The Blogfather

It will re-Kindle your love for reading

Amazon's Kindle does it right on the first try
Only a literary Luddite wouldn't love it, and I've had five already

By Walter Brooks

I may have set a world record - I've had five Amazon Kindles in 18 months

The Kindle2 is the best new electronic device I've ever used, and I've owned them all.

I canceled my decades old print subscription to the New York Times because it's easier to read it on my Kindle2. It is automatically updated every night when The Times goes to press for $13.99 a month.

The story of how and why I've had five of Amazon's new e-reader in a year and a half is both telling about the company and embarrassing about me, so I have to tell you about the device itself first.

People who know me are aware I've jumped head first into every new electronic device or program I've come across. The web company my daughter in law and I run, eCape.com, was online with our magazine Best Read Guide ahead of every other media (print or otherwise) on Cape Cod and capecodtoday.com was the first web-only newssite in America shortly after that in 1997.

Thanksgiving 2007

When the first Kindle was announced  by Amazon around Thanksgiving  in 2007 my wife ordered the then $359. device the next day to have it on hand for a Christmas gift for me.

It's lucky she did because within weeks there was a several month-long backlog, and used ones were selling on eBay for as high as $1,800.

 The first version was thicker and less user-friendly than the new Kindle2 which came out earlier this year and has now been reduced in price to $299, after a third of a million have been sold.

But even the first version was easier to set-up and operate than any new e-device I'd ever owned and was nearly flawless.

The newer Kindle2 measures 8" x 5.3" x 0.36" overall which includes a QWERTY keyboard and has a reading surface the size of a regular paperback.

At 10.2 ounces, Kindle2 is lighter than a paperback and at a third of an inch thinner than most magazines. It has page-turning buttons on both sides, allowing you to read and turn pages comfortably with one hand from any position.

Kindle2 has a new "toggle mouse", a 5-way controller which allows on-screen navigation for selecting text to highlight or looking up words with the built-in dictionary as you slide the curser to any word. You can also select from seven different type sizes in a nanosecond, and the Kindle2 is completely wireless and ready to use right out of the box- no setup, no cables, no computer required.

Literary Luddite disses the future

But all this slim, trim and trouble-free effort on the part of Amazon failed to impress Nicholas Baker in this week's edition of The New Yorker. I don't know who felt more threatened by the Kindle, the magazine's editor or the author who makes more money I guess when he sells a papaer copy of one of his books over an e-edition which on a Kindle cost between $3 and $9,95.

Kindle2 comes with free access to Sprint for searching the web and downloading books from Amazon.

Still, it was a shock for this long-time subscriber of New Yorker to read such unmitigated drivel and misinformation about a device which has the potential of hugely increasing the readership of Mr. Baker's books and all others. The man's a literary Luddite.

I have three separate library areas in my home with over 3,000 books, and you may assume I read a lot, but since I've owned my Kindle(s) I've read twice as many books (over 90 bought on my Kindle in 18 months), and I continue to buy books in print as well.

 Why? Because books are easier to read on my Kindle, and I can download new books in three seconds without stirring from my chair. I can also download books, magazines and newspapers anywhere there is a  Sprint cellphone signal.

The Kindle is not back-lit and can be read outdoors in bright light.

The only drawback I've discovered is that when I access the Kindle Store on my device and search for an author, the books available are not listed by date of publication so I can't easily see the latest ones vs. the older ones.

This is more than mitigated by the thousands of classics which Amazon offer absolutely free. Think of the books you've always meant to read: Moby Dick, War and Peace, Middlemarch, Dracula, Frankenstein, The complete Sherlock Holmes, P.G. Wodehouse; The Three Musketeers, Anna Karenina, all  free on Kindle.

And there are over 300,000 more (so far) available here.

O.K., here's why I've had five Kindles in 18 months

The first Kndle was chunkier and less user-friendly.

The Sprint service on Cape Cod is shown in green.

My Kindle #1 was giev to me for Christmas in 2007. I was very careful with it until April 15, 2009, when I was covering that Tax Day Revolt in Hyannis. I was standing alongside my car reading my Kindle when Billy Snowden called me to complain about some commenter dissing him on capecodtoday.com.

