Private Jets

"Everyone wants to be rich. If they can't be rich, the next best thing is to feel rich. And if they don't want to feel rich, they're probably dead. " — David Siegel in "Queen of Versailles" David and Jackie Siegel are definitely rich. Here's how rich: The septuagenarian chief executive of Westgate Resorts and his 40-something former beauty queen wife reside in a home with 17 bathrooms and are in the process of building another with 30. Still, in the wake of a subprime mortgage crisis that sent this country...

"I've been blessed to have a lot of friends. " — Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell I've got to get myself some new friends. I mean, I like my current friends. I'm not going to dump them or anything. They're friendly. They're just not friendly , if you know what I mean. They're friends , but they're not friend$ . The only way they show their affection is by offering the occasional encouraging word and "liking" my Facebook status. Those gestures were once sufficient, but in today's modern world,...

In 2008, the satirists at the Onion released a straight-to-video comedy that included a faux news segment on little-known national stereotypes. Dutch people love speaking to telemarketers. Puerto Ricans can dangle from steel beams for hours on end. Irish men have enormous nipples. And poncho-clad Peruvians always swoop in at the last second and save the day. Well, turns out they missed a few. In "Boomerang," his latest book on the planet's seemingly endless financial implosion, journalist...

Indiana Private jet crashes, hitting three homes A private jet apparently experiencing mechanical trouble crashed Sunday in a northern Indiana neighborhood, resulting in injuries and striking three homes, authorities and witnesses said. There was no immediate word of any deaths. The Beechcraft Premier I twin-jet had left Tulsa's Riverside Airport and crashed near South Bend Regional Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig said. "There was an...

What a week it's been for the conversation about women and work. First, the backlash began for Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's book, " Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead ," in advance of its March 11 release. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote that the emerging guru on women's careers — who is also one of the world's wealthiest women — "doesn't understand the difference between a social movement and a social network marketing campaign. " Others scoffed that "this is simply the elite...

If you've spent much time enduring the hassles, filth and indignities of LAX, Dulles and JFK, Singapore's Changi airport is a revelation. As former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew decreed, you get from the gate to a taxi in 15 minutes. The men's room is sleek and immaculate, and even asks you to rate your experience (and thus the attendant) via a handy touchscreen ranking as you leave. As close readers of this column will have noticed, I've been a gushing fan of Singapore's public policy achievements since I began looking at them a few...

Who is this guy? Velcroed to a very agitated Bill Clinton as he ripped into a TV reporter not long ago was a pale, silent gentleman with prematurely thinning hair. He could have been any political voyeur witnessing a campaign train wreck -- except, from a different vantage point, you might have seen him place his hand on the former president's back, trying to calm him down. As Clinton challenged the reporter's questions over caucus rules, growing redder with every salvo, the tall man never strayed from the center...

‘Life Is but a Dream," Beyonce Knowles's HBO documentary about herself, is billed as a revealing look inside the superstar's world circa 2011-12, as she shifts business gears, reinjects her music with an updated R&B feel and, as you surely know, gives birth to a daughter. The project is mostly just a fleeting glimpse, which is ultimately a disappointment, given the world's desperate and ongoing interest in all things Beyonce. Early in the film, Beyonce relays that special feeling of...

Struggling General Motors, which was blasted and mocked for using one of its corporate jets to fly chief executive G. Richard Wagoner Jr. to Washington this week to beg Congress for a bailout, is preparing to give back two of its leased corporate jets, the company said yesterday. GM started the year with a fleet of seven leased jets. It gave back two in September and is preparing to shed two more. GM said it was already preparing to give back the two additional jets even before this week's hearing, where...

A former immigration supervisor was sentenced to more than seven years in prison yesterday for accepting kickbacks from a Venezuelan company that provided armor-plated vehicles for U.S. officials in South America. Gerardo Chavez, 46, pocketed $172,000 from the scheme and planned to receive $87,000 more before federal agents uncovered it, prosecutors said. Chavez, 46, is a former deputy assistant director of international operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Chavez steered about $2.8...

