cpafrank's Blog

Good thing I didn't jump off that bridge Friday afternoon.  The DOW closed up over 900 points today.  Makes you wonder how it could recover so fast.  Everyone has been pulling money out of the market at record pace.  Today it looks like some very schrewd people put some money back in.  Is there such a thing as a bear market that lasts a week?  I sure hope so.

This is why the stock market is not for those with a weak stomach.  If you are in it for the long haul, you will be fine.  If you need to retire anytime soon, you need to watch what is going on and have a system to gradually pull back in your exposure to risk.  I hold an investment allocation of about 65% equities and 35% cash.  I maintain this allocation most of the time to protect against the current market conditions.

The lesson learned here is do not panic, stay the course and revisit your investment allocations from time to time.

This is a new one.  You can't give me a lethal injection because I am to fat and it is your fault because the prison food made me that way.  That is the story of the inmate set to die next week in Ohio for killing two University of Akron students in 1986.

Let me guess, the prison chef was Michael Symon and the food was to die for.  How stupid can you get.  This is almost as funny as the recent cop killer saying he bought the gun after the murder but still felt compelled to hide it in the bathroom light fixture.

When are criminals going to start realizing or even better their lawyers going to start realizing that if you commit the crime you should do the time.  If we did not have to house so many deadbeat prisoners, we could solve the economic crisis.

We wonder why things cost so much these days.  It is because of frivolous law suits and appeals like this one.  Hey here is a great idea, lets pay for gastric bypass so we can finsh the job.

I live in the community that has been devastated by the death of Capt. Michael Medders.  I did not know Mr. Medders or his family.  In the next three days I will make a point to know them.  Capt. Medders gave the ultimate sacrifice for his family, his country, and average everyday citizens like myself.

It is heart warming to see what has already been done.  The city has signs of tribute to him.  American flags line certain city streets at the foot of homeowners driveways.  Candles are lit in windows and on sidewalks.  Over the remainder of this week life will change for a small bedroom community in Lorain County.  It will all become real.

The funeral will be Friday morning with full military honors.  It is ironic that this Friday is homecoming in Avon Lake where Capt. Medders was an outstanding football player.  His family will be recognized at the game.  Community events have been cancelled.  The Rotary event at the high school was rescheduled from this week to next week so the funeral viewing could be housed at the school.  It is all a sense of community.

It is sad that it takes an event such as this to remember what community is all about.  So much of that has been lost with the current ploitical campaign, the economic crisis, and the general state of the country.  The same feelings were felt in Brookpark when that unit was devastated.  Not so much was made of the fact the Brookpark unit was recalled to serve again.

I have never served my county and most likely will never pay the ultimate price that Capt. Medders did for our freedom.  To Capt. Medders and his family, I can only say THANK YOU!.

From the Plain Dealer - Sept 26, 2008

A casino gambling referendum remains on the Nov. 4 ballot despite a rival casino group's attempt to remove it.

Thursday night Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner certified Issue 6 to go on the ballot. She also rejected the protest filed by No On 6, formed by Penn National Gaming, which owns the Argosy Casino in Lawrenceburg, Ind.

The No On 6 campaign claimed the backers didn't properly file the necessary paperwork. And it wanted the state to reject the petition signatures gathered by the Ohio casino group.

The secretary of state's office said MyOhioNow.Com submitted 812,978 signatures and 480,003 of them were validated. The state requires 402,000 signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

Finally, someone who will stand up for casino gambling.  Even the neighboring states do not want us to pass casino gambling in Ohio because they know they will lose their cash cow.  Ohio will finally get a vote on an issue that has been overlooked for years. 

The government came up with this great plan in the 1980's and 1990'2 called deregulation.

They deregulated the phone companies and broke up AT&T.  Now AT&T has come full circle and is basically one company again.

They deregulated the cable TV market and the big companies are again consolidating.

They deregulated the banks and financial markets.  Pretty soon it looks like bank of America and JP Morgan Chase might own everything that the government does not have to buy.

