Paid Content: True Back

Low back pain is one of the oldest occupational health problems in history.  It afflicted the ancient Egyptians 3,500 years ago, and it was a major concern of Bernardino Ramazzini, the founder of occupational medicine in the late 1600’s.  While there have been dramatic reductions in cases of small pox, polio, and tuberculosis in the last few decades, there is no evidence that low back pain has declined over the years.

Back pain affects 80% of Americans at some time in their lives and low back pain is the most common type because the low back supports most of your body's weight.  Many victims of chronic low back pain are working age and, for them, back pain is also the most frequent cause of lost productivity.

         Medical treatment for back pain costs roughly $100 billion a year, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.  This is why a growing number of doctors, including Brain W. Nelson, MD, Medical Director of Physician's Neck and Back Clinic in Minneapolis, recommend stretching exercises as an possible alternative to surgery for people with back pain.  “Such exercises are aimed at strengthening the back muscles.” Dr Nelson says.

True Back, a non-powered orthopedic traction device, has gained rapidly in popularity among sufferers because it is natural, drug free, convenient and affordable.  Treatments take only a few minutes and you can do them yourself in the comfort of your own home, office, or workplace without taking off your clothes.

Bill Lorenzo of Florida says, “I use True Back every night after work to rid myself of the day’s stress and I just relax.”

The unique patented design of True Back is quite simple; while lying on the device, your spine floats in the center channel.  The thirty suspension points molded into the center rails support your body weight and create pressure to the muscles which are located on each side of the spine.  The pressure enables the muscles to relax which increases blood flow. While lying on True Back, you are passively stretched in opposite directions while being supported in the correct position.  Stretching is natural and beneficial.  Just ask your cat or dog.  Unlike devices like magnets and hot and cold packs, True Back has an enduring effect and it is very effective at preventing possible back problems.
True Back is affordably priced and comes with an instructional video and a 90-day, money-back guarantee.

Content: Misconceptions about Internet Marketing.

The Top Five Misconceptions about Internet Marketing.

1. That Content Writing is All About Content
Not true. Content writing is all about writing and it had better make sense. Spelling and grammatical errors reveal someone who is not smart and who is lazy as well. On the Internet, perception is everything; you are what people think you are. Claim to be an expert in writing while spelling grammar “grammer” and you’re letting the public see that you are a fake. Perception is key to Internet marketing. Since you reach people with words and pictures, your words reveal (or betray) who you really are.
It matters not how much you know about your subject; it matters how much you are perceived to know about your subject. Proper grammar and spelling are key to the perception of intelligence.

2. That Anyone Can Learn Internet Marketing
Nope. It takes a great deal of patience, the ability to focus on each task in turn, the stamina to persevere and a powerful bullshit detector. For every good web source of Internet marketing information there are literally thousands of bogus, brain dead sites in business only to take your money and leave you puzzled. After separating the wheat from the chaff, you’ve got to actually put into practice the rare good advice you do find. Throwing up a quick web site and waiting for visitors to descend by the hundreds is an exercise in futility. Marketing is an ongoing learning curve that really never ends.

3. “You Can Earn Over $10,000.00 Per Month.”
This is, frankly and sincerely, a lie. Were it true, everyone in America would be into Internet marketing. If you’re planning to market online to become a millionaire, you are mistaken. The few who make loads of cash on the web often do so by selling ebooks about how to make loads of cash on the web to naive suckers who believe the dream. If you apply yourself with consistency and patience, you can make some money on the Internet but it takes hard work.

4. Anything Goes On The Web
This is a popular misconception. Ask the inventor of the Beer Belt, which held a dozen cans or bottles on a belt around your waist, or the creator of the battery-operated twirling spaghetti fork. As with regular retail stores, the Internet won’t help you market a bad or stupid product. If anything, the worldwide exposure can destroy a product if users decide it’s pointless, too expensive or dangerous. Market something worth marketing.

5. The More The Merrier
Some potential Internet marketers get the bright idea that putting up six web sites touting six different products or services will make six times the money for them. Not true. Branding is the name of the game on the web. If you are perceived as the King of Wooden Spatulas but you also try to be the leader in Construction Portable Toilets you are watering down your brand (you!) and confusing the consumer. There’s a reason Coke is not sold by a company called Coca Cola Soda and Tuxedos. Marketing your brand depends on your knowing what your brand is and being consistent in marketing it.

Magazine Article: Lovers Scams

LOVERS SCAMS (For Abacus Investigations magazine) By Lary Crews

By and large, Americans a too trusting for their own good. Many singles looking for a lasting relationship spend less time investigating a future spouse than they do looking into a potential car dealer or a new doctor. Often, the desire to trust and the lack of investigation can lead to real tragedy.

On Nov. 7, 1997, a hit man shot and stabbed Sheila Bellush, a mother of six, in her Sarasota, Florida home while her then-toddler quadruplets from her second marriage played nearby. The babies walked through their own mother’s blood and sat on the floor crying until their teenaged half-sister came home from school and found her mother dead. Police found a multitude of clues at the scene, including fingerprints. Within weeks, three men had been arrested.

But the crime was not a robbery and the three men had never met Bellush before. Two years later, her ex-husband, wealthy San Antonio businessman Allen Blackthorne, was convicted of arranging the murder of his ex-wife at her Florida home and was sentenced to life in prison. A few weeks ago, his fourth wife finally divorced him.

Sheila might still be alive had she known about Allen’s bizarre past. She was actually Allen’s third wife, not his first. Also unknown to Sheila when she met Allen was the fact that his alcoholic mother had been married three times and that his father had never met him. When Allen did finally meet his father, he went into business with him and ended up cheating his dad out of thousands of dollars and skipping town leaving him to hold the bag. Incredibly, he also bankrupted Sheila’s parents shortly after they met. There were countless clues that Allen was a dangerous and secretive man and that his ability to kill began when he was a teenager.

At one point, just months after he and Sheila married he ran down a motorcyclist on a lonely road because he was angry that the cyclist passed him on the highway and then demanded that Sheila back up his claim that a motorcycle gang had attacked them and it was self-defense.

