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Wisconsin Governor Threatens To Fight Union Protest With National Guard

by The Huffington Post on February 15, 2011

State workers in Wisconsin are protesting a move by Republican Governor Scott Walker to use the threat of the National Guard to break the public union. Citing a $137 million budget deficit, Walker announced a plan last week which would essentially take away the public union’s collective bargaining rights and slash benefits for state employees. Meanwhile, the share of corporate tax revenue funding the state government has fallen by half since 1981 and, according to Wisconsin Department of Revenue , two-thirds of corporations based in state pay no taxes. In the case of a walkout, Walker has put the National Guard on alert. On Monday he told reporters that the guard is “prepared” for “whatever the governor, their commander-in-chief, might call for.” Wisconsin is one of a growing number of states facing severe budget cuts and difficult choices regarding public unions. But as Bloomberg News points out , the biggest savings Walker is proposing have nothing to do with state workers or collective bargaining. Walker claims the state can save $165 million by the end of next June simply by restructuring its existing debt. “I’m just trying to balance my budget,” Mr. Walker told the New York Times last week. “To those who say why didn’t I negotiate on this? I don’t have anything to negotiate with. We don’t have anything to give. Like practically every other state in the country, we’re broke. And it’s time to pay up.” The Republican Party of Wisconsin has said that Walker’s plan will save Wisconsin $30 million over the next three months and $300 million over the next two years. Union leaders and labor scholars don’t think Walker’s move to crush the union is about the deficit. “If it had simply to do with the budget there doesn’t seem to be a need to eliminate collective bargaining,” said Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University. “In other states where state’s municipalities have faced difficult times, unions have helped negotiate the way forward.” “Denying people’s rights has nothing to do with the budget,” said Michael Uehlein, field director for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). Uehlein views Walker’s proposal as “an excuse to go after his political enemies” and “the first step that will lead to drastically reduced wages across the state.” Rick Badger, the executive director of AFSCME’s Wisconsin 40 council, one of the most active unions in the state, characterised Walker’s proposal as a “man-made disaster” that is “really about taking away people’s rights and creating a second-class citizen.” Badger is adamant that a compromise could be reached and outraged that Walker has made no attempt to sit down with the unions. “It’s been painted as being all about the money but what this is really about is workers who won’t be able to negotiate health insurance, pension, vacation, hours of work, the arbitration process, just cause or discipline,” Badger said. “[Walker] claims there’s nothing to bargain with. The message we need to get out there is that this could not be further from the truth.” Badger continued, “none of the unions involved in this have said that they would not be willing to make sacrifices. They have said that they are, and they will.” Public and private sector labor leaders in Wisconsin and around the country are joined in opposition of the bill. On a conference call on Monday, conservative and Republican employees across the state spoke out against Walker’s plan. “The right to join a union and collectively bargain is a freedom that people have died to protect. To have anyone threaten to wipe it away with minimal public debate, deliberation or discussion is unconscionable,” said Janice Bobholz, an employee with the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department and a resident of Beaver Dam. The governor’s proposal is especially painful given Wisconsin’s long history of collective bargaining. “[Walker's proposal] really represents a break in a 50-year tradition,” McCartin said. “I think it’s really significant and its implications are frightening for public sector unions not just in Wisconsin but over much of the country.” In Ohio, collective bargaining rights for state workers are no more secure . Republican Senator Shannon Jones has proposed a similar bill to Walker’s, and last month, Ohio governor John Kasich said that if employees strike, “they should be fired.” However, he has not yet threatened to call in the National Guard. “It’s hard to imagine why that had to be raised except to purposely stoke a fire,” McCartin said. “It’s a painful history that Wisconsin has had in that respect and to raise the specter of calling in the National Guard seems totally warranted in this case.” The last time Wisconsin called in the National Guard was in 1886. The Guard, then called the State Militia, were brought in to break a rally of Milwaukee workers advocating an 8-hour work day. The militia fired into a crowd of unarmed picketers; it’s estimated that 5 to 7 workers were killed. Badger is a veteran of the armed forces. He is astounded that the governor has suggested the Guard might be called in. “I volunteered to defend the rights of citizens in this country,” Badger said. It’s really offensive — not the National Guard soldiers — just that the governor could find the time and resources to put the National Guard on alert but not to sit down with any of the unions.” In a press release put out by VoteVets.org, an outreach group devoted to veterans issues, a veteran and former National Guard member shared his unhappiness with the Governor’s proposed solution to a union strike. “Maybe the new governor doesn’t understand yet – but the National Guard is not his own personal intimidation force to be mobilized to quash political dissent,” said Robin Eckstein, a former Wisconsin National Guard member, Iraq War Veteran from Appleton, WI, and member of VoteVets.org. “The Guard is to be used in case of true emergencies and disasters, to help the people of Wisconsin, not to bully political opponents.” The governor’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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State, Local Governments To Fire 481,000 Workers: Report

by on July 27, 2010

To cover for lost tax revenues, local governments will fire nearly 500,000 workers in the coming year, according to a national survey of counties and cities released Tuesday. The National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that 270 local governments planned to collectively lay off 8.6 percent of their workforce from the previous fiscal year to the next one. That percentage of all local public sector workers across the country amounts to 481,000 people. The report’s authors expect local governments to make even more spending cuts in the near future. “Local governments across the country are now facing the combined impact of decreased tax revenues, a falloff in state and federal aid and increased demand for social services,” the report notes. “Over the next two years, local tax bases will likely suffer from depressed property values, hard-hit household incomes and declining consumer spending.” The cuts are deep: 63 percent of cities and 39 percent of counties reported cutting public safety personnel like firefighters and police officers. Fresno, Calif., submitted a 2010 budget with 220 layoffs, according to the report. Flint, Mich. laid off 23 of 88 firefighters. In Brevard County, Fla., 38 Sheriff’s deputy positions are on the chopping block. The city of Dallas, Texas is set to fire 500, mostly people in the library system. And Portland, Ore. is firing 120 teachers. The local municipality associations recommend a House jobs bill that would send $75 billion to states over two years. The bill faces long odds in the Senate. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported Monday that the Senate’s failure to reauthorize extra funds for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (formerly known as welfare), would jeopardize some 240,000 jobs in 37 states. Despite the pleas of both Democratic and Republican governors, Congress already missed the Jul 1. deadline to provide $24 billion in aid to states via FMAP (Federal Medicaid Assistant Percentages). Conservative Democrats in the House demanded party leadership strip the FMAP money to reduce the deficit impact of a broader jobs bill. In the Senate Democrats failed to defeat a Republican filibuster. Click HERE to download a PDF of the report.

