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Back in July, when he declared his long-term portfolio was 100% in cash backed by T-bills, a lot of people said Todd Harrison was crazy -- or clueless.But Harrison, CEO of Minyanville.com, is looking pretty smart these days given the ongoing turmoil in the financial markets. Just because Warren Buffett is putting money to work doesn't mean the average investor should -- unless you can get the same favorable terms "the Oracle" has gotten from recent investments in GE and Goldman Sachs.In addition, the dollar has been on the rise lately and hit a 13-month high vs. the euro Thursday...

A suitcase filled with $800,000 in cash has embroiled Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez in a scandal which has fuelled claims of corruption and cover-up at the heart of his self-styled socialist revolution. A court case involving wiretaps and explosive testimony has lifted the lid on alleged attempts to buy influence across Latin America, putting Chávez on the defensive during a torrid week of coup rumours and expulsions of human rights critics and the US ambassador. Tumbling oil prices compounded the anxiety in Caracas, which is almost wholly reliant on oil revenues, and prompted the President to warn that the government...

I have read the IRS info on 401K distributions (http://www.irs.gov/retirement/sponsor/article/0,,id=151926,00.html) but I'm still not sure I've got my answer. If I don't care about paying penalties or getting taxed on it as income, can I cash out the balance of my 401K? I know I can get a loan for 50% of it, but that's not the question. And I don't care to hear what a bad idea it is based on the penalties and taxes. I simply want to know if I CAN cash it out while I'm still employed? It's my money I don't see why I shouldn't...

WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain and the Republican National Committee started August with a hefty $96 million, financially flush and strongly positioned to compete with prolific fundraiser Barack Obama and the Democrats.

A severe cash shortage gripped the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Monday as tens of thousands of people were unable to withdraw money from banks in the poverty-stricken territory. Israel promised to transfer more money to Gaza on Tuesday. But the shortage highlighted the daily hardships still faced by Gaza's 1.4 million residents despite a June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that has brought some badly needed relief. The delicate truce suffered a setback on Monday when unidentified Gaza terrorists fired a rocket into Israel. Lacking a currency of their own, Gazans use Israeli shekels. But with little new Israeli money...

Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama was in Houston on Thursday for a pair of private fundraisers. When he was here for a speech at the Toyota Center a few months ago, the photos were free. This visit was much different. After depending on smaller donations during the primary season, Obama is now focused on more traditional campaign finances – big money donors. Where as in the primary season more than one million individuals donated to Obama's campaign, less than a quarter of them gave the maximum $2,300. On Thursday, the minimum to even attend the fundraisers was $2,300. To...

Mexico's poor get food cash boost The price of staple foods such as rice has risen sharply in the last year. The Mexican government is to give its poorest citizens a monthly cash payment of 120 pesos ($11.55; £5.85) to help them cope with rising food prices. The news came a day after the country said it would cut tariffs on imported crops such as corn, wheat and rice. In a further sign of the impact of rising food and fuel costs, inflation in Vietnam jumped to 25% in May, the highest rate for 10 years. Average food costs have...

Pivoting toward the general election, Senator Barack Obama is turning again to his history-making fund-raising machine, which helped to anoint him as a contender against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and then became a potent weapon in their battle for the Democratic nomination. To confront the Obama juggernaut, Senator John McCain, whose fund-raising has badly trailed that of his Democratic counterparts — and whose efforts suffered a blow this weekend when a key fund-raiser, Tom Loeffler, resigned because of a new campaign policy on conflicts of interest — is leaning on the Republican National Committee. Mr. McCain is likely to depend...

Cambridge University has been given £8 million by a Saudi Arabian prince to establish an Islamic studies centre. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, ranked in the top 20 richest men in the world, with a fortune of about £10 billion, has donated the cash to the university to fund a centre in his name for the study of the role of Islam in the Middle East and globally. The gift has been recommended by the university's general board and is expected to be announced in June. advertisement The grandson of King Ibn Saud and nephew of King Abudllah, the prince counts...

NORTH HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- A former Norwin homecoming queen accused of attacking her sister with a prosthetic leg and threatening to burn down a neighbor's trailer was ordered on Wednesday to go to rehab. Donna Sturkie-Anthony showed up for her preliminary hearing before District Judge Douglas Weimer, but the 41-year-old woman's hearing was continued so she can go to Greenbriar Treatment Center. Police said Sturkie-Anthony's sister came to visit her at Lincoln Mobile Home Park on Route 30 in January, and the two started arguing about her alcohol abuse. Then, police said Sturkie-Anthony pulled off her sister's prosthetic leg and...

