Dallas-based Highland Capital shuts down two key funds

The U.S. financial crisis claimed its latest North Texas victim Thursday, as Dallas-based Highland Capital Management LP told its investors it would shut down two key funds following losses on risky loans, according to Bloomberg News.

Highland said it would close down its flagship Highland Crusader Fund as well as its Highland Credit Strategies Fund, according to Bloomberg.

The funds have assets of more than $1.5 billion, Bloomberg said. Highland had some $37 billion in assets under management as of June 30.

A spokesperson for Highland was not immediately available Thursday morning.

The credit strategies fund, which specialized in buying high-yield loans and distressed assets, experienced “unprecedented market volatility and disruption,” according to a letter Highland sent to its investors, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg.

Highland said it would sell 20 percent of that fund’s assets during the next six months, and another 20 percent in the following six-month period. It will sell the remaining assets in the next few years.

Crusader first ran into trouble during the summer, as it saw a significant increase in redemptions, or requests from investors who wanted to take their money out.

Highland said then it would honor the requests but would need up to nine months to give investors their money back.

Source:  Dallas News

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What is a Litmus test. Wikipedia

Litmus test (politics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Political litmus test)

A litmus test is a question asked of a potential candidate for high office, the answer to which would determine whether the nominating official would choose to proceed with the appointment or nomination. (The expression is a metaphor based on the litmus test in chemistry.) Those who must approve a nominee, such as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, may also be said to apply a litmus test to determine whether the nominee will receive their vote. In these contexts, the phrase comes up most often with respect to nominations to the judiciary.

Wiki

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Air Angels Fatal Crash Kills Infant Girl, Crew in Chicago

Four people, including a one-year-old girl, have perished in an Air Angels flight crash in Chicago en-route to a children's hospital.

The Air Angels emergency medical transport flight, a Bell 222 helicopter, was en-route to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago from Valley West Hospital in Sandwich when it crashed to the ground.

The helicopter crashed around midnight on October 15 in a vacant corn field in east Aurora, killing all passengers on-board as the vessel burst into flames.

Witnesses claim the helicopter crashed into a 750-foot high radio transmission tower in midair, exploding before hitting the ground - and exploding again.

The little girl was being transported because of her epileptic seizures.

Source:  Post Chronicle.

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North American Free Trade Agreement

NAFTA

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The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Obama's 'Trillion Dollar' Spending Plan

"Under Barack Obama's plan, the government would spend a trillion dollars more, even after the bailout. A trillion dollars. Who pays? You do. New taxes. New spending. New debt. Barack Obama's plan: It will make the problem worse."

Republican National Committee Ad, Septemebr 30, 2008

A new GOP ad claims that Barack Obama is planning to spend "a trillion dollars" in new government programs, such as health care and investments in green technology. John McCain has made a very similar claim. In a campaign stop Monday, in Columbus, Ohio, the Republican presidential candidate said that his Democratic rival was proposing "more than $860 million" in new spending. The Obama camp contests the claim. So what is the truth?

The Facts

There is clearly a significant philosophical difference between the two candidates on taxing and spending. Independent analyses show that McCain would raise less money in taxes than Obama, but he would also spend less. According to the independent Tax Policy Center, neither candidate does anything significant to curb the projected increase in the size of the national debt by trillions of dollars over the next decade.

The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget calculates that Obama has promised a total of $990 billion in new spending over his first four-year term. At the same time, he has also proposed spending cuts that amount to around $989 billion, so the net cost roughly balances out. The debt will continue to increase, more or less in line with current projections, based on keeping most of the Bush tax cuts.

"Obama has talked about a lot of new spending initiatives, but he has also talked about new ways to curb spending," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee, whose detailed budget analyses are available here. "I give him points for holding the line."

A very different calculation has been made by the conservative National Taxpayers Union, which has compiled a much more detailed list of the two candidates' proposed spending plans. According to NTU calculations, Obama is proposing net spending increases of around $292 billion a year, or more than $1 trillion over four years.

The NTU Foundation tally includes many smaller spending proposals (less than $2 billion each) ignored by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Together, these campaign promises add up to tens of billions of dollars a year. But that by itself is not sufficient to explain the discrepancy between the two thinktanks. The NTU Foundation appears to be using a different methodology for some of the big-ticket items, such as health care spending. Over the next few weeks, I will attempt to compare the two sets of analyses to determine which is closer to the truth.

