Jim Puzzanghera wrote this..........

Obama administration officials on Friday ramped up their attempts to help struggling homeowners, announcing major changes to the government's much-criticized $75-billion program to modify mortgages to avoid foreclosures.

The most significant change is a set of complex new incentives for banks and investors to reduce the principal on so-called underwater mortgages -- loans for homes now worth less than what is owed.

In addition, the administration announced that many unemployed homeowners could receive three to six months of reduced mortgage payments while they look for a job.

Together, the revisions are designed to spur the Home Affordable Modification Program to reach its target of helping 3 million to 4 million homeowners avoid foreclosure through 2012.

While the changes are significant to a year-old program that so far has helped just 170,000 homeowners receive permanently lowered mortgage payments, administration officials stressed they would only make a dent in the projected 10 million to 20 million foreclosures expected in the next three years.

"It's really important to recognize we're not going to stop every foreclosure. It wouldn't be fair, it would be too expensive and we probably wouldn't succeed in any case because many people got into homes that they simply cannot afford," said Diana Farrell, deputy director of the White House's National Economic Council.

Many analysts have said reducing principal on underwater mortgages is the key to helping borrowers stay in their homes. The administration's program, and other government efforts before it, have tried to do that with little success. The permanently modified mortgages, and about 1 million ongoing three-month trial modifications that could become permanent, have reduced monthly payments by extending the terms of the loan.

To further help people eligible for modified mortgages, the administration said it would require mortgage servicers participating in the program, including such major companies as Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., to reduce monthly mortgage payments for three to six months for unemployed homeowners as they look for new jobs. The payments would be reduced to 31% of the homeowner's current income.

After the temporary period, homeowners who still have a mortgage payment of more than 31% of their gross monthly income would have to be considered for a permanently modified loan. The program is open to people who live in the home they purchased, took out their mortgage before Jan. 1, 2009, and have a loan balance below $729,750.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he was pleased the administration decided to provide additional help for unemployed homeowners.

"While clearly there are some people in trouble on their mortgages who bear some of the responsibility for their plight, this is not true of the unemployed who are fully deserving of this help," Frank said.

To encourage mortgage servicers and investors holding the loans to reduce the principal, the administration announced several steps Friday.

* All banks and servicers participating in the HAMP program are now required to consider principal write-down as part of the modification process.

* The Treasury Department will increase cash incentives to banks and servicers who write down the principal on loans, particularly on second mortgages.

* Allow lenders to refinance underwater first and second mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration, which provides federal guarantees to mortgage loans. The FHA will receive $14 billion from the modification program to cover some of the losses for banks and investors of those write downs -- at 10 cents to 20 cents on the dollar -- as well as the additional risk faced by the agency for default of the refinanced mortgages.

"It's actually in the interest of lenders to reduce the loan balance because those will be sustainable, higher quality loans," Farrell said. "Similarly, it's in the interest of borrowers to get into a loan that they actually can afford."

Even when those loans are refinanced by the FHA, the homeowner would still be underwater -- just not so deep, said FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens. The standard for the FHA refinancing would be new loans that are no more than 115% of the value of the home. But that level will get a homeowner close enough to break even -- with the hope of getting there as home values rise again -- that it would significantly reduce the risk of foreclosure.

"If you can get the borrower close to the 115% range and below there's a much better chance that the borrower is going to be able to stay in their home," said Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael S. Barr.

John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, applauded the administration for continuing to try to improve its mortgage modification program. But while the changes will help avoid some foreclosures, Taylor said officials continue to only "tinker around the edges of foreclosure prevention." He isn't not optimistic that many mortgage servicers and investors would be lured by the incentives.

"I will be pleasantly shocked if investors step up for half a million borrowers," he said. "The real acceleration in the number of foreclosures prevented will come with mandatory principal write-downs."

Big numbers, real big...........

Just in case some people forget what the trade off to the market melt up is, here's a periodic daily report of the Treasury's total debt subject to the statutory limit. Today's total: $12,607,140,000,000. We started March at $12,383,717,000,000. We started the fiscal year (October 1) at $11,853,434,000,000. We have added $223 billion of debt in the last three weeks, and $755 billion in just 5 months. As a reminder, the debt limit is $14.3 trillion. We are $1.7 trillion away from the limit. At March's run-rate of about $300 billion per month, the debt ceiling will be breached by October 2010.

Robert A. Hall writes...............

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts state senate. He blogs at www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com

I'll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth around" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.

I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the leftwing Congresscritters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them-with their own money.

