Day's Top Stories

sondra fortunato

2008-12-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

Sondra Fortunato Photo: Sexy Miss NFL Racy Santa Claus Outfit for Giants
by Mike Baron

aren't amused by fan Sondra Fortunato's decision to show up for a game in a skimpy

Santa Claus outfit last week, revealing a little more than anyone wanted to see.

Sondra Fortunato, a middle-aged blonde, made other women "jealous" last week when she showed up to a Giants game wearing a skimpy Santa Claus outfit, which, according to the AP, consisted of a tiara, fishnet stockings, a bathing suit bottom and high-heeled boots.

Security escorted her from the stadium.

While fellow fans and the Giants have expressed their disdain for Sondra's less-than-Santa-like outfit, she claims it wasn't offensive at all:

"You couldn't even see my underwear."

huntsman spider

2008-12-15T13:04:00.000-08:00

Found: Rare Pink Dragon Millipede Photo - Bizzare Huntsman Spider
by Jack Ryan

More than a 1000 species have been discover in the Greater Mekong region of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Of these they found a bright Barbie car pink millipede called a Dragon Millipede or the Demoxytes purprosea. You have to see it to believe it, a bright pink insect!

These Dragon Millipedes were discovered in the Hup Pa tard cavern in Thailand. they love crawling on palm trees and limestones. Dr. Somsak Panhaz was one of the members of the Thailand research team who found them. It is said that these creepy crawlers are pink to warn it's predators of it's poison.

Strange & Interesting News

Published: Dec 15, 2008

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Found: Rare Pink Dragon Millipede Photo - Bizzare Huntsman Spider
by Jack Ryan

More than a 1000 species have been discover in the Greater Mekong region of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Of these they found a bright Barbie car pink millipede called a Dragon Millipede or the Demoxytes purprosea. You have to see it to believe it, a bright pink insect!

Among the other newly discovered creatures was the Heteropoda or better known as the Huntsman spider. This creepy crawling giant spider of 30 cm or about 12 inches is one of the largest spiders in the world. According to Wikipedia these spiders are found in "Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean, Florida, and Hawaii, and possibly in many other tropical and semi-tropical regions. They can be found as far north as England, Sweden and Wales." They do bite, but they are not dangerous to humans research says. (c) tPC

Click Here for more pictures

ascot fund

2008-12-15T13:01:00.000-08:00

Madoff scandal rocks Jewish philanthropic world

By Jacob Berkman · December 14, 2008

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Tthe securities fraud of Bernard Madoff has rocked the Jewish nonprofit world -- and the worst may be yet to come.

Madoff, the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was arrested Dec. 11 after admitting to his board that a hedge fund he ran was essentially a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

At least two foundations have been forced to close because they had invested their funds with Madoff.

The Robert I. Lappin Foundation in Salem, Mass., announced Dec. 12 that it would shut down after losing $8 million -- all of its money. And the Chais Family Foundation, which gives out some $12.5 million each year to Jewish causes in Israel, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, announced its closing Dec. 14.

At least one nonprofit is calling out for help in the wake of Madoff’s collapse. The Gift of Life Foundation, a Jewish bone marrow registry that relied heavily on Madoff as a benefactor, announced on its Web site Sunday that it would immediately need to raise $1.8 million to make up for recent losses.

Sources close to Yeshiva University, where Madoff served as treasurer of the board of trustees and board chairman of the university's Sy Syms School of Business until he resigned last week, said the school has lost at least $100 million. Y.U. officials declined to offer any specifics.

Just as the reverberations of the subprime mortgage collapse are still seen as contributing to the nation's wider economic meltdown, philanthropic insiders say the fallout from Madoff's scheme could be even greater. The insiders note that Madoff and others heavily invested in his fraudulent fund were major supporters of a plethora of nonprofit organizations, served on their boards or advised those organizations on how to invest their money -- in some cases placing large sums of the groups' capital in Madoff’s hands.

Reflecting this sense that the full extent of the damage is still unclear, the executive vice president and CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York said that even though its endowments were not exposed, the organization still could be hurt if donors lost money in the scheme.

“We do not yet know the full extent of the losses that supporters of UJA-Federation and other Jewish institutions have had,” John Ruskay said. “But we have already heard that many major institutions had substantial funds invested, as did foundations. Already in the context of a very challenging economic environment this will present another significant difficulty. We don’t know yet the extent of the wreckage.”

Reports are trickling out in the national media about prominent businessmen from across the country who lost money in Madoff's scheme.

New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, GMAC Financial Services chairman J. Ezra Merkin and former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman all were reported to have taken significant hits due to their dealings with Madoff, who reportedly would not accept any investment in his fund below $10 million.

Reports have surfaced also that media magnate Mortimer Zuckerman was significantly hurt by investing with Madoff.

In Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Foundation’s $238 million Common Investment Pool lost $18 million it had invested with Madoff, according to a letter sent out by the foundation.

Among other Jewish institutions and foundations believed to be hit by the Madoff scandal: the American Jewish Congress, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation, Elie Wiesel’s Foundation for Humanity and Carl Shapiro’s charitable foundation.

