America's new subprime shanty-towns - Boing Boing

America's new subprime shanty-towns - Boing Boing: "In this chilling BBC clip, a newsteam ventures to one of LA's new shantytowns made up of people who've lost their homes in the subprime meltdown and now live in tents, improvised shacks or RVs on abandoned land."
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Thanks to Mystery Reader for the link to this horrifying story. Yikes.

Spring clean of outdated laws...including right to banish noisy brass bands | the Daily Mail

Spring clean of outdated laws...including right to banish noisy brass bands | the Daily Mail: "A little-known law backing irritated householders who try to shoo away a noisy ensemble is one of hundreds of pieces of legislation being scrapped by the Government. The 1839 law, which allows for a 40-shilling fine on street musicians who decline a request to move on, was introduced to deal with a proliferation of Victorian brass bands and street organs."
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Well, there goes the neighborhood.

Seeking a right to dry, clothesline users are causing flaps | StarNewsOnline.com | Star-News | Wilmington, NC

Seeking a right to dry, clothesline users are causing flaps | StarNewsOnline.com | Star-News | Wilmington, NC: "They say they only want to protect their 'right to dry.' And in three New England states, advocates for clotheslines - strung across the yard, draped with socks and sheets - are pushing for new laws to liberate residents whose neighbors won't let them hang laundry outside.

Homeowners' associations, which enforce bans on clotheslines at thousands of residential developments across the country, say the rules are needed to prevent flapping laundry from dragging down property values. But in an age of paper over plastic, as people try to take small steps to protect the environment, more residents are chafing at the restrictions. And some lawmakers in Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut are taking it a step further, seeking legislation that would guarantee the freedom to let one's garments flutter in the breeze."
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So now the hippies who transplanted themselves to New England are taking on the HOA industry monolith. The "right to dry" is found in which amendment, exactly?

MaineToday.com | News Update: Maine vodka named best in nation

MaineToday.com | News Update: Maine vodka named best in nation: "FREEPORT - Cold River Vodka, a triple-distilled small batch vodka made from Maine potatoes, has been rated the best domestic vodka and 47th among the world's top 111 spirits in 'Kindred Spirits 2' by F. Paul Pacult."
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Even though I was born in Maine, I have a hard time believing that this vodka is better than Tito's Handmade Vodka, which is from Texas. I guess I need to find a bottle of Cold River and give it a try one of these days. Tasting is believing.

Daily Herald | Association issues for future thought

Daily Herald | Association issues for future thought
This is Jordan Shifrin's column, and it is a particularly interesting one. He is thinking about issues of the "near and intermediate future." I suggest reading the whole thing.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business -- Keeping the peace

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business -- Keeping the peace: "Homeowners who feel they've been wronged by the associations that oversee many of California's housing developments may find solace in proposed legislation that would establish a state-level bureau for resolving such disputes."
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But why is the California legislature getting involved, given the state of bliss that prevails in 99.999% of all HOAs, according to the industry? How can it be that the legislature is convinced the situation is bad enough to warrant oversight? Maybe they are getting so many complaints from aggrieved owners that they don't believe the lobbyists' "everything is wonderful" line.

Bloomberg.com: U.S.

Bloomberg.com: U.S.: Big Las Vegas developments in trouble: "March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Two Las Vegas housing projects have each missed an interest payment in recent weeks on about $765 million of debt and are holding talks with lenders, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing development partner Focus Property Group. The Inspirada and Kyle Canyon Gateway ventures, which include Toll Brothers Inc., KB Home and Lennar Corp., have received default notices, the newspaper said, citing Focus Chief Executive Officer John Ritter. The 2,000-acre Inspirada project was expected to develop as many as 13,500 homes over the next seven years, though only about 162 homes have been sold so far, the Journal cited Ritter as saying. He now expects the project to last between 10 and 15 years because of a severe housing downturn in Las Vegas, the Journal said."
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Being near a failed real estate development is bad news. I say that as one who lives a mile or so from two of them, courtesy of bankrupt Neumann Homes.

San Diego's Caped Crusaders - FOX6 San Diego

San Diego's Caped Crusaders - FOX6 San Diego: "Don’t be alarmed if you see two masked men walking the streets of San Diego over the next few days. Not if they go by the names Mr. Extreme and Shadow Hare. The duo call themselves “Real Life Superheroes.” This week, their mission is to find the suspect accused of attacking people with a skateboard in the Chula Vista area. Mr. Extreme and Shadow Hare patrol during the day and night warning community members to be on alert. “Be careful on the streets,” says Mr. Extreme to a couple walking their dog, as he hands them a home-made wanted flyer, with a composite sketch of the skateboard suspect. “You don't know what this guy is capable of.” Mr. Extreme is the President and Founder of Extreme Justice League, a division of the global “Real Life Superheroes” movement, with a membership of roughly 200 people."
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Maybe in this era of declining real estate values, volunteer superheroes make more sense than private security services. Something to think about if you live in a budget gated community.

L.A. Now : Los Angeles Times : Good fences don't necessarily make good neighbors in Santa Monica

L.A. Now : Los Angeles Times : Good fences don't necessarily make good neighbors in Santa Monica: "In June, after about two years of study, the city of Santa Monica is expected to begin hearing complaints about front-yard hedges and walls that exceed the city's long-standing but mostly ignored 42-inch height limit. The city called a time-out to look at the issue after hedge-height offenders were threatened with $25,000-a-day fines and Bobby Shriver, a nephew of JFK, was elected to the City Council on a pro-hedge platform."
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The People's Republic of Santa Monica is as far from a gated community as you can get, but still they seem to be privatizing their security with sky-high hedges. Maybe they have gated community envy.

Rising Foreclosure Rates Cause HOAs To Fall Into Bankruptcy - News Story - WFTV Orlando

Rising Foreclosure Rates Cause HOAs To Fall Into Bankruptcy - News Story - WFTV Orlando

Fred Pilot sent this link. I have been talking about this for a long time and now it is becoming news.

Home Prices Plunge Across California: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Home Prices Plunge Across California: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance: "LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Median home prices plunged in many of California's most populous counties in February, with Southern California leading the slide with an overall drop of 17.9 percent compared to a year earlier, according to new housing data released Thursday. The drops reflect a deepening housing crisis in the state, which saw home values soar during the housing boom then decline sharply in most areas. Median home prices fell this year in 15 major counties, DataQuick Information Systems said."
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I guess at some point people just can't hold onto these homes anymore. Either they have to sell, or they let the bank foreclose and then the bank sells it at a loss rather than keep it. But this is really awful and it seems the slump hasn't bottomed out yet.