I'm tired of being told how bad America is by leftwing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the religious freedom and women's rights of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela. Won't multiculturalism be beautiful?

I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor;" of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers;" of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery;" of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.

I believe "a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin." I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of President Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of US Senators from Illinois. I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less in an all-knowing government.

I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful. That thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress, that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his, that slammed Palin with two years as governor for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever.

Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America, while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.

I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What's next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I'm not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the citizens we need.

I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people then themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years-and still are? Not even close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found
in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers-bums are bi-partisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bi-partisanship. I live in Illinois, where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats and Republicans has worked together harmoniously to loot the public for years. And I notice that the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet are bi-partisan as well.

I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination, or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to get to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.

Tuesday morning..........

I was thinking last night that if this Obama-Care deformity were in reality, revenue neutral like the CBO says, then wolves only eat dog food.

Wolves need to eat......anything when hungry!

CHEYENNE — For the past decade and a half in Wyoming, there have been few issues as polarizing and emotional as wolves.

Since their reintroduction in the mid-1990s, hunters and ranchers say wolves are severely depleting elk populations in northwestern Wyoming, devastating sport hunting and depriving them of their livelihood. Conservationists and some outfitters, though, hotly dispute that.

But amid all the heated words and strong feelings on both sides, the exact effect wolves have on elk in Wyoming is still unclear.

Numbers game

This much is clear: Overall, the populations of both wolves and elk are growing in Wyoming.

As of 2009, there were at least 44 wolf packs in the state, composed of a minimum of 320 wolves, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That’s a statewide increase of 6 percent over the previous year.

At least 224 of those wolves lived outside Yellowstone National Park, covering an area from Big Piney to Cody.

The wolves’ primary food source is elk. During the winter, when wolves are most active, each wolf kills about 1.8 elk per month. Usually, they seek the most vulnerable members of a herd: the old, young and sick.

The overall statewide elk population, meanwhile, remains fairly high.

According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, in 2008 only one elk herd unit, the Wiggins Fork herd in the DuBois-Crowheart area, had an estimated population below the department’s population objectives.

Difficult to count

However, the Northern Yellowstone elk herd, Yellowstone National Park’s largest and most famous elk herd, is only about 40 percent of its size before wolves were reintroduced to the park, said Doug Smith, Yellowstone’s wolf biologist. Most of the seven other herds in the park are difficult to count, Smith said, as they migrate in and out of Yellowstone’s boundaries.

While Wyoming’s elk population as a whole is steady, there’s a worrisome trend: More and more elk calves are dying before reaching adulthood.

Elk herds need a ratio of about 25 calves for every 100 females — or cows — to sustain a high enough population to allow for hunting.

But since wolf reintroduction, many herds’ calf-to-cow ratios have dipped well below that level. In 1987, the entire Clark’s Fork elk herd unit, which lives between Cody and Yellowstone, had 40 calves for every 100 cows, a Game and Fish survey found. In 2008, that number had dropped to 23 calves per 100 cows.

Of course, within the herd, numbers can vary dramatically on the local level. A new Game and Fish survey of different groups within the Clark’s Fork elk herd this year, for example, found calf-to-cow ratios ranging from 12 per 100 to 57 per 100.

But the declines in elk calves reaching maturity have many hunters and outfitters worried — and crying “wolf.”

‘All shades of gray’

But how much of a role do wolves play in affecting these population trends?

A 2007 study by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department found that of eight elk herds in wolf-occupied areas, four suffered “significant declines” in juvenile survival rates of between 24 and 36 percent. In the other four herds, wolves didn’t appear to be causing any significant decline.

“The only herds with recruitment rates that will not support hunting or possibly even stable populations, are the herds with significant wolf predation in addition to other factors,” the study concluded.

However, those findings are now being called into question.

A study of Yellowstone elk between 2003-2005 found that grizzly and black bears — not wolves — are by far the No. 1 threat to elk calves. Bears, the study found, are responsible for about 60 percent of elk calf predator deaths in Yellowstone while wolves kill between 14 to 17 percent and coyotes kill up to 11 percent.

Game and Fish wildlife biologist Doug McWhirter said those findings jibe with his research into two elk herds near Cody.

But McWhirter cautioned against generalizing about the causes of elk death, as they vary by place and time.

“Everybody likes a short, sweet assessment of things,” he said, “but that isn’t always the case — and it’s definitely not the case with this.”

Smith echoed that warning in talking about what caused the massive population crash within the Northern Yellowstone elk herd.

