Aquarium volunteer lands at Revere High
Don Pinkerton started his new job as a teacher at Revere High School about a year after he was laid off from a financial services firm.
The 51-year-old Swampscott resident used his time and some well-known local resources to reinvent himself. And today he said he feels fortunate to have weathered a difficult situation.
“I know a lot of people are really struggling, and I have friends who are looking for work, so I know how hard it can be,” he said.
Pinkerton said it was solid support from his family and some money that he had saved up for emergencies that gave him the time to execute a career transition.
There was also a valuable stop at the New England Aquarium.
“It was a great experience,” he said of the days he spent assisting visitors at the bustling Boston institution. “I realized I really like being in a science-oriented environment, and I really enjoyed helping to educate people.”
Pinkerton wasn’t paid for his time, but it was rewarding nonetheless. At the aquarium he realized he could thrive as a science teacher.
Aquarium officials say the past year has brought them a 15 percent to 20 percent increase in new volunteers. In 2009, about 100 more volunteers worked 11,000 more hours than in 2008.
“We have experienced a lot more interest due to the economy,” said Mona Chang, the aquarium’s manager for volunteer programs. “People have more time because many of them have lost their jobs.”
Pinkerton majored in a science in college, then spent 25 years in finance. The December 2008 separation agreement he signed with his former employer prohibits him from speaking about the firm.
“I was happy most days and I was paid well,” he said. “The work was challenging, but it was never really me.”
The layoff was a wake-up call of sorts.
In addition to volunteering at the aquarium, Pinkerton helped out at the Museum of Science, took graduate-level science courses at Salem State College, worked as a substitute teacher and received a state teaching certification.
This past December he landed his dream job, teaching biology at Revere High School.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1231184
Freelancers bag cheap office space
Three or four days a week, Boston-area entrepreneur Hooman Hodjat stops into a second-floor office just across the street from Boston’s South Station.
One day, he’ll use the conference room to meet with potential investors. The next day, he may be found at a table, working the phone lines, with a fresh cup of coffee in hand.
And for all this, he pays just $100 a month.
He’s a member at WorkBar, a pioneering new business that offers office space, like a gym offers exercise space.
Hodjat and other WorkBar members sign up, pay monthly dues and come in as often as they want to work.
Instead of treadmills and free weights, WorkBar has laptop charging stations, lounges and free coffee.
WorkBar director Bill Jacobson said the concept evolved after he realized that today’s offices don’t reflect today’s workers.
“The people who are working at home say they miss the other people from the office,” he said.
So far, WorkBar, which officially launches next month, offers two types of memberships. Community members pay $100 a month and must sign on for a six-month commitment. They get to use almost all the services, except the private desks, which are set aside for dedicated members, who pay $400 a month.
The 129 South St. shop is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
And at least three days a week, Hodjat is there.
He is one of the founders of Pickup Zone, a new service aimed at offering consumers relief from unattended package deliveries. With PickUp Zone, people can have their packages delivered to a neighborhood retailer, who will hold them until the person can pick them up.
As a result, Hodjat said, he’s often in the city, meeting with retailers and potential clients.
The convenience is great, said Hodjat, who lives in Framingham.
“My target market is in the city, so I get on the commuter rail, get out at South Station, and walk across the street for my meetings,” he said.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1191126
Christy Mihos aide: ’Financial advantage’ key in 2010 race
BOSTON — The chief political consultant for Cape Cod businessman Christy Mihos said Tuesday his client lost the 2006 gubernatorial race solely because he ran as an independent.
Conservative commentator and author Dick Morris also predicted that Mihos will beat fellow Republican Charles Baker in the 2010 GOP primary and Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, in the general election because of his opposition to Big Dig spending and the “considerable financial advantage” the multimillionaire brings to the campaign.
“I don’t think Baker is going to be a serious problem,” Morris told The Associated Press in an interview. “I think he’s subject to many of the same negatives that Patrick is. Patrick raised our taxes; Baker raised our tolls.”
The criticism harkened back to Baker’s work in the Weld and Cellucci administrations, when he served as the top finance official in the Cabinet from 1994 to 1998. During that time, the state sought to finance the $15 billion Central Artery tunnel project, which has triggered toll increases.
More recently, Patrick signed a 25-percent sales tax hike into law.
Yet Morris didn’t limit his attack there. He criticized Baker, who went on to become president of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, for helping negotiate a state receivership for the troubled insurer and then taking a $1.5 million salary package from the now-profitable company until he resigned in July to run for governor.
“I wonder how popular health insurance companies are,” Morris said. “Let’s put it this way: I’d rather run a hedge fund.”
A Baker spokesman dismissed the complaints.
“Looks like Christy Mihos is back negatively attacking Republicans again,” Baker spokesman Andrew Goodrich said. “Christy’s negative campaign is one reason elected Republican officials from across the state are flocking to support Charlie Baker and see Charlie as our only hope to defeat Deval Patrick.”
Mihos garnered only 7 percent of the vote in 2006, when he squared off against Patrick and Republican Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey. The Christy’s convenience store magnate is running as a Republican this time around.
Mihos has hired Morris to develop strategy. He is a newspaper columnist and Fox News analyst who once served as Democrat Bill Clinton’s political adviser.
His work with Mihos is not the New Yorker’s first venture into Massachusetts politics. He previously ran Ed King’s successful campaign against Democrat Michael Dukakis, and also worked on state campaigns to limit property tax increases and elect William F. Weld as governor in 1990 and 1994.
Morris said Mihos’s candidacy will resonate with voters because he fought against cost escalation in the Big Dig project while a member of the Massachusetts Turnpike board of directors. The consultant also said Mihos knows how to cut government spending but won’t be afraid to spend his own money promoting his candidacy — perhaps as early as this fall.
He said Mihos lost 2 1/2 years ago only because he ran as an independent.
“It was a basic mistake to think that as an independent in a highly polarized, partisan year,” Morris said. “I think that people were not in the mood for a third choice.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1191857
Boston hosting 1st Latino professional convention
As the nation’s first Latino Supreme Court justice is set to be sworn in today, Boston will welcome its first-ever convention of Latino professionals.
Some 2,000 members of the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting are expected to gather here starting today for their national convention.
A Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau official said this will be the biggest gathering of Latino professionals ever in the Hub.
The association’s Boston chapter – which has more than 1,500 members – is the nation’s largest, said Romina Wilmot, vice president of marketing and public relations for the Hub chapter.
She attributed the Boston chapter’s success to its leadership and the region’s growing number of Latino professionals. In the past decade, Boston’s Latino population has grown 21 percent, to 103,000, according to city data.
“We have had very strong and active leaders, who are very passionate about this group,” said Wilmot, a former advertising specialist for Marshall’s who relocated from Honduras to Boston as a young girl.
The conference runs through Wednesday and association members will be gathering in three different hotels in the Copley Square area.
As attendees gather for their first day of meetings, many will be celebrating Sonia Sotomayor’s swearing in as Supreme Court associate justice.
“I’m sure everyone will be discussing that,” Wilmot said.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1189894
Boston chefs scalded in ‘Hell’s Kitchen’
It was a rough night for the two Massachusetts chefs competing in “Hell’s Kitchen,” which premiered Tuesday on Fox TV.
Fitchburg diner owner David “Louie” Cordio was booted in the middle of dinner service by chef Gordon Ramsay – the only contestant in six seasons to be kicked off the reality TV show even before the first elimination ceremony.
The two-hour show ended with a cliffhanger. Fans of Boston chef Andy Husbands, nominated by his team for elimination in the second round, will have to tune in next Tuesday to see if he’s dispatched.