The NTU Foundation looks only at spending, and makes no attempt to look at the overall fiscal implications of the two candidates' tax plans. Senior analyst Demian Brady said it was unclear whether the Obama spending proposals would be financed by tax increases, or an increase in the national debt.

Jason Furman, a senior Obama economics adviser, dismissed the NTU analysis as politically "partisan." He said that the NTU was counting Obama's refundable health tax credits as extra government "spending," and ignored various spending cuts proposed by Obama. The McCain campaign did not respond for a request for comment.

The Pinocchio Test

Barack Obama has proposed a series of big new spending initiatives on the campaign trail. He has also proposed some significant spending cuts. Economists disagree about the likely fiscal impact of the Obama proposals. Even allowing for this disagreement, it is nevertheless clear that neither the Obama plan, nor the McCain plan, will put the country back on the path to fiscal health. Neither campaign is being completely honest about the economic challenges ahead. Two Pinocchios apiece.

(About our rating scale.)

Source   The Washington Post

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Identical triplets go home from NY hospital

NEW YORK (AP) — Forgive Kerry and Desmond Lyons if they sometimes mix up their sons' names. After all, they're brand new and look alike.

The rare set of identical triplets conceived without fertility treatments left a Manhattan hospital Tuesday for their suburban home.

Tiny newborns Kevin, Declan and Cormac Lyons rolled out of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in style, wearing matching blue hats, asleep in a stroller that looked something like a stretch limo.

"We never thought we'd be leaving with three healthy, beautiful, amazing baby boys," Kerry Lyons said as she beamed and wiped away a tear. "We are just so, so grateful, and so moved and so happy."

Twins, triplets and quadruplets have become much more common over the past few decades because of fertility treatments, but identical triplets are still rare. Some scientists estimate they occur in as few as 1 in 100 million births. Others peg the number higher, at 1 in 500,000 or even 1 in 64,000.

On nearby Long Island, another set of identical triplet boys was born in February at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset; their parents used in vitro fertilization.

Whatever the odds, Lyons and her husband, Desmond, said they were thrilled with the outcome, even if they can't tell the boys apart yet.

"My suggestion was to put tattoos on them," joked their father. For now, they'll wear ID bracelets.

The triplets were born Friday by Caesarean section. Their father is a lawyer. Their mother works for an Internet advertising firm. The couple already has two children, ages 2 and 4.

Kerry Lyons said she gained 50 pounds during her 36-week pregnancy. A lot of that was baby; combined, the youngsters weighed a little more than 16 1/2 pounds at birth.

At home in Irvington, N.Y., the babies will share a crib for the time being, to keep them cozy.

As for the prospect of managing five children during an economic downturn, their mother said she isn't worried.

"I think this is God's way of turning me into an easygoing type," she said.

The most famous case of identical multiple births was that of the Dionne quintuplets, born in 1934 to in the small Canadian town of Callander, Ontario. At the time, they were the only known quintuplets to survive more than a few days, and the infants created a worldwide sensation.

The provincial government separated them from their impoverished parents and put in a specially built hospital — called Quintland — where over the years millions of tourists viewed them through one-way glass.

One sister, Emilie, died in 1954; another, Marie, died in 1970. The three other sisters eventually sued over the way they had been treated as children and received a $2.8 million settlement. Yvonne died in 2001, leaving just Annette and Cecile.

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This is Why Ronald Reagan was so Loved. The Youth Debate Answer.

Youth and Inexperience.    I have to say Barack has very little sense of humor.  McCain does but nothing like Reagan.  What a wonderful person he was.  

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Dancing with the Political Stars (Video) MiniMovie.com

Funny Video

Dancing with the Political Stars. 

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Obama Biden Tax Calculator? taxcut.barackobama.com

I don't know how he can say that we will save this much.  I feel we are going to see something similar to the Slipery Clinton statement that he couldn't keep his promise because the Economy was so much worse than he thought.  Wow,  I can not believe the promises going on here.  

http://taxcut.barackobama.com/

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