Tag: Post Katrtina Coast

A Quick Note About the Horizons Development plus Wall Street Meets Azalea Drive

This post from May linked several Sun Herald stories on developers Robert Windham and Mike Adkinson and their taste for large tracts of land in Stone County. That post, which generates continued interest contained this blurb: 

Frankly I think this is wishful thinking. Even if they get enough money to keep the project on life support, it is doomed. The article explains why:

Stone County Supervisor Wendell Patton said the developers are proceeding with Beaver Creek Estates, which he said will have 498 lots on 346 acres. He said they have installed a water tank, drilled a well, paved roads and built sidewalks.

In response to a comment on that thread I promised to ask around. Several months later Continue reading “A Quick Note About the Horizons Development plus Wall Street Meets Azalea Drive”

New Bay St Louis Bridge Wins People’s Choice Award

I received somewhere between 50 and 150 emails with the URL to vote over the past couple of months as people down here are very proud of their new bridge over the Bay. The result was a landslide.  I can almost hear Journey singing in the background……

When the lights go down in the city
And the sun shines on the bay
I want to be there in my city
Ooh, ooh…..

WLOX tells the story:

Mississippi’s Bay of St. Louis Bridge has been named the winner of the People’s Choice Award competition, announced Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) Executive Director Larry L. “Butch” Brown. Continue reading “New Bay St Louis Bridge Wins People’s Choice Award”

New Bay St Louis Bridge Wins People's Choice Award

I received somewhere between 50 and 150 emails with the URL to vote over the past couple of months as people down here are very proud of their new bridge over the Bay. The result was a landslide.  I can almost hear Journey singing in the background……

When the lights go down in the city
And the sun shines on the bay
I want to be there in my city
Ooh, ooh…..

WLOX tells the story:

Mississippi’s Bay of St. Louis Bridge has been named the winner of the People’s Choice Award competition, announced Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) Executive Director Larry L. “Butch” Brown. Continue reading “New Bay St Louis Bridge Wins People's Choice Award”

A Couple of Odds and Ends

First off we’ve been negligent in not mentioning the ground zero equivalent of blog a palooza in the Rising Tide Conference to be held this week in New Orleans. From the looks of the promo this event will be attended by all the finest cyber movers and shakers including our good friend Editilla from the Ladder.

Speaking of Editilla he spoiled us by finding and posting links to several more articles on Cat Bonds today including this entry from the Bull Bear Trader Blog which describes their growing popularity. Now that mortgage backed securities are out of style it seems hedge funds have found the latest investing fad:

For those unfamiliar with catastrophe bonds, they are similar to normal bonds in that you invest a principal in return for periodic coupons. Once the bond matures, you receive your principal back – hopefully. As with other bonds you have the risk of losing your principal, but for cat bonds it is less about credit risk, and more about catastrophic risk. In most cases this is a binary proposition. If there is no event, you get all your money back. If there is an event, you do not get anything back. In return you get a nice coupon to compensate for the risk you are taking. Cat bonds have returned over 33% from 2005 to this May, ahead of the 19.1% offered by the Lehman High Yield Corporate Bond Index over the same time frame. After Hurricane Katrina one cat bond tranche was offered by Swiss Re with an annual coupon of near 40%. An additional benefit of cat bonds, beyond the high yields, is that their returns are often uncorrelated with the returns of other equity or fixed income investments, providing another vehicle for diversification. Continue reading “A Couple of Odds and Ends”

the intersection of federal $$$$ as the basis for prosecuting on honest services -from SLABBED archives May 18,2008 – Revisiting the Indictment in USA v Scruggs

In the interest of we’re all in this together, I recently re-read the indictment in USA v Scruggs. However, it wasn’t until I re-read the Motion to Dismiss filed by the Defense on counts 2, 3, and 4 and the Government’s response, that I began to understand the implied authority in these counts that gave them added significance.

In that regard, however, there is a piece of the puzzle missing in both the motion and the response – the audit trail “when such state or local government or agency received in any one year period benefits in excess of $10,000 under a federal program”.

Only two audit trails could be followed to reach Judge Lackey – and no evidence of either one was contained in the indictment, the defense motion or the government’s response. Continue reading “the intersection of federal $$$$ as the basis for prosecuting on honest services -from SLABBED archives May 18,2008 – Revisiting the Indictment in USA v Scruggs”