Free Republic

Troubles of Brookfield DTLA show how some office-sector bets are starting to unravel ... A major Los Angeles office owner operated by Brookfield Asset Management is struggling to make mortgage payments as vacancies and rising interest rates disrupt the city’s commercial real-estate market. The company, known as Brookfield DTLA Fund Office Trust Investor Inc., owns six Los Angeles office buildings and a retail center. Five of the office buildings face the risk of foreclosure, according to its public filings, and at least two of its mortgages are in default. The company on April 21 filed to delist from the New...

The two authors [Dylan Bennett of the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha and University of Washington Ph.D. candidate Hannah Walker] construct their argument calling Walker a racist by observing that the city of Milwaukee is home to the largest concentration of black people in Milwaukee. As in many metropolitan areas, many of the suburbs surrounding Milwaukee “such as Brookfield and Waukesha” are chockablock with white residents. Thus, the white scholars contend, any effort to reduce the scope of government is racist even if — especially if — proponents of limited government never use any overtly racist language. “Governor Walker engages a strong,...

A 58-year-old Brookfield woman charged by Riverside police Friday for driving under the influence said she had been out celebrating the imminent return of her driver’s license from an earlier drunk driving conviction. According to a news release from the Riverside Police Department, Erin James, 58, was charged after she was stopped for speeding at 2:10 a.m. Friday in the 3400 block of South Harlem Avenue. The release said that when she later underwent a breath test at the department, her blood alcohol level was 0.155 percent; the legal limit is 0.08. **SNIP** James is scheduled to appear in Central...

Below is an email from Mary Magnuson, a MoveOn member in Brookfield, Wisconsin, who created a petition on SignOn.org, the nonprofit site that allows anyone to start their own online petition. If you have concerns or feedback about this petition, click here. Dear MoveOn member, As a Wisconsin progressive working day and night for the recall of Scott Walker, I'm shocked: The Democratic National Committee still isn't giving financial support to the recall fight in Wisconsin. After more than a year of grassroots efforts, Wisconsin citizens have accomplished more than anyone thought possible. We now have a Democratic challenger to...

The National Lawyers Guild says it has obtained a court that allows Occupy Wall St. protesters to return with tents to a New York City park. The guild says the injunction prevents the city from enforcing park rules on Occupy Wall Street protesters. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city knew about the court order but has not seen it. He says the city plans to go court immediately.

Mayor Bloomberg said by Occupy Wall Street protesters not reporting crimes in Zuccotti Park, they were “allowing the criminal to strike again.” Mayor Bloomberg ripped into Occupy Wall Street protesters on Thursday for not reporting crimes at Zuccotti Park - calling their inaction "despicable." Bloomberg said the demonstrators have a practice of surrounding a troublemaker and then evicting them from the park instead of calling the NYPD. "If this is in fact happening - and it's very hard to get good information - it is despicable," the infuriated mayor said. "I think it is outrageous and it really allows the...

Mike Bloomberg's girlfriend Diana Taylor happens to sit on the board of directors of Brookfield Office Properties, the company that owns Zuccotti Park. This has raised some eyebrows, given Brookfield's tense relationship with the protesters occupying its property and the way the mayor and the company have gone back and forth over their eviction. But Bloomberg says he and Taylor don't talk about Brookfield. More specifically, he told the AP that "I can tell you that pillow talk in our house is not about Occupy Wall Street or Brookfield Properties." Pillow talk! Noooo. The pillow talk of the 70-year-old Bloomberg...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

Heard it on Rush.Somebody duct tape my head, please.

It’s been a bit of a puzzle as to why the owners of Zuccotti Park that the Occupy Wall Street gang has taken over have allowed them to stay. They’re angering residents and pretty much stinking up the place. The owners have mentioned that the park is normally cleaned every night, but they have not been able to clean it in three weeks. Sanitation was “becoming an issue” a few days ago. Lord knows what it’s like now, I hear it’s pretty bad. Could the fact that the parent company of Brookfield Properties received a “green energy” loan guarantee from...