But Merkin, who last week told investors in his hedge fund, Ascot Partners, that all of their money had been defrauded by Madoff, is of particular interest to the Jewish community. He has philanthropic ties to a number of Jewish organizations and institutions, serving as a volunteer investment adviser for many of them, including Yeshiva University. Among other causes with which he is said to be connected are the SAR Academy, a Jewish day school in the Bronx, as well as State of Israel Bonds, The Jewish Campus Life Fund, Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center, the Ramaz School, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue.

Sources say that several of these entities had money in Ascot, which they now stand to lose because of Merkin's decision to invest so heavily in Madoff's fund. According to Orthodox communal insiders, Ramaz and SAR lost millions between them.

A woman who answered the phone Sunday at one of Merkin's listed numbers suggested that he could be reached in the office Monday.

An official at one major Jewish foundation told JTA that it had been advised to invest with Madoff, but decided against it after concluding that his return-on-investment forecasts seemed too good to be true.

Certainly the extent of the damage to the philanthropic world could become clearer as details emerge in coming days and weeks of just who was invested with Madoff.

One philanthropic official said there is a lesson to be learned here for the philanthropy world, where Jewish businessmen and philanthropists directed their own private funds and the funds of institutions that they help oversee toward Madoff.

“What really emerges out of this,” said Jeffrey Solomon, the president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, is that "people sometimes forget to conduct the due diligence when dealing with others with social prominence -- and especially in the hedge-fund area where people think you have to be really smart to be in hedge funds. In many ways for all investments something like this is tragic, but for nonprofits where boards have the fiduciary responsibility of acting with great prudence, it is even more tragic.”

According to a fund-raiser who has been scouring recent 990 tax filings to see how this might affect his nonprofit, several other major philanthropists have put money in Madoff's hands: As of the end of 2007, Sandy Gottesman had $20 million of his foundation's $144 million invested with Madoff and Robert Beren had two foundations with more than that in endowments invested with Ascot. U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) says his foundation has about $15 million invested with Madoff.

Yeshiva University issued a statement via e-mail to JTA on Sunday.

“We are shocked at this revelation,” the university said. “Bernard Madoff has tendered his resignation from all positions affiliated with the university and involvement with the university. Our lawyers and accountants are investigating all aspects of his relationship to Yeshiva University. We reserve our comments until we complete our investigation.”

visa black card

2008-12-04T01:40:00.000-08:00

Rosemary Roberts: Shop 'til you drop -- but pay with cash

This is Black Friday, the day that officially launches the Christmas shopping season. Customers wake up before daylight to storm the doors of stores where wondrous bargains supposedly await them.

At the risk of putting a damper on Black Friday, let's talk about credit cards. The News & Record published a front-page story this week telling you what you've probably noticed: that Americans' love affair with credit cards may be cooling.

In the past, we've hauled out our little pieces of plastic to pay for everything from coffee at Starbucks to airplane tickets to big-ticket cars. We Americans spend more and save less than any people on the planet. On trips to China and Russia, I've learned that the Chinese and Russians don't buy something unless they can pay for it. Maybe it's their repressive history that's taught them to toe the line. Not us. We free-wheeling Americans put it on plastic.

According to the Associated Press story, the sour economy may be changing our consumer habits. Americans have discovered old-fashioned greenbacks. "Retailers such as Walmart, Target and J.C. Penney are noticing a shift away from credit cards in favor of cash and debit cards," the AP story said.

I can personally attest to this turnabout. I was standing in the checkout line at Target last week and noticed that the three shoppers ahead of me were paying with -- gasp! -- dollars.

One customer's shopping basket was overflowing with purchases, suggesting a hefty bill. She still paid with cash, not plastic. I was so impressed that I put my Visa card back in my purse and paid with cash, too. That's the way trends get started.

My late father would have applauded. When credit cards were a relatively new invention in the early 1950s, I was still a child and remember thinking it would be so sophisticated if my parents had a credit card. (Today, some people have dozens!) The Diners Club was a pioneer of the new credit card industry. First issued in 1950, the Diners Club card was used to pay restaurant bills. My uncle had a Diners card, and I was extremely impressed when he whipped it out to pay for dinner at a Birmingham restaurant.

It would take years before my father grudgingly owned a credit card, and even then he rarely used it. My father had lived through the Great Depression and, like others of that generation, he believed in thrift and savings accounts. His motto: If you can't afford it, don't buy it. He was a devoted believer in pay as you go. The Diners card -- and later American Express, Visa, Mastercard, etc. -- did not fit in his financial firmament.

Today, he would be appalled by my mail. Several times a week I am bombarded with unsolicited letters asking me to sign up for credit cards. I'm convinced that anybody -- teenagers, college students, the unemployed -- would qualify even if they have no financial means to pay credit card bills. But consumer behavior may be changing. According to the AP story, Walmart and Target officials say credit card use has declined during this frightening economic downturn. Credit card companies are also cutting back on issuing cards. In short, we may be learning to live like our grandparents once did.

