McHenry County Blog

I have been watching fellow Bernotas Middle School Dad Ray Christe’s and his Algonquin friend Larry Kozak’s progress as the boat went from conception to completion.

The first “home” for the boast was in Oakwood Hills resident Charley Birks’ garage.

I went over to Oakwood Hills to meet Marc Müller, who was driving a solar-powered car across the country.  Unfortunately, the vehicle was being repaired, but I had a delightful conversation with the young man, who had been active in Swiss politics.

At that time, just the ribs of the boat had been completed.

The CalypSol escaped damage from July’s storm, even though trees fell in Christe’s yard.

Now comes the following press release from the CalypSol Group:

The Constructors of the CalypSol celebrate a milestone!

On September 20, the CalypSol Group celebrated a milestone with the construction of their high tech solar power 22FT trimaran; the final stage of the assembly of the main components.

The craft is due to leave mid-May 2012 for a long journey down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, taking two adventuring mariners from Chicago to New Orleans.

They will be using the same waterway used by Joliet and Marquette in their birch bark canoes over 330 years ago. CalypSol will be the first solar power boat sailing the path, still referred today as the “French Corridor”.

The construction of the boat required more than 1000 hours of combined design engineering and fabrication. The selection of the material and components was carefully reviewed with professional boat builders.

For safety purpose, the boat has several back-up systems.

 

Two sets of solar panels charge independently two batteries which alternatively run the electric outboard motor. The high efficient light weight photovoltaic solar modules were manufactured in Italy but distributed in the States by HighFlex Solar in California. The solar panels are articulated for best sun incidence, thus increasing the efficiency of the battery charge. A special sundial designed by Ray Christe, the lead canoer, provides with the best angle to position the solar panels.

The core of the main hull was fused by Melges Performance Sailboat in Zenda, WI.

The batteries and outboard electric motor are manufactured by Torqeedo in Germany. Their North American headquarters are in Crystal Lake, IL.

The design of the electric motor and propeller shaft allows the boat to move forward, backward and make turns on a sharp angle.

A solar-powered convection fan maintains continuous air flow in the batteries compartment.

There are dual bilge pumps for redundancy.

Instrumentation includes Depth Finder, GPS, Netbook, Energy Monitoring and Cellular Phones.

During their voyage, the mariners will camp overnight on the river islands or banks with an occasion night in a motel.

The boat is equipped with a cooler to store beverages and food purchased along the way from cities and towns. The duration of the voyage is expected to last two months, which allows time to go sight-seeing, meet with local townspeople, routine boat maintenance, and so forth.

You can learn more the Odyssey of the CalypSol Group, founded by Ray Christe of Crystal Lake and Larry Kozak of Algonquin, on their Website: www.calypsol.com, or call 815-455-6797

“We’ve been looking forward to this adventure for quite a long time. We’re excited and just about ready to go,” said Kozak. “Next May can’t get here fast enough to begin our adventure of a lifetime.”

With Congress’ having taken on Goldman Sachs unethical behavior yesterday, I thought readers might be interested in U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s indictment of a wheat trader who is accused of using his company’s money to feather his own nest.  Starting with $438, he made $37,000 using other people’s money on “wheat futures valued at approximately $872 million.”

When his account was liquidated by F Global, there was a “loss of $141,021,489.”

The press release follows:

MEMPHIS AREA MAN INDICTED FOR CAUSING MF GLOBAL TO LOSE
$141 MILLION ON UNAUTHORIZED TRADES OF WHEAT FUTURES
CONTRACTS AT CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE IN 2008

CHICAGO — A suburban Memphis man was indicted on federal fraud charges for allegedly causing $141 million in trading losses to his clearing firm after executing large, unauthorized overnight trades on wheat futures contracts through the Chicago Board of Trade in 2008.

The defendant, Evan Brent Dooley, an “associated person” in the Memphis office of MF Global, Inc., traded on his own account through the CME Globex electronic trading platform, knowing that he placed trading orders exceeding his ability to pay for potential losses resulting from those trades, according to an 18-count indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today.

Dooley, 42, of Olive Branch, Miss., was charged with 16 counts of wire fraud and two counts of violating the Commodities Exchange Act’s speculative position limits.  He will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

According to the indictment, Dooley was an associated person with MF Global, who was allowed to trade on his own account as well as for clients, from September 2006 to February 2008 and transmitted orders from computers located in both MF Global’s Memphis office and his home.

Dooley allegedly induced MF Global to open a trading account and act as his financial guarantor by providing false information about his financial condition on his account application.  Dooley stated that he had a liquid net worth of $250,000; $50,000 in cash; $150,000 invested in a business; total liabilities of $30,000; and a total net worth of $220,000, knowing that his assets were substantially less, the indictment alleges.

