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Payback! Hundreds of homeowners associations threaten banks with foreclosure

Laura Gottesdiener
AlterNet
Wed, 26 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
Foreclosure Notice
© AlterNet
It's payback time - literally. In Florida, hundreds of homeowner and neighborhood associations are foreclosing on banks that have failed to upkeep their repossessed properties, according to - of all things - a CNN Money report.

Florida is one of the states hardest hit by foreclosures, and there are nearly a half-million foreclosed houses now standing vacant and often slowly deteriorating. When a bank forecloses on a house, evicts the family and then repossesses the property, it also assumes responsibility for maintaining the home and yard and paying homeowner or condo association fees.

Yet, some of the nation's largest and richest banks have been unable or unwilling to upkeep their properties - prompting neighbors across Florida to declare enough is enough.

One Miami lawyer, Ben Solomon, has filed more than 1,000 liens against banks for failing to maintain their properties or pay their homeowner association fees. And when the recalcitrant banks don't comply, Solomon slaps them with a foreclosure notice - 131 thus far.

The push to hold banks accountable for their properties isn't simply sweet justice against the world's worst neighbors. Unmaintained properties create a host of problems for the surrounding neighborhood - problems that Bank of America, JP Morgan, U.S. Bank and other major Wall Street institutions are going to have to start dealing with if they want to continue foreclosing on and repossessing millions of homes across the United States.
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Eye 1

Near a quarter of U.S. female combatants report being sexually assaulted


Russia Today
Thu, 27 Dec 2012 19:57 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Files / Patrick Baz
Almost half of all US women deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan say they were sexually harassed, while nearly one-quarter claim they were sexually assaulted. The findings shed light on the additional stress military women face when they work abroad.

Research by the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that sexual misconduct is a much greater problem than previously believed, since the Pentagon asserts that few reports were filed alleging sexual assault.

Only 115 such reports were filed in 2011, even though about 20,000 women were serving in Afghanistan in February. One of the study's lead researchers, Amy Street, believes the data demonstrates an emotional cost of war that has hardly been considered.

The "lion's share of the attention... has focused on combat exposure," she told USA Today.

Of the 1,100 women who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and were surveyed by Street's team, 48.6 percent admitted to being sexually harassed and 22.8 percent admitted to being sexually assaulted - and in some cases raped - while serving in a war zone.
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Red Flag

High voter turnout does not imply a healthy democracy! Consider German elections resulting in Nazi dictatorship

Simon Maloy
Media Matters
Thu, 20 Dec 2012 09:31 UTC
e-voting machine
George Will argues in his Washington Post column today that what he terms the Justice Department's "drive to federalize voter registration" is an unnecessarily complex answer to "the non-problem of people choosing not to vote," and that high voter turnout isn't all it's cracked up to be, citing the German elections of the early 1930s that resulted in Nazi dictatorship.

Describing "obvious reasons for non-voting," he writes:
[T]he stakes of politics are agreeably low because constitutional rights and other essential elements of happiness are not menaced by elections. Those who think high voter turnout indicates civic health should note that in three German elections, 1932-33, turnout averaged more than 86 percent, reflecting the terrible stakes: The elections decided which mobs would rule the streets and who would inhabit concentration camps.
There's a lot to unpack here, but I'll try to keep it brief. Germany in the early 1930s was reeling from the global depression, increasingly bitter over the outcome of World War I and the punitive terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and overrun by extremist parties with their own paramilitary wings brawling in the streets and shooting at each other outside political rallies. Anti-Semitism was widespread, everyone hated the Weimar government, and nostalgia for the heady days of the Kaiser led most people to actually yearn for a dictatorship of some form. And in this toxic political environment, the Nazis managed to prevail over the other extremist groups -- largely due to popular support, but also through conspiracy and outright intimidation.