It was a memorable, if short, run for Cordio, who in one scene doffed his shirt to do a champagne-fueled cannonball into a hot tub.
Now he wants to go mano-a-mano with Ramsay outside the kitchen. “Put all the spatulas and spoons aside,” Cordio, 45, said. “I just want a cage match.”
So is Cordio bitter about his early exit and Ramsay’s criticism of his signature dish? “It’s TV, what can you do?” he said. “Somebody has to go out first. I just think chef Ramsay is a clown, if you ask me.”
The 16 “Hell’s Kitchen” contestants had 45 minutes to prepare their signature dishes for the series’ first challenge, and Cordio made sausage gravy over biscuits.
“Ah, (expletive) me, what is it?” was Ramsay’s first reaction.
Cordio asked Ramsay what was wrong with the dish, noting he sells “5 gallons” of it a week at his 50/50 Diner in Fitchburg. “It tastes like gunk!” Ramsay replied after spitting out a mouthful.
The final straw for Ramsay was Cordio’s performance on the meat station on opening night of the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant. After reaming Cordio for putting the rack of lamb in the oven without searing and seasoning it – and wasting a heaping plate of it – Ramsay ordered him to get out of the kitchen and pack his bags.
But Cordio had a parting shot for Ramsay in his final closeup: “He can kiss my (expletive) ass!”
Tremont 647 chef Husbands, who also failed to win a point for his signature dish, had problems with allegedly undercooked chicken during the second night of dinner. “It was tough, and I definitely goofed some stuff up,” said Husbands, who was hit with one of Ramsay’s “you (expletive) donkey” insults.
Husbands was sweating it in the hours prior to the show’s airing, as evidenced by his Twitter tweets. He went from a “little” nervous to “losing my mind” and “head about to explode” a few hours before.
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More Boston Restaurant News
A new jazz lounge and eatery is headed to Columbus Avenue in Boston’s South End.
The Stork Club Boston is drawing its inspiration from speakeasies and its name from the former Stork Club that operated in New York City from 1929 to 1965 and drew the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway, J. Edgar Hoover and the Kennedys.
It’s taking the place of Circle Plates and Lounge, an upscale French restaurant that opened last October in the former Bob’s Southern Bistro space and closed six weeks later.
Managing partner Ziad Chamoun, previously director of operations for the Barking Crab restaurants in Boston and Newport, is buying out the current owner.
“The goal is to bring back a place where there’s conversation and music, and artists and people from different groups within Boston can come in and enjoy,” spokesman Marc Deley said. “There will be weekly live jazz music, but it will be more atmospheric jazz.”
The 88-seat Stork Club Boston is slated to open Aug. 11.
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Executive chef Jeff Poliseno’s menu of comfort food “with a twist” that’s meant to be shared will be served until 1 a.m., an hour before closing, with prices of $7 to $17. Poliseno formerly worked at American Seasons on Nantucket and as executive chef at Boston’s Vox Populi.
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A little bit of news on the restaurant replacing Excelsior at Boston’s Heritage on the Garden.
London’s Marlon Abela Restaurant Corp., which Himmel Hospitality is partnering with to run the restaurant, has posted a help-wanted ad for a “Provencal-style bistro.”
The Turning the Tables column runs every other Friday. Send restaurant tips to
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1186780
Globe says readers to pay for Web site
The Boston Globe will soon begin charging for its Web site, publisher P. Steven Ainsley told the paper’s union bosses yesterday as the Globe’s parent New York Times [NYT] Co. confirmed in a regulatory filing that the money-losing Hub broadsheet is for sale.
News of the Globe’s intention to charge for Boston.com came a day after News Corp. [NWS] Chairman Rupert Murdoch announced his company would start charging for content at all of its news Web sites, including the New York Post, The Times of London and The Sun, a popular British tabloid. News Corp. already charges for some access to The Wall Street Journal’s Web site.
Globe spokesman Bob Powers said charging for Boston.com appears inevitable.
“It’s going to happen one way or another,” Powers said. “We are looking at several different options, and the goal would be to generate revenue.”
Ainsley also told Globe union bosses the combination of price increases and labor cost reductions, including $20 million in union concessions, have put the paper on better financial footing.
He said union concessions, plus $8 million in Globe management givebacks and the $18 million the company expects to save by closing its Billerica printing plant, have all helped, sources said.
The Times’ quarterly report filed yesterday shows the company spent $30 million to close its Billerica printing plant. Sources have told the Herald that at least one outside party was interested in the plant, but was rebuffed.
Ainsley refused to answer questions about the potential sale of the Globe at yesterday’s meeting, saying his Times Co. overlords had ordered him to keep mum.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/media/view.bg?articleid=1189673
News Corp. plans fees for newspaper Web sites
/business/media/view.bg?articleid=1189759
Nonprofit Globe no easy fix
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Questions raised about George Regan award Hub PR exec denies using ethnic slur
An ex-Boston magazine scribe insists Boston PR man George Regan called him an ethnic slur, and now there’s a call to block one of the country’s biggest civil rights organizations from honoring the Hub spinmeister.
Regan denies calling John Gonzalez a “wetback,” but the writer is sticking by his story.
“It’s 100 percent true,” Gonzalez told MediaBiz yesterday.
Gonzalez said he was working on a piece about the Herald’s Inside Track reporters in 2006 when he called Regan for a comment. Regan represented both the Herald and Boston magazine at the time. (The Herald is no longer a Regan client.)
“I call him for a comment, and he freaks out and he starts screaming at me. We’re going back and forth, and it just escalated out of nowhere and he said, ‘You listen to me, you (expletive) wetback,’ ” Gonzalez said.
Regan said he never called Gonzalez a wetback. “I told him he was very wet behind the ears and I know I’m right,” he said yesterday.
Gonzalez said Boston magazine brought Regan in for a sitdown and the PR king said, “if I said what you think I said and that offended you then I’m sorry.”
Regan said yesterday that he never apologized. “I never apologized because I did nothing wrong. I apologized for losing my temper,” he said.
“I know my business very well,” Regan added. “I know how words can hurt. You don’t have to say anything discriminatory to make your point. And if you have to resort to name-calling, you probably don’t belong in the business.”
The Anti-Defamation League of New England – a Regan client – plans to bestow the media bigshot with its top honor Sept. 9, when Regan will be feted by hundreds at its annual leadership dinner at the John F. Kennedy Library.
The event co-chairs include a bevy of Regan clients, including Legal Sea Foods czar Roger Berkowitz, Suffolk Construction honcho John Fish and Entercom radio exec Julie Kahn.
Berkowitz said he’s known Regan for over 20 years and said he’s never made any derogatory or inflammatory comments about anyone. “It would be completely out of character,” Berkowitz said. “It sounds like someone wants a vendetta.”
Earlier this month, the ADL received an anonymous letter detailing the Gonzalez-Regan exchange.
ADL exec Derrek Shulman said they plan to go ahead and honor Regan because he’s been a tremendous community leader for 25 years. “Apparently, George said no such word or words and there was some kind of misunderstanding,” Shulman said.
Gonzalez says Regan shouldn’t be honored.
“He’s achieved a certain status in Boston through fear-mongering, basically, and somebody needs to stand up to him and call him what he is. He’s a bully,” he said.
Prez targets finance system
Seeks to prevent Wall St. abuses
President Obama’s plan to overhaul the nation’s financial regulatory system received support yesterday from key Massachusetts congressional members who said changes are long overdue.
Saying America had allowed a “culture of irresponsibility” to grow within the financial industry, Obama proposed giving the Federal Reserve more regulatory powers and creating a new consumer watchdog agency to review new financial products peddled by firms.
