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Also, it could be a turtle. [AP via Yahoo]
Read more posts by Dan Amira
Filed Under: get excited, amelia earhart
What you're looking at is a photo of a crawl space in Rahm Emanuel's Chicago home, the one he rented out when he became President Obama's chief of staff and moved to Washington. Emanuel's lawyer took photos of the crawl space, full of Emanuel family property, to prove that Emanuel never really "moved" out of his house, and has actually been a Chicago "resident" all this time. One interesting find in the photos: Remember the day after Obama was inaugurated, when everyone wanted to get a copy of the Times? Emanuel got one and he somehow managed to take the entire Times vending machine it was in, too.
Rahm's favorite paper [Ben Smith/Politico]
Read more posts by Dan Amira
Filed Under: rahmbo, crawl spaces, new york times, rahm emanuel
When Conair and Cuisinart owner Leandro Rizzuto bought this beachside mansion for $2 million in Greenwich in 1986, "money was no object," he tells the Journal. He kitted out the foyer with a marble "waterfall" wall, installed mirrored ceilings in the gym, and designed a media room with fake-book paneling on the walls (like in Clue!) and a viewing screen that descends from the ceiling in a manner that could only be described as "state of the art." But although it looks like he hasn't changed a thing since then, Rizzuto has now listed the property for $19 million.
Here's a shot of the hallway as it is currently:
Maybe the markup is because the waterfall takes you back to the eighties? I mean, literally?
Greenwich Deep-Water Estate Sotheby's via WSJ]
Read more posts by Jessica Pressler
Filed Under: it came from the eighties, greenwich, hot tub time machine, leandro rizzuto, real estate, real estate porn, waterfall time machine
"There are whispers amongst the conservative movement that if Ron Reagan and Sarah Palin and the likes can ascend to such political positions, then there's hope for a kooky kid like Stevie B," Stephen Baldwin told us on Thursday at a Cinema Society screening of Casino Jack. However, Alec's religious conservative brother has no plans to run for political office; he has higher goals. "I'm 44 years old, my plan is to be a billionaire by 50, which these days, that's very doable," he said. "And once I achieve that goal, my plan would be to be the George Soros for Jesus."
Baldwin's "doable" route to becoming a billionaire leads through new business ideas and partnerships with existing companies. For example, he is spokesperson for and has an ownership stake in Opflex, an oil-cleanup company working in the Gulf of Mexico, and he's also working on an "energy technology involving the ability to control the electrical currents within any type of apparatus that has a motor."
While he's a fan of Sarah Palin's Alaska — "You know, Sarah called me her favorite Baldwin brother on SNL" — he does have a bone to pick with her. "I must say, I've got to get on the phone with Sarah Palin as soon as possible. From about 50 or 60 yards, she had a clear shot at a moose there, and she missed the first three times! Come on, Sarah. Dial in that scope and let's take care of business."
He's not sure whether Palin will enter the 2012 presidential race, but he thinks Mike Huckabee would be a fantastic Republican candidate. "And I think you're going to be seeing the tea party coming on in a much more aggressive and powerful way leading up to the next presidential election," Baldwin said. The former drug addict intends to participate in tea party events — to a certain extent. "I think I'm more of a partier than tea partier, you know, if my reputation is at all true."
Read more posts by Chris Rovzar
Filed Under: party chat, celebrities, george soros, stephen baldwin, the gods must be crazy
Uma Thurman's stalker Jack Jordan, who was convicted of harassment back in 2008, was brought back to New York this week after violating an order of protection issued by a judge to protect the actress. In October, Jordan began making menacing phone calls, first to her office, then to her assistant, and then finally to Uma's personal cell phone. He told her assistant that her Swiss financier boyfriend, Arki Busson, was "not good enough" and "she should marry me." He'll likely go to jail for breaking the order of protection — remember, this is no ordinary obsessed fan, this is a scary guy who busted into her trailer once while she was filming in Soho and threatened to kill himself if she didn't agree to see him. Back in 2008, Uma testified on how terrified he made her. He reportedly even "went berserk" when he was apprehended for this latest crime by cops in Maryland. He's a scary dude, whether he's right about Arki or not.
Uma Thurman's stalker extradited to NY and charged with criminal contempt [NYP]
Related: Artifact: Letters from Uma's Stalker
Read more posts by Chris Rovzar
Filed Under: stalkers, arki busson, arpad busson, celebrities, jack jordan, the most important people in the world, uma thurman
An Amtrak ride from Washington to Philadelphia gone horribly awry last night was live-tweeted by at least one cold, terrified, somewhat hysteric passenger, ABC-7 Washington reporter Stephen Tschida. At some point in the night, a wire fell across the track, stranding the train for six and a half hours. It finally reached Philadelphia at 4:40 a.m., ten hours after it was supposed to arrive, and not before Tschida relayed to the world news of a passenger mutiny, the sad-eyed Spanish lady, his fear of impending doom, and his desire to break down and cry. Here's his Twitter stream in reverse chronological order.
