BATTLING gran Jean Collop nabbed a burglar — by laying him out with a garden gnome.

And that's why HOAs should never, ever, ban garden gnomes. Got it?

CNN, "Open House," Saturday April 16, 9:30 eastern time...
...is the time and place for the pre-empted episode on HOAs, featuring yours truly, that was put off due to the death of the Pope and the marriage of some royal folks.
http://money.cnn.com/ontv/openhouse/

Burden of debt | The San Diego Union-Tribune
Here's the first of two stories that quote me at some length, just in case anybody's interested.

Associations are too quick on the trigger, critics claim | The San Diego Union-Tribune

Housing market may be cooling | The San Diego Union-Tribune
The median price for resale homes in San Diego County hit a record last month at $535,000, but there were hints of a softening in the market as overall appreciation in pricing slowed and sales declined, DataQuick Information Systems reported yesterday. Driven by the continued popularity of lower-priced condominiums, particularly those that have been converted from apartments, the year-over-year rate of appreciation last month slowed to 12.5 percent, the lowest of the six Southern California counties tracked by DataQuick. The last time appreciation was in the range of 12 percent was November 2003.
[more]

People leaving Los Angeles county in droves

The exodus of Los Angeles County residents to surrounding counties and nearby states accelerated significantly during the past year, driving the largest population shift in the nation, according to new U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday.


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Strange. I mean, you can have horrible schools, horrendous crime, bad air, high taxes, and meddlesome government, and all for only about $600,000 for a three-bedroom house that is a mere 75 miles from your job. What's not to like?

Potomac News Online | County program seeks neighborhood support for clean-up efforts

Casciato stressed that the county doesn't want to interfere with healthy communities or get in the middle of neighborhood disputes that do not involve code violations and don't occur in problem areas. "We're not going to step in in the place of existing, functional neighborhood associations," Casciato said. "We can do a little education, but we're not going to step in and substitute our judgment for theirs unless there is some clear violation of the county code going on."


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Nice of the public officials not to interfere with the responsibilities they have delegated for free to HOAs, isn't it?

East Valley Tribune editorial: Legislature should rein in HOA abuses, but not rewrite contracts

House bill aims at condo boards:Hesitant to go after homeowners associations, a committee passes more rules for condominiums.

Clayton Cramer's BLOG says...it's "Crack in the World"!!!
Below I linked to a story about some scientists who are drilling a hole through the mantle of the earth's core. I said these folks should check out science fiction because this has been tried (on screen) and it is a bad idea. At least, on film. Clayton Cramer went a step further and came up with the name of the movie (which I thought was quite good).

It Sounds Like The Start of a Bad 1960s Sci-Fi Movie

Crack in the World (1965), as I recall. It was truly awful, even by the standards of the time, so this news story caught my attention:
"Scientists said this week they had drilled into the lower section of Earth's crust for the first time and were poised to break through to the mantle in coming years. The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) seeks the elusive "Moho," a boundary formally known as the Mohorovicic discontinuity. It marks the division between Earth's brittle outer crust and the hotter, softer mantle."

I do hope the environmentalists don't hear about this. Since most of them seem to have a Crack in the World level of science training, I expect them to get in a rather serious tizzy in no time at all.