Posts Tagged ‘Rex Sinquefeild’

On the heels of the Missouri Earnings Tax Initiative (Prop. A) which he heavily supported, conservative millionaire Rex Sinquefeld said he is poised to launch a petition in April to abolish the Missouri income tax.  With his wife, Dr. Jeanne Sinquefeld, he greeted 500 guests at the St. Vincent Christmas benefit at the Chase Hotel.  (Rex was raised at the St. Vincent orphanage.)  Within earshot were Maggie and Ron Holtman, Rex’s basketball coach, as well as Brenda Talent of the Show Me Institute, where she said a new study “shows how the economy can grow by eliminating the taxes.”  Asked about her husband, Jim, and his reputed run for U.S. Senate, she demurred and then said she told him, “You run in one election and then run in another?” Attorney and advisor to County Exec Charlie Dooley, John Temporiti, had a take on that, when he said, “If Ann Wagner takes the RNC chair post, Talent will probably run for U.S. Senate.”  With Temporiti was his and wife Karen’s son/barrister Michael, who has begun working at the firm where dad works. After they met and greeted, the Temporitis were off and running to the Log Cabin Club to hear Karl Rove, hosted by The Roundtable group. “Hold your enemies close,” chuckled John. St. Louis Aldermanic prez Lewis Reed was joined by state rep Rodney Hubbard, Sr., and Jr., after which Reed speculated on License Collector Michael McMillan‘s possible run for St.Louis mayor.  “Mike’s a hard worker. But, I’m not going to pit him against Francis Slay,” insisted Reed. Meanwhile, McMillan is off to Malaysia for three weeks on a State Department exchange program.

The office of Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan has begun asking local governments to quantify the economic consequences of a series of Rex Sinquefeld-sponsored petitions to abolish the earnings tax collected by St. Louis and Kansas City (and, beyond Rex’s current reach, by most major cities in the country.) In St. Louis , the earnings taxes paid by city residents and by others who work within the city limits amount to one-third of the entire city budget (or the cost of operating the entire police dept)… The two trains of Charlie Dooley, county exec and candidate, brushed each other on the tracks this week.  While Dooley campaign exec John Temporiti was dousing Republican challenger Bill Corrigan‘s No-Tax announcement with proof of Dooley’s own tax-cutting chops, county officials were telling reporters that Dooley was supporting a half-cent sales tax increase for public transportation… Yes, that was former St. Louis mayor Clarence Harmon sitting back-to-back with former St. Louis mayor Vince Schoemehl over lunch at low-profile Beffa’s.  Unrelated meetings and polite handshakes, reported bemused observers.  Meanwhile, Fredbird – the unlikely club next door to St. Louis’s most hidden restaurant – will host a fundraiser Dec. 5 to promote the 2010 season of the Arch Rival Roller Girls… From my booth at the McDonald’s across the street from the Post-Dispatch, it looks like on-line editor Kurt Greenbaum (a true gentleman, by the way) has managed to do exactly what his bosses wanted him to do: get readers.  A P-D story – more accurately, stories about the newspaper – spent the past week near the top of the Google International search list.  Greenbaum, who oversees most of the paper’s social media efforts, drew worldwide attention for telling a local school that someone using its computers had posted and reposted a naughty comment on a P-D website… Erstwhile P-D commentary page editor Eric Mink was beckoned by The New York Times as freelancer to pen a review of a new production of “The Card Game” in the long-running “Frontline” documentary series on PBS. Published Nov. 23, the review is headlined “In Love with Credit, It’s Business as Usual”… Betsy Taylor, super-reporter in the Associated Press’s St. Louis bureau, is job hunting.

Duke

Tongues were still wagging about the dinner at Herbie’s where His Highness Paul – Duke of Oldenburg, Germany, was honored at dinner, hosted by philanthropist Rex Sinquefield. The dinner included a dozen distinguished guests from across the state including Canon Michael K. Wiener, David and Trisha Schlafly, Chris Poehler, Susan Barrett, Paul Shaughnessy, Ken and Mary Ann Schwartz and Jefferson Mansell.  Sinquefield is known throughout for giving a sizable share of the fortune he earned during his tenure as a fund management exec, with the same enthusiasm that he acquired it. He has contributed to and founded many charitable ventures, including the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis. He has also been a prominent figure in the media for his stances on major policy issues, including tax and education reform.  The duke is also involved in a variety of political and social activities in his native Germany.  A strong proponent of family values, the duke visited our town to give a lecture at St. Francis de Sales Oratory on “The Importance of Tradition”.