Blackthorne was not even Allen Van Houte’s real name; he adopted it after seeing the television mini-series Shogun. Richard Chamberlain played Englishman John Blackthorne, an explorer whose fortunes left him and his crew stranded in Japan during the 15th Century. That fictional character rose from the ashes to a position of great power, which was also Allen Van Houte’s desire. Instead he landed in prison.

Had Sheila merely thought to check out his background, chances are good she would never have married him.

Due diligence has a lot to do with happy endings. We know everyone has their own idea of what a happy ending is, but for the con artist it is leaving with your money, and often the scam artist leaves with a things you may value more; your future, opportunity, hopes and sometimes your health. Or, as in the worst-case scenario cases of Sheila Bellush, Chris Northon and Ted Binion, failure to check out that person with whom you are in love could result in death. - end -

Theatre Review: A Chorus Line

Review Of “A Chorus Line” At Eight O'Clock Theatre
Grapevine Green Room
By Lary Crews

The Tony Award-winning musical A Chorus Line at Eight O'Clock Theatre was truly One Singular Sensation; a brilliantly complex fusion of dance, song and compellingly authentic drama.

  It is a Herculean task to bring Michael Bennett's creation to full artistic life. You have to find a cast that can dance, sing, and act all at a top-notch level, not an easy task. Director Rocco Morabito and co-director/choreographer Ronnie DeMarco assembled an amazing cast of young triple-threat entertainers and taught them to deliver the energy, pathos and excitement of the grueling audition process in nearly perfect performances, individually and collectively.  Music/choral director Jeremy D. Silverman achieved beautiful harmonies from the cast and exceptional musical support from a 12-member pit orchestra.

On one level, A Chorus Line is about a chorus audition for a Broadway musical, but it is also a powerful metaphor for all human aspiration.  It tells of the achingly poignant ambitions of the chorus dancers, those valiant, over-dedicated, underpaid, highly trained performers who back up the star or stars and often make them look even more talented than they are. A Chorus Line is also about competition, the common denominator that grabs the audience and holds it by the collective heartstring until the final, ultimate choices are made. For everyone, at one time or another, puts their life on the line. We all compete, no matter what business we're in, for promotion, for attention, for approval and for love.

This is a rare musical that swims in realism. The monologues come from real dancers who lived these lives. For this musical's message to work, there must be a peeling of inner layers to bring forth subtext, organic truth, naturalism, and the believability of these troubled, lonely, battered dancers.

A Chorus Line takes the audience through the final grueling audition run by the director, Zach (Scott Hamilton), for a new Broadway musical. At the beginning of the show, Zach, a driven, compulsive worker, has assembled some two dozen semi-finalists and is putting them through a vigorous series of dance combinations, including ballet and jazz. Soon he thins this group down to the final sixteen, eight boys and eight girls. They and the audience know that eventually this number will be cut in half and Zach will choose only four boys and four girls to be in his new musical.

Instead of having them read a short audition scene, Zach wants to elicit a personal history from each one: how they got into "show business," why they became dancers, what their hopes, fantasies and aspirations are. As he calls upon them individually, they react in every possible way, from bravado to reticence. From childhood on, their memories emerge, blending into a seamless series of musical numbers and monologues,

Some are humorous (Dance: Ten; Looks: Three by Brittany McDonald).  Some are poignant and lovely (At the Ballet by Kristine Weinstein, Sandi Williams and Ashley Massicotte). Some are group reminiscences when they all share their adolescent experiences (Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love) and some are intimate (The Music and the Mirror by Suzanne Dani’L)

As their individual stories pour out in songs interspersed with dance, the audience, as well as Zach, gets to know each one of these ambitious entertainers individually, so that by the show's end, they can identify and root for their favorites as well as empathize with all of them because they all need the job, they all want to work at their craft.

Chrissy Dobrowski was an extraordinary surprise as Diana Morales. Dobrowski seemed to truly comprehend the emotional core and subtext that makes up her character. Both of her solos were performed with honesty, clarity, and organic truth.  And, as an actress, she expertly expressed the painful memories of a cruel acting teacher. Her rendition of What I Did For Love created the right amount of painful pathos and hope.

Another impressive performance was entirely dramatic. Midway through the audition, the dancers are ordered off stage. During this break, Zach, the mysterious and inquisitive director (Scott Hamilton), is confronted by Cassie (Suzanne Dani’L). It becomes obvious that the two share a turbulent romantic history and now, after a failed stint in Hollywood, Cassie is back on Broadway to audition for her ex. The scene which ensues between them is moving and memorable not just because of the writing or the staging, but because of the real chemistry which seemed to flow on stage between Hamilton and Dani’L. Their relationship came across as incredibly real and stood out on its own as a fine piece of drama.

Brittany McDonald was terrific as Val, the less-than-endowed chorus girl who decides to surgically improve her chances, of making it in showbiz. McDonald performed the memorable tune Dance: Ten, Looks: Three in front of a huge audience with the confidence and talent of a Broadway professional.

Corey Horton gave a terrific performance as Mike with his number, I Can Do That. Horton’s facial expressions and comic delivery were right on the money.

Candice Queen presented the right amount of sass and ditsy as Judy, the girl from El Paso who keeps forgetting her audition number. She hit the mark with her comedic monologue about learning how to kiss.

Danny Harrigan as Mark gave an engaging, delightful performance that achieved laughs during his monologue about visiting the priest concerning his medical problem.

Anita Travaglino was hilarious as Kristine, the dancer who can't sing worth a lick.  

Fadi Akhtar (Paul) had a big, dramatic monologue toward the end of the evening which was absolutely mesmerizing, bringing many in the audience to tears. Paul is a quiet, intensely private man who does not want anyone to know his life.  Akhtar expertly achieved the honest, organic, truthful emotional breakdown that the scene requires.

Kristine Weinstein also shone as Sheila, the tough-talking, wry veteran who fears her time may be running out.

