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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pilapir who wrote (10018)	6/11/2002 8:03:53 AM
From: Axxel	Respond to of 19428

All camelids have a complex, 3-compartmented stomach. Although they are not considered ruminants, they do regurgitate and rechew ingested forage. In fact, they are more efficient at feed conversion than are ruminants in extracting protein and energy from poor quality forages. Nobusinesswire [aka goonie] regurgitates rehashed non news - lucky I found SI "ignore" feature so I no longer have to see his ["its" - could have been a sex change operation-who knows?] "forage."

To: pilapir who wrote (10018)	6/12/2002 9:11:53 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Prosecutor: Mob Used Sports Relics By LARRY NEUMEISTER .c The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) - A soiled, wrinkled Babe Ruth baseball glove, worth at least $30,000, rested on a table as a prosecutor Wednesday told how a reputed mobster tried to avoid being caught stealing by burying his profits in the relics of the national pastime. District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said the alleged soldier in the Colombo crime family made up to $312,000 a year leading a loan-sharking operation that charged its victims up to 250 percent interest, enough to make some of them turn to crime to try to pay their debts. The Brooklyn prosecutor said Silvio ``Crazy Sal'' Salome was loan-sharking as he wore a court-ordered monitoring bracelet while awaiting sentencing in a federal loan-sharking case. Ten others were arrested in what was dubbed, ``Operation Broken Bracelet.'' Of loan-sharking, Hynes said, ``It is a particularly evil crime because it takes people and not only makes them indentured servants but makes some of these people think they have to commit crimes themselves.'' Alongside the glove at a news conference were other historic mementos from the last century in sports. A small, weathered glove once worn by Mickey Mantle was just behind a collection of bats from players who had hit 500 or more home runs in their careers. A Michael Jordan basketball and Muhammad Ali boxing gloves were in front of thousands of baseball cards, protected by plastic. Sandwiched between the sports items were guns and cash, providing a more sinister backdrop to what Hynes said was a dreadful crime that caused some of its panicked victims to hijack trucks hauling cell phones to raise money to pay debts. Hynes said it was natural that a mobster would look to sports memorabilia - a business notorious for dodging taxes - to hide profits, especially since mobsters have become so comfortable controlling the proceeds of sports betting. ``People don't understand how serious this is,'' the prosecutor said. ``Give money to bookmakers and it's always going to come back into the neighborhood in the form of a gun, used to kill a police officer or a child.'' Hynes said investigators found some of the sports memorabilia in Salome's home on display while some was stashed in the attic, proceeds of a scam that stretched from December 1997 until this month. All of it, he said, would likely become government property, forfeited as part of the proceeds of the loan-sharking operation, though its value was unknown. A message left with Silvio's lawyer, Lance Lazzaro, was not immediately returned. The arrests capped a seven-month probe into loan-sharking in the Bensonhurst section, where the criminal activity was centered at a now-defunct candy store and a sports memorabilia store, Hynes said. Also arrested was a telephone company midlevel manager who allegedly gave confidential subscriber information to co-defendants in the loan-sharking operation so they could track down delinquent victims. ``We're working fully with the law enforcement agencies on this,'' said John Bonomo, a spokesman for Verizon, which is headquartered in Manhattan. At least two people who owed debts resorted to truck hijackings to try to repay their debts, hoping to resell truckloads of new cellular telephones seized in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan between Dec. 10 and Jan. 29, prosecutors said. 06/12/02 18:05 EDT