As Good as Cash, Until It’s Not By GRETCHEN MORGENSON INVESTORS across the nation are finding themselves in Wall Street’s version of the Hotel California: they have checked into an investment they can never leave. The investments, which Wall Street peddled as a cash equivalent, are known as auction-rate notes. They’re debt instruments carrying rates that reset regularly, usually every week, after auctions overseen by the brokerage firms that originally sold them. They have long-term maturities or, in fact, no maturity dates at all. But because the notes routinely traded hands at auctions, Wall Street convinced investors that they were...

Companies Are Piling Up Cash By DIANA B. HENRIQUES At least someone knows how to fill a piggy bank. Unlike most American consumers, whose failure to save has exasperated economists for years, the typical American corporation has increased its savings so sharply that it probably has enough cash on hand to completely pay off its debts. That should be good news in an economy unsettled by rising energy prices, tightening credit, gyrating stock prices and declining values for the dollar and the family homestead. Indeed, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, cited strong corporate balance sheets as a bright...

Hillary Rodham Clinton started the year flush with cash, but by the beginning of this month, she'd blazed through most of it — spending $11 million on ads, $3.8 million on messaging guru Mark Penn and $1,300 at Dunkin' Donuts, to name just a few expenditures — leaving her campaign woefully unprepared for an extended battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. About $15 million — or more than half of the New York senator’s January spending — went to a cadre of high-priced consultants. Though much of the cash went through the campaign media buyer for ad time, the considerable...

THE CLINTONS' CASH February 8, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign appears to be in serious financial trouble. She revealed Wednesday that she had loaned the effort a whopping $5 million last month - even as Sen. Barack Obama's campaign was raising an astonishing $32 million. Moreover, Obama looks to be on track for $30 million more this month - a goodly portion of the cash coming from new donors in small amounts. Why is that last significant? Individuals can kick in no more than $2,300 during the primary season - and while most of Clinton's donors long ago...

MELBOURNE, Australia - Two Australian robbers thought they were hauling away a big sack of cash from the Cuckoo Restaurant, but it turned out to be bread rolls —and one of them accidentally shot the other in the buttocks during the heist.

A jump in ATM fraud led Citibank to slash the maximum amount of cash available to customers from their accounts - a security move greeted warily Wednesday by its patrons. The new cap on cash kicked out by the company's ATMs began in mid-December after what Citibank called "isolated fraudulent activity" around the city. The bank, with 134 branches around town, would not say how many customers were affected or how much money was involved. One Brooklyn woman said she went to her bank branch on Christmas Eve and was unable to take out her normal cash limit, so she...

LIMA — Two robbers who broke into Luther Ricks Sr.’s house this summer may have not gotten his life savings he had in a safe, but after the FBI confiscated it he may not get it back. Ricks has tried to get an attorney to fight for the $402,767 but he has no money. Lima Police Department officers originally took the money from his house but the FBI stepped in and took it from the Police Department. Ricks has not been charged with a crime and was cleared in a fatal shooting of one of the robbers but still the...

Muslim donors targets of federal investigation: Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has taken thousands of dollars in cash donations from Islamists under federal investigation for terror-financing, money laundering and tax fraud, WND has learned.

At key moments during his rise in politics, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has returned to the same reliable source for money, advice and corporate muscle: Bain Capital, the investment company he founded in the 1980s. The business executives who helped him start the firm and cement its early investment deals were called back to duty when he ran for Senate in 1994, revived the 2002 Winter Olympics, won the Massachusetts governorship and launched his bid for the White House. They fully expect another call should he win the presidency. -SNIP-In his autobiography, Romney wrote that he severed ties with...

Taliban use hostage cash to fund UK blitz By Massoud Ansari in Kila Abdullah, Pakistan Last Updated: 12:20am BST 14/10/2007 Millions of dollars handed over to secure the release of South Korean hostages in Afghanistan have been used to buy weapons deployed against British and American forces in the country, the Taliban claims. Killed: Major Alexis Roberts Major Alexis Roberts, 32, Prince William's former platoon commander at Sandhurst, was one of the victims of the Taliban offensive funded by the hostage money. According to Taliban fighters interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph, the money has also been used to train recruits...

Driving 11 miles over the speed limit cost one driver more than a quarter-million dollars this weekend — at least for now. A State Patrol trooper spotted a Honda Accord speeding southbound on Interstate 5 on Friday, according to State Patrol spokesman Jeff Merrill. It was raining, and the driver was cruising down the freeway at 71 mph. So the trooper pulled the driver over, Merrill said. The 35-year-old from British Columbia, who had a valid driver's license, struggled to tell the trooper where he was going and how long he had been in Washington, prompting the trooper to search...

