NC Mortgage Scam Engulfs Dan Meier, Robinson Secondary Principal

I only heard about this yesterday at the bus stop…and it sounds like it could it get bad.

Principal Dan Meier of Robinson Secondary and his brother Thomas, principal at Langley HS in McLean, were participants in what might be the biggest mortgage fraud scam in the history of the state of North Carolina. The Meier brothers offered testimonials and got fellow educators to purchase plots of land at $25K each.

Daniel Meier, principal at Fairfax’s Robinson Secondary School, and his brother Thomas Meier, principal at McLean’s Langley High School, worked with a former student, Mark Dain, to motivate investors to pay artificially inflated prices for land in coastal North Carolina at the height of the housing boom, according to a lawsuit brought by the investors. Dain was a co-founder of the now defunct Total Realty Management, based out of Woodbridge.

The company purchased subdivisions worth approximately $150,000 before turning around and selling them for double and sometimes triple that figure, according to the complaint. The Meier brothers allegedly offered “testimonials” on the scheme’s success before crowds that often included teachers and colleagues. The sales were manipulated through “sham transactions” and multiple misrepresentations, according to the complaint filed in January in a Virginia federal court.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said the FBI had begun a criminal probe into the deals. FBI spokespersons in D.C. and North Carolina could not confirm whether the case has expanded to TRM.

This whole thing could get really ugly. In fact, if this post by a long graduated Robinson student is any indication, ugly barely begins to cover how bad it will be.  Here is the full Fairfax Underground comment section-again, ugly barely begins to cover…

In North Carolina, the story has political implications:

The case has garnered huge headlines in North Carolina as a federal grand jury investigated various allegations including whether former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley got a sweetheart deal on waterfront property and helped green-light permits for the project.

In my neck of the woods, it is a question of who is teaching our children, and should they be?

Forty Years Ago today…Bobby Kennedy, RIP

Forty years ago today, less a few hours, Bobby Kennedy claimed victory in the 1968 California Democratic primary…and a few minutes later hope turned to helplessness.

I was a child then, and remember the sheer shock of my parents that violence had again touched the American body politic. I have a hunch that my father would have voted for Nixon in the fall election, and my mother for RFK…Bobby had kicked off his West Virginia campaign in her hometown of Princeton, WV, and my grandmother shook his hand…so that kind of sealed the deal for her.  His evolution from hatchet man for Roy Cohn to enforcer for his brother to a vessel of hope for so many captured her imagination, as he did for so many others in this country.

Many remember RFK in his final moments at the Ambassador Hotel on June 4, 2008, with his “now it’s on to Chicago, and let’s win there!” shortly before his date with destiny.

But the moment that has long stuck in my mind was the speech he delivered in Indianapolis on April 4, 1968, when he broke the news to a large crowd that Martin Luther King had been killed:

I typically prefer the eloquence of the moment over the eloquence of the prepared speech, and I think there are few impromptu speeches that match that of Bobby Kennedy that night in Indianapolis.

So let us remember Bobby Kennedy, and move beyond his politics and consider what was lost forty years ago tonight. And let us remember, in these trying times, RFK’s favorite poet, Aeschylus, who wrote:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

God bless the memory of Bobby Kennedy, God Bless us all, and God Bless the USA.

Martin Luther King-Forty years ago Today…

Forty years ago today Martin Luther King was shot down outside his Memphis motel room.  He knew he lived in a society that was far from perfect, but was driven to make that society not only free for his people but free for all people.

As we remember his life, let us also remember his final public speech, one that for me speaks more to hope and drive than even the “I Have a Dream Speech”:

It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, “We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we’ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.”And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything.
I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

…and so shall we all, some day.  May we all have the faith that moves mountains, and a willingness to work to reach our own Mountain Tops

Dem Central offers this account of the event.

Martin Luther King, January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968

Customer Service RIP

Since family and work have kept me on the reservation, so let me ease back into the fray with a real general question…

When did Customer Service Die?

My father was a small town pediatrician, developer, and banker, but he always taught that me that no matter the line of work we are all involved in to some degree in customer service.  I was reminded in the last two days of how customer service has been replaced with indifference and stupid questions.

1. Recently while paying the bill in a restaurant I gave the waitress several greenbacks to pay the bill, planning to tip her out of some of my change.  She sees the bill, ignores the fact that I am clearly waiting for her to bring back change, and says “Do you want any change?”

I said, “Yes”, but what I thought was “if I didn’t want change, you surly little twit, I would have told you to keep the change.”  Was her tip affected by her actions?  YOU make the call.