“This was a failure of the entire system,” Obama said at a White House event, referring to last fall’s near collapse of the nation’s financial system. “An absence of oversight engendered systematic, and systemic, abuse.”
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Newton), chairman of the influential House Financial Services Committee, said the plan is an important step toward overhauling the regulatory system. He predicted Congress will have a bill on Obama’s desk before the end of the year.
Frank, who has parted with the administration over some issues, said there will be changes to Obama’s plan, but he said Democrats agree with the “fundamental” thrust of the package.
U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. William Delahunt (D-Quincy) won a major victory when Obama agreed to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, something the two Bay State pols have pushed for in recent months.
“The plan announced by the president today will protect consumers and investors by restoring much of the regulatory oversight of our financial system that has been systematically dismantled in recent years,” said Delahunt.
But business leaders and Republicans didn’t like most of the proposals.
David Hirschmann, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s capital markets center, said the president’s plan adds an extra layer of red tape without really fixing the problems that led to last year’s Wall Street meltdown.
“We can’t simply insert new regulatory agencies and hope that we’ve covered our bases,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) said the president’s plan could create a cycle of more bank bailouts.
“It perpetuates what we’ve had in the past, said Garrett,” a member of Frank’s Financial Services committee.
The financial industry, including some of Boston’s most powerful mutual-fund companies, have been wary of too much government intervention in the sector, fearing their interests might be hurt.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1179683
US push to overhaul banking worries some
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Massachusetts denies $50M for movie studio
PLYMOUTH — Officials with the company building a movie studio in Plymouth are vowing to forge ahead despite the state’s decision not to provide $50 million in bond money for infrastructure upgrades.
Hollywood East Plymouth Rock Studios
Bill Wynne, real estate manager for Plymouth Rock Studios, says the company is “disappointed and frustrated,” but that construction of the $500 million studio will start this summer regardless.
A spokeswomen for the state Executive Office for Administration and Finance tells The Boston Globe the money was denied because the project will not produce enough in tax revenue to cover the bond payments.
The facility, expected to open late next year, will include 14 sound stages, a 10-acre back lot, a theater, a 300-room hotel and an education center.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1178282
Boston Power Inc.
(Source: Boston Herald)
Jun. 1–About 600 jobs will be created at a new Boston-Power Inc. battery-manufacturing plant in Auburn, contingent on the company securing millions of dollars in defense and federal stimulus money.
Christina Lampe-Onnerud, founder and chief executive of Westboro-based Boston-Power, Gov. Deval Patrick and other dignitaries are expected to appear at an event today to announce that Boston-Power plans to renovate an old 455,000-square-foot Filene’s Basement distribution facility into a manufacturing plant to make state-of-the-art automobile batteries.
Boston-Power, which already makes lithium-ion batteries for Hewlett-Packard notebook computers, still needs to secure federal money, but it’s already signed a tentative lease agreement in anticipation of federal funds eventually flowing into the project.
The state is prepared to invest about $9 million in matching funds, perhaps from its Clean Energy Center, created last year by the Legislature.
Lampe-Onnerud, a native of Sweden and a post doctorate grad from MIT, said her 4-year-old company, which has already received about $125 million in venture capital, is in a sweet position due to the new emphasis on developing alternative energy products.
“It’s almost like a perfect storm,” she said, adding she hopes a retrofit of the Auburn facility can start later this summer, with up to 600 jobs added over the next three years.
The plant, which other states sought to have built in their regions, will make lithium-ion batteries for all-electric, plug-in cars. Lampe-Onnerud declined to say which automakers are interested in her firm’s cutting-edge battery technology.
State officials, who have been pushing to make Massachusetts a center for alternative-energy development and manufacturing, were ecstatic that Boston-Power is expanding here.
“It’s fantastic,” said Ian Bowles, Patrick’s secretary of energy and the environment. “We see it as a cornerstone of our growing clean-energy sector.”
Among other firms, Marlboro’s Evergreen Solar and Tyngsboro’s Beacon Power have recently announced expansion plans in Massachusetts.
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Boston moves ahead in world finance rank
The global recession has actually enhanced Boston’s reputation as one of the top financial centers in the world.
A new report ranks the Hub within the top 10 financial centers in the world, moving from 11th place to ninth place, as many other financial hotspots tumbled along with the global economy.
The “Global Financial Centres Index,” prepared for the City of London Corp., indicates that major investment players across the globe appreciate Boston’s steady environment for financial firms and experts at a time of deep market turmoil.
Previous rankings by other firms usually have Boston in top 20 lists of financial cities – thanks to the large number of mutual-fund, wealth-management, venture capital and private-equity firms based here.
But the City of London Corp.’s study, which was conducted by the UK-based Z/Yen Group, stands out because, in addition to data measuring the amount of funds flowing through a city, it relies on surveys of financial executives who are asked to rate cities.
Those interviewed are also dominated by European executives, confirming that Boston has an international, Old World flare appealing to those on the other side of the Atlantic.
Jim Lowell, editor of Fidelity Investor, an independent print and online newsletter, said Boston is considered a “hidden gem” by some international investors.
“Boston has long been known for being staid, fiduciary (minded) and for its long-term asset management,” said Lowell.
Those somewhat conservative traits have apparently helped Boston during tough financial times.
London and New York remain the unquestioned leaders of the financial world, the index report said.
If anything, London and New York’s leads may have solidified, despite London, in general, and New York, in particular, being epicenters of the current financial crisis. The two cities have maintained their lead partly because many up-and-coming, fast-growing cities in Asia and elsewhere took heavy hits during the current economic crisis, the City of London report said.
Boston was also a beneficiary of the recession, in terms of rankings.
The Hub rated particularly high for its financial “infrastructure” and “market access” to funds and deals, the report said.
How long Boston can maintain its strong, top-tier status is in question.
Cities throughout Asia and the Middle East – such as Shanghai, Beijing and Dubai – are emerging as financial powerhouses that want a larger piece of the funds and jobs flowing to more established financial centers, the report said.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1174535
Deborah Monosson revels in financial risky business
President of Boston Financial & Equity Corp
Deborah Monosson is no shrinking violet. As president of Boston Financial & Equity Corp., she’s accustomed to taking risks while doing business in equipment leasing and asset-based lending. And as chair of the Commercial Finance Association, she’s pushing the dramatic change she initiated last year as the 64-year-old international association’s first woman president.
The risk-taking at BFEC comes in the form of taking on the customers traditional lenders would turn down. As for the change-agent piece at the CFA, whose members range from the likes of GMAC and GE Credit to smaller lenders, Monosson says she has always been candid within the association.
“It never occurred to me not to be outspoken at meetings,” she says. “I wasn’t aspiring to be president, but I was trying to push issues through and wouldn’t let go of them.”
Her “issues” at CFA included loosening the board of directors’ hold on membership in the executive committee – the pathway to the presidency – as a way to open the leadership doors to women, minorities and younger members.
A bylaw change last year allows any employee of a member firm to run for election onto the executive committee, whereas previously only board directors could run. The board is composed of one representative from each member company, typically the CEO, who rarely lets the seat go.
“So all the people who want to hold that board position can hold it for the rest of their lives, but that doesn’t hold back their employees from moving up in the association,” Monosson says.
Monosson is just as bold at BFEC, which her father founded in 1968 and where she has been since 1989. Optimistic about business this year, Monosson nevertheless expects that there will be a few defaults. “As my father would tell me, I’m not taking enough risk if I don’t have at least one or two defaults a year.”