The call lasted so long I placed my Kindle on the roof of my car to mollify him. After I hung up I called my office to ask an Editor to delete the dis for Billy, then I drove off - forgetting the Kindle on the car's roof.

When I thought about it I was miles away, and I knew it was a goner. I called the Kindle service number (it always answers within twenty seconds) and asked that they cancel my account until I decided what to do.

When a week passed with no one calling to return it, I ordered my Kindle #2 which was the new version shown in the top, right photo.

Amazingly everything I had downloaded on my first Kindle was archived for me on the new one, and I could select which books to load on my Kindle2 with one click (the device will hold 1,500 books but archiving on the Amazon site is a one-click simpility).

Fast forward five weeks to my grandson's 11th birthday party at Ardeo's in Brewster. Toward the end of the meal his sister and her friend were cutting-up, so I was asked to take the two 8-year girls somewhere for a while.

"Somewhere" to me is usually a ice cream store, and I slipped my new, slim Kindle2 into a loose windbreaker jacket, got into my car with the jacket hanging out the door unbeknown to me, and slammed the door on my new Kindle which cracked the screen.

No nagging, no recrimination, no charge

A call to that service number brought no nagging, and I was told my new Kindle was already being shipped and would arrive the next day at no charge.

Amazon has set a new standard in customer service. The 800 number always answers with help within a minute or less, and to date they have replaced several damages e-readers at no cost to me.

It arrived next-day UPS with everything archived, and it lasted one month until my grandson's graduation from the Eddy School in Brewster.

This time he was playing his new drum set, and I sat listening in the school gym until my wife asked me to take a video.

I set my Kindle on my seat, and took the video. When I returned my wife had laid her program on my seat covering the Kindle which I promptly sat on and again cracked the screen.

I called Kindle from the gym, no nagging, just incredible service, and the next afternoon I had my fourth Kindle.

Two weeks ago I took my Kindle along to NYC for a visit to show my grand-kids my old coffeehouse and where we used to hang out. I was reading my Kindle in bright sun, and the type started fading. 

When I called Amazon and asked if this was a problem with the new "e-ink", they said no, but since they wanted me to be happy, my new Kindle (#5) was already being shipped.

I think I'm probably eligible for the Guinness Book of Records, along with Amazon as the world's best in customer service.

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1959: The Year Everything Changed

Fifty years ago on a beach in Truro

On left, the bearded Rafio when he was a beat poet and street artist with his girlfriend Patsy Twite in the middle and her friend Barbara Chase on the left. The middle photo is Patricia in the late 1960s and 70s she was a model in Puritan's weekly full-page ad in The Cape Codder where the author, now Walter Brooks again, was Advertising Manager and photographer.

What a difference a half century makes

By Rafio, a.k.a. Walter Brooks
There is a new best seller named "1959: The Year Everything Changed", and it could have been written with me in mind.

From the book 1959:
The Year Everything Changed

It was the year when the microchip was introduced, the Food and Drug Administration held hearings on the birth-control pill, IBM marketed the first business computer, a passenger jetliner took the first nonstop trans-Atlantic flight, and America joined the Russians in the "space race." It saw the rise of free jazz, "sick comics," the New Journalism, and indie films; the birth of Motown, Happenings, and the Generation Gap; the Lady Chatterley trial that overthrew the nation's obscenity laws; the U.S. Civil Rights Commission's first report, which sparked the overhaul of segregation laws-all this bursting against fears of a "missile gap," the fallout-shelter craze, and the first U.S. casualties in the war in Vietnam.

During this summer in 1959 I was known as Rafio, and my home was a pup tent in the sand dunes at Land's End in Provincetown.

I would spend a couple hours each day sketching portraits of tourists on Commercial Street, and when I had enough for a New York Times, a nickle bag of noxious weed and lunch, I'd quit for the day.

This was 1959 and the only coke around came in a six-ounce, glass bottle. It was an innocent but bigoted era.

I didn't drink alcohol and rolled my own cigarettes, so all I did all day was lay in the sun, flirt with women, and wait for the long-gone "Wreck Club" to serve their free food each evening after the fishing boats unloaded.