Fed takes boldest action since the Depression to rescue US mortgage industry - Telegraph

Fed takes boldest action since the Depression to rescue US mortgage industry - Telegraph: "The US Federal Reserve has taken the boldest action since the 1930s, accepting $200bn of housing debt as collateral to prevent an implosion of the mortgage finance industry and head off a full-blown economic crisis."
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The situation of Fannie Mae could turn out to be the biggest problem in the near future.

ABC News: Bald Eagles: Menace to Alaska Town

ABC News: Bald Eagles: Menace to Alaska Town: "Homer, Alaska, may be the one place on Earth where bald eagles rule, and some humans are beginning to feel endangered.

It is a place where the majestic symbol of America can be found on movie theaters, cars, and light posts; there are dozens at a time on rooftops. They sometimes collide with traffic and are accused of stealing pets out of yards."
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With photo reminiscent of Hitchcock.

abc13.com: Katy homeowner loses fight over landscaping at her home 3/08/08

abc13.com: Katy homeowner loses fight over landscaping at her home 3/08/08: "The homeowner thought the yard was beautiful. However, the homeowner's association disagreed and took drastic measures to resolve the situation. Now it's the homeowner who says her trees and her rights were pruned back too far.

On a blustery morning, Lisagay Wright surveys what's left of a yard she's spent the past 17 years landscaping."
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The Taste Police strike again. What fun it must be to live at the whims of your neighbors.

BBQ-smoker-turned-'Robocop' chases off drug dealers - CNN.com

BBQ-smoker-turned-'Robocop' chases off drug dealers - CNN.com
It's a barbecue smoker mounted on a three-wheeled scooter, and armed with an infrared camera, spotlight, loudspeaker and aluminum water cannon that shoots a stream of icy water about 20 feet.

Operated by remote control, the robot spotlights trespassers on property down the street from his bar, O'Terrill's. Using a walkie-talkie, Terrill belts out through the robot's loudspeaker, "That's private property. You guys need to get out of here."
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So which is better: a developer creating a gated community with a hugely expensive security system, or a guy with a barbecue smoker? I leave it to you.

Condo owners seek more power - Greenwich Time

Condo owners seek more power - Greenwich Time: "A bill pending before the state legislature would create an eight-member Connecticut Community Association Commission within the state Department of Consumer Protection. Appointed by the governor, the group would have the authority to investigate and resolve complaints lodged against condominium associations and their governing boards. The bill has the backing of state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who testified in favor of the legislation yesterday before the General Law Committee. Blumenthal said yesterday the rights of condominium owners are 'all too frequently disregarded.'"
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Yet another state is added to the list of places where the state legislature recognizes that owners rights are suffering at the hands of HOA and condo boards. California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland...and on, and on. Now, Connecticut. Apparently these legislators don't accept the message from the industry that everything is just fine in Privatopia.

PROPERTY FOCUS: Neighbour Vs. neighbour - Business news

PROPERTY FOCUS: Neighbour Vs. neighbour - Business news: "The draft bill of Bulgaria’s Condominium Act is ineffective and has been written in such a way as to serve the interests of the heating, water and electricity utility companies, professor Vladimir Petrov from the Civil Association against Corruption and Illegal Construction said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily."
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Different country, same general idea?

HeraldTribune.com - News - Chinch bugs, Florida law, HOA craziness: "PARRISH -- A homeowner who faces fines for installing a Florida-friendly yard is among a group campaigning to oust the homeowner association board in River Woods. Jim Copas has been in dispute with the board of the subdivision off Old Tampa Road since he and his wife, Cynthia Zanella, ripped out their chinch bug-ridden lawn and laid shell last year. Their yard is certified by Manatee County as a Florida-friendly yard, one that conserves water and needs almost no fertilizers or pesticides. A 2001 state law prohibits homeowner associations from banning Florida-friendly yards. River Woods board members, however, say the couple needed permission to change the landscape and that it could harm property values in the community."
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Another HOA board that is "stuck on stupid"? Maybe there is something about the position of HOA director that brings out the worst in otherwise decent people.

By the way, what is a "chinch bug" and can I rest assured that they don't like Illinois winters?

My Way News - Homeowner Equity Is Lowest Since 1945

My Way News - Homeowner Equity Is Lowest Since 1945: "NEW YORK (AP) - Americans' percentage of equity in their homes fell below 50 percent for the first time on record since 1945, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. Homeowners' portion of equity slipped to downwardly revised 49.6 percent in the second quarter of 2007, the central bank reported in its quarterly U.S. Flow of Funds Accounts, and declined further to 47.9 percent in the fourth quarter - the third straight quarter it was under 50 percent. That marks the first time homeowners' debt on their houses exceeds their equity since the Fed started tracking the data in 1945. The total value of equity also fell for the third straight quarter to $9.65 trillion from a downwardly revised $9.93 trillion in the third quarter."
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This is scary.

Nevada County Local News: Embezzle case: Balch changes her plea to guilty - TheUnion.com: "In front of six elderly victims in court Thursday, the wife of a former Nevada City mayor pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $100,000 from their homeowners association, of which she was treasurer."
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Yet another "isolated incident" that in no way implies there is any larger problem with embezzlement and other misuse of association funds by those entrusted with them. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

Vultures Ripping Apart Roofs, Chewing Cars - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando

Vultures Ripping Apart Roofs, Chewing Cars - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando: "City officials said little can be done about the hundreds of black and turkey vultures because they are federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act."
__________________
You can't even scare them away. You have to stand there and watch while they eat your roof and your car. Maybe the Migratory Bird Treat Act needs an amendment? Just suggesting...

HeraldTribune.com - Real Estate - Real estate and homes news stories about Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties in Florida, from the newspapers of record. - HeraldTribune.com: "If you have a problem with your condominium association, there is a place to try to get relief, or at least an explanation of your rights.

Created by the Florida Legislature in 2004, the Office of the Condominium Ombudsman has become a resource for unit owners, board members, condominium associations and others.

So far, lawmakers have not created a similar office for homeowners associations, but one is being considered."
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Nice photo of Danille Carroll. The last line in the piece quotes her as saying something I said when we were both speaking at Frank Askin's conference in New Jersey: "You are only one election away from having a bad condo board." And that is the Achilles Heel of this entire institution.

wcbstv.com - Queens Building Uses 'Mosquito' To Quiet Teens: "QUEENS (CBS) ― Teenagers who hang out inside one apartment building in Jamaica, Queens are getting an earful these days. A new security device called 'The Mosquito' has been installed in the lobby of a building on 170th St. where there have been chronic problems with noisy teens. The wall-mounted device emits a high-frequency screech that can only be heard by people aged 13 to 25. Most older people cannot hear it."
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You mean to tell me that there is a "high-frequency screech" that is actually worse than the music they pay for? I don't believe it. Soon that screech will be the most-downloaded mp3 file on the planet.

