The 3 men who pulled down Wall Street

Be sure to read the "where they are now" at the end !! Here's a quick look into the three former Fannie Mae executives who brought down Wall Street. Franklin Raines was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Fannie Mae. Raines was forced to retire from his position with Fannie Mae when auditing discovered severe irregularities in Fannie Mae's accounting activities. At the time of his departure The Wall Street Journal noted, " Raines, who long defended the company's accounting despite mounting evidence that it wasn't proper, issued a statement late Tuesday conceding that "mistakes were made" and saying he would assume responsibility as he had earlier promised. News reports indicate the company was under growing pressure from regulators to shake up its management in the wake of findings that the company's books ran afoul of generally accepted accounting principles for four years." Fannie Mae had to reduce its surplus by $9 billion. Raines left with a "golden parachute valued at $240 Million in benefits. The Government filed suit against Raines when the depth of the accounting scandal became clear. http://housingdoom.com/2006/12/18/fannie-charges/ . The Government noted, "The 101 charges reveal how the individuals improperly manipulated earnings to maximize their bonuses, while knowingly neglecting accounting systems and internal controls, misapplying over twenty accounting principles and misleading the regulator and the public. The Notice explains how they submitted six years of misleading and inaccurate accounting statements and inaccurate capital reports that enabled them to grow Fannie Mae in an unsafe and unsound manner."  These charges were made in 2006. The Court ordered Raines to return $50 Million Dollars he received in bonuses based on the miss-stated Fannie Mae profits. Net windfall . . . $190 million! Tim Howard - Was the Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae. Howard "was a strong internal proponent of using accounting strategies that would ensure a "stable pattern of earnings" at Fannie. In everyday English - he was cooking the books. The Government Investigation determined that, "Chief Financial Officer, Tim Howard, failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae," On June 16, 2006, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., asked the Justice Department to investigate his allegations that two former Fannie Mae executives lied to Congress in October 2004 when they denied manipulating the mortgage-finance giant's income statement to achieve management pay bonuses. Investigations by federal regulators and the company's board of directors since concluded that management did manipulate 1998 earnings to trigger bonuses. Raines and Howard resigned under pressure in late 2004. Howard's Golden Parachute was estimated at $20 Million! Jim Johnson - A former executive at Lehman Brothers and who was later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO. A look at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's May 2006 report on mismanagement and corruption inside Fannie Mae, and you'll see some interesting things about Johnson. Investigators found that Fannie Mae had hidden a substantial amount of Johnson's 1998 compensation from the public, reporting that it was between $6 million and $7 million when it fact it was $21 million." Johnson is currently under investigation for taking illegal loans from Countrywide while serving as CEO of Fannie Mae. Johnson's Golden Parachute was estimated at $28 Million. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? FRANKLIN RAINES?  Raines works for the Obama Campaign as his Chief Economic Advisor. TIM HOWARD? Howard is a Chief Economic Advisor to Obama under Franklin Raines. JIM JOHNSON? Johnson was hired as a Senior Obama Finance Advisor and was selected to run Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee. IF OBAMA PLANS ON CLEANING UP THE MESS - HIS ADVISORS CERTAINLY HAVE THE EXPERTISE - THEY MADE THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE. Would you trust the men who tore Wall Street down to build the New Wall Street back up? I don't think so ! ! !

July 4th

Hello Everyone, The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office would like to wish you a safe and happy Fourth of July. We would like to remind everyone we are still under an Emergency Fireworks and Burn Ban. Division of Forestry has worked over 3600 wildfires in the state since January 73 have been in St Johns County since June. Under the burn ban you can not: ¨ Use or discharge fireworks, sparklers, trick noise makers or any other items listed in FS791.01 (4) (c). ¨ Use explosives or any other combustible compounds or Flares. ¨ Use any other outdoor burning devices or Campfires. ¨ Any other outdoor burning (lawn, debris, trash etc). Exempt from the Burn Ban are campfires in a metal fire ring located in a state park or licensed campground and the use of barbeque grill, hibachi or other similar devices specifically intended for cooking. Like all major holidays the Sheriff's Office always has a vast increase in calls and will have extra patrols on the road. We are asking for assistance with voluntary compliance but wish to remind everyone this is a criminal offense that could result in an arrest. Corporal Diana Bryant St Johns County Sheriff's Office Crime Prevention __._,_.___   __,_._,___

St. Johns County Sheriff's Office Impliments On-line Reporting for Low-Level Crimes

http://www.sjso.org/

Direct link to Sheriff's Office crime reporting page:  http://sjso.org/reporting.aspx

Press Release:  http://www.sjso.org/media/On%20Line%20Reporting.pdf

In an effort to both be convenient for our citizens and to help reduce costs to the Sheriff’s Office, St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar announced the implementation of “Online Reporting” for select incidents. “The challenge of this endeavor,” Shoar said, “is to maximize efficiencies and effectiveness, and at the same time, not sacrifice public safety or the quality of life our community deserves.”