One day's repast might be pasta and another might be squid stew, but it was fun and it was free for the price of a drink at this great old watering hole.

I was beatific and had reached nirvana.

Then I met Patricia

 I was coming back from a swim in the harbor on August 22, 1959, when I spotted this incredibly beautiful young 17-year-old girl in front of Adam's Pharmacy walking off with the sketch pad I had left on my easel at the Crown & Anchor.

I asked her why she'd glommed it, and she said. "the drawings were so lovely, I couldn't resist them."

Guess what - I didn't say another word, and one thing led to another until she moved into my pup tent with me that night.

We had a rapturous week together at Ballston Beach behind her family's camp on Old King's Highway in Truro, and even made poet Harry Kemp's last beach party.

But it all came to a screeching halt when her parents came down on Labor Day and dragged her back home.

I asked Ruth Hogan to paint this oil of the spot Pat and I met, Adam's Pharmacy in Ptown.

Pat gave them a month to see the light, and then she ran off to look for me in Greenwich Village.

Miracle on  4th Street

She didn't have an address because I didn't have one myself. I crashed at various friends' pads in the Village. The only thing she knew was that I hung out at the Rienzi on McDougal Street.

She took a bus to the terminal on West 42nd Street, ignored the pimps and other chicken hawks, and took a cab to 6th Avenue and 4th Street.

She started walking east on 4th Street until we passed each other.

I had been heading for the subway on 6th Avenue to get to the northern end and then hitchhike to Massachusetts and bring her back with me.

Neither of us at the time thought anything about how impossible meeting on the one block really was. Today it still gives me shivers.

This was the Beat Era, and The Village was jumping with art, music, poetry - it was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius as well as sexual freedom, Civil Rights blooming and America would never be the same again.

Pat and I had our own, very successful coffeehouse on Bleeker Street, and generally raised all kinds of hell until Pat was about to give birth to our first of two sons in 1961.

I gave up the coffeehouse, got a job at the New York Post to get my resume back together, and by 1965 we were living in  a little Cape Cod dream house and working for The Cape Codder newspaper.

This August 22nd will mark our fiftieth year together, so 1959 really did change everything for us, thankfully, and below is the happy couple with the Fresh Air Fund visitor Gina Peterson at Long Pond in Brewster around 1972.

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What are YOUR pet peeves?

I'll show you mine if you show me yours
Be honest, everyone has them, here's your chance to beef

By Walter "Vladek" Brooks

I was leaving work today driving behind a "bluehead" in an older Chevy heading south on Route 134 nearing the Police station with plenty of time to make the light when the driver ahead stopped in the middle of the road and waved someone parked at the garden supply store parking lot out into traffic ahead of her stopping the traffic in both directions on this state highway in the process.

"My pet peeve? er, daylight, garlic, crosses, stakes, you know, the wooden ones..." - Vlad the Impaler.

Why is this a pet peeve?

1. It's a violation of the state driving laws. Cars are not permitted to stop on a highway unless waiting to turn left or right themselves with their direction blinkers on.
2. The cars behind and those approaching have no idea why the car is stopped, and often attempt to pass sometimes causing a collision with the poor sucker the "bluehead" has invited into danger.

When questioned why she did such a silly and dangerous thing later, the old poop explained she was being friendly. Aaaaarrrggghhh!

Pet peeve #2 is when shoppers in a store parking lot walk across in front of incoming traffic at a wide angle to their own parked car thus blocking the lane twice or three times longer than necessary if they crossed at a right angle to traffic.

Pet peeve # 3 is people walking on the highway with their backs to the traffic especially in dark clothes. The only good thing about this is that it works wonders over time due to Darwin's theory of "natural selection."

Now show me yours!

O.K., there are three of mine (I have others I will spare you today), and it's your turn to tell me and our tens of thousands of readers your pet peeves.

If you are a registered commenter, add you peeve below now. If not, register and do so immediately!

For the technology-challenged, you can email me your pet peeve and I'll add it myself wirth or without your name.

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Globe Guild is out to lunch, and dinner

Creative writing and "guaranteed lifetime jobs" don't mix
It's akin to "guaranteed creativity"

By Walter Brooks

Sorry fellas and girls, but the real world is beckoning to you Boston Globe writers and back office folks, and you aren't paying attention.