Unless lightning strikes twice, Anthony Sansone, Jr.’s most recent attempt to purchase an interest in an NHL franchise is officially on ice. The Tampa Tribune is reporting this week that Tampa Bay Lightning co-owner Len Barrie had until Monday night to buy out partner Oren Koules. Barrie had – sez the newspaper — tapped Sansone, a hockey-savvy local who owns and manages real estate, as his new partner. Now, Koules has 60 days to try to buy out Barrie. Will Koules also try to partner with Sansone? . Former Landmarks Association deputy director Michael Allen, whose painstaking investigation of the real estate activities of Paul McKee first alerted the public to the scope of McKee’s Northside project, has ankled the preservation group and has hung out a shingle on his own as an architectural researcher. Meanwhile, Landmarks is poised to celebrate its 50th anniversary with a gala at The Palladium (the new special events Hall on Park Place behind Old City Hospital). Strange ideological bedfellows Rex and Jeanne Sinquefeld, Charles and Shirley Drury, and Amrit and Amy Gill are anchoring the host committee.

Before the plane left, do-gooder Jeffrey Fort challenged this columnist to try to get a table at Gotham’s Il Mulino. Even his barrister Chet Pleban and produce guy Charlie Gallagher couldn’t manage it.  Neither could the columnist. But, that turned into a mitzvah. The Stage Deli’s Steve Auerbach and Paul Zolenge had not only a table for me, but also put in the works a Jerry Berger sandwich of smoked salmon on a bialy. So, the columnist will soon join the real upper crust: the ranks of those whose namesake sandwiches appear on the Stage Deli’s menu.  Others? The tongue/swiss cheese and corned beef given the name of Larry King; Larry David’s corned beef and turkey; Howard Stern’s pastrami; A-Rod’s turkey, chopped liver lettuce, tomato and onion; Ben Stiller’s hot roast beef; Aretha Franklin’s pastrami and turkey and Dolly Parton’s twin rolls of pastrami and corned beef; and Tiger Woods’ Rueben … The columnist’s favorite alumnus of the Non-Partisan Judicial Selection Plan, Mo. Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff, is clearly truthful, enlightened and so cool!  Has he ever smoked a joint? “It was a youthful indiscretion,” said Wolff over brunch at the Chase-Park Plaza.  “Unlike some others of my generation, I did inhale.”Wolff said he is a voracious reader and among his faves are: The Riverfront Times, New York Wired, Washington Monthly and the papers in and around Jefferson City.  The 64 year-old judge said that after mandatory retirement at 70, he’ll go back to teaching. Any hint where? Of Saint Louis University uber-president he says, “He’s transformed SLU and the city by making that gorgeous campus. I even like his engaging (the columnist thinks that is judicialese for “nude”) artwork on the campus.”  He looked back on his career on the bench and commented, “As a judge, it’s hard to get away from thinking about how law affects ordinary people, how it affects the average person. People with money can take care of themselves.”  Does the cool judge hit the casinos?  “It’s entertainment for five or ten minutes, but I do spend two dollars a week on my Powerball habit,” he admitted,  As to Judge Wolff’s family, he said, “My mother was a typical Irish Catholic – I don’t forget that!” We were joined by the Chase’s exemplary French Chef, Brian Hale, who hails from the whine region of St. Louis County. Brian Hale … Recession?  Mike Lordo says “not so much.”He and his brother have each just sold a 12-carat yellow and 13-carat emerald cut diamond rings at Lordo’s on Clayton Road … First there were Buster May, then Desmond Lee. Now, it’s Rex Sinquefeld who’s the outstretched hand from our town’s charity types. Who he? A zillionaire grad of Bishop DuBourg High (just like Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter), who wrote the definitive book on stock market returns and was co-founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors.