For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 13, 2003
National Homeownership Month, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Homeownership is more than just a symbol of the American Dream; it is an important part of our way of life. Core American values of individuality, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance are embodied in homeownership. I am committed to helping more families know the security and sense of pride that comes with owning a home.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is leading an Administration-wide effort to bring new tools and resources to would-be homeowners. We are providing financial assistance to qualified families through the American Dream Downpayment Fund, funding educational programs that stress financial literacy, and offering a compassionate hand to those who dream of moving from subsidized housing into homeownership. And through the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, my Administration partners with nonprofit organizations that offer homeownership oppor-tunities to families willing to contribute their skills and labor to help build a home of their own. We are also proposing ways to make it easier to shop for a mortgage and to make mortgages available to more families through the Federal Housing Administration.
Today, the United States is fortunate in that our homeownership rate is at an all-time high, and low interest rates continue to encourage millions of Americans to become first-time homeowners. Although a record number of Americans own their own homes, we continue to see a gap between the homeowner-ship rates of minorities and nonminorities. By a significant margin, minority families are less likely to own their own homes. Therefore, I have called upon the entire housing industry to join with my Administration to expand minority homeownership across the Nation. Our goal is to help at least 5.5 million minority families become homeowners by the end of this decade, and our Blueprint for the American Dream Partnership is taking bold steps to make this a reality.
Across our Nation, every citizen, regardless of race, creed, color, or place of birth, should have the opportunity to become a homeowner. Homeownership represents a pathway to pride and prosperity for many families, encourages values of responsibility and sacrifice, creates stability for neighborhoods and communities, and generates economic growth that helps strengthen the entire Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2003 as National Homeownership Month. I call upon the people of the United States to join me in recognizing the importance of offering every American the opportunity to realize their dream of homeownership and to help work towards making that dream a reality.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Drill Baby Drill! Where is DICK CHENEY? The ENERGY guy?
Here comes $500 oil
If Matt Simmons is right, the recent drop in crude prices is an illusion - and oil could be headed for the stratosphere. He's just hoping we can prevent civilization from imploding.
By Brian O'Keefe, senior editor
Last Updated: September 22, 2008: 10:01 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- Matt Simmons is as perplexed as anyone that it has fallen to him to take on OPEC, Exxon, the Saudis, and all the other misguided defenders of conventional wisdom in the oil patch. Why should one investment banker with a penchant for research be required to point out what he regards as the obvious - that from here on out, oil supplies can't meet demand, and if we don't act soon to solve this crisis, World War III could be looming?
Why should a man who scorns most environmentalists have to argue that locally grown produce and wind power are the way of the future? Why should a lifelong Republican need to be the one to point out that his party's new mantra - "Drill, baby, drill!" - won't really fix anything and that his party's presidential candidate is clueless about energy? That the spike in oil prices earlier this year wasn't a temporary market anomaly and the recent retreat in prices is just a misleading calm before a calamitous storm? That we're headed toward $500-a-barrel oil?
"I find it ironic that here we have the biggest industry on earth, and I'm one of the few people to figure out that we have a major problem," he says, in his confident if not quite brash way. "And I did it all in my spare time. How stupid and tragic is that? I shouldn't be one of the only folks that actually has a handful of ideas of how we can keep from blowing each other up and get through this."
Indeed, Simmons isn't the obvious candidate to be the bearer of bad news about oil. He's spent his career working in the business, has lived in Houston for decades, and is such an industry insider that he helped edit the Bush campaign's comprehensive energy plan in the 2000 election - the document that was ultimately more or less rubber-stamped by Vice President Dick Cheney's infamous secret Energy Task Force. Over the past 35 years, his boutique investment bank, Simmons & Co., has helped finance and shape much of the country's existing oil-services business. With profits gushing, you might expect him to be celebrating.
Not to mention that the 65-year-old banker doesn't have the personality of a prophet of doom. He has a puckish wit, a relentlessly cheerful and enthusiastic demeanor, and the appearance of a rosy-cheeked cherub in a navy blazer. He routinely refers - in earnest - to his daily experiences as "tremendous fun." His closest business associates have a hard time recalling him ever showing anger. But when it comes to oil and gas, his message is downright scary.
An unlikely maverick
Simmons was transformed overnight from an influential industry expert to an A-list pundit by the publication in 2005 of his book "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy," a fairly technical read which argues that Saudi Arabia's oil supplies are much more limited than everyone thinks.
Since then he has moved to the forefront of the peak-oil movement - a once fringe but now growing contingent of oil industry veterans, independent consultants, investors, and academics who believe that world oil production is at or near an inflection point, after which it will fall inexorably and fail to meet projected future demands. According to Simmons, we have already passed that peak. And while we're not going to run out of it anytime soon, the era of easy oil is over, and the world is about to enter a period of convulsive change. (Hint: Learn to garden, and buy some comfortable walking shoes.)
The soaring price of crude - it has risen from below $20 a barrel in 2002 to as high as $147 earlier this year - has helped thrust Simmons further into the spotlight. He was one of the main voices, for instance, in the recent oil-shock documentary "Crude Awakening," and his book has now sold more than 100,000 copies. His willingness to make bold predictions about how high crude may go has made him an A-list guest for cable TV news programs and a go-to source for newspaper reporters covering oil and gas. In 2005, when oil was $58 a barrel, he predicted it would be at or above $100 within a few years. Now he sees it climbing to $200, $300, or higher. "There really is no roof on oil prices at this point," he says.
Being so outspoken, of course, invites criticism, and Simmons has endured plenty. But he has also won a lot of high-profile admirers. "Like most people who ignore conventional wisdom, he was scoffed at, ridiculed, and denied," says commodities guru Jim Rogers. "And now, of course, people are starting to say, 'Oh, well, I thought of that.'" Billionaire oil and gas investors Richard Rainwater and Boone Pickens both heap praise on Simmons's analytical abilities. Maine's Senator Susan Collins, a Republican who recently began consulting with Simmons on energy issues, says, "I think he's issuing a clarion call that policymakers need to listen to."
In his own upbeat way, he despairs about what is to come. As the price of oil has fallen this summer (to $101 at press time), Simmons has watched in dismay as complacency has returned and the champions of do-nothingism have popped out of the woodwork to say I told you so. Not that it's lessened his conviction about the road ahead. "I do think there are a growing number of people who are getting it," he says. "But I guess it just reminds me that as a society, we don't have the ability to actually come to grips with a crisis until it's hit us in the face. I am discouraged enough now to think that we're going to have to have a really nasty shock before we wake people up."
Has peak oil peaked?
On a Thursday morning at the end of July, Simmons is sitting in a wicker chair on the back porch of his six-bedroom summer home on the coast of Maine, waiting to do a live television spot on CNBC. Sun glints off Penobscot Bay below him. In the distance, sailboats glide in and out of Camden Harbor. It's the kind of scene that has captivated him since his Harvard days in the 1960s, when he started coming up here on weekends. Wearing a blue-and-white-checked shirt, cream-colored pants, and tasseled loafers, Simmons chats with Ellen, his wife, and Emma, one of their five daughters. His earpiece is chattering as CNBC anchor Melissa Francis teases his upcoming segment.
At the moment, the price of oil is hovering around $124 a barrel, and CNBC wants him to interpret why crude is suddenly tumbling. "Has peak oil peaked? I guess that's our topic," he reports to everyone within earshot, before the shot goes live.
It was on this same porch five years ago that Simmons had the insight that convinced him that the oil age had passed its zenith. During a trip to Saudi Arabia in February 2003 with his friend Herbert Hunt (yes, the son of H.L. Hunt who, with his brother Bunker, almost cornered the silver market in 1980), Simmons had become suspicious of the Saudis' claims about the vastness of their oil supply. In his four decades of working in the oil and gas industry, everyone he had ever talked to had taken it as gospel that the Saudis had enough oil to bail the world out when other supplies ran short. If that wasn't true, Simmons believed, the era of cheap oil was over. Demand for crude was on the rise worldwide, and supplies were getting tighter all the time. If the Saudis were pushing up against the limits of their oil production, the world needed to know.
In his typically analytical fashion, Simmons went hunting for data. He found it in the form of hundreds of technical papers submitted by Saudi oil geologists to the Society of Petroleum Engineers over the past 50 years. Simmons spent the month of August 2003 sitting on his porch in Maine and grinding his way through the minutiae of technical accounts of, for instance, reservoir pressure and water-cut percentages, trying to piece together the challenges that the Saudi geologists had encountered in managing their precious oilfields. In the end, his conclusion was clear. "I finished reading the last paper on a Sunday afternoon," says Simmons, "and I sat back and I thought, Holy crap, this is unbelievable. I've just discovered the biggest energy illusion ever in the world. We're in big trouble. I'm going to write a book."
And so he did. But writing the book didn't exhaust his passion. Today he is more convinced than ever that we've reached peak oil. If he's right, current world oil production- 86 million barrels a day- is about as high as we're going to go.
Of course, if demand goes up but supply doesn't, prices are apt to go through the roof. And unlike global oil production, global oil demand doesn't appear to be anywhere near a peak. Both the U.S. government's Energy Information Association and the independent International Energy Agency, based in Paris, estimate that worldwide demand will be more than 115 million barrels a day by 2030.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/economy/500dollaroil_okeefe.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes
If Matt Simmons is right, the recent drop in crude prices is an illusion - and oil could be headed for the stratosphere. He's just hoping we can prevent civilization from imploding.
By Brian O'Keefe, senior editor
Last Updated: September 22, 2008: 10:01 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- Matt Simmons is as perplexed as anyone that it has fallen to him to take on OPEC, Exxon, the Saudis, and all the other misguided defenders of conventional wisdom in the oil patch. Why should one investment banker with a penchant for research be required to point out what he regards as the obvious - that from here on out, oil supplies can't meet demand, and if we don't act soon to solve this crisis, World War III could be looming?