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Charles Gasparino: Lloyd Blankfein’s Days Are Numbered as Chairman of Goldman Sachs

July 16, 2010

It’s a testament to the odd world in which we live that when a Wall Street firm pays a $550 million fine by conceding negligence in how it dealt with clients, its stock surges, adding billions of dollars in market value for the firm’s shareholders. But that’s what’s happening to Goldman Sachs, as it reached its long awaited settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over how it sold a basket of mortgage related debt to investors in 2007. Back when the SEC brought the case, the conventional wisdom on Wall Street and the financial media was that Goldman didn’t have to settle — the case was weak and Goldman is, after all, Goldman. As I wrote on these page back then, Goldman would have to settle because: (a) the SEC dug up some real questionable activity; and (b) no Wall Street firm, not even one with the ties to government that Goldman possesses can go to war with its primary regulator. Now that Goldman has indeed settled, the news is being spun, again mostly by the financial media, that the deal with the SEC was a victory for Goldman’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who survived the investigation largely unscathed, paying a measly $550 million to the government (equivalent to a few days trading gains at Goldman) and without having to give up any power, such as relinquishing his role as chairman of the board, as senior executives both inside Goldman and at competing firms believed would be part of any settlement. Well, if history is any guide, Blankfein may not go tomorrow, or even next month, but sometime in 2011, Blankfein will at the very least no longer be chairman of Goldman, and may also be forced out of the firm altogether. If you don’t believe me ask former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill. Like Blankfein, Weill (at least on paper) was a good CEO from an operational standpoint. Following the creation of Citigroup in 1998, shares of the big bank soared. The bank was what’s known as a Wall Street darling for its strong earnings and a surging stock price, and Weill was regarded as the King of Wall Street, having engineered the largest financial deal ever when he merged his company, the Travelers Group brokerage, insurance and investment banking empire, with commercial banking powerhouse Citicorp. At the height of his power, Weill suddenly popped up on the radar screen of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Before Spitzer got involved with hookers and became a TV host, he was the sheriff of Wall Street, looking to right wrongs from the last great scandal, the internet bubble where firms sold worthless dotcom and tech stocks to unsuspecting investors. Emails he uncovered showed that Weill at least did something stupid, if not fraudulent: He pressured an analyst, Jack Grubman, to inflate his stock rating on telecom giant AT&T, which was an investment banking client (Weill also sat on AT&T’s board, while AT&T CEO Michael Armstrong sat on Citi’s board) Grubman wrote in an email that as a favor for upgrading the stock, Weill got his kids in an exclusive pre-school. The scandal, was described by the Wall Street Journal , as a “kid pro quo.” Weill continued to deny wrongdoing and was never charged. Citigroup, however, was charged with fraud and ended up paying a $400 fine to settle the matter, but Weill appeared to have retained his control of the bank. The initial reaction in the press and among his peers in the financial business was that Weill had won, by having the bank pay a relatively small fine, and his status as CEO and the King of Wall Street secure. Not quite. A few months later, Citigroup announced that Weill was stepping down as CEO, handing that job to Chuck Prince, who basically negotiated the settlement package. Citigroup maintained that the two moves were unrelated. But people in Spitzer’s office told me they really weren’t: While negotiating the settlement, Citigroup’s board made it clear to investigators that Weill’s days were numbered at the top of the firm that he founded. Spitzer was merely affording Weill a graceful exit in an effort to end the case. Full disclosure: I have no knowledge that Goldman’s board has tacitly agreed to pull a Weill on Blankfein and has plans for him to step aside, but the circumstances involving the two men are so remarkably similar. While Blankfein wasn’t directly involved in the questionable trade that landed Goldman in trouble, he is responsible for remaking Goldman into predatory trading culture that has caught the attention of regulators, Congressional committees (recall Sen. Carl Levin badgering Goldman traders for selling “shitty” investments to their clients) and hurt Goldman’s once stellar reputation, as Weill’s actions hurt Citigroup’s. Some would say that’s where the comparisons end; Citigroup deals with the general public that buys stocks through its brokerage unit (Smith Barney) and makes deposits in its branch banking offices. Goldman deals with large sophisticated investors who couldn’t care less how Darwinian the company behaves. That used to be true, but no more. Goldman’s image has been battered, not as bad as say a company like BP, but not far behind. And image does count these days given the scrutiny and oversight placed on Wall Street and the banks following the financial collapse-induced bailouts. Now that financial reform has been passed, Goldman will have to cut back on some of that aggressive trading that powered its earnings and was Blankfein’s forte. That means it will have to devote more and more resources to developing its client business and relationships, convincing blue chip companies that it is the right firm to handle delicate negotiations involving mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate financing assignments. More and more, these clients do care about image (ask yourself why has so many top companies embraced the useless but politically correct “green agenda”). In fact some have already jettisoned Goldman as scrutiny of the firm grew over the past year. Who is the right guy to change Goldman’s image to fit the new paradigm it faces? It’s not Lloyd Blankfein and that’s why he won’t survive.

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McLaren Says Supercar Demand Buoyed by Europe as Austerity Sentiment Fades

