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Kit Menkin's Leasing News Www.leasingnews.org Tuesday, August 6, 2002 Accurate, fair and
unbiased news for the equipment Leasing Industry ( posted daily at www.leasingnews.org
and sent by e-mail by subscription with the Day
in American History signature .) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Headlines--- The Week Ahead---Economic Events Rates fall in Treasury
bill auction Two new members
sworn in as members of the Fed Reserve Board MSM Capital,
Irvine, California Files BK Frankel
pleads guilty to Tennessee charges As Roller Coaster Dips Again, They Want Another Ride eLNA Annual Networking
Conference-Attendee Waiting List Eastern Association
of Equipment Lessor Fall Conference Tuesday---Odds
and Ends Texan Learns
To Rue Remark ---Rifle
Mention At Airport To Cost Him Widespread drought leaves roving crop cutters with little
to harvest News Briefs---plus SF stadium naming
rights proposal defeated New England
Patriots' new field to be renamed Gillette Stadium %) ### Denotes Press Release ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Week Ahead---Economic Events August 6 Tuesday President Bush signs trade-promotion legislation in East
Room ceremony. Cisco Systems issues quarterly financial report. August 7 Wednesday Financial Accounting Standards Board meets to reconsider
whether companies should treat employee stock options as immediate
operating expenses. August 8 Thursday American Bar Association annual meeting, its 125th, convenes
at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. Qwest Communications issues previously delayed quarterly
financial report. Economic indicators: July producer price index August 9 Friday Berkshire Hathaway issues quarterly financial report. Economic indicators: Second-quarter productivity (oh,no, Mr. Bill!!
) _____________________________________________________________ Rates fall in Treasury bill auction ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON – Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities
fell in Monday's auction, with rates on six-month bills hitting their
lowest level on record. The Treasury Department sold $16 billion in three-month bills
at a discount rate of 1.600 percent, down from 1.680 percent last week.
An additional $16 billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 1.555
percent, down from 1.690 percent. The three-month rate was the lowest since Jan. 14 when the
bills sold for 1.530 percent. The six-month rate was the lowest since
the government began selling the bills in 1958. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors
– 1.627 percent for three-month bills, with a $10,000 bill selling for
$9,959.60, and 1.589 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,921.40.
In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said Monday that
the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills, the most
popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, dipped
to 1.82 percent last week from 1.88 percent the previous week. ( Tim Russert on Meet the Press grilled Treasury Secretary
O’Neill the prior week about recession and the economy, but O’Neill basically
replied, “What Me, Worry?” T-bill
slide and stock market slide are not good indicators. Many believe it is time not only for a new SEC Chairman,
but new US Secretary of the Treasury. editor ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two new members sworn in as members of the Federal Reserve
Board By Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) Former Princeton economist Ben Bernanke and
longtime central bank staff aide Donald Kohn were sworn in Monday as members
of the Federal Reserve Board. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan administered the
oath of office at the Fed's board room. The two newest members are expected to attend the Fed's Aug.
13 meeting to discuss interest-rate policy. Fed policy-makers have held
short-term interest rates at 40-year lows at each of its four meetings
this year. Amid economic uncertainties and the volatile stock market,
many economists expect Fed policy-makers will leave rates unchanged at
next week's meeting. With the addition of Bernanke and Kohn, President Bush has
now selected five of the seven Fed board members. During recent confirmation hearings in the Senate, both men
promised that they would work toward greater openness at the central bank.
The Senate confirmed the nominations on July 31. Until taking the Fed job, Bernanke was chairman of the economics
department at Princeton and has written extensively about monetary policy.
