Ex-con accused of sneaking back into NYC jails

NEW YORK (AP) ? Most people who've done time in jail can't wait to get away. But this week, New York City authorities accused one former inmate of sneaking back in.

Yonkers resident Matthew Matagrano, 36, was arraigned in Manhattan on Saturday on charges that he impersonated a Department of Correction investigator.

Officials say that for at least a week, Matagrano used phony credentials to get into multiple city lockups, including Rikers Island and the Manhattan Detention Center, where he mingled with inmates for hours.

Investigators said the case was still unfolding, but some of the allegations were detailed in a criminal complaint describing Matagrano's entry into the Manhattan jail on Thursday.

It said that when questioned, Matagrano had admitted to arriving at the jail at around 3:30 p.m. and gaining entry by showing a gold shield and saying he was an investigator from the department's intelligence unit.

According to the complaint, he stayed until 11 p.m., giving cigarettes to inmates and smoking with them in a common area. He is also charged with stealing a radio from an office while inside.

Surveillance cameras recorded video of Matagrano during the visit, the complaint said.

It wasn't clear if or when Matagrano would face similar charges for entry into other city jails. A spokesman for the Bronx district attorney, which often handles cases related to crimes committed on Rikers Island, said Saturday that he had no information on the case.

Matagrano has a rap sheet that includes a conviction for sodomy and sexual abuse. He's on the state's sex offender registry.

It's not clear why he wanted to get into jails, but he had previously been caught posing as a Board of Education worker to enter two schools and rifle through student files. In 2004, he pleaded guilty to attempted burglary in connection with that case.

His court-appointed lawyer, Andrej Bajuk, couldn't immediately be reached by phone for comment. No one responded to a message left at the public defender's office that handled his arraignment.

Department of Correction spokespeople did not immediately return phone messages Saturday.

A judge set bail at $50,000 for Matagrano. He also faces charges of burglary, possession of forged instruments, larceny and promoting prison contraband. He is due back in court Wednesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-con-accused-sneaking-back-nyc-jails-210149555.html

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The Residences at Calistoga Ranch Sell Out Of All Fractions ...

Napa Valley?s Premier Private Residence Club Announces That Every Fractional Interest Has Been Sold

CALISTOGA, CA (March 1, 2013) ? Recently named again to Conde Nast Traveler?s coveted ?Gold List? and Travel + Leisure?s ?Top 500 Hotels in the World,? Calistoga Ranch, an Auberge Resort developed by Olympus Real Estate Partners, has reported that all remaining interests in its Private Residence Club at the Napa Valley property have been sold. The last remaining fractional interest closed on February 27, 2013.

?We are proud to have enjoyed a pace of sales that has been consistently strong at Calistoga Ranch since opening,? said?Joshua Dempsey, Director of Sales at The Residences at Calistoga Ranch. ?Our buyers have sought a quality residence that offers not just ownership in?Napa Valley, but also a lifestyle connected to the people, the land and the culture that make?Napa Valley?so alluring and thoroughly rewarding.?

Owners of the Private Residence Club at Calistoga Ranch enjoy the spacious accommodations of a private home thoroughly embraced by unspoiled natural surroundings and enhanced with the services and the amenities of an award-winning luxury resort. Each two-bedroom Lodge offers nearly 2,500 square feet of indoor-outdoor living space, including a master suite with bath that opens to an outdoor shower garden, indoor and outdoor living rooms and a gourmet kitchen with wine storage.

?The limitations on development in Wine Country, coupled with high prices for a hotel room in the region, have made buying into Calistoga Ranch a very appealing option for those who love?Napa Valley,? said?David Deniger, chairman of Olympus Real Estate Partners, developer of Calistoga Ranch.? ?The resort and residences are completely debt-free, providing enormous comfort to our owners. That, coupled with management by Auberge Resorts, visionary architecture and a majestic setting made private residence club ownership at Calistoga Ranch an extremely attractive offering.?