Why should a man who scorns most environmentalists have to argue that locally grown produce and wind power are the way of the future? Why should a lifelong Republican need to be the one to point out that his party's new mantra - "Drill, baby, drill!" - won't really fix anything and that his party's presidential candidate is clueless about energy? That the spike in oil prices earlier this year wasn't a temporary market anomaly and the recent retreat in prices is just a misleading calm before a calamitous storm? That we're headed toward $500-a-barrel oil?
"I find it ironic that here we have the biggest industry on earth, and I'm one of the few people to figure out that we have a major problem," he says, in his confident if not quite brash way. "And I did it all in my spare time. How stupid and tragic is that? I shouldn't be one of the only folks that actually has a handful of ideas of how we can keep from blowing each other up and get through this."
Indeed, Simmons isn't the obvious candidate to be the bearer of bad news about oil. He's spent his career working in the business, has lived in Houston for decades, and is such an industry insider that he helped edit the Bush campaign's comprehensive energy plan in the 2000 election - the document that was ultimately more or less rubber-stamped by Vice President Dick Cheney's infamous secret Energy Task Force. Over the past 35 years, his boutique investment bank, Simmons & Co., has helped finance and shape much of the country's existing oil-services business. With profits gushing, you might expect him to be celebrating.
Not to mention that the 65-year-old banker doesn't have the personality of a prophet of doom. He has a puckish wit, a relentlessly cheerful and enthusiastic demeanor, and the appearance of a rosy-cheeked cherub in a navy blazer. He routinely refers - in earnest - to his daily experiences as "tremendous fun." His closest business associates have a hard time recalling him ever showing anger. But when it comes to oil and gas, his message is downright scary.
An unlikely maverick
Simmons was transformed overnight from an influential industry expert to an A-list pundit by the publication in 2005 of his book "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy," a fairly technical read which argues that Saudi Arabia's oil supplies are much more limited than everyone thinks.
Since then he has moved to the forefront of the peak-oil movement - a once fringe but now growing contingent of oil industry veterans, independent consultants, investors, and academics who believe that world oil production is at or near an inflection point, after which it will fall inexorably and fail to meet projected future demands. According to Simmons, we have already passed that peak. And while we're not going to run out of it anytime soon, the era of easy oil is over, and the world is about to enter a period of convulsive change. (Hint: Learn to garden, and buy some comfortable walking shoes.)
The soaring price of crude - it has risen from below $20 a barrel in 2002 to as high as $147 earlier this year - has helped thrust Simmons further into the spotlight. He was one of the main voices, for instance, in the recent oil-shock documentary "Crude Awakening," and his book has now sold more than 100,000 copies. His willingness to make bold predictions about how high crude may go has made him an A-list guest for cable TV news programs and a go-to source for newspaper reporters covering oil and gas. In 2005, when oil was $58 a barrel, he predicted it would be at or above $100 within a few years. Now he sees it climbing to $200, $300, or higher. "There really is no roof on oil prices at this point," he says.
Being so outspoken, of course, invites criticism, and Simmons has endured plenty. But he has also won a lot of high-profile admirers. "Like most people who ignore conventional wisdom, he was scoffed at, ridiculed, and denied," says commodities guru Jim Rogers. "And now, of course, people are starting to say, 'Oh, well, I thought of that.'" Billionaire oil and gas investors Richard Rainwater and Boone Pickens both heap praise on Simmons's analytical abilities. Maine's Senator Susan Collins, a Republican who recently began consulting with Simmons on energy issues, says, "I think he's issuing a clarion call that policymakers need to listen to."
In his own upbeat way, he despairs about what is to come. As the price of oil has fallen this summer (to $101 at press time), Simmons has watched in dismay as complacency has returned and the champions of do-nothingism have popped out of the woodwork to say I told you so. Not that it's lessened his conviction about the road ahead. "I do think there are a growing number of people who are getting it," he says. "But I guess it just reminds me that as a society, we don't have the ability to actually come to grips with a crisis until it's hit us in the face. I am discouraged enough now to think that we're going to have to have a really nasty shock before we wake people up."
Has peak oil peaked?
On a Thursday morning at the end of July, Simmons is sitting in a wicker chair on the back porch of his six-bedroom summer home on the coast of Maine, waiting to do a live television spot on CNBC. Sun glints off Penobscot Bay below him. In the distance, sailboats glide in and out of Camden Harbor. It's the kind of scene that has captivated him since his Harvard days in the 1960s, when he started coming up here on weekends. Wearing a blue-and-white-checked shirt, cream-colored pants, and tasseled loafers, Simmons chats with Ellen, his wife, and Emma, one of their five daughters. His earpiece is chattering as CNBC anchor Melissa Francis teases his upcoming segment.
