US Violence Takes Toll on Italian Exchange Student

Susanna De Sousa, 18, of Italy, was the most seriously injured of the seven people who survived the gunfire outside The Zone, an under-21 nightspot, in Portland Oregon, late Saturday. Two girls died in the attack. The shooter, died from a self-inflicted shot to the head.

De Sousa was struck multiple times and has undergone two surgeries in the last three days, Ramzy said. Some bullets hit her vital organs, but she is expected to recover without any long-term disabilities.

De Sousa's older brother and sister have also lived in the U.S. as exchange students, said her father, Americo De Sousa, who arrived here Monday with his wife, Tiziana Trevison.The couple also said they want their daughter to finish the school year here - if that's what she wants.

The United States has a significantly higher crime rate than most European countries, De Sousa acknowledges, but learning about American culture is an experience he and his wife want their children to have.

Italian Student Expected to Survive Oregon Attack

International Herald Tribune
From The Associated Press

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

PORTLAND, Oregon: An Italian student critically wounded in a downtown Portland shooting rampage is expected to live, and her parents say they want her to complete her experience of studying in the United States.

Susanna De Sousa, 18, of Italy, was the most seriously injured of the seven people who survived the gunfire outside The Zone, an under-21 nightspot, late Saturday. Two girls died in the attack. The shooter, Erik S. Ayala, died from a self-inflicted shot to the head.

De Sousa, who has been upgraded to stable but serious condition, had been spending her senior year at Clackamas High School in suburban Portland. She and the other foreign students were at the nightclub to celebrate a birthday. There appears to be no link between Ayala and the victims, police said.

De Sousa's older brother and sister have also lived in the U.S. as exchange students, said her father, Americo De Sousa, who arrived here Monday with his wife, Tiziana Trevison.The couple told reporters Tuesday they want their daughter to finish the school year here ? if that's what she wants."We'd like her to continue her experience," her father said. "We want our kids to live their lives."

The United States has a significantly higher crime rate than most European countries, De Sousa acknowledges, but learning about American culture is an experience he and his wife want their children to have.

De Sousa, a Roman Catholic, said he prays for his children's safety daily, whether they are in Italy or elsewhere. "When they are abroad a little more," he said. "In Europe, we know that in the United States things are a little more violent."....

Authorities say the incident is the worst mass shooting in Portland's history and it has alarmed many in a city that is better known for being eco-friendly and having sweeping vistas than for violent crimes....

The teenage girls killed in the shooting were Martha "Tika" Paz de Noboa, a 17-year-old Peruvian exchange student, and 16-year-old Ashley Wilks, a sophomore at Clackamas High.

Police and local school officials identified the other wounded exchange students as Ana Zambrano Soledispa, 18, of Ecuador; Gonzalo Vasquez Orozco, 18, of Guatemala; Trista Chang, 18, of Taiwan; and Anne Sophie Rialland, 16, of France.Two other injured victims are from the Portland area.All of those wounded in the attack are expected to survive the shooting.

De Sousa was struck multiple times and has undergone two surgeries in the last three days, Ramzy said. Some bullets hit her vital organs, but she is expected to recover without any long-term disabilities.

Americo De Sousa describes his daughter as a dedicated student, who likes archaeology, art and photography. She is interested in studying biology after she finishes high school, he said.

Susanna De Sousa turned 18 last week and had gone to the nightclub with others to celebrate another exchange student's birthday.

De Sousa's host mother in Portland, Suzy Dyer, said....a slumber party was also planned that night....

Her father said her recovery is a miracle. Ramzy, the surgeon, doesn't negate the claim.

"I respect their conviction that this is a miracle," he said. "I think she'll pull through this."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/28/america/NA-US-Portland-Shooting-Survivor.php

Veronica Lario, Berlusconi's wife, Gushes over Obama

Veronica Lario, Silvio Belusconi's wife told La Stampa newspaper, that Barack Obama , the new US President, "He is a handsome man, he is young and healthy with a splendid family," "He is perfect for giving Americans their confidence back."

Obama is 'Handsome,' says Italian PM's Wife

AFP June 22, 2009

ROME (AFP) — Barack Obama is good looking, Silvio Berlusconi's wife was quoted Friday as saying, three months after the outspoken Italian premier sparked controversy by describing the US president as "tanned."

"He is a handsome man, he is young and healthy with a splendid family," Veronica Lario told La Stampa newspaper.

"He is perfect for giving Americans their confidence back," she gushed.

Berlusconi had provoked criticism for describing Obama as "young, handsome, and tanned," during a visit to Moscow. Many in Italy and the United States saw the comment as racist or in bad taste.

Italy's ANSA news agency said Berlusconi later defended the remark as "a great compliment."

Lario also said her 72-year-old husband would be at the helm for a decade.

"Today there is no opposition in Italy. A strong opposition forces the majority to improve itself to face a stronger political challenge. My husband will rule for another 10 years," she said.

Berlusconi was prime minister in 1994 and then held power between 2001 and 2006. He returned to office in May last year.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini meanwhile said he would meet with the new US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "in two or three weeks."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h-NR8r0ZuU6b6jmYbT6CCdwoFTKw

Obit: Dante Lavelli, 85 Cleveland Browns, Hall of Fame Receiver

Dante Lavelli, born Feb. 23, 1923, in Hudson, Ohio, near Akron, was the son of Italian immigrants. As a quarterback he led the Hudson High School Explorers to three straight undefeated seasons and county championships.

Recruited by Paul Brown at Ohio State, Lavelli was a halfback as a freshman and an end as a sophomore, a season cut short by injury. He soon left college to join the Army as an infantryman in World War II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge

After the war he was signed by Paul Brown to play as one of the original Cleveland Browns, a once-powerful team that appeared in 10 consecutive championship games beginning in 1946. The team won the title in every one of its four years in the All-America Football Conference and three times in the National Football League, which merged with the A.A.F.C. in 1950.

Lavelli was the favorite receiver of quarterback Otto Graham, another Brown in the Hall of Fame. In his 11 professional seasons, 1946 through 1956, Lavelli caught 386 passes for 6,488 yards (a 16.8 average) and 62 touchdowns.

Dante Lavelli, Cleveland Browns Receiver Known as Gluefingers, Dies at 85

New York Times

By Frank Litsky

January 22, 2009

Dante Lavelli, a Hall of Fame receiver nicknamed Gluefingers who helped the Cleveland Browns build a football dynasty with seven championships in the 1940s and ’50s, died Tuesday in Cleveland. He was 85 and lived in Westlake, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.

The Browns reported his death on the team’s Web site. No cause of death was given.

Lavelli was among the original players for the Browns, a once-powerful team that appeared in 10 consecutive championship games under the Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown beginning in 1946. The team won the title in every one of its four years in the All-America Football Conference and three times in the National Football League, which merged with the A.A.F.C. in 1950.

Lavelli was the favorite receiver of quarterback Otto Graham, another Brown in the Hall of Fame. In his 11 professional seasons, 1946 through 1956, Lavelli caught 386 passes for 6,488 yards (a 16.8 average) and 62 touchdowns. He was inducted into the Hall, in Canton, Ohio, in 1975.

According to the Browns, Brown and Bob Neal, the team’s first radio announcer, gave Lavelli his nickname. (He liked it and often used Gluefingers when signing autographs.) Brown, who also coached him at Ohio State, said of Lavelli: “He had the strongest hands I’ve ever seen. Nobody can take the ball away from him once he gets his hands on it.”

As a 6-foot, 191-pound rookie, Lavelli led the All-America conference in catches in 1946, and he caught the winning touchdown pass in the league’s first championship game that season, a 14-9 victory over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. In the Browns’ first season in the expanded N.F.L., Lavelli caught 11 passes in the championship game as the Browns defeated the Los Angeles Rams, 30-28. He also played in three Pro Bowls.

“Dante was a dedicated pattern runner, but once there was a hint things weren’t going right, he preferred to take off down the field and yell for the ball,” according to his Hall of Fame biography. “More than once, his penetrating voice provided a homing signal for Graham, and the combination clicked for a long touchdown.”

Dante Bert Joseph Lavelli was born Feb. 23, 1923, in Hudson, Ohio, near Akron, a son of Italian immigrants. As a quarterback he led the Hudson High School Explorers to three straight undefeated seasons and county championships.

Recruited by Brown at Ohio State, Lavelli was a halfback as a freshman and an end as a sophomore, a season cut short by injury. He soon left college to join the Army as an infantryman in World War II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

After the war he was signed by Brown to play for the new Browns. He eventually received a degree from Ohio State by attending classes part-time.