James Grennelle (Bobby), Hayden Milanes (Ritchie), and Ashley Massicotte (Maggie) were other standouts among the ensemble, and they were matched nearly step-for-step by Tisha Ballowe, Sarah Dixie, Catherine Fowles, Gina Germano, Jared Koceja, Jani West-Roberts, Seth Tavaglino, Kare Upton, Sandi Williams and Marcus Yi.

The Eight O'Clock Theatre production was topnotch, certainly on the level of the best professional productions anywhere in the country.  A Chorus Line brought tears to the eyes and cheers in the aisles during a bunch of sold-out performances in early November and more than one audience member was heard to call it, “The best musical I've seen this year.”

Book Review: Madison County and Cedar Bend

A SLOW BRIDGES WALTZ IN MADISON COUNTY AND CEDAR BEND
Comparing two of Robert Waller's books
By Lary Crews

Knowing I'm the author of three popular novels and a teacher of fiction, a student of mine recently asked me to compare and contrast Robert Waller's best-selling books The Bridges of Madison County and Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend.

Bending to popular demand, I will do so:

•    The story of Bridges: A passionate middle-aged woman, stuck in a lifeless marriage, is reborn because of a lusty yet sensitive middle-aged man.
•    The story of Slow Waltz: A passionate middle-aged woman, stuck in a lifeless marriage, is reborn because of a lusty yet sensitive middle-aged man.
•    The hero of Bridges is: Robert Kincaid, photographer.  Wears sandals from India, faded blue jeans, khakis.  Smokes and uses a Zippo lighter.
•    The hero of Slow Waltz is: Michael Tilman, professor.  Wears sandals from India, faded blue jeans, khakis.  Smokes and uses a Zippo lighter.
•    The heroine of Bridges is Francesca Johnson, farm wife.  Black hair, face showing first lines.  Wears silver hoop earrings and tight-fitting jeans.
•    The heroine of Slow Waltz is Jellie Braden, graduate student.  Black hair, face showing first lines.  Wears silver hoop earrings and tight-fitting jeans.
•    The heroine's husband compared with the hero:
•    In Bridges, "She knew Richard was no match intellectually or physically for Robert Kincaid."
•    In Slow Waltz, "He's reminded of his limitations just by being around people like you, Michael."

    Waller's novels read as if they had been churned out by a word processor programmed with scenes culled from soap operas, B movies and easy-listening songs and written in language lifted from Hemingway parody contests and Playboy picture captions.
The most old-fashioned, hard-core sort of sexism is combined in his books with the fuzziest, most up-to-date talk of self-esteem, while completely banal sentiments are continually recycled in self-consciously saccharine language.

   From Robert Waller's Border Music:
   Throughout the novel, Linda Lobo is described only in terms of her body. We're told that she fills out her jeans "like she'd been born in them." and that she smells "of all the highways that ever ran through spring and summer toward sad-eyed endings."
   Jack Carmine is described as a "descendant of scalp hunters, back shooters and ladies of the night."
   Jack says things like: "survival first, procreation after that" and "stroking a woman's hair while looking out at a rainy day is 92% of as good as it gets."

   In one fairly typical passage, Waller writes: Women liked Texas Jack Carmine in the same way people enjoy sunshine and soft rain on their faces. He seemed to skate on the wind instead of letting it blow him around, and women sensed it.  More than that, he genuinely liked women, not only in bed, but overall.  Liked to watch them, talk with them, dance with them, and women picked up on it.  They liked him because he liked them for all the things women are."
   "There are those who dream and those who go out there," Waller continues, "those who only watch as a woman dances through firelight while rivers flow and turtles sleep and a very few who rise to dance with the woman before she has gone to where rivers go until they cycle back to run again."
   Jack fantasizes about making love to a black woman who "would taste and smell of Africa and chains and long marches to misery ships that sailed for de land of cotton when old times past were still in progress.
   Such spectacularly awful - not to mention offensive - writing permeates Border Music.
   Linda tells Jack that "all women know how to shake it hard if they want to" and she adds "nature gave us that ability as a way of attracting you wonderful things called men."

   "Tonight, I'm runnin' for the fireside, hangin' on to the latchkey, gettin' off the great, sad arrow for a while and intendin' to grin just a bit if it's at all possible."
   Says reviewer Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times: "Border Music must surely rank as one of the most dreadful novels to come along in a long time."
   I agree.

Video Review: Infested Really Is

Infested Really Is
Review by Lary Crews

The straight-to-DVD film ““Infested”” is bad in ways that should make it required viewing in film schools where other beginners could learn from it. The mistakes propagated by the first-time writer/director are fixable given experience and study and fledgling filmmakers would do well to avoid these errors.

It is perhaps a credit to cinematographer M. David Mullen, a veteran of more than two dozen films, that the film frequently looks quite good. Sadly, however, that often serves to focus more attention on the shabby special effects and inane script.

Directors who steal directly from good films often claim that their film is a homage. Occasionally, this is true. More often, it is just plagiarism.

Writers who fail to convince an audience to suspend disbelief often claim that their script is merely taking a satiric swipe at the conventions of the genre. More often, it is just that the writer is handling the genre conventions badly.

“Infested” begins at the funeral of a 30-something and moves quickly to the only other location in the film, a house out in the middle of nowhere somewhere on Long Island. For an interminable 20 minutes or so the cast banters back and forth in an awkward montage set to 80s music which could be seen as a homage to The Big Chill except that Big Chill had really interesting conversation against a backdrop of really great music.

“Infested” has such recycled babble as “Carl and I are very feng shui conscious.” And “Oh, my gosh. The house just looks great doesn’t it?” and “Yeah, but I’m having trouble going from chataranga into downward dog.” This series of intercut exchanges serve mostly to slide in some heavy-handed foreshadowing about the CIA and plots to smuggle drugs into America.