Kohn has spent his entire career at the Fed, serving as its top monetary
economist and a close adviser to Greenspan. ___________________________________________________________________ MSM Capital, Irvine, California Files BK MSM Capital has filed for bankruptcy with a hearing set for
a court hearing set for September 5th. The company officers Michael
Cingari and Rob Pardini were not available for a comment. Seven employees have judgments in excess of $192,000 for
back commission, as well as other employees have disputes over other benefits,
plus many equipment dealers have not been paid, many applicants have not received
their advance rentals back. For more information about this company, go to: http://www.leasingnews.org/Conscious-Top%20Stories/MSM_stories.htm Plus on May 23, 2002, MSM Capital made the Leasing News Alert
System on our Bulletin Board: http://www.leasingnews.org/bulletin_board.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frankel pleads guilty to Tennessee charges By Associated Press FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) Martin Frankel, the Greenwich, Conn.,
financier accused of swindling more than $200 million from insurance companies
while living in luxury, pleaded guilty Monday to 10 Tennessee counts of
felony theft. Frankel and associates were accused of stealing more than
$18 million from Franklin American Life Insurance Co. He will be sentenced later in Williamson County Circuit Court
just south of Nashville. In the '90s, Frankel stole hundreds of millions of dollars
from several Southern insurance companies, including Franklin American
Life. Frankel is accused of gaining control of small insurance
companies in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee and
stealing cash from the company reserves. The FBI said he put the money
in banks around the world. The case went public on May 5, 1999, when firefighters went
to Frankel's Greenwich estate and found a blazing file cabinet and two
fireplaces stuffed with burning documents. Among the papers, authorities said, was a to-do list with
''launder money'' listed at No. 1. Also discovered was an astrological
chart intended to answer the question, ''Will I go to prison?'' Four months later, after an international manhunt, Frankel
was captured at a hotel in Hamburg, Germany, with nine fake passports
and 547 diamonds. He was returned to the United States last year. Insurance regulators from several states are seeking more
than $600 million in damages from Frankel in civil cases, and have also
sued the Vatican, alleging the church was involved in Frankel's schemes.
The Vatican has denied that. Franklin American Life was placed in state receivership in
May 1999 when Frankel's scheme was exposed and he fled the country. A brokerage firm, Liberty National Securities, another Frankel-controlled
entity, invested the assets of the insurance companies and then took the
money. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Roller Coaster Dips Again, They Want Another Ride By William Booth and Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Staff Writers PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Silicon Valley is the textbook case
of boom and bust, the longest- running soap opera scrolling on CNBC, the
home of what is so five minutes from now. And as the world adjusts to
the new reality of accounting scandals, corporate bankruptcies, CEOs in
handcuffs and a stock market that appears to suffer from multiple personality
disorder, Silicon Valley is . . . optimistic. "From my perspective, it's the best time to invest,"
said Tim Draper, a founder and managing director of the powerhouse venture
capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. "When I make trips to East
Coast, boy, they are down in the dumps. Here, it's like 'I lost my job,
so it frees me up to do something entrepreneurial.' " Be assured that Draper and the humbler citizens of the Valley
have been smacked upside the head by the markets, just like everyone else.
Personal portfolios, for those who didn't cash out, are tanking. Investment
has dried up. Venture capital in the Valley, which reached a staggering
$21 billion in 2000, is likely this year to peak at about $3 billion. So, yes, here in the Valley, there is forced idleness. There
is remorse for vaporized stock options. There is regret for the hype that
pumped the place up so high before the bubble burst. But the Valley has
seen this before. This is the wildest ride in the national economy -- a fast-cycling,
hype-driven Wonkville of revolutionary innovation and dot-bomb calamity.
The Valley has survived the outrageous fortunes of the military industrial
complex (1970s), the silicon wafer business (1980s) and the personal computer
(1990s), all dead or gone overseas or now established and boring. So the day traders aren't sharing hot picks at the storefront
offices of Charles Schwab anymore. The Porsche Boxsters are rolling back
onto the lots, as drivers can't keep up with their leases. Sometimes,
it seems like the whole Valley has gone surfing in Bali. The place is recharging its batteries. "A lot of my friends seem to have taken an extraordinary
interest in their gardens," said Eric Lee, a software engineer enduring
"a mandatory sabbatical," as he put it, from the technology
sector, as he and a few friends enjoyed a discount sushi special here
on University Avenue. There's also the distinct whiff of guilt in the night air. After proclaiming the Internet "the largest legal creation
of wealth in the history of the planet," the grand old man of venture
capital, John Doerr, essentially was forced to apologize for hubris last
year. There's a communal sense that those feelings that startups selling
dog food over the Internet were going to revolutionize the world were,
well, somewhat overblown. But the prospect of riding the next big wave still shimmers
like a Pacific sunset, drawing the low and mighty alike. Out: quickie IPOs and every dumb idea for a new Web site.
In: pharmaceutical breakthroughs and nanotech, the science of the teeny-tiny,
or the ability to compress a computer into the size of a dust mote. Raj Jayadev, 27, is the editor of Silicon Valley De-Bug,
a Web site and 'zine dedicated to documenting the life and times of the
ubiquitous "temps," the low-wage phone clerks and box packers
of the region. "The folks who worked temp, they're just unemployed
right now," he said. "But these younger workers are looking
to be their own entrepreneurs. Not in the dot-com sense, but to do whatever
they do on their own, trying to make some money: artists putting designs
on shirts, selling them at flea markets, musicians and DJs putting on
shows, doing the hip-hop thing." Even Jayadev was looking for the silver lining. "Everybody
is hoping rents come down," he said. Indeed, the rents for commercial space are reentering the
zone of reality. The Bay Area's peninsula tops the nation in vacant office
space. So far, though, prices for single-family homes have remained
among the highest in the nation, with a two-bedroom, one-bath in the better
neighborhoods still selling for $500,000. "The housing market is still bizonkers," said Barry
Holroyd, a veteran engineer. "There's this feeling that the housing
market is artificially inflated, and there's a strong temptation to sell
out." But he is holding on. Holroyd has had three serious job interviews
in recent months. He thinks there will be a return to better times, but
probably not like the gold rush years of the late 1990s. "Now we're back into the new economy?" he wondered.
"Or is it the old economy? It's so dynamic. It's completely unpredictable." After a lost year, many entrepreneurs are regrouping. The
result is the reemergence of mom-and-pop Internet upstarts that existed
briefly in the 1990s before being bought out or pushed out by corporate
giants. These companies are small and practical, and they harbor
few ambitions of becoming publicly traded, much less the next Amazon or
eBay. Adrian Scott's Ryze.com is one such venture. When Scott, a mathematics PhD who lives in San Francisco,
first became involved in Internet startups a few years ago, he thought
big. Revolutionary technologies. World domination. Scott, 29, was one of the first investors in Napster, the
swapping service in which anyone in the world could download songs for
free. He was also one of the founders of FlyCode, a Napster of sorts for
movies. Well, the record companies ended up suing Napster and forcing
it essentially to unplug; Scott lost his $50,000. Then FlyCode ran out
of cash just as its site went live; $4 million of investors' money was
gone. Now, he's working on a Web site that helps people make new
business contacts based on common background and interests. The site is
as bare-bones as the company, with nary a graphic. Scott is the Web master,
the programmer, the CEO, customer support and publicity guy. "The key to building a business in this kind of downturn
market is to really focus on what's vital. . . . So the site is not the
prettiest site in the world. But it works," Scott said. The collapse of the stock market has actually meant more
opportunity for Kathleen Pacyna, a marketing consultant from Mountain
View. During the boom years, Pacyna remained a group manager in
customer relations for Sun Microsystems despite offers for higher-level
positions at dot-com upstarts. Big companies, she thought back then, were
naturally more stable. The thousands of stock options she got from Sun
were almost guaranteed to make her money. But as Sun's market worth began to fall, along with those
of other big companies, trading at under $10 a share versus more than
$100 a share in 1999, she decided it was time to pursue her dream of working
on her own. "There is no security anywhere. Big companies are not
any more secure than small ones," Pacyna said. Not so long ago, dot-com executives were the superstars of
the Valley. They were plastered on the cover of national magazines, drove
BMWs and had a paper worth in the millions. But as allegations of widespread
accounting fraud, stock market manipulation and insider trading continue
to surface, and as nearly 900 Internet upstarts have been driven out of
business, they are being looked at warily by neighbors and friends. Northern California psychologist Stephen Goldbart said that
just as hubris defined those who built companies during the boom years,
humility is what these entrepreneurs are feeling now. "Before, it was all about sudden wealth syndrome. Now
everyone's suffering from sudden loss of wealth syndrome," said Goldbart,
a co-founder of the Money, Meaning and Choices Institute, who counsels
many high-tech workers. He said the depression is not just about money, but also
about the loss of hope and dreams. It's like the way a child might feel
when he's told there is no Santa Claus -- or that Santa Claus just ripped
him off. It would be an exaggeration to say that practically every
dot-com that went public in the 1990s, from Amazon to VeriSign, has been
accused of some wrongdoing. But nearly 330 lawsuits alleging stock fraud
were filed last year, compared with 204 in 2000, according to a Stanford
University study. The Securities and Exchange Commission recently brought eight