June 15, 2010

By Steven Rothwell June 15 (Bloomberg) — McLaren Group said Europe will provide at least half the buyers for its 200-mile-per-hour, Ferrari -rivaling MP4-12C supercar as demand for luxury autos rebounds from last year’s recession. The 12C, which will cost about 150,000 pounds ($227,000), starts a 50-venue global promotional tour in Germany on June 17. About 2,500 expressions of interest have been received for the 1,000 cars to be produced next year, McLaren Automotive Managing Director Antony Sheriff said yesterday in an interview at the company’s base in Woking, near London. “For many people it didn’t seem like the right time to be seen driving this type of a car, but from the interest that’s out there it appears that they’re growing a bit sick of self- imposed austerity,” Sheriff said. “The waiting list will be pushing on towards a year almost immediately.” Britain and Germany will lead European sales, while a further one-third of orders will come from the U.S. and the rest from Asia and the Middle East, the executive said. McLaren, best-known for the most successful Formula One racing team after Ferrari, has selected 35 global dealerships to open in 2011, increasing to at least 70 by 2015 as the model range expands. Sheriff predicts that luxury and sports-car sales will jump about 35 percent this year after slumping during the recession. Private Viewing The 12C will be shown in a private viewing to dealers and registered potential clients in Dusseldorf this week, Zurich and Brussels next week and U.K. buyers in Woking later this month. The car, a rival to Ferrari’s 458 and the Lamborghini Gallardo, will make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, held at a racing circuit in southern England in July. Jardine Motors Group will run McLaren’s London dealership, while Moll Sportwagen in Dusseldorf and Kamps Gruppe in Hamburg will sell the cars in Germany. Neubauer will act as distributer in Paris, Fassina Group in Milan, Schmohl AG in Zurich and Monaco Luxury Group in Monaco. “We feel we’re in a very comfortable position already, especially considering we haven’t started to market the car yet,” Sheriff said in the interview a day after McLaren F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button finished first and second in the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer , director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, said he wouldn’t have expected Europe to lead sales of the new McLaren. ‘Belt Tightening’ “I cannot quite conceive how Europe, at the moment, can add considerable momentum here,” he said. “The region seems captured by a pronounced sense of belt tightening. It’s more the rich Chinese, mad American business people or impetuous sheiks that would opt for this kind of car.” In the U.S., the biggest supercar market, sales of autos costing more than $100,000 may jump 42 percent after falling 30 percent in 2009, industry researcher IHS Global Insight says. McLaren will initially have nine U.S. dealers at locations including San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Miami, New York and Dallas, with one sales outlet in Toronto. While performance figures haven’t been released, the 12C is likely to have a faster top speed and swifter acceleration than the 458, Sheriff said from an office overlooking two Ferraris and a Porsche 911 used in comparison tests. The McLaren model takes its name from the MP4 designation given to all of the company’s race cars since 1981 — the latest being the MP4-25 driven by Hamilton and Button. The “C” indicates the road car’s carbon construction and the “12” is a reflection of “internal performance criteria” including weight, aerodynamics, power and down force, Sheriff said. Price Range The price of the successor to the McLaren F1, the world’s costliest car in the 1990s and the fastest at 240 mph (386 kilometers per hour), has yet to be finalized, but will be in the range of 125,000 pounds to 175,000 pounds, Sheriff said. McLaren intends to differentiate its dealerships from those of competitors by having all spare parts on site to ensure servicing can be carried out with the shortest possible delay. “The single thing that drives the satisfaction of the customer the most is the after-sales service,” Sheriff said. “We’ve worked with our dealers to create a system where just about every part of the car is in every dealership.” McLaren Automotive still plans to sell a stake to investors to raise funds, Sheriff said. Chairman Ron Dennis said in March he was looking for a buyer prepared to take a 48 percent holding and had hired Credit Suisse and HSBC Holdings in the Middle East. To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Rothwell in Woking, England, at srothwell@bloomberg.net

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Cameron Will Call Obama as Pressure Mounts to Defend BP’s Actions on Spill

June 11, 2010

By Thomas Penny and Jason Harris June 11 (Bloomberg) — U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron will talk to President Barack Obama about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow after pressure mounted on the British leader to defend BP Plc against criticism in the U.S. Cameron will call Obama tomorrow afternoon and the leak caused by the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, leased by London-based BP, will be among the issues discussed, his spokeswoman Vickie Sheriff told reporters today. The Daily Mail newspaper, which supports the prime minister’s Conservative Party, led today’s edition with a headline calling on Cameron to “Stand Up for Your Country.” BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg has been summoned to Washington for a June 16 meeting with Obama as U.S. lawmakers step up pressure on the company to settle damage claims and suspend its dividend. Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published today it may cut or defer its second-quarter dividend payment. “I don’t think we’re going to reach a solution to stopping the release of oil into the ocean any quicker by allowing this to spiral into a tit-for-tat political, diplomatic spat,” Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said at a conference during a visit to Madrid. The debate “clearly risks descending into megaphone diplomacy,” he said. Chancellor Involved Cameron asked Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to speak to Hayward yesterday. Before that he had left Charles Hendry , a junior energy minister, to deal with the company, which has the second-highest weighting in the benchmark FTSE 100 Index. Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has also now spoken to his U.S. counterpart about the spill, Sheriff told reporters. London Mayor Boris Johnson , a Conservative said yesterday that the “anti-British rhetoric” by the U.S. administration has become a matter of “national concern.” “Everybody is united on both sides of the Atlantic, in the Obama administration, and I’m sure in BP itself, to deal with this problem,” Clegg said. “I and the British government want only to play our role to find a solution to what is a huge environmental disaster.” To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net ; Jason Harris in Madrid at jharris76@bloomberg.net .

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Fishermen Join Fight to Prevent Oil Slick From Reaching Louisiana Marshes