Sheriff Shoar directed his management team to discover options that will allow for more discretionary patrol time and to give additional flexibility in how deputies are deployed. One of those options was Online Reporting, which allows citizens to file and receive a copy of a report without leaving their home. The types of reports that can be generated online are limited to low level crimes where no evidence or suspect information exists, thus saving thousands of tax dollars each year.

At the present time you will be able to file online reports for lost property, vandalism, thefts of not more than $300, identity theft, vehicle burglaries and harassing phone calls. With over 3,100 reports of these types of calls over the past year we could anticipate a significant savings if some of these cases were reported online, according to Shoar. It is important to note that all online reports will be reviewed and approved by a law enforcement supervisor.

Sheriff Shoar stressed that online reporting is simply an option our citizens may utilize to assist them in  documenting a crime and is NOT mandatory. He added, “As always our deputies will continue to respond and meet with any citizen for any reason when they are requested.”

If you would like to learn more about online reporting, please visit the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office website at www.sjso.org, and click on the logo for online reporting.

BURN BAN IN EFFECT FOR ST. JOHNS COUNTY

A burn ban has been enacted in St. Johns County, effective December 29, 2010. The burn ban pertains to residential outdoor burning such as leaves, yard debris, fireworks of any kind (including sparklers), campfires, flares or other outdoor burning devices.

EMERGENCY ORDER

MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT

RESOLUTION

An Emergency Order was signed by the County Commissioners on December 29th it is a Burn Ban for the next 7 days.

The ban prohibits the use of:

• fireworks including sparklers
• trick noise makers
• flares and the use of outdoor burning devices
• camp fires or outdoor cooking fires except those campfires located within a metal fire ring located within a state park or licensed campground or cooking fires located with in a barbecue grill, hibachi or other similar device specifically intended for cooking
• any other open outdoor burning such as lawn, debris or trash burning

Deputies will be using discretion when dealing with these matters but any one found guilty of violating this order could be charged with a 2nd degree misdemeanor.

The St Johns County Sheriff’s Office is wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Year.

Corporal Diana Bryant
St Johns County Sheriff's Office
Crime Prevention
Office: (904) 810-6694
dibryant@sjso.org

car break ins

This is not the first, second or third time I have seen an email from a disgruntled resident. Over and over again I hear about. Talk to any parent though and they will tell you that their child is an angel, but the kids surely belong to someone. If anything happens to your property (no matter how small) residents also need to call the sheriff's department and let them know what has happened.  They usually have a pretty good handle on the kids in the area and the vandelism thats done to vehicles also. They can't "fix it" if they don't know about it. In the meantime maybe people here might watch out for their neighbor's ASSetts. Who knows--maybe one day--just one day those same kids might have something of their's stolen. What goes around-comes around. P.S.   For what it's worth--St. Augustine Shores, St. Augustine South, Sea Grove, Ocean Grove, etc. all have the same problems. Vandelism, cars broken into, etc. knows no boundaries.       I live on Treasure Beach Rd.  we moved here from Arlington in Jacksonville to be in a safe community 2 yrs ago, when we lived in Jaxs. not once did our cars or home get broken into. in the 2 yrs we've lived here it has happened 3 times, twice our cars and once our sheds. I want the parents of the kids breaking into the cars to beware, today I talked to the police and they informed me I could protect my property as I see fit. Today I went and bought 4 shot guns, bullets and birdshot, I figure I'll use the birdshot because its scatters and you don't have to have to have perfect aim, the Mommy's will be digging it out of thier kids for awhile. I don't want to have to live this way, but parents need to step up and be parents, not buddies. please forward this, and if your neighbor doesn't have e-mail, please let them know about me on Treasure Beach rd. I'm the one who is feed-up with their kids.

Replacement Windows

Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with that expensive double-pane energy efficient kind, and today, I got a call from the contractor who installed them. He was complaining that the work had been completed a whole year ago and I still hadn't paid for them.   Hellloooo,..............Just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I am automatically stupid.                               So, I told him just what his fast talking sales guy had told me last year,                              that in ONE YEAR these windows would pay for themselves!  Helllooooo?????It's been a year! I told him. There was only silence at the other end of the line,                             so I finally just hung up. He never called back. I bet he felt like an idiot.

All Bottom Fishing to be Curtailed

Please read and pass on to anyone who fishes offshore:         http://saltfishing.about.com/b/2010/05/28/all-bottom-fishing-to-be-curtailed.htm