Florida Couple Keeps Statues of Jesus, Virgin Mary on Property Despite Threat of Legal Action by HOA

Florida Couple Keeps Statues of Jesus, Virgin Mary on Property Despite Threat of Legal Action by HOA: A couple in Florida will be allowed to keep statues of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary on their property after initially being told by a homeowners' association that they could not.

Enock and Ines Berluche of Kissimmee will not have to remove the statues, after being told by the Shingle Creek Reserve at the Oaks Homeowners' Association that they had to do so.

The Berluches were given legal help by the Orlando-based conservative law firm the Liberty Counsel, which was founded by Mat Staver.

Why the shocking growth of economic inequality in the US is not a big political issue

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_economic_inequality_is_not_a_bigger_political_issue_20141003


Because, says David Sirota, Americans have no idea how huge the gap really is, and that makes the Democratic Party  afraid to use this as an issue in the 2014 election.  But the way I see it, this timidity is what leaves the Democratic base dispirited, and that leads to low turnout, and that means a repeat of 2010. Republicans aren't afraid to rally their base, but Democrats are.

"If critics of income inequality are wondering why the growing gap between rich and poor hasn’t been a more potent political issue in the upcoming elections, a new study offers some answers: Americans grossly underestimate this inequality. That’s one of the key findings of a survey showing the gap between CEO and average worker pay in America is more than 10 times larger than the typical American perceives. In the report, Harvard University and Chulalongkorn University researchers analyzed survey data from 40 countries about perceptions of pay gaps between rich and poor. In every country, respondents underestimated the size of the gap between CEO and average worker pay. In the United States, for example, the researchers found the median American respondent estimated that the ratio of CEO to worker income is about 30-to-1. In reality, the gap is more than 350-to-1."

"The country simply can't go on like this"

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Man_With_The_Disease

From Charles Pierce, writing about the ebola fear-mongering by right wingers, in which science and medical opinion are simply ignored:

"The country simply cannot go on this way, with one of our two political parties completely insane, and with a counter-cultural universe that claims the right to promulgate its own science as equal to the science produced by actual scientists, and with this dangerous lunacy treated as legitimate by powerful people who ought to know better. As I once wrote, it doesn't matter how many people vote for the anti-gravity party, you still can't flap your arms and fly to the moon. A dangerous disease is not a matter of debate. Your profitable fantasy and the reality of the disease do not deserve an equal place in the discussion of what we as a society will do about the disease. The response is going to have to be precise and empirical. It is going to have to be impatient with cant, and immune to the delusions on which demented ideology feeds. And, most important of all, we are going to have to trust each other, and we are going to have to trust our government, which is the political manifestation of all of us, no matter what 30 years of Reaganite heresy has taught us. We are going to have to trust ourselves as individual citizens, and we are going to have to trust ourselves as partners in the creative act of self-government. I am afraid we will not, because there is one side of our politics who will stand in the way, and another side of our politics that is too frightened or too polite to call dangerous nonsense to account, and to shun the people who are promoting it. And that is what scares me the most about the man in Texas with the disease."

Nevada high court makes key ruling on HOA liens | WashingtonExaminer.com

Nevada high court makes key ruling on HOA liens | WashingtonExaminer.com: LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that a lien held by a homeowners association can override a deed of trust involving a first mortgage on the property.

Real estate investors in Las Vegas who have been buying foreclosed property at bargain prices claimed a victory in the ruling on Thursday.

The state Supreme Court overturned an earlier Clark County District Court decision and ruled in favor of SFR Investments Pool 1, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported (http://tinyurl.com/pupczsg).

Homeowners associations can place liens on properties within their communities for unpaid fees. Unpaid association dues land in a super-priority lien that must be paid off first when a foreclosed home is sold.

Ayn Rand-style libertarian paradise fails to produce bliss

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/16/ayn_rands_capitalist_paradise_lost_the_inside_story_of_a_libertarian_scam_partner/

Well, I'm just shocked--shocked, I tell you--to hear that Galt's Gulch didn't pan out.
-----------------------------

"In Rand’s novel the great, throbbing “motor of the world” (it’s made of executives, remember?) retreats to an Atlantis-like idyll known as “Galt’s Gulch.” Without their ingenuity and drive the nation descends into chaos, leading many long pages later to their triumphant return and anointment as leaders of a new libertarian order. Which gets us to the fraud charges now swirling around a venture called “Galt’s Gulch of Chile.” Its website is currently down, but it’s still being promoted as a real-world retreat for the world’s movers and shakers. “Yes, you read that right,” the organizer chirps cheerily. “Those who become one of GGC’s Founders will be paid back … within three years of the consummation of their Founders Club participation (please contact GGC for the fine print and T&Cs). In what should be an unsurprising outcome, it didn’t turn out very well.  That news comes (via Metafilter and Gawker) from a blogger named Wendy McElroy, who writes that she bought some property in Galt’s Gulch with her husband and then learned that it never had legal rights to the property in the first place. A visit to Chile revealed that many of the area’s local vendors had also been defrauded by the Galtians."

Illinois Supreme Court: Contract? What contract?

Spanish Court Two Condominium Association v. Carlson:  Spanish Two sued a unit owner for failure to pay assessments. In Illinois, condo associations can do that in landlord-tenant court, and evict the owner without needing to foreclose. The owner alleged an affirmative defense of failure to maintain and repair the common elements and asked for a set-off, something that tenants do in landlord-tenant disputes over rent. The trial court struck the defense, but the Appellate Court reversed, saying unit owners could avail themselves of the same failure to maintain defense against condo associations, just as tenants do against landlords.  The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Court, saying the trial court was right--

"Where a condominium association brought a forcible entry and detainer action against a unit owner for failure to pay assessments, the affirmative defense of alleged failure to repair and maintain common areas was properly stricken as not germane to that summary statutory proceeding."

http://www.state.il.us/court/Opinions/SupremeCourt/2014/115342.pdf

It is interesting to read the language where the Supreme Court dances around the claim that the association-unit owner relationship is based on contract, something we hear all the time from advocates of strictly enforcing the DD&RS:  It's a contract, they say, and if you didn't like it you shouldn't have entered into it.  But now the shoe is on the other foot--an owner wants the rights that go with a contract:  the party claiming back assessments hasn't lived up to its part of the bargain, so the owner, like a tenant, should have the benefit of that breach.  But no, the court says, now that contract language isn't to be taken so literally.  You see, it's more accurate to say that it is largely based on statute.  From the IL SC opinion:

----------------

Spanish Court maintains that the appellate court’s recognition of a nullification defense rests on an ill-fitting analogy, namely, that the association-unit owner relationship is, for purposes of the forcible statute, analogous to the landlord-tenant relationship. See 2012 IL App (2d) 110473, ¶¶ 16, 26, 46. We agree with Spanish Court. 

