The final cut: Jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford’s extreme measures to hide his Caribbean bank’s fraud included entering into a blood oath with a top regulator, the man who was in charge of the tycoon’s books told jurors Thursday. James M. Davis, the former chief financial officer for Stanford’s companies, testified the financier came to an agreement with the official responsible for reviewing his bank on the island nation of Antigua, whereby that person, Leroy King, would not dig too deeply into the institution’s operations. Prosecutors allege Stanford masterminded a fraud in which he bilked investors out of more than $7 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme centered on the sales of certificates of deposit, or CDs, from the bank. “Mr. Stanford said they (he and King) actually cut themselves and had a blood oath,” a frail-looking Davis, 63, testified. Get the full story from The Associated Press here.
The powers that be: The New Orleans City Council agreed Thursday to let Entergy New Orleans buy 20% of the electricity produced at a natural gas-fired plant that sister company Entergy Louisiana plans to build at its Ninemile Point station near Westwego, The Times-Picayune reports. Acquiring electricity from the new plant would reduce Entergy New Orleans’ reliance on its older, less efficient Michoud plant, but its customers also would be responsible for covering some of the estimated $721 million construction cost of the new unit. Bill Mohl, president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana, announced in June that the utility had asked the Louisiana Public Service Commission for approval to build a 550-megawatt natural gas unit at its existing Ninemile Point plant in Westwego. The Louisiana Public Service Commission is reviewing Entergy Louisiana’s plans to build the combined-cycle, gas-turbine power unit, which could begin construction this year and be operational by mid-2015. It would be known as Ninemile 6. Read the full story here.
I, me, mine: A new study out today from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found the average user of the world’s biggest online social network gets more than they give. That means more messages, more “likes” and more comments. Yes, even more “pokes.” Behind all that is Facebook’s relatively small group of “power users,” who do more than their share of tagging, liking and uploading. The report comes two days after Facebook filed for a $5 billion initial public offering of stock that could eventually value the company at $100 billion. The Associated Press wants to give you the full story here.
