Middleman

Re "Tesla sparks dealer ire," Oct. 26 The car dealers and their legal mouthpieces are trying to pull the same shenanigans with Tesla Motors, which sells its cars directly to consumers instead of through franchisees, that the liquor distribution cartel has been doing to small-time brewers and distillers in most states with the mandatory three-tier system. I've got something for these big businesses to try on for size: their beloved free market. They want influence in the courts and state legislatures when it benefits only them, which is the exact opposite of the free market.

Re "Tesla sparks dealer ire," Oct. 26 The car dealers and their legal mouthpieces are trying to pull the same shenanigans with Tesla Motors, which sells its cars directly to consumers instead of through franchisees, that the liquor distribution cartel has been doing to small-time brewers and distillers in most states with the mandatory three-tier system. I've got something for these big businesses to try on for size: their beloved free market. They want influence in the courts and state legislatures when it benefits only them, which is the exact opposite of the free market.

So President Bush thinks that tax cuts that will most benefit those with the most money (such as corporations) will create more jobs and stimulate the economy (April 25). Why not just dispense with the middleman and allow corporations to tax us directly? Bill Entz Granada Hills

With confidential information plundered from some of New York's most prestigious law firms, a corporate finance attorney, a Wall Street trader and a "middleman" bought hundreds of thousands of shares in companies about to be acquired, selling them when the deals were done to net millions of dollars in instant profit, federal officials allege. After each haul — totaling at least $32 million over nearly 17 years, according to federal investigators — the men met in Atlantic City casinos, where they believed they could share their large cash spoils without attracting attention.

Four key figures in the scheme to sell U.S. arms to Iran in exchange for American hostages in Lebanon have agreed to give written answers to questions from U.S. investigators, Israel radio said Monday. None of the four--arms dealers Al Schwimmer and Jacob Nimrodi, Israeli terrorism expert Amiram Nir and former Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General David Kimche--could be reached for comment.

In your article about Generation X borrowing (Dec. 12), one gets the impression that credit card debt is "bad" and savings are "good." Actually, people in their 20s are precisely the group that should be borrowing now. Generation X's borrowing and working to pay it off allows us baby boomers to retire and earn interest on our money. The real issue is the potentially excessive cost of credit. The thoughtful parent will consider circumventing the middleman, lending directly to his children, splitting the difference in rates for loans and savings, thus efficiently transferring the responsibility for work from one generation to another!

In your article on GATT and the farmers (Dec. 12), you state that a Kansas farmer receives "a relative minimum of government assistance," which this year was 50 cents a bushel. Since he harvests 30,000 bushels, this comes to $15,000 per year. I wonder how many other Americans would like the government to add $15,000 to their yearly incomes? I know I would. Subsidies such as these are one reason our deficit is so large. Next year I should just make my tax payment to the farmer directly and cut out the IRS, the middleman.

As a constituent who voted for Councilman Jack Weiss, I read in wonder your mention of him in "Clear Away the Slush Funds" (editorial, May 7) as the one council member proposing reforms. Your May 6 news story "40% of Pet Project Funds Going to Salary Accounts" depicted him as the council member with the highest level of funds transferred to salary accounts. I would rather have read that he currently had available a report on funds he spent for my community. Unlike Weiss, I see daily "appropriate uses" and feel an "overwhelming demand" for funds in my community.

They are the anonymous hotel clerks, courtroom jurors and store patrons who populate countless movies, TV shows and commercials. Hollywood's background actors, better known as extras, are accustomed to keeping a low profile — blending in, doing what they are told, and avoiding the limelight reserved for the stars. But a recent action by local and state officials has thrust the entertainment industry's least recognized performers into the spotlight. Last month, the Los Angeles city attorney's office and California labor commissioner took the unusual step of issuing a cease-and-desist letter to Central Casting in Burbank — the largest company for extras — ordering it to stop charging an upfront fee that they said violated state law. Similar warning letters were sent to 13 other L.A. casting companies.

