Free Republic

In the community of Shady Grove Woods, trees are becoming more and more scarce. Residents and other anti-Intercounty Connector activists marched through the neighborhood on Saturday, pointing out the trees that were cut down to make way for the six-lane highway. ‘‘It’s just that we didn’t have a say in it in so many ways and we’re not talking about a two-lane road, we’re talking about a major highway running through here,” resident Sam Chim said of the ICC. ‘‘We have a lot of nice, private woods back here and now we’re going to have a highway running through instead....

NEW YORK (AP) — Giving a peek at a broader economic plan, Sen. John McCain is calling for federal aid for well-meaning homeowners with what he called "burdensome mortgages." "There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream to own your home," the likely GOP presidential nominee said in remarks prepared for a roundtable discussion Thursday at Windows We Are Inc. in Brooklyn. "And priority No. 1 is to keep well-meaning, deserving home owners who are facing foreclosure in their homes," the Arizona senator said. McCain on Thursday proposed a plan to offer deserving people the chance to...

Federal Reserve Report Shows Homeowner Equity Dipping Below 50 Percent, Lowest on Record NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans' percentage of equity in their homes has fallen below 50 percent for the first time on record since 1945, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. Homeowners' percentage of equity slipped to a revised lower 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...

AUSTIN – Texas homeowners still pay far more for insurance than those in any other state, even after the overhaul passed by the Legislature four years ago that was supposed to lower rates. A new study from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners showed that the average annual premium in Texas for the most common homeowner policy was $1,372 a year, considerably more than the nationwide average of $764. Louisiana was the second-highest at $1,144 and Florida was third at $1,083. The premiums in all other states were less than $1,000.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, suggested Sunday that a tax break or other government financial help for homeowners facing the mortgage crunch would be the best political fix for the economy. He cautioned against meddling with home prices or interest rates to address the housing problem. Greenspan did not specifically call for a tax cut. Instead, he called for the government to apply money to the severe housing market slump. Such a cash infusion would typically come through a tax break or a new government spending program. "Cash is available and we should use...

For Immediate ReleaseDecember 7, 2007 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio  En Español       Fact Sheet: Helping American Families Keep Their Homes      In Focus: Homeownership THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today I want to talk to you about some important policies affecting taxpayers and homeowners this holiday season. On Thursday, the United States Senate passed a bill to fix the alternative minimum tax, or AMT. The AMT was designed to ensure that the wealthy paid their fair share of taxes. But when Congress passed the AMT decades ago, it was not indexed for inflation. As a result, the AMT's higher tax...

<p>The last politician who took advice from the bond market was Bill Clinton. When he pushed for a tax hike back in 1993 to cut the budget deficit, it was under the assumption that bond investors would respond by bringing down interest rates. (The theory here is that deficits are inflationary. Inflation is bad for bonds.) Yet long-term interest rates surged from 6.45 percent when Clinton signed his tax-hike bill on Aug. 10, 1993, to 8.16 percent on Nov. 7, 1994, the day before the midterm congressional election where Republicans won back the House and Senate.</p>

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- As the carnage widens from the subprime mortgage meltdown, Democratic presidential candidates are putting more emphasis on the plight of homeowners and calls for more regulation rather than on investors and falling financial markets.

CLAREMONT - There will not be a sequel to the mini-scandal known in some circles as "Flag-gate." Claraboya residents, many of whom were engaged in a fierce neighborhood dispute over tiny American flags during last year's Fourth of July season, have pledged to behave themselves this year. Tom and Nancy Telford, the two neighborhood real estate agents who planted flags last year in their neighbors' front yards with Nancy Telford's business card attached, left off the business cards this year, and mailed out a postcard to their neighbors giving them an advance opportunity to decline a flag. Last year, after...

Florida Senate Democrats have crafted a tax reform plan that would boost taxes for homesteaders, while cutting taxes for commercial property and second-home owners.