My Way News - Luxury Homes Burn in Apparent Eco-Attack: "WOODINVILLE, Wash. (AP) - Three seven-figure dream homes went up in flames early Monday in a Seattle suburb, apparently set by eco-terrorists who left a sign mocking the builders' claims that the 4,000-plus-square-foot houses were environmentally friendly. The sign - a sheet marked with spray paint - bore the initials ELF, for Earth Liberation Front, a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s."
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I hope they find a nice set of cozy prison cells for these folks. But it may not be so easy to catch them.

Court may consider broadcast decency rules - The Boston Globe: "WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court this week may reopen for the first time in more than 30 years the debate over what qualifies as an 'indecent' broadcast...The issue before the court now is delicately described as the problem of 'fleeting expletives' in over-the-air broadcasts, which are still regulated. Television viewers who watch some of the entertainment industry's award shows may be familiar with the phenomenon."
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The Federal Communications Commission licenses broadcast stations to use particular frequencies, and requires them to avoid "indecency" as a condition of keeping those licenses. Celebrities delight in dropping "F-bombs" here and there to show how cool they are and get free publicity. What should happen to the station that broadcasts it?

MyFox Chicago | Prepare to Pay More in Sales Tax by November: "'Chicago now has the unfortunate notoriety of having the highest sales tax in the country, and our region will now be a more expensive place to visit, live, work and operate a business,' said Jerry Roper, head of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. 'The people of our region should be outraged.'"
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Chicagoans have the privilege of being governed by Democrats at the state, county, and municipal level. That means lots of free stuff being paid for by business and the middle class through high taxes. Would you locate your retail business in the city with the highest sales tax in the USA?

Homeowner loses in porn case -- OrlandoSentinel.com: "A Sanford appellate court has ruled against a woman sued by her homeowners association in 2003 for leasing her Brantley Harbor home to a gay-porn Web site. The original suit sought a court order to have Charles Foulk shut down the site because he was operating a business in the upscale subdivision in violation of the association rules."
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Would it have been different if she had been living in a condom-inium?
Sorry.

This town is shut down | Macleans.ca - Canada - Features: "Howard Anderson, all his former neighbours will say, is a stubborn man among stubborn men. So stubborn, in fact, that he has outlived Aylmer Sound, the village in which he was born and that, last year, officially legislated itself out of existence. He chops wood, shoots rabbits and watches nature shows on satellite TV. He says the only way he'll leave the town that no longer exists is with a gun to his head."
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Why should he leave? Sounds like the libertarian utopia has finally been realized. The government is gone, and so is everybody else. He has the place to himself and can be a true individual. No taxation, no regulation...

£80m: most expensive house sold in London | News: "A record price for a London home has been set with the £80million sale of a large detached house in Kensington.

It smashes the previous high of £67million for steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal's home in Kensington Palace Gardens and is claimed to be the world's most expensive single residential dwelling."
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And all because they put "No HOA!" in the ad.

American Thinker: The Home Equity Partnership: "The problem with the real-estate market is that it forces ordinary people to use far too much leverage. Americans are mostly pretty conservative about their finances. But for many Americans the only way that they can afford a home is by accepting a very risky proposition, borrowing 80 percent or more of the purchase price of their home."
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And the writer of that blog thinks conservatives should make themselves into reformers of this situation. A provocative article.

Mold threatens Miami courthouse - Yahoo! News: "MIAMI - A federal judge has closed portions of Miami's historic downtown courthouse after a report identified widespread mold infestation and ongoing water leaks, with one part of the basement termed 'disgusting' by inspectors."
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I wonder if this will help the associations who have mold remediation lawsuits on file in that courthouse.

Alaska town sues over global warming - USATODAY.com: "ANCHORAGE (AP) — A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean sued two dozen oil, power and coal companies Tuesday, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community's existence."

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The Inupiat village of Kivalina is built on a barrier reef. The reef is now exposed to heavy storm waves because of the reduced sea ice and it is eroding. Apparently this is the fault of the oil industry? I assume this case will be tied up in demurrer and dismissal motions and then go up on appeal, so don't expect the big Global Warming Trial anytime soon.

FOXNews.com - Michael Jackson's Neverland Foreclosed; Auction Date Set - : "Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch is set to be sold at auction on March 19. Jackson received word Monday from Financial Title Company, the trustee, that unless he pays off $24,525,906.61 by that date, a public auction will go forward in Santa Barbara, Calif., in front of the county courthouse. It's not just the house either. When Neverland is auctioned, it will include everything: all personal property inside, all fixtures and appliances, furniture, and "all merry go round type devices," any rides, games. The auction literally includes every single thing that is or isn't nailed down.


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I think 24 million plus sounds a bit pricey, even if it does have an amusement park. Maybe the real value is on the things that aren't "nailed down," Elvis Presley's bones or something.

Cairns.com.au - Monster python eats pet: "These pythons used to feed on wallabies but now they feed on cats and dogs in suburbia,' he said."
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I guess in Oz you get a different brand of suburban problems than in, say, Phoenix.

DailyTech - Temperature Monitors Report Worldwide Global Cooling: "Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on. No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously."
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So why does Al Gore keep saying "the debate is over"?

Green Bay Press-Gazette - Using torch to clear snow, he sets shed on fire: "Using torch to clear snow, he sets shed on fire"
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Yet another egg broken in the quest for the omelette of human innovation. Or something.

January foreclosures up 57% - Feb. 26, 2008: "NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Foreclosure filings nationwide soared 57% in January over the same month last year - another indication that the nation's housing woes are deepening.

A study released Tuesday by RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosure properties, showed that 233,001 homes were affected, 8% more than in December. Of that total, 45,327 homes were lost to bank repossessions."
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Yikes.

newsobserver.com | Board tempest roils Raleigh suburb: "The rift at Harrington Grove, a 1,241-home community in northwest Raleigh, is an extreme example of how wrong things can go with homeowner boards, private organizations that often serve as unofficial forms of local government."

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From Fred "Good News" Pilot. Actually, there are many examples of things going a whole lot more wrong than this.

This house was a steal -- chicagotribune.com: "The new buyers of a rundown graystone on the South Side showed up Jan. 9 to look at the house they won at a foreclosure auction. They took the plywood off the front door and went inside to make sure the utilities had been shut off. Then they called the police.