Your employer is losing money big time. The newspaper you "work" at was worth $1.1 billion sixteen years ago when the New York Times bought it, but the owners can't find a buyer for a tenth of that today.

Two hundred Globe writers have "guaranteed lifetime jobs" and presumably were a hunk of the vote to turn down management's offer which was a requirement to avoid  shutting down this news source.

What will happen to these "guaranteed lifetime jobs" when, not if, The Globe declares bankruptcy?

Do the writers actually believe that Globe readers "owe" them anything? Does my Starbuck's barista "owe" me anything other than the coffee I paid for?

It's the other way around. Journalists owe their readers a hell of a lot more news for the money you are getting paid at what Globe peers call "the velvet coffin."

When Globe columnists write twice a week rather than daily, when the rest of the Globe's writers are unwilling to knock out a couple news stories every day, then some other media will do it, and the Globe will end up in the dust bin of obsolescence.

Assigning fault

It won't be the fault of The Boston Globe or the New York Times. It will be the fault of overcompensated, under-worked writers and office staff along with the former owners who granted these foolish indulgences.

What do these prima donas think it takes to cover a news story? It requires a native curiosity coupled with the ability to write simple declarative sentences into a story which explains who, what, when, where and why in the first paragraph.

It isn't rocket science, literally. That does require advanced education.

The number of Americans who are out of work is nearly 10 per cent and the newspaper industry is archaic at best. Unless a business shows a reasonable profit, there is no possibility that even a billionaire will buy it and be willing to absorb the $50 million a year losses at this newspaper.

Instead either the current owners, the New York Times, or anyone they sell The Globe to, will simply declare bankruptcy which will kill every union contract along with those "lifetime guaranteed jobs."

Globe's Guild members had best get their heads out of the sand, and look around at the real world.

But geniuses who turn down a 10% pay cut in favor of a 23% one, aren't wise enough to be working for The Globe anyway. As the poet Friedrich Schiller said, "Against stupidity, even the Gods struggle in vain."

Disclaimer: I have been a Newspaper Guild member myself when I worked at the New York Post in the 1960s. That was then, this is now. All the protections which labor unions (the Newspaper Guild is a such) fought for at the beginning of the 20th century are now enshrined in federal laws. Unions are as obsolete as lazy writers. - Walter Brooks, Editor, Cape Cod TODAY.

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Obama, Patrick may tax sugar next

Sodas a Tempting Tax Target
Taxes have little effect on this sweet habit

By Walter Brooks

"A tax on sugar to fight obesity.
Is probably the best thing to do at least-ity." - Blogfather, 2009.

"Sugar, rum and tobacco are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation." - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776.

That quotation, from the great philosopher of capitalism, appeared at the start of an article that ran a few weeks ago in The New England Journal of Medicine. The article argued for taxing Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Red Bull and any other sugar-sweetened beverage, largely to combat obesity.

The authors were Kelly Brownell, a longtime obesity researcher at Yale, and Thomas Frieden, the New York City health commissioner. Since the article appeared, President Obama appointed Dr. Frieden to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So one of the nation's top public health officials is now a fierce proponent of a soda tax. Meanwhile, other Obama advisers and some Senate staff members have been talking about such a tax - which wouldn't apply to diet soda or real juice - as a way to help pay for expanded health insurance. Among 15 options for paying for health care reform, a new Senate Finance Committee analysis lists a "sugar-sweetened beverage excise tax."

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo hate this idea, of course, and they're fighting hard (if quietly) against it... NY Times.
_____

Massachusetts' Proposed Tax on Sweets May Not Dampen Demand

John Auerbach, the Massachusetts public health commissioner, acknowledged in an interview that the main objective of the sugar tax is revenue generation, not behavior modification. The $43.5 million the state expects to collect annually from taxes on candy and soft drinks -- both regular and diet varieties -- would go to a fund for public health services, including community health centers, dental care, and violence prevention.

When Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick proposed a 5 percent premium on sugary treats last week, his administration called it a sin tax with a bonus: The levy, a briefing paper stated, would be "a critical first step in discouraging the consumption of these empty calories," according to a report in the Boston Globe.

