Oh, hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you .............

The government is shut down and thousands of government workers have been sent home. But will it save any money?

The shutdown in during the Clinton Presidency cost taxpayers about $1.5 billion in 22 days. According to IHS Global Insight, the shutdown could cost the U.S. economy $1.6 billion per week — and NBC News reported that the shutdown would cost $12.5 million per hour.

Here are seven things that the government, in all its wisdom, has opted to do during the current shutdown.

1. Federal agencies created new websites to tell visitors that they don’t have enough funding to run their old websites.

2. The feds shut down the parking lot of Mt. Vernon, but not the park itself.

3. A D.C-area canal is closed and had all the pumps taken off of it.

4. Angry moms launch full-scale assault to reopen D.C. turtle park.

5. Not closing parks near Democratic senators’ houses.

6. Posting park rangers at the WWII memorial to prevent rogue veterans from getting in.

7. The Department of Defense is postponing the Navy-Air Force football game.

Woodworking for fun and profit

I've heard of Jim Morgan and his simple and effective strategy to make money using his basic woodworking skills. I know a retired couple here in town who spend many weekends, traveling to various venues where they can sell the products they make during the Winter months. They travel, and they make a nice supplemental income.

Jim started his woodworking business with NO capital, a few shop tools, and a lot of nerve, in a small 10x20 foot space and grew it into a 1,400 space in the first few months while still remaining as a one-person business!

MORE INFORMATION HERE

Them whats got ..... gets

COLUMBUS, Ohio - More than 61,000 people received a state paycheck totaling $2.9 billion last year. About $105 million of that was in overtime.

Of those, more than 137 people made more than Gov. John Kasich – who made $148,000 last year.

The top paid employee in the state is a psychiatrist, who made $335,000 in 2012. Nearly $178,000 of that was overtime.

In addition, the data shows that 17 of the top 20 overtime earners in the state were from the Ohio Department of Mental Health.

In a statement, a spokeswoman from the department of health said that a union contract requires the state to pay psychiatrists $65 an hour for nights and weekends but said that is far less than private physicians would charge. When asked why the department does not hire additional doctors, the spokeswoman said that hiring additional personnel would cost taxpayers more because of benefits and retirement payments. The department insists tit is providing services in the most fiscally responsible way.

As a whole, the Ohio Department of Corrections was the largest employer. More than 13,000 employees earned a total of $643 million with $53 million in overtime.

Among the top earners was a licensed practical nurse at the Pickaway Correctional Institute who earned $139,000 with nearly $87,000 in overtime.

A correctional officer in Marion earned double his normal salary thanks to $56,000 in overtime.

In all, more than 2,000 state employees earned six-figure incomes. That is 197 more people than in the previous year.


E. Gordon Gee, President of The Ohio State University's base salary is $802,125, with a total compensation package of $1.6 million, making him the highest paid public university president in the United States.

The Ohio State University pays Urban Meyer $4 million a year. That makes Meyer one of the highest paid college football coaches in the country. In addition to his base salary, Meyer will receive lump sums in 2014, 2016 and 2018 if he stays on the job. He can also earn six-digit bonuses for things like winning games, making it to bowl games and improving player graduation rates. And then there are the perks: $1,200 a month to spend on cars, a golf course membership, football tickets, a fellowship in his name and use of a private jet.

Are we a great state and country, or what? Wonder how many unemployed, on welfare and homeless we have?

Hip, Hip, Hooray = $$$$$$

Jaime Rosenthal, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, called more than 100 hospitals in every state last summer, seeking prices for a hip replacement for a 62-year-old grandmother who was uninsured but had the means to pay herself.

The quotes she received might surprise even hardened health care economists: Only about half of the hospitals, including top-ranked orthopedic centers and community hospitals, could provide any sort of price estimate, despite repeated calls.

Those that could gave quotes that varied by a factor of more than 10, from $11,100 to $125,798.
Rosenthal's grandmother was fictitious, created for a summer research project on health care costs. But the findings, which form the basis of a paper released Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine, are likely to fan the debate on the unsustainable growth of U.S. health care costs and an opaque medical system in which prices are often hidden from consumers.

"Transparency is all the rage these days in government and business, but there has been little push for pricing transparency in health care, and there's virtually no information," said Dr. Peter Cram, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa, who wrote the paper with Rosenthal.

"I can get the price for a car, for a can of oil, for a gallon of milk. But health care? That's not so easy."

