Meet Wendy McCaw. She was involved in the third largest divorce case settlement, according to askmen.com. Reports of the settlement range from $461 million to $1 billion.

She bought the Santa Barbara News Press. She bought a home on the cliffs in Hope Ranch along the Pacific Ocean. The woman funds animal rights causes and architectural restoration projects. Editorials have appeared in the News Press defending wild pigs on the Channel Islands off the Santa Barbara coast, defending turkeys around Thanksgiving season, and other issues involving unfair and unethical treatment of animals.



Ms. McCaw tried to "privatize" the beach below her property. She is in court quite often because she is suing or is being sued by someone.

Wendy likes to have the final say on what is published in her newspaper and does not want her employees to belong to a union. Because of this, a majority of the editorial staff, some with the paper for decades, have resigned or been fired by Ms. McCaw. There was a controversy over the spelling of the word "blond(e)" and Wendy M. insisted the 'e' goes on the end. There was one less employee after the matter was resolved. Legally, the employees have the right to unionize. Wendy M. still refuses to let them.




Signs like the above are popping up in windows of businesses and homes all over town.

Something very despiccable has taken center stage though. A story appeared on the front page recently claiming that thousands of images involving child porn were on one of the newspaper's hard drives and that a criminal investigation was under way. The hard drive was used by at least 4 different editors although the name of just one was included in the article. The man named in said article had absolutely no knowledge of the porn and the criminal investigation was concluded. Will McCaw publish an equally noticeable retraction?? She hasn't yet...

Something I find intriguing is that Wendy McCaw was born on the same date as George W. Bush although not in the same year. Some just seem to attract controversy wherever they go, regardless of their bank account. Bank accounts do not mean everyone must bow down and consent to that person's every whim. More to follow.... m

Here we go again... ABC News reported that Tobias, whose resignation was effective immediately, said he had called an escort service several times "to have gals come over the condo to give me a massage."

The escort service, Pamela Martin and Associates, is owned by Jeane Palfrey, who has been called the "D.C. Madam," and faces federal charges of running a prostitution operation in the Washington area from 1993 through August 2006.

Tobias, 65, who is married, said there had been no sex, and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages, ABC reported. His mobile telephone number was among the thousands in Palfrey's records, which she gave to ABC News, the network said.

In an interview to be aired on ABC's "20/20" program on May 4, Palfrey said she intends to call on Tobias and other prominent clients to testify at her trial, ABC said.

"I'm sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, four to eight years, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever," Palfrey told ABC News.

Palfrey insists she ran a legal sexual fantasy business, ABC said. If any of the women who were working for her had sex, she said they did so in violation of her rules and without her knowledge, the network said.

I vaguely recall the Mayflower Madame scandal some time ago. Does anyone else think this will never end? The thing that I find most irritating and hilarious, at the same time, is the fact that this administration claimed God was on their side. This administration takes the cake as far as hypocrisy goes.

A governor is going to live on food stamps for one week. I appreciate his desire to get to the truth. I do wonder, though, if he will shop someplace where nobody will recognize him. I wonder if he will get "the look" from the other shoppers.



Some people seem to believe that people using food stamps are lazy or ripping off the government. Most people who need food stamps or some sort of welfare are in genuine need of help.



Here is another story that caught my eye:

"WASHINGTON (AFP) - Intelligence has nothing to do with wealth, according to a US study published Tuesday which found that people with below average smarts were just as wealthy as those with higher IQ scores.

"People don't become rich because they are smart," said Jay Zagorsky, research scientist at Ohio State University whose study appears in the Journal Intelligence.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics survey included 7,403 Americans who have been interviewed repeatedly since 1979. Based on 2004 answers, people who are now in their mid-40s showed no link between brain- and earning-power.

"Your IQ has really no relationship to your wealth. And being very smart does not protect you from getting into financial difficulty," Zagorsky said.

The study confirmed previous research which has shown that smarter people tend to earn more money, but pointed out there is a difference between high pay and overall wealth.

"The average income difference between a person with an IQ score in the normal range (100) and someone in the top two percent of society (130) is currently between 6,000 and 18,500 dollars per year," it said.

"But when it came to total wealth and the likelihood of financial difficulties, people of below average and average intelligence did just fine when compared to the super-intelligent."

An irregular pattern of total wealth as well as financial distress levels -- such as maxed out credit cards, bankruptcy and missing bill payments -- emerged among the various degrees of intelligence, the study said.

The study measured intelligence based on scores from the US Armed Services Qualification Test, a general aptitude test used by the Department of Defense. "