GARDEN CITY, Kan. — The federal budget cuts were still an abstraction as American Eagle Flight 3429 crossed the snow-crusted plains into southwestern Kansas. Kevin Colvin, a construction manager flying in for work, looked out of the window at the tiny airport below. "They make it sound like, ‘Oh my God! We're going to die if we make these cuts!' " he said, eating a potato chip, the cuts still two days away. "I think it's a bunch of BS. " The cuts came into clearer...

What a week it's been for the conversation about women and work. First, the backlash began for Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's book, " Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead ," in advance of its March 11 release. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote that the emerging guru on women's careers — who is also one of the world's wealthiest women — "doesn't understand the difference between a social movement and a social network marketing campaign. " Others scoffed that "this is...

‘Life Is but a Dream," Beyonce Knowles's HBO documentary about herself, is billed as a revealing look inside the superstar's world circa 2011-12, as she shifts business gears, reinjects her music with an updated R&B feel and, as you surely know, gives birth to a daughter. The project is mostly just a fleeting glimpse, which is ultimately a disappointment, given the world's desperate and ongoing interest in all things Beyonce. Early in the film, Beyonce relays that special feeling of...

Four years ago, as one of the biggest crowds in Washington ­history gathered for President Obama's first inauguration, the intense security imposed by cautious officials proved to be a nightmare for the public. Thousands complained of being trapped near checkpoints for hours , unable to move or watch the festivities. On Monday, as Obama took the oath of office again and his inaugural parade flowed along Pennsylvania Avenue from Capitol Hill to the White House, the crowd-management...

Most will come by train, by foot or by bus. More than a few, though, will arrive in inaugural Washington by private plane. And the region's biggest airport is looking to roll out the concrete carpet for the high-flying arrivals. Officials at Dulles International may close the airport's westernmost runway to accommodate hundreds of private planes expected to descend on the region over the next few days. After all, those Gulfstreams and...

We want the pony. We want the Jet Ski. We want the big house on the beach, the big account at the bank (Swiss or otherwise), the big car in the garage (especially if that garage comes equipped with a super-cool elevator that lifts the car from one floor to the next.) Face it, we want what Mitt Romney has — we want to be rich. Americans don't just want to be rich — when we're young and looking ahead at our lives, many of us really believe we will become rich. It's in our national DNA. An...

NEW YORK, June 17 -- General Motors executives will now fly commercial. In a move that reflects the leaner company GM is seeking to become, the automaker on Thursday sought approval from a federal bankruptcy judge to terminate leases for all seven of its corporate aircraft, plus a hangar at a Detroit airport. Facing no objections, Judge Robert Gerber granted the request during a hearing in a Lower Manhattan courtroom that lasted less than 10 minutes. "The new GM will have no jets -- we're all flying Delta," GM spokesman Tom...

In response to the July 5 letter by Brenda and Jonathan Myer, which reflected on much of the media coverage given to executives and corporations experiencing financial hardship: Private jets are always used as a symbol of corporate extravagance, but we should instead be focusing on the real problem — executive pay. As long as executive pay remains irrationally high, corporate jets will make perfect business sense regardless of public outrage. After all,...

"Everyone wants to be rich. If they can't be rich, the next best thing is to feel rich. And if they don't want to feel rich, they're probably dead. " — David Siegel in "Queen of Versailles" David and Jackie Siegel are definitely rich. Here's how rich: The septuagenarian chief executive of Westgate Resorts and his 40-something former beauty queen wife reside in a home with 17 bathrooms and are in the process of building another with 30. Still, in the wake of a subprime mortgage crisis that sent this country...

GREENSBORO, N.C. — They want it all. Every private jet receipt, every handwritten note, every voice-mail transcript.    No scrap of evidence introduced in the four weeks of John Edwards's corruption trial is too trivial for a second look by the punctilious jury that entered its fifth day of deliberations Thursday in a downtown federal courthouse in this Piedmont region city. During its first four days of deliberations, the jury sent notes to the judge requesting 23 prosecution exhibits, most dealing...