2. I had an MRI done on my right knee this AM because…well, that’s another story.  When I made the appointment, I asked where I should park.  “In the parking garage”.  Do you validate?  “Yes”.  When I get there, I see there is a small fee for parking.  Good thing they validate, because I have no $$ on me!

We finish the appointment, and I ask the nice lady at the counter (who is different than the one I spoke to the night before) to validate my parking ticket.  “Oh, I ‘m sorry, we don’t validate!”

A pity…we all need some validation now and then…

Nonetheless, it is typical of the way I find doctors offices these days.  No time for customer service, barely time to be polite.  Too often it seems staying sick is preferable to being treated disrespectfully and rudely by office personnel.  The funny thing is it is always the staff that is being prickly and rude.   Generally it is the staff, sometimes it is the doctor.  For example:

Last year I had a tooth crack.  I went in for a crown.  My dentists uses this new and amazing magnetic resonance contraption, hooked to a computer and a lathe, that makes a custom crown based on the specs the dentist inputs.  The first time he did one for me (a year previous) the whole process took 90 minutes.

This time after 3 hours he still didn’t have it right.  I had to come in for a separate sitting, when it took 90 minutes.  He told me that the first time there had been a bunch of things happening and the delay was purely “Operator error”.

Now if this was any other line of work the vendor would typically, and without being asked, do something for the customer to make up for the inconvenience.  Not here.  Full price was demanded, and nothing offered to make up for the fact that I wasted 3 hours in the chair simply because my dentists was having a bad day.

It is the staff’s, it’s the “healers”, it’s the whole kit and caboodle.  So much for customer service in the medical field.

3. I leave the MRI shop and hit an ATM on the way out.  I get a couple of $20’s.  I pull out of the parking garage, give the parking attendant my ticket, and he says the charge is $1.00.  I give him the $20 bill.  He looks at me and says “do you have any $1.00’s?”  I said, “No sir,”, but what I wanted to say was ,”Wow, if I had the singles, don’t you think I would have used the single?”

Yep, I am grumpy…being stuck in a not so large cylinder for an extended period of time will do that to you.  But come on-is there any reason to treat customers with disrespect and even contempt?  Does it hurt so much to be nice and/or to do the right thing?  Because they can be administered all the time, and in many different ways.  For instance…

As my children have gotten older and I have been on the receiving end of pediatrician trips, I noticed something…almost never were antibiotics given via a “shot”, always orally.  I asked my now retired father why he gave shots when I was a child…was it because the oral antibiotics were not available?  His reply, “No, I gave the shots in great part because it got the medicine into the system faster, the children got well faster, and parents missed less time at work!”

Practicality and customer service all in one dose.  We could use more of that today.

Elliot Spitzer, Edgar Allen Poe, and Double Hubris

Edgar Allen Poe wrote the chilling short story “A Cask of Amontillado” of a man who is bricked alive into a wall in retribution for a lifetime of perceived transgressions.

Embattled NY Governor Elliot Spitzer may feel deja vu on reading the story, except for the fact that he has gone and bricked himself in, and those who feel enmity toward him have only needed to sit back and watch. Perhaps Poe in combination with the Greek tragedians could come up with this one…

What strikes me is how Governor Spitzer has followed the scandal playbook to the letter, yet is slowly being bricked into a corner by his own actions-the victim of his own double hubris.

Typically, this is the successful scandal playbook as written by Curley of Massachusetts, crafted into an art form by Ted Kennedy, and employed by a range of politicos, is as follows:

a) An indiscretion (of varying degree and severity) is commited by a public figure
b) Said indiscretion is discovered
c) Public figure offers a public apology
d) Public figure endures the whirlwind. If he/she weathers the storm they continue in public life.

What is key is the indiscretion. For instance, in Virginia we have seen:

*Jim Moran (VA-8) commits all type of outbursts and outrages against civility and common sense, often with barely an apology, and he merrily and regularly returns to Congress.
*Chuck Robb, trailing Ollie North in 1993, went all mea culpa on us in admitting the Tai Collins “nude massage” thing. Robb weathered the storm and won reelection in 1994.
*Ed Schrock (VA-2) was outed in 2004 (as being gay or bisexual) as a reaction to his having aggressively opposed various gay-rights issues in Congress such as same-sex marriage and gays in the military. Nothing illegal in his conduct, but contrary to the positions he took while in office.