Sitting upright in the corner of a bedroom off the kitchen was a human skeleton in a red tracksuit."
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This is the way we do foreclosures in Chicago. You got a problem widdat?

Bloomberg.com: Exclusive: Banks Lose to Deadbeat Homeowners as Loans Sold in Bonds Vanish : "Joe Lents hasn't made a payment on his $1.5 million mortgage since 2002. That's when Washington Mutual Inc. first tried to foreclose on his home in Boca Raton, Florida. The Seattle-based lender failed to prove that it owned Lents's mortgage note and dropped attempts to take his house. Subsequent efforts to foreclose have stalled because no one has produced the paperwork."
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Not a bad deal if you can get it.

Second foreclosure crisis?- cleveland.com: "Banks and mortgage companies are so eager to dump a glut of abandoned foreclosure houses in the Cleveland area that they sold nearly 1,000 last year for pennies on the dollar. The often rundown houses most often went to out-of-state investment companies, which buy in bulk, sight unseen, then sell in “as is” condition to people with bad credit or landlords. Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli and others predict that some buyers will flee as repair bills mount, triggering more foreclosures. “They're taking the worst houses and putting people in them who have no ability to pay,” said Brancatelli, who represents the Slavic Village area. “I have people call me and say, 'I bought this house, and I can't afford the roof. Who's going to help me?' ”"

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How about, "Yourself, pal."

Isn't there any point where we are allowed to point out that people shouldn't buy houses they can't afford? That includes both the relatively affluent people who bought more house than they could possibly afford using jumbo mortgages, and the low-income people who took out a vicious ARM, or, as in this article, bought a junkheap that they couldn't afford to make habitable. I mean, are we just going to continue with this Clintonian braying about the evil real estate industry that somehow forced these people to take obviously horrendous financial risks? It is not a public or governmental responsibility to bail out people who make a bad deal with their eyes wide open, and if these losses get socialized it will just encourage more reckless speculation when the real estate market gets hot again, which it will. If they make a profit, they get to keep it. If they take big losses, we all pay them off? Baloney.

50 Deadly Snakes Kept Inside Central Fla. Home - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando: "DELTONA, Fla. -- A Central Florida man will be allowed to keep a collection of cobras, vipers and rattlesnakes inside his residential home despite an effort to have them removed."
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It was the city, not an HOA, that wanted the snakes removed. It turns out that he has some sort of state permit (!?) do do this. With a one-word substitution, this situation fits the famous last line of the movie Chinatown, "Forget it, Jake. It's Florida."

or...maybe the city would like to do a little word substitution with Samuel L. Jackson's equally famous line in Snakes on a Plane, and say, "Enough is enough! I have had it with these m*****f*****g snakes in this m*****f*****g house!"

Clinton targets pledged delegates - Roger Simon - Politico.com: "Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign intends to go after delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination."

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This is really something. We are not talking about superdelegates, who may have voluntarily endorsed somebody but who are free to vote at the convention for whoever they choose. Clinton is now going after Obama's pledged delegates--these are ordinary folks who pledged that if they were chosen as delegates, they would vote for Obama at the convention. Clinton is playing the hardest of hardball politics now.

Why is this blog blocked?
I received a cordial and informative response to my request (described below). Here it is, and thanks to the Senior Security Engineer of the Information Assurance Directorate of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for the prompt reply.

"The reason your weblog is being blocked by OSD's (and only the Office
Secretary of Defense's) content filtering application known as Web Sense is
because of the site it is hosted on. The domain blogspot.com has been seen
repeatedly hosting malicious files, content, and automatic redirects to
other malicious sites. While your weblog is 100% benign other weblogs that
are hosts by blogspot are actively malicious and were only created to cause
harm. OSD CIO IAD gets roughly 15-20 alerts a month for malicious content
OSD users have tried to access through blogspot.com. At this time we are
taking the stance of blocking all access to content hosted by blogspot."

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | '£10 licence to smoke' proposed: "smokers could be forced to pay £10 for a permit to buy tobacco if a government health advisory body gets its way.

No one would be able to buy cigarettes without the permit, under the idea proposed by Health England."
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One of these days the Brits had better get around to writing down that constitution they claim they have, because the imaginary one that lives in people's minds keeps getting more and more repressive every day.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Suit over erosion in canyon nears end: "LA JOLLA – A group of La Jolla homeowners that sued the city over canyon erosion caused by public storm drains has agreed to settle a lawsuit for $4.5 million...Each association homeowner was assessed $4,020 last year to pay for an estimated $2.4 million in emergency repairs, which were finished in recent weeks. They also were earlier assessed $2,500 apiece to pay for litigation. The settlement money will cover most of the association's legal expenses, emergency repair bills and costs of retaining experts. Association homeowners are expected to be refunded a portion of the assessments they've paid."
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This was a bad situation for the owners. They live on Mount Soledad, which is an upscale neighborhood in La Jolla. At the top of the mountain is the cross that has generated so much controversy because it sits on city-owned land. Anyway, they had a bad slide that affected almost 600 homes one way or another, so I'm glad they are close to being made whole.

Condo and homeowner associations turning over records to House committee -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com: "nder threat of subpoena, condo and homeowner associations that for years refused to let owners examine their records are turning documents over to a state House committee.

The new House Select Committee on Condominium & Homeowner Association Governance wants to examine the records to help determine if 'horror stories' about boards are true and what, if any, new laws are needed to prevent abuses.

'It's amazing how people are starting to surrender their documents and give up information we need for the committee,' Chairman Julio Robaina, R- Miami, said Friday. 'Were getting information that they have refused to give owners for years.'"

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Julio Robaina strikes again! Good work, I say. The refusal of associations and management companies to make records available to association members is a huge problem.

I just sent this to ia@osd.mil
Thanks to Shu Bartolomew for getting me the email address to complain about this. Now we'll see what response I get, if any.

Dear Sir or Madame:
It has come to my attention that my weblog has been banned by DoD and that people who visit it receive a message saying that it is a "malicious website." The weblog is called "The Privatopia Papers," and it is located at http://privatopia.blogspot.com

This is to advise you that there is nothing remotely malicious about my weblog, and to inquire why DoD is defaming me in this way and blocking access to a completely innocuous weblog.

My weblog deals with issues pertaining to real estate law and policy, especially homeowner and condominium associations. I am the author of a well-regarded book on that subject (Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government) published by Yale University Press, and numerous academic journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers. I have a Ph.D. in political science and am also an attorney licensed to practice in California and Illinois. In addition to being a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I also teach a course on this exact subject at the John Marshall Law School.