Read more posts by Dan Amira
Filed Under: the horror, amtrak, stephen tschida, twitter
When Madoff associate Jeffrey Picower drowned in the pool of his Palm Beach mansion last year, questions were swirling about whether the seasoned investor, who had withdrawn $7 billion from his Madoff account, knew his pal was running a Ponzi scheme. That's all water under the bridge now that his widow, Barbara, has given up every cent to the Madoff Customer Fund, Madoff trustee Irving Picard said in a statement today. “When we filed suit against Mr. Picower and others in the spring of 2009, the records available led us to allege that Mr. Picower might have or should have known of Mr. Madoff’s fraud," he said. "With the benefit of additional records, I have determined that there is no basis to pursue the complaint against Mr. Picower, and we have arrived at a business solution instead."
$7.2 BILLION RECOVERY AGREEMENT WITH ESTATE OF JEFFRY PICOWER AND PICOWER-RELATED INVESTOR [Madoff Trustee Website]
Read more posts by Jessica Pressler
Filed Under: made-off, bernie madoff, business solutions, jeffrey picower, madoff
According to Sarah Palin on Good Morning America this morning yes, realizing that she doesn't have the best reputation, she's slowly opening up to media outlets other than Fox News and conservative radio President Obama "flip-flopped" on the Bush tax cuts, because "he was so adamant about not allowing the tax-cut extensions to take place" for people earning over $200,000 or families earning over $250,000 a year, "and then all of a sudden one day he was fine with it."
Obama's position on the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans hasn't actually changed, though. He still opposes them. But he decided that stopping them wasn't worth denying 98 percent of America their tax cuts, or millions of out-of-work people thirteen months of unemployment benefits, which would have happened in a stalemate with Republicans. So he signed a bill that included some proposals from the other side that he didn't agree with. If that's "flip-flopping," would President Sarah Palin ever compromise?
Read more posts by Dan Amira
Filed Under: america's sweetheart, barack obama, bush tax cuts, good morning america, sarah palin, video
"We heard a scream, then the model ran upstairs with smoke coming from her head, and Diddy running after her. They gave her some clothes to wear. I told her, 'At least everybody is going to know who you are now.'" —Miss USA, Rima Fakih, to the naked model whose hair caught on fire at Diddy's party this week, who for now is still known only as the Naked Model Whose Hair Caught on Fire at Diddy's Party. [NYP]
Read more posts by Jessica Pressler
Filed Under: you're on fire, flames, girl, naked models, p-diddy, people who are on fire
Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit was talking up the embattled superbank's recovery on CNBC yesterday. "I feel very good about how we're positioned," he said. "2012 is the year to look forward to." Of course, this could just be executive bluffing. To really know how Citi is doing, you have to look closely at the details. By which we mean, the snacks on offer at their events. Let's take a look back.
2009: At the annual shareholder meeting, the bank "skipped the coffee and doughnuts to save cash after three bailouts," chairman Richard Parsons indicated to the Times.
April 2010: At the following year's meeting, "the coffee was back. But what about the doughnuts? “This is called incremental progress,” Mr. Parsons said.
Thursday: At the launch celebrating their fancy new bank branches in Union Square yesterday, "the bank did not hold back on the glamour," according to the Times. "It laid out a red carpet entrance at the entrance, built a coat check by the teller windows and hired a waiter to walk around with a platter of bite-size donuts and a sugary dipping sauce."
Citigroup Opens Bank of the Future, Flat Screens and All [DealBook/NYT]
Read more posts by Jessica Pressler
Filed Under: economic indicators, business, citigroup, doughnuts, now what are you going to do about my interest rate
Unlike Goldman Sachs, which this year reinstated its Caligulan bonus rituals, Morgan Stanley is expected to cut bonuses by as much as 30 percent this year, because, according to the Post, while CEO James Gorman "wants to retain top talent at the firm, he also has a responsibility to shareholders of the investment bank that celebrated its 75th anniversary back in September after hanging on life support two years ago during the heart of the financial crisis." Bad news for executives, but not terrible press. And CEO James Gorman is apparently so eager to let news of his respectable decision get out there, he made employees the following offer at a meeting this week:
Gorman raised some eyebrows during a routine conference this week when he threatened to "personally escort" [out] anyone found leaking any details of the firm's compensation levels to the media.
Ooh, fun! Where do you think he'll take them? The guy who leaked this item to the Post is hoping Per Se.