Metro Walker Walnut 

GIVE IT AWAY NOW ..... before

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST: Does your family ask you for money when you go back home?

TIM ALLEN: Yes!

KIMMEL: Do they? Yeah, yeah.

ALLEN: Does that ever work, you know? This folds into the government, doesn't it?

KIMMEL: I think it does work.

ALLEN: You can't give people money and help them. It doesn't work.

KIMMEL: Yeah, but they're willing to try.

ALLEN: Yeah, they are definitely willing to. Oh, God, did you bring up a sore one.

KIMMEL: Well, why don't you make an announcement right now that you’re headed home and you won't be giving any money to anyone?

ALLEN: Well, you know what I look at sometimes, I say, “Rather them than the government.”

KIMMEL: I see.

ALLEN: You know, you better give your money away before it gets taken from you.

KIMMEL: You don't really get a choice, though, and I don’t think it counts. You can't tax credit "Gave money to my Aunt Martha."

ALLEN: Actually, you can gift stuff.

KIMMEL: Is that right?

ALLEN: You can. You can give away gifts to your family and friends.

KIMMEL: This to me means you've been giving a lot of money to your family.

ALLEN: Rather them than the government. That's how I look at it.

Powerball jackpot builds to $325M for Saturday

What a life changing experience this will be when I win this ......................I hope I don't have to share it with anyone ............. I want it ALL

Black Friday shoppers in many cities briefly detoured into lottery retailers, drawn off task by the prospects of winning a $325 million Powerball jackpot — the fourth-largest in the game's history.

If you're gonna be a sucker, be a silent one.

I was asked about an old incident the other day, happened at the Palace Club in Reno in the forties sometime during the war. A busy New Years Eve, a big crowd, many service personnel along with many from California up for the holidays.

Someone had the brilliant idea of sneaking under one of the crap tables, cutting a big hole in the money "drop box," and catching the money as is was dropped down into the table before it hit the floor, and that is what someone did. Crowded table, people jammed all around it, and this guy sits under the table catching all the money as it came to him.

He climbed out from under the table and walked away with a pocketful of cash. Eventually someone noticed money laying on the floor and the boxman realized what had happened. They had no idea how much money he got, but he did well.

Another incident happened at Harrah's Tahoe shortly after it opened in the fifties. At that time, it was reportedly the longest "pit" in Nevada. I forget how long it was, but long. Shortly after it opened, a "big" crap game was going on at one end of the pit. At sometime, a "floor boss" approached a table at the opposite end of the pit, all suited up, had a chip "rack" and told the dealers, "Quick, give me all the 100 dollar chips, need a fill on table 2." The dealers were all new, looked at each other and gave him all the big chips.

Hours later, someone noticed they were gone and not accounted for. By that time they had made it down the  mountain to Reno and cashed the chips in a various places. Wrong, stealing, I guess, but I admire people who possess those "gutty" qualities. Thus the term, "If you're gonna be a sucker, be a silent one."

"Used Casino Playing Cards" 

Powerball Jackpot Currently Sitting At $139 Million

The Powerball Jackpot is currently at $139 million, with the next drawing to happen on Saturday night, 7/28/2012.

Drawings occur every Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesday’s winning numbers were 3, 14, 35, 38, 46 Powerball: 16. There were no jackpot winners. At the time, the pot was at $120.9 million.

There were four tickets that won the $1 Million Match 5 prize on Wednesday. They were from two from Florida, one from Illinois, and one from Louisiana. There were no tickets that added the Power Play to win $2 million. There were, however, 568,737 tickets that won about $7.8 million in cash prizes.

Odds of winning the jackpot, according toMulti-State Lottery Association, are 1 in 175,223,510.

My picks, so don't use them, for information only:

1       7     18     25      52                               3

Questions in my mind about Colorado???

A few questions have arisen in my mind since the event in Colorado. I am skeptical of events such as this, and always ask myself, "Why?"

Where did an unemployed student get the 20 or 30 thousand dollars to purchase the guns, ammo and equipment, and where and when did he acquire the expertise to turn his apartment in to an intricately designed booby trap?

US Government spending - out of control

WHEN did government spending start getting out of control.

ANSWER: The first time a government worker, or anyone, had government money to spend.

It was not THEIR money, it belonged to the government. And, people have been taking advantage of that situation ever since. "Oh, it doesn't matter, it's government money, the implication being that there is a  limitless amount to spend, a bottomless pit of money, all, belonging to  someone else. There is little to NO accountability. Spend, spend, spend.