¶ 20 The relationship between a landlord and tenant is contractual. See generally 24 Ill. L. and Prac. Landlord and Tenant § 1, at 157 (2009). Although aspects of that relationship may be governed by state and local landlord-tenant laws, the relationship is created through the agreement of the parties. When a landlord breaches the terms of the agreement (the lease) by failing, for example, to comply with the implied warranty of habitability, cases have traditionally applied contract remedies, including damages, rescission, reformation, or abatement of rent. Glasoe v. Trinkle, 107 Ill. 2d 1, 15-17 (1985). Cf. Mohanty v. St. John Heart Clinic, S.C., 225 Ill. 2d 52, 70 (2006) (“Under general contract principles, a material breach of a contract provision by one party may be grounds for releasing the other party from his contractual obligations.”). 

¶ 21 Although contract principles have sometimes been applied to the relationship between a condominium association and its unit owners based on the condominium’s declaration, bylaws, and rules and regulations (1 Gary A. Poliakoff, The Law of Condominium Operations § 1:23 (1988 and Supp. 2012-13)), the relationship is largely a creature of statute, defined by the provisions of the Condominium Act (765 ILCS 605/1 et seq. (West 2008)). Under that Act, the board of managers, through whom the association of unit owners acts (765 ILCS 605/2(o) (West 2008)), has the duty “[t]o provide for the operation, care, upkeep, maintenance, replacement and improvement of the common elements.” 765 ILCS 605/18.4(a) (West 2008). The Condominium Act also addresses the “[s]haring of expenses” among unit owners, and establishes that: “It shall be the duty of each unit owner *** to pay his proportionate share of the common expenses.” 765 ILCS 605/9(a) (West 2008).2 Although these duties may also be reflected in the condominium declaration and bylaws, as they are in this case, they are imposed by statute and exist independent of the association’s governing documents. Accordingly, a unit owner’s obligation to pay assessments is not akin to a tenant’s purely contractual obligation to pay rent, which may be excused or nullified because the other party failed to perform. 

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More details revealed in Las Vegas HOA fraud case

http://m.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/new-details-revealed-hoa-fraud-case

What this massive fraud reveals is how vulnerable HOAs and condo associations are to being taken over or manipulated into becoming ATMs for fraudsters. Insurance companies were taken to the cleaners. I haven't even tried to list all the embezzlement cases. I have a notebook three inches thick of press clippings reporting them. Then there were the developer and converter frauds.  Here in Chicago at least 200 fraudulent condo conversions shoveled millions of dollars from banks into the pockets of crooks, cost investors a fortune, and victimized  hundreds of tenants who were paying rent to somebody who didn't own the building.  

And all that criminality is in addition to the non-criminal practices of underfunding reserves that  exposes owners to enormous risk, and vendors charging ridiculous fees for doing nothing and locking  associations into terrible adhesion contracts.

Why is it so hard to put all this together and reach the obvious conclusion that the money side of CIDs is not working?  The media have a frame for reporting on the social control conflicts that happen in associations--flags, pets, political signs, religious symbols--but they can't seem to see the pattern when it comes to the enormous financial problems that leave millions of Americans vulnerable to major economic loss.

It makes no sense to put untrained, uncompensated, and often unqualified volunteers in charge of billions of dollars, based on a bogus ideology of privatism.

DURHAM: City threatens to cut off water to apartment complex - WNCN: News, Weather

DURHAM: City threatens to cut off water to apartment complex - WNCN: News, Weather: The president of the homeowners group, Greg Jones, said he learned of the possible disconnection from the city via email. From there, he said, he spoke with the tenants association, which prompted the letter left on doors.

Jones said Bentwood Park started getting behind on payments in December because some of the units' 90 different owners began falling behind in paying their dues, in particular one who owns multiple units.

"I have two small kids in here that go to school every day, and we need water to bathe and to drink," said renter Latoyia Edwards. "They need to find the man that created this problem and make him pay for it, or somebody just has to deal with it."

------------

Conflicts of interest abound when the HOA becomes a super landlord but doesn't pay the water bill.

Condo president buys car, pays himself, with association funds

http://www.local10.com/news/community-president-buys-car-pays-self-salary-with-neighborhood-money/27853208
"Ed Ryan, a long-time condominium president in Fort Lauderdale, has been violating the law for years by paying himself tens of thousands of dollars -- and even buying himself a car -- out of neighborhood funds, according to state records. In September, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation alleged Ryan was illegally managing the association without a license and issued a cease and desist order to stop him from paying himself after he'd received $45,000 in the first nine months of the year alone. But Ryan, president of Georgian Court North Apartments, hasn't missed a beat, admitting to Local 10 News that he's still paying himself. "
------------------------------
One of the cool parts about volunteer private government:  having access to all that money!

Bill addresses watering in homeowner associations - SFGate

Bill addresses watering in homeowner associations - SFGate: SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Homeowner associations would be prohibited from requiring residents to pressure-wash their driveways or other areas when droughts are declared locally or across California, under a bill sent to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Republican Sen. Jim Nielsen of Gerber says some homeowners are caught in bind. They face fines under state regulations that prohibit washing driveways, as well as fines from their associations if they don't follow its rules.
-------
Government already regulates many private sector industries. The community association industry fine machine is now getting a greater degree of regulation.

Drought debate: Homeowner fined for replacing grass with drought-tolerant plants - Inside Bay Area

Drought debate: Homeowner fined for replacing grass with drought-tolerant plants - Inside Bay Area: SAN RAMON -- Fran Paxson figured to get a little credit and admiration when she replaced the old lawn around her suburban San Ramon home with drought-resistant plants.

Her public water supplier is even rewarding her with a rebate.

But her homeowners association -- drought and a new state law be darned -- is punishing her with a fine.

Paxson's plight is turning up the heat in the conflict between the aesthetics and the thirst of water-hungry green lawns as California struggles through a third year of drought.
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Another perennial story in the litany of bad press for Privatopia: enforcement actions over flying flags, holiday lights and this recurring story of HOAs at odds with local governments over watering restrictions.

Fox sets up plan to create utopia

http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/fox-gambles-on-big-bold-and-expensive-vision-of-utopia-1201288541/

Well, if anybody can create utopia it would be Fox. Rupert Murdoch has it all figured out.

Hoa fines owner for lawn removal during drought

http://m.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Lawn-removal-in-parched-California-draws-fine-5706307.php

With the state of California authorizing fines for wasting water, this Hoa is fining people for not wasting water keeping their lawns green. 

'Remove flags or be fined' homeowner told by HOA | AccessNorthGa

'Remove flags or be fined' homeowner told by HOA | AccessNorthGa: GAINESVILLE - A Gainesville woman has been told by her homeowners' association that she must remove the Israeli and American flags on display in her front yard or face a fine.
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Flag flap No. 583,762 in Privatopia, Georgia sector.

Scottsdale HOA sues property management company - CBS 5 - KPHO

Scottsdale HOA sues property management company - CBS 5 - KPHO: SCOTTSDALE, AZ (CBS5) -

Some North Scottsdale homeowners are angry and they want answers.