At the moment, the price of oil is hovering around $124 a barrel, and CNBC wants him to interpret why crude is suddenly tumbling. "Has peak oil peaked? I guess that's our topic," he reports to everyone within earshot, before the shot goes live.
It was on this same porch five years ago that Simmons had the insight that convinced him that the oil age had passed its zenith. During a trip to Saudi Arabia in February 2003 with his friend Herbert Hunt (yes, the son of H.L. Hunt who, with his brother Bunker, almost cornered the silver market in 1980), Simmons had become suspicious of the Saudis' claims about the vastness of their oil supply. In his four decades of working in the oil and gas industry, everyone he had ever talked to had taken it as gospel that the Saudis had enough oil to bail the world out when other supplies ran short. If that wasn't true, Simmons believed, the era of cheap oil was over. Demand for crude was on the rise worldwide, and supplies were getting tighter all the time. If the Saudis were pushing up against the limits of their oil production, the world needed to know.
In his typically analytical fashion, Simmons went hunting for data. He found it in the form of hundreds of technical papers submitted by Saudi oil geologists to the Society of Petroleum Engineers over the past 50 years. Simmons spent the month of August 2003 sitting on his porch in Maine and grinding his way through the minutiae of technical accounts of, for instance, reservoir pressure and water-cut percentages, trying to piece together the challenges that the Saudi geologists had encountered in managing their precious oilfields. In the end, his conclusion was clear. "I finished reading the last paper on a Sunday afternoon," says Simmons, "and I sat back and I thought, Holy crap, this is unbelievable. I've just discovered the biggest energy illusion ever in the world. We're in big trouble. I'm going to write a book."
And so he did. But writing the book didn't exhaust his passion. Today he is more convinced than ever that we've reached peak oil. If he's right, current world oil production- 86 million barrels a day- is about as high as we're going to go.
Of course, if demand goes up but supply doesn't, prices are apt to go through the roof. And unlike global oil production, global oil demand doesn't appear to be anywhere near a peak. Both the U.S. government's Energy Information Association and the independent International Energy Agency, based in Paris, estimate that worldwide demand will be more than 115 million barrels a day by 2030.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/economy/500dollaroil_okeefe.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes
Monday, September 22, 2008
ENRON,NCFE, Richard Rainwater & Darla Moore
Forgot to mention his DUMPING of HCA/TN HOME HEALTHCARE to NCFE, the PONZI scheme dubbed by Federal Prosecutors in Ohio as BIGGER THAN ENRON!
Next up, at No. 163 with $2.5 billion in the bank, is Fort Worth, Texas-based investor Richard Rainwater, husband of Lake City native and part-time Charleston resident Darla Moore. The past year hasn't been as good to the 64-year-old spouse of the Palmetto Institute founder. He skidded from the 91st spot a year ago, when his net worth was $1 billion higher. What happened? Forbes said Rainwater unloaded "extensive oil holdings" earlier this year and got dinged by capital gains taxes. Also, an ill-timed investment in a mortgage business resulted in an estimated loss of $100 million. "The worst investment I've ever made," the magazine quoted Rainwater as saying.
List of 400 richest has a few with ties to S.C.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Forbes magazine's annual tally of the 400 wealthiest Americans shows that no full-time South Carolina residents had the minimum $1.3 billion required for admission to this exclusive club.
But the list once again included a handful of Forbes 400 perennials with close ties to the Charleston region.
Among them, Charleston-born Martha Rivers Ingram and her family — they own Tennessee-based book distributor Ingram Industries — was ranked 147th with $2.8 billion. That's an improvement from last year, when their $2.4 billion fortune earned them the 188th spot. Ingram's father was local TV broadcasting pioneer John M. Rivers, who started WCSC-Channel 5. The Nashville resident still owns a home on lower Meeting Street.
Next up, at No. 163 with $2.5 billion in the bank, is Fort Worth, Texas-based investor Richard Rainwater, husband of Lake City native and part-time Charleston resident Darla Moore. The past year hasn't been as good to the 64-year-old spouse of the Palmetto Institute founder. He skidded from the 91st spot a year ago, when his net worth was $1 billion higher. What happened? Forbes said Rainwater unloaded "extensive oil holdings" earlier this year and got dinged by capital gains taxes. Also, an ill-timed investment in a mortgage business resulted in an estimated loss of $100 million. "The worst investment I've ever made," the magazine quoted Rainwater as saying.
Media mogul and CNN founder Ted Turner, a big property owner in these parts with holdings that include Hope Plantation in the ACE Basin, was No. 190 among the Forbes U.S. wealth elite with $2.3 billion. Last year, that same amount placed Captain Outrageous at No. 195.
Then comes the low-key Michael E. Heisley at No. 215 with $2.1 billion, according to Forbes' accounting. Though he claims Jupiter Island, Fla., as his primary residence, the 71-year-old self-made industrialist and investor — he's also majority owner of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies — is a longtime property owner on Kiawah Island. He vaulted from the 380th spot last year, when he was worth an estimated $1.3 billion.
