Bernard Madoff gets maximum 150 years in prison
AP
NEW YORK – A federal judge rejected Bernard Madoff's plea for leniency Monday, sentencing the 71-year-old swindler to spend the rest of his life in prison for an "extraordinarily evil" fraud that took a staggering toll on thousands of victims.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin cited the unprecedented nature of the multibillion-dollar fraud as he sentenced Madoff to the maximum of 150 years in prison, a term comparable only to those given in the past to terrorists, traitors and the most violent criminals. There is no parole in federal prison so Madoff will most likely die there.
"Here, the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of irresponsible manipulation of the system is not merely a bloodless financial crime that takes place just on paper, but it is instead ... one that takes a staggering human toll," Chin said.
The massive Ponzi scheme run by Madoff since at least the early 1990s demolished the life savings of thousands of people, wrecked charities and shook confidence in the U.S. financial system.
Only Madoff and an accountant accused of failing to make basic auditing checks have faced criminal charges. But a person familiar with the investigation said Monday that at least 10 more people are likely to face federal charges by the time the probe is complete. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, wouldn't detail the likely charges against the others or say whether they would include Madoff's family or former employees.
Madoff's 150-year sentence reflected a growing tendency over the last decade to give white-collar criminals lengthy prison terms — although a handful of cases have received even longer terms. The outcome prompted scattered applause and whoops from a group of burned former clients in a packed Manhattan courtroom.
The judge noted that not one of the more than 100 letters he received supported Madoff or described any good deeds he had done.
"The absence of such support is telling," Chin said.
Chin announced the sentence with Madoff standing at the defense table, wearing a dark suit, a white shirt and a tie and looking thinner than he did at his last court appearance in March. He gave no noticeable reaction when the sentence was announced.
He also showed no emotion though he looked down earlier in the hearing as he listened to nine victims spend nearly an hour venting their despair and anger. Some openly wept or raised their voices, labeling Madoff a "monster," "a true beast" and an "evil low-life."
"Life has been a living hell. It feels like the nightmare we can't wake from," said Carla Hirshhorn.
"He stole from the rich. He stole from the poor. He stole from the in between. He had no values," said Tom Fitzmaurice. "He cheated his victims out of their money so he and his wife, Ruth, could live a life of luxury beyond belief."
Dominic Ambrosino called it an "indescribably heinous crime" and urged a long prison sentence so he "will know he is imprisoned in much the same way he imprisoned us and others."
He added: "In a sense, I would like somebody in the court today to tell me how long is my sentence."
Sheryl Weinstein, a certified accountant, said Madoff was effective because he seemed normal.
"But underneath the facade is a true beast," she said. "He should not be given the opportunity to blend so seamlessly into our society again."
When asked by the judge whether he had anything to say, Madoff slowly stood, leaned forward on the defense table and spoke in a monotone for about 10 minutes. At various times, he referred to his monumental fraud as a "problem," "an error of judgment" and "a tragic mistake."
He claimed he and his wife were tormented, saying she "cries herself to sleep every night, knowing all the pain and suffering I have caused," he said. "That's something I live with, as well."
He then finally looked at the victims lining the first row of the gallery.
"I will turn and face you," he said mechanically. "I'm sorry. I know that doesn't help you."
His immediately family did not attend the sentencing. But Ruth Madoff — often a target of victims' scorn since her husband's arrest — broke her silence afterward by issuing a statement through her lawyer. She said she, too, had been misled.
"I am embarrassed and ashamed," she said. "Like everyone else, I feel betrayed and confused. The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years."
Prosecutor Lisa Baroni said Madoff deserved a life sentence because he "stole ruthlessly and without remorse."
Outside court, some victims said it was time to move on.
"He stole my money. He didn't steal my life," said Ron Weinstein, whose wife spoke in court. "I'm not going to sit around and mope about it."
