And what use will green wood be to “artisans”?

Greenwich tree warden demands that the scrub trees chopped down at the high school be turned over to “artisans” for their use. I’m willing to bet no one wants nor can use the stuff, but perhaps if it’s dried a few years in Peter Malkin’s living room it will become a valuable commodity.

 

 

Connecticut’s latest folly

Reader John sends along this link to a Hartford Courant editorial concerning the New Britain busway, its costs and the payoff to Aetna. $569 million (before cost overruns) for a nine-mile route including this:

The state paid Aetna $3.3 million for that quarter of an acre strip, part of a parking lot and a slice of a grassy knoll. Hartford puts the value on that property at about $213,000, or 6.5 percent of what the state paid. Most of it will be used for a station. It paid Aetna $2.3 million more for about two-thirds of an acre at the corner of Hawthorn and Sigourney for road reconfiguration. Hartford assesses the value of that property at $229,900.

 

Hartford’s corruption pales against that of Washington but we’re a small state – our crooks may be more reachable.

Uh oh – another bank fraud case?

(Bumped, to draw attention to some requested editing)

Fred DeCaro, father and son, are under FDIC investigation for their doings at the former USA Bank, based, briefly, in Port Chester. Teri Buhl has the story, and it’s a juicy one, replete with allegations of fraud, general skullduggery and, supposedly, Freddie III, our Republican Registrar of Voters here in Greenwich, showing up at a disgruntled investor’s home with a bag of cash.

An interesting cast of characters here, including that New Canaan developer Girouard, currently incarcerated, a New Canaan real estate broker [who doesn’t want to be identified in this post,  so you’ll have to go to the article itself to find her name]  and the owner of Luca’s Steakhouse. [She Who Cannot Be Named] insists that she was an innocent victim and no doubt she’ll call Walter Noel for help with that defense.

These are just allegations and unlike those surrounding that frisky Frog DSK, there aren’t enough facts publicly released to make a determination of the strength of the FDIC’s investigation.  Still, if I were a DeCaro, I might want to book a room for the Cheslock halfway house now, just in case – it seems that even 26,000 square feet may not be enough space to accommodate all of our Greenwich felons.

Fat Freddy II

Hogs get fed, pigs get slaughtered

Pakistan’s going to Hell in a handbasket

The military fears that its highest ranks have been infiltrated by the bad  (badder) guys and the Taliban has announced that it won’t attack the nuclear arsenal because it expects to take over soon and wants the weapons in good working order. Scariest thought of all? Obama’s at our helm.

Tobacco Road sells in Riverside

168 Riverside Avenue

Sold for $950,000 today. Never on the MLS (an agent sold it to her own client) but I suppose the seller got the best he could. We knew it as the “Blakemore House” growing up but that was long ago and the current owner seemed more interested in collecting junked cars than, say, mowing the lawn. I’m sure the neighbors will be delighted.

FDIC: going after the small fry

 Why is the FDIC concentrating on small, failed community banks and not the real players? You know the answer to that, surely. Goldman Sachs will fight them for years and has the resources to do so while the DeCaros of the world will run out of money and fold. A DeCaro scalp counts just as much as one from Goldman, to a bureaucrat, so why pick a difficult target? And besides, you don’t really think Congress would sit idly by while their pal Chris Dodd or, God forbid, Barney Frank was prosecuted, do you?

(h/t, Teri Buhl)

It’s always in the last place you look

Missing man found in Louisiana swamp. A smart guy who, once he figured out he was lost, found a dry spot and waited for rescuers to find him. It took several days but that’s exactly the advice I used to give my hunter safety students and something kids should learn too. Much easier to find a stationary target than a wandering one. I’m glad he’s alright, he sounds like a cool sort of guy – president of a university in Colombia.