Calistoga Ranch is situated in a private canyon on 157 wooded acres with a private lakefront restaurant, swimming pool, fitness center, private-label vineyard, miles of hiking trails, a wine cave and the thermal spring-fed Bathhouse spa. The resort?s innovative design, combined with its rich program of events and activities, distinguishes it from other real estate ownership opportunities.

For more information about The Residences at Calistoga Ranch, call 800-411-1003 or visitwww.calistogaranchliving.com.

About Calistoga Ranch
Consistently named among the top resorts in world, Calistoga Ranch is located in a private canyon on 157 acres in the heart of the?Napa Valley. Consisting of both Hotel and Residential lodges all managed by Auberge Resorts, the property? features an award-winning spa, lake-side restaurant, on-site vineyard and wine cave, miles of hiking trails and an organic garden tended by resident bees. For more information about Calistoga Ranch, please visitwww.calistogaranch.com?or?www.calistogaranchliving.com.

About Olympus Real Estate Partners
Olympus Real Estate Partners is the developer?of Calistoga Ranch and is a leading private investment firm,?with more than?$5 billion in U.S. real estate holdings since its inception in 1994. Investments?have included hotels, golf courses, commercial and residential developments including The Preserve in?Carmel, California?and the Roaring Fork Club in?Colorado. Olympus Real Estate Partners has made investments on behalf some of the largest U.S. public and private pension funds, as well as endowments, foundations, corporations and financial institutions.

About Auberge Resorts
Auberge Resorts is a collection of exceptional hotels, resorts and private clubs, each with a unique personality that assures a memorable guest experience. While Auberge Resorts nurtures the individuality of each establishment, all are characterized by a set of communal elements: intimate, understated elegance; captivating locations that inspire exceptional cuisine and spa experiences; and gracious yet unobtrusive service. Among the Auberge collection of distinctive properties are: Auberge du Soleil,?Napa Valley, Calif.; Calistoga Ranch,?Napa Valley, Calif.; Solage Calistoga,?Napa Valley, Calif.;?Esperanza,?Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; The Inn at Palmetto Bluff,?Bluffton, S.C.; Hotel Jerome,?Aspen, Colo.; Pronghorn Golf Club & Resort,?Bend, Ore.; Auberge Residences at Element 52,Telluride, Colo.; and the Malliouhana Hotel & Spa on the Island of?Anguilla, British West Indies, with several others currently in development. For more information about Auberge Resorts, please visit?www.aubergeresorts.com. Follow Auberge Resorts on Facebook at?facebook.com/AubergeResorts?and on Twitter at?@AubergeResorts.

SOURCE: Calistoga Ranch

Source: http://www.insidethegate.com/2013/03/the-residences-at-calistoga-ranch-sell-out-of-all-fractions/

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Consequence to Cuts No One Thought Would Happen

It's not the first time that government economic engineering has produced a time bomb with a short fuse.

Back in 2011, few lawmakers, if any, thought deep and indiscriminate spending cuts, totaling about $85 billion and now starting to kick in, were a smart idea.

The across-the-board cuts, set up as a last-resort trigger and based on a mechanism used in the 1980s, are a reality largely because President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, failed to find a way to stop them.

Republicans, influenced by tea party and other conservative factions, insisted on just spending cuts to narrow the deficit. Tax increases were out.

Obama and the Democratic-run Senate didn't budge from a mix of cuts and increased tax revenues.

"Arbitrary" and "stupid" Obama called the auto-pilot cuts, known as sequester.

But history shows a long trail of unintended consequences from government actions ? or inaction:

?President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after a solid re-election victory in 1936, believed that the Great Depression was winding down. Unemployment was declining and economic activity was coming back.

Roosevelt and Congress believed it was time to cut free-flowing government spending and raise taxes. The Federal Reserve tightened its financial reins. But the fragile economy couldn't withstand the blows. The Depression roared back, lasting until the 1940s when U.S. involvement in World War II finally revived the economy.

?President Ronald Reagan's ambitious 1986 overhaul of the tax code simplified taxes and closed many loopholes, including repealing the popular tax deduction for credit-card interest. Then people started borrowing heavily against fast-rising equity in their homes; that interest still was deductible.

