Word: recentered
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...Bernie Madoff Auction" sales have been popping up across the country in recent weeks, getting the word out in such places as Columbus, Ohio, and Charleston, S.C., by placing big stickers on the front page of local newspapers. The ads begin, "Due to losses caused by Bernie Madoff," and then detail such treasures as original art by Peter Max, Salvador Dalí and Norman Rockwell - as well as Rolex watches and "other flashy items" - that are to be sold to "recover losses from Ponzi scheme." Trouble is, it's hard to tell whether any of the merchandise at these auctions...
Most of these auctions are arranged by Southern Star Auctioneers, a Georgia company run by Dion Abadi, who has faced a number of official complaints and fines in recent years in multiple states. At one so-called Madoff auction held this fall in West Palm Beach, Fla. - a community hard hit by Madoff, who once owned houses and other property in nearby Palm Beach and who is now serving a 150-year prison sentence for his massive Ponzi scheme - many potential bidders exited fuming. "They all thought it was Madoff stuff, and it's not; it's from all over...
...Recent ads have directed readers to madoffhelpline.com, a bare-bones site that consists of a few sentences and an e-mail address. "Have You Been a Victim of Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme?" asks the grammatically challenged site, which also misspells Madoff's name: "If you have been a victim of the Maddoff ponzi scheme and would Like to liquidate your fine art or jewelry at one of our future auctions contact us with a brief description of your inventory...
...Those revelations, as well as the disclosure that he failed to pay rent on an apartment at several points earlier this decade, have hardly helped Pugh's candidacy. In recent days, the editorial boards of both the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News pulled their endorsements of him. (The Free Press wrote: "It's simply unreasonable for Detroiters to trust him with their city's finances after he so negligently managed his own.") Pugh dismisses the criticism, and says his financial troubles will actually endear him to voters in a city experiencing some of the most extreme effects...
...respectable member of this community. And I happen to be gay," he told the Free Press at the time. Earlier this year, he decided to be more than a chronicler of other people. "You can't be an activist and a journalist," Pugh told TIME one recent morning, sitting in the living room of his home, which is filled with giraffe sculptures. "So maybe I was in the wrong industry to effect the kind of change I want." (See more on TIME's Detroit blog...