Finally, more or less holding steady at the 321st position with $1.5 billion since last year, is former energy honcho Robert McNair, who with wife Janice owns a 13,000-square-foot oceanfront getaway on Kiawah. He's a University of South Carolina graduate, and she's an Orangeburg native and Columbia College alumnus.
Known in the horse-racing world for their world-class thoroughbred holdings, the McNairs are scaling back their equestrian pursuits to focus on his ownership of the NFL's Houston Texans. Last year, the philanthropic couple sold their 106-acre Saratoga Springs farm in upstate New York for about $19 million. A few weeks ago, they sold their Stonerside Stables in Paris, Ky., to the crown prince of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. The deal included the 2,000 acres of Kentucky farm land, a South Carolina training center in Aiken, about 80 horses in training, and 170 broodmares, yearlings and weanlings, according to a statement. The sale price was not disclosed.
Cup coup
The U.S and European Ryder Cup players who did battle in Kentucky this weekend were able to take a load off after their matches in a Charleston company's chairs and other furnishings.
Six truckloads of imported mahogany furniture and accessories recently made the trip from Bauer International Inc. 's Island House showroom on Clements Ferry Road to the venue at Valhalla Golf Club. The company outfitted the hospitality chalet, VIP areas and various players' areas, including their dining room, locker rooms and team lounges, said Ken Bauer, co-founder, president and chief executive.
Bauer International is the official supplier of furnishings and clubhouse fixtures for the PGA of America. It recently picked up a four-year extension of its licensing agreement with the association.
Get carded
The president and CEO of North Charleston-based Bulldog Hiway Express testified before a House subcommittee last week about the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, a federal ID that will be required of all workers at the nation's seaports.
Philip Byrd Sr. , speaking on behalf of the American Trucking Associations, asked that TWIC be accepted as a universal security program to trump all others. As it stands, drivers often need a different credential for access to every secure location they visit.
Byrd told the Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism of the House Committee on Homeland Security that these multiple checks hurt drivers' morale.
He also asked that Congress require the Transportation Security Administration to recognize commercial drivers who have TWICs as also being compliant with the Hazardous Materials Endorsement Security Threat Assessment program, which is required to obtain, renew or transfer a hazardous materials endorsement.
Charleston's compliance deadline for the TWIC program will is Dec. 1. For more information, visit www.tsa.gov/twic.
Capital idea
Interest rates on Santee Cooper mini-bonds being offered through Oct. 15 will range from 3 percent to 4.8 percent, depending on their maturity dates.
Bonds in $200 and $500 denominations are available for purchase by state residents, Santee Cooper customers, electric cooperative members in South Carolina and electric customers of Bamberg Board of Public Works and the city of Georgetown.
Bonds can be bought in person or by mail by contacting Nan Cline, Debt Administrator, Santee Cooper Headquarters, One Riverwood Drive, Moncks Corner, SC 29461. For more information, call toll-free 877-246-3338, go to www.santeecooper.com/minibonds or e-mail questions to scbonds@santeecooper.com.
Next up, at No. 163 with $2.5 billion in the bank, is Fort Worth, Texas-based investor Richard Rainwater, husband of Lake City native and part-time Charleston resident Darla Moore. The past year hasn't been as good to the 64-year-old spouse of the Palmetto Institute founder. He skidded from the 91st spot a year ago, when his net worth was $1 billion higher. What happened? Forbes said Rainwater unloaded "extensive oil holdings" earlier this year and got dinged by capital gains taxes. Also, an ill-timed investment in a mortgage business resulted in an estimated loss of $100 million. "The worst investment I've ever made," the magazine quoted Rainwater as saying.
List of 400 richest has a few with ties to S.C.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Forbes magazine's annual tally of the 400 wealthiest Americans shows that no full-time South Carolina residents had the minimum $1.3 billion required for admission to this exclusive club.
But the list once again included a handful of Forbes 400 perennials with close ties to the Charleston region.
Among them, Charleston-born Martha Rivers Ingram and her family — they own Tennessee-based book distributor Ingram Industries — was ranked 147th with $2.8 billion. That's an improvement from last year, when their $2.4 billion fortune earned them the 188th spot. Ingram's father was local TV broadcasting pioneer John M. Rivers, who started WCSC-Channel 5. The Nashville resident still owns a home on lower Meeting Street.
Next up, at No. 163 with $2.5 billion in the bank, is Fort Worth, Texas-based investor Richard Rainwater, husband of Lake City native and part-time Charleston resident Darla Moore. The past year hasn't been as good to the 64-year-old spouse of the Palmetto Institute founder. He skidded from the 91st spot a year ago, when his net worth was $1 billion higher. What happened? Forbes said Rainwater unloaded "extensive oil holdings" earlier this year and got dinged by capital gains taxes. Also, an ill-timed investment in a mortgage business resulted in an estimated loss of $100 million. "The worst investment I've ever made," the magazine quoted Rainwater as saying.