Comment: What difference does it ultimately make if the election results can be manipulated by the PTB?
US Voting System is a Complete Farce: Why It's Impossible to have a Legitimate Election
Your Vote Doesn't Count...
Evidence of electronic vote fraud pours in from both liberal and conservative sources

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Pistol

Conservative media gun advocates pushing for teachers to be armed

Solange Uwimana
Media Matters
Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:18 UTC
Conservative media are calling on teachers to be armed in response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, even as law enforcement experts, educators, and others argue that bringing guns into schools would make classrooms more dangerous. This advice comes on the heels of legislation being considered by Republicans in at least six states that would allow or require teachers and staff to carry guns.

On December 14, a lone gunman killed 26 people, among them 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, before shooting and killing himself.

During a segment on the tragedy, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade dismissed arguments for gun control, saying that he favors "hardening the target and maybe arming the teachers" as a way to avert such massacres in the future. He also advocated for the hiring of retired law enforcement and military to police school halls.

Co-host Steve Doocy pointed to a school in Harrold, Texas, whose teachers carry concealed weapons to suggest that such a program would work well at other schools.

When co-host Gretchen Carlson dissented, saying she worries about what the consequences would be for children to grow up in a culture in which people are armed, Kilmeade stated: "They're in that culture." He added: "The reality is there's school shootings and I want my kid to get out alive."
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Question

Baby names predictions for 2013 - 5 trends that will shock you


PR Newswire
Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:54 UTC
PR Newswire Logo
© PR Newswire
One might think that we have seen it all - last year brought a lot of outrageous baby names. It would appear this is only the tip of the iceberg though, as 2013 is shaping up to be the year that pushes the boundaries of what was previously considered "normal." As parents strive for that distinctive name, social baby naming website, Belly Ballot (more here), is predicting some shocking New Year's trends. The site collects real-time data on what names parents are selecting from around the globe. Based on naming data from over 1,000 parents on the site, along with 10,000 votes from their friends and family, the site has released the following predictions for the new year:

1) Tech Inspired Names - One the heels of baby Hashtag, we expect people to continue this trend with more technology inspired names. Think Tweet, Android, and Kindle. We are a technology crazed world and people are carrying this trend over into the most intimate aspects of their lives, including naming their babies. Here comes little iMac.

2) Multiple Names - As the pressure mounts in baby naming, parents are trying to create that one unique name and they are finding themselves having a hard time choosing just one. So why not pick two, or three names. Or like Uma Thurman, five! She recently announced her baby girl's name, Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson. Parents are no longer limiting themselves to a first and middle name, but adding as many names as they like. They might want to save a couple for their next children.
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Eye 1

Parents ordered by court to quit stalking their daughter

Kimball Perry
cincinnati.com
Thu, 27 Dec 2012 13:04 UTC
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Fighting back: Aubrey Ireland, a musical theater student, has won a stalking order against her parents
Aubrey Ireland had so much going for her. A senior in the prestigious College-Conservatory of Music, she had supportive parents who wanted her to excel in her music and acting career, so much so that they paid her tuition to University of Cincinnati even though she was offered full scholarships to other schools.

That relationship, though, devolved to the point where the 21-year-old senior sought and won, in an unusual court case, a stalking order against her parents.

"It's just been really embarrassing and upsetting to have my parents come to my university when I'm a grown adult and just basically slander my name and follow me around," Aubrey Ireland said in an Oct. 9 court hearing.

Despite her good grades and success in musical shows, David and Julie Ireland often drove 600 miles from Leawood, Kan., to visit their daughter unannounced. They accused her of using illegal drugs, promiscuity and suffering from mental woes. She insisted none of that was true and asked them to stop, but their accusations escalated. They informed her department head she had mental issues that could force them to go to court to have her treated.

The parents knew about what they saw as their daughter's problems because, they admit, they installed monitoring software on her laptop and cellphone, allowing them to see her every keystroke and phone number dialed or received. It was "like I was a dog with a collar on," said the daughter, a dean's list student every quarter.