For more than 40 years, BFEC has leased equipment and/or provided working capital loans to challenged companies, such as Federated Department Stores and Rite Aid, and to revenue-lacking venture-backed start-ups, such as The Sports Authority and Earthlink. Based in Boston, BFEC’s customers are nationwide. There are nine on staff.
Monosson didn’t start her career at BFEC but daringly set out as the rare woman commodities broker after graduating from Skidmore College in 1979. One of four sisters, she says she never considered gender a barrier.
“My father didn’t treat us any differently than if he had sons. We took out the garbage. He took us hiking, skiing. I never thought about what you could or couldn’t do,” she says.
Beginning at E.F. Hutton, Monosson moved on to Dean Witter and then left to earn her MBA at Boston University. Her first job out of graduate school ended when the software company where she was in marketing and public relations folded.
“I decided I needed to go into sales because I was lacking sales skills and thought it was the most important skill to learn,” Monosson says. “I went to my father for advice, because he was the consummate sales person, and he happened to have a sales person who was leaving.”
Beginning in the equipment leasing side of the business, Monosson immediately loved the travel and meeting venture capitalists and company CEOs and CFOs. She was not only selling, but also reading business plans and getting involved in the client companies.
“We weren’t just churning out lease contracts like a lot of leasing companies that are just reading through financials and approving them. It was extremely interesting to me that I could work on both sides of the sales and to put on a deal and see the company succeed,” she says.
When her father no longer wanted to deal with marketing and advertising, Monosson took on those roles as well so she oversaw the whole sales cycle. She became president in 2000. Her father stayed involved as chair. “My father decided one day he should do this. There wasn’t a formal succession plan,” she says, “but I knew most of what went on and was fairly involved in the credit decision making.”
Her greatest challenge at the time, Monosson says, was the transition from peer to boss. “It was difficult for me not to joke in the same way and instead to be more careful, to distance myself to some degree. That was hard. For 12 years we worked together complaining about the same things and all of a sudden I realized I couldn’t complain about those things,” she says.
“Those things” were smaller issues such as the procedures that Monosson dropped after her father passed away. “I figured if I didn’t like to do them, no one else liked to do them. They were things I couldn’t change earlier out of respect for someone who started and grew this company,” she says. “A lot of things, though, we still do the way we were doing them 20 years ago because they work and it’s the right way to do business.”
Monosson is upbeat about deal flow this year. January started out well and things are looking good. “This is an optimum time for non-bank lenders because we do lend and we take risk. We’re getting a lot of the deals that the banks don’t want anymore. They’re for the most part good deals, but they’re small deals. The bank can’t take the time to work with a million-dollar deal anymore. It’s not worth it to them.”
A sample deal on the equipment leasing side is the $250,000 worth of test and measurement equipment leased to a company in the alternative energy field with an A round of equity.
On the asset-based lending side, customers are small to medium size businesses with average receivables of up to $1.5 million on a monthly basis that are likely not currently profitable. “If they have strong receivables and I don’t think the company is going to file for bankruptcy in the next 12 months, then, to me, that’s a good deal,” she says.
Monosson is also optimistic about the Commercial Finance Association and her push for a vibrant, up-to-date organization.
“As chair, I’m still breathing down people’s necks,” she says. “I still have a vote at meetings. I am now on the nominating committee and I’m going to try to get on board people who really want to keep change going and be involved and not be afraid to speak their minds.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/womens/general/view.bg?articleid=1168466
Globe’s a tough sell
Newspaper hawked to hometown corporate elite
Several Hub business leaders have been approached about buying the Boston Globe, but so far there have been no takers, the Herald has learned.
Car magnate Herb Chambers – the subject of a big interview in the Globe over the weekend – said he was asked a week or two ago if he wanted to buy the money-losing broadsheet, but he declined.
“Somebody asked me if I would have an interest if it were for sale, but I said no,” said Chambers. “If we were still big advertisers in the Globe, maybe it would make sense, but it would be an expensive proposition. I really don’t have any interest.”
The New York Times [NYT] Co. expects the Globe to lose $85 million this year after finishing last year $50 million in the red. The Times Co. is demanding $20 million in concessions from the Globe unions by Friday.
Suffolk Construction honcho John Fish said the Globe’s fate has been the talk of the city’s corporate set. “There have been conversations in the city about whether someone would step in and buy it,” he said.
Fish echoed countless others when he expressed hope that a new owner would be someone local who values the paper more than its out-of-town parent company.
“I would hope that somebody locally would acquire it,” said Fish.
But, like nearly everyone else, when asked if he would step forward to buy the Globe, regardless of price, Fish declined.
“No,” he said. “It’s not my line of business.”
In fact, Fish said he didn’t know anyone who was interested in saving the paper. This is even after Beth Israel Deaconess boss Paul Levy’s blog rally, Boston Foundation head Paul Grogan’s focus group and public relations firm O’Neill and Associates’ “Save the Globe” rally on behalf of the Boston Newspaper Guild.
New England Patriots [team stats] owner Robert Kraft, another name that comes up when discussing possible Globe saviors, declined to comment on the paper’s fate, but a source said the Kraft family “kicked the tires and ran away.”
The Times Co. bought the Globe for $1.1 billion in 1993. A couple of years ago, former GE CEO Jack Welch and others looked at buying the Globe, valuing it at around $600 million.
Sources have said the price tag for the Globe that has been bandied about – ranging from $130 million to “what’s your best offer” – is still too much, given how far the paper’s costs and revenues are out of whack. Plus, no one wants to wrestle with the unions.
“The negotiations are so volatile right now that I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on,” said Fish.
Yesterday’s news that the Globe’s circulation continues to fall didn’t help to loosen any wallets. The paper’s average daily circulation in the six months ending March 31 dropped 13.6 percent to 302,638 copies and its Sunday circulation sank 11.2 percent to 466,655. (The Herald’s circulation dropped by 17.3 percent to 150,688 daily and 9.7 percent to 95,392 Sunday, while visits to bostonherald.com jumped 14 percent.)
But at least some investors see value in newspapers.
Last month, Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Platinum Equity signed an agreement to purchase the San Diego Union-Tribune for an undisclosed sum.
Spokesman Mark Barnhill, who cautioned that the deal is not yet final, said, “In general, as we look at the newspaper industry, we think there are businesses in this industry that would present opportunities.”
When looking at possible investment opportunities, he added, the firm looks “to see if we have the resources to stabilize the business, and we also look to see if we can get it for the right price.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/media/view.bg?articleid=1168545
Globe unions locked in tough talks
/business/media/view.bg?articleid=1168809
Union leaders mum on talks as dissension spreads at Boston Globe
/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1168802
Blame aplenty for Globe’s decline
/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1168799
Margaret M. Greer, Smith Barney Financial Advisor, Waltham, MA, Arrested
After airport arrest, driver apparently trolled Craigslist for witnesses
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
The posting on Craigslist by a user named “Matron” appeared at 3:59 a.m. on Monday, just hours after a high-powered Wellesley portfolio manager had been released from police custody following an explosive parking altercation with a state trooper at Logan International Airport.
Margaret M. Greer |
Matron described herself as “a middle aged lady driving a silver van” and explained that she had, “an altercation with a Mass State Cop outside terminal B around 8:15 pm.”I am seeking witnesses who were there and saw the State Trooper bang on my car and try to get through my door,” Matron wrote in a posting that was deleted this afternoon following this story’s publication on Boston.com. “Several State Police cruisers pursued me and arrested me on the Mass Pike. Please help me, if you saw this event.”
The description nearly matches the arrest Sunday night of the portfolio manager, Margaret M. Greer, who is accused of hitting a trooper with her side mirror, driving at him so he had to run backward for 15 feet, and dragging him for a short distance as she drove away. The one exception: Greer’s “silver van” was a silver Mercedes Benz ML320 sport utility vehicle.
