Smiley Face Drownings, Trevor Boehm Drowning

First reported Dec. 6, 2008

On Nov. 16, 2008, the body of 20-year-old Northwestern University freshman Trevor J. Boehm, was pulled from Lake Michigan. Boehm was last seen Nov. 5 at a frat house party and was reported missing Nov. 9.

An unidentified passer-by found Boehm's jacket and personal belongings Nov. 13 on rocks along the shoreline near the school's Evanston campus.

Trevor J. Boehm

A man called police around 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 16 to report a body in the lake in the 4500 block of North Simonds Drive near Montrose Harbor.

Boehm's body was found near the water line on the beach.

Boehm, from Monument, Colorado, was a freshman in Northwestern's School of Communication.

Boehm was last seen Nov. 5 at a frat house party. He mysteriously became separated from friends. People at the party do not know when he left the party. "He was here, then he wasn't," said friends.

An autopsy by the Cook County Medical Examiner found that Boehm died from drowning, but the manner of death, whether it was an accident, suicide or homicide was not determined.

On Nov. 8, 2005, the parents of Northwestern University freshman Trevor Boehm arrived on campus for Family Weekend. It was suppose to be a fun visit, but they discovered that their son was missing.

According to the university, Boehm hadn't been in his residence hall, attended classes or used his student ID in the dining halls since Nov. 5, four days before he was reported missing. His body was found in Lake Michigan on Nov. 16. 

The Search

Northwestern University police began an immediate investigation following the report of a missing person, and the school notified students two days later.

During their investigation, they discovered that Boehm had not used his student ID (WildCard) or his Marlock key since Nov. 5, when he was last seen returning to his dorm room.

On Nov. 13, about 11:30 a.m., Boehm's brown suede jacket containing his Northwestern identification card, keys, and cell phone were found on rocks on the shore of Lake Michigan in an area called the lakefill.

Boehm's family is then notified of the discovery and the Coast Guard begins searching the lake with a boat and a helicopter. The water had been too choppy for a search earlier in the week, according to the Coast Guard.

The Recovery

On Sunday, Nov. 16, the body of Trevor Boehm was spotted in Lake Michigan around 7:30 a.m.

The body, which was positively identified as Boehm, was found about seven miles south of Northwestern University near Montrose Harbor in the 4500 block of North Simonds Drive.

An autopsy on Monday, Nov. 17 revealed that Boehm died from drowning. The manner of death - e.g., accident, suicide, homicide - was not determined.

Unanswered Question

• Boehm's green Schwinn bicycle, with oversized seat and tires, was never found.

• One day before Boehm's disappearance, Nov. 4, Election Day, Chicago and surrounding areas, including Evanston, were extremely over crowded because of Election Day and the high-volume of supporters at the Obama rally in Grant Park. Several streets were closed off. Most people would have noticed something out of the ordinary.

Timeline

Nov 5 - Trevor Boehm disappears.

Nov. 8 - Boehm's parents arive at Northwestern University for Family Weekend and are unable to find their son. They notify campus police.

Nov. 9 - The university discovers that Boehm's student identification card had not been used since Nov. 5. A missing person's report is filed.

Nov. 10 - Students are notified about the disappearance.

Nov. 16 - Boehm's body is recovered from Lake Michigan

Nov. 17 - An autopsy finds Boehm had drown, but the manner of death was not determined. Coroner could not determine exact cause of death.

About Trevor Boehm

Boehm graduated from Colorado Springs School, a private high school with a concentration on the arts, where he was involved in the school's theater program. He enrolled at Northwestern in the fall of 2007 as a theater major and lived on the fifth floor of Willard Residential College

At the time, he was a freshman board representative for the Purple Crayon Players, an on-campus theater group. According to Registrar, Boehm completed his first term in 2007 before leaving NU sometime during Winter Quarter.

He re-enrolled in the fall of 2008 and was living in a single room on the fourth floor of South Mid-Quads Halls.

Friends described Boehm as "vibrant, caring, compassionate" and from a "tight-knit family." They added that it wasn't like him to simply disappear.

Sasha Puchalla, a student at Northwestern, who had known Boehm since they attended the same high school in Colorado, said he "really enjoyed being around people and had a lot of fun with life in general."

Facts of Interest in the Trevor Boehm case

Name: Trevor Boehm

Age: 20

Hometown: Monument, CO

College: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Major: Communications

Residence: South Mid-Quads in a single room (no roommate)

Reported Missing: Sunday, Nov. 9, 2008

Recovered: Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008

Physical Description: 5' 10", 145 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, clean cut, small birthmark on his right forearm.

A painted smiley face was on the rocks where Boehm's jacket was found.

The smiley face symbol was not faded indicating that it had been painted within a week or two.