A drought in the late 1990s and early 2000s likely made elk more susceptible to predators, Smith said. And as Yellowstone’s elk population exploded after massive forest fires in 1998 created prime elk habitat, the terrain might have just not been able to support that many elk, he said.

Adding to the mystery, the local wolf population in the herd’s area has plummeted from 94 in 2007 to 32 this year, Smith said.

One of the reasons the debate about wolves’ effect on elk has become so intense, Smith said, is because it’s such a complex issue.

“People love black-and-white answers — they love it,” Smith said. “And I think this wolf debate is all shades of gray.”

Area 67

But to many hunters and outfitters who traverse the mountains and valleys of northwest Wyoming, there isn’t much ambiguity about what they’re seeing.

“I’m out almost every day all winter, and wherever you go you find dead elk that the wolves have killed,” said Fritz Meyer, who runs Wind River Mountain Outfitters in Dubois.

Before wolves were reintroduced, Meyer would lead 40 to 50 antlerless-elk hunts a year. But now he does about three to four per year, as the state has slashed the number of elk hunting permits in his local hunting area, Area 67, from 1,550 to 150 over the past 15 years.

And when he does go out, Meyer said, the elk, facing constant wolf harassment, are nervous and spook more easily.

Research may show that bears are the primary killers of elk calves, Meyer said, but that doesn’t mean wolves aren’t making a huge impact as well.

“It’s not the straw that broke the camel’s back, it’s the lead pipe,” he said.

Dubois game warden Cole Thompson said there are more elk in Area 67 than at any point in the past 20 years, though he doesn’t know why.

Part of it, he said, could be that more and more hunters are worried about eradicating the local elk population entirely.

“The feelings people have (are), ‘Oh my god, the wolves are killing everything and they destroying everything,’ ” Thompson said. “And so people are afraid, the general public is afraid to kill any elk.”

Investigation continues

The debate over wolves’ effect on elk in Wyoming is part of a larger fight between the state of Wyoming and the federal government. While Idaho and Montana now manage their wolf populations themselves, in Wyoming wolves are still under federal protection because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected the state’s proposed wolf management plan. A federal judge is now considering whether to overrule the feds’ rejection of the plan.

In the meantime, the issue will continue to draw headlines — most recently, about a rally hunters and outfitters held in Jackson on Saturday to draw attention to wolves’ role in declining elk numbers.

And as the debate continues, biologists and researchers are working to get a more complete picture of the complex relationship between wolves and elk.

“The problem is, it’s hard to tell a very complicated story,” Smith said. “There’s no question that getting to the bottom of this is difficult. But I think we need to take the time to do it.”

Contact Jeremy Pelzer at jeremy.pelzer@trib.com or 307-632-1244.

Brett Baier

What a great reporter. One of the only reporters on earth who called it like it is with our President. Brett, you had the guy on the ropes like Ali!!

Have you ever imagined the liars in Washington would be so bold and brazen to the citizens who voted them in?

And the Republican puppets like Hannity and Limbaugh carry on.........folks, they are all bums. D's and R's are equally pathetic. It's time to vote them all out.

Dennis Kucinich

America's biggest whore.

How about you?

Everyone I talk to, meet with, hear from say the same thing.

America is being taken to the woodshed by the biggest bunch of liars in history.

They all say the same thing. The scumbags passing the laws and spending our money are the greediest bastards in our history.

Some way, some how America will wake up. It can't come too soon.

Spring Fishing in Georgia.........

What a Country, Wake up America!!!!

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.

IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.

IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU WILL BE JAILED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT.

IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET :
• A JOB,
• A DRIVERS LICENSE,
• SOCIAL SECURITY CARD,
• WELFARE,
• FOOD STAMPS,
• CREDIT CARDS,
• SUBSIDIZED RENT,
• FREE EDUCATION,
• FREE HEALTH CARE,
• A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON ,
• BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE,
• THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY’S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DON’T GET ENOUGH RESPECT.

Death by Wolf

Candice Berner, a 32-year-old school teacher, was found dead off of a road near Chignik Lake, Alaska and authorities believe a wolf attack was the cause of her death.

State officials killed two wolves on Monday that they believe were responsible for the attacks. They are in the process of testing the wolves for rabies and attempting to match genetic data from the wolves to the scene of the attack. The search is still on for more wolves that might have been connected to the attack.

Berner, a Pennsylvania native, had taken up trapping since moving to Alaska and was well aware of the dangers in the Alaskan wilderness, according to her personal blog, which Julia O'Malley of the Anchorage Daily News wrote a column about.

