Today's
Feature
Parking Pass
Forgeries.
The Carthage Police Department
has been made aware that individuals have been
making forgeries of parking passes issued to
county elected officials. The passes, that exempt
the users from the two hour parking restriction
on the square, apparently have been issued
through the Police Department for several years,
but there is no known record of how the practice
began.
Police Chief Dagnan has
instructed the Parking Enforcement officer to
begin issuing tickets to anyone using the passes
that is not an elected official, and the practice
of issuing the passes may come before the Public
Safety Committee for clarification.
Dagnan says that several
duplicate passes were discovered last Wednesday
and tickets were issued.
At this time, since there is no
official authorization of the original passes,
Dagnan says there is no penalty, other than
paying the parking fine, for displaying the pass.
Chief Dagnan has sent a letter
to the County Commission requesting a list of all
elected officials that might request such a pass.
The Public Safety Committee would likely review
any future issuance.
AIG Versus
Greenberg: The War Intensifies
by Sharona
Coutts, www.ProPublica.org
"Let me be clear:
AIG’s business model did not fail -- its
management did."
Thus did Maurice
"Hank" Greenberg end his written
testimony for the congressional hearing into the
AIG rescue.
There is now a full-blown
public relations war between the ailing insurance
giant and its founder and former CEO, Greenberg.
Greenberg was ousted in 2005,
following investigations by then-New York
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Since the first
AIG bailout in September 2008, Greenberg has
tried to cast himself as a potential sage and
savior when it comes to the increasingly
expensive question of what the federal government
should do about the company.
Greenberg’s attacks on
company management provoked a counterattack from
AIG, which last night sent reporters a three-page
"fact sheet" detailing allegations, a
history of legal disputes and other instances of
what the company sees as Greenberg’s
mischaracterizations of his management of AIG.
In his prepared testimony, the
83-year-old Greenberg calls for what would be
bailout version 5.0. Most significantly, under
his plan, the government would wait 20 years --
instead of the current five -- for AIG to repay a
$42 billion loan from the Treasury Department.
Greenberg blames his
"successors" for bungling AIG’s
finances in two areas. One area was run by the
now-infamous Financial Products division that
sold credit default swaps -- a form of insurance
on financial instruments. The other involved a
program that loaned out securities held by
insurance companies. Together the two business
lines have cost taxpayers about $100 billion to
terminate.
Much of the bailout cash went
to AIG "counterparties" -- the American
and foreign banks at the winning end of
AIG’s bad deals. Greenberg condemned paying
those partners 100 percent of what was owed.
Instead, the company should have negotiated a
lower payout, he said.
"These cash payments to
CDS counterparties should never have
occurred," Greenberg said.
Now, he said, the companies
should be enticed into an arrangement whereby
they would become investors in AIG, which, claims
Greenberg, would give them an incentive to see
AIG succeed. AIG launched a pre-emptive strike
Wednesday, putting out a four-page dossier
attacking Greenberg’s credibility. The
83-year-old Greenberg was forced out in 2005 amid
a scandal over securities fraud. The once-mighty
insurance giant’s departure into exotic
credit derivatives began under Greenberg in the
mid 1980s -- and culminated last fall when the
AIG’s bad bets came due and forced a
taxpayer bailout.
"Given that Hank Greenberg
led AIG into the credit default swap business,
has repeatedly refused to testify under oath
about a transaction he initiated when he was
still AIG’s CEO, and is being investigated
by the SEC and the Justice Department, we
don’t understand how he can be viewed as
having any credibility on any AIG issue,"
the company said in its statement.
Greenberg could not be reached
Wednesday night. He recently has appeared on
television talk shows, including the Charlie Rose
show on March 17, and criticized both the
government intervention and current management of
AIG.
The company’s titled its
salvo: "The Greenberg Legacy." The
first section includes 11 bullet points that
recap history of the Financial Products division
and Greenberg’s role in originating it.
Greenberg has tried to distance himself from the
unit, which lost billions selling a form of
insurance on toxic mortgage securities.
The next section deals with
"Mr. Greenberg’s Ouster." It
recounts Greenberg’s decision to "take
the Fifth" when confronted by questions from
investigators examining securities fraud by the
company.
The campaign appears to be
AIG’s effort to seize the agenda after weeks
of public outcry over payment of millions in
retention bonuses to employees in the Financial
Products unit who are trying to unwind the trades
helped sink the company.
Greenberg remains a major AIG
stockholder. He was forced to resign in 2005
after a series of scandals, including the
prosecution of senior executives from AIG and the
reinsurer, Gen Re, for fraudulent deals made to
cook AIG’s books. Greenberg has never been
charged with a crime.
Democratic Rep. Edolphus Towns,
D-N.Y., chairman of the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, told the Reuters
news agency that the hearing will delve into the
Financial Products division’s genesis.
"We want to take a very
serious look and see if legislation is needed to
prevent this from ever happening again,"
Towns told Reuters.
Greenberg was AIG’s chief
executive for 35 years. The government has
committed up to $180 billion in taxpayer funds to
rescue the firm, saying its collapse could cause
widespread damage through the world financial
community.
artCentral
ART
NOTES from Hyde House
by Sally Armstrong,
Director of artCentral
We are thankful for the way the
weather held off last Friday night, to enable a
nice crowd to assemble for the second exhibition
opening of the year at Hyde House Gallery. It
threatened rain outside, but inside there were
beautiful spring and summer flowers to enjoy, the
combined works of fine art photographer Mary Ann
Soerries from Joplin and Carthage artist Lora
Waring with a nice group of watercolor and
watercolour pencil florals in the Member Gallery.
Both artists were on hand to greet visitors, and
we had a nice combination of artists, patrons,
families of the artists, and several of my board
members were present to assist me in execution. I
thank them and my student intern Megan Hudson, a
MSSU student fine art major from Mt. Vernon, who
manned the gallery for me on Sunday. I was in the
gallery on Saturday, when the weather was
"not"so co-operative! Needless to say,
no visitors ventured out that day, but I see we
did have some folks on Sunday. Please remember
that this beautiful floral art show will remain
in both galleries weekends noon to 5:00pm, until
April 12th. Come over and see this interesting
exhibition of art.
I have had requests already
regarding our children’s artCamp later this
summer, and put letters in the mail this week to
all the potential teachers, asking for their
curriculum ideas for the new year. I am always
excited to see what themes they think of each
year, and look forward to putting together the
student information sheets just as soon as I get
the teacher information compiled. It can be quite
a process, but once we get the "puzzle"
put together, we can begin signing up out
students once again. For those that may not be
familiar with artCamp, it is a two week period of
time in late July into August, when we offer
daily classes to area children ages 8-14 who are
truly interested in art, and enjoy artistic
expression. A class lasts for a day, and a child
can sign up for as many classes/days as he
desires. Some students come for one, some come
for all! We meet from 9:00- 3:00 daily, with an
hour at noon to eat a sack lunch outside under
the trees. An afternoon snack is provided, and
drinks can be purchased for .50 if desired.
Sometimes, more than one class is offered each
day. If you have a child that might be
interested, who is not already on the mailing
list, call and leave your name and mailing
address on my machine, and I will be happy to
mail a form (s) to you. The # is 417 358 4404.
Last year had 60 area kids from eight towns in a
three state area attend! Come see our current
exhibit at artCentral!
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