Boehm's bicycle, a green Schwinn with oversized tiresand ooersized seat, was never located.

Addtional Notes: One day before Boehm's disappearance, Nov. 4, Election Day, Chicago and surrounding areas, including Evanston, were extremely over crowded because of Election Day and the high-volume of supporters at the Obama rally in Grant Park. Several streets were closed off. Most people would not have noticed something out of the ordinary.

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The Trevor Boehm case fits the patterns of 'Smiley Face' victims

• Victim is young, good-looking, fit and popular
• Victim mysteriously became missing
• Smiley face symbol at the scene

'Smiley Face' Patterns:

• The men are fit, good-looking, Caucasian, in their 20s and mysteriously become separated from friends or disappear during a night of drinking in a bar or at a party.
• Drownings occur during the winter months when college is in session.
• All victims have nearly the same physical description and are around the same age.
• None of the victims are ugly, middle aged or overweight. They are young, physically fit and good-looking.
• Smiley face symbol and distinguishable markings are left at the scene.
• 94 percent of the deaths have occurred within 100 miles of Interstate 94.

Special Note: Drownings usually occur during the summer and involve boating accidents. The very small number of drownings that occur during winter usually involve ice fishing or ice skating.

There are too many coincidences for the Boehm case not to be connected to the others.

Leslie Boehm, Trevor's mother, says that Trevor suffered from depression as a boy. She says Trevor was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2007 and thinks he committed suicide.

People who want to commit suicide normally don't, if ever, choose to kill themselves by swimming. There are a lot more quicker and easier ways to do it. It doesn't seem plausible that Trevor committed suicide.

Brian Blackwell

Brother decapitates sister, fatally stabs second and attacks third

MILTON, Mass. - A police officer responding to a 911 call to a suburban home in Boston saw a 23-year-old man decapitate his 5-year-old sister.

Kerby Revelus, 23, was shot dead by police after beheading his sister Bianca on her fifth birthday, fatally stabbing his 17-year-old sister Samantha and wounding his 9-year-old sister Sarafina.

There was a birthday cake with five candles on it on the kitchen table. Sarafina, managed to call 911 amid the carnage and was fighting her brother when police arrived.

Kerby Revelus had recently been released from jail after serving time on a gun charge.

Police were called Friday night to the 7 Belvior Road address because of a report of a fight.

According to Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating, Saturday's horror sprang from a sibling squabble over Kerby's fistfight with a next-door neighbor Friday night. Keating declined to go into detail about the altercation or why Kerby was not arrested.

Their grandmother, who lives on the first floor, was doing laundry in the basement at the time of the attacks. VIDEO


D. Brian Blackwell

Hundreds of convictions reversed in Pennsylvania

Hundreds of juvenile convictions issued by a corrupt judge who took millions of dollars in kickbacks to send kids to privately owned detention centers were overturned Thursday.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that former Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella violated the constitutional rights of youth offenders who appeared in his courtroom without attorneys between 2003 and 2008.

In one of the most egregious cases of judicial corruption ever seen, federal prosecutors charged Ciavarella and another Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, with taking $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by Pennsylvania Child Care LLC and sister company, Western Pennsylvania Child Care LLC, between 2003 and 2006.

The pieces of crap [judges] pled guilty to fraud last month and face sentences of more than seven years in prison.

Berks County Senior Judge Arthur Grim was appointed to review Ciavarella's and Conahan's cases.

The high court approved Grim's recommendation that the records of low-level juvenile offenders who appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom be expunged - a group Grim said numbers "easily into the hundreds". Grim next will review cases involving more serious juvenile offenders.

Under Pennsylvania law, a juvenile may not waive his or her right to an attorney unless the decision is made "knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily." The judge must also make sure defendants understand their rights.

In a report to the Supreme Court released Thursday, Grim said he has determined that "a very substantial number of juveniles who appeared without counsel before Judge Ciavarella .... did not knowingly and intelligently waive their right to counsel."

Related Report: Pa. judges jailed kids for cash

D. Brian Blackwell

FBI widgets get upgraded

The FBI has recently upgraded its widgets - mini applications that can be added to a Web page or a PC's desktop and updated remotely by simply copying and pasting Web code - to help capture fugitives and find missing persons.

The widgets have interactive posters that bloggers, Facebook and MySpace users can embed on their pages to showcase the FBI's 10 Most Wanted and missing persons.

There are weekly podcasts, e-mail alerts and digital billboards posted across the country that have directly led to the capture of at least 70 fugitives.

Best of all, this new high-tech crimefighting costs nearly nothing.

The FBI's overall goal is to get information to the public in as many ways as possible. The FBI's 21st-century upgrades are all innovative, community-based technological advacements that get the word out in real time.

The 10 Most Wanted list first appeared on the FBI's Web site 13 years ago, and the Bureau has been working to upgrade their site ever since.