CARACAS, Venezuela – The Venezuelan government on Friday denied any link to a businessman who was stopped at an Argentine airport carrying a suitcase filled with nearly $800,000 in cash. The Venezuelan businessman, Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, carried the money from Caracas to Buenos Aires on a flight chartered by the Argentine government, and the undeclared funds were seized by customs agents last weekend. “We don't have anything to do with that plane or with that trip ... nothing to do with that businessman,” Venezuelan Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas told reporters. The incident has shaken the Argentine government, prompted one...

(2007-09-11) — Just hours after her presidential campaign announced it would refund $850,000 in contributions from associates of convicted felon Norman Hsu, and begin to run background checks on big donors, Sen. Hillary Clinton said she would issue a full refund to former President Bill Clinton, her husband. “After vigorous additional vetting,” Sen. Clinton said, “We noticed some things that could become a distraction to our campaign, so we’re returning all the cash to him with no questions asked.” Mr. Clinton, a multi-millionaire who has devoted most of his adult life to public service, was not available for comment because...

Sept. 4, 2007 10:54 AM NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - A man has been charged with extorting more than $20,000 from his elderly mother by repeatedly threatening to kidnap her beloved cat and demanding ransom, police said. Garry Lamar, 47, was arrested Friday and released on $200 bail. He has been ordered to stay away from his 78-year-old mother, Mary Lamar Grancher. He started threatening to kidnap the cat just over a year ago, after his mother kicked him out of her home, accusing him of abuse, North Kingstown Police Sgt. Daniel Ormond said. "This isn't just a family cat," Ormond...

Posted: Aug. 31, 2007 Waukesha - The worst part wasn't that Mark Stahnke woke up Monday morning in the patio chair of some neighbor he didn't know.Or that his pants were missing. The worst part was the contents of his missing pants: a cashier's check for $41,093, which he meant to give to his son, and several hundred dollars in cash that he had gotten from the bank. Stahnke still doesn't know what happened between the time he left a bar Sunday night and the time he woke up in some stranger's backyard Monday morning, but thanks to an honest...

TIRANA, Albania (AP) -- Josif Poro pats his new sofa, points with pride to his carpets and runs a wrinkled hand over a gleaming white refrigerator. He and his wife barely scrape by on their $220 monthly pension. They'd have to do without many of the items in their cramped apartment if their son, a factory worker in Greece, didn't faithfully send home part of his earnings. "We call him our golden boy," said Poro, 83, a retired textile mill worker.snip

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A criminal ring that Arizona police said used a shuttle service to smuggle drug and human trafficking profits to Mexico has been broken up with 47 people indicted, authorities said on Friday. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said the firm shuttling passengers from Phoenix to Sonoyta, Caborca and Puerto Penasco in Mexico moved some $2 million a month in dirty money for at least 20 different human and drug trafficking organizations. The people indicted included drivers and other employees of the shuttle firm. They face a range of charges including money laundering, conspiracy and illegally conducting a...

The mother of a Sept. 11 victim is trying to prevent her son's absentee father from trying to collect half of the $2.9 million awarded by the Victim Compensation Fund, the Daily News has learned. Elsie Goss-Caldwell will be petitioning a Brooklyn Surrogate's Court judge tomorrow to keep her ex-husband from financially benefiting from the death of a son that she said he had little contact with for 28 years.

O J's 'confession' cash given to victim's family By Jacqui Goddard in Miami, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:56am BST 17/06/2007 A judge has awarded the publishing rights of O J Simpson's purportedly "hypothetical" murder confession to the family of one of his alleged victims. Relatives of Ron Goldman, who was stabbed to death in Los Angeles in June 1994 with Simpson's ex-wife Nicole, plan to have the account on bookshelves within weeks, under the title Confessions of a Double Murderer - or, more simply, I Did It. OJ Simpson tried to hide profits The book, in which Simpson chillingly theorised...

WASHINGTON --The $90,000 the FBI says it found in Rep. William Jefferson's freezer wasn't the death knell of his political career. The Louisiana Democrat still cruised to his ninth House term last year, propelled by hugs and kisses on the campaign trail from supporters who distinguished him from other politicians in only one respect: He got caught. "Don't mess with Jeff," read Jefferson's campaign pins. The FBI did just that. So have leaders of the congressman's own party. They stripped him of a seat on the tax-writing House Ways and Committee a year ago after the FBI staged a controversial...