They deregulated the public utilities and now we have custom choice for our gas and electric suppliers.  By the way the price of natural gas has more than tripled since this happened and the electric companies had the largest blackout in history.

My conclusion is that I was a heck of a lot happier when I did not have a choice.  Things were cheaper and they were monitored.  Today things are more expensive and the monitoring system has goon out the window.

I hope the treasury wants to keep bailing out industries and people because I am sick of paying the frieght for these great ideas.

Memo to the government, I could use about $1 million dollars.  If you can bail me out to that total, I will live the rest of my life and bother no one.

September 19th is national POW and MIA recognition day.  Today and everyday is a day to thank your service men and women who haved served to make this a better country.  Still today, they are finding the remains of lost soldiers in far away places and giving them a proper burial and full milatary recognition.

We may not always agree with the war or the cause, but we need to show continued respect for those average everyday citizens who helped get us to places we are.

I am focusing on this topic because the group of soldiers from the Brookpark, Ohio post that was devastated in Iraq have just been redeployed to serve once again to protect the freedom we have grown to love.

We are the best country in the world.  Even with our flaws, we are the only country over history that everyone wants to come to and no one wants to leave.

I salute the men and women who serve for our freedom.

The pictures of the storm clean up are amazing.  Fox 8 has done a great job covering the area's with problems.  I am going to appeal to you to help your neighbors.

The power is out starting 2 houses away from me for 2 blocks north and 8 blocks west.  I however have power due to underground power lines.  My neighbors are in trouble beacuse they say it will be Friday until power is restored.  I am helping any neighbor who needs help.  I encourage you to do the same.

Area's of various communities are cleaning up trees so power can be restored.  People are starting to get frustrated.  Help out anyone in need.  Nothing goes further than a cold bottle of water, a smile and a helping hand.

Be a fellow citizen and help your neighbors in need!

The city of Sheffield Lake has been attempting to buy a mostly vacant shopping center for a period of time now for two million dollars from its owners.  When city inspectors recently went into the boarded up property they found medical waste and one inspector fell through the floor.  The major tenant in the shopping center Giant Eagle is set to pull out of its store at the end of the lease because the owners will not negotiate a reasonable rent renewal. 

I never thought about a slum lord owning a shipping center but here we have one.  The loss of Giant Eagle will leave the entire city of Sheffield Lake without a supermarket.  A recent protest in downtown Cleveland in front of the offices of one of the co-owners of the property was attended by the Sheffield Lake mayor.  Reports are circulating that the owner is willing to negotiate.  The other owners however will not.  The family trust controlling the majority interest seems content to let the shopping center rot. 

The city of Sheffield Lake is trying to do something in the best interest of their residents and is offering a fair price.  If the property can not be purchased, they are also willing to work with the owners on a redevelopment project.  The owners do not seem to care what happens to their property.  It is located on the south side of Lake Road and is adjacent to the city boat launch.  You would think the owners would be interested in preserving their property to make it attractive to do business in. 

It looks like the union behind the Ohio sick pay initiative is backing off its position for the November election.  This is a very positive thing for Ohio.

Ohio should not want to be the first state with a mandatory sick pay law.  If enacted it would drive more business out of Ohio and decrease the already depleted work force.

Employers would not want the burden of monitoring this and would cut back jobs or take action in other places of employee benefits like health insurance and pension plans.

Our best and brightest students already bolt the state for parts unknown because of the job climate.

Governer Strickland and Lt. Governer Fischer were not in favor of this bill and had sited publically how it would hurt the business atmosphere in Ohio and Ohio's ability to attract new businesses.

Unions have done so much good for the workers of this country over the years.  This could have become a serious black eye to both the union and the employers of the State of Ohio.

Watching today's memorial service for Stephanie Tubbs Jones was truely touching.  Seeing all of the lives she has touched, the students she has helped, her relatives sense of family, and her respect as an elected official from people of all levels of govenment.  Her caring by adopting an 8th grade class of students.  Her questions about the health care system.  Her vibrant smile in every picture.  It was a picture of a true hard working person living the american dream through hard work and dedication.  RIP Stephanie, you deserve it.