A 50-year-old principal was found naked in his school office while watching gay pornography on Tuesday, according to sources. Sex toys were found nearby, the sources added. Police said John Acerra was a longtime teacher and principal in the Bethlehem Area School District, but was also allegedly selling crystal meth out of his school office. Acerra, of Allentown, was the principal of Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem, and was arrested minutes after he arranged to sell the notoriously addictive drug to a police informant, according to investigators. Police arrived and found meth and drug paraphernalia on his desk, according to...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A Louisiana federal judge has ruled many New Orleans homeowners whose houses sustained water damage after Hurricane Katrina are not excluded from coverage under their insurance policies, a judgment that represents a loss for the insurance industry. In an 85-page judgment, U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval denied motions by some insurers seeking to stop policyholders from receiving claims they said were prevented by exclusion language spelled out in the policies. The insurance companies argued the industry standard wording for what constitutes a flood covers any inundation of dry land by water. But in his decision,...

We have complained repeatedly about the media's use of the term "secret prisons." The phrase was used by Dana Priest in a Pulitzer Prize-winning story to refer to places where suspected terrorist were briefly held. She compared them to the Soviet gulags. But President Bush has never confirmed their existence, and spokesman Tony Snow has made a point of saying that administration officials don't use that term when talking about the one-time secret CIA program of interrogating al-Qaeda terrorists. I think it's important to report what people actually say, and what has been confirmed, rather than what the media want...

Work with lender as soon as possible to avoid owing more than your house is worth. Sunday, November 12, 2006 In the next couple of years, a combination of rising mortgage interest rates and falling or slow-growing home value could plunge thousands of homeowners underwater. Being underwater means owing more than the house is worth. It's an especially risky situation for people with interest-only mortgages and pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages because they don't build equity unless they choose to. Some might be able to refinance or get through hard times by living frugally. Others will have to sell their houses. Still...

POMPANO BEACH, Fla., May 4, 2006 – Nearly 60 sailors worked to help take future homeowners' dreams one step closer to reality here yesterday. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class John Mcinnis, a damage controlman aboard the USCG Cutter Elm, works with servicemembers from his ship and others to roof a house for Habitat for Humanity of Broward County, Fla. Servicemembers began working with Habitat May 1, and were to complete their participation May 4. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The sailors are assigned to various U.S. and Canadian military ships temporarily ported...

BURBANK – Chris James needed help moving a piano and three dozen boxes of records from his music studio, but instead of corralling some buddies he rented a truck and hired day laborers outside the local Home Depot. The two Guatemalan men finished the job in an hour and a half, hauling a piano and wedging a sofa into his condo, then stacking the boxes in a back room, for less than $40. It was first time James hired day laborers but it won't be his last. “Absolutely satisfied,” said James, 31. The No. 1 employers of day laborers, many...

"Where Judgeds Go When They Need A Real Advantage........Upon attending hearing of August 11, with Judge George Kreeger on an Emergency Ordor of a Motion to declare Judge Fudger's Order Void, due to his obvious lack of jurisdiction, we learned a new chapter........Violence begets violence. When the former Head of the Ga Republican Party's Law Firm targets a small family, .......... District Attorney Patrick Head, refused to meet with citizens when summoned twice. Could it be, DA head having met with Clerk....lack of Jurisdiction?

TAMPA - Before David Kelley went to Iraq, he bought his wife a "Support Our Troops" sign to display outside the couple's home in the Westchase subdivision. When Kelley, an Army private, went overseas in November, Stacey Kelley posted the sign outside their home. For her, the sign is a daily reminder of the sacrifice her husband and fellow soldiers are making. But officials of Westchase, in northwest Hillsborough County, view the sign differently. They say the 2-foot-high sign violates community rules. Stacey Kelley, 24, received a letter from the homeowners association last month stating she could be fined $100...

A Missouri couple say they were denied an occupancy permit for their new home because they're not married. Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving have been together for 13 years and have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The couple are appealing the occupancy permit denial from the Black Jack, Mo., board of adjustment, which requires people living together to have blood, marriage or adoption ties. Loving is not the father of Shelltrack's oldest child. I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than...

CLEARWATER - Policyholders covered by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. pleaded with state regulators Thursday night to reject the company's proposed rate increase, saying it will force them to sell their homes. "I'm sick to my stomach," Pasco County resident Meghan Hulbert told officials of the state Office of Insurance Regulation at a public hearing on the rate increase. "I'm a single mom, and I may have to give up my home." Officials of Citizens, the state's insurer of last resort, said they are concerned about the rising rates. But they said it was a reality that Florida residents may have...