Archive for December, 2008

Planned Parenthood violating Indiana’s sexual abuse laws

Posted on December 5th, 2008

Press release from Live Action Films — a new media movement for life:

BLOOMINGTON, IN, December 3 –- New footage released today from an undercover camera inside an abortion clinic in Bloomington shows Planned Parenthood staff deliberately violating the state’s mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse.

Theft of taxpayer funds not a crime in Milwaukee

Posted on December 4th, 2008

Milwaukee Assistant District Attorney David Feiss says that school board member Charlene Hardin’s theft of taxpayer funds isn’t a crime. Hardin and school secretary Lolita Peterson used $2,400 of taxpayer money to travel to Philadelphia for 3 days under the guise of attending a school-related conference, but then didn’t attend the event.

Hardin also has used taxpayer money to pay a $300 penalty for smoking in a non-smoking hotel room, rent a car at significant expense, and stay in a hotel costing over $400 per night.

More public company executives with falsified credentials

Posted on December 3rd, 2008

From the Wall Street Journal:

The University of California, Irvine, says a Broadcom Corp. [NASDAQ:BRCM] executive didn’t earn two academic degrees listed in his corporate biography.

Social media in the hands of irresponsible employees can be dangerous

Posted on December 2nd, 2008

A couple of weeks ago I had an interesting encounter with a PR firm in Florida. The Buyer Group is owned by Lisa Buyer. They were retained by Shop To Earn (STE) to do an online PR campaign, including a lame blog that is supposed to counteract the “negative” information found on the internet about STE.

I have been one of the main critics of Shop To Earn (also using the name Shop To Earth), a multi-level marketing scheme. There are very few people willing to tell the truth about STE and the flaws in its program. I’ve been more than happy to expose how little money people are actually making from this scheme, and the fact that the vast majority of people will lose money with it.

Zac Bissonnette…. on his way to star status!

Posted on December 1st, 2008

Huge congratulations go out to my dear friend, Zac Bissonnette. Zac is one of my editors at WalletPop.com, and sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He just signed a huge book deal with Portfolio after a bidding war between 3 publishers.

Publishers Weekly and Media Bistro’s GalleyCat both report on this big book deal. Publishers Weekly says:

The author, a college sophomore and co-editor of AOL’s WalletPop.com, will argue that American parents and their high school children need to rethink their approach to choosing and paying for college. Bissonette, who contends that most elite private colleges are overrated, is paying his own way through the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; he’ll show parents and students how to assess the value of a private versus public university degree, demonstrate the ramifications of saddling oneself with student loan debt and explain how students can use their college years to position themselves for long-term success.

What a great opportunity for a wonderful person who works hard and deserves all the success in the world!

Lehman collapse looming in June: When did auditors know?

Posted on December 1st, 2008

The current issue of New York Magazine has a lengthy story about the collapse of Lehman Brothers. To cut to the chase: Management knew in June that the company was in serious, serious trouble. Which leads me to ask when their auditors knew?