May 2, 2010

By Aaron Kuriloff May 3 (Bloomberg) — Chris McShan headed for the marshes off Hopedale in southeastern Louisiana yesterday, hoping to save his communities from economic calamity by preventing oil from reaching the coast of St. Bernard Parish. McShan, a 31-year-old fishing guide, attended a training session then waited hours to help lay booms protecting waters east of New Orleans as 30-knot winds pushed oil from the damaged BP Plc well inshore. “This place is going to be a ghost town if that oil gets in here,” said McShan as he stood on the porch of Breton Sound Marina overlooking Bayou la Loutre. “I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. I just want to do something.” McShan was one of about 300 commercial and recreational fishermen trained at the parish civic center to help prevent oil from reaching Louisiana marshes. With fishing halted in state and federal waters affected by the spill, he said he had few other options. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration this weekend closed commercial and recreational fishing in federal waters from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Florida panhandle for a minimum of 10 days. The move came after Louisiana barred fishing and oyster harvesting in most waters east of the Mississippi River. The oil spill followed an April 20 explosion on a drilling rig leased by BP that killed 11 workers. The rig, owned by Transocean Ltd., sank two days later. Aid for Fishermen Governor Bobby Jindal said in a news release that he was still waiting to hear from the federal government about his request for financial help for commercial and recreational fishermen and a declaration of “commercial fisheries failure.” The governor said the state remains “concerned about BP’s ability to respond” and is preparing coastal parishes to act on their own. Jindal said in a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke that the commercial and recreational fishing businesses are crucial to Louisiana’s coastal towns and the nation’s food supply, providing almost one-third of the seafood in the lower 48 states, with values exceeding $2.85 billion a year. “I want to be very clear on this point — this is not just about our coast,” Jindal said. “It is fundamentally about our way of life in Louisiana.” Worse Than Katrina Glenn Sanchez, 55, who runs the Breton Sound Marina, said the spill was a greater threat to his livelihood than Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed almost all of St. Bernard’s 27,000 homes and displaced communities such as this one that lie outside the protection of the coastal levees. “I’m out of business,” he said. “This is a nightmare.” His son Jonathan Sanchez, a fishing guide who works with McShan, said oyster luggers were heading toward the spill loaded with booms. Each lugger was followed by three or four smaller boats, such as his own 24-footer, that would place the barriers. He estimated the oyster boats would take five hours to get into position and said he doubted the booms would hold against the high winds and rough seas. “It’s terrible,” Sanchez said. “I want to help so bad and what I’m heading out to do won’t help at all.” Frustrations have caused some friction between locals, worried about their jobs, and the outsiders arriving to fight the spill, said St. Bernard Sheriff Jack Stephens in an interview near the staging area. He expects about 6,000 new arrivals in coming weeks between St. Bernard and neighboring Plaquemines Parish. Angry Locals “We’ve already had some flare-ups, with locals angry about outsiders getting to work while the locals are shut down,” he said. Stephens said his office was preparing to deal with the influx, as well as the economic damage from the spill, both of which could have long-term consequences for the parish. “At the end of the day, we know a part of this resource is going to be affected for a long, long time,” he said. “There’s a real feeling of doom.” McShan said BP ’s contractors need local knowledge to know where to place booms and how to get there. The marshes are cut with innumerable channels and lakes, making navigation difficult for outsiders. “Local people know the area,” he said. “And everyone here is willing to go risk their lives to protect their livelihoods.” To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New Orleans at akuriloff@bloomberg.net .

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Richard Zombeck: Mr. Zombeck Goes to Washington and Needs Your Stories

April 23, 2010

Thanks to MASSPIRG and Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) , I’ll be going to Washington next week to meet with my Congressmen. I’m hoping to have thousands of stories on shamethebanks.org from people who have suffered at the hands of banks and financial instructions. The same banks and institutions who have been allowed to run amok on Wall Street and nearly took the rest of us down with them less than two years ago. When I get there I want to show Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown why this country needs financial reform and why we need their vote on the The Restoring American Financial Stability Act . Your letters and stories will serve as irrefutable evidence that Congress needs to reform the way Wall Street has been doing business. I, along with others representing several states from across the country are there to send a message that a vote for financial reform is a vote for Main Street and that we still count. If you’ve followed my posts here or on the shamethebanks.org website you know that my wife and I have been affected personally and financially by the lack of regulation and oversight of this country’s financial industry. While our homes, credit, and what little savings we’ve been able to hold on to is looted, we watch while companies like Goldman Sachs give out $5 billion in bonuses for three months of work in the wake of charges of fraud. Money they were able to make because people like us have been working all our lives to pay taxes. Millions of people in this country have felt the effects of the utter disregard, hubris, and arrogance that nearly crippled this country and wiped out the chance for most of us to scratch out a living and maintain our dignity and self-respect. In addition to my own story , radio interviews , and writing about it on Huffington Post and my own site, I’ve received and heard hundreds of stories from people whose lives have been impacted by this crisis. Through e-mails and conversations, I’ve heard numerous stories from people who have lost their job, seen their home lose 40-60 percent of its value over night, been scammed by loan mod companies, seen credit card interest rates shoot up to 29 percent and FICO scores plummet, watched their bank accounts be depleted, been insulted by ignorant anonymous commenters, told by government agency employees that this entire economic disaster was their fault. Been threatened with, in some cases, fraudulent foreclosure, had the Sheriff at their door, and been subjected to ridiculous requests for paperwork and documents only to find that at the end of it all they will inevitably be denied the proverbial carrot at the end of the stick after seemingly playing by the rules — Rules that change on a daily basis, on a whim, and without warning. I also understand the apathy, fear, and lack of time people have to invest in a cause. Even one as important as this. But I have to remind myself of what a friend (a consumer protection attorney for over 30 years) said to me not too long ago when I was considering throwing in the towel. “I have to believe that it takes a spark to start a prairie fire and that there’s a chance I could be that spark.” The people who wrote and service these sloppy, unconscionable, and poorly written loans are heard by Congress every day. As are the credit card companies and banks that charge 29 percent interest rates and $65 overdraft fees. When was the last time any of us were heard? Most members of Congress are oblivious to what goes on in their own state. Nor do they make an effort to understand or listen to real stories. In recent post, ” Why Homeowners aren’t Being Heard “, about Barney Frank’s office soliciting homeowner stories for a hearing, I wrote, “The request for stories, allegedly from Frank’s office, was made in much the same way a 5th grader might do a science project. The night before with practically no research. Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, together with an unfortunately short list of advocacy groups and elected officials is working hard to protect us and put an end to what can only be described as the pillaging of American working families. They are working to get Congress to pass the financial regulatory reform bill. This trip has been organized to send people from different parts of the country to Congress in an attempt to have our voices heard by the people we put in charge and who hold our fate in their vote. The bill, according to FRA and Warren, “would offer protections for regular people from things like credit card interest rates and fees that increase for no justifiable reason; incomprehensible, trick mortgages peddled to people who qualified for regular mortgages; and car dealers who get kickbacks for selling people high cost loans when they qualify for more affordable credit.” This bill addresses the precise key areas and would protect Main Street and American families from the irresponsible behavior that went unchecked and allowed the banks to wreak nearly unrecoverable havoc on American families. The residual damage has made it impossible for many of us to ever attain the now elusive American dream. True to his intellectually dishonest form, Republican leader and Kentucky Republican, Mitch McConnell has been tossing out the word “bailout” in the hopes of killing the bill by putting his own spin on its actually wording. McConnell’s claim that the financial reform bill “actually guarantees future bailouts of Wall Street banks” at the expense of taxpayers is false, according to Politifact . While the bill definitely has the support of key decision-makers like President Obama, Timothy Geithner, Chris Dodd, and John Kerry to name a few, other Senators ( all 41 of the GOP according to CBS News ) are planning to filibuster the bill and have voiced their opposition despite the overwhelming evidence showing a desperate need for reform. Scott Brown, from my own state, can’t even describe the bill , but is confident that he will oppose it. In an almost Palin-esque moment during a Boston Globe interview , when asked what areas he thought should be fixed, he replied: “Well, what areas do you think should be fixed? I mean, you know, tell me. And then I’ll get a team and go fix it.” Why do we need Scott Brown, or anyone, to assemble a team to tell your stories, your letters, and your outrage? You are the team. Some of you have already written your story in the form of hardship letters, forum posts, and letters to the media or to your elected officials. Go to shamethebanks.org , register on the site, and post your story. The years of lobbying to deregulate the financial industry is what caused the American dream to slip further away from us, our children, our family, and our friends in a short period of time. We must let Congress know that this bill is their chance to save that dream. The people in Congress and on Wall Street who are opposing this bill count on our apathy and laziness. They Bank on it. Let’s show them that they’re wrong. I’m encouraging you to share this post via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and any form of social media you know of. Post to forums and web sites if you’re so inclined. I’d be willing to bet that you or someone you know has a story they’d like to share on shamethebanks.org of how they were mistreated, duped, taken advantage of, or generally screwed financially because we’ve simply let these guys run the show and make up the rules as they go along. You can follow the trip to DC next week on twitter @shamethebanks , on Facebook , and on the site itself .

