CITY IN TRAVEL STORY - EX-BUCK HOME FOR SALE

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne
MILWAUKEE IN THE NEWS
The Columbus Dispatch sent travel writer Steve Stephens to Milwaukee for a visit May 14th - 15th, 2008. His account of the city appeared in the paper of Sunday, June 1st. Stephens said Milwaukee traded "some of its industrial grit for tourist glitter," and visited some of the likely spots, including taking in a game at Miller Park. When it came time for a brewery tour, however, he eschewed Miller in favor of Lakefront Brewery, where I ran across him Thursday the 14th for a quintessential Jim Klisch tour of the place. We went to the Safehouse and hit a number of Milwaukee locations Friday, ranging from Schlitz Audubon Center on the north to Bella's Fat Cat on the south. Stephens seemed to enjoy his time here, but imparted this bit of wisdom to his readers: "Newbies should stay away from Milwaukee-style bar dice, a popular gambling game. Trust me on this." Guess where he learned that!

ALAN EISENBERG IN FENDER BENDER
Attorney Alan D. Eisenberg was seen making a telephone call and directing traffic in his red fedora, plaid sportscoat and vest this morning at N. 12th St. and W. Highland Ave., where it appeared a car (his) had just rear-ended another vehicle. Eisenberg seemed all right, but you never can tell.

DISCOUNT ON EX-BUCK'S HOME
Real Estate agent Molly Abrohams of First Weber Realty has put a $590,000 price tag on a home at 2845 N. Hackett Avenue. Milwaukee city real estate records show the 2002 home to be owned by Timothy M. Thomas and Natricia Thomas. Thomas was a basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks from '98 to -'04, and the couple bought the new building for $715,000 in October, 2003. It was assessed at $675,000 in 2007, and the figure has dropped to $661,000 for 2008. The $590,000 price tag, in comparison, makes it look like the place is trading at the low end of the range. Thomas reportedly spent $35,000 a month supporting a girlfriend and their child. His wife found out when she discovered his "secret cell phone" one day and called the numbers in the memory. I believe there were fireworks that day. Another winning financial play from an NBA player.

FIRM IN COUPON FRAUD CASE HERE SOLD
International Outsourcing Services, [IOS], the Booomington, Indiana firm involved in federal charges here of $250 million in coupon fraud against dozens of manufacturers, has been sold and renamed.
Marlin Equity Partners of Los Angeles announced this morning, Monday, June 2nd, 2008, that it had bought IOS and renamed it ProLogic Redemption Solutions. The sale was expected. According to an agreement with the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, charges against the company in the massive coupon fraud case were dropped on May 21st, 2007 under a number of conditions. One of the conditions was "placing all putative distributions to shareholders, including any potential proceeds available for shareholders if the company were ever sold, in escrow pending resolution of the criminal cases."
The criminal cases [07 CR 057] are against Chris Balsiger, Bruce Furr and nine other individuals. They continue. As milwaukeewworld mentioned last year, 25.5% of IOS was owned by grocery giant Supervalu, which is not implicated in the fraud. It could not be immediately determined how Supervalu comes out of this deal, which is said to have involved the assumption of considerable debt by the purchaser.