Careless spending began the moment the  government collected its first penny, and it has been going on ever since. Now we are even "carelessly" spending money that is not even ours. Much like a credit card, no accountability until it is too late.

Donate to Dooley Observed

Why Donate, good question, and where will the money go?

Website, advertising and promotion. I am also exploring affiliations with other information sources that are compensated for their involvement.

I want to thank those who have already donated, any amount is greatly appreciated.

I assure all that donated funds will be put to good use.

The DONATE icon is in the left column, at the top, again, thanks.

High-Flying Auto Dealer Employee Steals $10M For Luxuries

Patricia Smith, the former controller of an auto dealership in Pennsylvania, is headed to jail after embezzling $10 million from her former boss in a stunning case of a trusted employee looting the business then squandering the cash on luxuries.

Smith, who worked at Baierl Acura located in Wexford, Pa., an upper-middle class suburb of Pittsburgh, was convicted of systematically stealing for seven years--some $4,000 a day on average--for private jet travel, special trips to the theatre, fancy clothes and other goods, according to the court.

A costume fitting on Broadway? Check. Super Bowl Tickets? Check. There were even trips to the Vatican using stolen money. Smith spared no expense for herself or her family on the company's dime, according to reports from court. The jet charters alone totaled $1.8 million for the high-flying bookkeeper, who officially made about $50,000 a year from the dealership.

I remember .....................

I remember, years ago, I would say,  "Hey, Dad, I need a couple of bucks, want to get something to eat and go to a movie."

Later on, a five would put gas in the car, get a couple of burgers and fries, and still have enough left over for a movie. Now it would probably take a fifty to accomplish that.

In the fifties, in Nevada, the answer to a gamblers prayers was to hit it big in Keno, "a dollar ten eight spot" would get you $25,000.00. Enough to buy a new Caddie, head home with a bundle in the pocket, and live happily ever after.

In the sixties we bought a house with "nothing" down and a monthly house payment just over $100.

Now, "I need a hundred, gonna put a little gas in the car, rent a flick, and get a few things at Walmart."

ECHOS from the past

NCAA 'very concerned' about AU point shaving probe

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — NCAA officials say they are "very concerned" by point-shaving allegations involving Auburn's basketball program and also say they have been in contact with the school and federal investigators since the issue arose last month.

In a statement released on Thursday, the NCAA also says it will defer action on the matter until after the FBI has concluded its handling of the probe because point-shaving is a federal crime.

The NCAA's statement comes after Yahoo Sports reported earlier Thursday that the FBI is investigating suspended Auburn point guard Varez Ward for allegedly point shaving in at least two games this season.

The report cited anonymous sources and said the FBI began an investigation in late February centering on losses to Alabama on Feb. 7 and Arkansas on Jan. 25.

In my opinion this problem permeates many levels of collegiate and professional sports. Millions are wagered on each game, just seems natural that someone wants someone to shave points. Money can motivate and buy results.

It was fun while it lasted ....

Terrell Owens' latest money woes can land him in jail.

The six-time Pro Bowl receiver, who is currently playing in the Indoor Football League, is $20,000 behind on child support payments for one of his children. The mother of the child filed a petition in Atlanta court that is asking for T.O. to be fined or jailed if he doesn't pay up.

The lawyer representing Melanie Paige Smith, the mother of one of Owens' four children, said in a letter to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that they have received no indication if Owens will ever pay for his daughter. "We plan to ask the court to send a strong message, given that he has only paid support in the last 10 months after a contempt action has been filed against him," Kessler said.

This is the latest in money troubles for Owens. Two of his homes in Dallas are in foreclosure. He tried to get his child support obligations lowered by a court last summer, blaming the NFL lockout on his inability to pay. The court refused his request. According to a January GQ article, Owens owes nearly $45K in child support every month.

After 15 seasons in the NFL where Owens became known as much for his off-the-field antics as his ability to catch, his contract with the Cincinnati Bengals was not renewed for the 2011 season. He couldn't find an NFL team to sign him, and he signed with the Allen Wranglers of the IFL.

He can reportedly make up to $500,000 for the Wranglers, which will not cover one year of child support.

The "Sub"

We had a restaurant downtown here in Newark, some years ago, and I used to send out a fax to a list of our customers. Close friend Craig kept all of them, and gave them to me last week. In reading over them, many fond memories came back. Read one this morning that brought back a "Nevada" memory I had related.