During the overnight trading session starting on Jan. 27, 2008, Dooley executed a series of large buy and sell orders for approximately 1,500 wheat futures contracts, even though he did not have the financial ability to cover potential losses.  (Each wheat futures contract called for the delivery of 5,000 bushels of wheat.)

At the start of the session, Dooley had approximately $482 in his MF Global account and intentionally shifted the risks of his trading activity onto MF Global, according to the indictment. At one point, Dooley’s trading position  was “long” by approximately 673 contracts on March 2008 wheat futures worth approximately $32 million.  At the close of the overnight trading, he liquidated his position and realized a gross profit of approximately $37,000.

On Jan. 28, 2008, an MF Global representative advised Dooley that his overnight trading was “out of line,” exceeded the deposits in his account and put MF Global at risk of incurring losses.  Dooley allegedly told MF Global that his trading activity resulted from an error and was not intentional in order to maintain the firm as his financial guarantor, as well as his access to the CME Globex electronic trading platform.

During overnight trading starting on Feb. 26, 2008, Dooley allegedly executed a series of large buy and sell orders for approximately 31,964 wheat futures contracts, knowing that he did not have the ability to pay for potential losses.

At the start of the session, Dooley had a negative balance of approximately $3,000 in his MF Global account.  During the trading session, Dooley established a substantial “short” position and by 6 a.m. on Feb. 27, 2008, he was short 16,174 contracts for May 2008 wheat futures valued at approximately $872 million.  During the same session, Dooley also traded contracts for March, July and December wheat futures, causing his overall position to exceed regulatory limits for both a single month (May 2008) and for all months combined.

On the morning of Feb. 27, 2008, when the price for May 2008 contracts rose rapidly as Dooley attempted to liquidate his short position, Dooley again executed a series of sell orders, the indictment alleges.  By mid-morning, Dooley was short 17,181 contracts for May 2008 wheat futures and the price had gone “limit up” to approximately $13.495 per bushel.

When MF Global authorities learned of Dooley’s overnight trading, they deactivated his account and liquidated the remainder of his position, resulting in a loss of $141,021,489, which Dooley was unable to cover, according to the indictment.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Collins.  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission assisted with the investigation.

Each count of wire fraud carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and each count of violating the Commodities Exchange Act carries a five-year maximum sentence.  Both offenses carry a maximum fine of $250,000 fine on each count and restitution is mandatory.  The Court may also impose a fine totaling twice the loss to any victim or twice the gain to the defendant, whichever is greater.  If convicted, the Court would determine a reasonable sentence to impose under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

An indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Six guys from the United Methodist Men of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake went to Laurel, Mississippi, to do some fixing up.

They pretty much went blind, having a place to stay and an address of a warehouse run by the Methodist Church and a cell phone number of the supervisor, named Buddy Cox.

There was a Fifth Avenue and a Fifth Street and they got the wrong one the first day. The phone number saved the day, even though the, “I forgot you were coming,” on the other end was temporarily disconcerting.

“We really had to work hard to finish this job in a week,” UMM president Jim Nelson told the first Saturday on the month 7:30 breakfast meeting.

“It’s been two years (since Hurricane Katrina). You don’t see trees down.”

“From a Katrina damage viewpoint, there is a lot left,” added Bill Muilkens. “There was ahouse down the block with a blue tarp on it. This isn’t done yet. It’s hanging over us.”

Buddy is the construction coordinator for the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Church. He looks for projects that are “storm-related.” He’s got about 25 lined up.

“There was a need here,” Nelson said.

Mike Lovejoy was the designated audio-visual person. He provided a narrative along with the pictures.

The group stayed at a retreat called Walkaway Springs about twenty miles north of Laurel. There were not enough people to justify having the retreat’s staff fix meals, so, supplying their own breakfasts, it was sort of a bed and breakfast.

The first picture of the group showed smiling faces “because we haven’t started yet,” Lovejoy said.

He described the neighborhood as being about at the poverty level, maybe a little above.

A mother and her daughter lived in the home the group worked upon.

The assignment involved fixing the roof and rehabbing the 5 by 8 foot bathroom.

“You wouldn’t think it would take a week to remodel it,” Lovejoy observed.

“There was a hole next to the bathtub where you could look down and see mud. We decided right away we’d have to just rip everything out.”

“The tub drain was leaking,” added Bob Riepl.

“It was leaking because it wasn’t connected,” Lovejoy added.

“Some animal had decided to store acorns under the vanity,” Muilkens explained. “They came in through the hole.”

The basic instructions from the man everyone referred to as “Buddy” were that the repaid should be “safe, secure and sanitary.”

While five of the men had taken a two-day van trip to Mississippi, Carl Moon arrived the second day by train.

“Carl pretty well rescued us when he came. Carl is a ‘doer,’” Lovejoy explained.

“Wednesday we ended up working (on drywall) until 10 o’clock.”