If you are going to attempt a homage to The Big Chill, you need to strive for memorable dialogue. Instead, we get such patently obvious and sub-par exchanges as this:
Mindy: “Look at that ass. Hmmm. I hate to see you leave but I still love to watch you go.”
Carl: “Geez. Mindy. Subtle, much?”
Warren: Hey, Mindy, how you doin’?”
Mindy: “Good. Do you know you are even hotter than you were back then.”
Warren: “Thank you.”
Carl: “So what am I? Chopped liver?”
Warren: “You look surprisingly good for a married man, Carl.”
Carl: “You’re a shameless hussy. You know that, right?”
Mindy: “Uh-huh. What are you going to do about it?”

Among the reasons this dialogue is so inane is that it’s not the way a woman talks; it is the way a film school geek hanging around with his friends at Starbucks wishes a woman would talk.
As one woman says: “Guess it can be pretty dull if you don’t speak the language, huh?”

Once the host decides to play some music (actually using a 45-RPM vinyl recording) the girls begin to dance just the way all horny screenwriters imagine girls would dance if the writers’ dreams had come true.

Bob, played by Jack Mulcahy who got his start in the two classic films, Porky’s and Porky’s II: The Next Day, lucks out. He gets to drive off the picture for about an hour, a deal no doubt set up by his agent. His motivation? He doesn’t like the other people in the house.

Finally, a good half-hour into the film, something actually happens.
Mindy (played by Nahanni Johnstone who was a successful model in Europe before moving to New York to study acting.) comes out of the water wearing shorts but naked from the waist up. She proves that not all actresses have surgically-enhanced breasts, Any reason for this nudity? Nope. Just that the horny screenwriter always wanted to see a women come out of the water with naked breasts. Nothing to do with the plot. She puts her skimpy top back on. (The skimpy top she could have worn into the water since she got her shorts wet anyhow.)

Suddenly, fake violins on the derivative soundtrack begin to shudder and the camera moves at a low angle so we know that “Something Is About To Happen.”

After the evil bugs we have yet to see move her bag about six feet away (leaving nothing on the sand but the shoe prints of the crew member who actually did the moving) things really start to happen.

In rather rapid succession, we get a neck slashed open, a severed head, a crow bar impaling, nasty razor blade surgery on a leg, a body cut in half, a self-inflicted neck crack, and a burned face! Sadly, the special effects (which often resemble Raisinettes flying at the audience) ARE a homage; back to the day when such effects were done badly.

The director's shortcomings were most apparent from the frequent “out of sight, out of mind” errors. That is, after a scene with several zombies on the front lawn, we join the characters inside the house for a long series of scenes without any return reference to the zombies on the outside. What are they doing? Hanging out at craft services? Why have they not tried to get into the house?

Another “lonely screenwriter” addition to the script is the fact that one woman decides (in the middle of the most horrible zombie attack in recent memory) to go upstairs and take a shower. Take a shower! Why? So the director can attempt a cross-reference to both Hitchcock’s The Birds and Psycho with none of the style of either of those films. Oh yeah, and so he can get another woman to be naked.

The illogical screenplay also permitted the rapidly-dwindling cast to come to the conclusion that the zombies are scared of light even though they are standing in bright sunlight and then that they are killed by a particular song from the 80s.

“Infested” is a lousy film for a lot of reasons but it’s difficult to blame the cast who work gamely to try to make the dialogue sound real.

Camilla Overbye  Roos (Robin) played Helga Dahl in one of the most successful films of all time, “Titanic.” 

No doubt, being in “Infested” gave her the same sinking feeling of impending doom.

Magic Morning (short fiction)

Magic Morning
A short story by Lary Crews

   David had noticed her. She was alone. He was in his regular spot, doing close-up magic with coins and cards at D'Amelio's Lounge in Clearwater Beach.
   She was small-boned and tan with chocolate brown eyes and a smile full of tenderness. Her hair fell to her shoulders in cascades of light brown and streaked blonde. She sat at the bar with a Scotch sour in front of her.
   David held nothing but air in the shape of cards near her slim hands and asked her to pick a card. She laughed, a light, airy wind chime of a sound.
   She chose the invisible card. He asked her to turn it over and replace it in the invisible deck. She did. When he produced a real deck with just one card overturned, she waited in wonder. When she turned it over to find it was the same as the invisible card she had chosen, she gazed at him in delight and rapture.
   "You're wonderful," she said. "How did you do that?"
   "It's done with mirrors," he said, with a smile.
   "Do another. Please."
   He put four silver dollars through a solid table one by one.
   She applauded and smiled.
   He vanished a card and made it reappear in her purse, wrapped in paper.
   She laughed with delight.
 
   Closing time.
   She said, "Will you walk on the beach with me?
   “What?”
   “Walk on the beach?”
   He agreed; anything to be near her, so electric was her presence.
   Together, they walked out into the early morning coolness. David glanced up at a brightly lit palm tree. Less than fifty feet away, the dark but living Gulf of Mexico beat a steady rap on the impossibly white sand. The only sounds at two in the morning were air conditioners, an occasional car and sea gulls who couldn't sleep.
   She came only to his shoulder when she stood close, holding his arm, as she did while taking off her sandals. David kicked off his loafers and removed his socks and carried them in his left hand, feeling awkward as hell.
   "I'm from Ohio," she told him. "Little town called Wooster."
   "What's it near?" He wanted to hear her voice again.
   "Nothing." She looked straight into his eyes, without fear.
   "What's your name?"
   "Catherine. Catherine Daniel."
   His tie was tight. He loosened it. "I'm David Miranda."
   "I know. I saw it on the sign.”

    She held his hand as they walked along on the smooth wet sand and let the waves wash in over their toes. They sat on a concrete bench and talked.
David tried to express his sincerity. She seemed trusting and relaxed. He wanted to assure her, but she seemed self-assured. He didn't want to see the sun rise. He prayed for everlasting life, or at least another hour.
   Finally, she rose, took his hand, and took him to the shadowy wooden pier. She turned to look up into his eyes. Her face in the moonlight was beautiful.
   "You're beautiful," he said.
   "I'm just okay."
   "No, you're beautiful," he insisted.
   She held both his hands in hers and pulled gently, just enough that he leaned toward her face. She kissed him. Her lips were soft, blending into an embrace full of warmth and tenderness.
   He was relieved to discover tenderness could still reach his hollow heart.
   "I’ll never see you again,” she said. “You know that, right?”
   “I’m sorry.”
   She touched his lips. “Don’t be sorry. Just remember that something magic happened on the beach this morning and, for once, you were the one who was amazed.”
   She kissed him one more time.