In my "dealing" days in Nevada, many stories circulated about incidents that had happened around town. Harold Smith wheeling his Dad around the club on a cart one New Years Eve, the time the IRS closed a table at Harold's Club, Sandy being hypnotized and falling asleep while dealing at the Golden when Baron Von Brenner was appearing on stage, the guy who crawled under a crap table one New Years Eve at the Golden, cutting a hole in the bottom of the money box and collecting all he could get, a lot of good stories.

One I saw, and can attest to, happened at the old Palace, one of the older casinos in town. They had the old floor that was made of little white tiles, very old.

Some friends and I were sitting at the bar one evening, talking and watching the "action." We noticed one of the crap dealers, who seemed to be new, and we also noticed a few of the "moves" he was making, and, obviously, to us, he was inexperienced.  To us, they were very "tell tale."

One method of stealing money, if you were so included, was to wear a "sub." That, being a dealers apron, double layered, with an opening on the side to slide in either money or chips, one way to steal money from the house. Let me say in all my years in Nevada, in the casinos, I never stole a penny from them, that was just not for me. I think much of the success I had in Nevada came from having a good reputation. I was a dealer, box man, floor boss, managed a casino pit, and was in consideration to manage a casino, all before I was 30. I am proud of that.

Also, when I worked out there, we used actual silver dollars, chips were for the higher denominations. We noticed this dealer going to his sub, with silver. A smarter dealer would have "gone South" with chips, they weighed much less.

Anyway, he was going on a break, performed the ritual of brushing his hands, took about three steps, and his sub was weighted down, and broke. We estimated that about 20 silver dollars hit that hard tile with a bang, then, noisily started running around the floor. Gotta hand it to him though, he just kept on walking, right out the door. Never saw him again.

Sour Economy Has Nevada Looking For New Jackpot

by CARRIE KAHN

The site of the demolished Frontier casino sits vacant on the Las Vegas Strip in December. Construction of a new hotel and casino, the Las Vegas Plaza, has been delayed until economic conditions improve.

It's noon on the Las Vegas Strip, and the barker outside O'Shea's Casino is hard at work.

"Twenty-four-hour happy hour, 24-hour $5 blackjack and 24-hour beer pong action going on right here today," he says. Dressed in a lime green tuxedo, he's doing his best to get tourists to come in.

Despite the recession, nearly 39 million visitors came to the city last year, the second-highest number in Las Vegas history. The problem is those tourists don't have as much money as they once did.

One tourist, Genina Jackson, says that after a decade since her last visit, she notices the difference. "Ten years ago, people dressed up a little more," she says. "I see a lot of jeans and flip-flops."

Jackson had stopped along the Strip in front of the huge fountains at Caesars Palace to take a picture with her friend Melissa. They are in from Atlanta celebrating Melissa's birthday.

"The casino is not as crowded. You can get to any table. Before, 10 years ago, you couldn't get to a table," Jackson says.

New casinos being built in Ohio to save our economy. There is also a rumor that the state is trying to buy the Titanic, and is investing heavily  in the manufacture and sale of propeller driven airplanes. Rumor has it also that the governor has been in negotiations with the city of New York in regards to purchasing the Brooklyn Bridge.

Progressive Insurance .... some interesting data

PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE is owned by Peter Lewis: Who is he? Read this...


You've seen and smiled at the Progressive Insurance TV commercials. Well, as Paul Harvey would say, you're about to learn the rest of the story:

PROGRESSIVE AUTO INSURANCE
You know their TV commercials, the ones featuring the ditsy actress all dressed in white. What you might not know is that the Chairman of Progressive is Peter Lewis, one of the major funders of leftist causes in America ..

Between 2001 and 2003, Lewis funneled $15 million to the ACLU, the group most responsible for destroying what's left of Americas Judeo-Christian heritage.

Lewis also gave $12.5 million to MoveOn.org and America Coming Together, two key propaganda arms of the socialist left.

His funding for these groups was conditional on matching contributions from George Soros, the America-hating socialist who is the chief financier of the Obama political machine.

Lewis made a fortune as a result of capitalism, but now finances a progressive movement that threatens to destroy the American free enterprise system that is targeting television shows on Fox News.

Peter Lewis is making a fortune off of conservative Americans (who buy his auto insurance) that he applies to dismantle the very system that made him wealthy. He's banking on no one finding out who he is, so, STOP buying Progressive Insurance and pass this information on to all your friends..

