News Alert
from The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Justice Department accused poker celebrities Howard Lederer and Christopher Ferguson among other executives of a major poker website of defrauding poker players out of more than $300 million.

The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York filed a motion Tuesday to amend an earlier civil complaint to allege that Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Lederer and two other directors for the website, Full Tilt Poker, operated what the Justice Department says was a Ponzi scheme that allowed the company to pay out $444 million to themselves and other owners, which included other famous poker players.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904106704576582741398633386.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

Well been too busy to play much but had a good friend in town so met him to play Caesars Main Event Friday. Did well, went on to Day 2 and … nothing worked. Three big races, three big hands and lost all three. My general M.O. is to go home and lick my wounds but since my buddy was across the street at Belagio I wandered there. They were deep in their daily tournament and I thought “what the hell”. Ended up chopping that heads up for $4k each. Weird game sometimes. Spent Sunday with the gators at the movies. Lion King was on the feature list, Hayden’s favorite, absolute favorite as it came out when he was 2. Hayden would tell people, proudly, as we saw it 23 times on three continents. I can quote it to you .. a little painful to watch again, but I’m a good mom and that’s what we do, sit in dark movie theatres and try not to cry.

Things have been busy but then, I like it like that. School is getting into a nice system. Sierra has always loved school and performing well, Lincoln has been sort of non-plussed about the whole process. L got the best teacher draw for the year and it’s already making the difference. How wonderful to see that bright brain wake up.

Haven’t played much although met a good friend and business partner at Caesars the other night for a small heads up match. Had some good cards but was absolutely second best every time. Happens. Went to Bellagio and had a good cash session so will play at Caesars tomorrow. Their Main Event should have a good turnout and hey, I’m freerolling …

To those who sometime question how I can remove myself, somewhat, from that which we call politics … this story today is a prime example. Urghhhh …

The federal government has rejected a proposal from New York’s Mayor to exclude sugar-sweetened drinks from the food stamp program. But the government earlier banned white potatoes from the federal WIC Program, under the theory that they aren’t healthy enough. Is a baked potato, which has a lot of vitamin C, really less healthy than sugary sodas? (Potatoes also have more Vitamin C than a banana or an apple, and contain all 8 amino acids, unlike most other staple foods like corn.) The government does not seem to know how to distinguish between “good” and “bad” foods.

Meanwhile, the government also spent $766,000 of your tax dollars to open an International House of Pancakes in Washington, D.C. It’s also subsidizing the development of high-calorie foods that benefit politically connected agribusinesses.

If food stamp use were restricted to certain foods, it might provoke a big outcry, since a record 45.8 million people are now on food stamps, leading some to call America a “food stamp nation.”

Well as much as I love the summer with the gators, getting back into school begins to get a system down, a form, some structure. I’m loving it. They are having a good time so far and I truly believe it’s going to be a banner year. Sierra decided her teacher was dumb, for calling her down for bossing down the class (ha) but Sis decided the teacher would surely get smarter as the year went on. I told Sierra the year was young and it was best if she worked it out. Lincoln had to make five things to present to the class on Friday which showed the class who he was. “that’s easy” he proclaims and makes an orange (he loves them), a TV (oh great, thanks Lincoln), toys, pizza and something called a Big Hunk, his favorite candy bar. Like I said, gonna be a great year.

We’ve had a good summer. I haven’t written too much recently but I’ve been spending some great quality time with the gators. Don has been gone working on a project and the three of us have been solo, really enjoyed it too. We went to the open house at school on Friday and school starts tomorrow. I like both teachers and think it’s going to be a banner year for both of them. I asked them tonight, as i sat filling out the mountains of paperwork involved in registering children in school, if they had any questions. Sierra’s question was couldn’t we just go to bed right now (4 p.m.) so the day would get here sooner and Lincoln’s question was did I REALLY think they would give homework on the first day. Funny kids.