Sounds From The Basement

In Case You Have Not Heard

Hennepin County Family Court Judge Jay Quam had former auto mogul Denny Hecker handcuffed and jailed Tuesday for failing to provide adequate financial information and not paying around $10,000 in support to his second wife, Sandra Hecker.

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Help Me!

Who Doesn't Love Pudding?

Jell-O Pudding Refund Scheme Backfires on Married Couple

Like most people, Alexander Clement, 68, and his 64-year-old wife Christine Clement, love Jello-O brand pudding. Unfortunately, it seems the luxury dessert item was simply beyond their means. Not content to placate their expensive tastes with some vulgar Brand X generic pudding, the Clements devised a fool-proof scheme to eat unlimited Jell-O pudding without winding up in the poorhouse. And they would have gotten away with it, too—if it wasn't for those meddling supermarket managers.more

Strange Airports

This is the airport in Gibraltar.  For more strange airports, click here

Wouldn't You Like To Live Here?

You Can't Catch Me

Denny Had To Sell His Yacht and This is All He has Left

The Rage Is Not About Health Care

THERE were times when last Sunday’s great G.O.P. health care implosion threatened to bring the thrill back to reality television. On ABC’s “This Week,” a frothing and filibustering Karl Rove all but lost it in a debate with the Obama strategist David Plouffe. A few hours later, the perennially copper-faced Republican leader John Boehner revved up his “Hell no, you can’t!” incantation in the House chamber — instant fodder for a new viral video remixing his rap with will.i.am’s “Yes, we can!” classic from the campaign. Boehner, having previously likened the health care bill to Armageddon, was now so apoplectic you had to wonder if he had just discovered one of its more obscure revenue-generating provisions, a tax on indoor tanning salons.more from the New York Times

Our Defense Department In Action

It was just a single contract for a single job on a single base in Iraq. The Department of Defense agreed to pay the megacontractor KBR $5 million a year to repair tactical vehicles, from Humvees to big rigs, at Joint Base Balad, a large airfield and supply center north of Baghdad. Yet according to a new Pentagon report [PDF], what the military got was as many as 144 civilian mechanics, each doing as little as 43 minutes of work a month, with virtually no oversight. The report, issued March 3 by the DOD's inspector general, found that between late 2008 and mid-2009, KBR performed less than 7 percent of the work it was expected to do, but still got paid in full.

Click here for full article from Mother Jones

Is This Really Higher Education?

LSU Chancellor Proposes On-Campus Brewery

Students at a southern university that perennially tops lists of party schools may soon have the opportunity to uphold their institution's reputation with 12 added ounces of collegiate pride. The chancellor at Louisiana State University recently unveiled a proposal to build a microbrewery on campus. The facility would serve as a laboratory for food science students and a training center for aspiring brewmasters. "At some schools around the country, they have mini breweries on campus," says president and CEO of the LSU Alumni Association, Charlie Roberts, pausing to clarify his pronunciation: "That's m-i-n-i breweries, not m-a-n-y," he adds helpfully. According to Roberts, Chancellor Michael Martin believes an LSU-branded brew could contribute significantly to the school's marketing and generate revenue for its programs. Planning's still in a preliminary stage, so nobody's quite sure yet what kind of beer might bear the LSU name. "I'm not even familiar with the different types, light and dark," Roberts admits, "but we joked and said we'd make a purple-and-gold beer." The school is still grappling with legal and logistical hurdles, including how to make the beer available for sale on campus. But Roberts is sure tailgaters and other LSU fans set on celebrating game day in proper Fightin' Tiger style would somehow track down the signature student-made ale. "It would be a great conversation piece," he says. Not surprisingly, students have been abuzz about the potential project since it was announced in the campus newspaper. "They expressed interest," Roberts says. "They expressed 'is it real?' and they expressed 'are (administrators) sincere?' Typical student reaction."