Brian Banmiller's blog

Baseball might have a six month season but for some players the game never stops.

“This is a business that is getting bigger and bigger and is really many different businesses all rolled into one.”

Larry Baer is the CEO and owner of the World Series winning San Francisco Giants. Baer says winning games is the primary business but he is also in the entertainment, customer and community service business. Baer says over the past 20 years the sport has evolved and there is something in it for all types of fans to enjoy. This helps organizations fill stadiums and bring in three million fans a season; especially because the competition is not only on the field.  read more »

An online dance craze is costing fifteen men their six figure salaries.

The Harlem shake is a song produced by Brooklyn based DJ Baauer. And since its release the song has triggered a phenomenon. Groups of people are posting videos of themselves dancing to this song. They all start with one solo dancer then about fifteen seconds in he is joined by others who are often wearing costumes or have props. Everyone from network news anchors to professional basketball players to college students has posted their own versions.  read more »

Most inmates count the days until they’re out of the big house; but one New York man is facing charges for busting back in.

New York City police say for at least a week Matthew Matagrano was using phony credentials to get into various prisons. The latest case was last Thursday when he arrived at the Manhattan prison around three in the afternoon.

Police say surveillance cameras caught him mingling with inmates, giving them cigarettes and smoking with them in the common area. Police say he has been getting in by flashing a gold shield and telling people he is a detective from the department’s intelligence unit.  read more »

The bad always comes with the good; and it’s getting technical.

Nick Montano has been a private investigator for the past 33 years. These days most of his cases have gone viral along with most of your personal information.

“Some days we need technology other days it could be a real pain for us. Technology is here to stay so we need to find a way to make it safe for everyone to use technology.”

Montano says in our digital age the bad guys aren’t scoping out banks or liquor stores. Instead they’re sitting at home stealing your identity and hacking into your life savings.

“We come up with technology to stop them and they come up with technology to circumvent it so it’s a cops and robbers situation.”  read more »

A German travel agency is offering an out of this world experience and the cost might surprise you.

Eclipse Travel is joining forces with the charter agency Air Partner and airline Air Berlin to give people a bird’s eye view of a comet. On March 16th the comet Pan-STAARS will pass through the solar system one hundred million miles from earth.

So to get people a little bit closer a Boeing 737 jet will zig-zag 37,000 feet above the ground. The travel agency says they are only selling tickets to 88 people so everyone can have a window seat. There will also be an astronomy expert on board to answer questions and discuss the comet.  read more »

Diving into the restaurant industry; the right flavor can’t be found in the kitchen.

“There are three primary ingredients to successful restaurants; location, location, location.”

Peter Osborne is the owner of MoMo’s. A popular restaurant located right across the street from AT&T Park; home of the World Series winning San Francisco Giants. Osborne says restaurants are part of a diverse portfolio and while people might advise against it the key is to know exactly what you’re doing. And Osborne’s idea to build in an up and coming San Francisco neighborhood paid off when ground broke on the ball park. Now a lot of his business revolves around the team. In the past few days Osborne finished renovating the restaurant just in time for the new season and the fans.  read more »

It’s important to enjoy your job; unless it gets you fired.

Mark Hussey, who goes by Dogg, is a snow plow driver in lowell massachusetts. Over the past week he posted a video of himself hard at work clearing city streets. Except instead of getting rid of the snow he was purposely pushing it over cars and in front of driveways.

In the video Dogg can be heard saying “oh i’m sorry was your car down there” as he buries a sedan under a pile of snow. He goes on to say “you want to find your car? You come see me; I’ll show you where your car is.”  read more »

Man’s best friend is getting some government assistance.

A new program called pet food stamps is providing food stamps for pets of low income families. Located in New York the donation based program has already signed up more than 45,000 pets in the past two weeks. Once the pet owners need and income is verified they receive free pet food each month for a period of six months.

Right now the only way to apply is online but the company is moving to a new office and will begin accepting applications through the mail. In the meantime the demand is keeping their server busy. I tried accessing the company’s website this past week and received a message that it was temporarily unavailable because of capacity problems.  read more »

Looking for a little privacy; keep looking.

“There’s no more privacy. Privacy as we know it is gone the genies out of the bottle so we need to protect our own privacy because no one’s going to do it for us; not the government, not law enforcement, not your mom no one.”

Nick Montano has been a licensed private investigator for the past 33 years. I recently spoke with him about the dangers of the digital world.

“You have to be diligent on your security and your protection and you have to make sure that you don’t put your social security number out there that you don’t put your home address out there, you protect as much as you can.”  read more »

Big brother is keeping a close eye on everything; including big brother.

Generally the FBI is leading any investigation that involves inappropriate online activity and excess surveillance. But this time the FBI is the target. According to an October 2012 quarterly the agency found an increase in sexting; sometimes done from office issued blackberry’s.

It says one employee was suspended for five days for sending sexually explicit messages to another employee on her work phone. Another employee was suspended for 10 days after she emailed a nude photo of herself to her ex-boyfriend’s wife. But the bad behavior doesn’t end there.  read more »