March 9, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
March 9 is … Panic Day. I am in a panic over being nasty.
Many signs within our stream of commerce are suggesting the economy is recovering nicely. The oil price situation will likely dampen the recovery but historically, once the price of gas gets to certain point and America stops buying it, the price trickles lower albeit at a slower rate than it increased.
A few of the signs pointing to a recovery being underway are the increase in the sales of men’s underwear. They stop in bad times and pick up during a recovery. They are increasing. The sale of hard liquor is another barometer. Jack Daniels just posted a thirty % increase in profits for the fourth quarter. Sales are increasing. The sale of appetizers and desserts at restaurants slow down during bad times. They are increasing nationwide, indicating a recovery is taking hold. If the manufactured oil price crisis does not halt the recovery, good times are not far away.
McDonald’s has fewer stores but more money in sales and is worth much more than Subway.
Subway now has more outlets than McDonald’s, according to the sandwich shop chain. Subway had 33,749 restaurants across the world at the end of 2010, it claims. McDonald’s had 32,737 at year-end, according to it 10-K. Subway also says it has grown this year and now has 34,218 locations. The numbers hardly matter. McDonald’s owns most of its stores and keeps their profits. Subway shops are owned by franchisees, which almost certainly caps the amount of money the parent company keeps. McDonald’s also has a larger menu which means that its yield-per-store is probably higher than Subway’s. Revenue and profits trump store locations, at least in the eyes of investors. And, investors in McDonald’s have been richly rewarded. Its stock has risen from $33 to $80 in the last five years. The shares yield 3.4% and McDonald’s has bought back billions of dollars in shares. Subway does not release its revenue figures. That may be because they pale next to McDonald’s sales which were $24 billion last year. Subway says its total store count passed McDonald’s in the US a decade ago. It now focuses on outlets outside the US. It might be better off to concentrate on sales-per-outlet.
Slaughter in America; A shooting broke out in St. Louis this morning as authorities tried to serve an arrest warrant, leaving a suspect dead and two deputy U.S. marshals and a St. Louis police officer wounded, authorities say. An unidentified male suspect died at the home of a gunshot wound, but it was not known who fired the fatal shot, police spokeswoman Katie O'Sullivan said. The police officer, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, suffered a graze wound and was also injured when he fell after getting shot, O'Sullivan said. He was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. One deputy U.S. Marshal was in critical condition and there was no word on the extent of the second marshal's injuries. The service earlier said a deputy died of his wounds but corrected the statement and said he was in critical condition.
Old slaughter in America; A plea deal intended to spare a murdered child's family the horrific details of his death has come back to haunt residents of a historic town in Rhode Island. The killer, an accused cannibal who was a teenager when the crime was committed more than 30 years ago, will be free before the end of the year, according to police. "We do not know what his plans are or if he is [planning on coming back here], but it is definitely something we plan on discussing," a spokesman for the South Kingstown Police Department said today.
While police have yet to formulate a plan for the impending release of convicted murderer Michael Woodmansee, the father of his victim, a 5-year-old boy named Jason Foreman, is not mincing words. "I do intend, if this man is released anywhere in my vicinity, or if I can find [him], I do intend to kill this man," John Foreman told Rhode Island's WPRO News talk radio today.
According to The Providence Journal, Woodmansee was a withdrawn 16-year-old boy on May 18, 1975 –- the day he lured Jason into his home, stabbed the boy in the heart and hid the small body in a trunk. Convicted killer Michael Woodmansee benefited from a reward system that shaved 12 years off his 40-year prison sentence. Woodmansee lived up the street from the Foreman home. The day he took Jason's life was the boy's mother's 25th birthday, a time of happiness that would forever after be associated with pain and heartache. Woodmansee later told police he had fantasized that "it would be easy [to kill someone], easy to get away with it, and some form of fun,'' according to the Journal.
