Free Republic

Kirk Kerkorian, an eighth-grade dropout who traded his way to a $15-billion fortune and for a time was the richest person in Los Angeles, has died. He was 98. Kerkorian’s death was confirmed Tuesday by Anthony Mandekic, the CEO of Kerkorian’s company, Tracinda Corp. Kerkorian died Monday evening at his home in Beverly Hills.

That Bill Clinton is a serial adulterer is not news. That Clinton may have been involved with underage sex slaves is new. A new lawsuit has revealed the extent of former President Clinton's friendship with a fundraiser who was later jailed for having sex with an underage prostitute. Bill Clinton's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who served time in 2008 for his illegal sexual partners, included up multiple trips to the onetime billionaire's private island in the Caribbean where underage girls were allegedly kept as sex slaves. The National Enquirer has released new details about the two men's friendship, which seems...

s President Obama’s birth certificate a forgery? Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., believes it is. He recently held a press conference in Phoenix to discuss the findings of a new 10-page report. Mr. Arpaio’s investigators have come to a stunning conclusion: The long-form birth certificate Mr. Obama released last year is a “computer-generated forgery.” With the exception of The Washington Times, however, no major U.S. media outlet reported this bombshell story. The liberal press corps is desperately trying to suppress any discussion of Forgerygate — potentially one of the biggest scandals in American history. The media class is...

NEW YORK – Billionaire Donald Trump is heaping praise and encouragement on Sheriff Joe Arpaio for the Arizona lawman’s probe into the authenticity of President Obama’s purported birth certificate and his eligibility for office.

I just finished Watching Sheriff Arpaio's press conference. The Sheriff's posse has concluded that the document was created on a computer and is therefore a forgery. I will once again point out that if Obama was adopted, he would get a replacement birth certificate that will be designed to look like an original 1961 birth certificate, but it will in fact have been created by the Department of Health in the State of Hawaii at the Direction of an Hawaiian State Judge. "The Obama was Adopted" theory addresses the "forgery" issue head on, and precludes it from being a crime....

Please attend hearing if you can.

6 Apr 2009 MGM hires bank to sell casino assets: Source NEW YORK: MGM Mirage to advise on selling a number of its casinos, and is talking to potential buyers about the assets, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday. The No. 2 casino operator, controlled by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, is grappling with weak consumer demand and reduced access to credit. The casino firm is hoping to raise money to meet debt payments and also to fund a troubled project it jointly owns with Dubai World called CityCenter, the source said. MGM Mirage, which said in March that...

Fitch Ratings on Monday cut its ratings on MGM Mirage (MGM.N) to one step above default and warned a distressed debt exchange of the casino operator's bonds "appears imminent or inevitable." Fitch cut MGM's debt rating three notches to 'C', an extremely speculative grade, from "CCC", and said it was unable to give an outlook because of the debt's high level of risk. MGM last week reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.15 billion and said its banks had agreed to waive debt covenants through May 15. Earlier in March, it warned that auditors had substantial doubt about the company's ability...

LOS ANGELES - Former Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano and his entertainment lawyer co-defendant were convicted Friday of charges linked to the wiretapping of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian’s former wife in a child support battle. Pellicano and attorney Terry Christensen were each convicted of conspiracy to commit wiretapping. Pellicano was also convicted of wiretapping and Christensen was convicted of aiding and abetting a wiretap. “We are disappointed, think the jury is wrong, and we will be appealing,” said Patricia Glaser, Christensen’s attorney and law partner.

Among the findings: * Only 34 percent of McCain voters, 42 percent of Clinton voters, and 52 percent of Obama voters correctly identified their candidate as favoring eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements. * Of McCain voters, 35 percent mistakenly thought he favored enforcement that would cause illegals to return home, another 10 percent thought he wanted mass deportations, and 21 percent didn’t know his position.

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian and MGM’s Board of Directors are expected to announce today (WED) that certain members of the Royal Family of Dubai- a Mid-East oil-rich kingdom - are buying into MGM Mirage and its $7-billion City Center hotel-condo complex. My Wall Street sources are abuzz this morning saying the multi-billion dollar deals signal the next phase of corporate takeovers and foreign investment into the booming Vegas gaming and hospitality business.Kirkorian’s company, Tracinda that owns his share of MGM is reducing his stake from 54.15% to 51.65% in the transaction and Wall Street believes that Dubai World will ultimately buy...