But there is little evidence that an extra nickel or dime for a candy bar would significantly dampen demand for products blamed for fueling the nation's obesity epidemic, the newspaper reported.

Chicago researchers who studied the effects of state tax policies on consumer behavior concluded that modest fees on candy and soft drinks produce equally modest effects on waistlines and consumption. "If the state's purpose of a 5 percent tax is to drive down the obesity rate, then that's an overstatement of what it's likely to do," Frank Chaloupka, director of the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told the Boston Globe. "The bottom line is that the taxes are really too low to significantly affect obesity." States big and small, from California to Rhode Island, tack a surcharge onto soft drinks and candy. In all, 33 states have sales taxes on soda or candy as of Jan. 1, 2008, with most rates hovering between 4 and 6 percent, according to the report... Convenience Store News.

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Ode to the Valley of Swat

In the Pakistan valley of Swat,
The Taliban are hatching a plot.
They were told to by God,
Which seems exceedingly odd,
Since nice people is the one thing they're not.

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Geriatric's revenge

Watch out for those Senior Citizens! (from a friend)

The other day I went downtown to run a few errands. I went into the local coffee shop for a snack.
I was only there for about 5 minutes, and when I came out, there was this cop writing out a parking ticket.

I said to him, 'Come on, man, how about giving a retired person a break'?

He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. His insensitivity annoyed me, so I called him a 'Nazi.'

He glared at me and then wrote out another ticket for having worn tires.

So I proceeded to call him a 'doughnut eating Gestapo.' He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first.

Then he wrote a third ticket when I called him a moron in blue.

This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I talked back to him the more tickets he wrote.

Personally, I didn't really care. I came downtown on the bus, and the car that he was putting the tickets on had one of those bumper stickers that said, 'STOP the Wind Farm'

I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired.

The doctor tells me that it's important for my health.

9 comments »

First in a series of Cape Cod Parables

Cape Parable #1
Marketing on Olde Cape Cod

The way we were when - In these true vignettes from the Cape of the 1960s when ye olde editor worked at a local newspaper. We would love to pass along your similar experiences. Email me.

By Walter Brooks

Orleans, 1965: I was ad manager at The Cape Codder weekly in this town named for a French Duke, but I brought my Greenwich Village, NYC habits with me.

Every evening after work, I would stop at the long-gone Livingston Pharmacy on Main Street (where Westie's Shoes is today).

I had reserved a daily copy of the New York Herald Tribune, and I always grabbed a Skybar along with it.

That sequence proceded without a problem for two years until one afternoon when I picked up my Tribune there were no Skybars in their accustomed place on the candy shelves.

There weren't any the next day or the next or the next.

I assumed they had run out of my favorite candy bar, a correct assumption I later discovered, and allowed a week to pass before I asked owner Urban (yes, that was his name) Livingston if he was going to get some more Skybars in soon.

That special form of Olde Cape marketing

He replied, "No."

I asked if he could still acquire them, and he said, "Yes."

Being a smart marketing genius I asked if it was because they were not selling well enough to handle, but he said, "no, we sell lots of them."

So, naturally I inquired, "Then why aren't you going to reorder them?"

Urban replied with a olde-time Cape Cod wisdom which escapes me to this day, "Because I can't keep them in stock."

Moral of the story

Never let your customers tell you how to run your business.

I swear this account is true word-for-word, and anyone who has lived around here more than forty years will get a sense of déjà vu.

I hope that any readers who did will add a comment or send me their "Olde Cape" experience to retell here.

19 comments »

Liberal Editor costs Obama the Election

Walter Brooks blamed for Barack's one-vote loss

This CNNBC video reveals the alarming result of one voter failing to cast his ballot on November 4.
Click here or either video screen to see this short spoof of our editor, then customize it yourself.

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U.S. Marshals Seize Indicted Embezzler's Property

• Judge orders 3 houses to be seized by U.S. Marshals, Florida boats and cars already seized
• All 5 boats ordered to be seized
• All but 2 cars appear to have been seized
  
• $1.9 million Harwich Port house remains at status quo
• Windle FAQ below 

By Julie Brooks

At summer's end, as his empire rapidly crumbles, accused Harwich Port embezzler Jeffrey Windle, prisoner #49175 at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, faces a conference on September 17th which may or may not determine his fate.   