But here's the downside of life without credit cards. If shoppers shelve credit cards, it will discourage them from spending money, analysts say. And that will worsen our sick economy.

Tom Friedman, the syndicated columnist, recently told readers to "go shopping" and stimulate the economy. He momentarily caught me off guard. He was seeming to contradict what we've been told not to do when our personal finances are uncertain. But Friedman added one caveat: "go saving," too, and don't buy what you can't afford.

If you happen to read this column before you join Black Friday's madding crowd, feel free to shop 'til you drop -- but preferably pay with cash. Who knows? You might be starting a healthy new habit!

Rosemary Roberts writes a Friday column. E-mail: rmroberts@triad.rr.com

who is victoria s secret

2008-12-04T01:36:00.000-08:00

who is victoria s secret

Victoria's Secret angels descend on New York

The Victoria's Secret angels were on hand for the opening of the company's flagship store in New York City.

While it's not the biggest store in the chain, it's certainly the most unique. Customers can purchase products at this boutique that they cannot anywhere else.

It has a fragrance bar, where customers can design their own scent. A monogram service will embroider any garment - and they mean any garment. And there's even a personal shopper to help primarily male customers find that perfect gift.

But with all this, all the models could talk about was the airing of the Victoria's Secret show on CBS Wednesday night.

Heidi Klum said this year's show is the best yet. And this time says she means it.

That renewed excitement is due in part to this year's location, the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel. It just got a US$1 billion facelift. So the extensive fittings and rehearsals created the atmosphere for a grand show.

This is the fourth show for Selita Ebanks who described the feeling of her first as being "a deer caught in the headlights." And Alessandra Ambrosio said she no longer fears walking the runway with a giant set of wings on her back.

Marisa Miller, Doutzen Kroes and Miranda Kerr are the newest models to be given their wings by the lingerie giant. They're joining Ebanks, Heidi Klum, Karolina Kurkova, Adriana Lima, and Alessandra Ambrosio as the brand's top models.

All three of the newbies had graced the Victoria's Secret catwalk before but they weren't fully part of the family until they went to Miami last month for the new runway show spectacle that will be seen on CBS Wednesday night.

APTN

raising canes

2008-12-04T01:35:00.000-08:00

raising canes

Raising Cane’s CEO to star in reality show

Todd Graves, multimillionaire founder of Raising Cane's Chicken, today will debut with wife Gwen on the new Fox reality show "Secret Millionaire."

The show features six millionaires who go undercover in some of the hardest-hit areas of the country to help those in need.

"It was one of most inspiring things I've ever done in my life," said Graves, 36.

Fox sent him to a coastal Louisiana community still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina, which struck in 2005. The New Orleans-born, Baton Rouge-raised entrepreneur had to spend a week living and working with his neighbors before deciding which of them will receive at least $100,000 of his money.

"Going back to eating ramen noodles and hamburger meat cooked 30 different ways, it really brought me back," Graves said. "I don't live this crazy, lavish lifestyle. I have a very nice lifestyle, but living on a budget really brought me back."

If living on a budget brought Graves back, it brought him back to cold nights on the Alaskan shores, where he worked as a salmon fisherman after college, and the refineries of Los Angeles, where he was a boilermaker. Graves worked these jobs to raise money for the first Raising Canes chicken finger store, which he opened with friend and partner Craig Silvey in 1996.

When asked for one word to sum up every entrepreneur needs, Graves responded "passion."

"It's got to be real passion. It is so hard to start your own business. Even if you're told 'no' 99 out of 100 times, one out of 100 times someone will say, 'That's great: make it work.'"

Passion is why Graves said he kept pushing for a chicken fingers-only chain, a business plan he submitted to his college professors (he graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia) and received "the lowest grade in the class." Today, there are 75 Raising Cane's stores in 13 states, a $125 million company.

Graves will be joined on "Secret Millionaire" by an Internet startup mogul, a magazine founder and other millionaires in their quest to find America's unsung heroes from places like New Orleans, a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania, Las Vegas and elsewhere.

Graves said the show's philanthropic aspect is what drew him to it, and he credited that same attitude as inspiration for the friendly Cane's staff.

"The reason our crew is so friendly, such great people, it's because we're doing this for the right reason," Graves said. "We want to give back to the community."

As for all those questions you might have about Graves:

Yes, Cane's is doing well financially. Sales have been up lately, which Graves attributes to more people wanting to eat out for cheap.

No, Graves is not thinking about running for office.

No, he is not happy about state of Georgia Bulldogs football right now.

No, he has no plans to get another Raising Cane, the dog after which he named the company. Graves' current dog is actually Raising Canes the Second, is a she and is 9 years old.

And no, he cannot tell you what's in the special sauce. "I hate to be cliche, but I really would have to kill you," Graves said with a chuckle.

As for what's next, Graves said the only answer is more: more business, more success and more Raising Cane's.

"I want to grow everywhere we can. ... I want to grow old in this business."

By Drew Pierson • dpierson@gannett.com

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