Spitzer is unique, as he has the misfortune that each day pops another brick into his wall of political entombment.

a+b) It was discovered he frequented a high dollar escort service, despite making part of his crime busting career on attacking prostitution;
c) He offered a public apology for his behavior, and;
d) He sits back to weather the storm…

…except more comes out. First it comes out he paid to transport the escort over state lines (in possible violation of federal law) to engage in an activity that is generally illegal outside of parts of Nevada. Next, it is reported that he spent over $80K over a period in these liaisons. Now, it appears that these activities stretch back over a period of years that includes his railing against prostitution rings.

That is where the Double Hubris comes in…it is one thing to engage in acts that not only threaten his political career if discovered and are also illegal; it is another thing to engage in that activity while on the political warpath against the same activity!

Who knows what more will come out?  Each day Spitzer seems to brick himself further into the entombment of political oblivion.

Somewhere Poe and the Greek tragedians are thinking, “Dang, not even we could come up with a story like this one-for who in their right mind would believe it?”

Believe it, folks.

Burke Wal-Mart…Worth-it?

I had planned to write this screed about Wal Marts in general, but instead I have come to the conclusion that I live within a few football fields length (as the crow flies) of the Worst Wal-Mart In The World.

I have long been fascinated by the Wal-Mart story and Sam Walton, and when Wal-Mart first showed up in Manassas fifteen years or so ago I was a regular customer.  I also found over time that all the pricing practices AIAW recites are true. They sugar foot the competition, draw in traffic with lower prices, then jack it up bit by bit when they have cleared the field.

I, however, was not daunted by said tactics. I carry the hunter gatherer gene right down to my nanites. I know, for instance, that if I want a bottle of my favorite lime flavored water, I can get a 33.8 oz bottle cheaper at Wal Mart ($0.58) than at Safeway or at Giant ($.85, or on sale at 4/$3=$.75). BUT, if I want the little 20oz bottles, they are cheaper at Giant on sale (2×4 packs for $3.00) than at Wal Mart ($1.88 per 4 pack). So for some items, Wal-Mart does sell them for less…then they use the convenience of having a bazillion other things nearby to keep you there and shopping…and I bet in these days of high gas prices that convenience facet will work big things for them.

I have no doubt that their HR policies are not the most magnanimous in the world, but AIAW does a far better job pushing that button than I could ever do so I leave that in her capable hands.

I even learned to handle the lacking customer service. You see a Wal Mart myth that AIAW does not get into is the great customer service, that willingness to go the extra mile for you because we are all “just folks”, in this together. That is just malarkey. For every smiling retiree you see pushing a cart at you when you enter a Wal-Mart, there seem to be a mutltude of folks shuffing around, who don’t know where things are, and who “can’t find” a manager when you want to speak to one.

So, beyond all the economic ripple effects that AIAW recounts, there is the on site question about whether prices are really the lowest, and there is the bad service. But here in Burke, they have taken things to a new depth of annoying. The store here is dirty, and the parking is problematic.

I had this spelled out to me last weekend, when circumstance had me in four different Wal Marts on the same day (Fair Lakes, Manassas/I-66, Manassas/Liberia, and Burke). The Burke parking was bad, but part of that comes with the territory. Instead of building a facility to meet their design, Wal-Mart took over a building that had been a K-Mart, and the parking lot really isn’t equal to the traffic. However, while they saw it coming, I guess their need to build in new areas took over their planning sense.

Burke also carried the day on being dirty. Rather than put in some type of tiling that disguises the dirt tracked into a retail establishment, they have this white stuff that gets dirty, stays dirty, and does not seem to get cleaned that often. I had neither the parking nor sense of filth problem at the other stores.

Now at all stores I quickly found what I was looking for…my favorite bottled water, some things for my father, MRP bars, etc. At three stores I checked out quickly…let me tell you what happened in Burke when I tried to check out with a cart of seven items, just heavy enough to take us out of basket range.

I will spare you all the details, but the highlights included:

* Having to go to four different counters between registers suddenly not working or breaks occuring.
* Every checker had some terrible time putting sales items through, even though the customers in each case had circulars or coupons with them that were within the proper date range.
* I went to the self-serve checkout and had, among my seven items, a box of MET-RX meal bars (Apple Crisp). The box clearly says it has a dozen bars, and had not been opened. When I attempted to scan the box bar code, the check out machinery went into cardiac arrest. The staffer overseeing the four registers comes over and tells me that the box barcode is not in the sytem, I will have to separately ring each of the twelve bars. HOWEVER, since that would put me over the ten item limit, I had to go to another aisle.

