Update on Jose Sotillo

This is from a story over at the Delco Times by Marlene DiGiacomo:

Jose Sotillo Tuesday asked to be allowed to stay out of jail so he could “work 24/7” to repay the more than $112,219 he drained from the Suburban Swim Club in Newtown while he was employed as a coach and former manager.

However, Judge Barry Dozor was not impressed and instead sentenced the 34-year-old defendant, who now lives in Lancaster, to 18 to 36 months in jail to be followed by 10 years of probation.

“Mr. Sotillo, you spent your days socializing and befriending club members and at night you stole their money,” said the judge. “You betrayed the people who trusted you.”

The judge said Sotillo’s thievery “dealt a death blow” to the valuable community organization.
This is by Marilyn DiGiacomo from the Delco Times:

The judge told the defendant he deprived the members of a place to hold birthday parties and give swimming lessons to their children.

“He took the money for himself,” said Dozor. “You were driven by greed.”

Assistant District Attorney Michael Dugan said if Sotillo was sincere about paying back the bilked money, he would have done so during the months since his arrest.

“He hasn’t paid back a dime,” said the prosecutor.

Can someone tell me where a guy like this can get hired? Because I’d like to work there! I’m getting kind of sick of hearing about these folks finding jobs in this economy! If anyone is looking to hire someone….I have a lot of names of folks who are not swindlers who could use a fine job!

Sheesh,

mo

Wonderful Photos of Pottstown PA

I found some photos while browsing one day and I wanted to share them here with you. I contacted the artist and he was willing to allow me to post them. Take a look and if you are interested in some more of his work, then please go visit him at his website ;

http://cgmoyer.blogspot.com/search/label/pottstown

Pottstown- Holga 135BC TLR test part 2

Can you recognize these photos that were taken by a wonderful photographer?

How about this one? Can you tell me which street this is?

Does anyone have any stories about this location?

This looks very different in black and white doesn’t it?

“Po

PA Restaurant Serves 450lb Tuna

A Center Valley Restaurant is featured in the news as having purchased a 450 lb tuna. I wondered where the heck do you get a 450 lb tuna? Well, it turns out you get them from Spain!

Don’t ask me, just look at what this blogger posted in regard to a tuna that actually came from Spain. After seeing this though, I wanna see what other delicacies Spain has . Check this out:

Now the one of the loin is out, three men bring it to the table…

They will be cut into chunks, then sliced into saku, the thin, rectangular piece of flesh that will be cut into sashimi pieces at home or restaurant. (See pictures below.)

Then the belly part… Toro. By this time, I’m totally thinking this is beef. Doesn’t it look like one?

Once the tuna’s bone is exposed, now the women come out to scrape the meat around the bone, called Naka-ochi (middle scrapings). Only men do the (showy?) cut, only women do the (not-so glamorous?) scraping… Very Japanese, yet I didn’t notice until my American husband pointed it out.

The loin that were cut in chunks are sliced thinner, and into rectangular shape, and made into saku… Lots of them.

Once an MC, now back to the store manager, he’s busy doing whatever needed to be done to sell these highly valued (and priced accordingly) delicacy.

Chu-toro (Fatty tuna). They were sold at $50/lb. For something that has been just cut in front of your own eyes, it’s not a bad price (especially if I compare with what I would have to pay in Tokyo… or at our favorite sushi restaurant!

These are o-toro (very fatty tuna). It almost look like beef… perfectly marbled Kobe beef (top) or bacon (middle).

Monstrous bone from the gigantic tuna. The red flesh still on the bone is further scraped (by women, of course) and sold as naka-ochi.

Naka-ochi. Since the fish is so big, even the scraped flesh is pretty substantial. It was soooo delicious!

My dear friend Jan got so excited, he invited 10 of his friends right from the store, well before everything was over (actually more like “as soon as they started cutting the kama”. To my surprise, pretty much everyone happened to be at home, and they joined us at Jan’s house for a major “After-Thanksgiving” feast.

Robocall For PA Residents About SEC

I was just called by a machine. The female voice told me to contact Jim Gerlach to tell him I wanted him to start maneovering to bring Christopher Cox before the banking committee to explain how he was responsible for tearing down PA’s financial health.

While I recognize that he was in charge of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and I recognize that he had some authority at the time of the financial meltdown in the US I wonder about his being blamed for all the problems in the system.

When you try to unravel what happened it is all too easy to say it was the fault of banks, or it was the fault of the SEC, or it was the fault of the Federal Reserve under Greenspan, or it was Bush’s fault, or Clinton’s fault. Or it was the fault of companies that sold something they called ” securities”. Or it was the fault of shadow banking that invested wildly without proper controls that were required of US banks.

