| ‘Die quickly’ Democrat apologizes for remark

‘Die-quickly’-Democrat-apologizes-for-remark WASHINGTON - The Florida Democrat who said Republicans want sick people to die quickly is apologizing again for his inflammatory rhetoric, this time for insulting a senior Federal Reserve adviser using a derogatory term for women.

Amid growing criticism from across the political spectrum, Rep. Alan Grayson said late Tuesday it was inappropriate for him to call Fed adviser Linda Robertson a K Street whore during an interview last month on the Alex Jones Show, a syndicated talk radio program.

Robertson is a former top Enron lobbyist and Clinton administration adviser who was hired by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke this summer to help with congressional relations as lawmakers are seeking more oversight of the agency. Washingtons K Street is where many lobbyists have their offices.

I offer my sincere apology, Grayson said in a statement, just hours after his spokesman defended his comments. I did not intend to use a term that is often, and correctly, seen as disrespectful of women.

In the radio interview, Grayson took exception to Robertsons role, saying she was not qualified to criticize such efforts.

Here I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, and this lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics, he said.

‘Absolutely inappropriate’
Erin Matson, a vice president at the National Organization for Women, called the slur absolutely inappropriate.

Would he have singled out a male lobbyist and said the same thing? she said in an interview Tuesday.

Republican National Committee Co-Chairman Jan Larimer called on Grayson to apologize, saying the insult was disgraceful and disrespectful to women.

But Graysons spokesman, Todd Jurkowski, initially defended it, saying Robertson was a career lobbyist who advocates for whatever she gets paid to promote.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve declined to comment.

Grayson drew strong criticism last month for saying the GOPs health care plan amounted to wanting people to die quickly when they get sick.

He stood by the comments, leveraging the attention into a series of national television appearances in which he ridiculed Republicans as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals. He boasted that the controversy has helped fill his campaign coffers.

Grayson did apologize for later likening the deaths of Americans without health coverage to a holocaust. He then set up a Web site called Names of the Dead, inviting people to list the names of loved ones who have died for lack of health care.

- | ‘Die quickly’ Democrat apologizes for remark |

| Protect Yourself From the Next Investment Scam

Protect-Yourself-From-the-Next-Investment-Scam

There are a lot of shady people hoping that you're after instant riches -- or at least a boost toward making up for your recent stock market losses. Boy, do they have the sales pitch down pat. There are tax scams, penny-stock huckster scams, instant-messaging scams, Nigerian confidence scams, mortgage-servicing scams, wrong-number pump-and-dump scams, bad-roommate-from-Craigslist scams. I could go on, but my keyboard is out of breath.

How can you tell if an investment pitch is a scam? Unfortunately, there is no foolproof system. So occasionally we get a Bernie Madoff in the mix. However, there are telltale signs that something's not right. Here are the top six:

1. The promise of "low risk and high gain." Click your heels three times and repeat to yourself: "There is no such thing as a free lunch." It's a fundamental fact of investing that the higher the potential return, the higher the risk that you may never see that return.

2. Warnings that it will be "too late" if you don't act now. Why will it be too late? Any legitimate investment will be there tomorrow and next week and next year. Never get pressured into investing in something because tomorrow may be too late.

3. Predictions of the future. "It will double in three months." Oh, yeah? Since when did they start marketing crystal balls? Not only is this a ridiculous promise for a broker to make, it's illegal. Also, any broker who guarantees a rate of performance will get tossed out of the industry. Don't throw your money after him.

4. Failing the background check. Any individual -- as well as his or her employer -- selling securities to the public must pass a background check and a series of examinations, and be registered with FINRA. If you would like to check up on the background of your broker or his brokerage firm, use FINRA's BrokerCheck tool. Additionally, don't get hooked by suspicious emails that purportedly come from upstanding institutions. Everyone from online auctioneers to mutual fund companies have gotten spoofed. Don't fall for phishy emails without first checking out the sender.

5. No prospectus or financial statements. If you seek to invest in a new company that is just going public , you must be given a prospectus. If the company has been around awhile, ask to see the financial statements for the past two years. If you need help understanding them, check out our online series on how to value stocks and read financial statements.

6. A "hot inside tip." This is especially important to pay attention to -- not because it could make you rich, but because it could land you in jail. It is illegal to pass on or act on material that is inside information. Anyone telling you otherwise is a liar.

Don't let the thought of predators deter your resolve to invest. Check out the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's running list of investor alerts on its website and tally of alerts from other organizations.