Their property management company is accused of embezzling more than $3.4 million.

The Edge at Grayhawk Condominium Association has filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court against Eagle Property Management.

The lawsuit claims that Eagle Property Management committed fraud and embezzled millions of dollars in HOA money.

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Alleged graft in Privatopia, Arizona Sector. The cops are on the case. Film at 10 on CBS5, Phoenix.

Pay for your own sidewalks?

http://wlfi.com/2014/08/07/sidewalk-scuffle-homeowners-surprised-by-city-code/

I'd be surprised, too. 

IRS ruling highlights schizo nature of hoas

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2014/08/05/homeowner-association-irs-ruling-highlights-schizophrenic-nature-of-associations/

Featuring a long quote from yours truly.

ALEC Offshoot Takes Aim at Local Government | PR Watch

ALEC Offshoot Takes Aim at Local Government | PR Watch: "Early reports suggests that ACCE will pursue similar policy objectives as ALEC. According to The Guardian, "An early draft of the agenda for [the] meeting revealingly listed ACCE’s very first workshop under the simple title: 'Privatization' – though in the final version the wording had been sanitized into: 'Effective Tools for Promoting Limited Government'." Privatization has been a long term goal for many ALEC member firms, and ALEC model bills have called for the creation of a special state commission to privatize public services. Other ALEC bills call for the privatization of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, public schools, state pensions and more. Another workshop at the inaugural ACCE meeting is titled "Releasing Local Governments From the Grip of Collective Bargaining," which fits into ALEC's long-standing antipathy towards unions."

----------

The American Legislative Exchange Council is a corporate-funded group that puts state legislators in the same room with corporate lobbyists, who hand our elected officials pre-drafted bills for them to introduce and pass back home. It's anti-union, anti-environment, anti-consumer, pro-gun, etc. Now, with the American City County Exchange, they are lowering their sights and trying to hamstring and plunder local government the way they have done so effectively in a number of states. Privatization for all, which means taxpayers bear the risk and get turned into fee-paying consumers, and private corporations keep the profits. Thanks to Mystery Reader, who first flagged this story.  If you don't know who these people are, you can read more here.

California Assembly Bill AB 968 - Bill Analysis

AB 968 Assembly Bill - Bill Analysis

This bill is intended to clear up the existing ambiguity regarding responsibility for maintenance, repair, and replacement of limited common elements in CIDs. The bill passed the Assembly 73-1, made its way through the Senate committee system,  clearing the Commitee on Transportation and Housing by a 10-0 vote, and is now awaiting a third reading on the Senate floor. The bill is opposed by Donie Vanitzian  and also by Marjorie Murray and the Center for California Homeowner Association Law.

  The full text of the bill is here.

The normal situation is that the association is responsible for the common elements, and the owners are responsible for their separate interest.  But what about limited use common elements, such as condominium decks and patios, that are part of the common elements but that can only be used by the individual owner?  The existing section that governs this is  Section 4775 of the Civil Code.  It currently reads as follows (my emphasis), and it is unclear on that subject:

Section 4775.  

(a) Unless otherwise provided in the declaration of a
4common interest development, the association is responsible for
5repairing, replacing, or maintaining the common area, other than
6exclusive use common area, and the owner of each separate interest 7is responsible for maintaining that separate interest and any 8exclusive use common area appurtenant to the separate interest.

Note that the words "repairing" and "replacing" do not appear in the language about "exclusive use common area," i.e., limited use common elements. So, if the documents don't specify, whose job is it to repair and replace limited common elements?

AB 968 would repeal the existing section 4775 and replace it with this language (again, my emphasis):

Section 4775 is added to the end insertbegin insertCivil Codeend insertbegin insert, to read:end insert

begin insert

14

begin insert4775.end insert  

(a) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (3), unless
15otherwise provided in the declaration of a common interest
16development, the association is responsible for repairing, 17replacing, and maintaining the common area.

18(2) Unless otherwise provided in the declaration of a common
19interest development, the owner of each separate interest is 20responsible for repairing, replacing, and maintaining that separate 21interest.

22(3) Unless otherwise provided in the declaration of a common
23interest development, the owner of each separate interest is 24responsible for maintaining the exclusive use common area P3    1appurtenant to that separate interest and the association is 2responsible for repairing and replacing the exclusive use common 3area.

4(4) The governing documents may define which items or actions 5constitute maintenance and which constitute repair and 6replacement.

7(b) The costs of temporary relocation during the repair and
8maintenance of the areas within the responsibility of the
9association shall be borne by the owner of the separate interest
10affected.

11(c) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2016.

Let's make this less abstract. Imagine that I own a condo unit, which means I own an airspace and the whole building is common elements.  My unit has a deck that is mine and mine alone to use--it is a  limited common element.  Under the proposed new law, unless my association's declaration says otherwise, I am responsible for maintaining my deck, and the association is responsible for repairing and replacing the deck.

But wait, you say--what if the coating of my deck is worn out and it is leaking. Is that maintenance, which is my responsibility, or repair, which the associaiton would have to pay for, so that the cost is shared by all owners?  The bill doesn't define that distinction.  Instead, this bill in section (4) says the governing documents may (not must) define "which items or actions constitute maintenance and which constitute repair and replacement." For most associations, there is no such specificiation in the declaration, so they would need to amend their documents if they wanted to clarify that.  

Donie Vanitzian says that section (4) doesn't just allow the association to define what it maintenance versus repair and replacement, but also allows the association to amend the documents and reclassify various building components as limited use common elements, and then assign responsibility for them to individual owners.  From the column: "AB 968 allows boards to expand, redefine and concoct their own rendition of what 'exclusive use common area' is and then assess the owner to maintain, insure and assume liability for it. If the association has a reserve account, this new obligation does not exempt owners from continuing to fund it. Exclusive use components that associations may add are infinite. Some examples: indoor/outdoor pipes, sprinkler systems, wiring, parking stalls, doors, screens, windows, steps to entryways, outdoor light fixtures, walkways, hallways, fences, mailboxes, balconies, porches, roofs, air conditioners, heating systems, outdoor stairs, patches of dirt touching your property's stucco and more."  

 Here's how the legislative analyst summarizes the opposition. They say (my emphasis): 

ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION  :    Opponents believe that this bill's  

          lack of definitions for maintenance, repair, and replacement  

          does a huge disservice to associations and residents by forcing  

          associations to devise definitions when even this bill's sponsor  

          cannot.  In addition, opponents argue that this bill imposes  

          significant new financial obligations on homeowners.  First,  

          this bill newly assigns the repair and replacement of separate  

          interests to homeowners.  Second, having associations define  

          this bill's terms creates an opportunity to foist new  

          maintenance duties onto homeowners.  These issues are  

          exacerbated by the lack of clarity in some governing documents  

          over what is considered exclusive-use common area.  