This process took me twenty minutes for what should have been no more than five.  Then, on the way out I ask to speak to a store manager…and no one can find him.  I ask to speak to any manager, and they cannot find one.  Finally I speak to a “customer service” rep named Dupuy, who seemed sympathetic but made no effort to find a manager and acted like what he really wanted was for me to leave.

What I found amazing was that none of this happened at the other stores.  What I also found amazing was that none of the folks at Wal-Mart had any sense or concern that they could lose a customer.  I mean, how can one walk away from our low, low prices?

Well, there comes a time when low, low prices don’t but the mustard, especially when the discerning eye can tell when they aren’t as low as they want us to think.

I don’t know if the Burke Wal-Mart is worth it.  Maybe they can change.  But if they are going to survive the heightened surveillance of their pricing and HR systems, not to mention the effect they have on their communities, they best begin by at least cleaning up their stores and hiring staff that at least acts like they want to help you.

I don’t think I am going to hold my breath on that one.

Bizarro World at William and Mary

I have watched over the past year or so as the Gene Nichol saga has played out at William and Mary.  I won’t go through the many details and controversies, but a few comments of late cry out to be commented on.

At the heart of this situation are matters of academic freedom and the university relationship with its alums, the town, and its national reputation.  In my estimation what is also at the heart of the matter is that Professor Nichols clearly does not have the political skills to serve as the president of a major university.

Consider:

1. Moving the Wren Cross so as to encourage diversity.  Nice idea, wrong technique.  First, to do it without laying the ground work?  Bad move.  Had he sounded out community and alumna elements about moving this item that is both a Christian symbol and also a historic artifact of the college…maybe he could have pulled it of.  But he didn’t.

A preferred course is that rather than keep it stowed away and brought out when requested, you do the reverse and allow groups using the facility in question to ask that the cross be stowed during their usage of the room.  Same effect, different language, fewer problems and ill will.

1a.  The school loses a multi-million dollar pledge/contribution over the matter, and Nichols tried to stonewall the matter and not cleanly admit the loss…that is not good leadership

2. The whole “Sex workers” exhibition thing.  Did he really think folks would hear him say “diversity” and roll over?  It doesn’t matter that it was student funded, use of university facilities has to be approved.  For Nichols to say he allowed it because he did not want to hinder “free speech” is ridiculous.  Freedom of speech protects us from government restrictions, and does not compel an educational institution to allow in any group possible.

3. Professor reaction…one professor suggests the next thing on the agenda is some type of restricting of classroom topics, saying “next they will come for our classes.”  Very clever use of nazi resistance type language, but it still doesn’t cut the mustard.  It is sheer muckraking hyperbole.  There is nothing that has happened at William and Mary that even vaguely hints of restricting what professors want to teach.

4. When Nichol is told his contract will not be extended, he puts his maturity to the test and quits in mid year, claiming the Board of Visitors tried to buy him off and silence him into saying the removal was not about ideology.  From what I can tell, it wasn’t…it was about competence, and Mr. Nichol has been found wanting.  No matter who much he tries to denigrate those who removed him from his position, Mr. Nichol did not have what it takes…and it seems that it was not just about political and communication skills.  No, given Mr. Nichol’s classless abandonment of his position, it seems there is a question of maturity, also.

Time for Mr. Nichol to go back to the classroom where he can rant and rave to his heart’s content, and leave the operation and administration of the grown-ups.

UPDATE: For an excellent and on the mark discussion of how and why the Nichol’s termination reached far beyond the high publicity events see this at Bacon’s Rebellion

Banking of Burke Leapfrogs the Hopsfrog

When I was a kid a magazine wrote about the proliferation of malls and the attendant diminishment of town and neighborhood quality of life by calling it the “Malling of America”.  Something similar to that is happening in Burke, and reminds me that sometimes the purity of political philosophy has to give way to the practicality of everyday life…

We have a shopping center just off Va. 123 in Burke Centre that is the home of this little controversy.  This shopping Center is currently home to a Safeway, a Kohls, a Subway, ABC store, a Coldstream Creamery ice cream.  It is much like other shopping centers.  It also has three freestanding banks, and a fourth through the Sun Trust bank outlet in a Safeway grocery store. 

The shopping center is also home to a locally owned and operated restaurant named the Hopsfrog.  The Hopsfrog is your typical hardwood bar, first cousin to Ruby Tuesdays and the like.  It is a good corporate citizen, supporting several local charities and organizations.  The Hopsfrog sits on a corner pad site and fronts onto Burke Centre Parkway.

It seems that the shopping Center ownership has a chance to put in a fifthbank, but to do it means the Hopsfrog has to go.  The ownership has is prepared to raise the rent on the restaurant to a point Hopsfrog will have to close-just so they can put in a fifth bank…and, of course, make more money.