Instead of reeling in  striped bass from Nantucket Sound from one of his Cape Cod  boats , or catching grouper in the Gulf  of Mexico from one of his Florida boats,  Jeffrey spent his summer as a landlubber in America's Hometown, Plymouth.   Perhaps he was able to enjoy the weather by working on the prison's 90-acre farm.  

Obsessed by boats and landscaping to a degree which surpasses even most Harwich Port residents, (and that's saying a lot!)  Jeffrey's fate is now in the hands of the federal court.  But I think it's safe to say this oft-described neatnik is not likely to be polishing his brass boat cleats or admiring his hydrangeas for quite a few years to come.

 Jeffrey Windle, age 41, who was arrested May 2 on charges that he embezzled $14 million from his employer, Cambium Learning of Natick, and also $200,000- $400,000 from the South Dennis Congregational Church, where he served as a volunteer treasurer, has been in custody in the Plymouth County Correctional Facility since his arrest, where he is being held with out bail.

 On June 26th,   he was indicted by a federal grand jury on 5 counts each of mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.  Some of Jeffrey Windle's boats and cars at his Florida compound were seized July 16th by the U.S.  Marshal Service, according to a source close to the Florida property, but his classic VW and his Donzi boat remain.     On June 30 his attorney, John Moscardelli, entered a plea of not guilty and a status conference was scheduled for August 4th.   At this conference, a final status conference was scheduled for September 17th.

What a difference 4 months makes
Less than 4 months ago, Jeffrey Windle was commuting 5 hours per day, in one of his two Mercedes,  to Natick to work at his job as Director of Budget and Finance for Cambium Learning.   He was paid $100,000 per year.    He lived in a $1.9 million house in Harwich which he purchased in 2004, shortly after he began working full-time for Cambium.   He did extensive renovations, including interior work and putting in a lighted tennis court and pool.    He enjoyed going fishing in his 5 luxury boats, some of which he kept at Allen Harbor in Harwich and some at his Florida compound.     He was in the process of building a home in Duxbury, held a mortgage on a property on Route 6A in Dennis, and owned another house on Trotting Park Road in Dennis.  His extensive renovations  and landscaping on his two adjacent houses on the Intracoastal waterway in Placida,  Florida were just being finished. 

His wife Jeannine, whose love of shopping was reportedly legendary, was a stay-at-home mother to their two children.  The couple were supporters and hosts for the Harwich Mariners.   A few months before, he had forfeited a $450,000 deposit on a $4.5 million home overlooking Wychmere Harbor when he backed out of the sale the night before the closing.   He had also ended negotiations with a marine company to buy a 1/3 stake in the company for $7.5 million.   He had meetings with a local bank about getting a $2 million commercial loan. 

Rarely traveling out of town, (a trait common to many embezzlers), Jeffrey managed his complex  empire by making frequent phone calls from his office.  In April of this year, Cambium's CFO, Dave Caron,  approached Jeffrey with questions about why the company's $870,000 insurance premium to Blue Cross/Blue Shield had gone unpaid.  It was the beginning of the end.

During his employment at Cambium Learning from 2004 - 2008, Jeffrey Windle purchased 5 houses, 5 boats, and at least 5 cars, whose combined purchase prices total approximately $7 million.   According to my sources, the rest of the money alleged to have been stolen has not been located in the form of bank accounts or tangible assets.

 3 never-been-lived-in houses

Recently, a federal judge ordered that the U.S. Marshal Service seize Jeffrey's two houses in Florida, located at 260 and 270 Capstan Drive in Placida, and also a property at 261 Crescent Street in Duxbury.   (Pictured right, second one down).    The Duxbury property was purchased in February 2007 for  $520,000.  The existing house was razed and a new house was in the process of being built at the time of Jeffrey's arrest.  Although Jeffrey has not yet stood trial or been found guilty, these properties were ordered to be seized due to the imminent danger of their loss in value between now and the trial, if there is one--the Duxbury house is under construction, and has no doors, and the Florida properties, which are two adjacent houses on the Intracoastal Waterway which Jeffrey purchased and then extensively remodeled and landscaped, are in danger of having at least $250,000 worth of landscaping die because the water has been turned off and no one is maintaining the property.  