There are now over 400 cases on the FBI's Web site, including wanted fugitives, suspected terrorists and missing persons.

Since 1996, at least 50 people have been captured directly because of the information on the Internet. But it's hard to say exactly how many, say the FBI, because in order to get credit, "the tipster would need to tell us that he or she saw the information on the FBI Web site".

The first widgets were launched in 2007 and were fairly simple in design - small boxes that linked back to the FBI's Web site pages.

The new, sleeker designed widgets were launched in November and includes links to news, multimedia and photos of the 10 Most Wanted and missing persons. It still directs Web surfers back to the FBI Web site.

In a project that started in Philadelphia in December 2007, the FBI now uses free space on thousands of digital billboards in over 40 states across the U.S. That effort has directly led to the capture of at least 18 fugitives. FBI.gov

D. Brian Blackwell

Chris Jenkins: Revisiting An Unsolved Murder

University of Minnesota student Christopher Jenkins and friends celebrated Halloween night 2002 at a downtown Minneapolis bar.

Around midnight, Chris Jenkins was reportedly kicked out of the bar without his coat, cell phone and other belongings. He was wearing only his Halloween costume and the temperature was in the 20s.

His body was recovered from the Mississippi River near the Horseshoe Dam south of the 3rd Avenue bridge on Feb. 27, 2003 at 4:50 pm.

Minneapolis police have labeled his drowning a homicide. His murder has never been solved.

More on the Chris Jenkins murder

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Chris Jenkins murder connects dozens around the country

Initial report by private investigator Brian Blackwell

Strange coincidence about the Matt Kruziki drowning - Matt Kruziki was the second Arrowhead High School graduate to go missing and wind up dead in the Mississippi River. MORE

Joshua Szostak: 'Smiley Face' victim

'Smiley Face' Killers Profile by Investigator Brian Blackwell

'Smiley Face' case, cryptic messages

Brian Blackwell
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All reports by Brian Blackwell are exclusive in nature and are the sole property of Brian Blackwell and cannot be used in anyway by anyone and/or any organization without written consent from Brian Blackwell.

Mexican drug cartel arrests

The Mexican Army arrested a drug trafficker for organizing an attack on a U.S. consulate and killing several soldiers in retaliation for a government crackdown, Mexico's president Felipe Calderon said Friday.

Gulf cartel hit man Sigifrido Najera Talamantes was captured in the northern city of Saltillo, Coahuila early Friday.

Najera Talamantes organized the Oct. 12 attack in which one man opened fire on the U.S. consulate in the northern city of Monterrey and another man threw a grenade that failed to explode. Nobody was hurt.

He was also involved in a similar gunfire and grenade attack Jan. 7 on the offices of the Televisa television network's station in Monterrey.

President Calderon says Najera Talamantes "was directly responsible for the torture and execution of soldiers" - a reference to the killings of nine soldiers whose bodies were found in Monterrey in late October, in retaliation for the army's participation in drug busts. CBS News

Mexican drug war

D. Brian Blackwell

13 companies getting bailout money owe back taxes

At least 13 companies receiving billions of dollars in bailout money owe a total of over $220 million in unpaid federal taxes.

Rep. John Lews, D-Ga., chairman of a House subcommittee overseeing the federal bailout, says two companies owe over $100 million each.

The House Ways and Means subcommittee on oversight discovered the unpaid taxes in a review of tax records from 23 companies receiving the most money.

The committee can't legally release the names of the companies owing taxes. Members of the committee say one recipient of bailout money had almost $113 million in unpaid federal income taxes from 2005 and 2006. A second recipient owed nearly $102 million dating before 2004. Another was behind $1.1 million in federal income taxes and $223,000 in federal employment taxes.

Lewis says the panel plans to review tax records from other companies receiving federal money, but he was unsure if it would look at every one of them.

Banks and companies receiving federal money were required to sign contracts stating they had no unpaid taxes. But the Treasury Department did not ask them to turn over their tax records.

Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), told a House hearing on Thursday that if an executive signed a contract knowing that information about unpaid taxes was false, "that would potentially be a crime."

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Barofsky said his office will look to see if crimes were committed. MORE

Sara Jane Olson freed, back in St. Paul

The '70s militant and longtime fugitive is being allowed to serve her supervised parole in Minnesota.

Efforts to keep the former Symbionese Liberation Army member in California failed. Olson served seven years for a robbery in which a woman died and for attempting to blow up LAPD officers.

Culminating a case that has evoked history and strong emotions, former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson was released from a California state prison Tuesday and cleared to serve supervised parole in Minnesota after completing a seven-year sentence for bank robbery and attempting to kill Los Angeles police officers. MORE

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U.S. making plans for Mexican border violence

According to a congressional House panel on Thursday, homeland security is developing a plan to respond to the escalating violence on the Mexico-U.S border.