It appears that the opponents see potential for abuse here that the legislature doesn't, given the virtually unanimous votes it has received so far.  The bill is subject to amendment before the third reading, and if anybody knows what amendments are being considered, please comment or email me.

Update 8/3/14: the Executive Council oh Homeowners supports the bill.

http://www.echo-ca.org/hoa-advocacy/ab-968-exclusive-use-common-area

Marjorie Murray tells me the Public Interest Law Project and Consumer Attorneys of California oppose the bill. I can't find any reference to the bill on their websites. I will link to their statements directly if and when I can. 

Someone call the HOA!

Crop circle in Germany attracts many visitors 


 


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There must be something in the CC&Rs that prohibits crop circles.

Mesa residents still fighting HOA, claim former board members misspent money - ABC15 Arizona

Mesa residents still fighting HOA, claim former board members misspent money - ABC15 Arizona: Mesa, AZ - We've been following the legal battle between Superstition Lakes Condominium Association and its former leadership.

We met with former resident Kathleen Daurio last year. As she dug through board records and said she found nearly $40,000 used for items and meals that she said didn't benefit homeowners. Homeowners accuse board of misspending funds.

"I mean, they bought laundry detergent and almonds and vodka and baby wipes and just about every time they bought air fresheners," said Daurio.

Another resident, Jan Stuart, sued that former board last year. It ended in a settlement agreement that allowed a vote resulting in three members being recalled, and a new board put in place.

-----------

Your HOA assessment dollars at work -- or not. Trouble in Privatopia, Arizona sector. Film at 10 on ABC 15.

PQED: How should people respond to open-carry gun-rights activists?

PQED: How should people respond to open-carry gun-rights activists?:

"The question that concerns me now is how we bystanders should react when people come into a store with guns. There really is no legitimate way of determining intent. Even if the people with guns are carrying a sign claiming to be activists (which they do not do), they could be lying, just setting us all up for slaughter. And since there is no way to know what is on their minds, all we have are our instincts, but as we all should know, our instincts are often racist, classist, and frequently mistaken. So, what should we do?

My proposal is as follows: we should all leave. Immediately. Leave the food on the table in the restaurant. Leave the groceries in the cart, in the aisle. Stop talking or engaging in the exchange. Just leave, unceremoniously, and fast.

But here is the key part: don’t pay. Stopping to pay in the presence of a person with a gun means risking your and your loved ones’ lives; money shouldn’t trump this. It doesn’t matter if you ate the meal. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just received food from the deli counter that can’t be resold. It doesn’t matter if you just got a haircut. Leave. If the business loses money, so be it. They can make the activists pay."

---------------

A philosopher proposes a brilliant way for us to respond to gun bullies.

Poor doors: the segregation of London's inner-city flat dwellers | Society | The Guardian

Poor doors: the segregation of London's inner-city flat dwellers | Society | The Guardian:

"A Guardian investigation has discovered a growing trend in the capital's upmarket apartment blocks – which are required to include affordable homes in order to win planning permission – for the poorer residents to be forced to use alternative access, a phenomenon being dubbed "poor doors". Even bicycle storage spaces, rubbish disposal facilities and postal deliveries are being separated."

---------

Thanks to Mystery Reader for another example of the rich separating themselves from the hoi polloi while enjoying the planning benefits that are supposed to go with mixed income developments. The same thing is happening in New York.

Homeowners Association: Veteran Can’t Build Furniture For Military Families In Need � CBS Sacramento

Homeowners Association: Veteran Can’t Build Furniture For Military Families In Need  CBS Sacramento:

"Even as a nonprofit, the Vietnam veteran was told he had to get a business permit, which he did in 2012. But this March, the Lake of the Pines Homeowners Association took it away.
“Now they’ve come back to me and said I’m producing odors and noxious fumes,” he said.
Such complaints typically come from neighbors, but those who live nearby have written letters supporting Dennis Kocher and his work.
We tried getting answers from the association’s general manager, but he would not comment."

----------------

Homeowners Association: Veteran Can’t Build Furniture For Military Families In Need CBS Sacramento

Homeowners Association: Veteran Can’t Build Furniture For Military Families In Need CBS Sacramento: NEVADA COUNTY (CBS13) — A war veteran who builds furniture in his garage and gives it to military families in need could be forced to shut down the saws.

A homeowners association is telling Dennis Kocher he needs to close up shop after years of doing business, or he could be fined between $100 and $1,000.

“I may not paint, sand, cut wood or screw on the property at anytime,” he said.

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More bad press for Privatopia, California sector. Film at 10 on CBS13, Sacramento.

Despite recovery, fewer Americans identify as middle class | Pew Research Center

Despite recovery, fewer Americans identify as middle class | Pew Research Center:

'The nationally representative survey of 1,504 adults conducted Jan. 15-19 found that the share of Americans who identify with the middle class has never been lower, dropping to 44% in the latest survey from 53% in 2008 during the first months of the Great Recession.

At the same time, the share of the public who says they are in the lower or lower-middle classes rose by 15 percentage points, from 25% in 2008 to 40% today."

-------------

Much of this change has taken place in the last two years.  One would expect a political backlash aimed at changing the rules of the bipartisan Reaganomics system that is so flagrantly rigged in favor of the rich at the expense of the middle class. But instead we see people obsessed with sports, celebrities, guns, and bizarre conspiracy theories. Young people are getting savaged by this economy: "In 2008, a quarter of all young adults identified as being in the lower or lower-middle class; today about twice as many do (49%), a 24-point increase."  And those who venture into college are being placed in lifelong debt servitude. But just wait--on election day in November they will stay home in droves.

A deep divide over new condo foreclosure bill - chicagotribune.com

A deep divide over new condo foreclosure bill - chicagotribune.com:

"The Illinois Condominium Property Act allows associations, in case of a judicial foreclosure sale, to recoup up to six months of unpaid common expenses from the next owner of the unit.

These expenses may include special assessments, late fees, fines and attorney fees. Lenders are exempt from making this payment.

The bill would amend the condo act by capping an association's claim to nine months of regular assessments. Attorney and court costs can be recovered as long as the total doesn't exceed the cap.

The Illinois Association of Realtors, which supports the legislation, said the current law is an affordability barrier for buyers.

The extra costs, which can reach several thousand dollars, typically cannot be financed. Buyers often are stunned to discover at closing that they owe sizable sums."

-------------------------

So under the proposed law, which is sitting on Governor Quinn's desk awaiting signature or veto, the association could receive an amount equal to nine months of back assessments instead of six months, but the tradeoff is that the maximum amount would include the attorney fees and other charges that are always tacked onto the association's claim against the owner.  Realtors are in favor of the bill, saying, "We think the way the current law is written has fostered an atmosphere that has allowed outrageous attorney fees to run up and for associations to throw in anything having to do with the prior owner just because they knew they could stick the buyer with it."  But association attorneys are not happy with having their meal ticket trimmed.