The houses have never been lived in and no one has been managing or maintaining the property since Windle's arrest on May 2nd.  There are $300,000 worth of liens on the Florida houses,  filed by companies contracted to do finish work, irrigation, and other services.   Another source tells me that all the contractors had keys to the properties and that apparently the locks had not been changed.

In mid-July, a source close to the Florida properties informed me that a van appeared at night and removed some objects from the house.  The president of Cambium Learning was called and reportedly, when he tried to get the local police to respond, they said that they had to be directed by the FBI to do so.    Allegedly the FBI could not be reached.  No one returned to the house until the U.S. Marshals seized at least 2 boats and at least 2 cars in mid-July.

What does the U.S. Marshal Service do with confiscated assets?
A visit to the U.S. Marshal Service's website answers this question handily.  In nearly all cases they auction it.  Whether it's assets confiscated from drug dealers, or whatever the story, the Marshal service auctions its property, usually online through a third-party site, Bid4Assets.   The money from the sale of the confiscated goods, in the Windle case at least, as detailed in the judge's order, will be held in escrow by the US Marshal service until Jeffrey's trial is over or he peads guilty.  If he's found guilty, Cambium gets the money.  If he's not, presumably, he gets the money.  I have signed up for Bid4Asset's email alerts and check the site regularly--I haven't seen any of Jeffrey's property yet.  

 Why did Jeffrey Windle plead not guilty?
I have to admit, this threw me for a loop.  I, along with many people, assumed that the trail of evidence linking Jeffrey to the embezzlements was so solid that he would plead guilty, like many white collar criminals, in exchange for reduced time in a federal facility somewhere.  But instead, his attorney entered a plea of not guilty.    Perhaps the lowest maximum number of years Jeffrey was willing to agree to was not enough for the prosecutor, Carmen Ortiz, and so they are going to trial, where she must be reasonably certain a jury will find him guilty.   Or, perhaps his attorney was able to buy some time to allow for further negotiations.  A recently filed court document alludes to the fact that "no trial is expected to take place."  Perhaps this means he is going to enter a guilty plea sometime soon?

 Don't forget, as I have reported in a previous blog posting, that on June 19, 1998, (a bit more than 10 years ago), Jeffrey was released from a federal boot-camp-style prison , where he had served 18 months for filing false tax returns.  There are no more boot-camp style federal prisons, as they were shown not to reduce recidivism, as they were intended to, and they have since been phased out.  To serve your federal time at a boot camp instead of a regular federal prison was considered to be a privilege reserved for young or first -time offenders.

 Ten years later, it appears that Jeffrey hasn't learned his lesson, and I think the prosecutor is not happy about this at all.  After all, it's not the prosecutor's job to avoid going to trial at all costs--it's the prosecutor's job to put bad guys behind bars for as long as reasonably possible. 

Landscaping at properties in Harwich Port and Dennis looking surprisingly spiffy
Jeffrey and Jeannine's first house they purchased on Cape Cod is located at  346 Trotting Park Road in Dennis, adjacent to the Ezra Baker Elementary School.    The property is still in their names.   The tenant who was living in the Trotting Park Road property has reportedly moved out and that house was supposedly empty for most of the summer.  

 The Trotting Park Road's mortgage was paid off by funds allegedly embezzled from Cambium.  As recently as this week , the lawn at the Harwich Port house was being mowed by a landscaping service whose name I know but will not mention here.    I saw a well-muscled, shirtless and tattooed guy mowing in front of the hydrangeas just the other day.  Since there are numerous court documents showing that all Jeffrey and Jeannine's bank accounts have been frozen, I wonder who is paying the landscaper?  Between working, summertime fun and blogging, the landscaping at my house looks like s***.  I  wish I could afford a landscaper.   Particularly the one I saw at the Windle's house.  There' s just no justice in this world, I'll tell ya.