For eight years, frustrated authorities conducted a nationwide manhunt for Jason. Some feared he had been kidnapped, but no one suspected the whole, horrific truth -- that a disturbed killer had taken his life, removed his flesh and shellacked his bones. The pieces in the case began to come together on April 15, 1982, when a bearded Woodmansee invited a 14-year-old newspaper delivery boy named Dale Sherman into his house. After supplying the boy with hard liquor and beer, Woodmansee attempted to strangle the teen, police said. Sherman fought back and managed to escape and run home, where his dad called police. Taken to police headquarters, Woodmansee initially denied any wrongdoing. Because the allegations involved a boy, investigators decided to question him about Jason. Shortly thereafter, he confessed to sexually assaulting and killing the child, police said.
When authorities searched Woodmansee's home, they found Jason's skull and other miscellaneous bones on top of the man's dresser. They also discovered a journal in which he detailed the young boy's gruesome death, police said. On Feb. 24, 1983, Woodmansee pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. According to The Associated Press, prosecutors agreed to the plea bargain to spare the family the horrific details of the boy's death and to avoid a grisly trial. After sentencing Woodmansee, Superior Court Judge Thomas H. Needham ordered his journal and all other evidence in the case sealed. Needham said the accounts within it were too disturbing for Jason's family to see.
More fish are dying with the alleged experts merely saying it is not unusual but unable to explain it. It is not unusual because it has been happening frequently over the last several months. Just because it has happened before does not mean it is not unusual, it merely means it has happened before; we didn’t know why then and don’t know why now. The Redondo Beach fish kill hasn’t been solved regardless of what some “expert” says. Over the past day, authorities in Southern California's Redondo Beach have been trying to figure out why millions of dead fish suddenly appeared in the King Harbor Marina. The dead fish included sardines, anchovies and mackerel and were apparently floating up to the surface from the bottom of the ocean, with no explanation.
But now it seems we have an answer. According to The Associated Press, a marine coordinator for the marina said the fish likely died as a result of suffocation. Here's more from the AP wire story: [Staci] Gabrielli says it's believed the fish moved into the harbor late Monday or early Tuesday to escape a red tide, a naturally occurring bloom of toxic algae that can poison fish or starve them of oxygen. Gabrielli says high winds apparently kept the fish from leaving the harbor and they all crushed up against the harbor wall, where they used up the oxygen and suffocated.
But now it seems we have an answer. According to The Associated Press, a marine coordinator for the marina said the fish likely died as a result of suffocation. Here's more from the AP wire story: [Staci] Gabrielli says it's believed the fish moved into the harbor late Monday or early Tuesday to escape a red tide, a naturally occurring bloom of toxic algae that can poison fish or starve them of oxygen. Gabrielli says high winds apparently kept the fish from leaving the harbor and they all crushed up against the harbor wall, where they used up the oxygen and suffocated.
California isn’t the only place experiencing a marine life mass death or social malfunction. Earlier today millions of dead fish washed up in Redondo Beach, Calif. But that's not the only sad marine life news to report. Now, according to NBC Philadelphia, a higher-than-usual number of seals are washing up on New Jersey beaches. What's worse, many of the recently beached seals are starving, sick or infected with parasites, and experts aren't sure why it's happening. Seal sightings aren't that unusual at the Jersey shore, and it doesn't necessarily mean there's a widespread animal crisis. The New Jersey Star-Ledger reported earlier that officials noticed a seal that had come ashore at Island Beach State Park on Saturday, but before they could determine why it was on dry land, the seal swam away.
The Star-Ledger reported last year a lone Arctic harp seal was found wandering the streets of Woodbridge, apparently after swimming south and getting very confused. Another apparently healthy harp seal washed up in Perth Amboy in February, says the Asbury Park Press, and voluntarily returned itself to the ocean after posing for a few photographs. NBC Philadelphia reports that the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine has noticed a worrisome uptick in stranded seals, 107 in 2010 and 26 in the past four months alone. The good news is that the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, which rescues and cares for stranded critters, reports an 88.9 percent successful release rate for rehabilitated seals, whales and dolphins.
Who knew we had a Marine Mammal Stranded Center?
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
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