The plan includes deploying military personnel and equipment to the region if homeland security agencies become overwhelmed.

"We would take all resources short of DOD and National Guard troops," said Homeland Security official Roger Rufe.

According to homeland security, military forces would be called in only when homeland security and other government agencies are overwhelmed. What exact circumstances would trigger the call for troops was not discussed.

The Mexican government has deployed 700 extra federal police to Ciudad Juarez, a city bordering El Paso, Texas, where local police have been overwhelmed by drug cartel violence. Earlier this month, 3,200 federal troops were sent to the city.

Mexican officials report that the violence killed 6,290 people last year - and over 1,000 in the first eight weeks of this year. U.S. law enforcement agencies have also reported that 1,000 people were killed in the first weeks of 2009.

Warring drug cartels have caused more than 560 kidnappings in Phoenix, Arizona in 2007 and the first half of 2008, and many killings in Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama.

"The Mexican drug cartels are the biggest organized crime threat to the United States", said Rufe.

WATCH VIDEO

Related Reports: Mexican-U.S. drug war

D. Brian Blackwell

7 bodies found in Mexican border city

Police acting on a tip have found seven bodies partially buried in the desert on the outskirts of the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Investigators are searching the desert site south of the city to see whether there are more bodies.

A police officers's badge was found at the burial site. Authorities are working to identify the bodies.

Ciudad Juarez, which is just across the border from El Paso, Texas, has been suffering from a wave of drug-fueled violence that has led federal authorities to dispatch thousands more soldiers to patrol the city. MORE

Related Blackwell reports

D. Brian Blackwell

Venezuela, Cuba might host Russian bombers

The Interfax news agency is reporting that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered an island to the Russian Air Force as a base for strategic Russian bombers.

The chief of staff of Russia's long range aviation, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, says Cuba could be used to base the aircraft.

Zhikharev said Chavez is offering "a whole island with an airdome, which we can use as a base for strategic bombers."

Cuba has air bases with four or five runways long enough for the huge bombers and could be used to host the long-range planes.

Two russian bombers landed in Venezuela last year, which was the first Western Hemisphere touchdown of Russian military aircraft since the end of the Cold War.

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Cuba has never permanently hosted Russian or Soviet strategic aircraft. But Soviet short-range bombers often made stopovers there during the Cold War.

Russia resumed long-range bomber patrols in 2007 after a 15-year hiatus. Interfax

Related story: Experts: Financial crises threatens U.S. security

D. Brian Blackwell

Ex-Nazi Camp Guard Charged 29,000 Times

BERLIN - German prosecutors on Wednesday charged retired Ohio auto worker John Demjanjuk with over 29,000 counts of accessory to murder for his time as a guard at the Nazi Sobibor concentration camp.

Demjanjuk is accused of participating in the murders of 29,000 Jews while he was a guard at the Nazi camp in occupied Poland between March and September 1943.

The 88-year-old Demjanjuk, who lives in a Cleveland suburb, denies involvement.

Efraim Zuroff, the top Nazi hunter at Israel's Simon Wiesenthal Center, says he is "very pleased that the German authorities have taken this step."

"We hope that the process can be expedited to ensure that this Holocaust perpetrator will finally be appropriately punished," Zuroff said.

A native of Ukraine, Demjanjuk emigrated to the U.S. in 1952 and gained citizenship in 1958.

In denying involvement in war crimes, Demjanjuk said he served in the Soviet army and became a prisoner of war when he was captured by Germany in 1942.

He was extradited to Israel in 1986, when the U.S. Justice Department believed he was the sadistic Nazi guard known as Ivan the Terrible from the Treblinka death camp. MORE

Brian Blackwell

Could Marijuana Save California's Economy?

Could marijuana save California's economy? State assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D) thinks so. He introduced legislation last month that would legalize pot and allow California to regulate and tax its sale - a move that could mean billions of dollars for the cash-strapped state.

Marijuana is California's biggest cash crop, responsible for $14 billion a year in sales. The state's second largest agricultural commodity is milk and cream, which brings in $7.3 billion a year, according to the most recent USDA statistics.

California tax collectors say pot sales would bring in about $1.3 billion a year in much needed revenue, offsetting some of the billions of dollars in service cuts and spending reductions outlined in the recently approved state budget. MORE

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'Dirty Bomb' parts found in slain man's house

BELFAST, Maine -- James G. Cummings, who police say was shot to death by his wife two months ago, had a cache of radioactive materials in his house suitable for building a "dirty bomb."

According to the FBI field intelligence report from the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center posted online by WikiLeaks, an organization that posts leaked documents, an investingation into the case revealed that radioactive materials were removed from Cummings' home after his shooting death on Dec.9.