There is no definitive evidence that Greer used the alias Matron and trolled Craigslist for witnesses who saw her dispute with the trooper. Greer did not respond to a message yesterday seeking comment. Her attorney, Carol Ann Starkey, declined to discuss or confirm “anything about any discussion that occurred on the Internet.”
“Mrs. Greer is taking these allegations very seriously,” Starkey said. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have our own side of the story. It doesn’t mean that we don’t strongly refute what the government’s recitation of the facts has been to date. We are going to let our facts unroll in a courtroom, not in the court of public opinion.”
Authorities confirmed that they are scrutinizing the Craigslist posting and the string of responses that followed.
“Prosecutors are aware of the postings and are examining them for any potential connection to our Logan Airport case,” said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney’s office.
If Greer did post the solicitation on Craigslist, she did not uncover any witnesses — or sympathy — in cyberspace.
“You fled the police?” wrote a user with the name “justanotherpost.” “I am sorry but just by what you have written here, I would suggest you give up looking for ‘witnesses’ to bolster some kind of entitlement you seem to think you have, and, instead, cooperate with the police as much as possible to straighten the mess you have gotten yourself into.”
A poster named “golf22″ chimed in: “I’m sure the District Attorney appreciates your help in rounding up witnesses to testify against you as to the several illegal actions you took.”
And Mr_Twister added: “We’ll all be ‘VERY’ happy when the judge throws the book at you.”
Matron defended herself, saying she was “blocked in by a bus on one side, and cars parked in front of me, and behind.” The chase on the turnpike “was slow speed, and required five state cruisers,” Matron wrote, “I was freaked out and traveling at 50.”
When the posters turned nasty — and one recognized the story from the news — Matron sharpened her rhetoric.
“Wake up people, you are being controlled by a government who thinks they can do anything … When has it become a crime to pull up to the curb to pick up your husband at the airport? Oh, in a bus lane?” she wrote. “I am very disappointed at the antipathy I have received from this forum. I thought the craigslist community was more empathetic and dedicated to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
A lecture followed.
“Why did the State Police come after me?” Matron wrote. “Because it’s so easy! The same reason that the IRS audits every pizza parlor owner in town, but never audits Enron Corporation. The same reason the SEC audits all those you know who are registered brokers, but never audited Bernie Madoff. Why do the police logs in your town fill up with teenagers and immigrants? Because it’s easy for the cops to pick on these helpless people, and so much more difficult for them to go after the really hard criminals. I am distressed that you cannot see this. Please do not think you are holier than me, because you are not.
“When it happens to you, I hope I can be there to support you.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Airport dust-up got nasty, trooper says
Motorist in SUV accused of assault
Perhaps you’ve been there, idling in front of an airport terminal hoping your family member or long-lost college buddy appears before the approaching state trooper shoos you away. Margaret M. Greer was told to move along Sunday evening as she waited for her husband at Logan Airport, but police say she didn’t go quietly – and ended up in court because of it.
Greer, a portfolio manager from Wellesley, allegedly lowered the window of her Mercedes Benz ML320 SUV just an inch when the trooper, Sergeant Danial Wildgrube, approached and told her she would have to move because she was obstructing traffic in a bus lane. Greer merely pointed to a nearby vehicle and told him to take care of that motorist first, Wildgrube said in his report of the incident. He said he repeated the demand, but she shut her window and ignored him.
What ensued before shocked onlookers was a protracted confrontation in which, court papers allege, Greer nearly ran the trooper over as she repeatedly drove out of reach, only to be chased down by the trooper as he tried in vain to wrest Greer from her car.
“I’m not stopping the car! Get away from me,” Greer shouted repeatedly, according to one witness, George Kaniwec.
Greer, 57, was charged yesterday in East Boston District Court with assault and battery on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, and failure to stop for a police officer. Her lawyer, Carol Starkey, entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf, and Greer is to return to court May 13 for a preliminary hearing.
“Mrs. Greer is a highly respected member of the community and has pled not guilty to all allegations,” Starkey said later. “There are two sides to every story, and we strongly contest the facts as presented by the Commonwealth and look forward to presenting our side of the story. It’s very upsetting and traumatizing to her. . . . Anyone who has picked up or dropped off anyone at the airport may understand there’s two sides to the story.”
Wellesley Town Clerk Kathleen Nagle said Greer served two terms on the five-member elected School Committee, from 1995 to 2000, and served from 1995 to 2003 as an elected member of Town Meeting. Greer did not return calls made yesterday to her home and to her employer, Citi Smith Barney.
Greer’s driving record is mostly clean, with one “at fault” accident in 2004, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
On Sunday, Wildgrube’s report says, the trooper got out his ticket book after she refused to move her car and walked to the front of the vehicle to take down the license number. Then, he reported, Greer gunned her engine and sped off, clipping him with her side mirror and forcing him to leap out of the way.
Wildgrube said he yelled at Greer to stop, but she continued driving until she was stopped by traffic a short distance away. The trooper approached again, opened the driver’s-side door, and told her to get out because she was under arrest, but Greer refused and drove away again, he alleged.
Wildgrube said he caught up to her a third time as she sat in traffic in front of the terminal. He moved to the front of the vehicle and put his arms up. She allegedly hit the gas again, causing the trooper to place his hands on the hood. “She pushed me approximately 15 feet while I ran backwards fearing that I would fall under the car,” Wildgrube wrote. “All the while she was looking directly at me.”
Wildgrube said he was forced away from the car again, falling to the ground. He got up, opened the driver’s-side door, and attempted to undo her seatbelt, he alleges, but she started driving away, dragging him along.
Wildgrube said he broke free and Greer drove away, but he radioed in her plate number.
Greer was stopped by other state troopers on the Massachusetts Turnpike, near the entrance to the Copley tunnel.
Although troopers said they noticed a slight odor of alcohol on her breath and found a small glass in the vehicle containing an alcoholic beverage, they did not ask Greer to submit to a field sobriety test. David Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety, said Greer did not appear to be impaired.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said: “If a trooper asks you to move your car from a bus lane, you do it. . . . The trooper gave her every opportunity to do the right thing and she blew it. Now she’s looking at a felony charge.”
Brian R. Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com. 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dragged trooper: Wellesley woman smelled of booze
A state trooper attempting to shoo a Mercedes Benz SUV illegally idling in a bus lane at Logan International Airport was hit and dragged by the obstinate driver, a 57-year-old Wellesley woman, as she allegedly sped off to avoid getting a ticket.
Investment manager Margaret Greer was released on personal recognizance yesterday following her arraignment in East Boston District Court on charges of assault and battery on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon and failure to stop for police. An automatic plea of not guilty was entered on her behalf by the court.
According to state police Sgt. Danial Wildgrube’s report, Greer had a “slight odor of an alcoholic beverage” on her breath.
Greer’s defense attorney, Carol Ann Starkey, declined to answer questions about the alleged incident, but told the Herald today her client “is a highly respected member of her community and she pled absolutely not guilty to all of these allegations.”
“There are two sides to every story,” said Starkey, “and we strongly contest the facts as presented by the commonwealth in this case. We take the allegations very seriously and we look forward to presenting our side of the story in a court of law.”
Sunday night, Greer, parked in a marked bus lane, told Sgt. Wildgrube she was waiting for her husband and rolled up her window to ignore the officer when he first gave her the option of circling Terminal B or relocating her vehicle to a cell phone lot, according to the police report.
