Wednesday Links

Active rigs: 182 (steady)

Wells coming off confidential list have been posted. Five of eight wells to DRL status.

WSJ Links

Section D (Personal Journal): nothing of interest

Section C (Money & Investing): 

Drought coming to an end; end of global warming worries? Wheat prices fell to a 7-month low as rain and snow in the southern Great Plains eased concerns over drought in the region.  Every son's father in the Midwest always said seven years of wet years followed seven years of dry years.

Section B (Marketplace): nothing of interest

Section A: 

This is priceless. Our current SecTreasury forgot to pay his taxes or something to that effect which came to light during his confirmation hearings. Now we hear that the next-likely SecTreasury was investing off-shore in the Cayman Islands for Citigroup, 2006 - 2008. Joe thinks that will sink his confirmation. I don't know. I don't care. But the op-ed is fun to read, especially when you have "tax evasion," "felony," "confirmation hearings," and "Secretary of Treasury" all in the same short op-ed:

No matter how Jack Lew performs at his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, his nomination to be Treasury Secretary has already produced one big winner: the Cayman Islands. The Caribbean low-tax haven is getting a political rehabilitation thanks to Mr. Lew's participation in a Cayman-based fund he invested in while working at Citigroup  from 2006-2008.

For years Democrats have denounced the Caymans, which has no corporate income tax, as a refuge for tax cheats. In 2012 President Obama ripped Mitt Romney for investments based there. But now an Obama spokesman suggests that Mr. Lew's Caymans investment, a Citigroup fund he chose to invest in, was a model of transparency and says that "Jack Lew paid all of his taxes and reported all of the income, gains and losses from the investment on his tax returns."

Wednesday's hearing might even restore the good name of Ugland House, a small Caymans building that Democrats made famous as the legal home to thousands of businesses and investment partnerships—including Mr. Lew's. Mr. Obama has called Ugland an "outrage" and a "tax scam."

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, who will preside over the Lew festivities, devoted an entire hearing to Ugland House in 2008 and said that businesses maintain legal residences there for reasons that "have a lot to do with tax evasion."

Tax evasion is a felony.

There was a story yesterday, by the way, that Bank of New York lost a huge case to the IRS because it involved in investments simply to avoid taxes, and I'm paraphrasing, so I may have the story wrong (about the reason; it is a fact that BK lost big to the IRS over the matter).

Op-ed: the economic windfall of immigration reform. I did not read. My mind is made up.
Along with same-sex civil unions and same-sex marriage.

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A Note To the Granddaughters

Isn't this interesting? One of our favorite spots to visit in southern California is the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro,  CA. Today, of all things, on page 3 of Section (and we've talked about page 3 before), there is big story on the wave of stranded sea lions that are baffling southern California.

Sickly sea-lion pups have been getting stranded in record numbers on the coast of Southern California this winter, overwhelming marine-rescue centers and surprising residents who have found them hiding under parked cars, crossing roads and, in at least one case, sitting in a flower pot.

The Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, Calif., says it has admitted 92 malnourished sea lions since the start of January, with 12 of those arriving last Saturday. The year-to-date total is usually about 10 to 12 in normal years, the center says.

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center, a nonprofit rescue group in Laguna Beach, has received 38 sea lions since the start of the year, up from six over the same period last year. 

Interestingly, perhaps the biologists printed the explanation without knowing:

Ms. Wilkin also says the timing of the strandings is unusual: Sea-lion pups typically get stranded in such numbers in the fall, when they first separate from their mothers and venture out into the ocean to catch food on their own. Sea lions are usually born from May to August, she says.  

Perhaps the word has gotten out: the Marine Mammal Care Center is really, really, nice. Perhaps the sea lions have broken the code: three squares and a cot if you get up on land in San Pedro.

Build it; they will come.

Seriously, the MMCC is incredible. Run by a very small paid staff and an army of volunteers,  the center does an outstanding job. The animals they rescue do not become pets, do not become friends. As soon as they are able, the mammals are released back into the wild. The staff "loves" the animals, but it is a "tough love." We love visiting.