Madoff, who has been jailed since March, already has taken a severe financial hit: Last week, a judge issued a preliminary $171 billion forfeiture order stripping Madoff of all his personal property, including real estate, investments, and $80 million in assets his wife Ruth had claimed were hers. The order left her with $2.5 million that couldn't be tied to the fraud.
The terms require the Madoffs to sell a $7 million Manhattan apartment where Ruth Madoff still lives. An $11 million estate in Palm Beach, Fla., a $4 million home in Montauk and a $2.2 million boat will be put on the market as well.
Before Madoff became a symbol of Wall Street greed, he earned a reputation as a trusted money manager with a Midas touch. Even as the market fluctuated, clients of his secretive investment advisory business — from Florida retirees to celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon and Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax — for decades enjoyed steady double-digit returns.
But late last year, Madoff made a dramatic confession: Authorities say he pulled his sons aside and told them it was "all just one big lie."
Madoff pleaded guilty in March to securities fraud and other charges, saying he was "deeply sorry and ashamed." He insisted that he acted alone, describing a separate wholesale stock-trading firm run by his sons and brother as honest and legitimate.
But the family, including his wife, and brokerage firms who recruited investors have come under intense scrutiny by the FBI, regulators and a court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff's assets.
The trustee and prosecutors have sought to go after assets to compensate thousands of victims who have filed claims against Madoff. How much is available to pay them remains unknown, though it's expected to be only a fraction of the astronomical losses associated with the fraud.
The $171 billion forfeiture figure used by prosecutors merely mirrors the amount they estimate that, over decades, flowed in and out of the principal account to perpetrate the Ponzi scheme. The statements sent to investors showing their accounts were worth as much as $65 billion were fiction.
The investigation has found that in reality Madoff never made any investments, instead using the money from new investors to pay returns to existing clients — and to finance a lavish lifestyle for his family.
Madoff's sentence was not the longest for a white-collar criminal. New York businessman Sholam Weiss, 55, was sentenced in February 2000 to 845 years in prison for his role in a plot that skimmed $400 million from an insurance company, costing many of its 25,000 customers their life savings. The government lists his release date as Nov. 23, 2754.
And Norman Schmidt, 73, was sentenced in Denver last year to 330 years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar investment scam. He's scheduled for release in September 2291.
young girl dies in bathtub, electrocuted by her laptop
Girl dies Tweeting in the tub
By Christopher Null
People, people, people. Web 2.0 can do a lot of things, but it doesn't change the laws of physics, particularly in regards to the transmission of electricity.
To wit: A teenage girl was discovered dead this weekend, electrocuted after dropping her laptop in the bathtub.
Why did she need a computer in the tub? So she could update Twitter. About what she was tweeting remains unclear, but it was hopefully something more meaningful than the soap she was using.
Maria Barbu, 17, of Brasov, Romania, is said to have been plugging her laptop into wall current at the time, after "the battery died during a long session on social networking site Twitter as she took a soak."
Additional details are lacking, and are unlikely to be forthcoming anytime soon. And it's unclear whether the laptop slipped from her hands or if she was so wet that the water dripping off of her closed the circuit and caused the shock.
Either way, any technology user should know by now that computers and bathrooms simply don't mix. (If you aren't worried about electrocution, think of the germs, won't you?) While GFCI circuits were designed to prevent tragedies such as the all-too-common hair-dryer-in-the-tub accident, they aren't perfect, and they aren't universal, especially overseas.
And seriously, can't Twitter wait until you get out of the bathtub?
By Christopher Null
People, people, people. Web 2.0 can do a lot of things, but it doesn't change the laws of physics, particularly in regards to the transmission of electricity.
To wit: A teenage girl was discovered dead this weekend, electrocuted after dropping her laptop in the bathtub.
Why did she need a computer in the tub? So she could update Twitter. About what she was tweeting remains unclear, but it was hopefully something more meaningful than the soap she was using.
Maria Barbu, 17, of Brasov, Romania, is said to have been plugging her laptop into wall current at the time, after "the battery died during a long session on social networking site Twitter as she took a soak."