That night they had hoped to be able to attend a Bible class in a church that backed up to the grandmother’s home, but, to complete the project by Friday, they had to get the drywall up that night.

One photo showed men sawing in the backyard.

“The saw horse there was the bath tub,” Nelson added.

“Buddy grabbed a couple people for a day to unload a prefab house,” he continued.

The group was told the home would be unloaded in Seminary, which they took to be a religious training facility. It wasn’t. The town was named Seminary.

“All they had to buy was the drywall,” Nelson explained.

The unloading of the prefab was apparently a big deal locally. It made the TV news that night.

Nelson said the group delighted in the names of places. His favorite was Dry Creek Water Park.

Lovejoy explained that that the bathroom joist was a 2 by 4. They replaced it with an 8 by 10.

“While we were down there, we kept smelling this sewer gas,” he continued.

“They had a commode in a back room. All of a sudden we heard water running. It was open.”

The team hooked it up to the sewer system.

Riepl explained that they went to restaurants for dinner.

“Only once we went back and washed up,” he said.

“We didn’t go to any restaurant twice,” Nelson added.

One night, when they smelled, they went to Appleby’s. As they were waiting to be seated a women looked them up and down very carefully..

“They put us as far back as they could and we were next to th(at) lady,” Nelson said.

One thing they didn’t do that Buddy said he likes to have on each project was to designate someone as a “listener.” The men were in “finish the project” mode.

“Bill (Muilkens) was sort of the listener,” Riepl explained. Muilkens is a chaplain at Centegra.

Besides listening and running errands and bringing supplies, Muilkens installed a new fan in the living room. He only dropped it once.

From almost the beginning, it was clear that the Methodist warehouse did not have everything that would be needed for the repair job. It did not stock treated wood, for example.

“Early on, we agreed we’d share the cost of other materials we didn’t have,” Riepl said. “I think we ended up paying $360 in supplies for the building project.”

“The Salvation Army was providing most of the funding (for Katrina repairs),” Riepl revealed. UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, “isn’t sending any money now,” but I am told is still working in the New Orleans area.

Lovejoy told of moving the light switch, which was originally over the sink and whose wires weren’t in a box.

Installing the tub Friday night, when they thought they were finished, “the drain fell apart. Bill was off to Lowe’s to get a replacement,” he continued.

After finishing Friday night and getting back to the retreat center, the six decided to sleep in.

But, at 6 o’clock a bell woke them up.

Just their luck that there was a Cursillo retreat at the non-denominational Walkaway Springs that weekend. A number of the men had attended a Walk to Emmaus, which is based upon the Cursillo tradition, so they knew about the early rising. They just didn’t think about it because they got to be so late.

One said they if they had thought about it they would have put a sign on the door telling the Cursillo team that they were not at their retreat.

Contributing to the success of the trip was that “Everybody was very flexible,” Riepl said.

“I was very moved by the experience,” Lovejoy concluded.

Jim Michaelson was also part of the crew.

= = = = =
In the top photo, Dr. Don Brandeau, Carl Moon, Denny Butson, Pastor Dave Seyller and Jim Nelson look at the pictures from the trip.

Next you see UMM President Jim Nelson introducing the program.

Beneath is Jerry Lindley listening to Nelson.

The route of the 900 mile trip is below right.

Mike Lovejoy explains one of the slides to the men.

In the next photograph, you can see Lovejoy, Jim MIchaelson, who went on the mission as well, Bob Riepl and Huntley.

A closer shot of Riepl and Huntley is below.

The bottom photo shows Bill Muilkens answering a question from a church member sitting in the back. To his left is Nelson. Pastor Dave Seyller is looking at the slide on the screen.

Six guys from the United Methodist Men of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake went to Laurel, Mississippi, to do some fixing up.

They pretty much went blind, having a place to stay and an address of a warehouse run by the Methodist Church and a cell phone number of the supervisor, named Buddy Cox.

There was a Fifth Avenue and a Fifth Street and they got the wrong one the first day. The phone number saved the day, even though the, “I forgot you were coming,” on the other end was temporarily disconcerting.

“We really had to work hard to finish this job in a week,” UMM president Jim Nelson told the first Saturday on the month 7:30 breakfast meeting.

“It’s been two years (since Hurricane Katrina). You don’t see trees down.”

“From a Katrina damage viewpoint, there is a lot left,” added Bill Muilkens. “There was ahouse down the block with a blue tarp on it. This isn’t done yet. It’s hanging over us.”

Buddy is the construction coordinator for the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Church. He looks for projects that are “storm-related.” He’s got about 25 lined up.

“There was a need here,” Nelson said.

Mike Lovejoy was the designated audio-visual person. He provided a narrative along with the pictures.

The group stayed at a retreat called Walkaway Springs about twenty miles north of Laurel. There were not enough people to justify having the retreat’s staff fix meals, so, supplying their own breakfasts, it was sort of a bed and breakfast.

