You may have heard about Bernard Madoff, the Wall Street hedge fund honcho accused of pulling off the biggest swindle in the history of the world!?  He’s charged with security fraud for bilking investors (including charities) out of $50 BILLION and admitting “it was all just one big lie” when his sons told the feds their dad done bad.

Madoff supposedly admitted he was running a Ponzi scheme, using money from new investors to pay inflated dividends to old investors, living the high life while making everyone believe he was a financial wiz when in fact he was just (allegedly) building a house of cards that collapsed when one of the bigger players asked for their stake back and he couldn’t pay.

As it turns out, one of his apparent victims is one of the world’s savvier businessmen, Mort Zuckerman, a real estate developer who owns the New York Daily News, U.S. News, and World Report.  I know Mort (but not well) because we play on the same charity softball team for one game every summer.  He’s a decent pitcher and a very smart, hard-edged guy.  We’ve lost Artists and Writers games together but I’d never expect him to make a bad investment.

Zuckerman says he lost $30 million to Bernard Madoff, even though he had never heard of the guy.  Zuckerman runs a $300 million charity and divided it into ten funds of $30 million each and the guy running one of those funds invested the whole pile with Madoff, apparently without Mort’s knowledge.  As you might have guessed, that guy is now gone and Zuckerman says he’s taking a closer look at his other funds and who’s handling the cash and how.

I talked to some other big-shot Wall Street players today and I asked one how we can better protect our investments in these funds and he said “Safeguards?  There aren’t any!”  Hedge funds are far less regulated than other investments and guys like Madoff can operate with almost no oversight, which reinforces an old standard;  if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Another investment banker friend of mine told me the Madoff case can actually help restore confidence in some of the bigger banks and legit firms.  Banks are much more heavily regulated.  Client’s securities are segregated and cash deposits are insured by the FDIC. My buddy says the problems are more likely when fund managers are able to work outside the walls and wind up with a little too much freedom.

The fallout from Madoff’s alleged thievery is snowballing now, with charities closing, funds going dry and more investors learning the awful truth.  Meanwhile Madoff is out on bail, last spotted in the window of his upper east side penthouse smoking a cigar.  The neighbor who spied him said he looked “forlorn”.  I wonder who will shed a tear for him and if he’ll ever be fully punished for his alleged record breaking fleecing of investors large and small around the world.

The solution to the problem of Somali “pirates” seems so simple I’m surprised I haven’t heard more people offering it up.

If a bank is moving millions (or even thousands) of dollars in funds, do they put it in the back of a flatbed and just hire a driver?  Of course not.  They put it in an armored vehicle with armed security guards following specific strategic protocol to insure its safe delivery.

So why would anyone moving valuable cargo through known dangerous areas not employ sufficient protection for the ship and its crew from attack? Is it kidnapping or is it worse?

Yes, even armored cars get robbed and sometimes the guards are shot or killed, but the presence of weapons certainly acts as a deterrent and so does the threat of arrest, prosecution and prison time.

Pirates are criminals and should be treated as such.  Instead of rewarding them with multi-million dollar ransoms, in my opinion, the best way to prevent further attacks, kidnappings and worse is to fight fire with fire!

Every cargo ship should be armed with big guns and professionally trained security guards who should employ the same “Escalation of Force” tactics used by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  If a suspicious boat filled with thugs approaches, a warning should be broadcast and/ or communicated with radio, horns, lights or flags.  If the vessel doesn’t stop or change course, a warning shot is fired.  If they return fire or continue to approach the ship, security should disable the suspect boat by any means possible and if pirates die in the process, so be it.

If pirates get wounded and captured or killed every time they try to seize a ship it’ll become a far less attractive line of work.  It shouldn’t be the U.S. Navy’s responsibility to protect all these private companies moving goods through international waters.  Sure we should offer help and assistance and do what we can, but if the shipping companies can afford to pay huge ransoms, they can certainly afford to install some 25 millimeter Bushmaster Chain Guns or other heavy automatic weapons and hire guys who know how to use them to protect their investment.

Paying the pirates allows them to buy more machine guns and RPG’s and encourages them to continue their criminal activities.  Scaring them off (or killing them if they engage in a shootout) would have the opposite effect.

At University City near the campuses of U Penn and Drexel in Philadelphia.

A line of roughly 40-50 people outside a polling place in a library at the corner of 40th and Walnut Streets, some cheering and clapping when the doors open slightly late at 7:08 am.

Two Obama/Biden signs are planted in the flower boxes out front. There are no McCain/Palin signs.