When she allegedly refused, Wildgrube approached the Mercedes ML320 to write her a ticket. Greer allegedly hit the gas, clipping him with her passenger side mirror, the Suffolk District Attorney reports.
While she was blocked by oncoming traffic, Wildgrube opened the driver’s side door and ordered her out, but Greer allegedly drove on and shut the door, prosecutors said.
Stopped in traffic again, Wildgrube made another attempt to get Greer out, but she allegedly accelerated directly at him, forcing him to run backward about 15 feet, prosecutors said. He managed to get the driver’s side door open, but as he was unfastening her seat belt, Greer allegedly sped away with him, a report states
The trooper freed himself and broadcast the vehicle’s plate and description to fellow police, who stopped and arrested Greer on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
“I had about 60 people on my bus. They were terrified by what they saw. My legs are still shaking,” a bus driver who witnessed the alleged assault at Logan told investigators.
A Newburyport man who had just stepped off a flight from Dallas said he saw the trooper “shouting for the woman to stop” with his hands extended.
“She kept the car in gear and shouted repeatedly, ‘I’m not stopping the car, get away from me’ ” the witness told police. “Then she gunned the engine and took off.”
Prosecutors said when Greer was booked, she refused to answer questions about whether she had ingested drugs or alcohol.
They also said she denied having been at the airport, claiming instead she was driving home from her work at Merrill Lynch in Boston. Yet, according to her online profile, Greer works at Citi Smith Barney.
Reached at her home today, Greer took a business card from a reporter but declined to comment.
Greer is listed as a portfolio manager at Smith Barney’s Waltham office with a finance license in 18 states. The Harvard Business School graduate and former Wellesley School Committee member lives at 24 Windsor Road in Wellesley in a mansion with an online assessed value of $1.5 million. Her husband, Gordon Greer, also 57, is a stock broker, according to public records.
As a condition of her release, Greer has been ordered to stay away from Logan. She is due back in court May 13.
Joe Dwinell and Marie Szaniszlo contributed to this story.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1162499
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Margaret Greer – The Wicked Witch of Wellesley
http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2009/04/wicked-witch-of-wellesley.html
“a portfolio manager from Wellesley…. a highly respected member of the community…. served two terms on the five-member elected School Committee…. and served… as an elected member of the Town Meeting”
Seems like a nice lady, right?
“troopers said they noticed a slight odor of alcohol on her breath and found a small glass in the vehicle containing an alcoholic beverage, they did not ask Greer to submit to a field sobriety test…. did not appear to be impaired”
WTF?!!!!!
As you read this account of elite excess and arrogance, ask yourself if you would receive the same treatment?
“Airport dust-up got nasty, trooper says; Motorist in SUV accused of assault” by Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff | April 1, 2009Perhaps you’ve been there, idling in front of an airport terminal hoping your family member or long-lost college buddy appears before the approaching state trooper shoos you away. Margaret M. Greer was told to move along Sunday evening as she waited for her husband at Logan Airport, but police say she didn’t go quietly – and ended up in court because of it.
Greer, a portfolio manager from Wellesley, allegedly lowered the window of her Mercedes Benz ML320 SUV just an inch when the trooper, Sergeant Danial Wildgrube, approached and told her she would have to move because she was obstructing traffic in a bus lane. Greer merely pointed to a nearby vehicle and told him to take care of that motorist first, Wildgrube said in his report of the incident. He said he repeated the demand, but she shut her window and ignored him.
What ensued before shocked onlookers was a protracted confrontation in which, court papers allege, Greer nearly ran the trooper over as she repeatedly drove out of reach, only to be chased down by the trooper as he tried in vain to wrest Greer from her car.
“I’m not stopping the car! Get away from me,” Greer shouted repeatedly, according to one witness, George Kaniwec. Greer, 57, was charged yesterday in East Boston District Court with assault and battery on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, and failure to stop for a police officer. Her lawyer, Carol Starkey, entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf, and Greer is to return to court May 13 for a preliminary hearing.
“Mrs. Greer is a highly respected member of the community and has plead not guilty to all allegations,” Starkey said later. “There are two sides to every story, and we strongly contest the facts as presented by the Commonwealth and look forward to presenting our side of the story. It’s very upsetting and traumatizing to her. . . . Anyone who has picked up or dropped off anyone at the airport may understand there’s two sides to the story.”
Wellesley Town Clerk Kathleen Nagle said Greer served two terms on the five-member elected School Committee, from 1995 to 2000, and served from 1995 to 2003 as an elected member of Town Meeting. Greer did not return calls made yesterday to her home and to her employer, Citi Smith Barney. Greer’s driving record is mostly clean, with one “at fault” accident in 2004, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
On Sunday, Wildgrube’s report says, the trooper got out his ticket book after she refused to move her car and walked to the front of the vehicle to take down the license number. Then, he reported, Greer gunned her engine and sped off, clipping him with her side mirror and forcing him to leap out of the way.
Wildgrube said he yelled at Greer to stop, but she continued driving until she was stopped by traffic a short distance away. The trooper approached again, opened the driver’s-side door, and told her to get out because she was under arrest, but Greer refused and drove away again, he alleged.
Wildgrube said he caught up to her a third time as she sat in traffic in front of the terminal. He moved to the front of the vehicle and put his arms up. She allegedly hit the gas again, causing the trooper to place his hands on the hood. “She pushed me approximately 15 feet while I ran backwards fearing that I would fall under the car,” Wildgrube wrote. “All the while she was looking directly at me.”
Wildgrube said he was forced away from the car again, falling to the ground. He got up, opened the driver’s-side door, and attempted to undo her seatbelt, he alleges, but she started driving away, dragging him along. Wildgrube said he broke free and Greer drove away, but he radioed in her plate number.
Greer was stopped by other state troopers on the Massachusetts Turnpike, near the entrance to the Copley tunnel. Although troopers said they noticed a slight odor of alcohol on her breath and found a small glass in the vehicle containing an alcoholic beverage, they did not ask Greer to submit to a field sobriety test. David Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety, said Greer did not appear to be impaired.
I think THREATENING to RUN OVER a COP is IMPAIRMENT, don’t you?
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said: “If a trooper asks you to move your car from a bus lane, you do it. . . . The trooper gave her every opportunity to do the right thing and she blew it. Now she’s looking at a felony charge.”
WHY no BOOZE CHARGE?
What, he forget!!!!?
WTF?
–more–”
Update: This lady must have been SOMEONE VERY, VERY IMPORTANT to have gotten THIS AMOUNT of PRINT in the Globe. Somebody down there know her or something?
Meg Greer
Second VP – Wealth Management, Financial Advisor
Portfolio Manager, Smith Barney Div., Citigroup Global Markets
Margaret (Meg) Greer is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and holds the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School. She joined Smith Barney as a Financial Consultant in 1997, and has thirty years of individual investing, corporate and small business experience. Meg is a frequent public speaker and has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “Good Day New York,” The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes Magazine and Money Magazine. In addition to her business success, Meg is committed to community service and education. She has served as Vice Chairman of the Wellesley MA School Committee and an elected member of the Wellesley MA Town Meeting. She has been a Board Member and Troop Leader for Patriots’ Trail Girl Scout Council, with whom she created the Smith Barney Financial Camp for Girls. Meg lives in Wellesley, with her husband, Gordon, has two grown children, and works in the Waltham, MA, Smith Barney office.”
And check out the SELECTED PHOTOGRAPHS!!
Globe:
Margaret M. Greer has pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting a police officer. (WBZ-TV)
Other:
Let’s see if something (booze) is missing from the Globe report…
“After airport tiff, a plea for help on Craigslist; Witnesses sought to confrontation” by Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff | April 2, 2009
The posting on Craigslist by a user named Matron appeared at 3:59 a.m. Monday, just hours after a high-powered Wellesley portfolio manager had been released from police custody following an explosive parking altercation with a state trooper at Logan International Airport.
