BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - A California short line shut down last week owing to an unusual problem: Three feet of cow manure had drifted across its main line. Wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph blew the excrement from an adjacent dairy farm across the San Joaquin Valley Railroad’s main line to a depth of three feet.

It was “like a snowdrift, but it was cow manure,” SJV assistant general manager Patrick Kerr told TRAINS News Wire. “In all my years of railroading, I’ve had snowdrifts, I’ve had sand drifts, I’ve had rockslides, but I’ve never had a line shut down by poo.”

NEW YORK ((AP)) — The trustee in charge of untangling the mess left behind by Bernard Madoff told a packed auditorium Friday there was no indication the disgraced money manager had bought securities for his clients for over a decade.

“The Commission has benefited from Andy's commitment to investor protection, rigorous legal analysis, and concern for fairness,” said SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro. “The nation's investors and markets are fortunate to have had his sound advice and judgment.”

A searchable index of the 10,000 individuals and accounts identified in court documents as victims of the $50 Billion Hedge Fund swindle perpetrated by Bernie Madoff. The database consists of names and addresses which are linked here to satellite images of the identified property locations.

Goldman Sachs called off its big Miami hedge-fund conference scheduled for the first week of March, telling clients that going ahead with the normally posh event there could cause image problems for the firm at a time of intense scrutiny over banks' spending habits...

...The Goldman conference, which was to be held March 2-4 at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club in Miami, typically draws a who’s who of hedge-fund managers and rich investors. It’s usually one of the two highest-profile U.S. prime-brokerage conferences of the year, along with Morgan Stanley’s, which was held as planned last week in Florida. Both conferences bring together bank executives with many of their most-valued hedge-fund clients for panel discussions and business-strategy talks, cocktail parties and rounds of golf, according to people who’ve attended.

Before I go any further I want to thank the Committee for understanding that because of our collective desire to preserve the integrity of the investigative and prosecution processes there are matters that I cannot discuss today......

...I cannot comment on the pending civil and criminal litigation or the underlying investigations in order to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing legal and investigative processes. In addition, I cannot comment on any historical SEC enforcement investigations of Mr. Madoff, his firm or associated persons because the information is non-public and the SEC's Office of the Inspector General is actively investigating any such prior matters.

1. How many people at M&T (MTB) actually read the “390-page offering document with detailed descriptions of the kinds of bonds that would go into” the dodgy CDO; and
   
2. How many of those actually understood that which they read?

“Although we vigorously disputed the allegations in these cases, we concluded it was best to avoid the uncertainty, distraction and costs of the litigation, and to try to achieve certainty through these settlements,” Mark Herr, a spokesman for Merrill Lynch...

“The allegations of issuing false and misleading statements about CDOs and other assets backed by subprime mortgages were right on the money. If this had gone to trial, a bunch of current and former big shots around here would have had to either admit certain Madoffian tendencies, or perjure themselves. Not only that, regulators and federal prosecutors (if any) might have picked up some clues as to who else they should be asking which questions.

Investors in a Sarasota-based hedge fund could be out $350 million, and the man behind it has vanished. Managers of the fund are telling clients that their money is gone, and they do not know if any will be recovered.

Fund principal Arthur G. Nadel, a prominent player in Sarasota social and philanthropic [misanthopic, surely? — Ed] circles, disappeared this week. His wife, Peg, filed a missing person report with law enforcement after finding a suicide note...

Apparently, the trick to getting back money from the Bear Stearns hedge funds that went to the incinerator in mid-2007 was to be a resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and having secretary of state William F Galvin brew up a secret — whoopth — deal.

During the fall of 2007, Bear Stearns, the parent company, sought to reach what seemed like arbitrary settlements...Those who invested in May or June 2007 and accepted the offer got all their money back; those who invested between January 2007 and April 2007 and accepted the offer got two-thirds of their money back; and those who invested before January 2007 and accepted the offer received one-third of their money back...

Fairfield officials have begun their own criminal investigation of Bernard Madoff as the town deals with losing $42 million in municipal pension money it invested with the disgraced New York financier.