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McLaren Aims 200 MPH Supercar at Ferrari Owners Seeking Something Faster

March 18, 2010

By Steven Rothwell March 18 (Bloomberg) — McLaren Group said its 200-mile- per-hour MP4 supercar will be pitched to owners of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other luxury marques seeking to add an even faster model to their fleet. McLaren aims to capture about 4 percent of the luxury two- seater car market, equal to about 4,000 sales a year, with the 600 horsepower MP4-12C that begins production next year. “The typical customer will have a number of cars,” Antony Sheriff , managing director of the McLaren Automotive unit, said in an interview. “We expect they’ll have a Ferrari, a Bentley, a Porsche, an Aston Martin or a Lamborghini — even a Rolls Royce — and will say, ‘You know what, I’d really also like one of those in my garage.’” McLaren, owner of the most successful Formula One team after Ferrari, is returning to the luxury road-car market even as sales struggle after the global slump. The MP4 will sell for 150,000 pounds to 175,000 pounds ($230,000 to $267,000), McLaren said, less than the F1 model that was the world’s costliest car in the 1990s and remained the fastest until the Bugatti Veyron debuted in 2005. The MP4 will be in the same supercar segment as the Ferrari F430 and the Lamborghini Gallardo, McLaren said. The 240-mph (386-kilometer-per-hour) F1, which ceased production in 1998, sold for 540,000 pounds. “This is not a short-term venture where we decided a year ago ‘now is the right time, let’s rush it to market,’” Sheriff said at McLaren’s headquarters in Woking, southwest of London. “We fully expect to be selling this car over many peaks and through many recessions.” Exclusivity Potential customers will have to wait about a year to get their hands on the MP4, with production capped at 1,000 in the first 12 months to establish the model’s exclusivity, Sheriff said at a briefing attended by reigning Formula One World Champion Jenson Button and his predecessor, Lewis Hamilton . The new model should be profitable within four or five years, helping Chairman Ron Dennis ’s efforts to boost commercial revenue in order to ensure the survival of the racing team. McLaren also plans to sell a 48 percent stake in the automotive unit to raise funds and has hired Credit Suisse and HSBC Holdings in the Middle East to seek investors, Dennis said at the briefing. Daimler AG , whose Mercedes-Benz unit owns 40 percent of McLaren Group, won’t be purchasing stock and McLaren is gradually buying back the existing holding, the company said. To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Rothwell in Woking at srothwell@bloomberg.net

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Rep. Brad Ellsworth: Congress Must Get Tough on Tax Cheat Contractors

March 15, 2010

Before I came to Congress, I spent more than two decades in the local Sheriff’s office serving and protecting the people of Indiana. The most basic role of law enforcement is respecting our laws and bringing criminals who violate them to justice. In the Sheriff’s office, we would never dream of rewarding those who break the law. Yet, that’s just what Congress is doing: rewarding government contractors who are delinquent on their taxes with lucrative federal contracts. The problem is more widespread than you might think. Studies by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have repeatedly shown that thousands of federal contractors owe over $5 billion in unpaid taxes. Despite these disturbing numbers, federal agencies are not required to consider tax debts in making contracting decisions. In fact, current law actually prohibits agencies from accessing the tax data necessary to identify and stop these tax cheats from receiving taxpayer-funded contracts. Everyday Americans play by the rules and pay their taxes; I don’t think it’s too much to ask companies that receive millions, sometimes billions, in taxpayer dollars to do the same. Not only do these bad actors cheat our government of tax revenue, they also gain an unfair advantage over businesses that are doing the right thing. That’s why I teamed up with Senator Claire McCaskill to introduce the Contracting and Tax Accountability Act. The bill requires contract and grant applicants to give contracting officers permission to check their tax status, and it withholds large federal contracts from businesses and organizations that fail to file tax returns and are delinquent on their taxes. President Obama introduced similar legislation as a Senator, and he continues to be a strong advocate for these important reforms in the White House. In January, he signed a Presidential Directive ordering the Office of Management and Budget, Treasury Department, and other federal agencies to take steps to prevent contractors who are delinquent on their taxes from receiving new government contracts. While this was an important step forward, it’s time for Congress to get tough and hold these tax cheats accountable once and for all. Our bill is a practical and cost-effective way to ensure all companies compete on an equal playing field and that our tax dollars are being used wisely. By passing these simple reforms, we can begin to restore some needed accountability to the contracting process, as well as the public’s trust in Washington.