But the practice eventually helped put millions of homeowners under water on their mortgages when the housing bubble burst, contributing to the 2007-2009 recession.

?The Fed has kept short-term interest rates unusually low and printed money to keep downward pressure on longer-term rates, easing borrowing for businesses and individuals.

Yet retirees and other savers are earning near-zero interest on bonds and savings accounts, and many investors are jumping into riskier transactions in search of higher returns.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and many mainstream economists argue that the Fed's stimulus policies have helped the housing and financial sectors recover and kept the downturn from getting worse.

One leading Fed critic Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., accused Bernanke at a hearing last week of "throwing seniors under the bus" by driving down interest rates on their savings to almost nothing.

?The tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 were first proposed by Texas Gov. George W. Bush as he campaigned for president in 2000. At the time, the economy was enjoying rare multi-year budget surpluses and government economists were predicting surpluses well into the future. Bush told cheering audiences his tax cuts would return to taxpayers "what is rightfully yours."

Those cuts long have outlived the surpluses, which vanished in Bush's first year in office. Deficits returned with a vengeance and have grown ever since.

But most of them remain today, trimmed only slightly by the New Year's deal that ended Bush's tax breaks for households making over $450,000 a year.

Economists view those tax cuts as one of the biggest drains on the Treasury, and a major contributor to the spiraling government debt.

?Wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq lasted far longer and cost much more, in terms of U.S. lives and dollars, than anticipated.

?Social Security has become one of the most expensive federal programs ever. When it was created in the 1930s, the average life expectancy was about 65. Longer life expectancies and the coming retirements of millions of baby boomers have put enormous strains on Social Security, as well as Medicare and Medicaid.

And now the sequester.

"It's not hard to come up with something better, yet all efforts to do so went down the toilet for various reasons," said economist Bruce Bartlett, who held economic posts in the Reagan and first Bush administrations.

"And I think people didn't realize how wedded Republicans are to not raising taxes."

Still, no one really thought the cuts would happen, he added.

Stan Collender, a former staffer on both the House and Senate budget committees, said Congress is "very short-term focused. The longer-term consequences are of very little concern to people who have to run for re-election every two years," said Collender, now a partner at Quorvis Communications, a financial consulting firm.

More House districts have been redrawn in recent years with political factors in mind, and that's tended to concentrate conservatives in Republican districts and liberals in Democratic ones.

And set the terms of the debate on Capitol Hill.

"If people in your district are hell bent on cutting spending, even if it hurts the economy, and applaud your intransigence, then that's going to be your priority and your vote, even if it's not necessarily good for the country," Collender said.

The sequester now in play is actually an updated version of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985. There also was a small sequester in 1986, and a big one planned for 1990.

The latter was avoided only after President George H.W. Bush broke his "no new taxes" pledge to join Democrats in a deficit-reduction compromise that raised taxes.

There was a huge GOP backlash, one that many politicians believe contributed to Bush's 1992 re-election defeat to Democrat Bill Clinton.

Clearly not the consequence Bush had in mind

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Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/consequence-cuts-no-one-thought-happen-133407810.html

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Remains of the Day: Privacy Study Finds Free Apps More Likely to Leak Info on iOS Than Android

A study of free apps on iOS and Android finds the former is more likely to leak your data, Chrome for Android gets an update, Ouya gets a ship date, and eBay's same-day delivery service gets expanded.

