Free Republic

From manicures to motorcycles, four Little League crooks in three states used team funds for more than baseballs, bats and celebratory ice cream cones. Thanks to community kindness, it’s still game-on this spring. With the start of a new baseball season comes a disheartening stat that makes you worry not just for the national pastime, but for the nation itself: In less than a year, four little league presidents have been charged with looting their organization's treasury. The thefts left three of the leagues in such sorry financial shape that it seemed the kids might not be able to play...

For most of the world, the tragedy in West, Texas that began with the explosion of the fertilizer plant, ended with a remarkable outpouring of support from fellow Texans and friends far away, raising money and sending more supplies than the town could handle. With over $3 million funds donated, everything seemed on track for a fast recovery and rebuild.

Teachers’ Pensions Are a Half-Trillion ShortBy Kevin D. Williamson December 14, 2012 11:15 A.M. The habitual overpromising and underfunding of government-employee pensions is a fiscal powder keg in an economy full of sparks — and a new report estimates that teachers’ pensions alone are underfunded by nearly a half-trillion dollars. **SNIP** Note that the savings per teacher derived from the reform of eligibility rules runs $450,000, or more than two and a half times the average net worth of a retirement-age U.S. household. The real value of the average teacher’s retirement benefits in low-cost Wyoming is pushing the $1 million...

Stuck in a standoff with teachers unions, the San Francisco and Oakland school districts have abandoned efforts to bring in up to $15 million each to develop high-quality math classes for upper-elementary and middle school students. The two districts spent months preparing a joint application for the next round of federal Race to the Top funding - which required districts to incorporate student test scores, among other criteria, in teacher evaluations. And because of that critical clause, union leaders refused to sign, as required by the federal application.

This week, thanks to a big increase in its television spending, Mitt Romney has turned the tables on the president and now is spending more on television advertising in the swing states. Buoyed by a 64% increase in his television spending (vs. only 2% for Obama) Romney is spending $22.4 million on ads in Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa and Nevada compared to $17.5 million for President Obama. In the previous week — and for several weeks before that — Obama had a spending edge. In the week of October 1st, Obama outspent Romney by $17.2 to $14.8 million. This...

Exclusive: Senior MF Global Executive Said Corzine Knew About Misuse of FundsBy Charlie Gasparino Published September 11, 2012 FOXBusiness In the days following MF Global’s stunning implosion last year, a senior executive at the firm made a startling concession to investigators looking into both the company’s demise and the loss of more than $1 billion in customer money, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. MF Global’s chief financial officer for North America, Christine Serwinski, told investigators that her boss, MF Global’s chief executive, Jon Corzine, was well aware of the use and possible misuse of the customer...

Madison - Racine Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard can continue raising unlimited campaign funds if he chooses to seek a lawsuit challenging his loss in the June 5 recall, the state Government Accountability Board said Monday. Wanggaard told WTMJ-AM (620) radio host Charlie Sykes on Monday that challenging the results would cost between $100,000 and $200,000. That money would come from the senator's campaign fund, according to accountability board staff counsel Michael Haas. A quirk in election law that allows elected officials to raise unlimited funds in the event of a recount would still be in place should Wanggaard seek a...

Four years ago, hedge fund manager Ken Griffin was impressed enough with Barack Obama that he invited him to speak to his employees and helped raise $50,000 to $100,000 for his presidential run. Griffin also hedged his bets by raising a similar amount for Republican John McCain. But this year, Griffin — ranked by Forbes as Chicago’s fifth-richest man — and his wife Anne, a French-born hedge fund manager herself, are all in with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, telling friends and interviewers they think Romney will better manage the economy. They co-sponsored a $3.3 million fund-raiser on Obama’s home...

The four Republican Wisconsin state senators targeted for recall said Thursday that collectively they have about $734,000 in the bank to fight efforts to remove them from office. ~snip~ Recall organizers submitted more than enough signatures on Tuesday to force elections in all four districts. State elections officials are in the process of verifying those signatures, which could take months. It's not known when any elections may be but most expect them to be in the spring or summer. Under state law, anyone targeted for recall can raise unlimited amounts until an election is certified. In regular elections, donations are...

Where I live outside of Lansing, there are new bike paths sporting shiny asphalt, but the roads are crumbling. Motorists might be surprised to learn that of the 18.4 cents per gallon of federal gas tax they pay at the pump, only about 11 cents goes to maintain highways and bridges. According to federal law, about 10 percent of federal highway funds must be used for projects such as highway beautification and transportation museums. According to a new National Center for Policy Analysis report, “Paying for Pet Projects at the Pump,” the Federal Highway Administration also allocates gas tax revenues...