The report posted on WikiLeaks states that "On 9 December 2008, radiological dispersal device components and literature, and radioactive materials, were discovered at the Maine residence of an identified deceased [person] James Cummings."

It says that four 1-gallon containers of 35 percent hydrogen peroxide, uranium, thorium, lithium metal, thermite, aluminum powder, beryllium, boron, black iron oxide and megnesium ribbon were found in the home.

Also found was literature on how to build "dirty bombs" and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60, radioactive materials.

The FBI report also stated there was evidence linking James Cummings to white supremacist groups. This would confirm obcervations by local tradesmen who worked at the Cummings home that he was an ardent admirer of Adolph Hitler and had a collection of Nazi memorabilia around the house, including a prominently displayed flag with swastika. Cummings had claimed to have pieces of Hitler's personal silverware and place settings.

An application for membership in the National Socialist Movement filled out by Cummings also was found in the residence, according to the report.
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Cummings' wife, Amber B. Cummings, 31, told investigators that her husband spoke of "dirty bombs," according to the report, and mixed chemicals in the kitchen sink. She told police that Cummings subjected her to years of mental, physical and sexual abuse.

A "dirty bomb" is a type of "radiological dispersal device" that combines a conventional explosive such as dynamite with radioactive material.

The Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center is an intelligence gathering office affiliated with Washington, D.C. law enforcement.

The Maine State Police have identified Amber Cummings as the person who shot James Cummings. The couple's 9-year-old daughter was present the morning of the shooting in what police described as a domestic violence homicide.

Amber Cummings, who is living in the Belfast area, has not been charged in the case, although the Waldo County grand jury currently meeting in Belfast could take up the matter during its session this week.

While the Maine State Police have acknowledged that the 29-year-old James Cummings was killed by a gunshot, the results of the autopsy have been impounded, as have the search warrants executed at Cummings' home located at 346 High Street following the shooting. Authorities spent days searching the home, according to neighbors.

Mike Robbins, a painter who worked on the Cummings house for a month last summer, described James Cummings as an angry man who was verbally abusive to his wife. He said Cummings was independently wealthy and did not work.

Robbins said Cummings talked incessantly about his love of guns and his fascination for Adolph Hitler. He said Cummings repeatedly berated his wife about home-schooling their daughter, and that he had a controlling personality and wanted to know his wife and child's every move.

James Cummings grew up in California and lived in Texas before moving to Maine in August 2007. Although Mike Robbins said Cummings told him he made is money in Texas real estate, it appears that the actual source of Cummings' wealth was a trust fund established by his father, a prominent landowner in the Northern California city of Fort Bragg. Bangor Daily News

The FBI field intelligence report was first reported on by unattributable.com

I conducted a background investigation on Cummings and found that the Trust set up by his father, James B. Cummings, has an annual income of $10 million.

D. Brian Blackwell

FBI investigating Somalis in Minneapolis

A group of Somalis in Minneapolis are being investigated by the FBI for possible involvement in terrorist activities.

The FBI is investigating whether some young Somali men are being "radicalized" in Minnesota and recruited to fight with terror groups in their homeland.

The Senate's Homeland Security Committee held a hearing Wednesday on possible terrorist recruitment in the United States. Witnesses from Minnesota testified.

Some local Somalis said the young men thought they would be seen as patriots.

Somalia hasn't had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a socialist dictator and then turned on each other, causing anarchy. 7 million people live in the African nation.

In 2006, Somalia's weak government called in Ethiopian military troops - with United Nations support - to oust an Islamic group controlling Mogadishu and southern Somalia.

Many Somalis saw the troops as an invading force. Civilians were beaten, raped and had their homes looted. Islamic militants in the capital city fought back in battles that killed thousands of civilians over two years and displaced more than a million people.

Then in October, a Minneapolis man carried out a suicide bombing in Somalia. FBI Director Robert Muller said last month that the bomber had been "radicalized" in the Twin Cities.

Now many Somalis say FBI agents have questioned them about recent travels abroad and asked which mosques they attended.

Sharmarke Jama, a 26-year-old Somali businessman in Minneapolis, was questioned after traveling to Canada.

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Jama says the Ethiopian invasion was a regular topic of discussion among immigrants, so he was not surprised to hear that some young men went to fight.

The Oct. 29 bombing by Shirwa Ahmed was part of a series of coordinated attacks that targeted a U.N. compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in Hargeisa, capital of the Somaliland region.

U.S. counterterrorism officials are concerned that an extremist group called al-Shabab is recruiting young men in Minnesota and elsewhere.

It isn't clear if Ahmed was part of the group. Al-Shabab, a name meaning "The Youth" controls much of Somalia and wants to establish an Islamic state there.