The Twin Insurgency - The American Interest

The Twin Insurgency - The American Interest:

"Rights within such spaces accrue to dollars rather than to citizenship. The vision of the future here is of a global archipelago of what Evan McKenzie has called “privatopias”, essentially gated enclaves linked by air and internet to other such spaces, protected by high ramparts from the roiling dystopian ocean of the hoi polloi."

Housing dispute leaves 97-year-old man homeless

Housing dispute leaves 97-year-old man homeless:

"Each morning, a variety of men and women pass through the doors of Napa’s Hope Resource Center in search for a place in a local homeless shelter that night. On Wednesday morning, one visitor looked no more or less weathered or beaten-down than the others – only more diminutive and older, decades older.

James Farrell arrived at 8:30 a.m., his 5-foot-tall frame arm in arm with a woman who had helped him find an interim place to sleep since a dispute with management cost the ukulele-playing 97-year-old his place at a local retirement home."

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Redwood Retirement Center in Napa, CA, evicted this veteran of three wars. Apparently they didn't appreciate his singing and ukelele playing, and they said his room wasn't clean enough.

Maryland Homeowners' Association, Inc.

E-Communicator
For Homeowners in Condominiums, Cooperatives, and Homeowner Associations in Maryland

 

July 22, 2014
 

Celebrating the Life of Patricia Wigginton

Patricia Wigginton passed away on July 11, 2014. She was a Board member of the Maryland Homeowners Association (MHA) since 1992 and editor of MHA’s Communicator newsletter. She served as MHA’s president and executive director 1995-1999 and as such shepherded successful passage of the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights in the Maryland legislature and the successful transition of the organization upon the retirement of the founder and executive director, Dorothy Sager. A Celebration of her Life will be held:
 

Sunday, July 27^th at 3 pm at the
Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
9601 Cedar Lane
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-493-8300

For directions, go to http://www.cedarlane.org/directions.html

For 22 years in board positions including president, secretary, treasurer, & general officer, Pat offered information and support to individuals and boards of directors by phone and in person. She organized workshops and attended individual association meetings, CCOC hearings, including running and overseeing individual association elections. She testified for homeowner legislation on behalf of MHA. In 2006 she testified before the COC Task Force. In February 2008, as president of her condo association, she supported the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition’s (MCRC’s) agenda testifying in favor of several energy bills---as well as organizing a write-in campaign among her neighbors to the Public Service Commission on “Fair Utility Rates.” She represented MHA at MCRC workshops and coalition meetings in Annapolis during the legislative sessions. During her many years of service she met with both politicians and government bureaucrats to advocate go od governance issues.

Patricia Wigginton served as president of her condominium association and had 25 years of board experience in her condo and its umbrella HOA and MTA organizations. In addition to advocating good government issues in condos and HOA’s, she was a long-time activist and advocate for children and the elderly---volunteering with Montgomery County schools, police and as a nursing home ombudsman.

As a volunteer in the Montgomery County schools, Pat was an early proponent in the fight against childhood obesity. Beginning in 2000, she advocated for more exercise and physical education in the schools and served on the county’s curriculum advisory committee, working with the county’s PTA, helping draft a county Wellness Policy and organizing “Walk to School Day” in the local elementary school. Her legislative efforts in this area included lobbying and testifying in favor of State Health and Fitness Acts supporting walking as the Maryland State Exercise. She also supported safety restrictions in teen driving legislation.

In 1996 Ms. Wigginton organized her son’s elementary school community to participate in the Stand For Children March on Washington, D.C. In 1997, as a way to continue awareness of children’s needs, she organized a “Stand for Children Book Drive” which has become an annual event for Ashburton Elementary and North Bethesda Middle schools. For the past decade, the “Reach Out and Read” program at Upper Cardoza Health Care Center in D.C. has been the recipient of the children’s book donations. More than 25,000 books were collected and donated to support literacy efforts since 1997.

In 1988 Pat organized a Neighborhood Watch Program in her condominium community, which was featured in a Voice of America segment on life in the United States. She continued to support the safety of her community and the police department’s neighborhood policing policies by serving on a Police-Citizen Advisory Committee for her District of Montgomery County since 2002.

Pat Wigginton was a truly spectacular and generous woman. She will be missed by her family, friends and community.
 
 

76-year-old man is ARRESTED at Tennessee town hall meeting | Mail Online

76-year-old man is ARRESTED at Tennessee town hall meeting | Mail Online:



"Locals in a small Tennessee town are outraged after a 76-year-old man was arrested during a town hall hearing over a proposed pipeline because he asked board members to speak louder.

Eddie Overholt's arrest came Friday after asking town board members to speak louder during a hearing to determine whether a gas company would be allowed to build a pipeline to dump waste into a local river.

‘Okay, I’m arrested,’ Overholt can be heard saying in a baritone drawl as he is escorted out of the Greenville Town Hall during a hearing with U.S. Nitrogen, according to WATE. The company wants a pipeline to the Nolichucky River."

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Not an HOA.

City OKs UWS development with ‘poor door’ for residents | New York Post

City OKs UWS development with ‘poor door’ for residents | New York Post:

"The city approved a developer’s controversial plans for a “poor door” on the Upper West Side, The Post has learned.
Extell came under fire last year when it introduced plans for a 33-story luxury condo with a separate entrance for affordable-housing tenants."

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My good man, please step round to the back and use the servants' entrance. There's a good lad.

Iraq vet cited for owning 14 therapeutic pet ducks - Yahoo News

Iraq vet cited for owning 14 therapeutic pet ducks - Yahoo News: WEST LAFAYETTE, Ohio (AP) — An Army veteran who hurt his back during the Iraq War is worried a citation will result in him losing his 14 pet ducks, which he says are therapeutic.

Darin Welker said officials in the village of West Lafayette told him to get rid of the ducks in May and cited him for a minor misdemeanor on June 23 for failing to comply. Walker is scheduled to appear in Coshocton Municipal Court for a hearing Wednesday and could face a $150 fine.

Welker, 36, says the ducks help him with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and keep him more active.

West Lafayette, about 80 miles east of Columbus, banned residents from keeping fowl and other farm animals in 2010.

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It's only a matter of time before the quackdown on therapy ducks comes to Privatopia.

Did this booby trap set up in a Pevely yard go too far? | KMOV.com St. Louis

Did this booby trap set up in a Pevely yard go too far? | KMOV.com St. Louis

"(KMOV.com) – A homeowner in Pevely elected to set up booby traps on his lawn to prevent pranksters from driving onto it. The resident buried a board along the street with nails sticking out of the ground, the goal was to flatten the tires of cars driven by pranksters. Police told News 4 the trap was difficult to see “They were painted black and they were buried in the ground, and it made it very difficult to see,” said Pevely Police Chief Ron Weeks."

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And now the town of Pevely is going to pass an ordinance banning booby traps on lawns. I suppose that will make everybody except the property rights fanatics.  