The project is sort of on hold, as there are questions about traffic impact that have not been answered…and if the traffic questions cannot be answered, then the permits needed to build a bank will not be available.

I am somewhat galled by the whole thing.  Here you have a shopping center that is near if not at 100% occupancy.  You have a restaurant that is a valued asset to our community, and offers a dining experience that you cannot get elsewhere in or near Burke.  If you want your basic American cuisine in an grown-up atmosphere…the  Hopsfrog is it.

Now I know that the shopping center management can do what they want with their property.  They have every right to maximize their profits, land should be used for highest use…right up my alley in terms of economic alternatives.  But you know…sometimes I wish that the absentee landlords and corporations that own the malls and shopping centers and the like would look beyond their pocketbooks and try to maximize community benefits rather than maximize profits.

That last thought surely is not conservative dogma, hence my observation of the conflict between political philosophy and the practicality of everyday life.

I hope the Hopsfrog survives this, because here in Burke we could use a good corporate neighbor with a proven record of political involvement more than another bank.

Merry Christmas to All!

End of quarter demands at work and the festivities and activities of the Christmas season have kept me away from the blog, but as we enter the final countdown for Santa 2007 I want to wish a Merry Christmas to the Virginia Blogosphere!…and a Happy Hannukah, a Happy Kwaanza, and just generally a wonderful holiday season!

Bwana be back in the blog after Christmas…not only because it is fun, but because from what I have read elsewhere my voice of reason is sorely missed! 😉

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I Already Miss the Kline Burgers

The words hit me like a a sledge hammer, or a telegram announcing the death of a loved one.

“Klines is closing”

Then my sister sent me the newslink. I mean, if it is on the internet, it has to be true, right?

The sad news-Kline’s Drive-In on Nokesville Road south of Manassas will close its doors on Wednesday, November 21, 2007. Lynn Kline, son of the late Paul Kline, is selling the land so a bank can be built on it and he can step back from the grueling restaurant business.

Those who have not encountered this establishment likely are saying, “So what? Restaurants close every day.”

This is true-but when that closing takes a piece of your life with it, it hurts.

I grew up with the Kline family as members of the Manassas Church of the Brethren. When I was a kid my family went out to Yorkshire to get ice cream at the original Kline’s Freeze. That place, like Carl’s down in Fredericksburg, had no indoor eating area. So they built another store south of manassas in 1969. No one thought the business would last. You had to drive over the RR tracks at Wellington Road, out past the Church of the Brethren and IBM, and past at least three farms to get there.

But it did last. In fact, it flourished.

Kline’s was like the fictional Cheers, a place where “every body knew your name.”

During the summers of my youth Dad would load us up and trawl out there for ice cream. When Dad picked me up at Boy Scout meetings and the pick up was early enough, it was out to Kline’s for foot logn chili dogs. Each of my sons have enjoyed the rite of passage of trying to eat a chocolate fudge sundae at the age of two without getting sauce on your shirt.

I am pushing fifty, and I still have not pulled that one off.

Even now, at 83, my father has been known to call me to come down, rescue him from assisted living, and commence a horizontal assault on Kline’s. We brave the horrendous traffic on southbound Va. 28 and order the usual.

Yes, the chilidog gas comes at him a lot faster now than it used to, but there are somethings that you simply should not deny yourself…like a meal of a footlong chili dog, fries, and a milkshake. It fills you up and keep the cardiologists employed, so it is kind of like multi-tasking.

When I was a child, I didn’t know restaurants or business’s closed. I thought there would always be a Dam-Side restaurant, Cooke’s Pharmacy, General Office Supply, Giacomo’s Pizza, Sloper’s Sports, Rohr’s 5 and Dime, Manassas Lumber, Commonwealth Savings and Loan, and others.

None remain. All have gone, and live on only in memory.

Soon Kline’s, with all the memories it holds for me, will also vanish.

It has been said that growing old stinks. But even worse is to see the building blocks of your memories fall beneath your eyes.  The fact that it is an inevitable part of life and progress does not make it easier.

My hometown has changed over the years, and it no longer resembles the town where I grew up.  But there are bright spots of memory that remind one of the old days…and there will be one less come late Wednesday evening.

Late Wednesday evening, I will likely shed a tear…and unfortunately it probably won’t be caused by the onions on a Kline’s Chili Dog or a Kline Burger.

I guess they are wrong…it doesn’t stink to grow old

But it really sucks.