Many Somalis in the Twin Cities welcome the FBI investigation, inlcuding Abdirizak Bihl, whose teenage nephew left Minneapolis in November and called his family days later saying he was in Somalia. The boy's whereabouts are unknown.

The families of some men who left suspect Minnesota's largest mosque, Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, of having a role in their loved ones' decision.

Somalia currently has a new government under President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a moderate Islamic with allies among the militias who control much of central and parts of southern Somalia.

Ahmed's government directly controls only a few blocks of Mogadishu and the border town of El Berde.

The last Ethiopian troops left Mogadishu in mid-January. But al-Shabab - which controls most of the country - has now threatened to focus attacks on an African Union peacekeeping force.

D. Brian Blackwell

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World Bank wants more money from rich nations for "vulnerability fund"

In a bleeker assessment than those of most private forcasters, the World Bank is predicting that the global economy will shrink in 2009 for the first time since World War II.

The bank did not provide a specific estimate, but bank officials said its economists will be publishing one in the next several weeks.

Until now, even extremely pessimistic forecasters have predicted that the global economy would eke out a tiny expansion but had warned that even a growth rate of 5 percent in China would be a disastrous slowdown, given the enormous pressure there to create jobs for the country's rural population.

The World Bank also warned that global trade would contract for the first time since 1982, and that the decline would be the biggest since the 1930s.

In a report prepared for a meeting this week of finance ministers from the 20 industrialized and large developing countries, the World Bank said the economic crises that started with junk mortgages and bad decision making from the banking industry in the United States was causing havoc for poorer countries around the world, not only stifling their growth but also choking off their access to credit as well.

The bank says the financial disruptions were all but certain to overwhelm the ability of institutions like it and the International Montetary Fund to provide a buffer.

The bank, which provides low-cost lending for economic development projects in poorer countries, pleaded for wealthy governments to create a "vulnerability fund" and to set aside a fraction of what they spend on stimulating their own economies for assisting other countries.

"We need investments in safety nets, infrastructure, and small and medium-size companies to create jobs and to avoid social and political unrest." Says Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president.

The bank says developing countries, many of which had been growing rapidly in recent years, are now being devastated by plunging exports, falling commodity prices, declining foreign investment and vanishing credit.

The effect of the global economic crises varies widely among countries, and the drop in prices for oil and other commodities has created winners and losers. But as a whole, the bank says, emerging-market countries will face a combined financing gap in 2009 of at least $270 billion and as much as $700 billion.

The report detailed the variety of ways in which the global economic crises has hammered poorer countries in Latin America, Central Europe, Asia and Africa.

Central European countries like Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are hurting from diminished exports to Western Europe as well as a severe credit crunch among major European banks, which have suffered huge losses on U.S. mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.

East Asia countries are reeling from plunging global trade. Demand for inexpensive manufactured goods has plunged in the United States. That slump has hit many Asian countries directly and indirectly, through falling demand by China for raw materials and component products.

Lower commodity prices have caused great problems in many African and Latin American countries. The steep slide in oil prices - 69 percent between July and December of 2008 - has spurred growth in poorer oil-importing countries but has caused immense difficulty in poorer oil-exporting countries.

Brazil, an exporter of oil as well as many other commodities and manufactured goods, reported its first trade deficit in eight years as exports dropped 28 percent in 2008.

The World Bank has called for rich countries to set aside 0.7 percent of the amount of money they spend to stimulate their own economies for a "vulnerability fund" to help stabilize poorer countries.

The new fund would make money available to countries through the World Bank, the United Nations and other global financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund.

On the Net: World Bank

International Herald Tribune

D. Brian Blackwell
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Warren Buffet: "Economy fell off a cliff"

Billionaire Warren Buffet said Monday unemployment will likely climb a lot higher and it will likely take five years for the U.S. economy to recover.

"It's fallen off a cliff." Buffet said Monday on CNBC. "Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have already changed their habits like I haven't seen."

Buffet said the changes are reflected in the results of his corporation Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. and its subsidiaries. He said Bershire's jewelry companies have suffered, but more people have been willing to switch to Geico to save money on car insurance.

Buffet described the current economic meltdown, in which unemployment is at a 25-year high and stocks have plunged to 12-year lows, as "an economic Pearl Harbor" and "an important war which can be won."

Buffet who heads Berkshire Hathaway, said the Federal Reserve's "prompt and wise action" had prevented the situation from "getting even worse" as the central bank cut interest rates to virtually zero and took other steps to reign in turmoil.

The economic recovery will depend on the wisdom of government's politics." Buffet said. "I've never seen Americans more fearful."

"Fear and confusion have been driving consumer and investor behavior in recent months, he said."All 535 members of Congress should stop the partisan bickering about solutions."