I think that your designation of my site as malicious must be an error of some sort, but it is defamatory and damaging to me and my professional reputation. I ask that you remove this erroneous and harmful designation and restore normal access to the site.

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Best regards,
Evan McKenzie


__________________________________________
Evan C. McKenzie
Associate Professor of Political Science
University of Illinois at Chicago
1007 W. Harrison St., M/C 276
Chicago, IL 60607 USA
(312)413-3782 fax: (312)413-0440
mckenzie@uic.edu http://www.uic.edu/~mckenzie

Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death
Could this be the issue? It seems that DoD is concerned about blogs written by soldiers. The easiest way to start a blog is to use Blogger. Is Blogger the issue, rather than this particular blog? I can't tell because I'm not on a DoD computer and don't have access to one.

Pentagon Blocks MySpace and YouTube - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog
And they blocked a whole lot of other sites, too. They are concerned about bandwidth on their servers.
Have they blocked all of Blogger?

Has the Department of Defense blocked access to this site?
I hear from someone I trust that the Department of Defense has blocked access to this site from their computers. I am told the screen message says this is a "malicious website." That's bizarre. I might be occasionally sarcastic, but certainly not malicious. Does anybody know what this is about or what to do about it?

Programs teach legal rights to elementary school pupils | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "So you're 10 years old, you toilet paper the neighbor's yard and the police come a-knocking. What do you do? 'Give your name, your age and then ask for an attorney and ask for your parent.' That's the advice doled out to a room of fidgety fourth-graders at Shlenker School, a private elementary school in Houston, during a presentation by the Southwest Juvenile Defender Center this week. Called 'Why a Lawyer,' it is one of several such programs taught in schools and detention facilities throughout the country by groups worried that children don't know their basic rights — including the right to remain silent."

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So the lawyers are teaching kids that confession is bad for the soul?

Saudi king asked to free condemned witch - UPI.com: "RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch called on the Saudi king Thursday to void the conviction of a woman facing execution for witchcraft."

Superdelegates get campaign cash - 2008 Presidential Campaign Blog - Political Intelligence - Boston.com: "Many of the superdelegates who could well decide the Democratic presidential nominee have already been plied with campaign contributions by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a new study shows. 'While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials serving as superdelegates have received about $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years,' the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reported today. About half the 800 superdelegates -- elected officials, party leaders, and others -- have committed to either Clinton or Obama, though they can change their minds until the convention. Obama's political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000. Clinton's political action committee has distributed about $195,000 to superdelegates, and only 13 of the 109 who had announced for her have received money, totaling about $95,000."
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Your democracy at work.

Condominium owners tell smokers: Take it outside: "Residents of a tony, high-rise condominium along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis are among the first to vote to make their building smoke-free, taking Minnesota's battle over smoking bans into private homes."

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The libertarians who love HOAs and condos need to rethink their position. They are always telling us that people have voluntarily contracted to set limits on their own freedom. But the problem is that you also give your neighbors power to make rules you couldn't have foreseen. What is the limit on that? So the way you exercise your "freedom" is to accept a take-it-or-leave-it boilerplate set of restrictions that includes this wild card of rule-making power without clear limits. To paraphrase the old saying (and engage in a bit of hyperbole): First they came for the ham radio operators, and I did nothing. Then they came for the people with pickup trucks and I did nothing. Then they came for the people with dogs and I did nothing. Then they came for the people running home-based businesses. Then they came for the smokers...who is next? I guess the safest course of action is to be a non-smoking retiree who has no visitors and just watches tv all day...with the sound turned way down.

San Mateo Daily News: 'Spiropod' scrapped---artist sues, wins $150K for removal of his sculpture without consent

A San Mateo homeowners association's decision to say goodbye to Andrew Werby's "Spiropod" sculpture without his consent has resulted in a six-figure settlement for the artist. Werby noticed that the 11-foot-high bronze work he created in 1982 for the Gramercy on the Park condominium complex at 555 Laurel Ave. was gone when he drove by the complex during Easter weekend in 2006.

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Spiropod? Sounds like the monster of the day in a Power Rangers episode. Fred Pilot found this nugget.

Data show foreclosures make up half homes of homes sold in Calif. -- MercedSunStar.com :: Merced News, Real Estate, Jobs, Cars and more -: "A growing share of home sales are from foreclosures, especially in states hardest hit by the housing bust. In some parts of California lately, nearly 50 percent of home sales come from foreclosed houses. The trend, which is putting additional downward pressure on home prices, is most notable there and in Nevada, Colorado, Tennessee and Michigan, but is also evident in Ohio, Georgia, Florida and Arizona, according to an Associated Press comparison of 2007 sales and foreclosure data. In Nevada, for example, 17.5 percent of home sales were from foreclosures, more than quadruple the number in 2006."

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This is astounding. Where is the bottom of the real estate bust, and can we even see it from here? And how about the HOAs with all these foreclosed homes? What is happening to their finances?

Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

Partially mummified body found in AZ tub - Yahoo! News

Owners of the small, standalone unit thought it had been abandoned in August, when rent stopped being paid, Phoenix police Sgt. Joel Tranter said Monday.

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Nice that the rent was still getting paid. I guess that's the main thing, right? But to address the minor problem of the dead guy in the bathtub: the body had been there for a very, very long time. It seems that this unfortunate individual may be the tenant who took the place in 1995 and who hadn't been seen since about 2000. Maybe he just died of the Y2K bug, but I think somebody should ask the guy who lived there from 2000 to August 2006. He apparently was claiming to be the 1995 tenant.

I guess there are neighbors, and there are bad neighbors, and then there are neighbors who have dead bodies in their bathtubs for seven years.

Retired Teacher Reveals He Was Illiterate Until Age 48 - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego: "OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- John Corcoran graduated from college and taught high school for 17 years without being able to read, write or spell."
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Nice to hear that the public school system hasn't changed in the last couple of decades. The one fixed point in an age of change.

My Way News - Bitter Cold, Snow Pummel Plains, East: "HAZLETON, Pa. (AP) - Windy, bitterly cold weather spread from the northern Plains to the Northeast on Sunday, with blinding snow canceling church services in parts of Michigan and causing a 68-vehicle pileup in Pennsylvania."
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The scourge of global warming marches on. I see somebody was killed in Berks County, PA. We lived there for about four years and never really had what I would call a brutal winter in terms of arctic cold, but we did experience the nastiest and most frequent ice storms I have ever seen.

newsminer.com • Warming temps should end worst cold snap since 2000: "While it was 48 degrees below zero at Fairbanks International Airport on Sunday, the coldest temperature recorded so far in Fairbanks’ worst cold snap in eight years, forecasters were calling for a significant warming trend begining today.