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Paul Helmke: Guns And Starbucks: Espresso Shots, Not Gunshots

February 8, 2010

What would your reaction be if you and your kids walked into the local Starbucks and, while contemplating the choice between a latte and a mocha cappuccino, you noticed several fellow customers had semi-automatic pistols and ammunition magazines hanging from their hips ? This scenario has become more than a flight of imagination. In several communities in California, and elsewhere, it has become reality. Welcome to the ” open carry ” movement, an effort by “gun rights” extremists to foist their interpretation of the Second Amendment on the rest of us by openly carrying handguns in public places. While virtually all states have at least some minimal restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons, few states do anything to regulate the “open carry” of firearms. Particularly in the Bay Area in Northern California, “open carry” adherents have been gathering in Starbucks and other coffee shops and restaurants — their semi-automatic pistols and revolvers in plain view — apparently to make an ideological statement. The sight of such gun-toters in Starbucks reminds us of the incidents last summer, when anti-Obama protestors appeared at political events and “town hall meetings” with handguns and assault rifles openly strapped to their bodies — including events attended by President Obama himself . The “open carry” folks view this as “normalizing” their self-defined “right” to carry guns with them at all times wherever they please, regardless of its impact on public safety. But what about the rights of everyone else who wishes to be free from lethal weapons in public places, except for trained law enforcement? Surveys show that the presence of more guns in a community does not make people safer, or feel safer; indeed, it has the opposite effect. Studies show that the more guns there are, the more gun violence there is in that location. In addition, 80 percent of those who don’t own guns say they would feel less safe if more people in their community acquired guns; only eight percent would feel safer. Even among gun owners, roughly equal proportions would feel less safe if more people had guns versus those who would feel more safe. Take the reaction of one coffee shop customer in San Ramon, California when faced with a group of pistol packers: “I’m scared. I’m getting out of here. They say they want to make a statement. What’s wrong with a T-shirt?” The “open carry” gatherings provoked an immediate reaction from Californians who were appalled that coffee shops and restaurants would allow guns on their premises. At least two national chains have responded responsibly. For example, Peet’s Tea & Coffee stated that its policy “is not to allow customers carrying firearms in our stores” unless they are uniformed law enforcement officers. It also indicated that it would post a notification of that policy in all its stores and would call the local police for assistance should a customer display a firearm in the future. After being alerted by local chapters of the Brady Campaign about a scheduled “open carry” meeting at one its Northern California stores, California Pizza Kitchen issued a statement that it “does not allow guests other than uniformed officers to display firearms in our restaurants” because of its concern “that the open display of firearms would be particularly disturbing to children and their parents.” But now we come to Starbucks. When asked about the company’s policy on the “open carry” of firearms in its stores, its Customer Relations Department responded to the Brady Campaign’s California chapters that “Starbucks does not have a corporate policy regarding customers and weapons; we defer to federal, state and local laws and regulations regarding this issue.” Here’s the problem with that answer: generally speaking – and certainly in California – businesses have the right to bar guns on their premises. It is their property and, just as they can prohibit entry by people with bare feet, they can do the same for people with guns. Despite its response, Starbucks clearly does have a policy and it is one that should be deeply disturbing to the vast majority of its customers. Starbucks has apparently chosen to allow civilians to carry semi-automatic pistols and possibly even assault weapons into its stores. Such a policy is disturbing to law enforcement officials as well as Starbucks patrons. As a San Mateo County Sheriff’s Lieutenant put it, “Open carry advocates create a potentially very dangerous situation,” because when police respond to a “man with a gun” call, they have no idea what the intentions of the gun carrier are and “the result could be deadly.” If a mistake in judgment or perception results in a shooting at a Starbucks, will the company still have no “corporate policy regarding customers and weapons”? This is no idle consideration. Just this past September, at a picnic hosted by “open carry” activists at a Michigan state park, a gun activist was charged with reckless use of a firearm after he unintentionally fired his semi-automatic handgun in a parking lot. Then there was the California “open carry” activist in December who was arrested for carrying his .357 magnum revolver near a school , complaining, “I just can’t see what I did wrong.” Even more disturbing was the man – ” of high interest to the FBI because of his alignment with violent demonstrators at abortion clinics ” – who was arrested for possession of a semi-automatic handgun which he was carrying openly outside a North Carolina abortion clinic last October. As these and other incidents show, the “open carry” movement clearly has implications beyond Starbucks. It is part of a broader campaign, led by the National Rifle Association, to force guns into every corner of American society by “normalizing” the carrying of guns in public places, openly and concealed. The gun pushers want an America where there is nowhere that you and your family can go to be free from guns. As just one example, the same lawyer who won the U.S. Supreme Court case two years ago which declared a Second Amendment right to have a gun in your home for self defense, has filed a new lawsuit seeking to force localities to allow civilians to carry guns on the streets. The “open” carrying of guns is just the visible tip of the “guns everywhere” iceberg. The gun lobby’s clout in state legislatures has forced consideration of dangerous proposals to allow people to legally carry concealed weapons into bars , churches , workplace parking lots , airports , parks , college campuses and elsewhere. While most states do not require any permit, license or training of any kind to carry a semi-automatic pistol openly, the NRA assures us that those who have permits to carry concealed weapons are all ” law-abiding citizens ” whose gun-toting behavior protects the rest of us. Since May, 2007, however, these “law-abiding citizens” have killed at least 117 people , including nine law enforcement officers. During that same period, they have committed eleven mass shootings. So, Starbucks, what will it be? Like Peets Tea & Coffee, will you do the socially responsible thing and stand up for the rights of families and children to be free from guns when they visit your coffee shops? Or will you take the chance that there will be more than just shots of espresso being served up in your stores? If you think Starbucks is wrong here, sign our petition today: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/starbucks_guns/?rc=brady Sign our petition to tell Starbucks to keep guns out of its stores: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/starbucks_guns/?rc=brady

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Sheriff sent to pick up condo investor

December 22, 2009

fees could face jail time for thumbing their noses at court-ordered blanket receiverships. In a new first for distressed condo associations, a Broward circuit court judge last week commanded the sheriff, via a writ of bodily attachment, to physically

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Publishers Clearing House Scam DETAILS

October 28, 2009

Reports are coming in of a Publishers Clearing House Scam in which victims receive phone calls claiming they’ve won the jackpot prize of $500,000 — and all they have to do to collect it is pay a processing fee of $1000 dollars. However, ABC News reported that “Publisher’s Clearing House doesn’t call winners and they are currently not offering a $500,000 prize.” The Herald Tribune describes a Sheriff’s investigation into the case: A Manatee Sheriff’s detective called a number provided to a local victim and, after several days, one of the scammers called back and said they were from the “Federal Gaming Commission in Washington D.C.” When confronted on the telephone by the detective, the scammer hung up. Publishers Clearing House does not call winners of its lottery — instead, they show up at your door — and officials said no one should give out their banking information over the telephone. Publishers Clearing House never requires a fee to claim a prize. The case is still under investigation.