Additional details are lacking, and are unlikely to be forthcoming anytime soon. And it's unclear whether the laptop slipped from her hands or if she was so wet that the water dripping off of her closed the circuit and caused the shock.
Either way, any technology user should know by now that computers and bathrooms simply don't mix. (If you aren't worried about electrocution, think of the germs, won't you?) While GFCI circuits were designed to prevent tragedies such as the all-too-common hair-dryer-in-the-tub accident, they aren't perfect, and they aren't universal, especially overseas.
And seriously, can't Twitter wait until you get out of the bathtub?
IBM opts for online MBA
By Rebecca Knight
Peter Lynt, vice-president for global process delivery at IBM, does not have an MBA from Northeastern – nor from any other school for that matter. But he thinks that the degree is essential in today’s business world.
“I chose to work harder in my career to get where I am today,” he says. “But I do believe that having an MBA rounds you out, makes you more competitive and it helps you understand the dynamics of the global marketplace.”
This is precisely why Mr Lynt has helped to set up an MBA programme for the technology company’s most talented managers in India.
Tackling the work, online study balance
It is not easy juggling working full time at IBM with a demanding online MBA programme through Northeastern University College of Business Administration in the US. But Hironmoy Ghosh is already applying lessons from his classes to his job.
An early course about organisational behaviour, for instance, helped him better understand his team’s dynamics and his employees’ work styles; a class on corporate ethics helped him steer “the culture down to [his] direct reports”; and a course on finance – Mr Ghosh works in operations – helped him understand “the various cost metrics the company is driving”.
“It gives me the perfect opportunity to practice what is in the book and find out in real time if it actually works – and then the chance to correct it, and better it, through the interaction with others in the group,” says Mr Ghosh, a student based in Pune.
Mr Ghosh studies at weekends and uses free time at work to catch up on reading. The course requires self-discipline, he says.
“There is no scope to leave some portion to be covered the next day, as it simply piles up. It is different from a traditional classroom as the onus of learning and finishing the task is on you. There will be no one to ask you for a daily update.”
Shuilu Dar, a human resources professional at IBM’s office in Gurgaon, describes the online format – which combines video-based assignments with online quizzes and exams – as “invigorating”.
“Traditional classroom style learning can tend to get a little tedious but online learning, though difficult, gives you the flexibility to learn at your own pace,” she says.
The company recently partnered with Boston-based Northeastern University College of Business Administration to create an online degree course, which makes it possible for IBM employees based in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi to earn an MBA without disrupting their careers.
“We wanted to find a way to enhance the talent pool in India by enabling our key people to further their educations,” he says.
Sixteen IBM employees have participated in the programme and a further 14 are taking part now. IBM defrays the cost of the degree by paying for more than half the programme’s tuition and fees. Northeastern CBA charges $1,175 per credit.
“We subsidise it but we want them to feel ownership of [the degree],” says Mr Lynt.
So far, the programme has “resonated very well” with Indian employees, he adds. If it succeeds, IBM may bring it to other countries. “If the programme reaps the benefits we hope it will, we will expand.”
The programme, which began this year, represents Northeastern CBA’s first concentrated move overseas. John Fernandes, president and chief executive officer of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the US-based accrediting body, contends that, if the programme is considered effective, others will follow.
“If this programme is viewed to be successful, you’ll see a lot of copycats very quickly – and not just in India,” he says, adding that this type of programme could be popular in any country where the business education system is “underdeveloped”.
Mr Fernandes says that, because the programme is “purely online and delivered in a distant environment”, Northeastern CBA must work harder to ensure quality. “At some point, video conferencing will have enough capabilities that remote assessment of a student can be done,” he says.
“As it becomes more prevalent, there will be more safeguards that you’re conferring a degree on the right, capable person that’s earned that degree.”
Thomas Moore, dean of the CBA, says he came up with the idea for the programme after speaking to Mr Lynt, who studied as an undergraduate at Northeastern, about the difficulties IBM faced maintaining a high-quality workforce in India.
