Evening Wrap -- March 8, 2016 -- Nothing About The Bakken; For The Bakken, Scroll Down Or To The Sidebar At The Right

Updates

March 18, 2016: buried deep in the post, were the results of the poll asking readers if they thought the Fed would raise rates. Folks are paying attention. 82% said the Fed would not raise rates in March. The Fed did not raise rates. 
 

Original Post

 

I was gone all evening, watching our 9-year-old play soccer; she was invited to play with one of the league's team of 12-year-olds. On the way over, worried about her safety, I told her that the older girls will really kick very, very hard, "implying that she needed to watch out for herself." She replied, "It's not about kicking the ball hard, it's about one skills."

Needless to say, she more than held her own. She was outmatched much of the time, but there were more than enough great efforts to offset the others. But never was she truly outclassed. She held her own, and near the end, was smiling quite broadly after some particularly good playing.

So, now I'm back. I see I posted the wrong wells coming off the confidential list today. I forgot that March is the 3rd month, not the 4th month. Anyway, it's been corrected. I must be getting old.

Now, that I'm back, I will check up on the news.

OH, NO, not again! Trump wins another open primary? NO, another Chipotle restaurant shut down when workers became ill. This time in Massachusetts. Having lived four years in Boston, this does not surprise me. This time in a "suburb" outside of Boston. Reuters reporting four workers became ill:

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, which is trying to recover from a series of food-borne illness outbreaks, temporarily shut a Massachusetts restaurant after four employees fell sick.

The restaurant in the town of Billerica, outside Boston, was closed for a full cleaning, company spokesman Chris Arnold said by email.

Chipotle's shares fell 3.8 percent to $504.50 in extended trading.

"No customer illnesses are connected to this restaurant. Any employee who reported feeling ill will be held out of the restaurant until they fully recover," Arnold added. 

You just have to wonder.  I would normally say I'm glad I eat at McDonald's but I don't eat at McDonald's much any more, either. I'll come back to that story in about six months.

Continuing to see what else happened while I was out for the evening, but first I have to check up on the history of a song, "Jubilee Street." I was sure it was a Leonard Cohen song; I was wrong. It's a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song apparently, though wiki doesn't explicitly say who wrote it.

Jubilee Street, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

There are so many articles on energy and investing, but I'm not even going to go there. This is not an investment site. Having said that, things certainly look interesting. It will be interesting to see how energy-dominated portfolios are going to look like five years from now. I'm inappropriately bullish.

Danger Zone, Kenny Loggins
Turkey (the country) is a mess and it's getting worse. No links. Trust me.

Somalia? We've seen this movie before. Afghanistan. Libya. Yemen.

Aetna has some choice words for ObamaCare.

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Mammoth Lakes Slammed With Snow

Updates

From IceAge, March 9, 2016, Mammoth Lakes, CA, update:

Eight feet (244 cm) of snow since Saturday.

With white-out conditions continuing, California’s Mammoth Mountain dug out from another 4 feet of weekend snow yesterday.

As if that weren’t enough, up to 4 additional feet of snow were predicted by the time the storm ends on Tuesday morning.

Original Post

Global warming? LOL. Do you wonder where the Kennedy family will be this weekend? Mammoth Lakes, California, skiing powder. Mammoth Lakes is east of San Francisco. They received a bit of snow overnight and will get a bit more. Los Angeles Times is reporting:

Avalanche cannons were blasting Monday, as Mammoth Mountain dug out from another 4 feet of weekend snow. In the midst of that, more snow arrived Monday with white-out conditions continuing.

As much as 4 additional feet were predicted by the time the storm passes Tuesday morning, giving a total since Saturday of up to 8 feet of new snow.

So much for the Kennedys telling us they are worried their grandchildren will never see snow again.

By the way, British Columbia is also seeing record snowfall.

According to Environment Canada, a total of 17 cm of the white stuff blanketed the city over the weekend, with a record 9.8 cm falling on Sunday.

The previous snowfall record for March 6 in Fort St. John was 6.6 cm in 1966.

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It's not just Chicago that's seeing a record number of homicides this year, now it's Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times is also reporting that killings have surged 27.5% so far this year.

In his weekly report to the Police Commission, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has cautioned that crime numbers can fluctuate dramatically early in the year, when the department compares only a few weeks of numbers to previous years.

But police continue to grapple with some of the same factors that have driven crime in recent months, particularly violent offenses such as homicides and shootings. Beck noted last week that 10 of a dozen shootings reported over the prior weekend were considered gang-related.

HUDS.

Beverly Hills Cop
But that's a pretty good comment: "numbers can fluctuate dramatically early in the year." I'll have to remember that one. Numbers apparently settle down by October, getting ready for the holidays like the rest of us.

I'll end with the poll results in which we asked whether readers thought the Fed would raise rates:

• yes: 18%
• no: 82%

Incredible. Folks are paying attention on that one. The Wall Street Journal is betting the Fed "stands pat."

That's enough. Looks like I didn't miss anything. Futures are green.

At social media now: