JP Morgan’s Chase Bank, Loses $2 Billion in Hedging Stratedgy

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JP Morgan Chase Bank and Co’s shock trading loss of at least $2billion from a failed hedging strategy knocked shares of the largest US bank by assets down over 9 percent on Friday. Wall Street may have lost its most potent spokesman  Jamie Dimon against Washington reforms.

JP Morgans Chase Bank & co Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has parlayed his bank’s reputation as the white knight during the financial crisis,  into a position as the champion of those hurt the most in a beleaguered industry; fighting against excessive post-crisis regulation. His bank is the largest bank in the United States. The bank lost at least $2 billion from which could rise by a further $1 billion.  They were linked to a Wall Street Journal report last month about London-based credit trader Bruno lksil also known as the “Whale” . The report said iksil amassed an outsized position which hedge funds bet against.  Dimon in a conference call Thursday conceded the loses.

The CIO desk has grown rapidly and is run by Ina Drew In New York.   Iksil was brought into the CIO unit to head its credit desk, an asset class it had previously not covered.   A person who worked in the unit said it built up large credit positions over several years.

Dimon will undoubtedly be questioned by investors for more details about what exactly what went wrong when he hosts the bank’s annual shareholder meeting Tuesday in Tampa Florida.  In disclosing earnings last month he dismissed reports that Iksil had amassed a huge position that prompted hedge funds to bet against him as “a complete tempest in a teapot.”  But on Thursday, Dimon said the bank ‘s loss had “a bit to do with the article in the press.”  He added, “I also think we acted a little too defensively to that.”  On Meet The Press he admitted, “he denied warning signs, we were very sloppy, stupid.  “We tend to fix it ”

“The argument that financial institutions do not need new rules to help them avoid the irresponsible actions that led to the crisis of 2008 is at least $2 billion harder to make today.” said Democratic U.S. Representative Barney Frank, who co-authored the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act.

On Friday Democratic senators Carl Levin and Jeff Merkley who wrote the legislative language on the Volcker rule , said the outstanding proposal is flawed because it would give banks the latitude to hedge against a portfolio risk as opposed to individual positions.

A draft proposal of the Volcker rule permitting overly-broad hedging bets should be tightened they said. “It is inconsistent to create this kind of a major loophole,”Levin .said.

A proposal for the Volcker rule released to regulators  in August, and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, said hedging could be defined to include banks covering their risk on a “portfolio basis.”

The JP Morgan trade which was tied to the bank’s bet on a continued economic recovery, is an example of the “portfolio hedging” that shouldn’t be allowed,  the senators said Friday.

“This is not a hedge as we define it in the law,” Levin said Under Dodd-Frank, hedging is only permitted when it is designed to reduce risks tied to specific assets or positions held by the company, Levin said. “That was not the case here.” The draft proposal would enable banks to “hide any vast amount of proprietary trading,” Merkley added. “The draft rules at this point are way to lax.  They do not have the bright lines that are needed.”

The senators said it is regulator’s responsibility to make sure the loophole is closed.  If not, “we will see the Wall Street community of banks take full advantage of it.” Merkley predicted.

The lawmakers said their goal wasn’t to to outlaw hedging , just to make sure banks, many of which received taxpayer support during the financial crisis, were not engaged in overly-risky activities. The Volcker rule was designed to ensure there’s a “firewall” between traditinal banking and hedge-fund style investing, Merkley said.  When asked if I had any message for JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon, Merkley said, “if you want to be the head of a hedge fund, be a hedge fund.”

The debacle prompted Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher, who has called for the breakup of the top five U.S. banks, to say he is worried the biggest banks do not have adequate risk management.  “What concerns me is risk management, size, scope, , “he said in answer to a question about JP Morgan’s trading loss.  “At what point do you get to the point that you don’t know what’s going on underneath you? That’s the point where you’ve got too big.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Joe Biden’s Take on President Obama ‘s News He Favors Gay Marriage

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Joe Biden couldn’t keep his mouth from spewing out that President Obama is in favor of same-sex marriage. He did this on Meet the Press, probably the most watched Sunday news show.  He knew he goofed by letting the cat out of the bag,  taking the thunder away from Obama’s announcement  On Wednesday, President Obama announced that after a many-year evolution on the issue, he believed the same thing.  The first African American President became the first to ever to announce his support for same-sex marriage.