The head of the Canadian Auto Workers Union says he will try to thwart billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's bid for Chrysler, fearing Kerkorian will cost thousands of workers their jobs. CAW President Buzz Hargrove said Tuesday that Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp., as well as private equity investors who are studying Chrysler, have a history of hurting workers. "We don't have much confidence or trust in Mr. Kerkorian," Hargrove said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "He's made billions by coming in, buying low, cutting jobs and throwing people out of work, then selling," Hargrove said. The CAW represents about...

DETROIT — Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. on Thursday made a $4.5 billion cash offer for DaimlerChrysler AG's (DCX) troubled U.S.-based Chrysler unit. Tracinda in a statement said it wants "to build and strengthen" the troubled automaker and "will offer the UAW and Chrysler management the opportunity to participate as equity partners in the transaction." DaimlerChrysler has been exploring the possibility of selling the Chrysler division. Han Tjan, head of corporate communications for DaimlerChrysler in New York, said the German-American automaker is talking with possible partners about a sale and that the chairman is satisfied with the process. "All...

A federal grand jury on Wednesday returned a revised indictment in a Hollywood wiretapping scandal that chronicles further conversations between private investigator Anthony Pellicano and an attorney representing billionaire Kirk Kerkorian. The new indictment comes more than a year after initial charges were filed in the case and six months before trial is expected to begin. Prosecutors promised another indictment was forthcoming but no new defendants and charges were included in the latest version. It does include detailed discussions between Pellicano, 62, and Terry Christensen, an attorney who represented Kirkorian in a child-support battle with his ex-wife. Prosecutors accused Christensen...

The billionaire offered to buy $825 million in MGM Mirage shares at the same time he's said to be selling off shares of the Detroit giant. In the end, it appears that billionaire Kirk Kerkorian has decided upping his investments in Las Vegas is a better gamble than trying to fix General Motors (GM). On the same day, Nov. 22, that Kerkorian's company, Tracinda, said it is tendering an offer to buy $825 million in MGM Mirage (MGM) shares, it also said it is selling off a chunk of its GM stock, reducing its stake in the automaker from 9.9%...

DETROIT, Michigan, Oct 5, 2006 (AFP) - General Motors Corp chief executive Rick Wagoner will likely face renewed pressure from key investor Kirk Kerkorian to improve GM's fortunes after GM and Renault-Nissan said Wednesday that they had ended talks on a possible alliance. Kerkorian, a billionaire investor and GM's largest individual shareholder, had proposed such a global alliance in June in a bid to boost GM's ailing operations. However, he is likely to be disappointed by the announcement that the alliance talks have ended after GM insisted on a hefty cash payment, which it had sought to compensate it as...

Los Angeles -- A lawyer indicted in a federal wiretapping case was sued Wednesday by an attorney who represented billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's former wife during a child custody battle four years ago. Stephen Kolodny filed the lawsuit in Superior Court against Terry Christensen, a partner at Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Weil & Shapiro. The suit accuses Christensen and the law firm of invasion of privacy, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Kolodny is seeking general, special and punitive damages. Messages left for Christensen and Kolodny's attorney were not immediately returned Wednesday. Christensen is awaiting trial with six other...

DETROIT - Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian could seize control of General Motors Corp. easily with help from automakers Nissan and Renault. ADVERTISEMENT Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. owns 9.9 percent of GM's shares. If Renault SA of France and Nissan Motor Co. of Japan each buy stakes of up to 10 percent, they collectively would be the largest shareholder and could have their way with the icon of American industry, analysts said on Wednesday. With such control, the disgruntled Kerkorian could oust GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner and replace him with Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of both Renault and Nissan....

DETROIT -- General Motors convened an emergency board meeting Friday to discuss a proposal by shareholder Kirk Kerkorian to form an alliance between GM and Renault-Nissan, say two sources close to the board. The hastily arranged meeting suggests that GM's board is treating Kerkorian's proposal with urgency. A GM spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. In a securities filing, Kerkorian says that the Renault-Nissan alliance is receptive to buying "a significant minority interest" in GM. The filing also says that Kerkorian's investment company, Tracinda Corp., of Beverly Hills, Calif., has discussed the matter with Carlos Ghosn, CEO of...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California man on Friday admitted paying ex-private eye Anthony Pellicano to intercept phone calls, becoming the first defendant to say in open court he hired Pellicano to engage in wiretapping. George Kalta, one of 13 people charged so far in the federal wiretap case surrounding Pellicano that has become a major scandal in Tinseltown, implicated the Hollywood sleuth before a federal judge as he pleaded guilty to conspiracy. The 37-year-old owner of a wholesale lighting business was accused in a U.S. District Court indictment of paying Pellicano $25,000 in 2001 to eavesdrop on a woman...