The crowd is mostly young and white, college students who got up extra early to exercise their constitutional rights for the first or second time (or third…some voted in the primary in April, others also voting in 2006).

A young couple walks out smiling. Then another young lady. I ask how it went. “Great!” She says with a smile.

There are four voting machines inside, each shrouded with a blue curtain. Two lines form in front of poll workers who sit behind a desk loging people in. They show ID and are checked off a list, they sign a book and then wait for an open booth.

Things so far appear to be running smoothly and after the initial push inside there is no line.

UPDATE: 7:30a a McCain sign is planted outside.

8:19 AM: Drove by a polling place in a church in West Philadelphia just before 8a. No line outside.

Drove to another polling place at a housing project in West Philly. Walked in. About 30 people lined up in the lunch room, many older folks, mostly black or hispanic. No campaign signs outside either location…

9:22 AM: Long lines at a polling place in West Philadelphia.

9:25 AM: At an elementary school in West Philadelphia’s University City area.

Longest line we’ve seen so far. One man about to sign in and cast his ballot told me he’d been waiting 1 hour 40 minutes.

An Obama volunteer doing exit polling outside says she hasn’t seen anyone leave the line before voting.

The line is racially mixed with a wide age range but seems skewed younger.

Friday I witnessed one of the most amazing and wonderful moments of my 21-year reporting career. It came after an early morning flight to Detroit where we rented a car, met up with a freelance crew and drove to a suburban mobile-home park.

I felt like Ed McMahon or the guy from Publishers Clearing House with cameras behind me as I approached the front steps of a double-wide trailer in a well-kept yard.

I knocked and saw a woman inside rush toward the door.

I confirmed her name and introduced myself and held up my Blackberry with Robin Hood 702 on the speakerphone.

“Can you hear me?” He asked. “Get your husband out there… I want to speak to him too!”

Her husband appeared with their young daughter in his arms and Robin Hood broke the news.

“You have been chosen by Robin Hood, myself. I’m flying you to Vegas…” As he spoke I watched the tears flow down her face. Her husband began to cry, my producer welled up and I’m not ashamed to admit I did too, as Robin Hood continued.

“The limo is picking you up at 4 o’clock. I’m gonna fly you first class and I’m gonna bring you out of debt.”

There was a stunned moment of silence but the mood was sheer joy and incredulous relief.

“Are you serious?” She asked, but of course she knew he was.

As we first reported in August, Robin Hood 702 is a high stakes blackjack player who decided to help a family buried in bills during these tough economic times by using his skills at the table to win the money they needed to get back to even. Find out more on his web site >>

He solicited submissions to his website and the entries poured in by the hundreds. The family he chose is buried in medical bills and struggling financially. Now their lives were about to change forever.

And there was another entry from a woman in Charleston, S.C. who Robin Hood says touched him so much he flew her to Vegas too.

* * *

A long black stretch limo pulled up to the family’s driveway ahead of schedule and the father carried out the stroller and car seat and the driver helped load bags in the trunk. “Have you ever ridden in a limo before?” I asked. “When we got married four years ago” he said with a smile, “but not since.”

They were about to have their horizons broadened beyond what they could even imagine.

We joined the family on the flight to Vegas and documented Robin Hood’s attempt to win their money back (he promised them half no matter what) and we’ll reveal their identities.

But here’s a sneak peek:

There was plenty of drama and eventually bags full of thousands of dollars worth of chips taken from the rich and given to the poor, who go home touched by the generosity and armed for a fresh start in life.

I got maybe four hours of sleep.

I know I should be resting up, with a major hurricane on the way, but we worked till nearly 3a.m. and I can’t unwind that fast and woke up early with slight pains in my back and side.

Yes, I’m getting old, but it’s hard to get comfortable sleeping on the floor.

My crew and I have settled in a brand new home right on the water in Port Lavaca. It’s still not completely finished (no faucets in the shower, for example.) There’s no furniture in it, but the builder tells us it’s hurricane proof and able to withstand winds up to 200 mph — with the roof rated up to 150.

He offered the house to us to use as a live location and safe haven from the approaching storm. Our other option is 25 miles inland in Victoria, so we’re staying here, and I’ll be sleeping on the floor again tonight (if there’s any sleep to be had during the hurricane).

The nearby Wal-Mart was nice enough to let us in yesterday afternoon after they’d just closed so we could buy sleeping bags and a microwave and coffeemaker. We’ve got plenty of water and dry food.

Now all we need are the pictures.

At 8a.m. it’s eerily calm … not even a spit of rain or wind.