N. Korea Likely to Withdraw BDA Funds in Cash North Korea will probably have to withdraw US$25 million of unfrozen funds from the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia in cash. A South Korean government official on Sunday said the North wanted the money transferred to an overseas bank account, “but realistically there are too many difficulties. Both the U.S. and China are of the opinion that everything should be discussed between Macau authorities and North Korea." A diplomatic source said despite a visit to China by U.S. Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser, Washington and Beijing have failed to find a...

Police on Thursday recovered a small part of the fortune in cash that disappeared from a small plane after it crashed in northeastern Brazil, according to news reports. The twin-engine plane was carrying $2.6 million worth of Brazilian reals when it crashed Wednesday afternoon near the city of Salvador, some 750 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro in Bahia state, killing all four people aboard, officials said. Police say they suspect locals made off with the bags of cash before rescuers arrived on the scene. But on Thursday, according to the Web sites of O Globo and Estado de S....

Mandela sues over 'missing' cash By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg Last Updated: 1:33am GMT 26/02/2007 Nelson Mandela is taking legal action against a former friend and lawyer after £118,000 was reported to be missing from a trust fund. The retired South African president's legal team alleges in papers filed at the Johannesburg High Court that Ismael Ayob, a former fund trustee, used the money to buy cars and pay large sums into his own companies. In an affidavit, George Bizos and Wim Tremgrove, who are both trustees of the fund, allege that Mr Ayob made "disbursements of more than 1.2...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve sent record payouts of more than $4 billion in cash to Baghdad on giant pallets aboard military planes shortly before the United States gave control back to Iraqis, lawmakers said on Tuesday. The money, which had been held by the United States, came from Iraqi oil exports, surplus dollars from the U.N.-run oil-for-food program and frozen assets belonging to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime. Bills weighing a total of 363 tons were loaded onto military aircraft in the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve, said Rep....

Welcome to Green Home, a nice place to buy environmental products. "Going Green" is an endless process, but you have begun it by coming to this Website. We're an on line resource for green products (including green gift giving) as well as your home on the Web for advice and information on greening in general. "Unbelievable customer service, lowest prices on the Internet and best of all, I now feel like I'm part of the solution, not the problem. Thanks for helping me understand how protecting my health and the planet's health are the same thing." - Maxwell Dolane -...

S Koreans offered cash for no sex Male workers who vow to stay away from prostitutes after year-end celebrations in South Korea are to be rewarded. The Ministry for Gender Equality is offering cash to companies whose male employees pledge not to pay for sex after office parties. Men are being urged to register on the ministry's website. The companies with most pledges will receive a reward. Officials say they want to put an end to a culture in which men get drunk at parties and go on to buy sex. But some critics have described the move as a...

$1 million cash found concealed in pickup Wednesday, December 13, 2006 By DAVID FERRARA Staff Reporter State troopers found $1 million cash stuffed inside a hidden compartment in a pickup truck, but authorities refused to say much Tuesday about why they seized the money and the vehicle. The driver was alone in a 2006 Ford F-350, registered in Washington state and headed west on Interstate 10 around 3:15 p.m. Sunday, when he was pulled over, initially under suspicion of speeding, just east of the Eastern Shore Centre, said trooper spokeswoman Martha Earnhardt. Working on a "saturation patrol" designed to investigate...

Cashiering payday loans? By Ryan Krueger Published November 24, 2006 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The recent outcry for a ban on payday lenders made me wonder how many of those pointing fingers ever tried to open one of the doors they want to kick down. Have they listened to a customer describe what is on the other side? The tasteful accusation at fancy dinner parties is that they prey on the low-income worker, trapping him into unsavory interest rates. The hosts need to ask the caterer or nanny used that same evening for their opinions. Up front, I must disclose a bias of...

Police question teen, but gunman still thought to be at large, they sayRICHMOND — In an act described by police as callous and cold-natured, a masked gunman shot and killed a convenience store clerk after the victim had already handed over the cash during a robbery in Fort Bend County. Altaf Jafarali Maknojia, 24, of Sugar Land, was shot once in the neck shortly after 11:40 p.m. Wednesday as he stood behind the counter at the Chevron station in the 9400 block of FM 1464 in the northeast part of the county. A 17-year-old has been questioned by police but...

'Cold cash' congressman facing challenge for seat8 other Dems on ballot seeking seat held by Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson Posted: September 23, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.M The fallout from an FBI investigation into allegations of bribery – and the $90,000 in cash allegedly recovered from his freezer – apparently has U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-Louisiana, battling for his political future. Not only are there about a dozen challengers vying for his seat, which he's held since the early 1990s, but three of the state's former top Democrats have endorsed his chief opponent,...

