Moose carcass reek disturbs Abbot woman
I just included this story so you would have some context for the one below. Now you know I wasn't fooling.

Developer has resort plan for Brownville - Diana Bowley
That would be Brownville, Maine. Right down the road from Brownville Jct., Maine, pop. 900, where yours truly lived as a little boy. When I saw this headline I thought for a minute that it was some sort of wicked parody. The idea of a California developer being interested in a tiny hamlet in the Great North Woods of Maine is hard for me to grasp. But I'm all for it. A while back I was reading that if the Canadian Pacific Railroad closed the spur that runs through Brownville Jct., the town would disappear. Now maybe it has a new lease on life.

BROWNVILLE - Could it be that Brownville will become home to a 550-room, four-star hotel, 45,000-square-foot convention center, spa facility, 25,000-square-foot conference center, golf course, golf school and clubhouse, three restaurants and 400 time-share units? That's the concept plan that a California developer has for a 3,500-acre parcel near Norton Pond in this Piscataquis County community. Jim Dennehy of Palm Springs, Calif., doing business as WHG Development, envisions building a premier destination resort called The Reserve at Norton Pond. The majority of its patrons would arrive via passenger rail at a proposed train station.

Granite City About To Ban Indoor Furniture From Outdoor Sight

I think this is the answer to one of those "you know you're a redneck when..." jokes.

GRANITE CITY, Ill. (AP) -- Furniture meant for indoors shouldn't be used outdoors. That's the view anyway of Granite City, Illinois, officials who are backing a new law that would ban the use of upholstered chairs and couches on porches and in yards.

Condo arson
From Fred Pilot comes this tale of arson, inspired by animosity toward...you guessed it: the alleged perpetrator's condo association.
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - A dozen condominiums were damaged or destroyed by flames after a resident, apparently angry with the homeowners' association, allegedly set fire to his condo.

Razor blades in the sand at gated community
Fred Pilot sent this along. So much for being safe because there are no strangers allowed.

NEWPORT BEACH — Thirteen X-Acto blades were found in the sand at a gated Newport Beach community's park after a boy injured his foot while stepping on one over the weekend, officials said Monday. Four blades were found Saturday after 5-year-old Freddy Bloom's foot was pricked inside a Bonita Canyon gated community, Newport Beach police Sgt. Mark Everton said. The child encountered the blade between two coiled rocking horses in the playground, where nothing else of its kind had been reported previously, according to news reports.

Home lost over $1,380 dues:
Venice woman's plight shows need for new laws, activists say

But the industry says this never happens...Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

Ananova - Christopher Lee to sing at heavy metal festival
I posted this for two reasons. First, it is the strangest headline I have ever read. Second, I have been a Christopher Lee fan since he and Peter Cushing were doing the B movies for Hammer Films. I would love to hear old Saruman doing Heavy Metal.

Octogenarian actor Christopher Lee is reportedly performing at a heavy metal festival in Germany. The 82-year-old Lord of the Rings star is taking part in the Earthshaker Festival in Geiselwind, Bavaria. He will sing with two bands, Manowar and Rhapsody, according to concert organisers. Lee will be accompanied by a live orchestra and a choir and will perform alongside heavy metal bands such as Grave Digger, Dragonlord and Forces of Evil.

Ananova - Thief 'drinks' work of art
I would say that this fellow privatized a public work of "art." Or maybe it was a form of art criticism.

An artist's latest work - a bottle of melted Antarctic ice - may have been stolen and drunk by a thirsty thief. Artist Wayne Hill filled a two-litre clear plastic bottle with melted ice to highlight global warming. But the artwork, valued at £42,500, went missing while on display at a literary festival, reports the Scotsman. Entitled Weapon of Mass Destruction, it vanished halfway through the Ways with Words festival at Dartington Hall, Devon.

A note from Marjorie Murray on the legislative situation in California
Evan -- thanks for posting the CID Homeowner Bill of Rights, sent to the California Law Revision Commission in 2001 by the CID Bill of Rights Coalition.

I just re-read the document on your website and am gratified to see how closely our Coalition has adhered to these basic principles when fighting for good legislation in Sacramento -- legislation that either creates new rights for homeowners or expands and protects existing rights.

This session, for example, the Coalition is sponsoring legislation
[SB 137/Ducheny] to restrain the use of foreclosure to collect assessments and legislation [AB 1098/Jones] to expand the rights of homeowners to inspect and copy financial records. The California Research Bureau reported in 2002 that California's 37,000 associations collect more than $207 million annually in homeowner assessments. However, HOAs either don't report at all how they spend this money or else they report it inaccurately. According to the insurance industry itself, up to 20% of all lawsuits filed by California homeowners against HOAs are for financial mismanagement -- or outright fraud.

The CID industry is fighting both SB 137 and AB 1098 tooth and claw through statewide campaigns.

Both bills will go to floor votes after the Legislature reconvenes from summer recess on August 15.