This is a landmark civil rights moment that happened amazingly fast. It was an act of conviction and political expediency, what measure of each we may never know. According to several sources the President was going to make his announcement very soon, to avoid a battle on the Democratic Convention floor. Biden stepped on his plan, making it look like the President was backing into a decision and controlled by events.

This is another instance of the vice president stumbling his way into the history books.The President is a very private person and was thinking  about the timing of the announcement. Vice President Biden Went to the Oval Office Tuesday to apologize to the President.

President Obama was scheduled to fly out to the West Coast  Thursday,  is why he made his statement on Wednesday.

The White House first tried to pretend there was nothing new in Biden’s remarks. the problem was Biden appeared to be getting out before the President, and the President should take the leading position.

The Democrats feel the problem is that Biden’s comments poked an existing bruise among the President’s supporters in the gay community

.As a matter of narrative continuity, it probably was a wise political move for the President to take a stand. The Obama campaign constantly claimed that his opponent lacks a moral code; he shades and doesn’t tell you what he believes in his heart.

What was less clear was whether the president used logical continuity. The limited transcripts the president said he supported same-sex marriage but didn’t think it was right.  He said the states could continue to handle the issue as they saw fit  Forty-four states right now do not allow it.

In Los Angeles at a fundraiser dinner that George Clooney had at his home Obama obliquely raised the gay marriage issue saying to an enthusiastic applause,  “Obviously, yesterday we made some news.

In Seattle he was attending two fundraisers.  He drew big cheers at Seattle’s historic Paramount Theater when he said his vision for a better America applies to everyone,  “no matter what you look like, no matter what your last name, no matter who you love.

“Gov. Romney is for an amendment to the U. S. Constitution that would enshrine discrimination into our founding legal document.”

 

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FBI: Five Men Charged In Ohio Plotting to Bomb Bridge

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Five men described by federal authorities as anarchists angry with corporate America and the government were charged Tuesday with threatening to bomb an Ohio bridge linking two Cleveland suburbs in a dangerous terrorist plot.

The men were arrested Monday night after unknowingly working with an FBI informant for months, a strategy that the federal investigators have used repeatedly in recent years to nab alleged terrorists.

There were hours of secretly taped conversations involving possible targets and methods of attack collected by an FBI informant, who had won the confidence of the alleged  plotters and later supplied dummy devices that the suspects believed contained c-4 explosives.

“They talked about making a statement against corporate America and the American Government as some of the motivations for their “actions” US Attorney Steven Dettelbach said in announcing the arrests with the head of the FBI in Cleveland, Stephen Anthony.

The alleged plotters researched explosives and obtained what they thought was c-4 explosives.  The material, in fact, was harmless and the public was never at risk, because the men got it from the informant, officials said.

Dettlebach said, “The men planted the fake explosives at the base of the bridge, armed them, went to a remote spot and “entered the codes that they thought would blow up the bridge with innocent people traveling over it.”

Court documents detail several conversations the FBI secretly recorded in which its informant discussed the bomb plans with some of the suspects.

In one Brandon L Baxter 20 of Lakewood Ohio, allegedly said,”talking out a bridge in the business district would cost the … corporate big wigs a lot of money.” because it would cause a lot of structural damage and prevent people from going to work.

He and another suspect Douglas Wright 26, of Indianapolis, favored targeting a bridge because it would limit ” the number of casualties and the potential for killing possible supporters,” court documents said.

The target of the plot was a bridge that carries a state highway over part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and a scenic rail line and canal towpath in the Brecksville area, about 15 miles south of downtown Cleveland.

The men were charged with conspiracy and trying to bomb property used in interstate commerce. All five appeared in hancuffs and chains around their waists, Tuesday in U.S. District Court where Magistrate Judge Greg White ordered them jailed without bond pending a hearing Monday.

The suspects in addition to Brandon Baxter 20, from Lakewood and Douglas Wright 26 From Indianapolis, Anthony Hayne 35, from Cleveland, Connor Stevens 20, from Berea a suburb west of Cleveland, and Joshua Stafford 23, from Cleveland.  The charges  carry possible penalties of over 20 years in prison.

Connor Stevens father James was at the hearing and you could hear him shout, “Llove you Connor.”  The father left the court without commenting.

The men had been associated with the anti-corporate group Occupy Cleveland movement but don’t share its now violent views , according to Debbie Kline the organizer of the group.