Subdivision’s paving woes highlight gray area in enforcement | The Courier-Tribune

Subdivision’s paving woes highlight gray area in enforcement | The Courier-Tribune: The developer owns the road up to the point where the state takes it over. The state will not take the road over, even if it is up to spec, until a certain threshold of habitation is reached — a minimum of two houses per one-tenth mile, according to Jeff Loflin, county N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) engineer. So, in the interim, the developer should be motivated to keep the road up, in theory.

The reality Stauffer is experiencing what happens when the theory breaks down. It breaks down, most often, when a developer goes bankrupt or leaves a subdivision uncompleted because he or she has moved on to a more lucrative project. Short of suing the developer, the homeowners typically have few options other than taking over road maintenance themselves.
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This is the point where the intergovernmental relationship as the perfessor termed it in his seminal 1994 book Privatopia reaches a dead end. NCDOT is using a similar formula that privately owned cable companies use in determining where they will build infrastructure -- a formula that creates winners (and lots of losers), leaving many without needed infrastructure.

White House opens door to tolls on interstate highways, removing long-standing prohibition - The Washington Post

White House opens door to tolls on interstate highways, removing long-standing prohibition - The Washington Post:



"With pressure mounting to avert a transportation funding crisis this summer, the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs.

The proposal, contained in a four-year, $302 billion White House transportation bill, would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling.

Though some older segments of the network — notably the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes and Interstate 95 in Maryland and Interstate 495 in Virginia — are toll roads, most of the 46,876-mile system has been toll-free."

------------

The Republican strategy of refusing to let Obama fix any problem, under any circumstances, pays off again. Now they are turning the interstate highways into toll roads, which should make Rand Paul happy. Now if only they can figure out how to charge us for the air we breathe...



This decision will be a huge boon to the privatization industry, which will step forward and propose a big cash payment (that will turn out to be not so big) for the right to lease the interstate highways and run them as private toll roads.

To Water Or Not To Water? Residents Getting Mixed Messages Amid Drought --CBS Los Angeles

To Water Or Not To Water? Residents Getting Mixed Messages Amid Drought  CBS Los Angeles

The message from the state: overwater your lawn and you get fined. The message from the city of Glendora: underwater your  lawn and you get fined.  It's sort of a Goldilocks drought watering policy.

Income Inequality Has Spurred a Boom in Private Security | Mother Jones

Income Inequality Has Spurred a Boom in Private Security | Mother Jones:

"Perhaps this is our dystopian, Piketty-esque future: a small class of ultra-wealthy rentiers; a breakdown of public safety because the rich employ their own private security forces and don't feel like funding anything further; a retainer class of managerial drones; and then everyone else—sullen and resentful, but kept in line by the hard men in dark glasses toting automatic weapons and driving armored limos.

Actually, probably not. Eventually robots will provide better security services than fragile human beings, so the security forces will be out of jobs too."

------------------

Actually, a lot of the private security features in CIDs are automated, such as card key gates and video cameras that are being sort-of semi-watched by some guy a hundred miles away with a hundred TV screens all around him. And a box of doughnuts.

AG sues state's largest foreclosure law firms alleging massive fraud - The Denver Post

AG sues state's largest foreclosure law firms alleging massive fraud - The Denver Post:

Is there no end to this sort of thing?



"Colorado's largest foreclosure law firms — The Castle Law Group and Aronowitz & Mecklenburg — were slapped with massive civil lawsuits Tuesday by attorney general investigators who say the lawyers operated a multi-million-dollar scheme that defrauded tens of thousands of homeowners, banks, investors and, ultimately, taxpayers.

Principals of the Aronowitz firm, which is second to Castle in the number of foreclosures handled in Colorado, immediately agreed to pay $10 million to settle the case, and will either sell or close its Denver-based law practice in the next six months, according to copies of the settlement filed in Denver district court."

Downtown L.A. is now driest since rain records started in 1877 - LA Times

Downtown L.A. is now driest since rain records started in 1877 - LA Times:

'Rainy seasons over the last two years were the driest in downtown Los Angeles since record-keeping began in 1877, and forecasters now say the El Nino that had been predicted to bring some relief may not materialize. According to the National Weather Service, the 2012 to 2014 rainy seasons -- which are measured every July 1 to June 30 -- only brought 11.93 inches of rainfall, which is 17.93 inches below normal.'

---------------------------
Global warming is causing extreme weather patterns that could make life in many US cities quite a challenge.  Las Vegas and Phoenix come to mind, but here we see Los Angeles experiencing the effects of severe drought. Contrary to what the article says,  NOOA is still predicting El Nino, with a likelihood of 70% in the summer and 80% in the fall, although they say it will be "weak to moderate," so there may be at least some increased rainfall in California.  But the main lesson here, which everybody involved insists on learning the hard way, is that cities and real estate developers will have to get more realistic about water availability as a pivotal issue in all new residential development.  On the demand side, so will all these snowbirds who think the arid southwest is retirement Eden.  Sorry, folks. The golf courses and outdoor fountains will have to be sacrificed at some point, or eventually people will be drinking their own pee like Bear Grylls.

Don’t Like Your Neighbors’ House? Sue Them. - NYTimes.com

Don’t Like Your Neighbors’ House? Sue Them. - NYTimes.com:

The case in question involves a historic district, not an HOA, but the author goes on a bit of a tangent about HOAs:



"But lawsuits like these fly in the face of American individuality and progress, which the American dream is meant to embody. With each passing year it seems that things like homeowner associations and the various codes, covenants and restrictions they tend to follow have become ever more proscriptive and often ridiculous. People have been sued for not mowing their lawns, or for using exterior paint colors that were not on a list of approved colors."

How Corporate America Shut the Courthouse Doors to Average People | Blog | BillMoyers.com

How Corporate America Shut the Courthouse Doors to Average People | Blog | BillMoyers.com:

It seems likely to me that within the next few years all standard HOA and condo CC&Rs will contain mandatory binding arbitration provisions for all lawsuits against the developer, the association, the BOD, and the property manager. The Republican majority on the US Supreme Court is perfectly happy to endorse contractual provisions that deprive the consumer of access to the courts.



"Two recent US Supreme Court rulings — AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion and American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant have deeply undercut these centuries-old public rights, by empowering businesses to avoid any threat of private lawsuits or class actions. The decisions culminate a thirty-year trend during which the judiciary, including initially some prominent liberal jurists, has moved to eliminate courts as a means for ordinary Americans to uphold their rights against companies. The result is a world where corporations can evade accountability and effectively skirt swaths of law, pushing their growing power over their consumers and employees past a tipping point."

Cities With the Most Abandoned Homes - 24/7 Wall St.

Cities With the Most Abandoned Homes - 24/7 Wall St.:

"In Wichita, Kansas, nearly half of homes in foreclosure were abandoned as of the first quarter of 2014. In six of the nation’s most populous metro areas, at least a third of homes in foreclosure were vacant. Based on data provided by housing data website RealtyTrac for the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, these are the cities where residents are abandoning their homes.