For more Foolishness:

- | Protect Yourself From the Next Investment Scam |

| Adecco to buy Florida-based MPS Group for $117B

Adecco-to-buy-Florida-based-MPS-Group-for-$1.17B ZURICH -Staffing firm Adecco SA said Tuesday it has offered $1.17 billion to buy Florida-based MPS Group Inc., one of the largest U.S. temporary staffers, and expects to seal the acquisition early next year.
The deal has been accepted by MPS Groups board of directors, but is still subject to shareholder and regulatory authority approval, Adecco said in a statement.
It said the transaction should be completed in the first quarter of 2010.
MPS Group, based in Jacksonville, Florida, provides temporary employment and consulting services in sectors including information technology, finance, accounting and engineering. It posted revenue of euro1.5 billion last year.
Adecco also said it will launch a mandatory convertible bond of 900 million Swiss francs to help fund the acquisition and strengthen its balance sheet.
Analysts viewed the deal positively but said the price offered was somewhat high.
The acquisition is fully in line with Adeccos strategy to strengthen its professional staffing business, said Geneva broker Helvea, adding that the price does not seem cheap.
Shares in Adecco were down 3.75 percent at 52.55 Swiss francs on the Zurich exchange. - | Adecco to buy Florida-based MPS Group for $117B |

| Double hand transplant patient out of hospital

Double-hand-transplant-patient-out-of-hospital LANCASTER, Pa. - The mother of the nations first double hand transplant patient says hes out of the hospital and looking forward to returning to his wife and daughter in Georgia.

Doris Schafer told the Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era that her son, Jeff Kepner, visited her over the weekend in Lancaster. She says he plans to return to Augusta, Ga., at the end of this week.

Schafer says Kepner is considerably happier than when she saw him in June at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, about a month after the transplant.

She says her son still has no feeling in his fingers but is learning how to catch a ball and pick up small items.

- | Double hand transplant patient out of hospital |

| Man spells out marriage proposal in Ohio field

Man-spells-out-marriage-proposal-in-Ohio-field KALIDA, Ohio - A wheat farm has become a field of dreams for an Ohio woman whose boyfriend spelled out a marriage proposal on the land and took her up in a plane to see it.

Aleasha Decker, 23, said she was excited and stunned when she read the question, Aleasha, marry me? in 20-foot, sheet plastic letters. They sat atop a harvested field in Kalida, about 60 miles southwest of Toledo in northwestern Ohio.

New husband-to-be Jason Kahle got some help from his father, who farms the land and flies a small plane. When they took Decker into the air on Aug. 9, they said the purpose was to photograph some relatives houses.

After Decker spotted the message, she turned to find Kahle with a ring.

A June 5, 2010, wedding is now in the works.

- | Man spells out marriage proposal in Ohio field |

| Restaurant critic dishes on battle with bulimia

Restaurant-critic-dishes-on-battle-with-bulimia When Frank Bruni stepped on the scene as the chief restaurant critic for The New York Times more than five years ago, many industry insiders and observers thought the choice was odd.

Bruni had no previous experience reviewing restaurants. He hadnt sweated long hours behind a hot range in a well-regarded kitchen learning his craft. He knew how to shape sentences but what did he know about simmering sauces?

But even odder was Brunis love-hate relationship with food — something he now acknowledges in his new memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater.

The revelation isnt exactly shocking but it is unusual. Bruni, the man who had volunteered to eat out six nights a week, had obsessed about his weight for most of his life. He had battled bulimia briefly, toyed with laxatives and torpedoed many a diet — all the trimmings for his third book.

I remember thinking if I look up after a couple of years and I am right, and I have figured out a better way to manage my relationship with food, its probably a pretty interesting narrative how I got to this point, Bruni says about the moment he decided to take the job.

If waist size is an indicator of success then Bruni, with his close-cropped hair and athletic build, has been wildly successful curbing his prodigious appetite. After ballooning to around 275 pounds and sporting 42-inch pants while covering a presidential campaign in 2000, Bruni can now take a moment to brag.

An offer he couldnt refuse
He wears size 34 jeans and doesnt look round anymore — despite eating his way through approximately 700 restaurants in New York alone during his stint as critic that came officially to end this month.

I like eating, and I prefer eating in great volume to eating in minor volume, Bruni, 44, says in an interview at a wine bar on Manhattans Upper West Side near his home. No question. Having been through everything I describe in the book, I am fully aware and I struggle to remain conscious of the consequences.