The nation's leaders need to clear up the confusion before anyone will become confident, and he said he Republicans and Democrats need to realize the nation is engaged in an economic war.

"What is required is a commander-in-chief that's looked at like a commander-in-chief in a time of war," Buffet said.

Over a week ago, Buffet released his annual letter to shareholders describing the worst of his 44 years at the helm of Berkshire. The Omaha, Nebraska-based corporation reported sharply lower profit because of its largely unrealized $7.5 billion investment and derivative losses.

Overall, Bershire's 2008 profit of $4.99 billion, or $3,224 per Class A share, was down 62 percent from $13.21 billion, or $8,548 per share, in 2007.

Bershire's fourth-quarter numbers were even worse. Buffet's company reported net income of $117 million, or $76 per share, down 96 percent from $2.95 billion, or $1,904 per share, a year earlier.

Buffet said he doesn't regret investing $8 million of Berkshire's money in investment bank Goldman Sachs and conglomerate General Electric Company last fall. Both companies gave Berkshire preferred shares paying 10 percent interest that Buffet said he doesn't think he could get now.

Class A shares of Bershire have lost about 45 percent of their value from a year ago.

Buffet's corporation Berkshire Hathaway owns a diverse mix of more than 60 companies, including insurance (Geico), carpet, jewelry, restaurants and utility businesses. And it has major investments in such companies as Wells Fargo and Coca-Cola.

Buffet continues to have major influence over Congressional and White House economic policy decisions, which he has had for over a decade now.

On the Net: Berkshire Hathaway

D. Brian Blackwell
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Mexico morgues crowded with mounting drug-war dead - Boston.com

Mexico morgues crowded with mounting drug-war dead - Boston.com

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Mexican border city braces for troop patrols - Boston.com

Mexican border city braces for troop patrols - Boston.com

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US man among decapitated victims in Tijuana - Boston.com

US man among decapitated victims in Tijuana - Boston.com

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Mexican soldiers arrested for alleged drug ties - Boston.com

Mexican soldiers arrested for alleged drug ties - Boston.com

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FDIC fund that protects bank deposits is drying up, expected to become insolvent

Amid a wave of bank failures, the fund that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation uses to protect customer bank deposits is drying up, says FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair.

Bloomberg News reports:

"Without these assessments, the deposit insurance fund would become insolvent this year." Bair wrote in a March 2 letter to the banking industry. The FDIC is in trouble because "a large number" of bank failures may occur through 2010, Bair wrote.

The FDIC fund lost $33.5 billion in 2008, as 25 banks failed. Sixteen have already failed this year, further depleting the fund. More banks are expected to fail this year. MORE

D. Brian Blackwell

Violence in Mexico creates new class of refugees

Mexico's drug war creates new class of refugees

Business owners, police officers, journalists and other professionals are among those seeking asylum in the United States -- even when it means sitting in jail.

LA Times reported from El Paso -- The Juarez police lieutenant was recovering from three gunshot wounds, the result of an assault by hit men for a drug cartel.

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His name was on a death list brazenly posted at a monument for fallen peace officers. Lt. Salvador Hernandez Arvizu didn't like his odds of surviving in Mexico. So he fled his hospital bed, hoping to take refuge in the U.S.

At a border post in El Paso, he filled out immigration paperwork, made a formal request for political asylum -- and was taken directly to jail.

The Juarez police lieutenant is part of a new breed of would-be refugees -- business owners, law enforcement officers, journalists and other professionals -- on the run from Mexico's vicious drug wars. Increasingly, they are seeking safe haven in the U.S. by filing for asylum.
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The number of asylum requests filed at U.S. border entries by Mexican nationals nearly doubled to almost 200 in the last fiscal year, and the pace has increased dramatically this year.

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More at: LosAngelesTimes.com

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Illegal Arrested In Chandra Levy Murder Case

After nearly eight years, an arrest has been made in the murder of federal intern Chandra Levy.

Authorities on Tuesday arrested 27-year-old Ingmar Guandique -- who is in the U.S. illegally -- and charged him with first-degree murder in the attack and killing of Levy in a Washington, D.C. park.

Key to breaking the case were interviews -- detailed in an affidavit supporting the arrest warrant -- with at least two witnesses who said Guandique told them he killed Levy.

Chandra Levy

 Guandique was in a California prison convicted of other charges when the warrant was issued for him regarding the Levy case.

 When police visited Guandique in prison in September 2008, he had a photo of Levy in his cell that had been taken from a magazine.

 Guandique is a member of the notorious Latino gang MS-13. He has MS-13 markings tattooed on his body.