“By getting these high potential managers into an MBA programme, we’re adding value to IBM and helping the company recruit and retain workers,”says Prof Moore.
Developing the talented
The partnership between IBM and Northeastern University College of Business Administration to offer India-based IBM managers an online MBA programme aims to help IBM attract, keep and develop talented employees.
“We want to round out certain individuals’ capability as they grow into executive management,” says Peter Lynt, of IBM. The employee attrition rate in India is the highest of any country in which IBM operates. The entrepreneurial nature of its economy may mean that working for a global enterprise is unappealing to many workers.
“There’s a lot of opportunity and there are new start-ups,” says Mr Lynt. “It’s difficult to retain key people.”
The programme’s objective is to change that. Last year, IBM nominated workers with the greatest potential for long-term growth to enroll in the MBA programme. Those workers submitted a letter of recommendation from their supervisor and an application and were interviewed in India by a school representative.
The online MBA programme Northeastern created for IBM’s India operations “is a natural extension of the online MBA programme the school launched in 2006”, according to Mike Zack, executive faculty director of online learning for the college’s graduate business programmes. “It’s the same classes, the same content, and same faculty.”
The school’s online programme is targeted at working professionals who require the flexibility of a strictly web-based curriculum, Today it has more than 650 enrolled students, about 90 per cent of whom are American, and most participate in the programme from the US. The typical online student at Northeastern is in his late 30s, with 13 years of work experience.
Similarly, the IBM India programme is targeted “at a fairly senior band of employees,” says Prof Zack. “It’s tailored to the company’s emerging senior management. These are students who have significant work and managerial experience. They are highly motivated and know how to manage their time.”
The course of study is the same case-based curriculum as Northeastern’s traditional part-time MBA. Students meet their professors in virtual office hours each week in real time but the bulk of interaction takes place via email, conference calls and blog postings.
Prof Moore says the programme keeps CBA’s faculty on their toes. “They’re learning lots of things from their students and staying on the cutting edge of what’s going on at IBM.”
UN chief names Bill Clinton as Haiti envoy
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The United Nations named former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday as its special envoy to Haiti, with a mission to help the impoverished nation achieve some measure of stability after devastating floods and other crises.
Clinton — who will be paid $1 a year and travel to Haiti several times annually — said he was honored to accept the post.
"I believe Haiti is better positioned to make progress for all its people than at any time since I first visited in 1978," he said in a statement.
"Last year's natural disasters took a great toll, but Haiti's government and people have the determination and ability to 'build back better,' not just to repair the damage done but to lay the foundations for the long term sustainable development that has eluded them for so long," the former president said.
Clinton is popular in Haiti, but the U.N.'s peacekeepers have been widely criticized despite providing the nation with its only real security for years. The peacekeepers have patrolled since 2004 and are training an under-equipped national police force to retake control, but some consider the blue helmets to be an unwanted occupation force.
Having Clinton as the U.N.'s public face in Haiti could temper such sentiment.
Clinton is still well-regarded here for using the threat of U.S. military force to oust a dictatorship in 1994, then sending Army troops and Marines to pave the way for the return of elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been deposed in a coup.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also praised the appointment of such "a high-profile envoy," without mentioning their marriage or the requirement that State Department lawyers review Bill Clinton's international activities to avoid conflicts of interest.
"It's the kind of partnership we are looking for across the board," she told reporters at the White House, explaining that she had already been preparing a team to help Haiti. "This is going to be an added bit of leverage and focus for us."
Many poor Haitians — Aristide's power base — still long for their leader's return from exile after he was toppled a second time by a rebellion in 2004.
In March, Clinton toured the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince with the U.N. chief to encourage investment after a year that saw a food crisis, destabilizing riots and four devastating tropical storms. The former president was mobbed by enthusiastic crowds.
The following month, he attended a donors conference in Washington that resulted in pledges of $324 million for the struggling country. Haiti is the hemisphere's poorest nation and has been mired for decades in political and social turmoil.