The consequences have plagued Bruni throughout his life but they came to a head when he decided in April 2004 to leave his post as Rome correspondent and tackle restaurant reviewing in New York, perhaps the most important dining city in the world and one filled with know-it-all foodies.

For Bruni, danger loomed. A sea of calories awaited him. He took the plunge — one that has local restaurateurs now scratching their heads since learning Brunis anguish over food.

Its like an alcoholic becoming a winemaker, says John Fraser, whose New York restaurant Dovetail faired exceptionally well under Brunis withering gaze, earning three stars.

Bruni knew the task ahead of him was great. He adjusted and learned on the job. He ate more widely and in a much more inquisitive and thoughtful manner. He developed a frame of reference that was extremely broad and unusual.

He not only wrote about places in New York but he also ventured across America and Europe, alerting readers to gems such as Alinea in Chicago. Bruni could at times be snarky in his reviews but he was mostly right when he decided to bring out the knives, according to chefs.

Sometimes, restaurants caught him; sometimes they did not. A well-worn picture floating around of a heftier Bruni aided his cause to slip into restaurants unnoticed.

We had the fat picture. You would never guess thats the same person, Fraser said about Brunis most current photograph posted on the food blog Eater.com and the one found inside the cover of his book.

Something to talk about
His style of writing attracted many followers. Not everybody loved him but they definitely talked about him. As Bruni evolved, people noticed, chatting about him at cocktail parties, said Jennifer Baum, an influential restaurant publicist who has never met Bruni but had about a dozen of her restaurants reviewed by him.

It stepped beyond the walls of the industry, Baum said, referring to his reviews.

Baum, like other food publicists, kept a wary eye on Bruni, who once slapped around one of her celebrity chef clients, Bobby Flay, taking a star away from Mesa Grill in Manhattan. Baum wouldnt comment about her clients reaction to Brunis takedown, but she said he was fair and honest.

There are some restaurants that opened where people didnt pay attention and those restaurants should be shouted out, she said. He went into the venerable restaurants and made sure they were paying attention.

And the weight? Not only did Bruni beat back the calories through rigorous exercise and moderation, he also beat back the doubters in a city filled with them. Bruni, according to some of the toughest critics in town, prevailed.

When he started out, Frank famously knew almost nothing about restaurant criticism, and it showed, GQ magazine food critic Alan Richman said. He was saved by his writing — which is exuberant and charming, by his indefatigable work ethic and by his instinctive ability to write brilliant criticisms of restaurants that he either hated or loved. Im not sure if any restaurant critic has been better at praise.

End of an era
Richman, who once eviscerated one of the most famous chefs alive, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, in a scathing article for his magazine, said its too bad Bruni is giving up his reign as most feared critic in New York.

What I regret about him leaving now is that he finally has that skill, something that comes with scrutinizing thousands of plates of food, Richman said. Hes at his peak.

Bruni isnt sorry. He can finally exhale after crafting about 270 reviews — visiting some spots more than once — for the newspaper that could turn a restaurant into a massive hit or major flop. He decided to end his run as critic because his energy would fade or was fading.

Bruni says his old gig wasnt just about eating. It was also about coordinating the meals — all the time. He always dictated the schedule, calling himself a bully. He decided on time and place. Eating was always on Brunis terms.

Sometimes his energy would flag. The obligation to be a vivacious and interesting host was grueling, he says.

Its a little bit emotionally exhausting, Bruni remarks after taking a sip of Pouilly-Fuisse and greedily eyeing a plate of cheese, toasted bread and grapes the owner sent out and which Bruni immediately insisted on paying for.

Dont take pity on Bruni. He doesnt expect any. This job was a cake walk compared to covering the presidential campaign.

These days, Bruni is relishing being a civilian. He imagined hed simply go home and get food delivered . But no, hes been eating out often, following his natural inclination.

His routine has definitely changed, though. On three consecutive nights he had chicken. Why? Because he could.

It was a sort of a little petty rebellion against the need to try everything, he says. I am still totally adjusting.

Bruni fans can continue to read his work. He begins writing for the Times Sunday magazine in October, where hell delve into politics, culture and even some food.

First, though, he has to promote the book, a large portion of which he cranked out last year on vacation in Italy and Scotland.

And the former reviewer has to wait to see if reviewers will embrace his book or pan it.

Bruni, of course, knows the drill.