Copyright © 2011 Lary Crews
All rights reserved.

Business Scams

BUSINESS SCAMS (For Abacus Investigations newsletter)
(2000 words)
By Lary Crews

    Every gambler dreams of a fool-proof system to beat the house at its own game or a legal way to con Uncle Sam out of those pesky income taxes.  But nearly all such systems are designed to beat the greedy and the needy and not the billion-dollar casinos.

    In 2004, 76-year old self-described Las Vegas tax protester Irwin Schiff, who hasn't paid personal income taxes since 1974, was indicted on a variety of tax fraud charges.  And he took down thousands of victims with him.

    Schiff allegedly victimized some of America's most vulnerable citizens, beleaguered taxpayers who are in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, by playing on their fear, ignorance, and anger.  He promised that anyone who wanted to could stop paying income taxes.  Some victims heard him on the radio and bought his books and videotapes like “The Great Income Tax Hoax" and "How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes."  Other customers spent thousands for personal consultations with Schiff in an effort to avoid paying the IRS.

    When IRS Criminal Investigation agents filled a U-Haul truck with evidence from Schiff's Freedom Books' Sahara Avenue storefront in February of 2003, the anti-tax man assured his followers that the government would never indict him.  But what those agents found exposed Irwin Schiff's con game, one which the feds say cost taxpayers approximately $55 million and netted Schiff at least $3.7 million over six years.  That's just the checks and traceable income; it account for the suspected large sums of cash the business received.  It is alleged he caused at least 4,950 people to file "zero returns" and violate federal law.

    As late as a March 2003 court appearance, Schiff still claimed that paying income taxes was voluntary and the 16th Amendment wasn't properly ratified.  An appeals court judges called Schiff, "…precisely the sort of taxpayer upon whom a fraud penalty for failure to pay income taxes should be imposed."

    A few years ago, Canadian Paul Charbonneau cheated 866 people out of $10 million by convincing them to invest in pay-per-use telephone lines which turned out to be fake.  Although he was sentenced to nearly 9 years in prison, his victims were left holding the bag because they failed to have him checked out in advance.  In the seven months he ran Mid West Marketing Group Ltd., the Canadian man convinced people to pay $3,100 apiece for one-year leases on what were primarily 1-900 telephone sex lines.  None of the lines existed, but like any Ponzi scheme, early investors received huge checks that convinced other people to join.  The payouts came from other investors rather than the profits he claimed to be generating.

    More recently, the $650 million Las Vegas Monorail was shut down again after another piece of equipment fell off, the latest in a series of mishaps which has plagued the system since its six-month late introduction this summer.  It is undergoing more repairs and testing, and there is no word when it will be reopened.  Clark County Transportation officials alluded it may be sometime before they are satisfied and will allow it to carry passengers again.

   What’s puzzling is why local officials did not check out the monorail manufacturer (Bombardier) more closely before approving the system.  If they had, they’d have discovered
retired Xerox technician Alan Shaw of Las Vegas.  He alleges that design flaws in another Bombardier-designed train ruined his family and turned his wife into an invalid.  Shaw's wife, an environmental lawyer, was aboard a Bombardier train in Burbank, CA, when it crashed in January 2003.  Mrs. Shaw's spinal cord was smashed, her internal organs were crushed and her bones were broken because of what Shaw and others allege were egregious design flaws in the train's interior.  Shaw warns that there was a previous crash of a Bombardier train, with similarly tragic results, and he wonders if the Las Vegas train, also designed by Bombardier, is a disaster waiting to happen.

    Meanwhile, the meter is still running for the stalled monorail project, at the cost of $100,000 per day in lost revenue. That brings the total to around $3.5 million so far.

    Although totally unrelated, with vastly different effects on those scammed, all three of these incidents underline the importance of checking out business partners before the fact, not after a crisis has occurred.

    Our experience in over twenty-thousand cases is that people are more likely to check out the reputation and abilities of a car repair shop or an electronics store when they’re spending a few hundred dollars than they are to investigate a $25,000 business venture they’re entering or a multi-million dollar transportation system.  In fact, it seems the larger the investment and the bigger the potential to lose everything, the less likely most people and businesses are to check out the financials, business histories or representations from someone with a great idea.

    Traditionally, private investigators tend to work as clean-up crews; probing the rustlers after the horses have already been let out of the barn.  Usually, investigators enter the picture after some catastrophic event occurs and the contract or deal that looked too good to be true turns out to be exactly that.

    The fact is that virtually no one checks out personal statements and representations before they get into a business deal.  As PI’s, we know that people most often come to us when the “Big Deal’ has hit the crapper, the con artist has already left, or the business deal is so irretrievable broken that it will be tied up in the courts for years and years.

    We have examples of successful businessmen who have always in the past made good business decisions suddenly being seduced by some slick guy with a good pitch.  When the smoke clears, the victim almost always claims that have always been a great judge of character who could sense a scam a mile away. 

    The reason “better safe than sorry” is a well-known cliché is because it is absolutely true.  The solution is to hire us BEFORE you enter a venture, so we can check out business deals, representations, and financials before you enter a deal.  The money you spend will save you the loss and heartache of a deal gone bad when all the signs were there for everyone but you to see.

    These days, working closely with an experienced private investigator is as important as hiring a competent attorney and a good financial adviser.  Although some people assume their attorney or financial adviser is doing the due diligence, the fact is that their focus is elsewhere and they are usually not experienced in the sort of investigation which needs to be done.

