sleeping accommodations for her flights across the country. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon agreed to provide the speaker, who is second in the line of presidential succession, with a military plane for added security during trips back home. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, flew in a small commuter-sized Air Force jet. Pelosi wants a larger aircraft that can fly to her San Francisco district without stopping to refuel. Some sources are claiming that Pelosi...

The widow Heinz's tax-exempt fortune buoyed by our bucks By Howie Carr Recent Columns by Howie Carr Friday, May 14, 2004 ``We don't pay taxes,'' Leona Helmsley famously said in 1989. ``Only the little people pay taxes.'' Leona Helmsley, meet Teresa Heinz Kerry, second wife of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Sen. John Forbes Kerry of Massachusetts. Kerry's campaign issued a ``summary'' of Teresa's 2003 income taxes this week - a couple of hours after the release of the video of the beheading of Nicholas Berg in Iraq. The Kerry campaign is often criticized for its stumbles, but in...

No, this is not about the Iraq War, or the post-war reconstruction of Iraq, or the French view of America's position in the world. It's about a single bad decision by the top officers of the world's largest airline, American Airlines, that will probably dump that carrier into bankruptcy. This decision goes beyond wrong, beyond greed, all the way to world-class stupidity. And the reason behind it applies in many areas of American life. To set the stage: When times were fat for the airline industry, American signed fat contracts with the various unions of its employees. Now that times...