Temperatures should be above zero by Wednesday, said meteorologist Daniel Robinson at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks."

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I have friends in Alaska and I keep hearing about how warm it has been in recent years (warm being a relative term). But this winter it has been cold up there, as in 50 below. I remember spending a week or so in the Fairbanks area and parts north--Fort Yukon and Chalkyitsik in November back in the late 1970s. It was 50 below in Fairbanks, 65 below in Fort Yukon, and so cold in Chalkyitsik that it was just beyond belief, although it is a tiny village and I didn't see any thermometers. They were probably all frozen solid anyway. Awful as that may be, it is normal to have extreme cold in the interior of Alaska, so in a strange way this winter is a good thing because they need the permafrost or the environment will change.

And of course here in Chicago we have been alternating between sub-zero cold (6 below yesterday) and big snowfalls. So the global warming "let's all panic" crowd is having a bad winter, too, I guess. The theory about variations in solar energy being a major variable in global temperature may turn out to be true. I think climate is affected by many things and it is nearly impossible to sort it out with precision.

CAI "Governance Guidelines
It would be nice if CAI could get more of its attorney members to follow this one:
FORECLOSURE. Initiate lien and foreclosure proceedings
only as a last step in a well-defined debt collection
procedure—and only after other, less-disruptive
measures have failed to resolve a serious
delinquency issue in a specified period of time.

US-China Institute :: news & features :: usc scholars investigate china's US-China Institute--owner associations: "Homeowner associations are relatively new and increasingly important institutions in China. In June 2007, USC’s Civic Engagement Initiative utilized funding from the USC U.S.-China Institute to co-sponsor an international conference in Beijing looking at the legal, political, social, and economic implications of China’s burgeoning homeowner association (HOA) movement and comparing it to similar trends in other national contexts."

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Who is that guy in the white shirt, fifth from the right?

Troubled borrowers are walking away from their homes - Feb. 6, 2008: "Current lending practices have created an environment where a measure as extreme as abandoning a home actually makes sense to some people. Many buyers put little or no money down, so they don't have much invested in them. That leaves them with little incentive to keep making payments when a home's market value dips below the balance of the mortgage. The most serious consequence is a tremendous hit to credit scores. For some, that's better than throwing away money they'll never recover by selling their home."
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When the post-mortems are done on this whole catastrophe, the mortgage industry will look very different. The standards for issuing mortgages have been lowered to the point of absurdity.

The Next Slum?: "Strange days are upon the residents of many a suburban cul-de-sac. Once-tidy yards have become overgrown, as the houses they front have gone vacant. Signs of physical and social disorder are spreading."

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We are entering a period of testing for the nation's residential private governments. I think we will see how well they can stand up to the economic stresses of the gutshot housing market. Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

LA Weekly - The Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog: So Good It's Illegal - The Essential Online Resource for Los Angeles: "She would love to sell bacon-wrapped hot dogs — trust her — but a trip last year to the women's county jail, a trip she says officials orchestrated to 'make an example' of her, finally pushed her to give up the bacon and illegal grilling device she used for so long. Instead, she prepares dogs the only way the county Environmental Health Department currently allows, by boiling or steaming. Not grilling. And grilling is the only way to make a classic L.A. bacon-wrapped hot dog."

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If municipalities get any more creative about the things they ban, someday people may find more freedom in their homeowners' association. Irony Express, now pulling out of the station.

Georgians want access to Tenn. water | www.tennessean.com |: "A resolution in Georgia's legislature proposes to move the Tennessee-Georgia boundary about a mile to the north of where it now lies..."

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This could get interesting. The US Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over litigation between states over things like this, so if it ends up as a lawsuit that's where it would probably get filed.

City boasts less spitting, better queuing - Yahoo! News: "BEIJING (Reuters) - Less spitting, better queuing and cleaner streets show Beijing has become more 'civilized,' but the city still has to fine-tune its etiquette to attain Olympic standards, Xinhua news agency said Friday, citing a new study."
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Fred Pilot sent this along. I guess this means that a municipal government can get its act together. But with the Chinese you never know what happened to the people who didn't shape up. There might be a labor camp somewhere full of former Beijing sidewalk-spitters.

Zogby poll goofs on California - Los Angeles Times: "Super Tuesday may have lacked a runaway winner in either party, but when it came to anticipating the outcome of both primaries in California, there was one clear loser -- the Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll.

'We blew it,' pollster John Zogby said."

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By how much? Well, he predicted Obama by 13 points and Clinton won by 10. That is an abyss of 23 points of election-affecting error. I don't buy his CAI-sponsored polling and never did, and his abysmal performance in the New Hampshire and California primaries leaves me wondering just what his agenda is.

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- The Sun Also Sets: "Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles. To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian scientists are seeking additional funding for more and better 'eyes' with which to observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our planet combined. And they're worried about global cooling, not warming."

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Warming? Did we say warming? We meant cooling.

Feuding Families Battled With Swords And Golf Clubs - The Daily Record: Newmills, Scotland: "FEUDING families took to the streets to battle with swords, baseball bats and golf clubs, a court heard yesterday."

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Submitted for your consideration: a way to resolve neighborhood conflicts without resort to the expensive and unpredictable court system. HOAs, take note.

City running out of funds for snow removal :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State: "Unlike many suburbs, Chicago still has 200,000 tons of salt to drop on snow and ice-covered streets. But, there’s a problem. City Hall is running out of money."

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Here's something else Chicago has: an army of overpaid, underworked, and perpetually surly municipal employees who do next to nothing, and another army of politically-connected contractors who are bilking the taxpayers out of millions. That might have something to do with the situation. There are so many corruption scandals going on from Chicago to Cook County to Springfield that it has left the public numb to it.

Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe| News | This is London: "A father-of-three who was found with a microscopic speck of cannabis stuck to the bottom of one of his shoes has been sentenced to four years in a Dubai prison. Keith Brown, a council youth development officer, was travelling through the United Arab Emirates on his way back to England when he was stopped as he walked through Dubai's main airport. A search by customs officials uncovered a speck of cannabis weighing just 0.003g - so small it would be invisible to the naked eye and weighing less than a grain of sugar - on the tread of one of his shoes."

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Another example of what a regime hostile to civil liberties looks like.

FOXNews.com - Six Dead After Man Opens Fire at Missouri Council Meeting; Gunman Killed by Police - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News: "KIRKWOOD, Mo. — Ten days after losing a federal lawsuit against this St. Louis suburb he insisted harassed him, a gunman stormed a council meeting and opened fire, killing two police officers and three city officials."