After his playing career, Lavelli was a scout for the Browns, and owned and ran a furniture business in Rocky River, Ohio, outside Cleveland. He was a founding member of the N.F.L. Alumni Association, which raises money for charities.

He is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Joy; two daughters, Lucinda and Lisa; a son, Edward; and four grandchildren. A cousin, Tony Lavelli, was a star basketball player at Yale who later played in the N.B.A. for the Boston Celtics and the Knicks while achieving some renown as an accordionist.

While a member of the Browns, Lavelli and other teammates pressed for a pension plan and minimum pay standards, as well as meal money on road trips and uniforms that they did not have to pay for themselves. Changes like those were eventually instituted through the N.F.L. players union, founded in 1956, the year Lavelli retired.

Before then, players dared not object to work conditions, he once told the Web site ClevelandSeniors.com. “We were all competing for spots on about 12 teams, so you didn’t say boo,” he said. “You were fighting for positions. You did what you were told and toed the line.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/sports/football/22lavelli.html?_r=1

Pasta to the Rescue of Budget Tight Consumers

Struggling consumers turn to pasta to stretch their food dollars, in very dire times, after many years of pasta being overshadowed by the low-carbohydrate fad, that showed to not be that effective in the long run.

"It's simple and cheap and I have kids and that's something they like," and "It is still an incredibly great value, For about $5, you can feed a family of four." said two consumers interviewed.

Pasta's Value Rediscovered

The Seattle Times From The Associated Press By David Twiddy January 21, 2009

As struggling consumers turn to casseroles, soup, pasta salad and good old macaroni and cheese to stretch their food dollars, the nation's pasta makers are returning to a rolling boil after many years overshadowed by the low-carbohydrate fad.

Sales of pasta products in the United States — including frozen and refrigerated pasta, canned pasta, soup mixes and prepared dinners — rose 5 percent last year to $6.4 billion, according to Kansas City, Mo.-based American Italian Pasta, the nation's largest manufacturer of dry pasta.

Most of that increase came as manufacturers passed along a stiff jump in the price of wheat and other costs.

But Peter Smith, chief executive of Harrisburg, Penn.-based New World Pasta, which makes such brands as Ronzoni, American Beauty and Creamette, said he was amazed commodity-price increases last year didn't dampen pasta sales the way they did sales of other consumer goods.

"I think what happened this past year is with all the inflation running rampant through the stores," he said, "it's like a certain number of people rediscovered pasta."...

The volume increase is particularly welcome because pasta consumption had been falling 1 or 2 percent annually for years because of high-protein diet fads, said Carol Freysinger, spokeswoman for the National Pasta Association.

"There's this renewed vigor, this renewed energy in the pasta companies," Freysinger said. "They really got beat up by the low-carb diets, which showed to not be that effective in the long run.

"Pasta has been vindicated," she said. "And (now) the economy is driving consumers to more cost-effective options."

Judy Donnellan, 45, was shopping for macaroni at a grocery store in Kansas City on Tuesday and said her family eats pasta about three or four times a week. "It's simple and cheap and I have kids and that's something they like," Donnellan said.

She said she couldn't tell if she was buying pasta more than before but said the staple's price and flexibility "is basically why I use it...

The U.S. division of Italy-based Barilla Group, the world's largest pasta manufacturer, saw a 15 percent boost in pasta volume and a 22 percent increase in sales, said the division's president, Kirk Trofholz...

In 2008, consumption of dry pasta hit its highest level since 2003, according to American Italian Pasta, which makes consumer brands such as Ronco, Mueller's and Pennsylvania Dutch and supplies pasta for in-house grocery store brands and for manufacturers who use pasta in prepared dishes.

Annual sales at American Italian Pasta soared 42 percent to $569 million in 2008, and its net profits more than tripled to $19.1 million — ....

"It is still an incredibly great value," Kelly said of pasta. "For about $5, you can feed a family of four."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008651640_pastaboom210.html

Fabrizio de André - Favorite Son of Struggling Left - Celebrated 10 Years After Death

In an extraordinary outpouring of emotion, millions of Italians have spent much of January remembering a singer-songwriter who died 10 years ago but now seems to belong to another age and another country.

Fabrizio de André is widely acknowledged as the finest Italian lyricist and musician of the 20th century. A series of high-profile exhibitions and concerts celebrating the singer's life have generated a wildly enthusiastic response, culminating last week in a three-hour tribute to De André, tucked away on one of the least watched of Italy's TV channels. To general astonishment, the programme drew almost eight million viewers, or 30% of total audience share.

Italians Hail Poet-singer's Rebel Legacy

Guardian News & Media

Buzzle,com

January 17, 2009

Ten years after his death, Fabrizio de André has become the favorite son of the struggling left

For anyone tempted to identify Italy with the brash showmanship of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the ongoing struggle with the mafia and a national obsession with fashion, events this month will have come as a shock. In an extraordinary outpouring of emotion, millions of Italians have spent much of January remembering a singer-songwriter who died 10 years ago but now seems to belong to another age and another country.

Fabrizio de André is widely acknowledged as the finest Italian lyricist and musician of the 20th century, a Genoese hybrid of Leonard Cohen and the French troubadour Georges Brassens. His songs celebrated the marginal lives of prostitutes and gypsies and attacked the hypocrisies of the Catholic Church. As the Berlusconi government cracks down on the Roma communities of Italy, makes life tougher for immigrants generally, and supports the Vatican's hostility to gay marriage, many of his countrymen are realizing how much they miss him.

The Italian political left is in disarray and was roundly defeated by Berlusconi in last year's general election, but its supporters have found a cultural rallying point in commemorating the life of a favorite son. A series of high-profile exhibitions and concerts celebrating the singer's life have generated a wildly enthusiastic response, culminating last week in a three-hour tribute to De André, tucked away on one of the least watched of Italy's TV channels. To general astonishment, the programme drew almost eight million viewers, or 30% of total audience share, matching the hyped new series of Big Brother aired the following evening. Three hundred radio stations relayed the De André tribute across Italy at the moment it played one of his best known songs, "Amore che vieni amore che vai" (Love that comes, love that goes ).

"In 25 years in television I have never seen anything like it," said the show's presenter, Fabio Fazio. "It was more like a secular rite than a TV show, after which we got 1,500 emails of thanks and people came up to me in the street with tears in their eyes. Only De André, with his strength, artistry and intellect, could do that."

Ten years after his death, streets, schools and theaters have been named after De André, while hundreds of books have analyzed his portraits of a postwar Italy dominated by the twin faiths of Catholicism and communism. Now, German director Wim Wenders is considering a film and a tribute concert in New York for the singer, who made just a few reluctant live appearances, usually hunched over his guitar with a cigarette burning in an ashtray at his feet.

According to his widow, Dori Ghezzi, who appeared in the television tribute, "the affection for De André seems to be growing in Italy, not declining".

Born into a rich Genoese family in 1940, De André quickly showed both musical talent and a rebellious streak, paying off his violin teacher to let him skip lessons when he was eight. He dropped out of law school after receiving royalties from a song he sold to the famous Italian pop star Mina. The lyrics told the story of a young orphan forced into prostitution, the first evidence of his lifelong fascination with the low-life characters populating Genoa's back streets. In one tribute to the life of the poor, "Via del Campo", De André famously sang: "Nothing grows on diamonds, flowers grow in the dung."

"Coming from a port town like Genoa, De André knew all about different types coming together, while he himself was a migrant within the worlds of literature and music," said Italian music journalist Giuseppe Cesaro. "On his journey he entered the cultural DNA of Italy."

Although considered a subversive by the Italian police, De André was never drawn into active politics. In the midst of student rioting in 1968 he decided to go his own way and write an album about Jesus, La Buona Novella ("The Good News"), albeit treating Christ as a revolutionary hero "fighting for complete freedom, full of forgiveness". Songs from the album are still played in churches, despite De André's lack of faith. Priests tend to leave out the track in which a thief who is crucified next to Jesus ridicules the Ten Commandments.

There was more drama in 1979 when he and Ghezzi were kidnapped in Sardinia by bandits and held for four months before his father paid the ransom. Undeterred, De André forgave his kidnappers at a later trial, claiming that "they were the real prisoners, not I".

A heavy drinker and smoker, De André succumbed to lung cancer in 1999, with 10,000 turning out for his funeral.