Please feel free to post this letter on your blog.

Best regards --

Marjorie Murray
Legislative Advocate/CID Housing
Chair, Bill of Rights Coalition
3758 Grand Avenue, Suite 35
Oakland, California 94610
510.272.9826
writzy@aol.com

'Hapless toad' case shows how court nominee Roberts thinks...or does it?
This somewhat hysterical column has some good information in it about USSC nominee John Roberts, based on a case decided right after he went to the DC Court of Appeals. But the writer falls for the spin placed on one of Roberts' opinions by environmentalists. Read it for yourself and see what you think.

It's only a "hapless toad,'' in John Roberts' words. But of all the cases in the Supreme Court nominee's career, a dispute over an endangered amphibian in the path of a California homebuilder may provide the best indication of his views on most any major issue likely to come before the court. The July 2003 opinion -- his first after President Bush appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. -- questioned an important legal rationale for the Endangered Species Act. The opinion also suggested that Roberts has a narrow interpretation of the federal government's power to regulate interstate commerce, the basis for a wide range of laws... Commentators and advocates on all sides agree that Roberts' opinion stopped short of a definitive statement on either the Endangered Species Act or constitutional limits on federal authority. But Senate Democrats say they plan to make it a focus of Roberts' confirmation hearing.

USATODAY.com - Malibu's rich and famous fight to keep beach private
Mystery Reader points out that today's story about the Michigan Supreme Court mandating public access to the Great Lakes shoreline, across private property, is reminiscent of this blast from the recent past about the Hollywood/Malibu set trying to keep the great unwashed off their coastline.

MALIBU, Calif. — A tide of ordinary people is lapping at the secluded beaches of the rich and famous. Malibu, a 27-mile strip of spectacular coastline northwest of Los Angeles, has been resisting encroachment by average folks for decades. A retreat for Barbra Streisand, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Goldie Hawn, Pierce Brosnan and scores of other Hollywood stars, Malibu has come to connote entertainment royalty watching Pacific sunsets from exclusive sands. Privacy means a lot to celebrities, and they have achieved it by walling off luxurious oceanfront hideouts worth up to $15 million. Now, state officials are moving to assert the public's right to share Malibu's vistas.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Vegas heading for 'dry future'
The Las Vegas area is exploding with privately governed gated communities, and people are moving there in droves. One unanswered question remains: Where is the water for all these folks--and their lawns and golf courses and swimming pools--going to come from? I am very skeptical of any sentence that includes the words "environmentalists warn," because that is usually followed by an exaggerated or utterly groundles claim based on some bogus computer model. But in the case of Vegas, they may have a point. It is a desert, after all.

Las Vegas is world-renowned as a city of fantasy, flaunting its reputation for excess. It appears a green oasis of refrigerated plenty, set in a blazing desert. But environmentalists warn water supplies could run dry within the next 50 years; while urban sprawl is out of control and development is encroaching on protected areas.

Amendment would mandate water link for subdivision
Nancy Levy sends this interesting piece from Oregon about the intricate politics of water supply and real estate development.

SALEM — An amendment forcing the Medford Water Commission to treat and transmit water to a rural subdivision in Central Point was added to a plumber's certification bill Wednesday by a House-Senate conference committee. The so-called "stuff and gut" ploy — often used near the end of a legislative session — was engineered by Rep. Dennis Richardson, R-Central Point, who represents the Westwood Subdivision just off Ross Lane. The subdivision, several miles outside the Medford urban growth boundary, relies on wells. But they are going dry as a result of a declining water table and other problems. The enclave of some 60 homes repeatedly has asked the Medford Water Commission to treat and transmit water through a private service line near the subdivision. The line serves a naval reserve station that is on the Pentagon's list for closure.

Chicagoist: Dead People To Be Evicted For New O'Hare Expansion
Mystery Reader send along this Chicago piece about the FAA approval of Mayor Daley's proposal to expand the already humungous O'Hare Airport. Seems it will require digging up 1300 graves and relocating them. The unanswered question is, what voting precinct will these folks be in after they are relocated?

Public has right to walk along Great Lakes beaches, Michigan Supreme Court rules

Private property rights haven't been doing well in the courts this year. Here's another example:
People can stroll along Michigan's 3,200 miles of Great Lakes beaches whether owners of adjacent private property like it or not, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

Libertarians Propose Taking Breyer's Land - Yahoo! News
Why not get back in action with one from the "Sauce for the Goose" Department:

PLAINFIELD, N.H. - Libertarians upset about a Supreme Court ruling on land taking have proposed seizing a justice's vacation home and turning it into a park, echoing efforts aimed at another justice who lives in the state. Organizers are trying to collect enough signatures to go before the town next spring to ask to use Justice Stephen G. Breyer's 167-acre Plainfield property for a "Constitution Park" with stone monuments to commemorate the U.S. and New Hampshire constitutions. "In the spirit of the ruling, we're recreating the same use of eminent domain," said John Babiarz, the Libertarian Party's state chairman. The plot mirrors the party's ongoing effort to get the town of Weare, about 45 miles to the southeast, to seize Justice David Souter's home. Souter's property is also the focus of a proposal by a California man who suggested the town turn the farmhouse into a "Lost Liberty Hotel." The efforts are meant in protest of the high court's June ruling that let a Connecticut city take land by eminent domain and turn it over to a private developer. Breyer and Souter supported the decision.