Media mogul and CNN founder Ted Turner, a big property owner in these parts with holdings that include Hope Plantation in the ACE Basin, was No. 190 among the Forbes U.S. wealth elite with $2.3 billion. Last year, that same amount placed Captain Outrageous at No. 195.
Then comes the low-key Michael E. Heisley at No. 215 with $2.1 billion, according to Forbes' accounting. Though he claims Jupiter Island, Fla., as his primary residence, the 71-year-old self-made industrialist and investor — he's also majority owner of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies — is a longtime property owner on Kiawah Island. He vaulted from the 380th spot last year, when he was worth an estimated $1.3 billion.
Finally, more or less holding steady at the 321st position with $1.5 billion since last year, is former energy honcho Robert McNair, who with wife Janice owns a 13,000-square-foot oceanfront getaway on Kiawah. He's a University of South Carolina graduate, and she's an Orangeburg native and Columbia College alumnus.
Known in the horse-racing world for their world-class thoroughbred holdings, the McNairs are scaling back their equestrian pursuits to focus on his ownership of the NFL's Houston Texans. Last year, the philanthropic couple sold their 106-acre Saratoga Springs farm in upstate New York for about $19 million. A few weeks ago, they sold their Stonerside Stables in Paris, Ky., to the crown prince of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. The deal included the 2,000 acres of Kentucky farm land, a South Carolina training center in Aiken, about 80 horses in training, and 170 broodmares, yearlings and weanlings, according to a statement. The sale price was not disclosed.
Cup coup
The U.S and European Ryder Cup players who did battle in Kentucky this weekend were able to take a load off after their matches in a Charleston company's chairs and other furnishings.
Six truckloads of imported mahogany furniture and accessories recently made the trip from Bauer International Inc. 's Island House showroom on Clements Ferry Road to the venue at Valhalla Golf Club. The company outfitted the hospitality chalet, VIP areas and various players' areas, including their dining room, locker rooms and team lounges, said Ken Bauer, co-founder, president and chief executive.
Bauer International is the official supplier of furnishings and clubhouse fixtures for the PGA of America. It recently picked up a four-year extension of its licensing agreement with the association.
Get carded
The president and CEO of North Charleston-based Bulldog Hiway Express testified before a House subcommittee last week about the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, a federal ID that will be required of all workers at the nation's seaports.
Philip Byrd Sr. , speaking on behalf of the American Trucking Associations, asked that TWIC be accepted as a universal security program to trump all others. As it stands, drivers often need a different credential for access to every secure location they visit.
Byrd told the Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism of the House Committee on Homeland Security that these multiple checks hurt drivers' morale.
He also asked that Congress require the Transportation Security Administration to recognize commercial drivers who have TWICs as also being compliant with the Hazardous Materials Endorsement Security Threat Assessment program, which is required to obtain, renew or transfer a hazardous materials endorsement.
Charleston's compliance deadline for the TWIC program will is Dec. 1. For more information, visit www.tsa.gov/twic.
Capital idea
Interest rates on Santee Cooper mini-bonds being offered through Oct. 15 will range from 3 percent to 4.8 percent, depending on their maturity dates.
Bonds in $200 and $500 denominations are available for purchase by state residents, Santee Cooper customers, electric cooperative members in South Carolina and electric customers of Bamberg Board of Public Works and the city of Georgetown.
Bonds can be bought in person or by mail by contacting Nan Cline, Debt Administrator, Santee Cooper Headquarters, One Riverwood Drive, Moncks Corner, SC 29461. For more information, call toll-free 877-246-3338, go to www.santeecooper.com/minibonds or e-mail questions to scbonds@santeecooper.com.
"...Administration-wide effort to bring new tools and resources ..."
"...Administration-wide effort to bring new tools and resources ..."
I would like to know what NEW TOOLS & RESOURCES were used in 2003? For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 13, 2003
National Homeownership Month, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Homeownership is more than just a symbol of the American Dream; it is an important part of our way of life. Core American values of individuality, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance are embodied in homeownership. I am committed to helping more families know the security and sense of pride that comes with owning a home.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is leading an Administration-wide effort to bring new tools and resources to would-be homeowners. We are providing financial assistance to qualified families through the American Dream Downpayment Fund, funding educational programs that stress financial literacy, and offering a compassionate hand to those who dream of moving from subsidized housing into homeownership. And through the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, my Administration partners with nonprofit organizations that offer homeownership oppor-tunities to families willing to contribute their skills and labor to help build a home of their own. We are also proposing ways to make it easier to shop for a mortgage and to make mortgages available to more families through the Federal Housing Administration.
Today, the United States is fortunate in that our homeownership rate is at an all-time high, and low interest rates continue to encourage millions of Americans to become first-time homeowners. Although a record number of Americans own their own homes, we continue to see a gap between the homeowner-ship rates of minorities and nonminorities. By a significant margin, minority families are less likely to own their own homes. Therefore, I have called upon the entire housing industry to join with my Administration to expand minority homeownership across the Nation. Our goal is to help at least 5.5 million minority families become homeowners by the end of this decade, and our Blueprint for the American Dream Partnership is taking bold steps to make this a reality.