Ten years on, it is his sympathy for outsiders, argues his widow, that makes his work so relevant to contemporary Italy. "Fabrizio saw the challenges of multiculturalism coming," said Ghezzi, who sang a verse in Romany on a track defending gypsy culture on her husband's last album in 1996.

Fabio Fazio added: "Anyone who can clearly address the themes of mercy, freedom and the human condition is precious today in Italy because no one else is doing that. Listening to De André today has more impact than 25 years ago - he is now shining more brightly."

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/246156.html

Jewish-Italian Confluence Exhibit at San Francisco Museo ItaloAmericano

The spirit of the exhibit, is captured in the words of Rabbi Elia Benamozegh of Livorno in 1847:

"Italian Jews! Two great names, two enviable glories, two splendid crowns are joined together in you. … Who among you, in human and divine glories, does not reverently bow before the prodigious names of Moses and Dante …"

Celebrate the Jewish-Italian Confluence

Museo ItaloAmericano exhibit details triumphs and tragedies

Sacramento Bee S. Magagnini Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009

All my life, I've been fascinated by the fusion of Italian and Jewish culture. I'm what's known in New York as a "Pizza Bagel" – there are a lot of us Italian Jews around.

My Jewish mother from Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, went to Italy to find romance and fell for an Italian medical student. The church wouldn't let Catholics marry Jews, even in 1954 Italy, so I was conceived in Rome – or perhaps on the romantic island of Ischia – and born in Brooklyn.

A month later, my dad got off the boat in New York with $100 and a medical degree.

The unique intersections between Jews and Italians dating back more than 2,000 years are displayed through Feb. 15 at San Francisco's Museo ItaloAmericano.

"Il Ghetto: Forging Italian Jewish Identities 1516-1870" leads visitors through Jewish-Italian relationships dating back to 161 B.C., when envoys of Judah Maccabee came to Rome to ask for help against the Syrian Greeks.

The exhibit centers on what's believed to be the first "ghetto," the Jewish enclave in Venice, made famous by Shakespeare in his 16th century play "The Merchant of Venice." Shylock, the play's central character, is a tormented Jewish moneylender who's been described as part villain, part victim.

Jewish moneylenders have indeed played a prominent role throughout Italy's history, particularly during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, said curator David Rosenberg-Wohl.

Almost from the beginning, the Catholic Church had ostracized Jews, especially those who were prosperous, Rosenberg-Wohl said.

Beginning about A.D. 1215, by papal order, Jews in Italy were ordered to wear yellow O's, or circles, perhaps representing coins. In some regions, the O's were not enough – Jews were ordered to wear yellow hats.

Interestingly, "Jewish doctors received permission not to have to wear a distinguishing mark because doctors were of use not just to Jews but to Christians, and you didn't want your neighbors to know you called in a Jew," Rosenberg-Wohl said. "Without these marks on the clothing, you can't tell who's Jewish, which shows a lot of ease in Jewish-Christian relations."

Between 1517 and 1721, 230 medical degrees were awarded to Jews in Padua.

Though Italian Jews and Christians weren't allowed to marry in either tradition, "that didn't stop people from having sex, of course," he said.

Aside from being successful merchants, moneylenders and doctors, Jews were musicians, artisans, architects and poets. Their patrons included that most famous Renaissance family, the Medicis of Florence and Livorno.

One of the stars of Venetian society was Sara Copio Sullam, who grew up in the Jewish ghetto and hosted a salon that attracted the city's leading cultural lights. Sullam, who wrote sonnets including "Manifesto of the Jew" in 1621, was celebrated for her musical abilities and other charms.

While Italian Jews never shook the stigma embodied by Shylock, "they were useful to Christian communities in Italy, in that they helped them develop economically," Rosenberg-Wohl said. "They provided much-needed loans to the poor as well as the wealthy – it was all right for Jews to do this work, not Christians.

"Jews were like prostitutes, a necessary evil. You could criticize their activities, but below the surface, they were extremely valuable."

Jews also played a huge role in promoting "peace, stability and tolerance," he said. "If you look at 15th century Tuscany, every five years there's some calamity, whether it's famine or war. Economic development does a tremendous amount to alleviate pain and suffering."

The Papal States relied on Jewish taxes to fund armies in the 15th and 16th centuries, and Jewish merchants had been building bridges throughout the Mediterranean region for 1,500 years.

But anti-Semitism was alive and well in xenophobic Shakespearean England, Rosenberg-Wohl said.

"Jews were excluded entirely and not admitted until the late 1600s."

After the Christians conquered Muslim Andalusia in 1492, Jews were expelled from Spain and southern Italy, which was then ruled by Spain.

The Venetians, realizing the importance of the Jews, established the ghetto in 1516, which, along with Livorno became home to some of the Jews driven from Spain and Portugal.

The ghetto gates were locked at night and patrolled by guards, but Jewish culture thrived. By 1529, the Great German Synagogue opened in Venice, where Daniel Bomberg had published the first complete edition of the Talmud.

Religious tolerance didn't last long – in 1553, Pope Julius III ordered the burning of the Talmud in Rome, Venice, Bologna, Mantua and Ferrara.

By the time the word "ghetto" first appeared in English, in 1611, there were Jewish ghettos in Rome, Florence and other Italian cities.

Paola Bagnatori, managing director of the Museo, said the word "ghetto" came from the Italian word gettare, "which means to throw or throw away – in the Venetian dialect, the G becomes hard."

Anti-Semitism was based on jealousy – Jews were very successful merchants who weren't Italian - and the belief that Jews were killers of Christ, Bagnatori said.

"The Franciscan monks were the worst," spreading rumors of Jewish child sacrifices that provoked anti-Jewish riots.

Napoleon's French forces tore down the ghetto gates in Venice in 1797. The Jewish ghetto in Rome lasted until Italy was unified in 1870 and the Jews were given full civil rights.

Despite the religious barriers that kept Jews and Christians from marrying, Italians and Jews have enjoyed an enduring relationship based on a mutual love of life, food, mothers, family, art and traditions, Rosenberg-Wohl said.

That relationship became critical during World War II, when Adolf Hitler ordered the extermination of all Jews, Bagnatori said. By 1938, about 8,000 Italian Jews had been deported to death camps.

[Actually, these 8,000 Jews were mostly Refugees from Germany-Austria, and were Not deported until Italy had surrendered, and the Germans took over Italy.]

"But even Mussolini resisted Hitler as long as he could," Bagnatori said.

Jews throughout Italy went into hiding, often aided by Italian Catholics. My grandfather Giovanni Magagnini, the Fascist mayor of Ostra Vetere in the Marche region of central Italy, hid a Jewish family in his home.

The San Francisco exhibit includes Jewish art, writings, a Hanukkah lamp, spice box, Torah pointer and cover, and other Jewish artifacts from Italy.

"Culture knows no walls," said Rosenberg-Wohl. "When people live together, their respective traditions bend but do not break. In some ways, they begin to look like each other. In other ways, they try to maintain difference."

The spirit of the exhibit, which has already been toured by thousands of visitors since it opened in September, is captured in the words of Rabbi Elia Benamozegh of Livorno in 1847:

"Italian Jews! Two great names, two enviable glories, two splendid crowns are joined together in you. … Who among you, in human and divine glories, does not reverently bow before the prodigious names of Moses and Dante …"

http://www.sacbee.com/115/story/1546636.html

Fiat Considers Stake in Chrysler

Whoa. Didn't Daimler-Benz just get out of that costly Chrysler snake pit? (Yes. I do remember that Fiat "snookered" GM for $ 2 Billion, when GM couldn't meet its contractual obligations in 2005.)

It is not reassuring that most of Fiat's stake will be in the form of Retooling a Plant in the US to produce Fiats, or that the New Nuova Fiat 500 is the newest Cult car in Europe. The US Car market is in terrible shape, and the Economy looks like it will get much worse before it gets better, not a great time to introduce a New Brand.

Maybe if it takes 3 years to Retool there may be a chance, but can Chrysler last that long???

Fiat Nears Stake in Chrysler That Could Lead to Takeover

Wall Street Journal

By Stacey Meichry in Rome and John in Detroit

January 20, 2009

In an attempt to revive two of the world's storied auto makers, Italy's Fiat SpA and Chrysler LLC are poised to announce a partnership as soon as today in which Fiat could take control of the U.S. company's operations, people familiar with the matter said.