- | Restaurant critic dishes on battle with bulimia |

| Jobs vs bottom line in mega military project

Jobs-vs.-bottom-line-in-mega-military-project In the midst of a recession that has cost millions of Americans their jobs, a massive military construction project on the U.S. territory of Guam is provoking a unique debate that boils down to this deceptively simple question: Should the government be more concerned about creating jobs or minding the taxpayers’ money?

At the center of the debate is one of the biggest construction projects on the U.S. government’s “to do” list: a roughly $15 billion military base expansion that is expected to require some 20,000 construction workers starting next year. Guamanian Americans will fill some of the jobs, but most are expected to go to foreign workers from the Philippines, China, and South Korea.

If it hadn’t been for the recession and climbing joblessness in the United States, the project might have gone forward in obscurity — as often happens on the remote Pacific island.

But a Hawaii lawmaker is challenging the rules that govern the project, which includes the construction of the military facility and housing for 8,000 U.S. Marines and their families. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, inserted a provision in the 2010 defense appropriations bill to require 70 percent of the project jobs go to residents of Guam or the U.S. proper. And, in an attempt to lure more stateside American workers to jobs in the far-flung territory — a seven-hour flight from Honolulu — the amendment would roughly triple hourly pay on the project to match Hawaii’s wage levels.

“It’s using U.S. taxpayer dollars to build a U.S. military base on a U.S. territory,” said Dave Helfert, Abercrombie’s press secretary. “Why would we not use those dollars to put as many American workers to work as we can, especially in the construction industry, which has been hit so hard?”

The House approved the Abercrombie amendment in June. But the Senate version does not address the issue and Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye, Abercrombies fellow Hawaiian and influential member of the Senate, opposes the measure. The two chambers of Congress are now in conference hammering out the details of the 850-page defense bill, and a final version is expected by mid-October.

Whether or not the amendment remains in the final version, it has stirred strident debate in both Guam and Washington.

While enthusiastically embraced by labor advocates, the Abercrombie amendment has run up against a long tradition in Guam of relying on imported construction workers to bolster the small local workforce, a practice that has kept construction wages low. Guam contractors and government leaders in Guam have slammed the proposal as unwanted meddling in the local labor market. The Pentagon is against it because it would add billions to the cost of the project, which was estimated based on prevailing wage levels for construction jobs in Guam — just half the U.S. average.

Out of Japan
The Guam buildup is part of U.S. military realignment in the Pacific resulting from the growth of anti-American sentiment in Japan, where the United States has maintained large bases since the end of World War II. A series of U.S. military accidents that caused civilian deaths and the rape of a Japanese schoolgirl by American servicemen in the 1990s sparked a movement to expel U.S. forces from Japan. In 2006, after prolonged negotiation, Washington and Tokyo agreed to relocate some air bases farther away from population centers in Japan and move the U.S. Third Expeditionary Marine Force to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

The base build-up in Guam will turn the tiny island — currently home to Andersen Air Force Base — into a major hub of U.S. military operations in the Pacific, with facilities for submarines, aircraft carriers, and Navy Special Operations forces.

Within the overall $15 billion project, Japan has agreed to chip in $6 billion for housing and facilities. Twenty-three thousand active military personnel and family members will move to Guam as part of the realignment. Japan agreed to cover $6 billion to help build housing and facilities for some 23,000 active military personnel and family members who will move to Guam as part of the realignment.

Labor costs for the project were determined under a formula laid out in the Davis-Bacon Act, using a rate scale for workers based on local income levels. In Guam, those rates are low — too low to attract American workers from the states, Abercrombie argues.

Under his proposal, a carpenter would be paid about $36 an hour – the going rate for federal projects in Hawaii — rather than the $11.70 that the Pentagon budgeted for the construction in Guam.

At these rates, Abercrombie says, stateside construction workers will be willing to travel to Guam for jobs. According to the Associated General Contractors of America, the U.S. construction industry lost 1 million jobs in the year ending in August 2009. Arizona suffered the biggest percentage decline — losing 50,000 construction jobs, or nearly 27 percent of its total.

Hawaii lost about 5,100 construction jobs — 13.6 of its total — over the same period.

Abercrombies detractors have portrayed his Guam proposal as pandering to workers back home as he prepares to run for governor of Hawaii.

But Helfert, Abercrombie’s spokesman, said the amendment was “not just aimed at Hawaii workers. It makes sense if you have people out of work to create jobs for them — whether it’s in California, Nevada, Arizona or Oregon.”