Matron described herself as “a middle-aged lady driving a silver van” and said she had “an altercation with a Mass State Cop outside Terminal B around 8:15 p.m.
“I am seeking witnesses who were there and saw the State Trooper bang on my car and try to get through my door,” Matron wrote in a message deleted, along with a rambling missive, yesterday after Boston.com published a story about the postings. “Several State Police cruisers pursued me and arrested me on the Mass Pike. Please help me, if you saw this event.”
I ALWAYS LEAVE MY STUFF UP!!!!!
The description nearly matches the alleged confrontation Sunday night involving the portfolio manager, Margaret M. Greer, who is accused of sideswiping a trooper with her side-view mirror, driving at him so he had to run backward for 15 feet, and dragging him for a short distance as she drove away. The one difference: Instead of a silver van, Greer was driving a silver Mercedes Benz ML320 sport utility vehicle.
There is no definitive evidence that Greer used the alias Matron and trolled Craigslist for witnesses. Greer did not respond to a message yesterday seeking comment. Her lawyer, Carol Ann Starkey, declined to discuss “anything about any discussion that occurred on the Internet.”
“Mrs. Greer is taking these allegations very seriously,” said Starkey, adding that Greer “strongly refuted” the accusations and had her own side of the story for ready for a courtroom.
Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office, said: “Prosecutors are aware of the postings and are examining them for any potential connection to our Logan Airport case.”
If Greer did post the query on Craigslist, she apparently did not uncover any witnesses, or sympathy, in cyberspace. A poster named golf22 wrote: “I’m sure the District Attorney appreciates your help in rounding up witnesses to testify against you as to the several illegal actions you took.”
Mr_Twister added: “We’ll all be *VERY* happy when the judge throws the book at you.”
Greer, 57, pleaded not guilty Monday in East Boston District Court to charges that included assault and battery on a police officer. She is accused of closing her window and ignoring an order to move out of a bus lane from the trooper, Sergeant Danial Wildgrube.
What followed was described in court papers as a battle of wills between a trooper with a ticket book and an executive in a hulking SUV. Matron defended herself, saying she was “blocked in by a bus on one side, and cars parked in front of me, and behind.” The chase on the turnpike “was slow speed, and required five state cruisers,” Matron wrote, “I was freaked out and traveling at 50.”
When the posters turned nasty, Matron sharpened her rhetoric.
Hey, LYING ASSHOLES DESERVE IT!! They BRING IT ON THEMSELVES!!!!!!
“Wake up people, you are being controlled by a government who thinks they can do anything,” she wrote. “. . . When has it become a crime to pull up to the curb to pick up your husband at the airport?”
A rambling lecture followed.
“Why did the State Police come after me?” Matron wrote. “The same reason that the IRS audits every pizza parlor owner in town, but never audits Enron Corporation. The same reason the SEC audits all those you know who are a registered brokers, but never audited Bernie Madoff. . . . Because it’s easy for the cops to pick on these helpless people. . . .
“Please do not think you are holier than me, because you are not,” Matron continued in her posting. “When it happens to you, I hope I can be there to support you.”
Yeah, yeah, CRY ME a RIVER, lady — and THEN GO TAKE a DRINK (that was KINDLY OMITTED from the Globe’s follow-up report, imagine that).
–more–”
And the SYMPATHY does NOT STOP THERE, folks(?)!!!
The full-size pickup truck was there only seconds when the burly State Police trooper approached and blew a whistle that echoed throughout Terminal C at Logan Airport, urging the car to move.
But Paula Anderson just waited. “I was trying to get my son’s attention,” the Saugus woman said, as her son loaded his luggage into the truck yesterday. Then they were off.
Her timing was perfect. But for others, the system of picking up a relative or friend at an airport terminal can be confusing, frustrating, even intimidating.
With federal policies banning parking outside airport terminals, state troopers are quick to move cars picking up passengers who are not yet waiting by the curb with their luggage ready in carts that ironically read, “Go Ahead and Push Me.”
The question is where do you go? Drivers who do not correctly time their arrival, whether they are early or their passenger is still retrieving luggage, can expect to pay to park at a rate of $3 just to enter the lot, and $6 for those who are there for more than 30 minutes. Few know about a cellphone lot where drivers can wait at the other end of the airport.
Some choose to just drive in circles around the terminal until their passenger is curbside. Melissa McCagg of Malden circled the busy roadways three times to pick up a relative after a trooper shoed her away from Terminal C yesterday, after she was there for just seconds.
“They have been moving us constantly,” she said. “They should at least give us a minute.”
This is a “newspaper” I’m reading a reporting on?
Luis Falcon, 27, of Puerto Rico found a perfect spot away from troopers’ view in between two terminals, where parking is still prohibited but in an area that seems to get less scrutiny. Falcon, who had already been shoed away from Terminal C while waiting to pick up his aunt, was checking the rearview mirror for approaching troopers.
“They just told me I got to move,” but never said anything about that spot, he said.
David Procopio, a State Police spokesman, said the federal Transportation Security Administration prohibits curbside parking at terminals as a safety and security policy. He said troopers do have discretion in letting drivers park momentarily, letting them wait if they can see their passenger nearby or if the passenger is just grabbing luggage. Many times the decision depends on the traffic, he said.
But in today’s post-9/11 world, troopers remain vigilant, he said, pointing out cases in which people have parked their car, got out, and entered the terminal, leaving the car alone.
Did she OPINE about THAT WHOPPER of a LIE, Globe?
See why you need to FACE UP to 9/11 TRUTH, readers?
“In this day and age, that’s a red flag and something we can’t allow,” he said. “We have a job to do; one is to keep the traffic moving and, two, to keep the safety and security of the airport.” For some, the system can be intimidating, as state troopers in uniform whistle and holler at cars to move. Some see it as confusing and many as frustrating.
I’m tired of the Globe playing good cop, bad cop.
This guy was a BAD COP in the Globe’s eyes and WE KNOW WHY!!!!
State Police allege a Wellesley woman refused to move her sport utility vehicle Sunday, then drove at a trooper who tried to record her license plate number. The woman, Margaret M. Greer, 57, a former Wellesley School Committee member, faces several charges, including assault and battery on a police officer. Through a lawyer, she has disputed the police version of events and has pleaded not guilty.
Nothing about the BOOZE in the CAR, ‘eh?
Bob Cummins of Holliston has perfected the system after 13 years driving limousines. He has been frustrated by some troopers who seem a little overzealous, he said, and confused by the system of roads at the airport.
Unless, of course, they are ending the life of young Mr. Woodman.
But Cummins, who was picking up a relative yesterday, has learned to use what is somewhat of an unknown at the airport: the cellphone lot. The lot seems far from the central part of the airport and difficult to find by following signs. But it allows drivers to wait and contact their passenger for a perfect arrival.
Cummins waited with a coffee and a newspaper, then wasted no time picking up a relative who called to say she was ready. “It took me less than two minutes to get here,” he said. “When you follow the rules, it runs perfectly, it really does.”
Fidelity wants to hold your hand
As investors reel, the fund giant and others step up their advice-giving
By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | March 11, 2009
- It’s not easy peddling financial advice when people are queasy about opening their quarterly retirement account statements.
But Fidelity Investments, seizing on what it views as an opportunity in uncertain times, will introduce a three-pronged financial guidance program in an effort to reassure wary investors buffeted by the turbulent economy, the company said yesterday.