Under terms of a pact that is being hammered out, Fiat is likely to take a 35% stake in Chrysler by the middle of this year. It would have the option of increasing that to as much as 55%, these people said.

Fiat wouldn't immediately put cash into Chrysler, but would obtain its stake mainly in exchange for covering the cost of retooling a Chrysler plant to produce one or more Fiat models to be sold in the U.S., these people said. Fiat would also provide engine and transmission technology to help Chrysler introduce new, fuel-efficient small cars, they said.

The companies believe working together could generate savings of $3 billion, they said. The deal is the latest maneuver by Fiat's chief, Sergio Marchionne, who took over the Italian company in 2004 when it was near collapse.

The partnership would provide each company with added economies of scale and geographical reach at a time when both are struggling to compete with larger and more global rivals like Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and the alliance of Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co.

Chrysler last year sold two million cars and trucks world-wide, with almost all of its sales in North America. Fiat sold 2.5 million vehicles and is heavily dependent on Europe -- particularly its home market in Italy.

While Fiat has a wider global reach than Chrysler, the two auto makers are smaller players compared to their global rivals. Toyota and General Motors, for instance, each have sold more than nine million vehicles annually.

Chrysler spokeswoman Lori McTavish said, "In today's economic environment, talks are going on between companies in all industries -- ours is no different."

The pact with Fiat could give Chrysler a stronger case as it seeks more loans from the U.S. government. Chrysler nearly ran out of money late last year, before the Treasury Department provided $4 billion in emergency loans, and has suffered a steep drop in sales in the past three months. The auto maker needs to show it can remain a viable business by March to keep those loans and to qualify for the $3 billion in additional government aid it says it needs.

Last week, a vocal critic of Chrysler, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the company needs to "merge or go away." A Chrysler official declined to comment on Sen. Corker's remark.

Kimberly Rodriquez, an automotive consultant at Detroit-based advisory firm Grant Thornton, said Chrysler has little choice but to find an alliance. "Without further funding, they don't survive with the level of sales and cash they have right now," she said in a telephone interview.

Working with Fiat could complicate a separate partnership Chrysler arranged last year with Nissan. Chrysler is supposed to start making pickup trucks in a few years that Nissan would sell in the U.S., and Nissan has agreed to make compact cars for Chrysler -- vehicles that potentially could compete with any small cars Fiat provides to Chrysler. Nissan's partner, Renault, is also a key Fiat rival in Europe.

Chrysler and Nissan have discussed joining in a broader alliance, and top executives of the two companies spoke as recently as last week, a person familiar with the matter said. But Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of both Nissan and Renault, is wary of any deal that would require Nissan to put money into Chrysler, a person familiar with Mr. Ghosn's thinking said.

The tentative terms Fiat and Chrysler have worked out would call for Chrysler's owners, Cerberus Capital Management LP and Daimler AG, to retain stakes in the U.S. carmaker, people familiar with the discussions said. If Fiat takes the entire 55% stake, Cerberus will see its 80.1% stake diluted. It is unclear whether Daimler will want to keep its entire 19.9% stake.

A Daimler official couldn't immediately be reached.

News of the partnership was previously reported by Automotive News, a trade publication.

The potential alliance will need the blessing of Fiat's founding family, the Agnellis. The family, which holds a 30% controlling stake in Fiat, has said in the past that to stay competitive, Fiat needed to link up with a larger rival.

Fiat's board is likely to discuss the potential deal with Chrysler when it meets Thursday to approve third-quarter results, one person familiar with the matter said.

On the Chrysler side, Cerberus has been trying to find a partner for the auto company for months. Cerberus, a massive private-equity fund, acquired Chrysler from Daimler in 2007, pledging to rebuild its status as an American industrial icon. To come up with cash to fund its ambitions, Cerberus had Chrysler mortgage almost all of its plants and other assets to raise $12 billion in loans from a group of banks led by J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

Then, in the spring of 2008, gasoline prices soared to $4 a gallon and Chrysler's sales plunged.

Scrambling to save cash, Chrysler slowed development of new vehicles. At the North American International Auto Show, which opened last week in Detroit, Chrysler didn't show a single new vehicle that will be launched in 2009.

Chrysler's troubles worsened last fall when the meltdown on Wall Street hit. In the second half of 2008, the company used up $10 billion in cash, forcing it to seek help from the U.S. government. As part of the deal with Fiat, Chrysler is supposed to restructure the $9 billion in debt it still has on its books, people familiar with the matter said.

With this deal, Cerberus would be stepping away from the auto business after an 18-month stint trying to fix Chrysler. While the private-equity firm and its investors likely will lose billions on the Chrysler deal, Cerberus could take an even bigger hit if it is forced to put Chrysler in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection or continue running the auto maker amid a slump in the U.S. auto industry projected to last at least another year.

Fiat is also facing challenges. Analysts have long doubted whether it has the scale to survive as an independent manufacturer of small cars. Small vehicles produce relatively thin profit margins.

Fiat has for months been exploring ways to gain a foothold in North America, hunting for a partner that could manufacture its Fiat 500 mini model and re-launch its high-end Alfa Romeo brand in the U.S.

The financial crisis has exacerbated Fiat's challenges. New-car registrations in Europe, a measure of demand, reached a 15-year low in 2008, falling 7.8% from the year before, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association reported last week.

Most analysts say Chrysler has little hope of surviving as a standalone company. Amid a rash of mergers in recent decades, and the rise of well-funded newcomers in China and India, the auto industry is dominated by multinational players that can quickly move production and engineering from region to region.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123238519459294991.html

"Foxy Knoxy" Sex Murder Trial Begins in Perugia

Amanda Knox, 21, an exchange student from Seattle, Washington and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, went on trial last Friday accused of sexually abusing and murdering Meredith Kercher of Great Britain, in the Umbrian town of Perugia.

Rudy Guede, 21, a drifter from the Ivory Coast, has already been jailed for 30 years for his part in the killing in a plea deal.

Meredith was ‘Softened up for Fatal Sex Game’

Prosecutors allege that Amanda Knox instigated an 'erotic game' with her housemate and became violent when she resisted. Amanda Knox says she is glad 'the hour of truth' has arrived. She denies killing Meredith Kercher

The London Sunday Times

John Follain

January 18, 2009

NEW details about a sex game that allegedly led to the murder of Meredith Kercher, the British exchange student, have been revealed by an Italian prosecutor.

Giuliano Mignini, the official leading the case, alleges that Amanda Knox, Kercher’s American housemate, instigated the “erotic game” and probably persuaded an accomplice into “softening up” the 21-year-old Briton.

Reconstructing the student’s final moments, Mignini alleges that Kercher’s killers became “incensed and violent” after she resisted their advances.

Knox, 21, an exchange student from Seattle and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, went on trial last Friday accused of sexually abusing and murdering Kercher in the Umbrian town of Perugia. They both say they are innocent.

Rudy Guede, 21, a drifter from the Ivory Coast, has already been jailed for 30 years for his part in the killing.

Mignini gave his account of the murder at committal hearings which were closed to the public. However, details of his reconstruction will appear in a book called Meredith: Lights and Shadows in Perugia. It is written by Vincenzo Maria Mastronardi, a forensic psychiatrist, and Giuseppe Castellini, editor of the Giornale dell’ Umbria newspaper, and will be published this week.

Mignini said Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was likely to have been irritated with Knox for allegedly bringing Sollecito and Guede to the cottage the young women shared late on the night of the murder in November 2007.

“Knox, whom Guede was always trying to please, probably pushed him into ‘softening up’ the English girl and preparing her for the erotic ‘game’ . . . while Knox ‘dedicated’ herself to Sollecito,” said Mignini.

“And when Guede failed because of energetic resistance by the victim, the three became incensed and violent.

“They grabbed Kercher by the neck and tried to strangle her. Sollecito grabbed her violently in the back and on a breast, deforming her bra clasp and then they finished her off with the violent knife stab to the left part of the neck. Kercher gave a last desperate scream, which was heard by [a neighbour].”

The prosecutor said that just before the final blow, Kercher suffered a cut to the right hand as she tried to free herself and pushed away the knife which Knox allegedly held.

A minute after the last stab wound, the three allegedly fled the cottage, with Knox and Sollecito returning later to stage a fake robbery by breaking a window, said Mignini.

The prosecutor singled out the placing of a duvet over Kercher’s body as “extremely important from a psychological point of view”. He argued it indicated pity and respect for the victim: “Amanda, especially as a woman, couldn’t bear that naked, torn female cadaver.”