“It talks about anger and frustration that these five individuals felt that other people would not support their violent aims,” said Dettlebach.

Federal authorities said their investigation was aided by a paid confidential source who had previous robbery and other convictions and was on probation for passing bad checks.  the informant began making contact with the men in October and had recorded conversations with them over the past three months according to an affidavit.

The men also discussed other potential targets, including a law enforcement center with smoke grenades while trying to bring down financial institution signs in downtown Cleveland.  The men also discussed other potential targets, including a law enforcement center, oil wells, a cargo ship, or the opening of a new downtown casino according to a court affidavit. The document alleges that one suspect talked about being part of a group planning to cause trouble during an upcoming Nato summit in Chicago.

The announcement of the arrests came as Occupy Cleveland demonstrators joined Tuesday’s protests marking International Workers Day or May Day.

There have been many other cases where the FBI was involved and the defense attorneys accuse the federal authorities of conducting overblown sting operations that entrapped their clients.

My concern is that the Federal Government used our hard earned tax money to pay a convicted felon on parole. That just doesn’t sit right with me.  I’m glad no one got hurt but at what cost to our freedom and judicial system.  The message reads loud and clear, Crime does pay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Avon Hires New CEO but Won’t Let Former CEO Leave

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Avon is the largest cosmetic company in the world and it started before women had the right to vote in this country.  Now the company has two CEOs and is in terrible financial trouble. The 125 year old company has been doing well outside the United States but not very well here.  There was news of a potential takeover by the European rival Coty but Avon immediately said no.

Andrea young has been the CEO since 1999.  Investors have one question with a new CEO, have full authority needed to make changes for a company that lost 27 percent in the beginning of 2010?  The news of a potential take over last week by Coty of Europe arrived the stock bounced up nearly 18 percent. Avon CEO told the board to replace her, Andrea Jung, they didn’t.  Instead they brought in a new CEO who doesn’t sit on the board like Jung but reports to them that is Sheri McCoy.  There is no doubt she is qualified for the position since she worked at Johnson & Johnson for 30 years controlling Neutrogena, Aveeno, and Lubriderm.  However Avon missed its chance of changing of the guard by leaving Andrea Jung there with the same title.

Investors CEO Jung told the board to replace me, Avon shares investors were less enthralled when she announced  that Avon shares fell by 3 percent.” The stock is clearly down because there is a perception that the new CEO decreases the probability that a deal is done”, said Mark Astrachan an analyst with Stifel Micolay.Analysts say that without the Coty offering lingering in the background investors would have cheered today’s announcement about Sheri McCoy.

During Jung’s tenure Avon struggled to meet forecasts for sales and profits and has most of its foothold in the US with roughly 85 percent in sales in 2010, 94 percent of its profits coming from outside the US.

The company is also involved in 2 Securities and Exchange Commision Investigations, one related to avon employees allegedly bribing foreign officials; and the second for allegedly providing information to analysts.   Analysts and shareholders say the ball is back in Coty’s court as they wait to see if the $10billion deal will be sweetened.  Coty’s approach won’t be the best offer.  The sad part is the company stands against domestic violence and supports the fight against breast cancer, another company may not be so generous to those causes.

 

 

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Phenominal Oprah Winfrey Retires Starts OWN Falls Flat on Face

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Oprah Winfrey admits”mistakes” when she and Discovery Communications began the new television station called OWN.  At the same time she admitted “mistakes” her next words were that she vows to go on.

Monday, Oprah Winfrey finally admitted that she had made mistakes while creating her cable channel but promised the fledgling TV show OWN new strategies will make the show a success. She doesn’t understand failure and she’s coming off a very popular show of her own and didn’t have to make any decisions because she had a staff that jumped when she wanted anything.

The Oprah Winfrey Show ran 25 years and I can’t blame her for retiring from the show, but that is where she should have left it on a high note not on a show that on its best 180,000 fans. That occurred when she went on in the first quarter of 2012 and basically did her old show. She did interviews with Whitney Houston’s family, had lady gaga on, rocker Steven Tyler and mega church pastor Joel Osteen.

” I said from the beginning this channel can’t be based upon me, it has to be based on upon my philosophy and my ideas,” she replied vowing not to end the network. What she doesn’t seem to get her ideas might be the best in the world but it’s the way she pours her heart and soul into every interview that kept her show going that long.