Tight budgets, tough talks
Even though the Abercrombie proposal can be cast as stimulus money, it would add to costs at a time when the U.S. is struggling to contain military spending while fighting two foreign wars and contending with growing demand for veterans’ services. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the wage hike would drive up the Guam project by about $10 billion.

That’s a change some think could complicate already prickly talks over the military realignment with Japan’s newly elected leaders, who have taken a more nationalistic stance and threatened to withdraw financial and logistical support for various U.S. military operations.

“Given all that is going on … spending an extra $10 billion seems very unlikely,” said Todd Harrison, a fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C. “Also, we are in this jointly with the Japanese. If we throw in some requirement to pay these higher wage rates and 70 percent of the labor force has to be U.S. citizens that could cause the Japanese to reconsider their role.”

The move to bring in U.S. workers by raising wages has met with fierce resistance from contractors in Guam, who benefit from the ability to use temporary foreign workers under the H2B visa program. Since the 1950s, most major construction projects in Guam have employed foreign workers — primarily from the Philippines — who live in barracks provided by contractors and then return home when the job is done. There is no union for construction workers in Guam, nor is there a system of unemployment to assist local workers during dry spells — both factors in a persistent shortage of construction workers in the territory.

“The temporary workers and H2B workers really fit for Guam,” said James Martinez, president of the Guam Contractors Association.

At the moment there are about 1,800 “guest workers” in Guam, or about a quarter of the total  construction workforce, according to the Guam Department of Labor. That number swelled to about 6,000 during a construction boom fueled by Japanese investment in the 1990s, and a U.S. military official visiting Guam last year predicted that about 12,000 temporary workers would be needed to work on the base project. Recruiters are already active in the Philippines, with some trumpeting up to 50,000 job opportunities on the base project, and other construction on Guam sparked by the U.S. buildup.

“Certainly there’s no closed door for workers from the U.S.,” said Martinez. But he said his organization opposes putting a quota for American workers or hiking wages to assist unemployed construction workers elsewhere in the United States. “Unfortunately we can’t be the answer to the economic woes of Hawaii or the rest of the U.S.,” he said. “We don’t want to be forced to pay wages that don’t fit our economy.”

‘Effects... could be disastrous’
Guam Gov. Felix Camacho and the territory’s sole representative in Congress, Madeleine Bordallo, also oppose the Abercrombie amendment.

“If wages were to go up on military construction projects, we risk taking government of Guam employees out of their jobs and working in the construction industry,” said Matthew Herrmann, press secretary for Bordallo. “The socioeconomic effects on Guam could be disastrous.”

Supporters of Abercrombie’s proposal also argue that the wage increase is long overdue.

“The business community in Guam has consistently used H2B workers to drive down wages in Guam,” said Matt Rector, a territory senator who heads Guam’s labor committee as well as the Guam Teacher’s Union, which represents public sector workers. “Would destroy Guam’s economy? No, it would fix Guam’s economy. The economy is so depressed.”

The average income in Guam is about $28,000 a year, according to Guam’s Department of Labor, while the island’s cost of living is higher than that of Washington, D.C. Half of the population earns under $10 an hour, and about one-fourth of the population is on food stamps.

Penny wise, pound foolish?
“It may cost more in the short term, but all that money is coming back into the U.S. economy, either reducing in Guam, or back in continental U.S.” said Rector. To reject it, he says, would be “penny wise and pound foolish.”

Gary Hiles, economist for the U.S. Department of Labor in Guam agrees that bringing in U.S. workers at higher wages would cause some hiccups in the local economy.

But he notes that there are advantages to hiring Americans over foreigners to do the work on U.S. bases: “National security is one of them. The quality of workmanship is another.”

And paying higher wages also would bolster the local economy, he says, more so than hiring foreign workers who typically send much of their earnings out of the country — and generate additional tax revenue for badly needed infrastructure upgrades.

“I think the U.S. workers would buy and rent cars, go to restaurants and hotels and barbershops — a whole array of things that workers in barracks don’t do,” Hiles said.

“The additional investment to make Guam jobs attractive to U.S. citizens may well be a cost effective economic stimulus policy in putting unemployed U.S. construction workers back to work,” he added. “Certainly, construction work could be done at lower cost on the U.S. bases on Guam by primarily importing temporary foreign labor from Asian countries, just as it could be done cheaper on U.S. bases in Hawaii, California or any other state. ... But is that the policy that the federal government wishes to pursue?”

- | Jobs vs bottom line in mega military project |