A decade ago, many people considered Jack Bailey the best of men. He was praised as a humanitarian who had aided thousands of Southeast Asian refugees, hailed as a hero who had given desperate people a chance to live. One missionary called him "the most genuinely compassionate man I ever met." Then that Jack Bailey seemed to all but vanish, sinking into the murky realm where Americans haunted by Vietnam try to raise the dead--the presumed dead, that is.

Is the era of WikiLeaks over? It's been less than a year since the underground organization made its first big splash with the release of thousands of U.S. military files from Afghanistan. And it's been only two months since WikiLeaks began releasing documents from its trove of 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables. But with fewer than 3,000 cables released, the newspapers that were given access to the database have found that it has already reached the point of diminishing returns.

Stung by a scandal in which financial middlemen were paid millions of dollars to arrange business deals with it, California's giant public pension fund announced sweeping changes in its dealing with a major New York private equity firm. The California Public Employees' Retirement System, known as CalPERS, said Apollo Global Management has agreed to cut the fees it charges and to stop using middlemen that broker deals. CalPERS and New York-based Apollo jointly announced the new agreement Monday, six months after Apollo was embarrassed by disclosures that it paid more than $40 million to a former CalPERS board member, Alfred J.R. Villalobos, for acting as its so-called placement agent in a series of CalPERS investments.

The primary obstacle for young adults seeking to complete a college degree isn't that their public schools failed to prepare them or that their colleges somehow alienated them to the point of dropping out. It's money. Even solidly middle-class families can seldom cough up the more than $160,000 that private college will cost over four years. Working-class families must struggle to send their children to public colleges, which cost anywhere from several thousand dollars a year for live-at-home commuters to $25,000 a year for students at the University of California.

A Hamas military commander slain in a Dubai hotel room played a key role in smuggling antiaircraft missiles and other weapons into the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Hamas officials said Sunday. But they disagreed on whether Mahmoud Mabhouh's death would be a blow to Palestinian armed groups in the territory or inspire them to redouble their arms campaign. "This guy was a middleman for smuggling weapons from Iran, not only to Gaza but to Hezbollah" in Lebanon, said an Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issues involved.

Real estate developer CIM Group Inc. has built a reputation as a big-city turnaround artist, transforming dreary business districts from downtown Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., with pricey loft apartments, trendy retailers and leafy pedestrian malls. Founded in 1994 by two Israeli immigrants and an investment banker who once worked with junk-bond king Michael Milken, CIM has made its mark on some of the more recognizable developments in Southern California, including Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade.

A Nevada businessman was paid $17 million by two private equity firms to help them win business from California's giant pension fund at the same time he was working for a La Jolla company that was advising the fund on those investments. The board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System had been informed about the arrangement during a closed-door meeting. Its legal staff determined there was no conflict of interest, and the board approved $1 billion in investments with private equity funds Apollo Global Management and Aurora Capital Group.

Federal agents seized four F-14 Tomcat fighters in San Bernardino County on Tuesday -- three from airplane museums -- after investigators determined that the jets were not demilitarized and were improperly sold or transferred to private companies, including the producer of the TV show "JAG," authorities said.

Chalk up another one for doctors trying to grab back what was once theirs. Physicians Care of California, an Irvine-based network of 1,100 doctors, aims to cut out the middleman--namely, HMOs--by contracting directly with large local employers to provide health benefits to workers. Pamela Heredia, the network's executive director, claims that some patients who rushed into HMOs in recent years are now abandoning them for plans that offer more choices among medical providers.

Beverly Hills financial advisor Stanley Chais, accused of steering hundreds of millions in investor dollars to Bernard L. Madoff's Ponzi scheme, was sued this morning by California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks restitution for victims and at least $25 million in civil penalties. Chais operated three exclusive funds that offered returns of up to 25%. He told clients that he achieved the returns using a complex combination of derivatives, stock, currency and futures trading, Brown said.

A Covina defense attorney accused of serving as a liaison between a violent Los Angeles-based street gang and the Mexican Mafia was ordered held without bail Friday by a federal judge. Prosecutors argued that Isaac Guillen, indicted as part of a broad racketeering case against a clique of the 18th Street gang known as the Columbia Lil Cycos, was a danger to the community and a flight risk.