The parents became such an issue that the school hired security guards to keep them out of their daughter's performances. When the parents stopped paying her tuition because she'd cut off all contact with them, the school gave her a full scholarship for her final year.
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Target

Boss burned to death by hundreds of Indian tea workers


Independent
Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:52 UTC
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Hundreds of Indian tea estate workers surrounded a plantation owner's home and set it on fire, killing him and his wife, police say.

Around 1,000 workers at the privately-owned M.K.B. Tea Estate attacked the plantation owner's bungalow on Wednesday and set it on fire in violence blamed on festering labour unrest in the tea-growing region, police said.

Mridul Bhattacharya and his wife Rita were burned to death as workers armed with home-made weapons prevented police from rescuing them, they said.

"The body of the planter was charred beyond recognition and reduced to ashes while the body of the wife was found lying in the kitchen," local police officer A. Das told AFP by telephone.

The grisly attack occurred in Assam's tea-growing Tinsukia district, some 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of the state's main city of Guwahati.
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Heart - Black

Miami man 'fighting for life' following Christmas torching

Christina Nag
ABC News
Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:37 UTC
Image
© Courtesy Brackett FamilyDarrell Brackett, 44, was doused with gasoline and set on fire on Dec. 25, 2012 in Miami, Fla.
A Florida man is fighting for his life after being doused with gasoline and set on fire on Christmas in a horrific attack that has baffled police.

Darrell Brackett, 44, was driving with his girlfriend at 11:30 p.m. in Miami when his car ran out of gas and he walked to a nearby U-Gas station to fill up a can of gas. He told his girlfriend to wait for him in the car.

After leaving the station, "witnesses reported that they saw him running in the middle of the street on fire," Miami-Dade Police said in a statement.

Brackett's mother Bridgett Brackett said she has been told that her son was surrounded by three men who "doused him with gas and set him on fire."

"It's heartbreaking. It's horrendous," Bridgett Brackett told ABCNews.com. "I would never imagine that this would happen to my son."

An unidentified woman who was passing by spotted Brackett and helped him roll around in the sand and dirt near the road to put the fire out.

"If she hadn't done that, he would have burned to death," his mother said.
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Nuke

American sailors sue Tepco for lying about Fukushima - on the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan for rescue work


WashingtonBlog.com
Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:05 UTC
Preface: Before you get too mad at the Japanese, remember that the U.S. government and nuclear industry are just as bad. And America is largely dictating Japanese nuclear policy.

Courthouse News Service reports:

Eight crew members of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, whose home port is San Diego, sued the Tokyo Electric Power Co. in Federal Court.

They claim the utility company, "a wholly owned public benefit subsidiary of the government of Japan," misrepresented radiation levels to lull the U.S. Navy "into a false sense of security."

Lead plaintiff Lindsay R. Cooper claims Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) intentionally concealed the dangerous levels of radiation in the environment from U.S. Navy rescue crews working off the coast of Japan after the March 10, 2011 earthquake and tsunami set off the nuclear disaster.

"TEPCO pursued a policy to cause rescuers, including the plaintiffs, to rush into an unsafe area which was too close to the FNPP [Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant] that had been damaged. Relying upon the misrepresentations regarding health and safety made by TEPCO ... the U.S. Navy was lulled into a false sense of security," the complaint states.

***
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Die

Man who bet his friends he could eat 30 raw eggs in a row lost his life


Daijiworld.com
Thu, 27 Dec 2012 10:57 UTC
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A 20-year-old resident of Tunisia died shortly after eating 28 raw eggs for a bet, Tunisia's Shems FM radio station reported Wednesday.

Dhaou Fatnassi from El Baten, a settlement near the northeastern city of Kairouan, bet with a group of his friends that he would be able to eat 30 raw eggs for an undisclosed sum of money.

"Doctors were called in after the young man felt strong stomach pains, but he died before medical assistance could reach him," the radio said.
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