The Cost of Chocolate

The cost of chocolate – and I don’t mean our hips either!!! I guess it just figures (no pun intended) that someone is always ready to cash in on another’s addictions.

Watchdog investigates alleged Canadian chocolate ‘cartel’

Canadian divisions of chocolate makers face price-fixing accusations

Last Updated: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 | 9:40 AM ET

The Associated Press

Regulators have launched an investigation into allegations that the Canadian divisions of Nestlé, Cadbury, Hershey, Mars and others have engaged in a price-fixing scheme in the multibillion-dollar chocolate bar business, according to a media report.

Canada’s Competition Bureau served search warrants on several major bar makers this week, requiring them to turn over reams of documents on their pricing arrangements, the Globe and Mail reported in Wednesday editions.

“We can confirm that we are investigating alleged anti-competitive practices in the chocolate confectionery industry,” said John Pecman, the bureau’s assistant deputy commissioner in the criminal matters branch.

“The volume of commerce affected here is definitely potentially in the billions of dollars per year.”

Pecman said an Ontario court recently “granted search warrants based on the evidence that there are reasonable grounds to believe that a number of the suppliers in the chocolate industry have engaged in activities contrary to the conspiracy provisions — that’s a cartel — of the Competition Act.”

Pecman would not identify the companies.
The investigation is focused on chocolate products, but could expand to other types of candy depending on what is uncovered, he said.

“There are no conclusions of wrongdoing at this time,” Pecman said. “We’re just at the investigative stage.”

All four companies said they would co-operate fully with any investigation, the Globe and Mail reported.

“We are aware of it, but all we can say is that we can’t comment on any ongoing investigation, but we are co-operating with any inquiries,” Cadbury spokesman Simon Taylor told the Associated Press on Wednesday in London.

Hershey did not immediately return calls early on Wednesday.

Canadians buy about $2.3-billion worth of chocolate and candy every year, according to the Confectionery Manufacturers Association of Canada.

More on the Cow

Dovetailing nicely with the story of the cow who crashed down on a minivan earlier this month, comes this choice morsel from the Canadian Press. (I have to wonder, however, why all this amusing stories come from other countries than Canada; and I can wonder, since as a Canadian, I know there are many ridiculous things that happen in this country too) But back to the cow.  For the sake of a story: this could be a revenge seeking relative – the cow, not the guy with the gun. Maybe the cow knew something and the guy with the gun, who possibly allegedly was involved with in the first incident, had to shut the cow up before he talked. Shades of Animal Farm …………………

Man says he shot cow after mistaking it for coyote; authorities are skeptical

Published: Thursday, November 22, 2007 | 8:24 PM ET

Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLFAX TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A man says he shot and killed a neighbour’s cow after mistaking it for a coyote.

Authorities and the cow’s owner are skeptical. The undersheriff in northern Michigan’s Benzie County says he doesn’t see how anyone could confuse a 635-kilogram, pregnant cow with a coyote, which typically weighs about 13 kilograms.

Shooting coyotes is illegal during deer-shooting season and authorities asked the county prosecutor to bring charges.

Undersheriff Rory Heckman says the 42-year-old man told authorities he was out to shoot coyotes near his home Saturday when he killed the cow and then tried to drag it home.

The owner of the cow, DeAnn Mosher, says her husband thought that their neighbour should go through some therapy looking at repeated pictures of cows and coyotes, because they look nothing alike.

Another Shoddy Shyster

Burglar in Bosnia arrested after homeowner finds him sleeping on the job.

Published: Thursday, November 22, 2007 | 9:57 AM ET

Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina – Perhaps it was a problem with working nights.

But a burglar who broke into a house in Bosnia is now in jail after a homeowner discovered him sleeping on the job. Police in the central Bosnia town of Maglai say the suspect, identified only as 21-year-old Edin M., confessed to snatching two bracelets.

But before leaving, he decided to sit down on a couch to rest and then promptly fell asleep.

The Zero Effect

One of the most enjoyable movies ever! Starring Bill Pulman and Ben Stiller. Truly a fantastic way to spend two hours. Richard Stark, one of the writers,  is a pseudonym for that master mystery writer Donald E Westlake – who can do no wrong as far as I am concerned. Alternately a dark or delightful read depending on which series you are devouring:

“Passion is the enemy of precision. Forget the nysnomer crime of passion. All crime is passionate. It is passion that moves the criminal to act, that disrupts the static inertia of morality. The client’s passion for this dead woman had facilitated his downfall. And the blackmailers passion would facilitate hers. When you live with no passion at all other people’s passions come into glaring relief.”

- Richard Stark & Jake Kasdan The Zero Effect

Death by Cow

When I see headlines like this I start to wonder….

“Cow falls off cliff and crashes onto van on highway; motorists unhurt”

Lucky motorists. The article goes on to say that the happy couple in the minivan, were on a trip, celebrating their first wedding anniversary when a six hundred pound cow fell from the sky onto their vehicle. They were inches from death as the bovine fell from an overhead cliff two hundred feet above.

Now when I read something like that, I have to wonder … did the cow fall … or was he pushed? Is a cow viable as a murder weapon? The ‘old school’ of mystery writing praises ingenuity in the method of death. Definitely all trace of fingerprints would be wiped out and well as all the other evidence probably.

How strong would you have to be to push a cow over a cliff? It would be doable other wise there would never have evolved the questionable entertainment of cow tipping. Is that what happened? Two teenagers were too close to the edge and old Bessie dropped off? Was there a lookout with a cellphone watching for the van, rate of travel and cow trajectory carefully calculated on a Blackberry? Do Blackberries calculate? So much research to do… Was it a milk cow?

Oh yes … inspiration for writing whodunits are everywhere and this one seems pretty promising. The only thing is, after it’s all over, would the reader be echoing the words of the mini driver, shaking their collective heads: “I don’t believe this. I don’t believe this.”

Honestly

It’s true!!! People are basically good, honest, helpful and kind; inspite of what much of the media leads us to believe. Check this out!

Bystanders help out when $15,000 from armoured car hits the road in New York

Published: Thursday, November 1, 2007 | 9:22 AM ET

Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – Money doesn’t grow on trees, but it apparently does flutter like leaves in the wind.

Three bystanders helped pick up $15,000 in dollar bills that flitted across a Long Island road after falling out of an armoured car on Halloween, according to two volunteer police officers at the scene.

“I’ve never seen that much money in one place,” said one of the auxiliary officers, George Fuhr, 76. “It was wild.”

A sack of cash apparently tumbled onto Nicolls Road on Wednesday because the armoured car’s door wasn’t completely closed. The bills burst from the bag after cars ran it over.

Fuhr and his patrol partner, Ralph Cabattente, 73, stopped when they came across the commotion and directed traffic while waiting for Suffolk County police.

Fuhr said the bystanders were able to recover all but $128 of money and return it to its rightful owners.

© The Canadian Press, 2007