Both Knox and Sollecito insist they were at his home on the night of the murder. Their defence teams dispute DNA evidence linking Knox to a knife, which investigators say may be the murder weapon, and Sollecito to Kercher’s bra clasp.

Last week Knox told her lawyer Luciano Ghirga: “At last the hour of truth has arrived. I’m not afraid. I hope that the whole truth will come out because I’ve always been a friend of Meredith’s and I didn’t kill her.”

However, Mignini alleges that on the morning after the murder Knox tried to delay the body’s discovery by telling other housemates that it was normal for Kercher’s bedroom to be locked.

When the door was kicked down, Knox and Sollecito were too far away to see into the room, where Kercher’s half-naked body lay on the floor under a beige duvet, according to witnesses quoted by Mignini at the committal hearings last October.

“When those present go outside after the body is found, Knox and Sollecito are also outside, intent on kissing and caressing each other, as they did subsequently during police searches.

“A very strange way of behaving which started the very moment the victim’s body was found . . . and at a time when all the other young people were literally overwhelmed by that discovery,” said Mignini.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5537365.ece

Berlusconi Shows How Capitalism Works in Alitalia Deal

I had always thought that Capitalism was: Those who Take Risks Earns the Rewards and Suffers the Losses.

How Wrong I was.!!!! When you have Friends High in the Government, A Capitalist can Give themselves Obscene Profits, and then after running the Enterprise into a Desperate Condition, You can Get the Taxpayer to Bail You Out, the same Taxpayers that you were exploiting, by Charging onerous fees, participation, salaries, bonuses, severance payments, golden parachutes, and commissions, and fraudulently inflating profits.

It's amazing how loud the Capitalist scream when ANY Government Regulation is suggested, YET that same Capitalist will run to the Government for a Bailout, thus converting the definition of CAPITALISM to: Capitalism takes the Profits, the Taxpayer takes the Losses !!!!

Bush did it for the US Banking and Investment Interests, and Berlusconi did it for the Creditors of Alitalia, as you will read below.

Italians Lose, French Win Big in Alitalia Sale

Reuters

In the London Guardian

By Deepa Babington

Thursday January 15 2009

ROME, Italy's government has claimed Alitalia's rescue as a patriotic victory, but analysts say rival Air France-KLM has emerged as the real winner, while Italians are left footing the bill.

Alitalia took to the skies on Tuesday as a revamped carrier owned by private investors after a troubled sale process that included a failed takeover last year by Air France-KLM when the Italian national airline was riddled with debts and losses.

Silvio Berlusconi, then campaigning to become premier, called the deal humiliating and a French colonisation attempt.

The French carrier came back less than a year later with an even better deal, paying less than a fifth of its earlier offer for a 25 percent stake in a cleaned-up Alitalia stripped of its debt, labour problems and troubled units.

Italian taxpayers, meanwhile, will end up paying about 4 billion euros for Alitalia's liabilities assumed by the state as part of its August bankruptcy, as well as welfare benefits for laid-off workers, says Bocconi University economist Tito Boeri.

That is 0.3 percent of annual gross domestic product diverted to rescuing Alitalia or about the same the government spent on shoring up Italy's economy from the financial crisis, he said.

"Air France-KLM are the clear winners in all of this," Boeri said. "They've got the good company with a monopoly position on the key Milan-Rome route and without paying for its debts while the Italian taxpayers are paying for Alitalia's 'bad company'."

Italians also face the prospect of higher fares on the busy Rome-Milan route where Alitalia dominates because of its merger with smaller rival Air One as part of its restructuring.

Indeed, Air France-KLM has gained a coveted foothold in the Italian market by shelling out 323 million euros instead of the roughly 1.75 billion euros it previously offered, all without having to take on militant Alitalia unions and other debts.

The earlier deal included a 1 billion euro capital hike, 608 million euros for convertible bonds and 10 euro cents per share, or 138 million euros, when the deal was announced. It would also have assumed other debt of about 1.37 billion euros.

The market seems to agree on the deal. Air France-KLM shares have bounced off a 52-week low in November to rise 3.7 percent this month, when speculation on the Alitalia deal intensified.

In contrast, the shares fell 20 percent between December 2007, when Air France-KLM was picked as preferred buyer, and April 2008 when that deal fell apart, sparking a month-long rally.

While analysts fretted about Alitalia's old structure bringing down all of Air France-KLM under the previous deal, many were upbeat this time, noting expected synergies of 720 million euros over three years for both from the new alliance.

"The new Alitalia faces fewer business risks than the former state-owned carrier," Exane analysts told clients in a note.

"This could turn out to be a very good investment for Air France-KLM both in itself and because of the continued and expanded access it brings to the large Italian market."

Air France-KLM cannot raise its stake for four years under a lock-up arrangement, but can do so after that or if the airline decides to relist on the market after three years.

POLITICAL OUTCRY

All this has angered Italy's centre-left opposition, which blessed the earlier takeover by Air France-KLM that fell apart.

Massimo Donadi, leader of the centre-left Italy of Values (IDV) party in the lower house, waved a copy of French daily Les Echos sporting a "Merci Silvio" banner headline in parliament, demanding how the government allowed such a "scandalous" deal.

"Italy of Values is not against Air France-KLM, which is an excellent carrier without doubt and capable of reviving Alitalia," said Antonio Borghesi, an IDV lawmaker.

"The problem is that now the French will not pay what they would have under the previous government, for the simple reason that Italians have already been lumped with four billion euros."

Alitalia's Chairman, Roberto Colaninno, has denied Air France-KLM has unduly profited while Berlusconi's government denies Italians have ended up with a bad deal, saying its efforts prevented Alitalia from being grounded for good.

"We've saved Alitalia with a group of private investors," Labour Minister Maurizio Sacconi told foreign correspondents on Wednesday. "We've constructed an Italian solution from zero." (Additional reporting by Stephen Brown)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8260293

No Auto Bailout for Lamborghini that Sets Sales Records for $200,000 Sports Car

Lamborghini sold a record 2,430 vehicles whose prices start at $200,000.Growth in China, South Korea and the Middle East helped overcome a 20 percent decline in U.S. sales

Lamborghini Sets Sales Record, Defies Slump With $200,000 Cars
Bloomberg News
By Mike Ramsey
January 12, 2009
Automobili Lamborghini SpA, the Italian sports-car maker whose prices start at about $200,000, posted record sales last year and plans to add dealerships now, defying the industrywide slump that’s draining U.S. rivals. The automaker sold a record 2,430 vehicles globally in 2008, up 1 percent, after adding 15 dealerships, Chief Executive Officer Stephan Winkelmann said in an interview at the Detroit auto show today. He declined to specify the company’s pretax profit, saying only that it also set records. Lamborghini, a Volkswagen AG unit, is tapping the newly wealthy in China and South Korea. The company will add 10 dealerships this year in “areas of wealth around the world” to counter a sales decline in the U.S. and other markets that were hurt most by the collapse in financial markets, Winkelmann said. “We have been affected by the global financial crisis,” he said during an interview at the North American International Auto Show. “I cannot say what will happen to sales.” Lamborghini, based in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy, is “financially healthy” and committed to continuing to introduce new versions of its two, two-seat models each year, Winkelmann said. Lamborghini has 122 dealerships worldwide. The company has no plans to offer a less expensive model to compete with Fiat SpA's Maserati, which start at $115,000, he said. The automaker is considering production of a four-door prototype that was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show last year. Biggest Market Growth in China, South Korea and the Middle East helped overcome a 20 percent decline in U.S. sales in 2008, Lamborghini said in a statement yesterday. The U.S. share of sales fell to 31 percent from 39 percent while remaining the biggest market. China more than doubled its sales to 72 cars from 28 a year earlier, according to the statement. Lamborghini also is gaining revenue from licensing its name on products such as mobile phones and clothing, and it started an engineering consulting business, Winkelmann said. The company isn’t considering producing an electric sports car similar to Fisker Automotive Inc. or Tesla Motors Inc. because electric motors cannot yet produce the required top speed to qualify as a legitimate Lamborghini, he said. The average Lamborghini customer waits six months to get a car after placing an order. Each vehicle is typically made to specifications and hand-built, said Soon Nguyen, a spokeswoman. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adSHLZwQr3To&refer=home

500 Km Medieval and Renaissance Italy Inland Waterway to Reopen

In Medieval and Renaissance Italy an inland waterway permitted a person to travel over 500km by boat from Lake Maggiore to Venice via Milan. This summer they will begin clearing the first 8 km of those Canals, to reestablish that waterway system.