Fidelity will host more than 500 free seminars for customers and noncustomers this month at its investment centers across the country, including more than 50 at New England branches. The sessions will cover more than a dozen topics, from market intelligence to retirement road maps, promising “actionable financial strategies” for investors at different stages of their lives. Fidelity said it may extend the seminars beyond March if there’s demand.
- It also is rolling out free online calculators and other Web-based tools to help investors evaluate their portfolios. And it is launching an advertising campaign promoting its program, called Guide to Personal Savings, or GPS, a play on the acronym for the navigational system that guides drivers.
The mutual funds giant, based in Boston, declined to say how much money it will spend on the program.
“Many individuals are looking at their portfolios with a fresh set of eyes,” Kathleen A. Murphy, the president for personal investing at Fidelity, said in a conference call with reporters yesterday. Fidelity’s goal is “to make this process easier” for those people, she said.
Murphy cited research showing 83 percent of Americans have not sought financial help in the past year because they feared it would be too costly or was designed solely for the affluent.
The campaign is designed to educate ordinary investors so they can “get back on track with their finances,” in Murphy’s words, not explicitly to sell stock-based mutual funds.
- Fidelity unveiled its program on a day the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 379.44 points, or 5.8 percent, to 6,926.49 in a bounce-back rally. It was the biggest point gain for the Dow since Nov. 24.
Famously bearish investor Jeremy Grantham, chairman of the Boston investment firm Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo and Co., meanwhile, posted a commentary on his firm’s website yesterday, urging investors to start moving money from cash to stocks and suggesting stocks may now be undervalued by 30 percent.
The broad market retreat has hurt mutual fund firms particularly. More money has flowed out of stock mutual funds than into the funds in five of the seven months ended Jan. 31, the most recent period for which data are available, according to the Lipper unit of the Thomson Reuters research firm. That lowers the amount of assets fund firms manage, which in turn reduces the fees they collect. The lower revenue means fund companies don’t have as much money to reach out and give new customers financial help.
“The assets in the fund industry, like every other industry, are down, especially equity fund assets,” said Greg Ahern, spokesman for the Investment Company Institute, a mutual funds industry group in Washington. “You’re seeing the demand for professional advice increase exponentially at a time like this, not only for advice about retail funds but about 401(k)s and other retirement funds.”
- Analysts said mutual fund companies and other financial firms have stepped up their hand-holding in recent months as the market has tumbled and the financial crisis has deepened, sending out investment newsletters, sponsoring Internet seminars called “Webinars,” and having more frequent phone conversations with rattled customers.
Other firms, such as Vanguard Group and T. Rowe Price, also host free seminars, though they are usually restricted to customers, and offer their own online planning tools. “We are continually coming up with new analyses helping people prepare for retirement and manage through this environment,” said Brian Lewbart, a spokesman for T. Rowe Price, a mutual funds firm based in Baltimore.
Fidelity’s program may be unique, analysts said, not only because it is backed by advertising but because it is tailored to investors – including noncustomers – spooked by the recession. The campaign, reaching out to individual investors and employees who are investing retirement funds through managed workplace accounts, is following the playbook of businesses that seek to capitalize on bad conditions to boost their market share in downturns, they said.
- “A lot of fund firms are ramping up communications,” said Dan Sondhelm, partner at SunStar Strategies, an Arlington, Va., marketing consulting firm for the financial industry. “They’re getting more phone calls and Web hits than ever because investors are scared. But not a lot of firms can afford to invest in advertising right now when their revenue is down 50 or 60 percent” because of the stock market slump.
Fidelity said details of its program, including its interactive online calculators and the times and locations of its educational seminars, will be posted on its website, www.fidelity.com.
Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.
A Marblehead investment adviser who allegedly defrauded two of his elderly clients of a combined $750,000 was charged Monday with wire fraud.
Ryan Nestor, 32, formerly was registered with an affiliate of Mass Mutual, according to U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan’s office, which brought the criminal case. He worked out of a Boston office.
Prosecutors said Nestor invested funds in what the government called a “massive ponzi scheme,” planning to keep some of the proceeds. His clients allegedly did not know how the money was being invested.
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Feds say adviser defrauded elderly clients
By Julie Manganis
Staff writer
MARBLEHEAD — An investment adviser from Marblehead has been charged with defrauding two elderly investors by putting their money in what prosecutors say turned out to be a massive Ponzi scheme.
Ryan Nestor, 32, was cited yesterday in a two-count information charging him with wire fraud.
Prosecutors say he defrauded the clients out of more than $750,000 by investing their money in a company that was later sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Nestor, who runs a business called Harbor Point Capital LLC, was a former registered representative for a Mass Mutual-related business. Prosecutors allege that Nestor “misappropriated” the money by investing two clients’ funds in what turned out to be a massive Ponzi scheme, without the knowledge or consent of his clients.
The two clients live on Martha’s Vineyard. According to the information filed in U.S. District Court, Nestor, in April and May 2007, invested their money in a California-based company called AOB Commerce Inc., which purported to make loans to businesses in Asia.
Prosecutors allege that Nestor made investments on behalf of both clients, $170,000 for one client and $590,000 for the other in AOB by forging their signatures on authorizations to wire money from their accounts to a bank in California.
Nestor allegedly had an agreement with AOB under which he would receive a portion of the anticipated return on the investment.
A month later, in June 2007, the SEC sued AOB, alleging that it was basically a giant Ponzi scheme that used investor funds to pay other investors.
If convicted, Nestor could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each of the two counts.
Prosecutors are also seeing the forfeiture of Nestor’s home at 51 Bubier Road in Marblehead, which he purchased in 2007 for $725,000.
Generally, when prosecutors file an information, it means a defendant has waived his right to have the case presented to a grand jury for indictment.
His lawyer, Peter Krupp, said last night that Nestor “had no knowledge the investment he made on behalf of his clients was not legitimate. In fact, he invested and lost his own money in that investment.”
“Mr. Nestor has cooperated with the government throughout this investigation and deeply regrets the losses suffered by his clients,” Krupp went on to say.
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Wicked Local Marblehead
Marblehead – A Marblehead investment advisor was charged today with wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud two of his clients.
Ryan Nestor, 32, of Marblehead has been charged in a two-count information alleging that Nestor defrauded two investment clients out of more than $750,000, announced United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Warren T. Bamford, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Field Division.
According to the information, Nestor, a former registered representative for a Mass-Mutual-related entity, misappropriated more than $750,000 in client funds by investing those funds, without the knowledge or consent of his two elderly victims, in an entity that turned out to be a massive Ponzi scheme. According to investigators, Nestor invested the client funds pursuant to an agreement whereby Nestor expected to receive a portion of the returns on the improper investments.
If convicted, Nestor faces up to 30 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release and a $1,000,000 fine on each charge.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Field Division investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah E. Walters of Sullivan’s Economic Crimes Unit is prosecuting it.
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Boston Herald
BOSTON — A Massachusetts investment advisor has been charged in a scheme to defraud two clients out of more than $750,000.
Ryan Nestor of Marblehead was accused Monday of misappropriating the money by investing it in California-based AOB Commerce Inc., which purported to make loans to companies in Asia.
In 2007 the Securities and Exchange Commission accused AOB of using invested funds in a Ponzi scheme, to repay interest due to other investors. Prosecutors said Nestor expected to receive part of the returns. AOB has said it believed it was following the law.
Nestor’s attorney, Peter Krupp, said Nestor did not know the investment he made on behalf of his clients was not legitimate and “deeply regrets” their losses. Krupp said Nestor also lost some of his own money and is cooperating with the government.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1157415