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Municipal crackpot and nuisance goes berserk.

FOXNews.com - Armed 'Drunkenstein' Planned Super Bowl Massacre, Changed Mind in Parking Lot - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News: "PHOENIX — A would-be bar owner angry at being denied a liquor license threatened to shoot people at the Super Bowl and drove to within sight of the stadium with a rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition before changing his mind, federal authorities said."

Another municipal troublemaker who turns to violence.

Religious police in Saudi Arabia arrest mother for sitting with a man - Times Online: "A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh. Yara, who does not want her last name published for fear of retribution, was bruised and crying when she was freed from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom's “Mutaween” police."

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Just to bring some perspective to this whole issue of civil liberties in the US--we may not be perfect, and we may not be going in the right direction all the time, but at least this kind of thing doesn't happen here. And please don't tell me anything like this happened to you in your HOA, because it didn't.

GOOD Magazine: Vermont: Most Likely To Secede? - Living on The Huffington Post: "On October 3, 2007, delegates to the second North American Secessionist Convention met for two days in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to discuss how to crack the United States into manageable parts. They came representing 11 rebel groups in 36 states, under banners such as the Republic of Cascadia (wedding Oregon and Washington), Independent California (forging the world's fifth-largest economy), the United Republic of Texas (returning the Lone Star State to its lonesomeness), the League of the South (uniting the states of old Dixie), and, spearhead of the effort, the Second Vermont Republic (separating Vermont from the United States). The dominant thought among the delegates was that what they call 'the U.S. experiment' had failed."
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I guess the CID secessionist movement that hasn't appeared yet will have to get in line behind these wood-chopping, granola-eating, geriatric hippies. I interviewed some of these folks years ago for a project that never got off the ground. There are lots of them living in the woods in owner-built homes built around big trees and over streams. I gather that their kids grew up in the woods herding goats and have since joined the Taliban, but other than that it has been a glorious social experiment.

Light bulb feud sparks $80,000 in fines, fees: "Sandra Shelton, a spirited 67-year-old widow of Scottsdale, has wrangled with her homeowners' association for more than two years over what she calls her '$80,000 light bulb.'"

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It's 30K in fines and 50K in attorney fees. All over a bright light in her back yard that she put there for security.

Shooting Suspect Was Subject of Embezzlement Probe - washingtonpost.com: "A Herndon man shot by police in an exchange of gunfire near Springfield Mall over the weekend was the target of a high-profile investigation into the theft of $2.2 million from hundreds of condominium and homeowners associations."

Hey, who needs to license property managers. What harm can they do, anyway?

The Associated Press: Many Alaska Villages Have No Cops
From 1975 to 1977 I was a field representative for the Bush Justice Project of the Alaska Federation of Natives. The situation described in this article was a problem then, and it seems to be a problem even today.

Association fees another casualty of meltdown | ajc.com: "Foreclosures have a devastating impact on community associations that is not felt by other creditors. A foreclosure wipes out the assessments/dues owed on the property. A foreclosure does not have that effect on credit cards, auto loans and other consumer finance products — those debts remain intact.

Bankruptcies, however, affect associations the same as other creditors. If liens are in place, an association is a secured creditor and will be repaid as a creditor in a Chapter 13 filing with all the other creditors — up to five years.

Rising bankruptcies, foreclosures and unemployment have formed a perfect storm that is going to hit community associations. Rather than wind and water damage, owners will be hit by a cut in maintenance and services — landscaping, paint, roofs, lighting, concierges, parking attendants, tennis instructors, on-site staff and swimming pools, if they can be filled. That will result in a further decline in resale prices as purchasers shy away from associations that have lost their curb appeal. It will also result in a loss of business for vendors that provide services to community associations."

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This is from a piece by attorney George Nowack of Atlanta. He is very active with CAI. I say that because I don't often see from CAI members such a candid evaluation of the precarious situation CIDs are facing right now. The phrase "perfect storm" is probably accurate, I think.

Most condo owners pleased with their boards, state says -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com: "Despite all the horror stories you read about condo and homeowner associations, 99.8 percent of owners in Florida apparently have no problem with their boards.

That means just a fraction of 1 percent of associations are giving them all a bad name, according to state figures.

During 2007, unit owners filed 2,482 complaints about associations with the state Department of Business & Professional Regulation, the agency that oversees condos. There were 1,394,467 condo units in Florida on Dec. 31."

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The "state regulator" apparently believes that if you don't file a complaint with the state every year, you are "happy." I wonder if that is an accurate assumption...

www.record-bee.com - Homeowners could dissolve association
One man's opinion...

Celebrity Real Estate Losers - Forbes.com: "LOS ANGELES -

Even Hollywood's rich and famous can't avoid the housing downturn that's sweeping the nation. In Los Angeles, only 4,430 homes were sold in December, down 48% from the previous year. And prices fell 11% to an average $470,000."
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I was discussing this situation with my brother yesterday while we sat in a Corner Bakery at Union Station, next to the Chicago River. We grew up in the LA area. We heard nothing but "real estate is always a good investment because it never goes down in value." But both of us think that this law may be broken for good. It is possible that real estate values were so inflated that they are never coming back to where they were--or at least no time in the foreseeable future. Many people used their homes as their only investment property, and now they are looking at a very grim situation.

Zogby polls
I notice CAI has chosen Zogby as the pollster they hire to generate poll results showing how satisfied people are with their community association. I also noticed that Zogby has been wildly inaccurate at key moments of the 2008 election cycle. After Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses, I seem to recall that Zogby told the world that Obama had a 13 point lead in New Hampshire just a couple of days before the election. Clinton won by 3 points. Two days ago I heard on the radio that Zogby had Obama ahead by double digits in California. Clinton won easily.

If a pollster can't accurately measure public opinion a day or two before an election, on a simple "who are you going to vote for" question, how can he possibly be counted on to make a definitive finding on anything else?

Also, the issue is how "satisfied" people are--whatever that means--with an organization that most of them know little or nothing about. And those vague sentiments are wrapped up and inseparable from the way they feel about their neighborhood, their home values, and a dozen other things.

But even aside from all that, the inability of the Zogby firm to accurately measure public opinion in this election cycle is shocking. I could poll my students and ask them to predict the state by state outcomes and maybe produce a better record.

Note, though, that Zogby's (ultimately inaccurate) predictions get huge play in the press before election day, thus influencing the mindset and probably the votes of those who hear about them. For example, in the open New Hampshire primary, there were probably independent voters who decided to vote for McCain rather than Obama because Zogby was saying Obama was far ahead but McCain was in a close race. McCain and Obama were the two top candidates for independents.