indictments against area high-tech companies. In 1999, there were two;
in 2001, 15. "The ecosystem of Silicon Valley continues to function,"
said Dale Fuller, the CEO of Borland Software, which just posted another
quarter of modest profits. "We're very, very familiar with peaks
and valleys. We've reaped the rewards. And now we're on a growth path." Fuller and others say the weeds have been whacked, the dot-com
bubble burst, and that "this is still the place everyone in the world
wants to come to." Booth reported from Palo Alto; Cha from Washington. _______________________________________________________________________ eLNA Annual Networking Conference—Attendee Waiting List August 28-30 | Atlanta, GA The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead "From the beautiful Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead hotel in
Atlanta, eLNA has perfected the art of networking hospitality, refined
to embrace a standard that today's business executives find particularly
appealing. Attendee registration is purposely limited to enhance networking
benefits for an exclusive group of attendees and available on a first
come basis. "Attendance to this event is purposely limited and subject
to availability on a first come basis. NO ONSITE REGISTRATION! All Attendee Registrations are confirmed via email. If you are registered and have not received a confirmation
email, please contact eLNA immediately! "eLNA has established an attendee registration waiting
list for executives interested in attending this event. Remaining attendee
registration fee will be $950 payable by check only via overnight mail
within two (2) business days from the date you are notified." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eastern Association of Equipment Lessor Fall Conference The 19th Annual EAEL Expo will be held September 23, 2002
at the Sheraton Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ. In one day you have
the opportunity to meet with leasing's premiere funding sources and service
providers, as well as attend exceptional workshops. The day begins with Chip Leas leading a General Session "Where are We Now?" with Bob Fine,
Debbie Monosson, Brian Bjella, Jim Jenco and
the audience participating in a lively discussion. Additional workshops include presentations from Linda Kester
on "New Voice Mail Techniques"; a panel on Business Ethics ; "Technology",
"How Leases are Getting Funded in Today's Economy", "Marketing
To Vendors in Today's Environment" with Bob Baker; "An SEC--Update Review"
with Shawn Halladay; "How to Lead Sales Professionals and Win More Business"
with Jeffrey Taylor; and a Family Feud with EAEL attorneys and collection companies
competing for honor. And, most importantly--networking galore! For additional information, please contact the EAEL office
at 914 381 5830. Or e-mail Allison Pryor: Amfnyc@aol.com _________________________________________________________________ Tuesday---Odds and Ends Compaq Leasing HP Financial Services is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard
Company. The focus of our small ticket group (Transactions less $150k)
is to work with HP and Compaq Legacy authorized resellers. We also currently do business with a handful of pre-qualified third party lease brokers. We finance information technology equipment and related peripherals only. HPFS utilizes the internet to provide our partners with "Paperless
Leasing" technology that allows them to score their own credits and provides
them with the ability to generate lease documents for customers. HPFS currently is not adding
any additional broker relationships. However, HP Authorized Resellers can call HPFS TOLL-FREE
at: 1-888-277-5940 to learn more about
providing technology financing solutions for their customers. Thanks. -Tom HP Financial Services Tom Whalen Inside Sales Manager Reseller Partner Sales *1-888-277-5942 x4359 *1-888-277-5940 (fax) Web Financing: http://paperless.compaq.com (They are very hungry for business. It appears they are more interested not in
personal guarantees or other scores, but are influenced by the credit
history of the applicants making payments to other leasing companies on
time, one insider notes. The company is not taking any new brokers. If you are not set up today, you will then
need to go through a super broker, such as BSB Leasing (Bruce Zwillinger
bzwillinger@bsbleasing.com), who
is not the insider who gave us that tip . Editor). ---- NAELB President Gerry Egan Sales Training at Pawnee Website Friday’s Leasing News was
the largest newsletter we have ever sent out. Over 170mb. http://www.leasingnews.org/archives/August2002/8-2-2002.htm The NAELB board of
directors individually wanted me to print all their letters, every word, and to co-operate, I did, resulting in the longest
newsletter in our history. Four people asked to be removed due to the
long length of the newsletter, plus they thought the responses were a
waste of time to read. These readers also weren’t very happy. Here are two responses:
Who gives a big poop what Gerry or Jerry (if your going to
gripe, spell his name right at least) Egan or Pawnee is doing, we can
all do what we want and charge what we want.
None of us "has" to subscribe. So let's stuff it in their lockers at recess, un-twist our
panties and do some business anyway.