"I am confident that President Clinton will bring energy, dynamism and focus to the task of mobilizing international support for Haiti's economic recovery and reconstruction," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
Because of the Clintons' marriage, State Department lawyers must approve some of Bill Clinton's international activities under an agreement between the U.S. Senate and the Clinton Foundation, which works in Haiti on a number of issues including health care, AIDS, the environment and economic development.
Haiti does not currently have a special U.N. envoy, and it is not clear what Clinton's duties will be. The Miami Herald, which first reported the appointment, said he will be expected to visit the Caribbean country — a two-hour flight from Miami — at least four times a year.
Clinton visited Haiti as president in 1995 and again in 2003. Hillary Clinton has also visited several times, most recently for an April meeting with President Rene Preval en route to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.
Clinton — who will be paid $1 a year and travel to Haiti several times annually — said he was honored to accept the post.
"I believe Haiti is better positioned to make progress for all its people than at any time since I first visited in 1978," he said in a statement.
"Last year's natural disasters took a great toll, but Haiti's government and people have the determination and ability to 'build back better,' not just to repair the damage done but to lay the foundations for the long term sustainable development that has eluded them for so long," the former president said.
Clinton is popular in Haiti, but the U.N.'s peacekeepers have been widely criticized despite providing the nation with its only real security for years. The peacekeepers have patrolled since 2004 and are training an under-equipped national police force to retake control, but some consider the blue helmets to be an unwanted occupation force.
Having Clinton as the U.N.'s public face in Haiti could temper such sentiment.
Clinton is still well-regarded here for using the threat of U.S. military force to oust a dictatorship in 1994, then sending Army troops and Marines to pave the way for the return of elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been deposed in a coup.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also praised the appointment of such "a high-profile envoy," without mentioning their marriage or the requirement that State Department lawyers review Bill Clinton's international activities to avoid conflicts of interest.
"It's the kind of partnership we are looking for across the board," she told reporters at the White House, explaining that she had already been preparing a team to help Haiti. "This is going to be an added bit of leverage and focus for us."
Many poor Haitians — Aristide's power base — still long for their leader's return from exile after he was toppled a second time by a rebellion in 2004.
In March, Clinton toured the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince with the U.N. chief to encourage investment after a year that saw a food crisis, destabilizing riots and four devastating tropical storms. The former president was mobbed by enthusiastic crowds.
The following month, he attended a donors conference in Washington that resulted in pledges of $324 million for the struggling country. Haiti is the hemisphere's poorest nation and has been mired for decades in political and social turmoil.
"I am confident that President Clinton will bring energy, dynamism and focus to the task of mobilizing international support for Haiti's economic recovery and reconstruction," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
Because of the Clintons' marriage, State Department lawyers must approve some of Bill Clinton's international activities under an agreement between the U.S. Senate and the Clinton Foundation, which works in Haiti on a number of issues including health care, AIDS, the environment and economic development.
Haiti does not currently have a special U.N. envoy, and it is not clear what Clinton's duties will be. The Miami Herald, which first reported the appointment, said he will be expected to visit the Caribbean country — a two-hour flight from Miami — at least four times a year.
Clinton visited Haiti as president in 1995 and again in 2003. Hillary Clinton has also visited several times, most recently for an April meeting with President Rene Preval en route to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.
Court fines man for beheading wax Hitler
BERLIN (Reuters) – A German court fined an unemployed man 900 euros ($1,227) Tuesday for knocking the head off a waxwork figure of Adolf Hitler in a Berlin museum.
Minutes after the Madame Tussauds museum opened in the German capital in July, the 42-year-old pushed past security staff ripped off its head. The man, an ex-policeman, said he found it inappropriate to display an exhibit showing the Nazi leader only some 500 meters from Berlin's Holocaust memorial.