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Steve Parker: Two new books document American racing

September 28, 2009

One of the great enjoyments for car nuts, at least this one, are new and exhaustively detailed books on our favorite topic … with plenty of photos. When those books are about people and topics we know personally, that makes the books that much more interesting and exciting … and they better be correct! Recently I interviewed two authors for my Sunday evening www.TalkRadioOne.com show, World Racing Roundup, and their books are first-rate. And they’re both about topics I happen to know pretty well. Yeah, I even read the books, too (no Larry King am I). You can download the interviews free from the TalkRadioOne.com site. “Mickey Thompson – The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend” by Erik Arneson, published by MBI and Motorbooks This was a book just begging to be written since that awful day in 1988 when Mickey and his wife Trudy were, as the Los Angeles County Sheriff put it, “assassinated” in their driveway by thugs hired by a former business partner. That “partner” is now serving two life sentences in a California state prison; the actual hired shooters were never found. Thompson defined and often dominated American motorsports from the ’50s through the ’80s; he operated the first professional ¼-mile drag strip in America, Lions Associated Drag Strip in Los Angeles’ harbor area, set more land speed records than anyone else at the Bonneville Salt Flats, was so innovative at developing cars for the Indy 500 that many oldtimers shunned his efforts and, finally, brought the excitement of Baja-style off-road racing to major stadiums across the country. My connection? I knew Thompson well and worked for him between 1978 and 1980, during the time he staged the first major off-road race in the middle of an American city: 1979′s Off-Road Championship Grand Prix in the Los Angeles Coliseum. I know the title well because I actually named the event in an office contest — and got a $1,000 bonus from Mickey (or MT, as we all called him) for coming up with it … big money for a 25-year old kid back then! His natural enthusiasm, non-stop energy, impressive promotional abilities and some outrageous personal habits (such as setting his plane on ‘autopilot’ so he could take a nap, or eating his steak with an ice cream desert on the same plate) are all well-documented. MT’s dad was a big, tough Irish cop in southern California, where MT was born and raised and lived his life, and the kids in that family learned that running home to avoid a fight was much, much worse than actually getting your ass kicked by some bully. But MT was also a warm and caring person … something folks who didn’t know him well would never guess. Under the obvious gruffness and the anger which would often result in a fistfight between Mick and his latest enemy-of-the-moment, Thompson was a loyal friend, loving husband, son, father and grandfather and would hire people for more money than they ever made after talking with them for five minutes. He was a good boss, too. Mickey and Trudy Thompson Arneson, a former USA TODAY writer and now VP of media relations for SPEED television, wrote a book which covers the major sections of MT’s life from teenage street racing to the professional drag strip, Bonneville, Indy and Baja and the stadium racing series; it has many pages of photos to document all those efforts. There’s a lot of space devoted to the murders and the subsequent court cases; while this might be a bit dull to readers who don’t remember or know the story, the entire affair was so complicated, taking some 20 years from the murders until a conviction, that the details are welcomed to fill-in the blanks. If the book were fiction, it would be unbelievable. That one man could so dominate so many different aspects of one of the roughest sports in the world and for so many years is one of those stories “you couldn’t make up.” But Arneson didn’t have to make up any of it; MT did it all, and then some. “We Were the Ramchargers – Inside Drag Racing’s Legendary Team” by Dr. Dave Rockwell; published by the Society of Automotive Engineers/SAE International The 1950s through the ’70s were the glory days of drag racing in America. Not only were the amateur sportsman racers still considered an integral part of the sport by the nascent National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), but there were big, well-funded teams representing the Detroit Three … sometimes officially, sometimes not so officially … Dave Rockwell’s book is about the Ramchargers, the team centered around a small group of engineers who were the basis for the Chrysler/Dodge factory effort in both NHRA drag racing as well as NASCAR and other “circle track” events. I wasn’t hanging around drag strips in those days, but a few years ago I ghostwrote a book with Pontiac’s lead man in drag racing then, Jim Wangers (“Glory Days – When Horsepower and Passion Ruled Detroit”) and feel that I understand what it must have felt like to go to the races in the last ’50s and early ’60s and who the players were. Incidentally, both Wangers and Mickey Thompson get several mentions in Rockwell’s book. The “engineering” angle is what was unique about the Ramchargers; other pro racing teams from Detroit sometimes came from the “boardroom down” with marketing, PR and other executives putting together the engineers necessary to be the center of a race team. The Ramchargers started, literally, from the bottom up. Engineers and other related speed freak-types in the Dodge factory spent their evenings developing high-performance engines and cars not officially sanctioned by the boardroom. Like similar unofficial teams from Chevrolet, Pontiac and Ford, the Ramchargers would compete in the infamous “Stop Light Grand Prixs” held nightly on Detroit’s Woodward Avenue … until the cops came. What began as a secret after-hours club of engineers working with what they considered the “neglected potential” of speed and power around them finally turned into a factory-supported effort which broke the most time barriers in drag racing history and won the most NHRA Super Stock titles during the sport’s golden era of factory-vs-factory competition. The Ramchargers also went a long way towards establishing Chrysler and Dodge in the public mind as young, fun, hip and powerful, things the company had never been associated with in the past. With the demographic studies those days showing a coming “bubble” of young drivers and buyers, Chrysler, like Ford, Pontiac and Chevy, used NHRA drag racing to create the image they wanted. Dick Landy’s Dodge was the team’s lead car on the west coast for the Ramchargers The Ramchargers arguably developed the first Funny Car and perhaps most enduringly the powerful and bulletproof 426 Hemi which Chrysler sells to this day and is used in race cars and trucks around the world. These were the days when highly-funded secret engine programs were being run out of the suburban basements of engineers and drivers, racing parts from the factory would be “unofficially” delivered to certain buyers packed in a cardboard box and hidden in the car’s trunk when delivered and “cooperative” dealers like Royal Pontiac in Royal Oak, MI, one of the closest dealers to a Pontiac factory, would sell factory-made racing parts out their back doors to “club members” to avoid government and public complaints about the car-makers encouraging speeding. This 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger was helped in its development and sales by the factory drag racing team Rockwell’s book has plenty of photos, including two full-page color folio sections, and the author dedicated the tome, “To those who drive American.” Like Arneson’s book on Mickey Thompson, We Were the Ramchargers is full of interviews with many of the participants, and a goodly amount of technical information so those under 50 can understand where today’s high-performance engines came from, and those over 50 may very well remember from their own drag racing experience.