Also... Happy Birthday Pappa Garcia, wish you were here.. and let's
hear it for your "first time in Potowatamie Park, WI (known to the
locals as Pot Park) and Go PACK! Thank
God for Football! Lori Marcum lmarcum@netptc.net What ARE all you people ranting about...why doesn't everyone
who reads this do something positive and stop quarrelling about using sites
and credentials... if each of you contributed $100...or any amount...to
the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation you would be doing
the whole industry and the public a huge service. You might even feel
good about yourself and stop focusing on one person trying to make a
living. Please email me with your donation amounts...I will keep a list
and send it to Kit for publishing. Still waiting for a check from one or two
of you...you know who you are... Sincerely, Deborah J. Monosson President BOSTON FINANCIAL & EQUITY CORPORATION 20 Overland Street Boston MA 02215 617-267-2900 Tel debbie@bfec.com (Did not receive any other response to the story at Leasing
News, except those who wanted to be removed as it was too long and they
were not interested in this type of “news.” editor ) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A.J. Batt Formerly the richest leasing individual, Leasing News reported
that he sold his company and retired. (http://www.leasingnews.org/archives/April01/4-27-01.htm _ Now operating Ramel Enterprises ( named after his two daughters,
Rochelle and Melody---Rochelle handles the real estate management end,
Melody is the website designer ), he is going to start marketing his cyberlease
software to lessors, aiming specifically at the captive lessor market. He did not sell his rights to Cyberlease. At ATEL in four years they looked at 500 million dollars
in applications, writing 50 million for the portfolio. The software was written with
an Oracle database and runs on a Sun system computer. Now the product will be made available for others to use. A
future story in Leasing News will give you more details. ------------------------ From the auto responder response to Monday’s Leasing News,
it appears there are many now on vacation.
Not just a few days, or a week, but many the first half of the month.
The July 4th week response was high, but this one was higher. Looks like over 300 readers on our list will
be away. Perhaps not an accurate indicator, but an interesting observation. ------------- Instant Messengers As always Kit, I enjoy your newsletter and wish to say thanks.
But I must speak up on the rare occasion that you publish something
which is incorrect. In your "Computer Tips" section, you stated that
Instant Messaging programs eat up broadband width, although I assume you meant bandwidth.
"They constantly check for messages." Both of these statements are incorrect. Instant messaging programs use almost no bandwidth. In fact, the bandwidth usage is so nominal that a tiny dial-up Internet connection
could easily support several HUNDRED people having active I/M conversations.
Also, Instant Messaging programs do not check for messages, as
there is no central server storing them. For
a fairly good explanation of how Instant Messaging works, go here: http://www.howstuffworks.com/instant-messaging2.htm. Peer-to-peer file swapping utilities like Audiogalaxy, Kazaa,
Toadnode, and other "Gnutella" based file swapping programs are
the real bandwidth hogs. Those programs should be avoided in a business environment
where there are bandwidth concerns. You are right when you say instant messengers are indeed
a huge social distraction and cut deeply into work performance, but that
doesn't make it a bandwidth hog. Real
Audio does chew up bandwidth when in use to listen to or view streaming
media. Thanks. David Leidy ( have trouble with our mail server, especially when I send
out leasing news during the day. It
delays and interferes quit a bit with instant messengers as it also goes through two firewalls, two anti-virus programs,
and while you might say it is not taking up much bandwidth, it definitely
interferes with the internet operation. (Perhaps I should not have used the word "bandwidth,"
but "network operation." {If you have 20 users, they sure do interfere with the system,
and they do eat up bandwidth. A home owner, a one user, not much. For a home user or single workstation, I will agree with
Leidy, but for a network operation---no. Perhaps the bandwidth usage is insignificant, but the interference is not. This is not from a book or a
magazine, this is from personal observation. We both agree instant message system interfere with work
with employees chatting back and forth with all their friends. It is definitely a business disruption, we
we both agree. editor ) --- Could They Vote? I do enjoy your "on this date section", particularly
the census information. It's fascinating to see the comparisons from one
census to another. One question did come up in conversation about the information
regarding the 1810 census in which you detailed the "free black vs.
slave" arguments of the day. Could free blacks vote? Did they have
all the rights associated with normal (white) citizenship and particularly
vexing, is there any record of free blacks owning slaves? This is probably beyond the scope of your expertise but since
your newsletter was the inspiration for these questions I thought I'd
start with you in case you had some answers close at hand. Jake Kemps jkemps@valleyapp.com (The answer is simple: No, they could not vote. Women also could not vote. Generaly, the
people who could vote in most states were property owners. In 1790,
only 76% court read, let alone write. This did not include “slaves”, which at the time were more than 20% of the population.