Why haven't I updated this blog since July 15?
I've had a few people ask me that, and it's a good question. The answer is that I went off on vacation to French Lick, Indiana, on July 16. There I had practically zero access to the internet, and what little I had went to dealing with direct e-mails. When I got back home I had so many matters backlogged that I have been spending the week dealing with them and had no time to post anything. However, the good news is that I have a host of great links from many contributors and will be going through them and updating the blog over the weekend.

CID Homeowners Coalition letter to California Law Revision Commission, March 9, 2005

Respectfully submitted:
Marjorie Murray, Chair
CID Homeowner Bill of Rights Coalition
Legislative Advocate/CID Housing
3758 Grand Avenue, Suite 35
Oakland, California 94610
510.272.9826

cc: Members, Assembly Housing Committee
Members, Assembly Business and Professions Committee

CID HOMEOWNER BILL OF RIGHTS

On September 25th we will celebrate the 210th anniversary of the ratification of the federal Bill of Rights. To honor this occasion, we the undersigned have ratified ten resolutions comprising a Common Interest Development Homeowner Bill of Rights. Modeled on the Preamble and the Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, this document is meant to inspire public confidence in the concept of the CID, to ensure that this local government institution pursues benevolent goals, and to prevent abuses of power. Any changes to California law governing CIDS must conform to these inviolable principles.


We resolve THAT,

I. Since living in a common interest development (CID) requires an individual citizen to enter into a contract with a governing association, the prospective homeowner must give written informed consent to the terms of the association’s rules and governing documents, but most especially to the Codes, Covenants, and Restrictions (CC&Rs) ten days before close of escrow. The governing documents comprise the contract between the CID and the buyer.

II. No CID board shall abridge a citizen’s freedom of speech or of the press either through direct order or through intimidation or any kind of public abuse; that no board hall abridge the right of homeowner citizens to assemble peaceably or to petition the board for a speedy redress of grievances. No CID board shall abridge freedom of religion.

III. Boards give a full, true and accurate accounting in writing of all association
actions. No actions shall be taken in secret.

IV. Homeowner citizens shall be entitled to speedy access to all association records, particularly to financial records, contracts, and records of governance at any time without exception.

V. Homeowner citizens shall not be deprived of liberty or property, without speedy due process of law. Nor shall private property be taken without just compensation, specifically, there shall be no non-judicial foreclosure.

VI. Homeowner citizens shall have the absolute right to vote on any changes to the terms of the original contract, i.e. changes in rules and amendments to governing documents or fines they are expected to pay. No fine shall exceed the true costs of the remedy.

VII. If accused of violating rules, homeowner citizens are entitled to a speedy and public hearing by an impartial body not selected by the board; the impartial body shall determine the guilt or innocence of the accused and determine what fines, if any, be imposed; that the accused be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; be confronted with witnesses; and have a compulsory process for obtaining witnesses, records, and advocates. Use of this system does not cancel a citizen’s rights of appeal in the courts.

VIII. Residents shall be treated equally, and not in an arbitrary fashion, without
reference to age, race, gender, cultural lifestyle, sexual orientation, national origin,
marital status, disability or familial status as established by both state and federal laws and regulations.

IX. Rules enacted by a CID association and amendments to its governing documents must conform to all state and federal fair housing and health, safety and welfare laws.

X. Elections shall be in the hands of the homeowner citizens, not the CID board:
ballots shall be secret; no homeowner citizen shall be denied the right to vote for failure to pay any fine or tax, including assessments; directors shall serve no more than two terms and be held accountable for their decisions; the makeup of the board shall reflect the makeup of the association membership.

September 21, 2001/ Congress of California Seniors, Older Women's League,
Sentinel Fair Housing, Consumers Union, Gray Panthers, Charles Egan Goff.

The peasants are revolting...
Thanks to Nancy Levy for this link:
Just two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the city in Kelo v. New London, the protest against the taking of homes in Fort Trumbull came full circle. Chanting "Let Them Stay" and flying the Revolutionary War era "Don't Tread on Me" flag, close to 500 protesters rallied at New London' s municipal building on July 5, where five years ago, the City Council voted to authorize the use of eminent domain to seize the homes of Susette Kelo and the six other property owners.

HOA president shot in head during crime patrol
Fred Pilot sent this link to a tragic story from Glendale, Arizona:
The president of a Glendale homeowners association patrolling his townhouse complex early Wednesday was shot by a neighbor who reportedly mistook him for a burglar who moments earlier had broken into his vehicle, authorities said.