FOXNews.com - Florida Orders Sex Offenders Living Under Miami Bridge to Find Permanent Housing - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News: "MIAMI — The state is trying to dissolve a community of sex offenders living under a bridge that includes a gym, kitchen, living room and two dogs.

The men have lived under the Julia Tuttle Causeway for a year. They say limited money and strict local ordinances make it nearly impossible for them to live anywhere else. But state officials are telling them to leave."

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I suppose if you have laws and covenants keeping certain people out, logically it would seem that eventually they have nowhere to go. So now these 14 are under a bridge.

FT.com / Companies / Property - Risk of commercial property defaults growing: "There is a growing risk of defaults on loans on commercial property this year, in a trend that could spill over into tumbling values and create more jitters in the credit world, analysts and bankers warn."

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A bunch of analysts are expressing the fear that real estate market problems are about to produce the big R.

Homeowners Associations Face More Regulation: "Virginia's General Assembly is said to be considering legislation that would make it harder for just about anybody to get into the business of running an HOA. The Washington Post reports that the Assembly may create a regulatory board to license professional management companies, just like Realtors and other occupations."

Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link.

Is a condo a money pit? - MSN Money: "Dont let the surge in prices fool you: The condo craze is all bubble. Worse, living in a condo can be maddeningly complex -- and costly."

Another voice crying in the wilderness...

Gallery: Inside the Navy's Armed-Robot Labs
So when will the civilian version of the MDARS-E be available for purchase by gated communities?

Calculated Risk: Fitch Concerned about Borrowers 'Walking Away'
"...the apparent willingness of borrowers to ‘walk away’ from mortgage debt has contributed to extraordinarily high levels of early default, which is particularly noticeable in the 2007 vintage mortgages:

This is from the blog Calculated Risk. The mantra from all presidential candidates is to bail out the folks who are getting foreclosed on. I understand this is an election year, so this is to be expectd. And I agree that some people were exploited, especially first time buyers. But the other side of the argument is that a whole bunch of other people--these jumbo loan folks--had their eyes wide open and were counting on prices going up. They knew they were buying more house than they could afford, but they expected to make a killing from the bubble before they ran out of cash. Some of these folks lied about their income and did whatever was needed to qualify. When the anticipated price increase didn't happen--because the bubble finally popped--these folks were the last ones standing in the big game of musical chairs. Suddenly they were overextended, and when prices went down they had negative equity. So, they stop making mortgage payments and walk away from the house after living in it free of charge for six or eight months.

Seems to me that somebody should make the opposing argument: that the government should let the market correct itself. Prices are way too high, making home buying unaffordable for many people. If the government prevents foreclosures (as Hillary Clinton says she wants to do) won't that prevent this correction? Is any candidate making that case? I'm not saying it is the right thing to do. I don't know. But I would welcome a serious discussion about the issue.

William M. Briggs, Statistician » Zombie attacks might increase due to global warming, study shows
Let's face it. The debate is over. The science is there. The question is, are we going to act before it is too late?

I mean for us, not the zombies.

L.A. is set to require pet sterilization - Los Angeles Times: "The Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 1 Friday to approve mandatory sterilization of most dogs and cats at the age of 4 months or older, and city officials pledged low-key enforcement driven by complaints. The ordinance must get a second reading in a week, but it is expected to pass."

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It seems that there are more and more examples of state and local legislation that intrudes into areas of people's lives that were once beyond the reach of government. So now in LA you can't let your dog or cat reproduce. If you want to buy a pet, you go to a professional breeder or pet store.

But enforcement will be "driven by complaints." I wonder how that works. What do you have to see in order to complain? The mind reels.

Mississippi Pols Seek To Ban Fats - February 1, 2008
This bill would prohibit restaurants from serving obese people. This nanny-state proposal is enough to turn a Marxist into a libertarian.

U.S. 10-city home price drop a record in Nov: S&P | Reuters: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home prices in 10 major metropolitan areas fell a record 8.4 percent in the year through November, suggesting the housing slump is worsening, according to a Standard & Poor index released on Tuesday."

Midwest Conservative Journal: "The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has called for new laws to protect religious sensibilities that would punish “thoughtless and cruel” styles of speaking."

If you think civil liberties are threatened in the US, take a look at Great Britain. They are seriously considering banning possession of knives. They have laws against blasphemy. People get prosecuted for defending themselves against robbers and burglars. And this bonehead proposal might even get taken seriously by some MP.

How toilet-to-tap programs could help preserve our water supply. - By Eilene Zimmerman - Slate Magazine: "Officials in Orange County, Calif., will attend opening ceremonies today for the world's largest water-purification project, among the first 'toilet-to-tap' systems in America. The Groundwater Replenishment System is designed to take sewage water straight from bathrooms in places like Costa Mesa, Fullerton, and Newport Beach and—after an initial cleansing treatment—send it through $490 million worth of pipes, filters, and tanks for purification. The water then flows into lakes in nearby Anaheim, where it seeps through clay, sand, and rock into aquifers in the groundwater basin. Months later, it will travel back into the homes of half a million Orange County residents, through their kitchen taps and showerheads."

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Don't the dogs of Orange County have a say in this policy? They would seem to be interested parties.

Great Britain: Don't treat the old and unhealthy, say doctors - Telegraph: "Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives. Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone."
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Lovely. And we here in the nasty old US are supposed to get warmed up for Hillary-care redux?

US blacks see 'financial apartheid' in subprime crisis: "People of color are more than three times more likely to have subprime loans,' concluded the organization United for a Fair Economy in a recent report which estimated that minorities have seen between 163 billion and 278 billion dollars of their equity go up in smoke since 2000.
With its weakened economy and a large black population more used to renting, Cleveland has become a poster child of the subprime crisis in a country where some 2.1 million borrowers are behind on their mortgage payments.
City officials estimate that foreclosures have swallowed some 70,000 homes and turned entire neighborhoods into ghost towns."

US mortgage crisis creates ghost town: "The streets are empty. Trash rustles down the road past rusted barbecues, abandoned furniture, sagging homes and gardens turned to weed.
This is Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland and a town ravaged by the subprime mortgage crisis roiling the United States.
Faded 'for sale' signs sit in front of deserted houses. The residents are gone, either in search of new jobs after the factories shut down, or in shame after being evicted for missing their mortgage payments"

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This is amazing. Shaker Heights is one of the few suburbs that has maintained stable racial integration since the 1960s. It has always been a nice middle class suburb. If this can happen in Shaker Heights...