It was not uncommon in certain states for these slaves to wear a metal
tag, especially when they went to town.
In addition, there were many “indentured servants,” meaning “ I will pay for your trip to the new world but you
have to work free for me for eight or ten years or longer.” There were less than a handful of public schools, not many
private schools, and most newspapers were read out loud at taverns, where white men
gathered solely. Bible study was popular, and it was also teaching men and women how to
read. The District of Columbia was the first to allow blacks to
vote in 1867. In 1878 they were denied the right to vote as “reform” was
over. Other states outright passed laws restricting blacks from voting,
such as Mississippi in 1890, and others had poll taxes, written tests,
literacy tests, and they were
not abolished until 1965 ( See today This Day in History ). It was not until February 27, 1922 that the
Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution providing for women’s suffrage
was declared constitutional by a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court.
http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/index.html In 1810, most states did not allow blacks to own property,
let alone a slave. (yes, there were certain “free slaves” who owned property,
including “black slaves.) This was not just in the North, but the South
as well. There were many white slaves, by the way, but I doubt due to the culture, “free blacks” could own a white slave
( that would be interesting to research ). What was happening around this time, is what happened in other parts of history...when
a large minority exists, particularly slaves, they take all the jobs.
Meaning a person who wants a job can't compete with slave labor,
so they have great animosity toward them. As waves of immigrants
came over, they would work for very low wages, such as the Irish, the German, the Chinese---and in the early 1880’s, Black made
up almost 20% of the population. People
here looking for work resenting those who would work for less or “for free.” Small groups of blacks were also rebelling,
and this feared their owners, so they clamped down harder as they did
not want to lose their "property." The blacks also were learning
to read and write, and religious orders had Sunday schools, bible study, and sharing of education.
The blacks getting educated, even caused more racial hatred, as many
whites were not. We were worse to
the Indians. Our diseases not only killed them, but when they sided with the British ( or French at one time ), they also became
our enemy. We literally stole
their land and wiped them out of New England and most of the East Coast. They were "Indians." Remember in the West, the signs read "
No Indians or Blacks Allowed" and that meant in town, not just not
restrooms. America was wide open for immigrants, and they came in waves
looking for work. (See 1815---in Today’s Date in American History).
It was not until May 19, 1921, when President Harding signed the first
generally restrictive immigration act which initiated a quota system that
restricted immigration in any given year to 3% of the number of each nationality reported in the Census of 1910. The total
number of immigrants allowed to enter in any given year was set at 357,000.
( Please also remember, except for the American Indian, we are all “immigrants.”
We are Americans---unlike any other country in the world. The great
majority were “immigrants” at one time.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Day in American History is only available in the e-mail
edition. To subscribe or unsubscribe, use our contact form or contact
directly kitmenkin@leasingnews.
org. _________________________________________________ Texan Learns To Rue Remark `Rifle' Mention At
Airport To Cost Him By PAUL MARKS, Courant Staff Writer Eighty-year-old Fred Hubbell, tired and cranky after facing
a gantlet of searches at Bradley International Airport, made a sarcastic
remark about a rifle that he quickly came to regret. Suddenly he found himself in handcuffs - with a firsthand
sense of what the Transportation Security Administration means by "zero
tolerance." It was a new experience for the retired engineer and World
War II veteran. He got to stroll through the crowded concourse Thursday
escorted by a state trooper while onlookers wondered if he was some kind
of terrorist. He had a mug shot taken. He was fingerprinted. He spent about
20 minutes in a locked holding cell, as his worried wife waited outside.