The waxwork of a glum-looking Hitler in a mock bunker stirred debate in Germany even before it went on display. Critics argued it was tasteless to display a replica of the man who unleashed World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe's Jews.
Madame Tussauds said the museum avoided politics, arguing Hitler stood for a significant part of German history and his waxwork therefore had a legitimate part in the exhibition.
The restored figure was returned to the museum in September and is now displayed behind a glass wall.
About 25 workers spent about four months on the original waxwork, using more than 2,000 pictures and pieces of archive material and also guided by a model of the "Fuehrer" in the London branch of Madame Tussauds.
The wax figure has been cited as the latest in a gradual breaking down of taboos about Hitler in Germany more than 60 years after the end of the war and the Holocaust in which some six million Jews were killed.
The 2004 film "Downfall" provoked controversy as it portrayed the leader in a human light during the last days of his life. In 2007, a satire about Hitler by Swiss-born Jewish director Dani Levy was released in Germany.
It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler.
(Reporting by Kerstin Rebien; Writing by Kerstin Gehmlich; editing by Ralph Boulton)
Minutes after the Madame Tussauds museum opened in the German capital in July, the 42-year-old pushed past security staff ripped off its head. The man, an ex-policeman, said he found it inappropriate to display an exhibit showing the Nazi leader only some 500 meters from Berlin's Holocaust memorial.
The waxwork of a glum-looking Hitler in a mock bunker stirred debate in Germany even before it went on display. Critics argued it was tasteless to display a replica of the man who unleashed World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe's Jews.
Madame Tussauds said the museum avoided politics, arguing Hitler stood for a significant part of German history and his waxwork therefore had a legitimate part in the exhibition.
The restored figure was returned to the museum in September and is now displayed behind a glass wall.
About 25 workers spent about four months on the original waxwork, using more than 2,000 pictures and pieces of archive material and also guided by a model of the "Fuehrer" in the London branch of Madame Tussauds.
The wax figure has been cited as the latest in a gradual breaking down of taboos about Hitler in Germany more than 60 years after the end of the war and the Holocaust in which some six million Jews were killed.
The 2004 film "Downfall" provoked controversy as it portrayed the leader in a human light during the last days of his life. In 2007, a satire about Hitler by Swiss-born Jewish director Dani Levy was released in Germany.
It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler.
(Reporting by Kerstin Rebien; Writing by Kerstin Gehmlich; editing by Ralph Boulton)
America's Best- and Worst-Paying Jobs
by Klaus Kneale, Forbes.com
It's still better to be a doctor than a dicer. Food preparation and serving remains the nation's lowest-paid line of work, while the medical field still offers the nine best-paid jobs in the U.S.
According to the U.S. government's newly released Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, based on 2008 data, the typical surgeon makes an average of $206,770 a year. That puts surgeons above anesthesiologists to have the best-paying job in the country.
Internists now earn a little more than prosthodontists (people who make and fit false teeth). Otherwise, the top 10 jobs rank the same as a year ago. The biggest change is a nearly $10,000-a-year drop in pay for natural sciences managers, meaning people who run labs and research facilities.
Within the 25 best- and 25 worst-paying jobs, not much has changed. The best-paying 25 are all the same as last year with some minor rearrangements. Within the worst-paying, one job fell off the list -- or, rather, climbed out. Agriculture graders and sorters now make enough to rank as the 26th worst paid job in America. Maybe chicken sexing isn't quite as bad as it used to be. Replacing them on the list: employment in food-preparation and serving jobs like cappuccino maker and "sandwich artist."
Overall, the average annual wage in the U.S. was up 3.9% from a year before, rising to $42,270. That is about in line with the 3.8% increase the year before. Perhaps the increase in average wage may continue, if only because of people at the top keeping their jobs as those lower down lose them. After all, Ken Lewis is holding on as chief executive officer of Bank of America, though the bank announced in December it would be reducing its workforce by 35,000 over the next three years.