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Firefighters Gain Ground in Battle Against L.A.’s Biggest Blaze in History

September 3, 2009

By Chris Dolmetsch and Ryan Flinn Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) — Firefighters north of Los Angeles gained ground in containing the county’s largest wildfire on record, as law enforcement officials said evidence showed someone had deliberately started the blaze. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department ruled the fire, which has burned about 147,000 acres (59,500 hectares) and killed two firefighters, was an act of arson, Fire Captain Sam Padilla said in a phone interview. A homicide probe is underway, he said. Diminished smoke from the fire allowed more air tankers and helicopters to drop water and retardant to douse the flames and help protect an observatory and antennae towers on Mount Wilson, where the “the situation has continued to improve,” the U.S. Forest Service said on its Web site . The blaze was 38 percent contained as of about 6:40 p.m. Los Angeles time, the County of Los Angeles Fire Department said on its Web site . New evacuation orders were issued this morning for homes in the Pacoima Canyon area . Most of the eastern side of the 650,000- acre Angeles National Forest is shut until the fire is contained, and Deukmejian Wilderness Park in Glendale is also closed. All residential evacuation orders had been lifted last night as crews shifted the blaze’s advance away from threatened areas by digging firebreaks and lighting backfires amid cooler temperatures and higher humidity. Mount Wilson Safe Mount Wilson, home of a century-old space observatory and dozens of mobile phone, radio and television transmission towers about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of downtown Los Angeles, was still being guarded by firefighters. California has already spent almost 60 percent of a $182 million fund set aside in the fiscal year that began July 1 to cover the cost of firefighting, according to H.D. Palmer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ’s budget spokesman. That fund is an average of what the state spent on firefighting during the last five years. The state can seek reimbursement for some of that money from the federal government. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay 75 percent of the firefighting costs, Representative Brad Sherman , a California Democrat, said at the press conference at the Hansen Dam Recreation Center. The Forest Service said it expects the fire to be under control by Sept. 15, a week later than estimated. A state of emergency has been declared in Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Placer and San Bernardino counties because of blazes. Two firefighters were killed Aug. 31 after their truck fell off a road. At least six people have been injured, including residents of Big Tujunga Canyon who were hospitalized for burns after they ignored evacuation orders. A memorial service will be held for Fire Captain Tedmund “Ted” Hall and Arnaldo “Arnie” Quinones Sept. 12 at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. To contact the reporters on this story: Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at rflinn@bloomberg.net ; Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net .

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California Fire Threatens 12,000 Homes North of Los Angeles, Set to Spread

September 1, 2009

By Chris Dolmetsch and Ryan Flinn Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) — A wildfire north of Los Angeles threatened more than 12,000 homes, as hot, dry weather aggravated flames that have already destroyed at least 53 structures. Temperatures will rise today, with downtown Los Angeles forecast to reach 96 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius), after rising to 92 degrees yesterday, said Andy Mussoline , a meteorologist with private forecaster AccuWeather.com . Humidity will remain about 20 percent or lower, he said. “It seems like conditions will be favorable for the fire to spread,” Mussoline said. The 105,000-acre (42,492 hectare) blaze, called the Station fire, has grown from about 20,000 acres Aug. 30 and caused at least $7.7 million in property damage, said Steve Zermeno , an inspector with the Los Angeles County Fire Department . The fire, the largest of eight burning in the state, threatened towns including Acton, about 47 miles (76 kilometers) north of downtown Los Angeles. Flames as long as 80 feet (24 meters) devoured dense, tinder-dry vegetation on steep hillsides as the blaze moved toward homes in suburban tracts, a historic observatory and television and radio transmission towers, the Los Angeles Times reported. Two firefighters were killed yesterday after their truck fell off a mountain road, and two residents were burned trying to ride out the flames in a hot tub. Five people who refused evacuation orders were trapped in a home in the Angeles National Forest, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said. “We can’t go in because it’s too dangerous,” Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said in a telephone interview. “As of right now, they have to ride this out.” Schwarzenegger Declares Emergency Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles, Monterey and Placer counties because of the blazes. The wildfire is approaching Mount Wilson , site of the Mount Wilson Observatory and dozens of mobile phone, radio and television transmission towers, the Forest Service said. The observatory’s staff has left, along with about 75 firefighters who were clearing brush and helping keep the flames at bay, Hal McAlister , the observatory’s director, said in a telephone interview from its business office in Atlanta. More than 6,700 firefighters, aided by helicopters and planes, are battling blazes throughout California, according to the Web site of the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. A total of 5,457 fires have burned more than 122,025 acres in California this year, compared with 4,231 blazes and 353,203 acres at this time last year, Schwarzenegger’s office said in a statement yesterday. The Station blaze, which started Aug. 26, was about 5 percent contained as of 8:10 p.m. local time yesterday and the Forest Service doesn’t expect it to be under control until Sept. 8. The cause is under investigation. Flames are burning in big- cone Douglas fir trees and other dry scrub that hasn’t seen significant fire activity in 40 years, the Forest Service said. Mandatory Evacuations Mandatory evacuations are in place for parts of Acton, a town of about 2,400 people, along with Altadena, La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge. Authorities have set up at least five evacuation centers, along with animal shelters. Sections of the 650,000-acre Angeles National Forest have been closed, including the Big Tujunga and Arroyo Seco canyons, until the fire is fully contained. The Shambala Preserve, a refuge for large felines founded by actress Tippi Hedren, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” is also threatened, the Los Angeles Times said. The shelter is home to more than 70 big cats, including lions, leopards and two tigers once owned by singer Michael Jackson, according to its Web site . To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net ; Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at rflinn@bloomberg.net

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