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MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.

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BEWARE!
Our boy wizard Muckety map contains content from the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! If you don’t want relationships revealed before their time, DO NOT CLICK ON THE MAP!

If, however, you’d like to see a graphical display of the many interconnections between Harry and other characters, click and search away.

– Map research by Jay Lopez

On the web
J.K. Rowling official site

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Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has taken some heat for his split with his party over a plan to raise taxes in the hedge fund and private equity industries.

Some scratch their heads and wonder if the frequent crusader for the middle class is being overly influenced by political contributions from the buyout kings, who would see their personal taxes more than double under the plan.

But there really is no mystery. Schumer, a career politician and life-long New Yorker, is being true to his city, where many of the buyout firms are based.

In January, Schumer and New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg issued a 134-page report, produced by McKinsey & Co., that said the city was in danger of losing its global lead in financial services over the next 10 years. London is a major competitor, as are Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The report focuses on public markets, but cites a particularly “worrisome” trend of major US-based private equity issuers going to Europe for new listings.

So, for Schumer, resisting the tax hike is protecting New York City’s economy.

The senator, though, hasn’t lost his affinity for the middle class. In March, he issued an analysis that said Upstate New York was at the tip of the nation’s foreclosure crisis and more than 50,000 families there could lose their homes.

“The subprime market is the wild west of mortgage loans and it’s time we bring a sheriff into town,” Schumer said.

A lot of folks would agree with him on that issue.

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Angelo Mozilo, who made news this week with his startlingly candid assessment of the nation’s housing market, is…

To pay tuition when he attended Catholic high school, he got a job with a mortgage company during t…

More than 50 years later, Mozilo is still in the mortgage business, running Countrywide Financial, the largest U.S. lender. He co-founded the company in 1969.

Given Mozilo’s background, it’s not surprising to find a couple of other self-made people on Countr…

NBA legend Oscar Robertson, “The Big O,” was raised in an Indianapolis housing project. Henry Cisneros is from a middle-class Texas family and attended Catholic schools, like Mozilo. Cisneros is a form…

Mozilo’s board also has elements of privilege. Kathleen Brown, for example, is the daughter of one California governor (Pat) and sister of another (Jerry). She’s married to Van Gordon Sauter, former president of CBS.

Mozilo’s pay, which has to be approved by his board, has come under attack by shareholder advocates…

This week, in a remarkable three-hour conference call with analysts and reporters discussing Countr…

He said the problem of mortgage defaults has extended beyond the weakest borrowers, the so-called s…

He likened Countrywide to a huge battleship headed in the wrong direction and said it would take a …

All of that was pretty well reported in the media and led to a sharp drop in Countrywide’s shares a…

Mozila, who helped create the modern mortgage industry, said the delinquencies so far among the com…

The reset tsunami won’t be as large as many expect, Mozila said. But if his observations are correc…

Also, keep in mind that this mortgage turmoil is occurring in an overall strong job market. If unem…

On the web
Mozilo wins even if Countrywide profits plummet – Reuters
Countrywide Financial Q2 2007 Earnings Call Transcript – Seeking Alpha

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The affair between Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a local TV reporter may become an issue in a proposed real estate development in the city.

Telemundo, owner of KVEA-TV, is weighing the fate of journalist Mirthala Salinas, who reported on the mayor while she was romantically involved with him.

At the same time, NBC Universal, owner of Telemundo, has proposed a $3-billion development in Los Angeles that includes 2,900 new homes and 1.6 million square feet of commercial space. The project would require city approval.

Villaraigosa told the Los Angeles Times that he saw no conflicts of interest in the tangled relationships between him and the TV station’s parent companies.

“I think that they have to act in accordance with their corporate rules and regulations, and I have to act in a way that is separate and apart from all that,” the mayor said.

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Serial entrepreneur While Marc Andreessen has done it again.

The founder of Opsware will receive about $160 million as his share of the company’s $1.6 billion sale to Hewlett-Packard. On his blog Monday, Andreessen described the eight-year run of his company, which began with the name Loudcloud, as an “unbelievable journey.”

“Loudcloud took off like a rocketship,” Andreessen wrote, “raised $350 million in equity and debt financing, went public in March 2001, and was rapidly nearing $100 million in annual recurring managed services revenue when the entire market blew up and virtually all of our competitors and peers went bankrupt.”

He said the company did a complete restart, with a new name, in September of 2002. The company now has more than $100 million in annual revenue, 550 employees and is one of the fastest growing software firms in the world, he wrote.

What’s next for Andreessen, who also helped start Netscape? He told The New York Times that he plans to jump directly into Ning, a Silicon Valley start-up that allows computer novices to develop their own social networking sites.

On the web:
HP buys my company Opsware for more than $1.6 billion in cash – Marc Andreessen blog
H.P. Making 2 Purchases to Push Data – New York Times

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The board of directors of Dow Jones said late Tuesday night that itw as “prepared to approve” a buyout offer from Rupert Murdoch, which would give the conservative press baron control of The Wall Street Journal.

Fine, but the real news is that Al Gore says Murdoch is a man of his word who supports independent voices, according to The New York Times.

It’s not often that the Times buries a lead, but this is one of them. The newspaper acknowledged that Gore’s support is an “unlikely endorsement,” but put it at the very end of its main Murdoch-Dow Jones story, posted to its Web site late Tuesday night.

The story noted Gore’s past opposition to media consolidation by companies like Murdoch’s, ” . . .but on the question of his openness to independent points of view, I want you to know that my experience has been that when he gave his word, he kept his word,” the former vice president told the Times.

The comments were in reference to the future editorial independence of the Journal if Murdoch were to take control. Murdoch has said he would not interfere with news decisions. That has been a major issue in negotiations between Murdoch, Dow Jones and the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of DJ shareholder votes.

Maybe Gore is just empathizing with a fellow media big wig. Gore is the chairman of Current TV, a director of Apple, a senior advisor to Google and a movie star as narrator/host of “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Or, maybe, he is really thinking about running for president again. When’s the last time the Wall Street Journal endorsed a Democrat for the White House?

On the web
Dow Jones Issues Statement – CNN
Dow Jones Board Reaches Deal With Murdoch – New York Times

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