Really makes you wonder how Dennis Kucinich keeps getting re-elected, doesn't it.

The Plain Dealer published the state of the school systems based on the ratings achieved in the standardized testing.  The test are utilized to measure a students progress and rate the local school systems.  There is a flaw in the ratings for the school systems.

The school systems are rated based on the aggregate student improvement and the fact the student has achieved a year's worth of growth.  For many of the top school systems it is impossible for a student to achieve a year's worth of growth based on the testing criteria.

For example in the school system I live in, there are 80% of the high school students taking at least one advanced class or classes for university credit.  When you get to that level, the student who is advanced will never see the same rate of growth as a poorer school district.  In the rating system the lower districts actually improve at a much greater rate than the higher school districts.  Often times, top districts actually drop.

Take these ratings for what they are worth, but keep in mind a good school district will remain a good school district no matter what the test results say.

The bottom line should be that no student should be left behind, no matter what school district they are in.

A short pursuit Monday night resulted in a car crashing into an occupied North Royalton home, Fox 8's David Nethers reports.

A spokesperson with the North Royalton Police Department tells Fox 8 News that at approximately 9 p.m. a speeding car triggered what they are referring to as a "short pursuit."

The incident, authorities say, never escalated to a chase.

It never escalated to a chase, yet the car wound up in the living room of a house.  I often ask myself is the pursuit really worth it.  I know the driver of the vehicle most likely did something wrong to warrant the pursuit, but when is enough going to be enough.  I was once passed on the highway by a car going the wrong way after a robbery.  Then passed by a police car also going the wrong way.  One exit later the car crashed head on into another car.  Let's see 60 mph and one short highway exit.  That missed me by what, 60 seconds at most.  Sometimes the pursuit just isn't worth the end result.

When is the government ( I mean communists ) going to leave well enough alone.  The Ohio state legislature is actually considering requiring employers to pay mandatory sick pay.  What do they want to do, put businesses in Ohio out of business faster?

The politicians already have caused big business to leave Ohio because we were not a tax friendly state to do business in.  This area of the country is in a recession and they want to put more financial restraint on the free enterprise system.

Last time I checked, my company had a pretty reasonable sick day policy.  If most Ohio workers considered the same policies in place at their job, I think most people would consider it pretty fair.  Business employee benefits are being hammered by health care costs and the Government is worried about sick pay.

I am quite happy with the sick pay policy my company offers and I think business does a good job of monitoring it on their own.  If the Government wants to get involved, go after the health care system that just raised my health insurance 23% this year.

Are we at the end of the financial road?

The US economy just keeps rolling along like a stomach full of Pepto-Bismol and does not seem to be getting any better.  Today I saw a story on MSN asking if the end is near for the American auto industry.  The auto industry needs a bailout, the airline industry needs a bailout, the financial industry needs a bailout, the housing market needs a bailout,  the government is handing out stimulus checks, most of america needs a bailout, and those who still have money seem to spend it faster than they make it as documented by the amount of American credit card debt.  Yet, no one can seem to admit we are in a recession. 

We have set ourselves up to fail.  We depend on foriegn oil and build big cars.  We send our jobs overseas so products are made by people who can't afford to buy them and they are shipped back and we can't afford to buy them.  Countries that our parents were told are the enemy are now our friends and we support their economy.

The United States is still the best country in the world.  We are the only country that everyone wants to come too and no one wants to leave.  We are the land of opportunity.  How about creating some opportunity for those who still live here!

I just opened my July/August gas bill from Columbia Gas and it was $56.71.  It is flipping summer time.  My last electric bill was only $198 and the A/C ran all month.  I looked closer at my bill and my customer choice gas provider is raping me for $1.636 for CCF.  Last winter it was only .99 CCF.  What in the hell is it going to be this winter.  Needless to say, I am now once again shopping for a natural gas supplier.

The same thing happens with cable, phone, the internet, cell phones, and electricity.

Some things in this world are better offer being a monopoly.  Utilities are one of them.

I liked things much better back when I did not have a choice, they were cheaper!