Chairman Lewis' gift helps the ACLU promote their anti-Christmas agenda such as:

· Removing nativity scenes from public property
· Banning songs such as Silent Night from schools
· Refusing to allow students to write about the Christian aspect of Christmas in school projects
· Renaming Christmas break Winter break
· Refusing to allow a city sponsored Christmas parade to be called a Christmas parade
· Not allowing a Christmas tree in a public school
· Renaming a Christmas tree displayed on public property a Holiday tree

In addition to their war on Christmas, the ACLU uses gifts like that from Chairman Lewis to:

· Sue states to force them to legalize homosexual marriage
· Force libraries to remove porn filters from their computers
· Sue the Boy Scouts to force them to accept homosexuals as scout leaders
· Help legalize child pornography
· Legalize live sex acts in bars in Oregon
· Protect the North American Man Boy Love Association whose motto is "sex by eight or it is too late"
· Censor student led prayer at graduation
· Remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance
· Remove "In God We Trust" on our currency

Are we a GREAT Country, or WHAT? The LAND of opportunity ...

Ten years after the Sept. 11 attacks, ex-city worker Natarajan Venkataram says he’s sorry he stole millions of dollars meant for identifying the remains of trade center victims.

He’s just not sorry enough to turn over $400,000 sitting in his bank account in India.

The city has recovered $7 million of the $10 million he and an accomplice stole, but he went to court to hold onto this final portion of his ill-gotten gains.

In a phone interview from the federal prison camp at Fort Dix, N.J., Venkataram, 46, whined about jail conditions and apologized repeatedly for his crime.

Asked about the disputed cash, Venkataram said: “All the issues are still pending in the court.”

The city medical examiner’s office got millions of dollars from the feds to help identify the remains of nearly 3,000 victims.

Venkataram, then a manager dealing with the medical examiner’s computer system, and his girlfriend, Rosa Abreu, siphoned off millions via shell companies and fake contract bids.

When Venkataram learned probers were on to him, he transferred $1 million to his Indian bank accounts, prosecutors say.

Arrested in 2005, Venkataram pleaded guilty to embezzlement and money laundering. He got 15 years in jail; Abreu got six.

Venkataram also was ordered to pay $2.9 million in restitution. Hoping to retrieve even more, the city sued him and won an $8 million judgment in 2009.

“We’ve been using that judgment to collect any other money that we can find of his,” city lawyer Eric Proshansky said.

The city — led by the Department of Investigation — has recovered nearly $7 million from the scheme, including $6 million from an overseas company.

“DOI’s work helped identify how the funds were routed so they could be recovered,” DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said.

Probers discovered a bank in India containing about $700,000. The bank froze the money in 2006, but Venkataram’s sister sued in India to get the money.

In September 2010, U.S courts barred Venkataram and his reps from touching the money.

Venkataram’s court filings have ranged from “contradictory” to “misleading,” Manhattan Federal Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald wrote in July.

He claimed much of the money deposited in his name belongs to relatives and “should not be seized or forfeited.”

He said the money was in his name because India forbids “native residents” from keeping U.S. money in state banks.

In June, the bank transferred $223,000 to the city, records show; approximately $400,000 remains in the account.

Among The Costs Of War: $20B In Air Conditioning

Air conditioners keep tents cool on a U.S. military base in Iraq. The tents have been treated with polyurethane foam to increase energy efficiency.

The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.

That's more than NASA's budget. It's more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It's what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.

"When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world — escorting, command and control, medevac support — when you throw all that infrastructure in, we're talking over $20 billion," Steven Anderson tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. Anderson is a retired brigadier general who served as Gen. David Patreaus' chief logistician in Iraq.

Why does it cost so much?

To power an air conditioner at a remote outpost in land-locked Afghanistan, a gallon of fuel has to be shipped into Karachi, Pakistan, then driven 800 miles over 18 days to Afghanistan on roads that are sometimes little more than "improved goat trails," Anderson says. "And you've got risks that are associated with moving the fuel almost every mile of the way."

Anderson calculates more than 1,000 troops have died in fuel convoys, which remain prime targets for attack. Free-standing tents equipped with air conditioners in 125 degree heat require a lot of fuel. Anderson says by making those structures more efficient, the military could save lives and dollars.

Still, his $20.2 billion figure raises stark questions about the ongoing war in Afghanistan. In the wake of President Obama's announcement this week that about 30,000 American troops will soon return home, how much money does the U.S. stand to save?