Lake Maggiore is the most westerly of the three large prealpine lakes of Italy, the others being Lake Garda, and Lake Como, and is located on the Swiss-Italy border where Piedmonte and Lombardia meet, Northwest of Milan.

Italians to Reopen Inland Waterways

Italy is to reopen medieval and Renaissance inland waterways so that tourists can travel over 500km by boat from Lake Maggiore to Venice via Milan.

This summer, engineers will start clearing 8km of canals from the southern end of Lake Maggiore at Sesto Calende to Somma Lombardo.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/in-brief-italians-to-repoen-inland-waterways-1598762.html?service=Print

Alitalia Begins New Era

As part of its restructuring, Alitalia has been merged with its biggest domestic rival, Air One SpA, giving it more than a 55% share of Italy's Lucrative domestic routes, and has approved a cooperation accord with Air France-KLM, giving the French-Dutch carrier a 25 percent stake for a payment of EU 323 million

The airline's finances have been cleaned up, thanks to a decree issued by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, allowing the state to shoulder most of the airline's crushing debt load, and allow the state to make sharp reductions in its staff. Alitalia's had more than 18,000 employees at the end of August. The merged airline has a combined staff of about 12,500.

New Alitalia Flies Crowded Skies

Carrier, Under New Ownership, Must Do Battle With Its Low-Cost Rivals

Wall Street Journal

By Stacy Meichtry

JANUARY 12, 2009,

ROME -- Alitalia SpA begins operating under new ownership Tuesday but still faces the task of fighting off low-cost rivals in its pivotal domestic market.

Alitalia has undergone massive change since it entered bankruptcy protection in late August with more than ?1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) in debt.

Alitalia special administrator Rocco Sabelli (left) and Alitalia head Roberto Colaninno announce that Alitalia has approved a cooperation accord with Air France-KLM, giving the French-Dutch carrier a 25 percent stake.

The airline's finances have been cleaned up, thanks to a decree issued by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, allowing the state to cut thousands of staff and shoulder most of the airline's crushing debt load. That helped attract more than a dozen Italian investors, who recently bought some of Alitalia's planes and take-off and landing slots to launch a new airline under the same name.

Alitalia announced on Monday that it had signed on to a partnership with Air France-KLM. Under the deal, Air France is expected to pay about EU 323 million for a 25% stake in Alitalia, the airlines said. Air France will receive three out of a total 19 seats on Alitalia's board.

The new investors plan to rebuild Alitalia on a daring premise: Alitalia can reclaim the dominance it enjoyed over Italy's domestic flights before it began to sputter in the late 1990s.

As part of its restructuring, Alitalia has been merged with its biggest domestic rival, Air One SpA, giving it more than a 55% share of Italy's internal flights, according to the airline. Lucrative domestic routes, such as that between Rome and Milan, form a key part of Alitalia's plan to break even next year.

But maintaining that market share could be difficult in today's crowded air-travel market, some analysts say. Several low-cost carriers have taken advantage of Alitalia's decline to establish strong footholds in Italy. Ryanair Holdings PLC recently announced plans to increase to seven from four the number of airports that serve as operational bases in Italy. EasyJet PLC, another low-cost carrier, began flying between Milan and Rome in November.

Alitalia's domestic market share, as measured by seat capacity, dropped to 15% this month from 52% in January 2005, according to Innovata Ltd., an Atlanta-based airline industry database firm.

Italy has been in recession since the third quarter, making Italian fliers more cost conscious. "Alitalia and Air One have relied on the loyalty of the domestic Italian passenger, to a large extent," says Keith McMullan, managing director of London-based consulting firm Aviation Economics Ltd. "That's going to come under pressure with a recession in Italy."

In addition to the low-cost carriers, Deutsche Lufthansa AG is challenging Alitalia on its home turf. In coming months, the German airline plans to launch an Italian subsidiary, Lufthansa Italia, which will operate six planes out of Milan's Malpensa airport.

Alitalia expects to compete better with its low-cost rivals, following cost cuts resulting from its restructuring and its partnership with Air France. Alitalia Chairman Roberto Colaninno said at a news conference Monday that he expects Alitalia's partnership with Air France to generate EU 720 million in cost savings and improved revenue management over the next three years.

The merger with Air One, meanwhile, has allowed Alitalia to replace many of its older planes with Air One's newer, more fuel-efficient jets. The airline also has made sharp reductions in its staff. Alitalia's had more than 18,000 employees at the end of August. The merged airline has a combined staff of about 12,500.

Alitalia's leaner operations mark a strong departure from the airline's past. Cabin crew that chose to live in different cities from their points of departure were routinely ferried to work on Alitalia flights as passengers. And in its heyday in the 1960s, some of Alitalia's planes boasted cabins lined with artwork by futurist painters. Alitalia's bankruptcy administrator plans to sell much of those pieces at auction.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123178279763874141.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#

Arrivederci, Advanced Placement Italian

Advanced Placement Programs encourage High School students to study Italian, since they get College credits, which is the prime benefit of the Program. Poor enrollment and a lack of funds are the main reasons officials cited. Only 2,000 students took the last test, French and Latin Literature and Computer Science are in jeopardy to be discontinued next year.

The Italian Language Foundation, a group of prominent Italian-Americans formed in the spring to save the program, said it was disappointed. Margaret Cuomo, daughter of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, headed the foundation, which raised more than $650,000 in pledges and commitments. But those pledges were based on the Italian government making a financial contribution, which the foundation was not able to secure.

College Board Says, 'Arrivederci, AP Italian'

US News and World Report

Eddy Rameriz

January 09, 2009

Arrivederci, Advanced Placement Italian. College Board officials announced this week that the AP Italian course and test won't be offered in the 2009-10 academic year. Poor enrollment and a lack of funds are the main reasons officials cited.

The Italian Language Foundation, a group of prominent Italian-Americans formed in the spring to save the program, said it was disappointed. Margaret Cuomo, daughter of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, headed the foundation, which raised more than $650,000 in pledges and commitments. But those pledges were based on the Italian government making a financial contribution, which the foundation was not able to secure.

Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, which owns the AP program, called the foundation's fundraising a "heroic effort" and left open the possibility of bringing back Italian if the economic situation improves. The College Board sent letters to school districts notifying them about the program's cancellation.

Last April, College Board officials announced plans to discontinue the AP Italian program unless outside groups agreed to raise money. With only 2,000 students taking the test, Italian was the least popular AP course.

Other tests and courses that will be discontinued next year are French and Latin literature and computer science. The last tests for those courses will be offered in May.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-education/2009/01/09/college-board-says-arrivederci-ap-italian-.html

Corrected on 01/09/2009: A previous version of this article misstated the amount the Italian Language Foundation raised in pledges and commitments.

Ferdinand Pecora - Why Didn't Bush and McCain Learn his Lesson?

Ferdinand Pecora was born in Sicily, the son of an immigrant cobbler, and became assistant district attorney from New York , and then Chief Counsel of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee electrifying hearings, held after the Stock Market Crash of 1929..

Under Pecora’s expert and often withering questioning, the Senate committee unearthed a secret financial history of the 1920s, demystifying the assorted frauds, scams and abuses that culminated in the Crash.

Pecora not only documented a litany of abuses, but also paved the way for remedial legislation. The Securities Act of 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 — all addressed abuses exposed by Pecora. It was only poetic justice when Roosevelt tapped him as a commissioner of the newborn Securities and Exchange Commission.

We now have had a REPEAT because historically Republicans, and more recently spearheaded by Bush and McCain Fought more Regulations needed in a more complex Financial World, and actually touted that they were Great DEREGULATORS, by weakening or rescinding Regulations. Further Bush appointed Christopher Cox,chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission whose DESIGNATED ASSIGNMENT was for NO ENFORCEMENT of REGULATIONS, and Keep Out of the Way of Business, and Financial Markets !!!!!

Where Is Our Ferdinand Pecora?

The New York Times

By Ron Chernow

January 5, 2009

BARACK OBAMA has assigned a top priority to financial reform when the new Congress assembles today. If history is any guide, legislators can perform a signal service by moving beyond the myriad details of the rescue plans to provide a coherent account of the origins of the current crisis. The moment calls for nothing less than a sweeping inquest into the twin housing and stock market crashes to create both the intellectual context and the political constituency for change.