Want to push your pay up as high as possible? Land a job as a surgeon in Gary, Indiana. The average surgeon there makes almost $15,000 above the national average. Who makes the farthest below average? Waiters and waitresses in Yauco, Puerto Rico, who earn $13,610 a year. Within the 50 states, the big loser would be a counter attendant in a cafeteria or concession stand in Owenboro, Ky., pulling in just $13,810 a year.
Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, D.C. had far and away the highest average annual salary, at $67,810. Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut followed, all at around $50,000. Puerto Rico has the lowest average annual salary, $24,650 -- despite having a cost of living comparable to the District of Columbia. Among the 50 states, though, South Dakota and Mississippi ranked the lowest, at about $33,000.
Postal workers and models will be happy to know that their average annual pay increased more than anyone else's. Postal workers make 23.2% more than a year ago, bringing them up to an annual salary of $54,550. Models didn't make nearly as much to begin with, but they're up 20.4% to $30,160 a year.
The railroad industry got hit pretty hard. Rail yard engineers, yard engine operators and hostlers now make 14.0% less than they used to, the second-largest drop in pay, to $34,840 from $40,510 Locomotive engineers were hit even harder; they now make 15.4% less than before, though unlike rail yard engineers they still make slightly more than the national average.
America's Best-Paying Jobs (Top 5)
1. Surgeons ($206,770)
2. Anesthesiologists ($197,570)
3. Orthodontists ($194,930)
4. Obstetrician and gynecologists ($192,780)
5. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons ($190,420)
Click here for full list of America's best-paying jobs
America's Worst-Paying Jobs (Bottom 5)
1. Combined food-preparation and service workers, ($17,400)
2. Cooks, fast food ($17,620)
3. Dishwashers ($17,750)
4. Dining room/cafeteria attendants, bartender helpers ($18,140)
5. Shampooers ($18,300)
Click here for full list of America's worst-paying jobs
It's still better to be a doctor than a dicer. Food preparation and serving remains the nation's lowest-paid line of work, while the medical field still offers the nine best-paid jobs in the U.S.
According to the U.S. government's newly released Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, based on 2008 data, the typical surgeon makes an average of $206,770 a year. That puts surgeons above anesthesiologists to have the best-paying job in the country.
Internists now earn a little more than prosthodontists (people who make and fit false teeth). Otherwise, the top 10 jobs rank the same as a year ago. The biggest change is a nearly $10,000-a-year drop in pay for natural sciences managers, meaning people who run labs and research facilities.
Within the 25 best- and 25 worst-paying jobs, not much has changed. The best-paying 25 are all the same as last year with some minor rearrangements. Within the worst-paying, one job fell off the list -- or, rather, climbed out. Agriculture graders and sorters now make enough to rank as the 26th worst paid job in America. Maybe chicken sexing isn't quite as bad as it used to be. Replacing them on the list: employment in food-preparation and serving jobs like cappuccino maker and "sandwich artist."
Overall, the average annual wage in the U.S. was up 3.9% from a year before, rising to $42,270. That is about in line with the 3.8% increase the year before. Perhaps the increase in average wage may continue, if only because of people at the top keeping their jobs as those lower down lose them. After all, Ken Lewis is holding on as chief executive officer of Bank of America, though the bank announced in December it would be reducing its workforce by 35,000 over the next three years.
Want to push your pay up as high as possible? Land a job as a surgeon in Gary, Indiana. The average surgeon there makes almost $15,000 above the national average. Who makes the farthest below average? Waiters and waitresses in Yauco, Puerto Rico, who earn $13,610 a year. Within the 50 states, the big loser would be a counter attendant in a cafeteria or concession stand in Owenboro, Ky., pulling in just $13,810 a year.
Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, D.C. had far and away the highest average annual salary, at $67,810. Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut followed, all at around $50,000. Puerto Rico has the lowest average annual salary, $24,650 -- despite having a cost of living comparable to the District of Columbia. Among the 50 states, though, South Dakota and Mississippi ranked the lowest, at about $33,000.