The first picture of the group showed smiling faces “because we haven’t started yet,” Lovejoy said.

He described the neighborhood as being about at the poverty level, maybe a little above.

A mother and her daughter lived in the home the group worked upon.

The assignment involved fixing the roof and rehabbing the 5 by 8 foot bathroom.

“You wouldn’t think it would take a week to remodel it,” Lovejoy observed.

“There was a hole next to the bathtub where you could look down and see mud. We decided right away we’d have to just rip everything out.”

“The tub drain was leaking,” added Bob Riepl.

“It was leaking because it wasn’t connected,” Lovejoy added.

“Some animal had decided to store acorns under the vanity,” Muilkens explained. “They came in through the hole.”

The basic instructions from the man everyone referred to as “Buddy” were that the repaid should be “safe, secure and sanitary.”

While five of the men had taken a two-day van trip to Mississippi, Carl Moon arrived the second day by train.

“Carl pretty well rescued us when he came. Carl is a ‘doer,’” Lovejoy explained.

“Wednesday we ended up working (on drywall) until 10 o’clock.”

That night they had hoped to be able to attend a Bible class in a church that backed up to the grandmother’s home, but, to complete the project by Friday, they had to get the drywall up that night.

One photo showed men sawing in the backyard.

“The saw horse there was the bath tub,” Nelson added.

“Buddy grabbed a couple people for a day to unload a prefab house,” he continued.

The group was told the home would be unloaded in Seminary, which they took to be a religious training facility. It wasn’t. The town was named Seminary.

“All they had to buy was the drywall,” Nelson explained.

The unloading of the prefab was apparently a big deal locally. It made the TV news that night.

Nelson said the group delighted in the names of places. His favorite was Dry Creek Water Park.

Lovejoy explained that that the bathroom joist was a 2 by 4. They replaced it with an 8 by 10.

“While we were down there, we kept smelling this sewer gas,” he continued.

“They had a commode in a back room. All of a sudden we heard water running. It was open.”

The team hooked it up to the sewer system.

Riepl explained that they went to restaurants for dinner.

“Only once we went back and washed up,” he said.

“We didn’t go to any restaurant twice,” Nelson added.

One night, when they smelled, they went to Appleby’s. As they were waiting to be seated a women looked them up and down very carefully..

“They put us as far back as they could and we were next to th(at) lady,” Nelson said.

One thing they didn’t do that Buddy said he likes to have on each project was to designate someone as a “listener.” The men were in “finish the project” mode.

“Bill (Muilkens) was sort of the listener,” Riepl explained. Muilkens is a chaplain at Centegra.

Besides listening and running errands and bringing supplies, Muilkens installed a new fan in the living room. He only dropped it once.

From almost the beginning, it was clear that the Methodist warehouse did not have everything that would be needed for the repair job. It did not stock treated wood, for example.

“Early on, we agreed we’d share the cost of other materials we didn’t have,” Riepl said. “I think we ended up paying $360 in supplies for the building project.”

“The Salvation Army was providing most of the funding (for Katrina repairs),” Riepl revealed. UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, “isn’t sending any money now,” but I am told is still working in the New Orleans area.

Lovejoy told of moving the light switch, which was originally over the sink and whose wires weren’t in a box.

Installing the tub Friday night, when they thought they were finished, “the drain fell apart. Bill was off to Lowe’s to get a replacement,” he continued.

After finishing Friday night and getting back to the retreat center, the six decided to sleep in.

But, at 6 o’clock a bell woke them up.

Just their luck that there was a Cursillo retreat at the non-denominational Walkaway Springs that weekend. A number of the men had attended a Walk to Emmaus, which is based upon the Cursillo tradition, so they knew about the early rising. They just didn’t think about it because they got to be so late.

One said they if they had thought about it they would have put a sign on the door telling the Cursillo team that they were not at their retreat.

Contributing to the success of the trip was that “Everybody was very flexible,” Riepl said.

“I was very moved by the experience,” Lovejoy concluded.

Jim Michaelson was also part of the crew.

= = = = =
In the top photo, Dr. Don Brandeau, Carl Moon, Denny Butson, Pastor Dave Seyller and Jim Nelson look at the pictures from the trip.

Next you see UMM President Jim Nelson introducing the program.

Beneath is Jerry Lindley listening to Nelson.

The route of the 900 mile trip is below right.

Mike Lovejoy explains one of the slides to the men.

In the next photograph, you can see Lovejoy, Jim MIchaelson, who went on the mission as well, Bob Riepl and Huntley.

A closer shot of Riepl and Huntley is below.

The bottom photo shows Bill Muilkens answering a question from a church member sitting in the back. To his left is Nelson. Pastor Dave Seyller is looking at the slide on the screen.