    One reason the rich and powerful REMAIN rich and powerful is that, traditionally, they check things out before getting involved; they have potential business partners investigated

before there is any chance of criminal activity which can taint their reputations.  When you read newspapers across the country, whether they be financial papers or local dailies, two types of stories predominate; ones capturing the successes of a new business venture and the stories which detail how someone lost their dream.

    The fact is there is seldom any “sudden” catastrophic loss in one of these business stories.  The losses usually come over months or years because everyone believes the checks and balances system will catch the errors.

    The crooks who can ruin your reputation are experts in their field who make their living by talking people out of their money.  This is their chosen career and they take pleasure in swindling anyone who will be swindled.  The telephone and internet makes it very easy for them to operate.  A well-honed telephone message can wear down some of the most difficult marks.  A well-built web page can make the most dishonest business appear legitimate.
 
    Bottom line: you need to do your due diligence; check out those with whom you will be doing business deals.      Most companies generally have limited assets and are usually reluctant to spend money on anything that doesn't generate revenue, and so they fail to do the proper due diligence before they make deals.  Unfortunately, these companies get burned quite often in scams. 

    That is where we can be of the most immediate value to you and your business associates.  For example, we can check for a civil litigation history.  A civil litigation history should tell you about who the subject has sued, who has sued the subject, and any restraining orders on the subject.   


    One phone call from us to a securities regulator about Martin R. Frankel, a missing Connecticut money manager who bilked many in the state of Nevada, might have saved investors their money.

    Nevada Secretary of State, Dean Heller, says, "Had investors checked the Central Registration Depository, they would have discovered Frankel had been barred from the securities industry by the Securities & Exchange Commission in late 1992 for defrauding investors of more than $1 million through limited partnership interests in his Frankel Fund."

    Heller urged investors to ask potential brokers for their CRD numbers as well as their full name and the name of their firm. The database, known as the CRD, accessible to us by means of a phone call, contains the employment and disciplinary histories on the securities industry's nearly 600,000 stockbrokers and 5,600 brokerage firms.

    "There's a bull market in securities fraud and investors need to be very careful out there" says Heller.  He cited pyramid and Ponzi schemes, Internet fraud, affinity fraud, stock manipulation schemes, bogus prime bank and promissory notes. "The crooks are clever and too many investors are gullible," said Heller. "Don't trust somebody just because they look like you, talk like you, go to your church or have a big house and some fancy cars," he added.

    In addition to outright financial and material theft, companies must protect intellectual property like customer lists, marketing plans, blueprints, formulas, graphic designs, and other components of their business processes.

    Many companies are particularly at risk for fraud and embezzlement because they don't have in-house departments set up to prevent it, and they don't think that they have the funds to get outside help.  In fact, hiring our firm to check someone out is not expensive.  This is all the more true in light of the potential loss if you don't conduct good due diligence.

    Companies and their executive tend to be too trusting, often not exercising good judgment about finding out who they are really dealing with.  Most of the time scammers are good talkers.  In business deals, you really need someone like us to go see the operation.  Make sure that we get full access to any books.  We’ll check to see if things really add up.

    Remember that once a fraud has occurred, the money or property is usually gone for good.  Realize that the smaller your company, the closer a fraudulent event can come to completely wiping out your firm.

    While business opportunity scams are nothing new, recent economic conditions appear to be the impetus for an increase in consumers falling victim to aggressive marketing of over-promoted or relatively worthless business deals.

    There are risks inherent in any new business venture.  However, hiring our investigative team can save you heartache when entering into any business opportunity:

    The cost of not checking out a business deal ranges from very expensive in considering the financial losses, to catastrophic, often resulting in bankruptcy and the loss of public confidence.

    The best method of avoiding great loss and potential bankruptcy is to check things out in advance.  For true piece of mind, we suggest hiring our experienced investigative team to do a simple, cost-effective investigation before you enter into any business deal; be it a multi-million dollar transportation system or investing in a drive-thru wedding chapel.

Electric Cars: Star Wars Noises

Electric Cars to Use Star Wars Space Noises    530 words    2011
By Lary Crews

The scene is Detroit. 1908. Builders of the Model T sit around a table contemplating what for them seemed a very real problem. People were used to the sound of a horse’s hooves and a creaking wagon to alert them to get out of the way on America’s dusty roads. How could they be alerted to the approach of the motorized automobile? One fellow, who had just returned from his child’s birthday party, produced the solution; a black squeezable bulb attached to a horn. And thus, the first auto horn was created.

Now, more than a hundred years later, the builders of electric vehicles are facing a similar problem and, perhaps unsurprisingly, they are considering science fiction for the solution.  Sounds being tested by the British government would alert cyclists, the blind and pedestrians to the presence of quiet electric cars. The European Commission has said it will decide by 2012 whether electric cars need artificial sounds to prevent people from inadvertently stepping in front of them.

While electric cars are better than gas-powered cars in many ways, they are very quiet. You can barely hear them approach. While standard horns will probably be attached, the lack of engine noise is expected to be disconcerting, if not downright dangerous for pedestrians, especially the blind and cyclists.

Consequently, the greatest minds in automobile design are contemplating adding sound effects to be played by a directional speaker aimed forward under the hood. Lotus Engineering created a Safe & Sound system that uses a waterproof speaker to emit a fake engine noise.
Believe it or not, one sound being considered is a digital recording of a muscle car gas-powered engine because electric car drivers miss the sound of the engine when they “put the pedal to the metal.” The sound should also tell you whether the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating. Other car guys want to use Star Wars effects like the throbbing light sabers or photon cannons.  There's something uniquely terrifying about the idea of a TIE fighter screech being the last thing you hear right before getting into an accident.

Naturally, the whole issue has brought comedians and crazies out of the woodwork. One late night punster suggests a digital recording of James Earl Jones intoning, “I am a vehicle. I am coming toward you. Get out of the way.” Another suggests the sound of bass-heavy hip hop music, which would be cost-effective since so many cars already feature that sound.

Each manufacturer may be permitted to provide its own “signature tune,” with the regulation simply setting a minimum volume to prevent people from stepping into the path of battery-powered cars. (“Sounds like a Toyota Prius, Batman!”)