For inspiration, Congress should turn to the electrifying hearings of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee, held in the waning months of the Hoover presidency and the early days of the New Deal. In historical shorthand, these hearings have taken their name from the committee counsel, Ferdinand Pecora, a former assistant district attorney from New York who, starting in January 1933, was chief counsel for the investigation. Under Pecora’s expert and often withering questioning, the Senate committee unearthed a secret financial history of the 1920s, demystifying the assorted frauds, scams and abuses that culminated in the 1929 crash.

The riveting confrontation between Pecora and the Wall Street grandees was so theatrically apt it might have been concocted by Hollywood. The combative Pecora was the perfect foil to the posh bankers who paraded before the microphones. Born in Sicily, the son of an immigrant cobbler, Pecora had campaigned for Teddy Roosevelt and been imbued with the crusading fervor of the Progressive Era. As a prosecutor in the 1920s, he had shut down more than 100 “bucket shops” — seamy, fly-by-night brokerage houses — and this had tutored him in the shady side of Wall Street.

With crinkly black hair and flashing eyes, Pecora was an earthy populist who appealed to Depression audiences. He was fond of playing pinochle and was often portrayed with a thick cigar clamped between his teeth. When he was hired for $255 per month by the Senate committee, Pecora was earning less money than most Wall Street mandarins disbursed weekly in pocket change.

Pecora was meticulous in preparation and legendary in stamina, mastering reams of material and staying up half the night before interrogations, aided by John T. Flynn, a journalist, and Max Lowenthal, a lawyer. As Flynn wrote, “I looked with astonishment at this man who, through the intricate mazes of banking, syndicates, market deals, chicanery of all sorts, and in a field new to him, never forgot a name, never made an error in a figure, and never lost his temper.”

As Pecora relentlessly grilled the most famous names in finance, the nation relived the 1920s boom in a collective act of national remembrance. The hearings started in a modest committee room, but as the public was swept up in the drama, they shifted to a stately caucus room, illuminated by chandeliers and flashbulbs. As it gained momentum, the inquiry expanded until it shined a searchlight into every murky corner of Wall Street. Pecora exposed a stock market manipulated by speculators to the detriment of small investors who could suddenly attach names and faces to their losses.

Bankers had been demigods in the 1920s, their doings followed avidly, their market commentary quoted with reverence. They had inhabited a clubby world of chauffeured limousines and wood-paneled rooms, insulated from ordinary Americans. Now Pecora defrocked these high priests, making them seem small and shabby.

On Black Thursday of 1929, the nation had applauded a seemingly heroic attempt by major bankers, including Albert Wiggin of Chase and Charles Mitchell of National City, to stem the market decline. Pecora showed that Wiggin had actually shorted Chase shares during the crash, profiting from falling prices. He also revealed that Mitchell and top officers at National City had helped themselves to $2.4 million in interest-free loans from the bank’s coffers to ease them through the crash. National City, it turned out, had also palmed off bad loans to Latin American countries by packing them into securities and selling them to unsuspecting investors. By the time Pecora got through with the bankers, Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana was likening them to Al Capone and the public referred to them as “banksters,” rhyming with gangsters.

With a public aching for retribution, Pecora was playing with combustible chemicals, and Wall Street complained that he was destroying confidence. President Franklin Roosevelt retorted that the bankers “should have thought of that when they did the things that are being exposed now.” It was hard for Wall Street to mount a legitimate defense as Pecora pilloried them daily.

His prosecutorial methods grew questionable when he turned to the mysterious world of private banking, exemplified by the House of Morgan. In implacable style, Pecora badgered Morgan partners into admitting that they had paid no taxes for 1931 and 1932 — an incendiary revelation when the country was undertaking huge public works projects to combat unemployment. That the Morgan men had avoided taxes because of stock market losses was lost amid the hubbub.

No less inflammatory was exposure of Morgan’s “preferred list” by which the bank’s influential friends participated in stock offerings at steeply discounted rates. The renowned names on the list, including Calvin Coolidge, the former president, and Owen J. Roberts, a Supreme Court justice, shocked the nation with its unseemly association of money and power.

One Morgan partner, George Whitney, lamely explained that the intent was to safeguard small investors by preventing them from assuming such risk. To which Pecora responded tartly in his best-selling book, “Wall Street Under Oath,” “Many there were who would gladly have helped them share that appalling peril!”

Such was the furor over the Morgan testimony that Senator Carter Glass of Virginia shook his head and sighed, “We are having a circus, and the only things lacking now are peanuts and colored lemonade.” Seizing on the comment, a press agent for the Ringling Brothers Circus took advantage of a pause in the hearings to pop Lya Graf, a midget in a blue satin dress, on the lap of the portly and surprised J. P. Morgan Jr. The committee chairman, Senator Duncan Fletcher of Florida, pleaded with newspapers not to print the pictures, which only made them rush to do so.

The photo of Morgan with a circus midget planted on his lap became the signature shot of the hearings, emblematic of Wall Street’s fallen state. An embittered J. P. Morgan Jr. said Pecora had “the manners of a prosecuting attorney who is trying to convict a horse thief.”

...The Pecora hearings laid the groundwork for financial reform legislation. By the time they ended in May 1934, they had generated 12,000 printed pages of testimony, collected in several thick volumes. These documents have served generations of historians. Our national narrative of stock market mayhem in the 1920s is largely composed of characters and anecdotes gleaned from their pages.

Pecora not only documented a litany of abuses, but also paved the way for remedial legislation. The Securities Act of 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 — all addressed abuses exposed by Pecora. It was only poetic justice when Roosevelt tapped him as a commissioner of the newborn Securities and Exchange Commission.

Our current stock market slump and housing bust can seem like natural calamities without identifiable culprits, creating free-floating anger in the land. A public deeply disenchanted with our financial leadership is desperately searching for answers. The new Congress has a chance to lead the nation, step by step, through all the machinations that led to the present debacle and to shape wise legislation to prevent a recurrence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/opinion/06chernow.html?scp=1&sq=Where%20Is%20Our%20Ferdinand%20Pecora?%20&st=Search

Leon Panetta - Obama's Choice for CIA Chief - Attached to His Italian Roots

Mr Panetta, 70, is the American-born son of Italian immigrants from Calabria. His father Carmelo worked in a copper mine in Wyoming before moving to Monterey in California, where he set up a restaurant. Panetta speaks both Italian, and the Calabrian dialect.

Leon Panetta Attached to His Italian Roots

London Times Online

Richard Owen in Rome

January 7, 2009

Leon Panetta, named by the US President-elect Barack Obama to head the CIA, speaks Calabrian dialect, according to his cousin.

Mr Panetta, 70, is the American-born son of Italian immigrants from Calabria. His father Carmelo worked in a copper mine in Wyoming before moving to Monterey in California, where he set up a restaurant.

Domenico Panetta, former mayor of Siderno in Calabria, said that when his cousin Leon rose to be chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, "I went to see him at the White House and we understood each other perfectly both in our local dialect and in Italian - but not so much in English, which I don't speak too well".

He added: ''Leon is very attached culturally to our home town. He told me he missed it dearly and wanted to visit again the place his family came from. But he has always been too busy to do so. Maybe in his new job he'll be able to come to Europe and to Italy and even visit us in Calabria. That would be really nice".

Mr Panetta was elected to Congress, serving in the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993 before becoming Mr Clinton's chief of staff in 1994, a post he held for three years. His cousin said he was not surprised that Mr Obama had chosen him to be CIA director.

''Because of his political, cultural and human qualities I knew he would get a top-ranking appointment," Mr Panetta said.....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5461941.ece

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Also reported by From Ed Henry, CNN

Obama to name Panetta to lead CIA

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Leon Panetta, chief of staff in President Bill Clinton's White House, will be President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be CIA director...

Leon Panetta, who has a strong background in economics, was chief of staff for President Bill Clinton....

Panetta, 70, has had a long political career, beginning in 1966 when he served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Thomas H. Kuchel. R-California.

He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1977, serving California's 16th (now 17th) District until Clinton appointed him to head the Office of Budget and Management in 1993. He was chief of staff from 1994 to 1997.

Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, founded and co-direct the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy at California State University, which provides study opportunities for students there and at several other schools. He serves on several boards and committees, and lectures internationally on economics.

With a strong background in economics, Panetta has little hands-on experience in intelligence. But he is known as a strong manager with solid organizational skills....