• Apple iOS Apps Leak More Personal Info Than Android A study from Appthority, a mobile app evaluation service, has found that iOS apps leak more personal info than Android. The rationale for such a statistic lies in how free apps monetize their business by selling your data?some more invasively than others. The 10% difference between iOS and Android really comes down to the former's popularity?the ad networks that want the data that these apps can collect will pay more for iOS user data, which can lead to unencrypted?and unethical?collection of your data. [Readwrite Mobile]
• Chrome for Android Update Yesterday Google released a Chrome for Android update. It comes with a bunch of tweaks mostly geared toward improving performance and responsiveness. You can pick it up at the Play store. [Google Chrome Releases]
• OUYA Is Coming The makers of Ouya, the open-source, hacker-friendly video game console, have announced the ship date for their new system. The Ouya will begin to make its way to its Kickstarter backers on March 28, and the rest of us will be able to pick one up stores in June. [Ouya]
• Exclusive: eBay Now Expands, Is Available on All Smartphones eBay Now, the company's same-day delivery service, launched a mobile web version of its mobile app today. Previously only available via an iOS app, the new site makes the service available across all smartphones. Granted, you still have to be in an area that offers eBay Now?which only includes San Francisco, New York, and starting today, San Jose. [Mashable]
• Broadening the Availability of Surface RT and Surface Pro Microsoft announced today that both the Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets will soon be available in several new markets. Beginning in late March, the Surface RT will make its way to countries like Japan, Mexico, and New Zealand while the Pro will become available in Australia, China, and several European countries. [Surface Blog]

Photo by photastic (Shutterstock), a2bb5s (Shutterstock), and Feng Yu (Shutterstock).

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/mgHxEZpm5wg/remains-of-the-day-privacy-study-finds-free-apps-more-likely-to-leak-info-on-ios-than-android

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Can aid without weapons help resolve Syrian conflict?

Hussein Malla / AP

Syrian rebel fighters take their positions as they observe the Syrian army forces base of Wadi al-Deif, at the front line of Maarat al-Nuaman town, in Idlib province, Syria, on Feb. 26, 2013.

By Ayman Mohyeldin, Correspondent, NBC News

News Analysis?

Nearly two years after the Syrian uprising began, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the U.S. has for the first time agreed to directly supply Syria's opposition with $60 million in non-lethal aid. But, while this money is needed, it is unlikely to immediately change anything on the ground.?

Speaking under the condition of anonymity, supporters of the opposition working to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad said they were privately disappointed that the U.S. didn't extend more assistance, specifically weapons, and that the EU has not yet lifted an arms embargo.

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But the concern among U.S. officials is that extremist elements are increasingly filling in the vacuum in areas where the regime has been pushed back and the opposition is struggling to govern. There are worries weapons could end up in the wrong hands.

According to Salman Sheikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, Kerry?s announcement is "unlikely to change the calculation of the Syrian regime's biggest allies ? Russia, Iran and Hezbollah." They will not take the U.S. decision as a serious threat to the regime's survival.?

Sheikh, who has advocated for arming the rebels, says $60 million is an insignificant amount for an opposition that is now expected to operate like a government in some parts of Syria. The salaries of civil servants who are expected to maintain law and order, as well as the country?s justice, sanitation and education services, can cost close to $500 million a month. And Sheikh estimates?humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of the people displaced and suffering both inside and outside is about $40 million a day.

The U.S. aid package, which will assist the Syrian Opposition Coalition in 'liberated' areas, is aimed at helping the fledgling coalition expand the delivery of basic goods and services, including security, sanitation and educational services. The United States also will send technical advisers to support opposition staff in Egypt and work with the movement's military arm to provide non-lethal support to the Free Syrian Army, including things such as military rations and medical supplies to tend to sick and wounded fighters.

Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia and Qatar described Thursday's announcement as a transformational point in the Syrian conflict. And British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his government would be making an announcement on additional aid to the opposition next week.?

However, Yaser Tabbara, the spokesperson for the Coalition and its legal advisor, said Kerry?s Rome meeting with the head of the Syrian National Coalition, Moaz al Khatib, gave reason for "cautious" optimism.

The Syrian opposition is under increasing pressure to deliver a solution but doing so requires substantial "investment in the infrastructure of the armed opposition," Tabbara said. "A political solution without tipping the balance of power on the ground is not viable."

The Syrian opposition had promised to form an interim government by?March 2?but that has been postponed for logistical reasons.?

Meanwhile, Syria's official government news agency described Kerry's announcement as a paradox, saying it?expressed "Washington's desire to find means to speed up the political process, which aims at ending the crisis in Syria and its desire to help and back the armed terrorist groups in the country."