Across our Nation, every citizen, regardless of race, creed, color, or place of birth, should have the opportunity to become a homeowner. Homeownership represents a pathway to pride and prosperity for many families, encourages values of responsibility and sacrifice, creates stability for neighborhoods and communities, and generates economic growth that helps strengthen the entire Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2003 as National Homeownership Month. I call upon the people of the United States to join me in recognizing the importance of offering every American the opportunity to realize their dream of homeownership and to help work towards making that dream a reality.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
I would like to know what NEW TOOLS & RESOURCES were used in 2003? For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 13, 2003
National Homeownership Month, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Homeownership is more than just a symbol of the American Dream; it is an important part of our way of life. Core American values of individuality, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance are embodied in homeownership. I am committed to helping more families know the security and sense of pride that comes with owning a home.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is leading an Administration-wide effort to bring new tools and resources to would-be homeowners. We are providing financial assistance to qualified families through the American Dream Downpayment Fund, funding educational programs that stress financial literacy, and offering a compassionate hand to those who dream of moving from subsidized housing into homeownership. And through the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, my Administration partners with nonprofit organizations that offer homeownership oppor-tunities to families willing to contribute their skills and labor to help build a home of their own. We are also proposing ways to make it easier to shop for a mortgage and to make mortgages available to more families through the Federal Housing Administration.
Today, the United States is fortunate in that our homeownership rate is at an all-time high, and low interest rates continue to encourage millions of Americans to become first-time homeowners. Although a record number of Americans own their own homes, we continue to see a gap between the homeowner-ship rates of minorities and nonminorities. By a significant margin, minority families are less likely to own their own homes. Therefore, I have called upon the entire housing industry to join with my Administration to expand minority homeownership across the Nation. Our goal is to help at least 5.5 million minority families become homeowners by the end of this decade, and our Blueprint for the American Dream Partnership is taking bold steps to make this a reality.
Across our Nation, every citizen, regardless of race, creed, color, or place of birth, should have the opportunity to become a homeowner. Homeownership represents a pathway to pride and prosperity for many families, encourages values of responsibility and sacrifice, creates stability for neighborhoods and communities, and generates economic growth that helps strengthen the entire Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2003 as National Homeownership Month. I call upon the people of the United States to join me in recognizing the importance of offering every American the opportunity to realize their dream of homeownership and to help work towards making that dream a reality.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
June 2003 as National Homeownership Month
Department of Housing and Urban Development is leading an Administration-wide effort to bring new tools and resources to would-be homeowners.
National Homeownership Month, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Homeownership is more than just a symbol of the American Dream; it is an important part of our way of life. Core American values of individuality, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance are embodied in homeownership. I am committed to helping more families know the security and sense of pride that comes with owning a home.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is leading an Administration-wide effort to bring new tools and resources to would-be homeowners. We are providing financial assistance to qualified families through the American Dream Downpayment Fund, funding educational programs that stress financial literacy, and offering a compassionate hand to those who dream of moving from subsidized housing into homeownership. And through the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, my Administration partners with nonprofit organizations that offer homeownership oppor-tunities to families willing to contribute their skills and labor to help build a home of their own. We are also proposing ways to make it easier to shop for a mortgage and to make mortgages available to more families through the Federal Housing Administration.
Today, the United States is fortunate in that our homeownership rate is at an all-time high, and low interest rates continue to encourage millions of Americans to become first-time homeowners. Although a record number of Americans own their own homes, we continue to see a gap between the homeowner-ship rates of minorities and nonminorities. By a significant margin, minority families are less likely to own their own homes. Therefore, I have called upon the entire housing industry to join with my Administration to expand minority homeownership across the Nation. Our goal is to help at least 5.5 million minority families become homeowners by the end of this decade, and our Blueprint for the American Dream Partnership is taking bold steps to make this a reality.
Across our Nation, every citizen, regardless of race, creed, color, or place of birth, should have the opportunity to become a homeowner. Homeownership represents a pathway to pride and prosperity for many families, encourages values of responsibility and sacrifice, creates stability for neighborhoods and communities, and generates economic growth that helps strengthen the entire Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2003 as National Homeownership Month. I call upon the people of the United States to join me in recognizing the importance of offering every American the opportunity to realize their dream of homeownership and to help work towards making that dream a reality.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
National Homeownership Month, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Homeownership is more than just a symbol of the American Dream; it is an important part of our way of life. Core American values of individuality, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance are embodied in homeownership. I am committed to helping more families know the security and sense of pride that comes with owning a home.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is leading an Administration-wide effort to bring new tools and resources to would-be homeowners. We are providing financial assistance to qualified families through the American Dream Downpayment Fund, funding educational programs that stress financial literacy, and offering a compassionate hand to those who dream of moving from subsidized housing into homeownership. And through the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, my Administration partners with nonprofit organizations that offer homeownership oppor-tunities to families willing to contribute their skills and labor to help build a home of their own. We are also proposing ways to make it easier to shop for a mortgage and to make mortgages available to more families through the Federal Housing Administration.