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon. a senior member of the Intelligence Committee, said "I believe he has the skills to usher in a new era of accountability at the nation's premier intelligence agency, "For too long our nation's intelligence community has operated under a policy of questionable effectiveness and legality in which consulting two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee counted as 'consulting with Congress.' ",,,

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, ...spokesman said that Hoekstra "has called for a new direction and a change in the culture a the CIA for some time."....

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/05/panetta.cia/?iref=hpmostpop

Italy Takes over G8 Presidency

G8, was set up in 1975 as a forum for the world's most industrialized nations. Its members include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The presidency rotates amongst the members.

The G8 summit will take place in July in La Maddalena, an island off the northern coast of Sardinia.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi plans to step up the involvement of G5 and other important non-G8 countries during his presidency of G8. The eight G8 members will meet on the first day of talks and the G5 (China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa) as well as Egypt will be brought in on the second day.. The third day will see the involvement of Australia, Indonesia and major African countries.

Italy Takes over G8 Presidency China View January 2, 2008

ROME, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Italy took over the rotating presidency of G8 (Group of Eight major industrialized countries) from Japan on Thursday, which will last through the year 2009.

Italy plans to step up the involvement of G5 and other important non-G8 countries during its presidency of G8, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said at the presentation of the Italian logo for its G8 term last month.

The eight G8 members will meet on the first day of talks and the G5 (China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa) as well as Egypt will be brought in on the second day, he said.

The third day will see the involvement of Australia, Indonesia and major African countries, the premier added.

Italy has pressed hard for an Egyptian role because of Egypt's status in the Middle East and Africa where it is "widely heard," Berlusconi said.

Italy's presidency of G8 will be an occasion for "a new global governance" and to create a more structural relationship between G8 countries and emerging powers, according to Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

Frattini said terrorism, nuclear disarmament and the situations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa would be on the political agenda, while economic issues to be given priority are reforms to the Bretton Woods system of monetary management, the development of renewable energy sources, the impact of climate change on the economy and food safety.

The G8, originally the G6, was set up in 1975 as a forum for the world's most industrialized nations. Its members include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

During the Italian presidency, the G8 summit will take place in July in La Maddalena, an island off the northern coast of Sardinia.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/02/content_10589557.htm

Chinese Cheap Labor are "Slaves of Luxury" of Italy's Fashion Industry

The transformation of Prato, just outside Florence, heralds a remarkable chapter in European Immigration. This city has become the latest gateway for Chinese ambitions.

Prato has an estimated 30,000 Chinese legal immigrants in this city of 180,000. Another 30,000 illegal immigrants are also suspected to live here.

But this is not like being in Chinatown in Chicago or New York or anywhere else. This is like China. White people are the foreigners here.

The Italian Fashion Industry, escapes responsibility for slave like work conditions by dealing with Chinese Sub contractors, and ignore the increasing unemployment of Italians.

Chinese Immigrants Transform Italy's Fashion Industry

Chicago Tribune By Christine Spolar January 2, 2009

PRATO, Italy—In the heart of "Made in Italy" fashion country, China has carved out a home.

Signs in Chinese script hang from wrought-iron balconies in this Tuscan city. Hot dumplings and fried fish—flown in from China—are served in cafes. Chinese men and women, tourist visas in pocket, hang out on street corners in the center of town angling for jobs. Not one speaks Italian.

Dozens of Chinese jam up to a wall filled with taped notes, all written in Chinese. Job offers are plentiful if grueling by Italian standards. Seamstresses can earn 90 euro cents a dress — about $1.50—if they work all night in small workshops. A man can earn up to 500 euros a month—$700—if he works all his waking hours.

The transformation of Prato, just outside Florence, heralds a remarkable chapter in European Immigration. This city has become the latest gateway for Chinese ambitions.

Like some city neighborhoods, suburbs and small towns across the United States where Mexicans and other immigrants gather in search of jobs, Prato is a place where two cultures can live side by side and never really know each other.

"In all my travels, I had never seen anything like it," said Roberto Ye, a son of Chinese immigrants and an Italian citizen who opened a Western Union office in the heart of Prato. "I said to myself: This is not like being in Chinatown in Chicago or New York or anywhere else. This is like China. White people are the foreigners here."

To understand the impact, follow the money. This year, Chinese immigrants in Italy sent home a whopping 1.68 billion euros, about $2.4 billion, an impressive share of all 6 billion euros in remittances recorded by Italy's government.

"You have to forget anything you have ever learned about Immigration when you come to Prato. Forget typical patterns. Europe has turned itself into a global marketplace, and the Chinese who come are trying to take advantage of that," said Andrea Frattani, Prato's multicultural councilor.

Frattani has overseen immigrant outreach since 2002 and, since then, Italy has realized a dramatic rise in Chinese labor, he said. Prato has seen a particular surge.

An estimated 30,000 Chinese are legal immigrants in this city of 180,000. Another 30,000 illegal immigrants are also suspected to live here. Many among the Chinese work in small hidden factories for as long as 14 hours a day. They keep to themselves, they buy everything with cash and they see work as a mission, Frattani said.

Prato is the core of pronto moda fashion - a manufacturing sector of cheap clothes sustained by Chinese workers and entrepreneurs. Government officials estimate that 5,500 textile workshops and factories in the region that has long been the backbone of small businesses in Italy are Chinese-owned.

Large warehouses line the motorway leading to Prato's historic center. One warehouse - shown to a Tribune correspondent on condition that its name not be revealed- opened a door to another continent.

Inside a vast storeroom of cotton sweat pants, skirts and blouses, a Chinese seamstress operated a high-speed, Japanese-made Juki sewing machine. Nearby, a Chinese man lorded over thick layers of jersey cloth with massive electric shears. With every buzz he created sleeves, pant legs and bodices for Chinese men waiting with open arms.

They ran the pieces over to a red Fiat, trunk open and motor running. A Chinese driver soon revved the packed car away. She'd return in hours with clothes sewn by women closeted in nearby houses.

That visit was a snapshot of hard work and efficiency. There are grimmer images.

Police have raided hundreds of crowded workshops in the past few years where Chinese live, work and sleep. They earn far below standard wage yet produce wares reportedly sold even in designer shops.

Some Chinese offer excuses for breaking labor laws. Workers still find conditions in Italy better than in China, they claim.

But authorities say Italians subcontract with Chinese businessmen to cover dodgy business practices; that Chinese owners rule over workers desperate for jobs; and that criminal networks - a scourge in Italy-can prey on outsiders who don't speak the native language.

Social integration is almost non-existent; schools are the few places where young Italians and Chinese mingle.

"Chinese businesses exist in Italy, but they aren't part of Italy. There has been Immigration but not integration," said Daniele Cologna, a sociologist at the Codici research group in Milan.

Tensions can erupt. In Milan, home to generations of Chinese, riots broke out last year after police ticketed some Chinese traders who tried to turn Via Sarpi, a street known for shoe shops, into a wholesale district with near non-stop deliveries. The city eventually restricted deliveries to two hours a day.

Dongke Mo, who heads the Italian Chinese Association in Prato, said his storefront office is a haven for Chinese workers. They struggle, he said, with harsh work demands and document raids by Italy's finance police.

"In America, you absorb immigrants. In Italy, the Chinese are looked on as labor," Mo said.

Frattani, the multicultural councilor, said the speed and scale of this Immigration has transformed Italian markets. Chinese who landed in Tuscany are now moving into the nearby leather-trade region of Le Marche, he said.

"We believe that the migration of Chinese is done with the will of the China government," Frattani said. "How else can you explain what is happening here? Look at the license plates of the buyers at those warehouses: Germany, Turkey, Sweden."

"The Chinese know: Distribution is key. " This is the way to distribute all over Europe," he said.

In December 2007, a national TV channel broadcast a documentary, "Slaves of Luxury," that linked several luxury brands in Italy to low-paid and often illegal Chinese labor. Prada and Ferragamo were quoted in the documentary as stopping such subcontract work when alerted to the issue.

In Prato, in Milan and in Le Marche, such revelations triggered shrugs and smiles. The program told many what they already knew. Chinese workers keep "Made in Italy" fashion afloat.

"In official factories, everyone has to have a certain amount of space and work a certain amount of hours. Well, if you follow those rules, costs will keep you out of the market," said Luigi Sun, owner of Uniontrade, a Milan-based importer of Japanese and Chinese food and a respected figure in the older Chinese community.

"If you are in the garment businesses here "and I don't care who you are"sooner or later you will have to work with the Chinese," he said. "Prato is just an extraordinary example."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-italy-china_spolarjan02,0,7406019.story