Washington has promised action against Mexican drug-traffickers who the US says are growing billions of dollars of marijuana in US national parks. Mexican cartels controlled 80% of the marijuana grown in forest and mountain areas, drugs tsar John Walters said. He blamed the cartels for much of the expansion of the crop, in particular in public lands such as national parks. Every American should be outraged that national parks were being turned into centres of drug production, he said. But growing marijuana in the US is not entirely a new phenomenon, despite it being illegal for more than 70 years....

I ain't goin' nowhere(Geoff Mack/Rick Moranis) I never go nowhere, man I never go nowhere Traffic’s bad out there, man. I’m savin’ wear and tear. I like conditioned air, man I never go nowhere I go Upstairs, downstairs, backyard, lawn chairs, Living room, bathroom, bedroom, furnace room, Hot-tub, cedar deck, build a fire, washer/dryer, Pantry, patio, Bartiromo video, Cold cellar, rec room, ping-pong, mah jongg, Beer count wearin’ thin, speed dial, Order in. I ain’t goin’ nowhere, man. I ain’t goin’ nowhere It’s dangerous out there, man Might ‘a been a big bomb scare. Hard to get off of this...

Many of our students don't know what's it's like to work," said Lynn Lyford, vice president of the cooperative education program at Northeastern University. "(Co-op) not only gives students the experience, but it enhances what they learn in the classroom … They get evaluations, go to meetings. These students are considered employees of the employers' organizations." (A co-op) is not like your traditional intern where you get coffee and wash the boss' car," said former Northeastern student Christopher Beasley, 23, who landed a job with NASA after completing a co-op with the company. "You interview like it's a real job."

Vernon Lamar Jackson and William J. Jefferson and their wives spent a pleasant weekend in New York City in the fall of 2004. The Kentucky businessman and the Louisiana congressman watched U.S. Open tennis from an air-conditioned corporate box, attended The Lion King on Broadway and did a little shopping. Rep. Jefferson and his wife had become trusted friends of the Jacksons. In e-mail messages and telephone calls, the congressman was simply "Jeff." The cord that tied the two men was their stated opinion that Jackson's high-tech company, iGate, was going to save the government money and give poor black...

BERLIN Aug 8, 2006 (AP)— A drunken man withdrew more than $16,700 from his bank account and then started handing out the money to passers-by in a western German town Tuesday, police said. Police in Darmstadt said they were alerted at lunchtime to a man sitting on a bench in front of a bank and handing out notes. He had the money stuffed into plastic bags and his pockets, and some of it blew away. Officers took the 63-year-old back into the bank and counted the money. They said in a statement that he had handed out $1,935, but that...

Sometimes the best thing an investor or trader can do is nothing. It's hard enough to make money in a bear market. It's also tough not to lose it. Three out of every four stocks follow the broad market's direction. Thus when the market falls into a downtrend, it's important to cut your losses, pocket your profits and move toward cash. Sitting in cash lets you free yourself from the daily market noise. You can use the time to reflect, go over past trading mistakes and sharpen your skills. Despite what some so-called market gurus say, your probability of finding...

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division- Baghdad Soldiers searched three houses Wednesday night and seized weapons and a large amount of money in central Baghdad after acting on a tip from an Iraqi citizen. At the first house, Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, discovered a considerable amount of ammunition and two body armor vests; as the Soldiers continued to search the house, they found a false wall that contained mortar rounds and more ammunition. In an adjoining house, the MND-B Soldiers found AK-47s, bloody clothes and anti-Coalition Forces propaganda. The Soldiers then moved...

Jefferson hires crisis-seasoned PR aideCongressman target in corruption probe Friday, July 07, 2006 By Bruce Alpert Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., points to a map as he talks with Congressman William Jefferson at a presentation during a briefing on the levee system in Southern Louisiana in New Orleans, Thursday, July 6, 2006. The briefing covered the state of current levee reconstruction and what actions need to be implemented in the future to ensure South Louisiana residents are safe from the flooding associated with hurricanes. (AP Photo/Bill Haber) WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, the target of a high-profile public corruption probe,...

CARACAS, Venezuela The government of Venezuelan has donated 100-thousand dollars to a Santa Cruz-based non-profit organization dedicated to preventing violence among youths. Deputy Justice Minister Yuri Pimentel made the announcement during a meeting in Venezuela's capital with American singer and activist Harry Belafonte, who accepted the donation on behalf of the California Coalition of Barrios Unidos. The California Coalition of Barrios Unidos began as a community based peace movement in the violent streets of urban California in 1977.