Cambium Learning versus J & J Marine Fabricating versus South Dennis Congregational Church
When $14 million goes missing, lawyers get hired.  Over the summer there has been a lot of activity around a separate civil lawsuits initiated by J & J Marine and by Cambium.  It's all about the boats and falls under admiralty, or maritime law, which has different and even more obfuscatory language (in my opinion) than  regular law.  ("Regular law"--that's my term-- a legal genius I'm not.)   Basically,  Jeffrey Windle was sued by J & J Marine Fabricating before  he was even arrested, on grounds that he owed this marine service over six figures in repairs, parts, and storage fees.   This was the same outfit that he was in negotiations with to buy a 1/3 stake in for $7.5 million.  He didn't buy them, and then they sued.     Then comes Cambium, filing suit saying that the boats belong to Cambium because they were paid for with Cambium's money, and that J & J  shouldn't get the money they're asking for because it's impossible to prove the repairs were done and "storage services" didn't  incur any out-of-pocket expenses for J & J.  And also, Cambium says, the South Dennis Congregational Church isn't entitled to the money since the funds were commingled and it isn't possible to establish which funds belonged to the church.

 Fraud insurance for the church
It has been reported to me that one of the few bills Jeffrey actually paid on time when he was the treasurer at the church was a fraud insurance premium, and it was not clear to my source whether or not the policy covered this particular incident.   Very thoughtful of him to  have paid the premium ;) It was also reported to me that Jeffrey allegedly took the church's nest egg within weeks of assuming his role as treasurer.    Allegedly, some people involved in running the church had their suspicions about Jeffrey but were reluctant to say anything because he purportedly made a substantial donation to the church every week.    The lawyer for the Church just resigned from the case.     It appears that Cambium has out-lawyered the other two plaintiffs on this one.

 The Windle FAQ
I get lots of emails and calls with some of these questions, so I decided to put together a FAQ.

 Where's Jeannine living? What's she doing?

Jeannine has reportedly recently moved out of the Harwich Port house and back into the Trotting Park Road house in Dennis, where she lived while Jeffrey was serving his first federal prison sentence ten years ago.    One could draw a logical conclusion that there is a job in Jeannine's future, but then again, this entire case is not bursting with logic.   Yes, the lawn jockey next to the stone inscribed "Windle" is still in the front yard, but the hosta around it  has grown so much over the summer that you can't read the stone.

 Is Jeannine going to face any criminal charges?

Allegedly, the FBI tried, but was not able to come up with, any evidence that Jeannine had knowledge of her husband's  activities. 

 What's going to happen to the $1.9 million Harwich Port house at 562 Main Street?

I don't know.  I check the Barnstable County registry of deeds site frequently and there's no activity as far as I can see.    

What about all the expensive furnishings, etc.  in the Harwich Port house? What's going to happen to those?

It would a violation of a court order for anything of value to be moved from the Harwich Port house.    If anyone notices anything regarding an estate sale on Craigslist or wherever, please for the love of God let me know. We'll hit the sale and then go to Brax for cocktails afterwards.

I have received many emails and calls with tips about this case.  All are appreciated.

Call or email me:   Julie Brooks --508-385-0003 x 106

 Photos (top to bottom): Jeffrey Windle's compound at 260 and 270 Capstan Drive, Placida, FL; his house at 261 Crescent Street, Duxbury, a 41' Tiara, a 41' Albemarle, a 31' Albemarle, a 24' Captain's launch sloop, a 2004 Mercedes E320, a 2005 Mercedes CLK500, a 2007 Mercedes GL450, a 46' Ocean Yacht.

All past blog postings on the Windle case:

Jeffrey Windle pleads "Not Guilty" - 7/3/08

Windle charged by US Attorney with 15 counts - 6/28/08

Help requested in locating accused embezzler's assets -6/13/08

Windle allegedly used Dennis church for money laundering - 5/26/08

$14 million in attachments filed in alleged Harwich embezzler case - 5/22/08

Alleged Harwich Port embezzler built lavish compound in Florida - 5/18/08

Alleged embezzler's attorney arrested for gun threat - 5/14/08

Accused embezzler's mark on Dennis - 5/12/08

Googleable: A Tale of Two Houses- 5/9/08

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