He was read his Miranda rights and offered the chance to phone a lawyer,
which he declined. What Hubbell said, by his recollection, was innocent enough. Near the end of the second full-scale pat-down he and his
wife, Grayce, had undergone by Transportation Security Administration
guards, just steps from boarding a 7:30 a.m. flight they had almost missed,
he saw the screener poking into his wallet. Having been a first lieutenant in the Army and owner of his
own metal-plating business for 25 years, Hubbell said he is used to speaking
his mind. Sometimes, he admitted, it has got him in hot water. "I said, `What do you expect to find in there, a rifle?'"
he said. When the trooper asked me, `Do you think that was an appropriate
remark?' I said, `I do.'" That's when Hubbell was taken into custody
by Trooper Wayne Foster. Dana Cosgrove, head of the federal security force that moved
into Bradley last week, sees it differently. "What he said [regarding the wallet] was, `You better
look at it real good; there may be a rifle in there.' And all that the
people around him in the waiting room heard was the word `rifle.'" Anxiety levels after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are high
enough at airports, Cosgrove said, which is why cracks about guns, bombs
or terrorism are cause for arrest. The airport's public address system
issues regular reminders in both English and Spanish. "I want to be sure that when people step on that plane
they're 100 percent comfortable," Cosgrove said. The exact words Hubbell said and how he said them are immaterial
now. A Stratford native now living in Texas, he was on his way home after
visiting a boyhood friend in Madison. The last thing he wants, he said,
is a trip back to Connecticut to contest the charge. Issued a citation for "creating a public disturbance,"
Hubbell said he will settle the matter by mailing a check to state Superior
Court to cover the $78 fine plus court costs. "I was a bad boy, and I know that," he said during
a telephone interview Friday, "and I shouldn't have said what I said,
especially under the circumstances that we're living under today." But his misstep - which, of course, caused him and his wife
to miss their Dallas-bound plane and got them home several hours later
than expected - is an object lesson on what the Transportation Security
Administration means by "zero tolerance." Hubbell actually got
off easy: Most such arrests result in misdemeanor "breach of peace"
charges, which require a court appearance. State police Sgt. Paul Vance said the lesser charge was used
for Hubbell because no threat was made, and "it wasn't a situation
where a person became obnoxious or irate." Hubbell had a similar impression of the way he was treated
by the state police. Foster was firm but not accusatory, he said, and
the two spent considerable time discussing the incident. "It was
really quite a friendly affair," Hubbell said, "except for the
fact that I have to pay 78 bucks." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Widespread drought leaves roving crop cutters with little
to harvest By Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press WELLINGTON, Kan. (AP) Any other year would find Dave Hermesch
a busy man, joining hundreds of other agricultural nomads in their combines
to follow ripening crops of wheat across the Plains. But the work normally awaiting the Oklahoma man and his 12-member
crew is literally drying up, another blow dealt by the wilting drought
that has devastated the harvest. ''Usually if the drought or hail isn't too widespread, we
can load our combines and go somewhere else to replace lost acres,'' said
Hermesch, who is also board president of the Hutchinson-based trade group
U.S. Custom Harvesters. ''But not when it is as big and as widespread
as this is now.'' Around the country, about 500 custom harvesters make their
living cutting wheat for farmers reluctant to spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars on machinery they would use only a week or two each season.
These hardy crews have survived or even flourished as the
business passed from generation to generation without crop insurance or
a farm bill, though they face many of the same problems that plague the
farm economy, including fickle weather and competition from abroad. In the past, creativity often kept them afloat. When it became difficult to find domestic laborers willing
to work long hours on the move, for example, custom cutters recruited
mostly grown farm kids from Australia and South Africa who wanted to see
the world. But so devastating is this drought, cutters say, that for
some this harvest may be the last. Hermesch's run normally begins in May with the winter wheat
harvest in Texas and runs through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota
and South Dakota before ending with the last of the fall crops in December.
By season's end, he and his crew normally would have cut
nearly 35,000 acres. This year, he has already lost at least 6,000 acres
and he says there is nowhere to go to make up the losses. Some cutters have lost as many as four stops in their winter
wheat run, and the harvest is often slim where they do cut. Because cutters
are paid based on how many bushels are cut and hauled, low crop yields
mean low bottom lines. U.S. Custom Harvesters is surveying its members to gather
loss estimates, with hopes of getting cutters included in government drought
aid. ''If we don't get some assistance for custom harvesters,
we are going to lose 50 percent of the custom harvesters out there who
are going to go broke and quit,'' said Hermesch, of Coweta, Okla. The government recently toughened the qualifications for
disaster loans, including a requirement that harvesters live in the area
where a disaster is proclaimed. As he finished his last cutting job in the northwestern Kansas
town of Colby, Hermesch pointed his crew to drought-plagued Colorado with
his own future in doubt. ''We borrowed all we can against our equipment,'' he said.
''We need money to make payments.'' |