E-Mail Clues in Tracking MF Global Client FundsBy BEN PROTESS and AZAM AHMED December 20, 2011, 9:00 pm Federal authorities investigating the collapse of MF Global have uncovered e-mails that detail the transfers of money in the firm’s last days, including transfers that contained customer money, according to people close to the investigation. One e-mail chain refers to the transfer of roughly $200 million that MF Global owed JPMorgan Chase on Oct. 28 — the firm’s last business day before it filed for bankruptcy. In that chain, a senior official in the firm’s Chicago office was told to make the...

As the first former U.S. senator to be subpoenaed by Congress in more than a century, Jon Corzine testified Thursday about the “last chaotic days” of MF Global, the trading firm that declared bankruptcy under his watch. Corzine said he was “stunned” to learn that the firm could not locate hundreds of millions of dollars in client money in the days before the firm’s collapse, and said he had no idea where the money had gone.

Penn State alum raising funds for SanduskyTribune News Services 2:06 p.m. CST, November 11, 2011 Sam Stellatella, a three-position player in the 1950s for Penn State, is trying to raise funds for Jerry Sandusky's legal defense. Stellatella has donated money and has urged other former players to do the same. "I told him he's going to need a million dollars to defend himself," the 73-year-old Stellatella told the Associated Press. "He called me back and said, `What am I going to do with this money?' I said, `Use it for your lawyer because you're going to need it.'"

Herman Cain may be the front-runner in the polls but he is way, way behind in the funds. Last night on Erin Burnett's show Cain revealed he only has a several hundred thousand dollars in the bank. Yes, several hundred thousand. "For the quarter, we will report, first of all, no debt. You see, I run this very tight, like a start-up business, because that's my nature as a businessman. And we are going to have -- we will report at the end of the quarter several hundred thousand dollars in cash on handled. Within the last week or so,...

Feinstein campaign sues bank, ex-treasurer over missing fundsBy Mary Slosson LOS ANGELES | Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:59pm EDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Senator Dianne Feinstein's campaign sued its former treasurer and the First California Bank on Friday, seeking the return of millions of dollars in missing funds the campaign believes were embezzled. Campaign officials said the action came after the bank failed to provide the campaign access to its own account records when a tangle of unauthorized money transfers and co-mingling of funds was unearthed. The irregularities were spread across 400 bank accounts and dozens of organizations over a...

Peshawar, 18 September 2011, Saudi government through Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) has donated $1.8 million to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to support the agency’s efforts in building one-room permanent shelters for vulnerable families of Orakzai Agency. Under the agreement, UNHCR will construct 1,000 one-room permanent shelters for families returning of Orakzai Agency, says a press release. The UN refugee agency, through its partner Children First, carried out an assessment survey to identify vulnerable families that will benefit from the project. The shelters will be built in Stori Khel, Utman Kallay, Bezot Feroz Khel, Misti Khel and...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Securities and Exchange Commission may have destroyed documents and compromised enforcement cases involving activity at large banks and hedge funds during the height of the financial crisis, according to allegations made by a lawmaker on Wednesday.

(Reuters) - The recovery of Citigroup and Bank of America provided famed hedge fund managers like Lee Ainslie and Jeff Altman some of their biggest gains last year, but now the smart money is getting out while the getting is good. With Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Altman's Owl Creek Asset Management and other major funds backing away from the banking sector in the first quarter, financials suffered the biggest decrease in sector holdings among the Smart Money 30, a group of some of the largest stock-picking hedge funds. Ainslie, Altman and Stephen Cucchiaro's Windhaven Investment Management dumped their entire holdings in...

Peshawar May 31, 2011, provincial government of Khyber Pukhtoon khawa has demand in foreign funds from Federal Government. Awami National Party currently in government in KPK province. ANP coordinate with Pakistan people’s party in Federal government. According to sources KPK government sent the letter to prime minister of Pakistan and finance minister, that federal government allocated only 25 percent of foreign funds to KPk Province. The funds come for reconstruction of war and terror effected area. In letter that sent to PM of Pakistan, KPK government informed the federal government that mostly affected province of war & terror is KPK....

Public pensions are $660 billion in the hole. Investment middleman Glen Sergeon illustrates how millions more are being lost to dubious dealings.