Median housing prices in all but one of the metro areas with the most vacant homes were among the lowest in the country. In addition, housing prices fell during the last 12 months in four of the 10 cities: Boise, St. Louis, Syracuse, and Wichita. Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, explained that this drop in prices creates a problem for both banks and homeowners because neither wants to hold on to a depreciating asset. This increases the likelihood that homeowners will abandon their homes and banks may find that foreclosing on the home could be more expensive than writing it off."

------------------

21st century ghost towns?

Real Estate Developers Want To Evict 98-Year-Old Woman To Turn Her Apartment Into Condos

Real Estate Developers Want To Evict 98-Year-Old Woman To Turn Her Apartment Into Condos

"The company is using a 1986 state law called the Ellis Act to boot Phillips from her apartment in a building at 55 Dolores Street. That property was bought in late 2012 for about $2.5 million, according to Trulia.com, marking a nearly $1.2 million profit for the previous owners who had bought it in early 2011. In April, 2013, the new owners served Phillips with an eviction notice...The man behind the company has used the Ellis Act 43 times in the past 10 years, according to the group. Ellis Act evictions fell in the wake of the financial crisis, but have been on the rise again as the economy has recovered and San Francisco property values have spiked over the past two years.  The law was intended to protect landlords who wanted to get out of the business from being forced to continue renting properties they would prefer to sell. But the majority of Ellis Act evictions in recent years have been initiatedby speculators rather than landlords, according to Steve Collier of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. “What we’ve seen is groups of investors are banding together to buy property, usually it’s when a landlord dies and it’s sold as an estate sale, or when someone just wants to sell to retire and then the speculator buys the property [and] evicts the tenants by using the Ellis Act,” he told the local NBC News affiliate in October."

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That's just what San Francisco needs:  more overpriced condos.

Crony Capitalism Has No Place in the Supreme Court - NationalJournal.com

Crony Capitalism Has No Place in the Supreme Court - NationalJournal.com:

From Norman Ornstein, a different take on Hobby Lobby and other USSC decisions that expand the power of corporations over little people:  "But for the majority on the Roberts Court, through a series of rulings that favor corporations over labor or other interests, it is clear that corporations are king, superior to individual Americans—with all the special treatment in taxes and protection from legal liability that are unavailable to us individuals, and now all the extra benefits that come with individual citizenship. Call it the new Crony Capitalism."

Home equity lines due for reset may be looming financial disaster--Los Angeles Times

Home equity lines due for reset may be looming financial disaster--Los Angeles Times:

"Some mortgage and credit experts worry that billions of dollars of home equity credit lines that were extended a decade ago during the housing boom could be heading for big trouble soon, creating a new wave of defaults for banks and homeowners.  That's because these credit lines, which are second mortgages with floating rates and flexible withdrawal terms, carry mandatory "resets" requiring borrowers to begin paying both principal and interest on their balances after 10 years. During the initial 10-year draw period, only interest payments are required.  But the difference between the interest-only and reset payments on these credit lines can be substantial — $500 to $600 or more per month in some cases. If borrowers cannot afford or choose not to make the fully amortizing payments that reduce the principal debt, the bank that owns the note can demand full payment and foreclose on the house if there is sufficient equity.  According to federal financial regulators, about $30 billion in home equity lines dating to 2004 are due for resets next year, $53 billion the following year and a staggering $111 billion in 2018."

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Conventional wisdom says the foreclosure crisis is nearly over, but that doesn't take into account the second mortgages that are bumping up against their ten-year reset period.

Sun Valley woman fighting to fly American flag - KRXI - Reno NV Top Stories - News, Sports, Weather

Sun Valley woman fighting to fly American flag - KRXI - Reno NV Top Stories - News, Sports, Weather: After living in Sun Valley for nine years, Legere's home is complete. The Sparks woman has been eyeing a change to her front yard for quite some time: an American flag for the neighborhood to enjoy.

"I called the Homeowners' Assocation and mentioned what I was planning to do, and they said, 'Oh, how exciting.'"

The tree occupying the space was uprooted and a concrete base was built. Two days ago, she invited community board members to the flag-raising ceremony and the reaction changed.

"They said, 'You have to cease and desist, you can't do that. You don't...that hasn't been OK'd by the board and it probably won't be.'"
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Another Independence Day flag(pole) flap in Privatopia, Nevada sector.

Biz executives pay fines for Florida vet facing eviction over flower pot flag | Fox News

Biz executives pay fines for Florida vet facing eviction over flower pot flag | Fox News: “When we read his story it offended our sensibilities,” Scott Carter, CEO of Lear Capital said to FoxNews.com. “The thought of him losing his home, we felt it was wrong. We wanted to help.”

Along with Lear Capital founder Kevin DeMerritt, the executives paid the $8,000 plus another $2,500 for tax adjustments.

“They [homeowner’s association were using the strongarm of money to get him to get rid of the flag,” Carter said. “They were skimming the money from his [paid] dues to pay the fines which created a lien on his house.”
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The power of media coverage is shown as another national patriotic holiday HOA flag flap unfurls and TV satellite trucks roll into Privatopia.

The Great Disinvestment - NYTimes.com

The Great Disinvestment - NYTimes.com

Paul Krugman on the craziness behind Republicans blocking highway spending: "So the highway issue should be seen as part of the larger craziness of infrastructure policy, in which spending has crashed at a time when by any reasonable criterion we should have been building much more."

Here is some context on this, from Alternet:  "The federal highway trust fund, which pays for a large part of American road construction and maintenance, is almost exhausted. Unless Congress agrees to top up the fund somehow, road work all across the country will have to be scaled back just a few weeks from now. If this were to happen, it would quickly cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs, which might derail  the employment recovery that finally seems to be gaining steam. And it would also reduce long-run economic potential."

Homebuyers Avoiding Chores Fuel U.S. Condo-Hotel Revival - Bloomberg

"Homebuyers Avoiding Chores Fuel U.S. Condo-Hotel Revival - Bloomberg:

"Developers across the U.S. are reviving a concept that collapsed with the real estate crash in 2008: combining condominiums and hotels. In cities including Miami, New York and Los Angeles, a rebounding hospitality market is joining with rising demand for luxury homes, spurring developers to construct new full-service hotels and ask premium prices for residential units associated with a high-end brand."

---------------

Many middle class home buyers don't understand what condos are all about until after they move in.  Rich people, however, generally know exactly what they are getting into, and apparently there is a renewed demand for amenities such as "...a restaurant that can provide room service, a concierge, maintenance, a person that can clean your place, valet parking,” and somebody to slowly lower a bunch of grapes into their mouths while they recline on a divan.