Today, the United States is fortunate in that our homeownership rate is at an all-time high, and low interest rates continue to encourage millions of Americans to become first-time homeowners. Although a record number of Americans own their own homes, we continue to see a gap between the homeowner-ship rates of minorities and nonminorities. By a significant margin, minority families are less likely to own their own homes. Therefore, I have called upon the entire housing industry to join with my Administration to expand minority homeownership across the Nation. Our goal is to help at least 5.5 million minority families become homeowners by the end of this decade, and our Blueprint for the American Dream Partnership is taking bold steps to make this a reality.
Across our Nation, every citizen, regardless of race, creed, color, or place of birth, should have the opportunity to become a homeowner. Homeownership represents a pathway to pride and prosperity for many families, encourages values of responsibility and sacrifice, creates stability for neighborhoods and communities, and generates economic growth that helps strengthen the entire Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2003 as National Homeownership Month. I call upon the people of the United States to join me in recognizing the importance of offering every American the opportunity to realize their dream of homeownership and to help work towards making that dream a reality.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH
GW BUSH Strikes again!
Home Ownership-
As Larry Elder notes, since Bush has taken office, home ownership is way up for blacks:
Half of all minority households are homeowners, an all-time high. In 2002, Bush vowed to increase minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by 2010. Bush pushed for programs on down payment assistance, and called for increased funding for housing counseling services.
While some worry themselves half to death about the impending burst of the housing bubble, others celebrate that so many Americans-- of all races-- now own their own homes. When a family owns a home, they are far more likely to act to increase the value of their home, as well as their community. This means more volunteering, more upkeep on the house itself, and more concern for neighbors. Home owners typically have a much greater stake in their communities than renters, taking more interest in the quality of schools, and contributing more to community initiatives.
Owning a home can transform a family, but it can also transform communities. George W. Bush has made minority home ownership a priority of his administration, and his efforts are paying off nicely.
As Larry Elder notes, since Bush has taken office, home ownership is way up for blacks:
Half of all minority households are homeowners, an all-time high. In 2002, Bush vowed to increase minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by 2010. Bush pushed for programs on down payment assistance, and called for increased funding for housing counseling services.
While some worry themselves half to death about the impending burst of the housing bubble, others celebrate that so many Americans-- of all races-- now own their own homes. When a family owns a home, they are far more likely to act to increase the value of their home, as well as their community. This means more volunteering, more upkeep on the house itself, and more concern for neighbors. Home owners typically have a much greater stake in their communities than renters, taking more interest in the quality of schools, and contributing more to community initiatives.
Owning a home can transform a family, but it can also transform communities. George W. Bush has made minority home ownership a priority of his administration, and his efforts are paying off nicely.
George W. Bush has made minority home ownership a priority of his administration
George W. Bush has made minority home ownership a priority of his administration, and his efforts are paying off nicely.
« September 2005 | WILLisms.com | November 2005 »
Home Ownership-
As Larry Elder notes, since Bush has taken office, home ownership is way up for blacks:
Half of all minority households are homeowners, an all-time high. In 2002, Bush vowed to increase minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by 2010. Bush pushed for programs on down payment assistance, and called for increased funding for housing counseling services.
While some worry themselves half to death about the impending burst of the housing bubble, others celebrate that so many Americans-- of all races-- now own their own homes. When a family owns a home, they are far more likely to act to increase the value of their home, as well as their community. This means more volunteering, more upkeep on the house itself, and more concern for neighbors. Home owners typically have a much greater stake in their communities than renters, taking more interest in the quality of schools, and contributing more to community initiatives.
Owning a home can transform a family, but it can also transform communities. George W. Bush has made minority home ownership a priority of his administration, and his efforts are paying off nicely.
« September 2005 | WILLisms.com | November 2005 »
Home Ownership-
As Larry Elder notes, since Bush has taken office, home ownership is way up for blacks:
Half of all minority households are homeowners, an all-time high. In 2002, Bush vowed to increase minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by 2010. Bush pushed for programs on down payment assistance, and called for increased funding for housing counseling services.
While some worry themselves half to death about the impending burst of the housing bubble, others celebrate that so many Americans-- of all races-- now own their own homes. When a family owns a home, they are far more likely to act to increase the value of their home, as well as their community. This means more volunteering, more upkeep on the house itself, and more concern for neighbors. Home owners typically have a much greater stake in their communities than renters, taking more interest in the quality of schools, and contributing more to community initiatives.
Owning a home can transform a family, but it can also transform communities. George W. Bush has made minority home ownership a priority of his administration, and his efforts are paying off nicely.
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