First of all I would like to apologize for having writer’s cramp again, but we have been buried in legal work getting our first acquisition closed. And we just attended our quarterly management retreat, with Gerry Goodman and Richard Creitzman migrating from their cold climates to sunny Florida. Much was accomplished in moving us towards our goal, so stay tuned!

Now, if you are traveling to San Francisco any time soon, be sure to take some extra cash, because the price at the pump is a whopping $4.00! The National average is currently $2.66, but is definitely heading north. A barrel of oil is resting at $66, but the hostage crisis in Iran is making the oil pundits very nervous. There are more kidnappings in Nigeria, and the US refineries are in maintenance mode, re-tooling to convert from winter to summer gas. With tourists getting ready to hit the summer gas pedals, I wonder if we have an $80 barrel looming?

Of course affecting all of this in the background is China, so here are some of the latest factoids:

1. Exxon Mobil has just inked its largest investment deal in China. They are investing $5 billion in a joint venture to run 750 gas stations and a petrochemical refinery.
2. There are 461 million cell phone users in China versus 219 million in the US.
3. There are139 million cables subscribers in China versus 110 million subscribers in the US.
4. There are 11.5 million private car owners in China versus 136.4 million car owners in the US.
5. China has a balance of trade surplus of $117.5 billion versus the US having a deficit of $225 billion.
6. The US Commerce Department has just tabled a motion to impose tariffs on imported goods from China as they claim that China is not playing by the rules and their currency is under-valued to support their exports.

So enough of the serious stuff, and onto sport, or at least I thought? With the Caribbean nations hosting the quadrennial World Cup cricket tournament, and with more than 2 billion people watching, the cricket world has now seen its darkest hour. Pakistan, one of the teams who had a strong chance to win this event, lost their qualifying match to lowly rated Ireland, and Pakistan’s coach Bob Woolmer was found murdered in his hotel room the following day.

This former England national player was rumored to be resigning after this World Cup and was going to publish a book on the impurities in the sport… match fixing, bribery, kidnappings and drugs. This sport is obviously taken very seriously, a sentiment echoed by Lord Condon, the appointed Chief Corruption Investigator for the ruling international body, who stated that over $1 billion will be gambled on the final one day tournament! It’s a shame that cricket, of all sports, has become everything but a sport, being replaced by greed, corruption and murder.

And if this wasn’t bad enough, two women volley ball teams in Greece had their game cancelled last week, because three hundred fans clashed using clubs, knives and stones, which resulted in numerous injuries, and a twenty five year old man dying. All team sports have been cancelled in Greece for the next two weeks.

So here is hoping that March Madness ends on a better note, when defending champs Florida play Ohio State tonight. My money is on the Gator’s!