Oprah is 58 years old and the show ran 25 years she was 33 when she started and had interviewing skills. She is smart and she made a star out of Dr. Phil who says ” That dog don’t hunt”   If he can be made a star no wonder the show got better and better.

Her show ended May of 2011 and she rushed into a running a new station with Discover Communications January 2011.  She can’t seem to make up her mind in one sentence she seems to make up her mind that she made lots of mistakes, and the next sentence is we are going to succeed in this.

The talk show host recently laid off 30 staffers after the network got poor ratings.

She told “CBS THIS MORNING” that she was ill prepared for the venture. She should have cut her losses and ended it then. but when questioned about whether she seriously would have never taken on the project, she replied “oh absolutely.”  She had no idea how difficult it would be and would have made different choices had she realized there was more to it than she thought.

Her first mistake was launching when she was not easy to launch OWN.Winfrey defended herself saying initially she told her partner Discovery Communication that ” the thing I’m most worried about is who is going to lead the train because I can’t do it.”

That was naive of her which name is bigger Discovery Communication or Oprah Winfrey?

Oprah Winfrey is used to getting her own way, and there is nothing wrong with that, she made the station a lot of money and she was worth every penny.  This has got to be a huge blow to her ego, to be a major part of something where the handwriting on the wall doesn’t spell success.

 

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Thoughts On Trayvon Martin And President Obama

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The remarks that were made by President Obama went well overboard. His saying “if I had a son he would look like him” was the dumbest statement I have ever heard uttered out of the mouth of anyone, let alone a president!  Newt Gingrich said “what President Obama said was disgraceful, saying if he had a son he would look like his. One is regardless, ridiculous he should be feeling that strongly about any child of any color.  Race is a part of the reaction of the country.”

I must agree with Newt Gingrich on this one. I was appalled when the President made such a stupid remark.  What about the children that died in the incident at Chardon High School?   Were their lives less important than Trayvon Martin’s? The President did call to give his condolences but there was a black boy that died there as well, and he didn’t go on national television to say what a senseless act, if I had …

Mr. Gingrich is absolutely right, the death of any child should make every American including the President, feel strongly about the tragedy, of how senseless these shootings are.  Every person who dies that violently should get the kind of attention Trayvon Martin  has gotten.

This is not the only time President Obama inflamed a racially tainted incident, declaring police had “acted stupidly” when arresting a well known Black documentary filmmaker, Henry Louis Gates after an altercation at his home.  Obama received criticism, so he invited Gates and the white police officer, Sergeant Jame Crawly, to the White house, where the men shared a drink in what became known as the “beer summit.”

President Obama has put his foot in his mouth before and will do so again. Unfortunately his mistake can’t be retracted.  He’s an African American President and he’s running a country that still has not settled its racial issues.  He, of all people, should have realized that making a statement once for an African American child, claiming he would be like him, would be an insult to all the parents that have suffered the same loss as the Martin.

Not  all children who are needlessly lost are African Americans.  Some are white or Asian or Hispanic like the makeup of the Chardon high school shootings.   There were preschoolers shot coming out of a synagogue simply because of their Jewish Religion.  . All of these are tragedies. President Obama should be leading the discussion; how do we stop these senseless deaths?

My heart goes out to the Martin family, the loss of their son Trayvon is the most horrible thing parents can face. I speak from experience. I lost a daughter. For the Martins, be thankful that you have so much of the country backing you up.  This is not the hardest time.  It will be when all the commotion stops and you are alone as family minus one.   That is the most tragic thing, figuring out how as survivors you will cope.

I welcome comments on this or any article I write.

I will gladly personally talk to the Martin family and I want them to know that my prayers are with you.

 

 

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The World Banks Have Too Much Power To Change

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When we look at the variety of news stories there is always something about the power of the bank and  they refuse have to follow some banking regulation.  Since this seems to be so common with banks around the world I thought we would look at two banks in the United Kingdom.

The first one is the RBS The Royal Bank of Scotland Group which has had continual problems that they can not seem to solve.

London : A group representing investors in the Royal Bank of Scotland plans legal action to recover at least 2.4 billion pounds ($ 3,8 billion) lost when they bought shares in the bank shortly before it fell victim to the financial crisis.

Mike Neill who is coordinating the legal action on behalf of 7400 investors, including charities,and churches, and expect more to join.

A legal source with knowledge of the process said London law firm Bird & Bird will send a letter of claim Monday on behalf of shareholders who subscribed to the share issue

On Monday a source at RBS bank said the letter had not been received or served with proceeding.

.  Investors are making a claim not only against the bank but former director Fred Goodwin Chief Executive before it was rescued by British tax payer. Now doesn’t that sound familiar. The claim centered on rights issue priced at 200 pence a share in 2008.  Eleven share offered for every for every 18 held. Ninety -five percent of the $12 Billion pound offer was taken up by June.

As the financial crisis got worse RBS launched a further $20 billion pounds capital raising in October offering shares at 65.5 pence in a deal backed by the government who is the majority shareholder. Shares of RBS trade around  26 pence and the government holds more than 80 percent of them.

The Action Group has alleged on its website that the rights issue prospectus was misleading.

” The group considers that it has substantial credible, legal, factual defenses to the remaining and prospective claims and and will defend it vigorously,” RBS said.

 

Now on  to England where ” banks are in denial over their failure to deal with the financial crisis and the need to restructure their existing banking model”, Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King said in an newspaper interview on Monday.

The country’s banks blame him for not offering support during the financial crisis because they couldn’t “face up” to their own failures and the need for a for a restructured model.

“I think it is because their fraud it very, very difficult to face up to the failure of their banking model.  That model mode needs to be restructured”, King said in an interview in an article in the Times. “My duty was to Britain’s economy as a whole not just to one part of it”.

King was critical of the way the banks tried to stay outside of the market until they were forced to ask for bailouts as the economy began a tailspin.  King said  “Market Discipline can’t apply to everyone except banks’ which is a factor of the public anger in England and here in the US which as King said is “Very real and wholly understandable”.

It certainly is not the message we are hearing from President Obama or the Republicans. Our banks need to restructure the way they conduct business but in the US everyone who is in power is afraid to make those kind of charges.

Here is one thing that the Banks are doing in the US they are foreclosing on America’s churches in record numbers, as lenders increasing lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their Mortgages.

Since 2010 270 churches have been sold after defaults on their loans, with 90 percent of the sales coming after a lender triggered foreclosure according to real estate company CoStar Group.

In 2011, 138 churches were sold by banks with no sign these religious foreclosures are stopping. The foreclosure rate on churches in 2008 was twenty four. The foreclosures hit all denominations across the US Black, White, large small, medium sizes.  The worst part, the banks are selling these foreclosed churches to to other churches who are their best customers.The highest percentage have occurred in some of the states hit by home foreclosures California,Florida, Georgia, and Michigan.

“Churches are among the final institutions to get foreclosed upon because banks have not wanted to look they are being heavy handed with the churches’ said Scott Rolf, Managing Director of Religious and Education Finance at the Investment Bank Zeigler.

Church loans aren’t like home loans, they are more like commercial loans that mature in five years, when the balance is immediately due.the loans were given when property valuations were much higher, the values have gone way down.

The Evangelical Christian credit union was noticeably aggressive in lending to religious institutions. Just as the banks the ECCU has foreclosed on many churches across the nation.

Sun Trust Bank, gave Flat Rock Church in Lithonia Georgia whose history dates back to 1860, an $850,000balloonloan in 205 to fund a new 300 seat church. In May 2010 the loan came due and the bank foreclosed on the church and it will be auctioned off. I could go on and on but it gets too depressing my next article will show even when something is finally done it’s already too late.

 

 

 

 

 

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Justice Department Conducts Criminal Probes Into Biggest Banks

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The Justice Department is finally doing what it should have done years ago, they’re looking into the biggest world banks to see whether they manipulated a global benchmark rate. That is the heart of large number of loans and derivatives from trillions of dollars of mortgages and bonds to interest swaps.The Justice Department’s inquiry into setting of the London interbank offer rate known as Libor was known.

A criminal inquiry underscores the serious nature of a worldwide investigation that includes regulators, law enforcement agencies in the United States, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom. Libor is pricing of massive and popular interest rate swaps (insurance companies) market where two parties swap floating and fixed rates interest paymnets. Libor is used as the basis of the floating rate, mislabeling it, selling to people who bought it insured, they were shorting those securities in their own investment.

Several major global banks, including Citigroup Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scottland Plc

Europe called soverign debt knew 1/3  Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG have disclosed they have been approached by authorities how Libor is set.