A recent study by the University of California highlighted the noiseless dangers of electric cars, determining that hybrid vehicles came 40% closer to pedestrians than their standard gas engine cars before they could be detected.

But some scientists think the proposed sounds are a backward step. "We have a chance to reduce noise levels on our streets and we should take it,” said one. “If we add noise to cars now we'll never get rid of it."

Lovers Scams

LOVERS SCAMS (For Abacus Investigations newsletter)
(2000 words  7/12/2005)
By Lary Crews
   
By and large, Americans a too trusting for their own good.  Many singles looking for a lasting relationship spend less time investigating a future spouse than they do looking into a potential car dealer or a new doctor.  Often, the desire to trust and the lack of investigation can lead to real tragedy.

    On Nov. 7, 1997, a hit man shot and stabbed Sheila Bellush, a mother of six, in her Sarasota, Florida home while her then-toddler quadruplets from her second marriage played nearby.  The babies walked through their own mother’s blood and sat on the floor crying until their teenaged half-sister came home from school and found her mother dead.  Police found a multitude of clues at the scene, including fingerprints.  Within weeks, three men had been arrested.  But the crime was not a robbery and the three men had never met Bellush before. 

    Two years later, her ex-husband, wealthy San Antonio businessman Allen Blackthorne, was convicted of arranging the murder of his ex-wife at her Florida home and was sentenced to life in prison.  A few weeks ago, his fourth wife finally divorced him.

    Sheila might still be alive had she known about Allen’s bizarre past.  She was actually Allen’s third wife, not his first.  Also unknown to Sheila when she met Allen was the fact that his alcoholic mother had been married three times and that his father had never met him.  When Allen did finally meet his father, he went into business with him and ended up cheating his dad
out of thousands of dollars and skipping town leaving him to hold the bag.  Incredibly, he also bankrupted Sheila’s parents shortly after they met.

    There were countless clues that Allen was a dangerous and secretive man and that his ability to kill began when he was a teenager.  At one point, just months after he and Sheila married he ran down a motorcyclist on a lonely road because he was angry that the cyclist passed him on the highway and then demanded that Sheila back up his claim that a motorcycle gang had attacked them and it was self-defense.

    Blackthorne was not even Allen Van Houte’s real name; he adopted it after seeing the television mini-series Shogun.  Richard Chamberlain played Englishman John Blackthorne, an explorer whose fortunes left him and his crew stranded in Japan during the 15th Century.  That fictional character rose from the ashes to a position of great power, which was also Allen Van Houte’s desire.  Instead he landed in prison.

    Had Sheila merely thought to check out his background, chances are good she would never have married him.

    In Oregon, Liysa Ann Northon was a woman used to having her way, and when her third husband, Chris Northon, failed to meet her wild expectations, she killed him, claiming self-defense because of years of alleged abuse at his hands.  However, Chris, an airline pilot for Hawaiian Airlines, was by all accounts a nice guy without an abusive bone in his body.  He hadn’t even wanted to get married, but when Liysa had her mind made up, there was no denying her.  The two married hurriedly and had a child, Liysa’s second, and Chris soon realized his relationship had become a nightmare.  He failed to divorce her because he did not want to lose custody of their son together.

    A successful surf photographer, Liysa was pretty and gifted, and she had devoted friends who believed her lies and tolerated her loud intrusions into their own lives.  Inadvertently, they concealed evidence that would later prove Liysa Northon was a cold-blooded killer.

    Chris Northon was willing to seek therapy for his family, and his own therapist noted that he was totally nonviolent.  Liysa decided to rid herself of him in the way most beneficial to her, instead of working it out.   Liysa not only murdered her husband but may have helped destroy the credibility of real abused women with her carefully concocted lies.  Ultimately, she pled guilty to the murder and is currently serving ten years behind bars.

    If Chris Northon had been less trusting and had investigated his bride-to-be, he’d have discovered a web of lies and deceit which hung over the girl who wanted everything no matter the cost to those around her.

    In Las Vegas, Sandy Murphy was a 23-year-old California Girl bent on turning a $13,000 "wad of cash" into a fortune on the tables of Caesar's Palace and Rick Tabish was a married but faithless and totally reckless company president who hoped to build a trucking empire on the back of an ever-expanding Las Vegas.  Rick Tabish could not follow through on contracts with business partners, letting million-dollar deals slip away.

    After losing $13,000 at Caesar's Palace, Sandy Murphy was determined to return to California with the same amount of cash.  She turned to the VIP rooms of famous strip club Cheetah's to make it back.  Although she never worked there as a stripper or otherwise, Sandy did invite a wealthy Texan she knew and several of his friends to fly into Vegas and join Sandy
and a friend at Cheetah's, where the two women partied with them in VIP rooms.  "I got my wad back from what I lost at Caesars,'" Murphy said in a deposition.

    The stint at Cheetah's, where Murphy said she only danced on stage topless once, also led to her first encounter with Ted Binion.  On one of their nights out, Binion brought her to the Horseshoe Casino and told her he owned it.

    Prosecutors proved in one trial that Murphy was a money-hungry woman with a taste for wealthy older men, and that Tabish was an irresponsible businessman whose finances were in disarray.  The confluence of the two in a romantic relationship, prosecutors say, led them to commit the ultimate crime: the murder of former casino boss Ted Binion.

    Binion, 51, was found dead in his suburban mansion Sept. 17, 1998.  He had a long history of heroin addiction, and police initially believed he died of an overdose.  Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish were convicted of his murder in 2000, but the convictions were overturned in 2003 based on errors made by the trial judge, Joseph Bonaventure, who is also presiding over the retrial going on now.

    Had Ted Binion hired a investigative firm to check into Murphy’s background, he’d have discovered a clever young woman who fell in love while still in high school with a man who lived forty miles away and who was “significantly older.”  She moved in with him, borrowed money from her parents and started a company.  With her work and relationship, she finished high school two courses shy of graduation.