Wolf attacks on humans are extremely rare, but might be increasing. Retired Fish and Game biologist Mark McNay, who has studied wolf attacks in North America, was quoted in the Anchorage Daily News story on the attack.
McNay, who now lives in Kansas, is the author of a 2002 study published by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game that examined 80 wolf-human encounters in North America, nearly half of which involved elements of aggression among healthy wolves.

The cases in which wolves are most aggressive are the cases involving wolves that have become habituated to people, he said.

"There's only been one other case of a fatal wolf attack by a healthy, wild wolf in North America, and that happened in 2005 in northern Saskatchewan," McNay said. "It is extremely rare. There have been other cases, of course, of wolves behaving aggressively toward people.

"The frequency of these cases seems to have increased in the past decade or so."

Imagine Health Care........

Let me get this straight......we're trying to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also hasn't read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke.

What the hell could possibly go wrong????

A Native American Warrior gone on ahead..........

The family of William "Bill" Lawrence has requested the presence of the Patriot Guard at memorial services on 13 Mar 2010. Bill served as a Captain in the Marine Corps from 1964-1968, with a tour in Vietnam in 1965. Bill earned a business degree from BSU, worked as a miner and attended law school before journalism became his passion. He was editor/owner of the Native American Press/Ojibwe News since 1988 and earned the 2003 Freedom of Information Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Bill Lawrence, an award-winning editor from Bemidji who scrutinized Minnesota's 11 tribal casinos and unearthed corruption among state tribal leaders, died Tuesday after battling prostate cancer. He was 70 and had been moved last week to the Veterans Affairs medical facility in Boise, Idaho.

A Red Lake Band Ojibwe member born in 1939, Lawrence earned a business degree from Bemidji State University, served as a Marine in Vietnam, worked as a miner and attended law school before journalism became his passion. As editor and owner of the Native American Press/Ojibwe News since 1988, Lawrence exposed financial irregularities and filed suits to open the books of the casinos he called "state-sanctioned monopolies."

His journalism investigations helped send several tribal leaders to jail in the 1990s and earned Lawrence a 2003 Freedom of Information Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Lawrence's failing health, linked to Agent Orange exposure in the '60s, prompted him to fold his newspapers last fall.

Lawrence is survived by two daughters, Sara Lawrence of Minneapolis and Amy Wolf of Lakeville, and five grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. March 13 at Bemidji State's Memorial Hall.

Repo 105

Timing was coincidental. Last night on the plane home I finished Andrew Ross Sorkins book, 'Too Big To Fail'.

Today I start in the Wall Street Journal and learn about Repo 105's.

The level of shit and dishonesty amongst these Wall Street thieves can't be possible you say? Think again. It's awful deep in Congress, in the regulators and the banks. Amazing stuff and nothing being done about the too big to fail institutions today. The next bubble will be interesting. It's coming.

Health Care.............

I travel a fair amount. Most of the travel is to the "fly-over" states.

I meet great Americans. Honest, hard-working and far too busy paying taxes and doing their jobs to contact elected political representation and tell them what a deformity this proposed health-care bill is about.

They all tell me they want to vote the rascals out.

UrbanDictionary.com

One of the best laughs of the week so far.

Check it out yourself.

In a perfect world........

For once, I would like to hear "those women" apologize for having sex with "that man" Tiger Woods.

I would love to hear some sleazy chick say on TV "I have no idea what came over me, why I would even consider having sex with "that man". I woke up and nearly had to chew my arm off to get away. Ewwww!!

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina

Bumbling idiot. Another great reason what is wrong with America and it's elected representation. Or maybe what is wrong with South Carolina as well.

God help America with buffoons like this loon in office. He makes Jim Bunning look like the Pope.

Mark Cuban

Had as much fun last Friday night watching the owner of the Dallas Mavericks as I did the great basketball game. The profanity and excitement he exhibited down the stretch was a treat for a billionaire or whatever amount of money he is worth.

Having the team owner hollering behind the bench must be a tad different for the players and especially one who wears cotton long sleeved T-shirts to the game.

He even had some friendly banter going with spectators.

Jason Kidd put on a clinic and the Mavs beat the Atlanta Hawks in overtime. No surprise there, if Dallas could have hit afew of the gazillion open shots they had they could have and should have put the game away early.

Mark you make for a a hands-on owner and another of many reasons I enjoy reading your blog, The Blog Maverick! May you win it all!