Morgan Stanley CEO: I will escort out any bonu$ leakers [NYP]
Read more posts by Jessica Pressler
Filed Under: bonus season, business, goldman sachs, wall street
Remember when Karla Giraldo, the girlfriend of disgraced former state senator Hiram Monserrate, took to the stand during trial and claimed that he had only slashed her in the face by accident? Even after he was convicted of recklessly harming her, the two continued to date, although they had to wait for a judge's order of protection to expire before they could start doing the deed again. But that wasn't the ballsiest move by the couple: After Monserrate was kicked out of office by his Senate colleagues, he up and ran for the seat again. When that bid failed by a large margin, he ran for State Assembly and started showing up at political events uninvited. He lost that bid, but he and Giraldo aren't giving up the fight for redemption.
In a final bid to clear his name, Giraldo has sued the city, claiming that police and hospital workers forced her to claim that Monserrate had aggressively assaulted her with a broken water glass, causing her facial wounds that required dozens of stitches. "All of the defendants conspired among each other and with each other to unlawfully detain and prevent plaintiff from leaving the hospital ... until she would falsely accuse her boyfriend of assaulting her," the complaint claims. She's asking for $35 million.
Seems logical. Her boyfriend ruined both of their lives by slashing her in the face with a shard of glass. Somebody should pay. And why should it be them? (Oh, and meanwhile, Monserrate himself was in court yesterday for another reason: He's charged with co-opting more than $100,000 from a taxpayer-funded charity for his own use.)
Monserrate's gal suing city for whopping $35 million, cites conspiracy against former state senator [NYDN]
Read more posts by Chris Rovzar
Filed Under: ballsy former state senators, corruption, hiram monserrate, karla giraldo, oh albany!, politics, state senate
Huge controversy! Barack and Michelle Obama will not be invited to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, two British people they have probably never met before. Will the alliance hold? [Daily Mail UK]
Read more posts by Dan Amira
Filed Under: figureheads, barack obama, kate middleton, michele obama, prince william
President Obama's tax-cut package was never in doubt in the Senate, where it easily passed on Wednesday, but in the House, where liberal Democrats protested about both the income-tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and the allegedly too low estate tax, it was on shakier ground. In the end, though, it also overwhelmingly passed the lower chamber last night by a vote of 277 to 148, with nearly equal support among members of both parties 139 Democrats and 138 Republicans. Whoa, a true bipartisan piece of legislation! It's like spotting a double rainbow.
The legislation extends the Bush-era tax cuts for two years on all incomes, avoiding an increase that would have otherwise occurred on January 1. It also provides a thirteen-month extension of federal unemployment benefits, and a one year partial payroll-tax holiday. And the estate tax which the House Democrats unsuccessfully tried to alter last night will kick in at 35 percent for estates worth $5 million or more. The White House plans to sign it into law today, and while it's not a victory for the deficit Congress will eventually start paying for stuff at some point, right? it's certainly a victory for Obama.
Many liberals in his own party may see the compromise as capitulation, evidence that Obama has no real principles. But ultimately, 44 of 57 Democratic senators and 139 of 255 Democratic congressmen supported it. Do they have no principles either? Or did they simply come to the same conclusion as Obama, and a clear majority of American voters that there was enough good policy in the overall package to make it worthwhile? The other thing Obama has to look forward to, besides an image as a bipartisan pragmatist, is that, due to the high-profile nature of the negotiations leading up to the package's passage, he should finally get some credit for cutting Americans' taxes, which he did years ago in the stimulus, although nobody seemed to notice. Can his critics really expect anyone to believe he's a socialist, wealth-spreading, tax-and-spend liberal anymore?
Congress Sends $801 Billion Tax Cut Bill to Obama [NYT]
Read more posts by Dan Amira and Mike Vilensky
Filed Under: death and taxes, bush tax cuts, early and often, taxes
Researchers are confirming a connection between the amygdala, the brain's unofficial "danger detector," and fear. An anonymous 44-year-old lady they studied is a fairly functional mother of three, but she has a critically damaged amygdala. Hence, she is fearless. To study her, scientists did super-scientific things like making her play with scary snakes: "She eagerly held a snake for more than three minutes, rubbing its scales and touching its flicking tongue, even after an employee warned her about the danger. She had to be stopped from touching a tarantula." At the extra-scientific haunted house: "She led the way, often calling, 'This way, guys, follow me!' Not only did the 'monsters' fail in their attempts to scare her, but she eagerly approached them. Her fear ratings? Zero." Sure, she's been known to casually approach dangerous, knife-wielding strangers on occasion, but she mostly sounds like a good time. Excuse us now; we're going to destroy our amygdala and head to Six Flags. [AP via Gawker]
Read more posts by Mike Vilensky
Filed Under: it's science, fear, science, the brain