 See the arrest warrant and affidavit

 Brian Blackwell

Warrant issued for Chandra Levy murder suspect

An arrest warrant was issued today for an imprisoned illegal immigrant from El Salvador for the murder of federal intern Chandra Levy, nearly eight years after the case captivated the U.S. and ended the career of a congressman. MORE

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U.S. gives $30 billion more to AIG

The total U.S. taxpayer assistance to AIG is now $163 billion.

This bailout, the third attempt to rescue AIG, follows closely on the heels of the government's third and latest attempt to rescue banking giant Citigroup last week. MarketWatch.com
U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve Board statement
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Abu Dhabi reviewing Citigroup investment

Abu Dhabi is assessing its $7.5 billion investment in Citigroup as the bank's problems get worse and consequences of a probable nationalization become clearer, according to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

ADIA, the world's largest sovereign fund, invested $7.5 billion last year in Citigroup through convertible bonds that pay 11 percent in interest, but it must start converting the bonds into 235.6 million shares in Citigroup from March next year.


ADIA's convertible bonds are due for conversion in a phased manner between March 2010 and September 2011. ADIA is assessing their options due to the worsening problems at Citi, according to the Abu Dhabi government.


The dramatic fall in Citigroup's share price has eroded the conversion value of the mandatory convertible bonds.


In Citigroup's original deal with ADIA, the Citi securities must be converted into common stock at a price between $31.83 and $37.24 a share between March 2010 and September 2011. Citi traded Friday at only $1.50 a share.


Options include holding them through to the conversion, which might allow enough time [not likely though] for the share price to recover, or converting them early, which might stop the possibility of the U.S. government nationalizing Citigroup.


On Friday, the U.S. government announced it would convert up to $25 billion of its $45 billion worth of preferred stock into common equity at 3.25 per share.


Abu Dhabi is the wealthiest of seven emirates within the United Arab Emirates, the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter.


Other preferred shareholders, including the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed, will convert up to $27.5 billion of their holdings at the same price.


Compare to Alwaleed or Singapore, ADIA has no aspirations in any controlling stake or a board seat and is just happy to ride along as an investor with regular returns. ADIA is a long-haul investor.


Gulf sovereign funds have been badly burned buying into troubled U.S. banks, with the Kuwait Investment Authority investing last year in U.S. banks Citigroup and Merrill Lynch before both stocks dived and Merrill Lynch was bought up by Bank of America.


Major sovereign wealth funds are now holding off big investments abroad, with some focusing on investing at home to stimulate economies due to the deepening global financial crises.
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Latest Citigroup Rescue May Not Be Its Last
Gov't extends new aid package to AIG
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Related Blackwell reports:
Police in Britain warn "summer of rage"
U.S. gov't explores nationalizing banks
U.S. higher stake in Citigroup
Federal Reserve sees deepening economic pain


D. Brian Blackwell

Mexican drug war bleeds over border

The violent drug war in Mexico is bleeding over into the United States.

In Phoenix, hit men dressed in fake police tactical uniforms burst into a home, rattle it with gun fire and execute a man. Armed kidnappers snatch victims from cars for ransom, turning Phoenix into the "kidnap capital" of the U.S.

Violence like this is common in Mexico where drug cartel abductions and executions are a daily occurrence of a raging drug war that claimed 6,000 lives last year. Beheadings are common in Mexico.

Execution style murders, violent home invasions, and a spiraling kidnap rate in Phoenix -- where one abduction a day occurred last year linked to Mexican drug smuggling -- are not the only examples of the Mexican drug war coming to America.

In southern California, police have investigated cases of Americans abducted by armed groups tied to the Tijuana drug trade. One involved a businesswoman and her teenage daughter kidnapped in San Diego last year and held for ransom in Mexico.

In south Texas, a live hand grenade traced back to a Mexican cartel stash was tossed onto the pool table of a bar frequented by off-duty police officers in January. The pin was left in it and the assailant fled.

Mexican dug traffickers have always been violent, but the death toll has soared since Felipe Calderon became president in late 2006 and sent thousands of military troops to fight Mexico's powerful cocaine cartels.

Soldiers have fought fierce battles with drug gangs in several Mexican towns and overwhelmed police officers have quit. In many cases, police officers have been paid off by the drug gangs or even joined them.

Calderon last week ordered 5,000 more troops and federal police to Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The cartels have killed 250 people in Ciudad Juarez in the past month, forced the police chief to resign, and shut down the airport with bomb threats.

The struggle by outgunned Mexican authorities to contain the violence was highlighted for Arizona police in November,when Mexican police officers pinned down in a raging gun battle in Nogales, Sonora, reached out to them with an urgent request for more bullets.

Related Blackwell reports:
Mexican drug cartels in U.S. cities
Drug Cartels Terrorize Mexico and U.S.
Massive U.S. drug sweep nets 750
Mexico sending extra troops and police
Mexican drug cartel busted in Twin Cities

D. Brian Blackwell