Stanley Cup LA Style

L.A. Times, cols. 1-5, "L.A.'S NEW ROYALTY: Kings turn tumult into triumph, capturing team's first Stanley Cup," by columnist Bill Plaschke: "The game of small-town Canada has just been heisted by Hollywood. A group of bearded beach bums has just stolen sports' most chilling trophy and stuck it where the sun shines. The first title in franchise history was earned on a monumental Monday in which a team's skittishness became greatness while a city's icy stare melted into tearful slush. Pushed to the edge of collapse, the Kings instead crunched and clinched, defeating the New Jersey Devils, 6-1, to win the Final series, four games to two.

"After 45 years as a court jester, they are now Kings indeed, their coronation occurring at a Staples Center that has never been so loud, their celebration as emotionally raw as the ice under their suddenly shaky skates. As the final seconds ticked off, the crowd of nearly 19,000 fans counted down - 'five, four, three, two, one' - as if this were Times Square on New Year's Eve. At the final horn, silver streamers dropped from the sky while the Kings' madly tossed sticks and helmets littered the ice."

You live long enough you will eventually see your city’s team win. In a city where local newscasters call them the Sacramento Kings, think the blue line is a metro transit light rail, think a puck is a place to get an overpriced meal, where the Mayor of the city could not get any free tickets – it all started on October 11, 2011 in Stockholm Sweden – 102 games later the Los Angeles Kings are the Champions of professional hockey.

Two Southern California teams now lay claim to the world’s oldest professional team trophy (Stanley Cup). What must Rocket Richard and Harold Ballard be thinking today in hockey heaven?  From Vancouver, B.C.  to Cape Bretton Island Nova Scotia, what must “true hockey fans” be thinking: The Cup now sits in Manhattan Beach.

Congratulations Los Angeles, now what about those Lakers?

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to: Jim Belushi (58), Tonya Carmon …famous quadruplet, Mario Cuomo (80), Phil Mickelson (42), Hannah Storm (50), Pat Summitt (60).

WALL STREET WEEK - U.S. stocks are coming off their best week of 2012, and that momentum seems likely to continue this morning. A request by Spain for billions in aid for its banks has boosted stock markets around the world, and U.S. stock index futures are pointing to a higher open.

AUTO PLANTS IN OVERDRIVE - "Automakers are pushing factories ... to the limit to try to meet burgeoning demand for new vehicles. Some plants are adding third work shifts. Others are piling on worker overtime and six-day weeks. ... Ford ... and Chrysler ... are ... reducing the annual two-week July shutdown at several plants this summer to add thousands of vehicles to their output. ... The automakers' problem now is ... hot demand. Sales for 2012 are estimated at 14.3 million vehicles, ... up from 12.8 million last year."

INSIDE THE CAMPAIGN - "Mitt Romney has his own longtime-pal-cum-alter-ego, a 56-year-old ex-Bain Capital partner named Bob White. White, who is trim with graying brown hair, was one of Romney's original hires when launching the private-equity firm back in the 1980s. He has been at Romney's side in every major endeavor he's undertaken since, from the Olympics to the campaign trail. Over the course of Romney's career, White has served as debate prepper, personnel vetter, designated gut-checker, in-house historian, and diplomatic envoy.

"It was White who found Romney a campaign manager for his run for governor, White who headed his transition to the Massachusetts statehouse, White who has chaired his campaigns for president. ... White's status in Romney world is all the more remarkable given that the former Massachusetts governor is often described as essentially friendless-the one contemporary pol who is even more of a loner than Barack Obama himself"

LATE NIGHT -- Jon Stewart, on Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee: "Sixty years on the throne? Get that woman some fiber."

LINKEDIN PASSWORDS STOLEN - "Many of LinkedIn's 161 million members worldwide ... were also bombarded ... by e-mail from unfamiliar parties urging them to click on links to verify e-mail addresses. ... Wednesday's cyberattack on LinkedIn, which affects as many as 6.5 million users, came on the heels of a discovery that LinkedIn's mobile app on Apple devices tracked users' calendar events and synched them to its server without users' knowledge, a practice that could violate Apple's privacy regulations. ...

EXPLAINING THE UNION DECLINE – “Last Tuesday's failure to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is being widely interpreted as a political defeat for organized labor. ... Unions in general have endured a long decline in power, influence, and popularity. In the 1950s, more than a third of all workers belonged to a union. As recently as the 1970s, a quarter of all workers did. Strikes were common and those in a strategic industry such as railroads or steel could virtually shut down a significant portion of the entire U.S. economy ... The number of strikes has fallen from 200-400 per year in the 1970s to just 19 last year.

"It's hard to remember the last one of any significance ... There are many reasons for the decline of labor unions, but the leading one is simply that those industries most amenable to unionization and where unionization was highest have been among those that have declined most sharply in recent years. Those on the upswing tend not to have many union members. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2003 and 2008, unions lost 138,653 members in auto manufacturing but gained just 4,736 in computer systems design"

RINK RATS TMZ.COM – Could it be that another high ranking administrator has been seen about town with makeup. Are there no “real men” anymore? Why must men over the age of forty feel it necessary to wear makeup and hair color? Women don’t like it. Women like honesty, humor, respect, not Clairol and Cover Girl. Deal with it boys, in the long run you will be better off.

DRIVING THE WEEK - Market react to the Spanish bank rescue will drive the day and the week. Conventional wisdom is a fairly short-lived relief rally and the back into the soup leading up to Greek elections on Sunday ... Jamie Dimon testifies before Senate banking on Wednesday at 10 a.m.. He is not likely to be able to offer full detail on how the trading losses happened, what's been done about them, and exactly how much the bank could lose. That will probably have to wait until the second quarter earnings call next month ... Apple holds its developers conference all week in San Francisco ... FDIC meets Tuesday to discuss Basel III ... Mitt Romney is raising money in Atlanta on Monday and hits swing state Florida on Tuesday for an event at Con-Air Industries ... President Obama and VP Joe Biden both meet with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner this afternoon, with Europe likely to dominate the conversation.

Next week, summer gardening and words of the month.

Until Next Monday, Adios.

Claremont, CA

June 12, 2012

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