    Binion would have discovered that Sandy Murphy had a history of fancy cars and posh addresses as she moved up one older man at a time.  Indeed, the defense in her current retrial is being paid for by another older man, smitten with her beauty.  As Murphy says, “Every girl loves an older man.  Someone… handsome…wise to the ways of the world.”

    While not all bad relationships end in death, most do result in unhappiness, loss of money and often a broken family and disappointed children.  All of that could be avoided by simply doing what you should do when going into a business partnership; check out the other person. 

    It may seem anything but romantic but the world has changed.  In years past, you dated or married someone your family knew.  Often your intended, even in a second-time-around situation was someone you and your friends actually knew.

    However, today, people are working long hours, some with children, and they don't have the time or the opportunity to meet people.   It is more difficult than ever to find that someone special with limited resources and a busy schedule.  Many people are more likely to check out and research the buying of a new car than they are to look into the background of someone they plan to marry.

    In these uncertain times, people want to share their lives with someone, more than ever before.  However, another thing which has lead to recklessness in launching relationships is the fact that many of the nation’s singles are taking advantage of dating services to help them in their quest.

    While, matchmakers and video-dating services were the greatest influence 25 years ago, the Internet is now the first choice for many singles.  The Web has brought introduction services to the masses in a convenient style at affordable prices.

    The quest to find modern love online is a prevailing trend 365 days a year.  Today's singles want more than a date, and they are increasingly savvy about how to use technology to their advantage.  Interestingly, many of the people using the Internet are not the ubiquitous 18 to 35 year olds.  Thousands of singles age 60 and older are also turning to the Internet to find romance.  Match.com vice president Trish McDermott said, "online dating is as popular for seniors as it is for other age groups."

    In August, more than 16 percent of those active on the top five dating sites, including Yahoo! Personals and Match.com, were 55 and over, and more than 5 percent were 65 and over, according to NielsenNetRatings Inc., an Internet research firm.  Overall, the number of people active on top dating sites grew to 22.53 million in August 2004.

    You don't have to be a beauty queen or a young babe to find interesting people on the Net.  However, that same freedom to be whom you want to be leads to mistakes when a person’s real personality and background are revealed, often when it is too late to do anything about it.

    If someone is going to lie about the past, now-a-days it can have huge financial, personal and health ramifications.  Histories of domestic abuse, non-payment of child support, and lies about being really divorced; criminal histories, and bringing huge financial debts to a marriage are common. 

    We frequently see people getting married and not knowing their new mate is responsible for years of back child support, which then falls on the new marriage.  Lying about education, military honors and service are the next most common problem.  Whether or not that is important to a potential mate, it does indicate a lack of integrity.

    There is also now a health consideration.  With the explosion of sexually transmitted diseases, health professionals consider it extremely important to check into past marriage files to see if the mate has an alleged history of extramarital affairs.

    Divorced parents considering remarrying or dating seriously have another concern; does their new found love have a history of domestic violence, a history of child abuse or sexual assault. 

    Las Vegas is known as “the starting over capital” with an average 5,000 people moving here each month, which often means you’ll find yourself dating someone from another part of the country.  Often, they take advantage of the move to “reinvent” themselves and that can spell trouble.

    Due diligence has a lot to do with happy endings.  We know everyone has their own idea of what a happy ending is, but for the con artist it is leaving with your money, and often the scam artist leaves with a things you may value more; your future, opportunity, hopes and sometimes your health.  Or, as in the worst-case scenario cases of Sheila Bellush, Chris Northon and Ted Binion, failure to check out that person with whom you are in love could result in death.

- end -

Don’t Let College Debt Overwhelm You

Don’t Let College Debt Overwhelm You

By Lary Crews

Higher education today is more expensive than it has ever been. In the current school year, tuition and fees at private 4-year schools rose 4.4% to an average $26,273, according to a December 2009 survey released by the College Board. Charges at public 4-year universities spiked over 6% for both in-state and out-of state students, to $7,020 and $18,548, respectively. The number of student loans is also up. Total borrowing for college increased 5% between the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years, the most recent for which data is available.

In addition, the high school graduating class of 2009 was the largest in history, creating a very strong sellers market for higher education. The net effect is that graduating college students are increasingly entering the real world with overwhelming student loan debt.

If your student loan came from the federal government, there are flexible repayment plans to help you manage this important financial responsibility.

• Standard Repayment Plan: You pay a fixed amount of at least $50 each month for up to 10 years.
• Graduated Repayment Plan: Your payments start out low at first and increase every two years. You must repay your loan in full within 10 years. At a minimum, your payments must cover the interest that accumulates on your loans between payments. This plan is tailored recent college graduates who expect their incomes to increase in the future. However, you'll ultimately pay more for your loan than you would under the Standard Plan, because more interest accumulates in the early years of the plan when your outstanding loan balance is higher.
• Extended Repayment Plan: Your fixed monthly payment is lower than it would be under the Standard Plan, but you'll ultimately pay more for your loan because of the interest that accumulates during the longer repayment period.
• Income-Sensitive Repayment Plan (for Federal Family Education (FFEL) Loans only): Your monthly loan payment is based on your annual income. As your income increases or decreases, so do your payments. The maximum repayment period is 10 years.
• Income-Contingent Repayment Plan (for Direct Loans and Direct PLUS Loans): Your monthly payments will be based on your annual income (and that of your spouse, if married), your family size, and the total amount of your Direct Loans. Borrowers have 25 years to repay under this plan, the unpaid portion will be forgiven. However, you may have to pay income tax on the amount that is forgiven.
• Income-Based Repayment (IBR): Under this plan, your required monthly payment amount will be based on your income during any period when you have a partial financial hardship. Your monthly payment amount may be adjusted annually. The maximum repayment period under this plan may exceed 10 years. If you repay under this plan and meet certain other requirements over a specified period of time, you may qualify for cancellation of any outstanding balance on your loans.

For more information, visit www.FederalStudentAid.ed.gov or call the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) Callers in locations without access to 1-800 numbers may call 319-337-5665 (not a toll-free number).