News, Etc.

Don't think the financial mess is simply limited to this country.

It's deliberate policy, and it is worldwide.
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If major local employer Harry & David goes under, it would have a devastating effect on the area's economy.

Blame  Wasserstein & Co. for wrecking this company:

In some people's minds, the die was cast more than six years ago when a group led by private equity firm Wasserstein & Co., acquired Bear Creek Corp. from Yamanouchi in June 2004 for $252.9 million. When an attempt to take the company public in August 2005 went nowhere, the initial public offering was withdrawn in May of 2008.

While the company and its employees have suffered financially, numerous sources say the Wasserstein investors have made a tidy profit.

Former Ashland Mayor Alan DeBoer, whose holdings include Town & Country Chevrolet and the Shoppes at Exit 24, said the wrong approach at the wrong time has hurt the company, if not the investors.

"It's a classic case where somebody bought a highly leveraged company so they could flip it and make a lot of money and then got caught in the downturn," DeBoer said. "The people who bought it with leveraged debt and the people who put the deals together, made millions in fees, with other people's money."

It's the same old story.  Buy it up, milk it, and then force a company to go belly-up.
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Keith Olbermann is out at MSNBC.

Tonight was his final broadcast.

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Nevada's unemployment rate now stands at 14.5 percent.

Las Vegas unemployment is now at a staggering 14.9 percent.
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