The Continuing Crisis

• America (sometimes called a land of "second chances") gave stockbroker Jerry Cicolani Jr., 69 such chances, before he pleaded guilty in May to selling unregistered securities -- setting up his first overt punishment despite a history of 60-some client complaints made to his then-employer, Merrill Lynch, between 1991 and 2010. The stockbrokers' self-regulating arm (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) has finally revoked his license, but issued a statement acknowledging that it needed to improve its monitoring. [New York Times, 5-19-2015]

• Awkward: Corey Huddleston, 52, apparently having taken a fancy to a teenage girl in Dickson, Tennessee, in May, knocked on her family's front door, according to police, then pushed his way in, asked for cigarettes and beer, "touched himself" inappropriately, asked about the girl, and then reluctantly departed. However, he merely went to a back window of a darkened bedroom, climbed inside, and fondled a sleeping figure in bed, whom he likely assumed was the girl -- but it was the girl's father, who later confessed that he called the police only after resisting the impulse to kill Huddleston. (Police said Huddleston's rap sheet shows more than 100 charges.) [WKRN-TV (Nashville), 5-13-2015]

Comment by clicking here.