Stock Market Update: Thursday, October 8, 2009

Boomer may be a buster: Measuring 3 feet tall at the shoulders and 7 feet long from nose to destructive wagging tail, he might be the world's tallest living dog.  Owner Caryn Weber says her 3-year-old Landseer Newfoundland keeps all four paws on the floor when he drinks from the kitchen faucet in her family's (Casselton) North Dakota farm house.  Boomer stares into car windows eye to eye with drivers.  A 20-pound bag of dry dog food lasts the 180-pound canine a couple of weeks.  Weber says her furry black and white dog "comes into the house and his tail is so high everything gets knocked around."  Weber plans to send Boomer's measurements to Guinness World Records.  The previous record holder was a nearly 4-foot-tall Great Dane that died this summer. 

The Treasury Department released a report that shows 34 banks who received TARP money did not make dividend payments to the Treasury in August as they should have.  While most are small community banks, among them are a couple of biggies: AIG and Citigroup.  Is it a sign that these institutions are struggling even more than most?  Who knows, but I'm just glad U.S. Bancorp ain't on that list!  That's mostly cuz we paid off our TARP money and didn't owe anything as a result. ( Although, we did pay in excess of $195 million to the Treasury in prior quarters.)Stock Price