Postal workers and models will be happy to know that their average annual pay increased more than anyone else's. Postal workers make 23.2% more than a year ago, bringing them up to an annual salary of $54,550. Models didn't make nearly as much to begin with, but they're up 20.4% to $30,160 a year.
The railroad industry got hit pretty hard. Rail yard engineers, yard engine operators and hostlers now make 14.0% less than they used to, the second-largest drop in pay, to $34,840 from $40,510 Locomotive engineers were hit even harder; they now make 15.4% less than before, though unlike rail yard engineers they still make slightly more than the national average.
America's Best-Paying Jobs (Top 5)
1. Surgeons ($206,770)
2. Anesthesiologists ($197,570)
3. Orthodontists ($194,930)
4. Obstetrician and gynecologists ($192,780)
5. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons ($190,420)
Click here for full list of America's best-paying jobs
America's Worst-Paying Jobs (Bottom 5)
1. Combined food-preparation and service workers, ($17,400)
2. Cooks, fast food ($17,620)
3. Dishwashers ($17,750)
4. Dining room/cafeteria attendants, bartender helpers ($18,140)
5. Shampooers ($18,300)
Click here for full list of America's worst-paying jobs
THE MOST POPULAR LEADER IN THE WORLD
Berlusconi says he world's most popular leader
NAPLES (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has compared himself to Jesus Christ and Napoleon, boasted on Friday that he was the world's most popular leader.
The conservative premier, in his third term in office, said opinion poll findings in his possession showed his popularity at just over 75 percent, making him far more popular than U.S. President Barack Obama -- or any other head of government.
"The opinion polls I know say that he (Obama) is at 59 percent. Only (Brazilian President Luiz Inacio) Lula tops 60 percent -- he is at 64 percent. So mine is a record high," he told reporters in Naples where he attended a May Day concert.
On his way out of the concert hall, the 72-year-old Berlusconi -- who has proclaimed himself the Jesus Christ of Italian politics and once said he was second only to Napoleon, except taller -- was heckled by protesters who shouted "Go Away!."
Commentators agree Berlusconi enjoys high popularity ratings despite the economic crisis -- the International Monetary Fund expects Italy's economy to contract by 4.4 percent this year -- although perhaps not as high as he claims.
A poll published last month by left-leaning La Repubblica daily said support for Berlusconi stood at 56 percent and had risen in April for the first time since October thanks to his hands-on response to a deadly earthquake.
Berlusconi, who regularly complains of unfair treatment by the media despite directly or indirectly controlling 90 percent of Italy's television, put his own popularity at 75.1 percent.
"These are independent surveys, but they are not promptly published," he said.
NAPLES (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has compared himself to Jesus Christ and Napoleon, boasted on Friday that he was the world's most popular leader.
The conservative premier, in his third term in office, said opinion poll findings in his possession showed his popularity at just over 75 percent, making him far more popular than U.S. President Barack Obama -- or any other head of government.
"The opinion polls I know say that he (Obama) is at 59 percent. Only (Brazilian President Luiz Inacio) Lula tops 60 percent -- he is at 64 percent. So mine is a record high," he told reporters in Naples where he attended a May Day concert.
On his way out of the concert hall, the 72-year-old Berlusconi -- who has proclaimed himself the Jesus Christ of Italian politics and once said he was second only to Napoleon, except taller -- was heckled by protesters who shouted "Go Away!."
Commentators agree Berlusconi enjoys high popularity ratings despite the economic crisis -- the International Monetary Fund expects Italy's economy to contract by 4.4 percent this year -- although perhaps not as high as he claims.
A poll published last month by left-leaning La Repubblica daily said support for Berlusconi stood at 56 percent and had risen in April for the first time since October thanks to his hands-on response to a deadly earthquake.
Berlusconi, who regularly complains of unfair treatment by the media despite directly or indirectly controlling 90 percent of Italy's television, put his own popularity at 75.1 percent.
"These are independent surveys, but they are not promptly published," he said.
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