Related:

U.S. to send rations, medical supplies to Syrian rebels, but not weapons

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17135338-can-aid-without-weapons-help-resolve-syrian-conflict?lite

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Lincoln Mitchell: Fiscal Ultimatum Fatigue

The possibility of a range of spending cuts beginning automatically on March 1st due to the sequester remains very real with only a few days remaining until the deadline. The sequester will cut spending, but also likely impact economic recovery and growth. While some may laud the sequester for finally reducing spending, it is also a clumsy tool for making policy relying upon broad, but moderate, cuts rather than more well thought out cuts to specific programs. Despite this, few ordinary Americans are too concerned about the potential sequester.

During the last several years the American people have become increasingly familiar with this kind of government blackmail, where the politicians tell us that if they cannot make a deal, one kind of fiscal calamity or another will hit the country. Congress seems to no longer debate spending or propose budgets, but rather they lurch from one spending related crisis to another, each with more dire consequences. Debt ceilings, defaults and sequesters have replaced rational, or even irrational, discourse about how to raise and spend that revenue.

The political system in Washington has evolved from one where meeting the political opponent halfway has been replaced with waiting to see who will blink first. This is not only an ineffective way to make policy, but it contributes to the frustration many Americans feel towards Washington. Ordinary Americans are regularly having to learn about a new budget disaster facing the country that is the result of both years of poor fiscal policy and an inability of the people in Washington to govern.

In an environment like this it is easy to blame both the White House and the congress, as well as both political parties. There is some truth to this. In recent decades, both parties have contributed to the budget problems. The Democrats and Republicans have both supported expensive, although occasionally different, spending programs. Both have, for the most part, been reluctant to confront the seriousness of the budget problem, particularly when they are in office, and have been comfortable borrowing substantial sums of money.

In the last several years this dynamic has changed because the Republicans in congress have begun to address the budget issue, something about which they for the most part only became concerned since Barack Obama became president, not by proposing concrete fiscal solutions, other than, of course, calling for tax cuts, spending cuts and magic. Instead, the party has sought structural remedies, or more accurately, gimmicks, to draw attention to the deficit. The debt ceiling debate, for example, is not a real problem, but one that was created by the Republicans, seemingly to draw attention to the deficit. These gimmicks, however, often present genuine danger to the financial health of the country. While most agree that running large deficits is bad, almost everybody would agree that defaulting on loans would be worse, but this is the position in which the Republican in Congress have been willing to put the country.

This reflects an asymmetry of concern around the debt. The Republicans, at least publicly, see the debt as an enormous crisis and threat to the safety and future of the country. In their view, presumably, the debt could lead to the financial and general collapse of the United States. Thus solving this problem requires every possible approach, except, naturally, raising taxes. The Obama administration has not evinced a concern about the budget that is comparably alarmist. Instead, the administration appears to see the debt as one of several problems, such as joblessness and a stagnant economy, which require attention and solutions.

Because the parties see the problem differently, finding a solution has been difficult. The pattern of budget talks throughout Obama's time in office has been that Obama offers compromises drawing ire from his base for offering too much and from his opponents for offering too little. The Republicans invariably respond to Obama's offers with a counteroffers that concede nothing, forcing the two sides to see who will give in first. There is then a standoff which, in one manner or another, Obama usually wins, albeit usually in a way that does not help him very much. This is invariably followed by the next manufactured crisis and deadline.

The result of this is that many Americans are losing faith that the government is able or interested in doing anything about the budget or about creating a financial plan for the country. The threats, inevitably, are less meaningful over time as people grow accustomed to this pattern. Right now, few people outside of Washington care about the sequester because most of them, and us, think that the crisis will be averted at the last minute and replaced by a new one in a few months; and they, and we, are probably right.

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Follow Lincoln Mitchell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LincolnMitchell

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lincoln-mitchell/fiscal-ultimatum-fatigue_b_2778499.html

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Playing politics with forced cuts (CNN)

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