There was a perfect storm brewing in the banking industry and everyone can be held responsible- the families that bought mortgages that were called ARM’s. The folks who bought homes without being able to meet the banks requirements. The home sellers that inflated the costs of their homes because ‘ the market could bear it’. You can also blame the people who bought homes and didn’t expect to live in them, who instead counted on the homes values inflating through the roof. And you can blame banks for bundling loans so that it wasn’t just housing loans that were going sour by the time this mess collapsed.

We’ve all heard of ponzi schemes right? Madoff was arrested for a high class ponzi scheme wasn’t he? Well, in that type of scheme, some people are ‘taken care of’ and others are at huge risk. The folks at huge risk make out when things are good. When money is free and available and the market is steady and holding strong then there is literally no risk! Till there is a hiccup and suddenly the risk takers are exposed and investors get nervous and money is tightened even further because who is going to risk their money when there are absolutely no returns and instead there is only loss?

You can see that this problem is not the fault of one human being! I don’t know Christoper Cox. I don’t know whether he is a greedy ’scrooge’ type person who deserves to be raked over hot coals in front of Congress. But people in the industry knew he was in charge of the SEC years ago. They knew what his role was. Congress isn’t going to find any surprise ” aha” moments when they talk to this guy now. If they didn’t understand the banking debacle then, they aren’t going to suddenly understand it now.

And Americans who were told it was their fault don’t understand what happened. Many Americans listened to pundits telling them the problem was people bought mortgages they couldn’t afford and they didn’t pay and therefore they were bad Americans. And the risky credit that Americans have is the result of reckless living and wasteful spending. I told you back then that that was a load of crap!

It still is. Average Americans lived life pretty much as we were expected to live it. Investors sold to Americans because we bought our homes and in many places in the world regular families don’t buy homes. So here we are a group of folks who invest almost everything we own in a home…when around the planet other people aren’t spending to live in one place like we do! We were an attractive risk. If you were going to try to make a buck off of someone would you sell them insurance on their purchases outside of a Dollar Store where they spent dollars? Or would you invest your energy in a place where they made purchases that amounted to half a million, or a several millions of dollars?

I keep trying to tell people that this would be a wonderful world if only we stopped taking advantage of one another.

No one seems to listen to me!

Sorry Christopher…I think a machine is after you.

mo

Gilbertsville Isn't Having a Great Week

This morning there was a road rage incident on 422 down near Oaks and the driver apparently lives in Gilbertsville PA on Ruby Circle. Police are asking anyone with information on the man who lives in Gilbertsville and works in Center City to contact the Collegeville Barracks of the State Police.

Update! John Yanarell is named as the shooter. Elizabeth Cox was the woman shot.

Yannarell appears to work as a network engineer for a toilet paper company and he’s had some problems with traffic before according to court documents. Court records show that Yannarell has been cited eight times since 2002 for disregarding a traffic light or stop sign in Montgomery, Delaware or Chester County. He pleaded guilty in seven of the cases and was found guilty in the other. He was also cited for speeding in 2005 in Montgomery County.

Elizabeth Cox is apparently at home now after being treated at the hospital, Elizabeth is said to live in Pottstown!

In another incident Shawn Moll 19 of Gilbertsville was arrested for selling marijuana. It seems he showed up to a location on 724 the other night prepared to make another sale. He previously sold 3 lbs on March 27 to people we can assume he thought were legitimate buyers but who have instead turned out to be connected with the police.

Let’s hope the police and court system deal with Yannarell appropriately this time. I don’t imagine he’s going anywhere this evening.

mo

mo

Gambling in PA

A couple of years ago everyone was up in arms about gambling. And then PA decided to start some gambling but it was going to be just a couple of places and the income was going to help Seniors! And then they decided that perhaps PA casinos needed table games afterall, and that maybe we could allow them to be part of the approved casinos…because we needed to make casinos more attractive to guests.

And now thanks to table games people are going to drive to PA from other areas and they’ll need to stay over night in hotels and that is the way PA will make money from casinos!

If you’ve been paying any attention to the story about Wynn walking away from the Foxwoods Casino in South Philadelphia then you know that PA was never going to be an attraction destination. Wynn was going to be part of a 3 story casino with one story devoted to parking! It wasn’t going to be a huge attraction and the guy walked away!

We have gambling in PA. We are going to have to make what we can of what we’ve got. Unless some other rich investor decides to rush to PA to invest in casinos they are going to be rather simple locations that don’t have the ambiance that other resorts have. Think big box stores with christmas lights and one armed bandits.

If you like the casino lifestyle then PA isn’t going to satisfy you…but if you like boarding a bus with a lot of friends and you like hanging out at a casino rather than taking trips to Boston or the Carolinas then PA will probably satisfy you.

But it isn’t going to change PA. What do you think?

mo