No World  bank or trade has been criminally charged in the Libor probes and the Justice Department declined comment on what they are targeting in their criminal probe.

Libor is set everyday in London and for ten currencies for a range of maturities. The rate is supposed to reflect the rate which banks lend to one another. Dollar Libor for example is calculated after 18 banks submit the cost to borrow dollars. The rate underpins $10 trillion in loans to consumers and companies and another $350 trillion in derivatives.  In the derivatives market, Libor is used in pricing the massive and popular interest swaps.

A swap is an insurance policy on securitized mortgages in case there are too many loans given by a world bank bundled together. What happened in the crash of 2008 , $100 million mortgages in just northeast Ohio were written by banks . A money pledged to payout to investors. The bank is only supposed to put in the bundle 5 percent of bad loans, however they gave loans to people they knew could not afford them. When they bundled the loans the swaps didn’t know those bundles actually had 30 percent of the banks passing off bad loans.

Investigators are examining whether traders at the bank tried to influence whether the rate went up or down. A change in the rate could mean a windfall of tens of millions of dollars if a trader bet correctly on the direction of the Libor. Swiss bank UBS is playing a key role in probes because it agreed to come forward in the inquiries.  That is not exactly true. The Swiss co-operated because 3 years ago they had to pay the largest fine $780 million for helping Americans evade taxes.   The justice department can indict the banks that benefit from tax evasion and seize their assets in the United States. This could put them out of business.  Eventually they realized it is more costly not to co-operate than giving over the information.  I wanted to make it clear that UBS had no choice but to cooperate.

In recent months probes in Japan and Canada have focused on a group of interest traders who attempted to manipulate yen Libor according to court and regulatory documents.

In the US the companies that do the ratings once Standard and Poor, Moody and Morning Star overqualified the bundles of the World Banks. Libor was pricing popular interest rates and swap markets where 2 parties swap floating and fixed rates Libor usually is the floating rate. Mislabeling it and selling it to people who bought it, insured it were shorting those securities in their own investments and yours. Europe called it sovereign debt, they knew that one third to one half defaulted and the cash flow went away ,it was just gone.

Insurance companies sold policies as high quality loans at first being deceived on what they were selling.  Once it broke that bundles of securities were bad the money evaporated because fundamentally the bundling of toxic loans to people who couldn’t repay the loans, and never should have been given loans by the loan originators in the first place.  The loan originators got $4000 to $5000 on each loan and everybody was told that every American should own a home. It became a massive bubble just like the credit bubble and it burst.  Who paid for getting the banks on their feet you and me and all the taxpayers except the very rich. It seems fair to me that those who make $1 million or more should pay the bill and pay back taxes along with those who hid money in Swiss banks.

Banks had to write off some of bad debt and Fammie mae and Freddie Mac insurance companies those must be paid off.

Meanwhile a whole bunch of people got rich and a large portion of the middle class became the poor and the poor became the very poor and the only thing the government did was to bail out the banks, housing, and the car companies. Ain’t it great to be an American!

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Another Ohio Student Dies In The Chardon Shootings

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Another student died from injuries received During the School shootings at Ohio’s Chardon High School, making this the deadliest high school shooting on record.

When I wrote the first article I hoped that all the students that were shot would make it through their hospital stays.  I knew it wasn’t good when three went to Metroheath the only Trauma One hospital in the area. Again I must report that another child died Demitrius Hewlin whose picture was on television yesterday along with the other victims except one whose parents refused to let a photo be released.

The good news is Joy Rickens was able to go home today.

The police and sheriff departments went over the 911 calls and didn’t find anything remarkable in the calls.  the investigation continues and so does the grief stricken community that seems to have to deal with another youngster’s death daily.

I live about 30 miles away and I am finding harder and harder to read and write about this story. All of the boys that died were in the cafeteria waiting to be bused to a vocational school in Auburn.  As soon as the news broke the Auburn school Closed immediately. The shooter T.J. Lane rides on the same bus but goes for therapy at a different location.

I was hoping to not have to report on the shootings and the aftermath but unfortunately there are three families that I can only give my deepest sympathies to and pray that they find the strength to come through their most horrible time.

The court said that T.J. Lane  will be tried as an adult. As further developments occur I will keep Ohio informed about this horrible tragedy.

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