Florida Veteran May Lose Home Over Displayed American Flag, Fined $8,000

Florida Veteran May Lose Home Over Displayed American Flag, Fined $8,000

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There's the offending flag stuck in the flower pot in the latest national HOA flag flap that was literally a federal case until it was removed to the Florida courts. Pettiness seems to know no bounds in Privatopia.

Tempers Flare at Annexation Open House - The Missourian: Washington

Tempers Flare at Annexation Open House - The Missourian: Washington:

"A meeting Wednesday between Meadowlake Farm subdivision residents and city staff to discuss annexation became contentious.
Accusations of lying and intimidation were thrown around and one meeting attendee walked out before City Administrator Jim Briggs finished answering a question...Things got heated nearly 10 minutes into the meeting when Meadowlake resident Dale Volmert called Briggs a “lying son of a buck.” The comment came after Briggs said some Meadowlake residents 20 years ago requested annexation. Briggs said a mention of a petition appeared in a historical article recently in The Missourian."

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Local disputes over annexation can be intense.

Absurd Neighbor Dispute Becomes Front-Page News -- NYMag

Absurd Neighbor Dispute Becomes Front-Page News -- NYMag: According to one neighbor — who was granted anonymity “because she is worried about federal-government reprisals” — “we have this group, overweight, wearing the most ridiculous blue uniforms with the most ridiculous blue caps, and they have guns that are visible.” Meanwhile, their vehicles idle for “approximately 22 minutes daily,” according to an official complaint, and then pull out “speedily … all the while spilling fluid onto the street, which has now left a permanent stain,” against the neighborhood’s explicit “no car fluid stain” rule (seriously).
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Federal Reserve Bank Chair Janet Yellen's security detail gets crosswise with the chief's HOA.

Florida vet says 'Bring it on,' as he faces eviction over flower pot flag | Fox News

Florida vet says 'Bring it on,' as he faces eviction over flower pot flag | Fox News: A Florida veteran who isfacing foreclosure for insisting on displaying a small American flag in a flower pot on his front stoop is telling his homeowner's association to "bring it on."

“The flag is worth fighting for,” 73-year-old Larry Murphree, of Jacksonville, told FoxNews.com Friday. “If they want to foreclose, bring it on. I’m getting calls from all over the county to stand up. That’s what I'm going to do.”

Murphree's homeowners association at Tides Condominium at Sweetwater began hitting him with fines of $100 a day last year for violating his homeowners association’s flag display rules. But instead of paying the fines, Murphree let them pile up - and kept his flag on display. Now he owes more than $8,000, and neither side will budge.
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The latest dispatch in this HOA national flag flap sending TV satellite trucks to Privatopia, Florida sector.

Veteran fights condo homeowners association | News - Home

Veteran fights condo homeowners association | News - Home: Murphree, a veteran, filed a suit last year after the HOA said he couldn't put a small American flag inside a potted plant on his front stoop.

He said the case was settled, and he agreed to display the flag in compliance with the “association documents.”

The flag remained in the flower pot until a few months ago, when Murphree said the HOA came knocking again, telling him the rules had changed.

According to the HOA, homeowners can fly a flag inside a flag pole on the side of the building, but they can't place the flag elsewhere, like inside a potted plant.

Murphree said the association told him to pay $100 a day or take it out.

“They left us no choice,” Murphree said. “We had a federal judge look at it, and he ruled that it should be in state court instead of federal court. We waited to see what they were going to do. (The HOA) put a foreclosure on my house for not paying the dues.”
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Didn't Deep Throat use a flag in a flower pot to signal Bob Woodward to meet him in the parking garage for a Watergate scoop?

Supreme Court Issues Bold Decision On Cell Phone Privacy | ThinkProgress

Supreme Court Issues Bold Decision On Cell Phone Privacy | ThinkProgress:



"[W]hen police arrest someone carrying a cell phone, does that arrest give law enforcement license to cull through the device and access whatever information they choose?
The answer, according to a nearly unanimous opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, is no. “Cell phones,” Roberts explained, “place vast quantities of personal information literally in the hands of individuals. A search of the information on a cell phone bears little resemblance to the type of brief physical search” authorized by previous cases.
As Roberts lays out, few of the traditional justifications for a search incident to arrest authorize a full search of a suspect’s cell phone."

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Police across the nation routinely do this as part of their "search incident to arrest." It is a bogus justification, and the Supreme Court just shut them down.  Establish probable cause, go to a judge, and get a warrant if you want to do a search!

Nearly Half Of Detroit Water Customers Can’t Pay Their Bill CBS Detroit

Nearly Half Of Detroit Water Customers Can’t Pay Their Bill  CBS Detroit:



"It’s a basic human right: water. But could the United Nations soon help the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department provide the service to struggling customers?
Water department spokeswoman Curtrise Garner says it’s a possibility — but for now, the water bills must be paid."

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I agree that access to clean water should be a basic human right, but the huge corporations, such as Nestle, that are gobbling up the world's drinkable water sources and privatizing them don't see it that way. They see water as just another consumer product that people should have to pay for at a rate several hundred times higher than what they are currently paying to regulated utilities and government water companies. It's a natural for the privatization industry.  What could be more profitable than a monopoly stranglehold on a necessity?

Vietnam Airlines proposes privatization plan | Business | Thanh Nien Daily

Vietnam Airlines proposes privatization plan | Business | Thanh Nien Daily:



"State-owned Vietnam Airlines plans to sell 25 percent of its share capital this year, according to the privatization plan it recently submitted to the Ministry of Transport."

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Remember Vietnam?  The country that we were going to save from communism by destroying it, killing a million of its people, and losing almost 60,000 of our own soldiers in the process?  Well, after they kicked us out, they eventually found their own way to a mixed economy.  As the CIA Factbook explains,



"Vietnam is a densely-populated developing country that has been transitioning from the rigidities of a centrally-planned economy since 1986. Vietnamese authorities have reaffirmed their commitment to economic modernization in recent years. Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization in January 2007, which has promoted more competitive, export-driven industries. Vietnam became an official negotiating partner in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement in 2010. Agriculture's share of economic output has continued to shrink from about 25% in 2000 to less than 20% in 2013, while industry's share increased from 36% to more than 42% in the same period. State-owned enterprises account for about 40% of GDP. Poverty has declined significantly, and Vietnam is working to create jobs to meet the challenge of a labor force that is growing by more than one million people every year." 



What does this mean?  The US invasion of Vietnam was the worst foreign policy blunder of the Cold War.  The only worse foreign policy decision in the last 150 years was the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The people who bullied us into the Vietnam war with their "domino theory" lies were horribly wrong, as were the criminals who sent us into Iraq based on lies about terrorism and WMDs.  And now we are hearing the same sort of people, and in some cases the very same people, making the same insane arguments to attack, bomb, invade, and occupy -- again, and again, and again.  There will always be a substantial minority of the population that is susceptible to being scared into sending our young people off to die or be maimed in a foreign country--ultimately, for nothing.  But is there a point where the majority decide that they have had enough, and won't be fooled again?