The Occupy Wall Street protesters who have taken up residence at Zuccotti Park for the past three weeks may temporarily have to find new digs Friday when crews plan to enter and clean the park. The owner of the park, Brookfield Properties, will be dispatching cleaning crews there, said Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway. Holloway said Brookfield wrote a letter to the city expressing concerns over the upkeep of the park and maintaining it in a "condition fit for public use." "The last three weeks have created unsanitary conditions and considerable wear and tear on the park," said Holloway....

'Green' firm with White House ties lined up to get massive guaranteeThe sister-in-law of John Podesta, President Obama's influential White House transition director, served as the lobbyist for a wind power firm that was just awarded a $135.8 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.The company is Brookfield Asset Management. It boasts a board of nine directors, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's long-term girlfriend. The Energy Department's promise to Brookfield marks the latest in controversial massive alternative energy loans to companies with strong ties to the Obama White House and to top Democrat lawmakers....Since 2009, Brookfield has been...

(This info was developed and originally posted by chatteringclassof58. The original post was deleted. This is an edited version of the material.) Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camped out in and trashing Zuccotti Park for weeks. Zuccotti Park is a very nice private park, right in the middle of Manhattan. Zuccotti Park is owned by Brookfield Office Properties, which is part of Brookfield Asset Management, worth at least $150 billion. Brookfield Office Properties Mayor Bloomberg has said he can do nothing about the protest unless the park owners (Brookfield Properties) ask the protesters to be evicted. Brookfield issued a...

HANOVER, N.H. — Barely 48 hours before nine Republican presidential hopefuls are scheduled to debate at Dartmouth College, signs began appearing on campus Sunday evening announcing a demonstration in support of the Occupy Wall Street protests. A “Students Stand With Staff” organization with ties to the Service Employees International Union is organizing the event. The group plans to hold its rally on the center of campus during the four hours immediately preceding Tuesday evening’s high-profile debate. Sterling Beard, a senior at the college and editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review, a conservative campus newspaper, told The Daily Caller that organized labor’s...

The Obama administration engaged in a pattern of approving loans that were not qualified to receive taxpayer money, according to one Republican House chairman who says the development is as disturbing as the potential loss of billions of dollars in investments. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Relations Committee, said Sunday that the administration's approval of a loan guarantee for solar power company Solyndra -- which went belly up shortly after a half-billion dollar investment by the federal government -- is just one example of a "breach of protocol" in approving loans. Issa said the...

The Milwaukee woman who wore her gun to services at a Brookfield church in July has sued the city and four officers involved in her arrest, the latest in a growing number of court challenges by Wisconsin gun rights advocates. Krysta Sutterfield had not created any disturbance at the Unitarian Universalist Church but was stopped as she was driving away, detained at gunpoint, searched, arrested, booked and released. Police recommended a citation for unlawfully transporting her gun in the car, but Waukesha District Attorney Brad Schimel declined to issue any charges. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Milwaukee federal court, contends...

New Berlin, WI -(Ammoland.com)- Our member who has been a victim of violent crime in the past openly carries a sidearm for personal protection as Wisconsin law allows. On July 4th she was attending church services in Brookfield, WI. After the service, a church member called the non-emergency number of the Brookfield Police Department to inquire as to the legality of open-carry. Brookfield Police responded to the call by sending several officers/squads to the church. On the way to the church the officers were made aware by the dispatcher that our member was not being threatening or creating a disturbance....

TONIGHT: Tuesday, March 22, 2004 10:00 p.m. Central Time (Milwaukee area)TITLE: "INSIDE THE LIVING CHURCH OF GOD" Inside the Living Church of God Tonight at live at 10:00,what really goes on inside The Living Church of God? A warning from former members, new tonight live at 10:00 on TODAY'S TMJ4.WTMJ TV investigative news reporter has done some in-depth investigation of the sect (mainline Christian denominations refer to it as a 'cult') which was the site, in a Brookfield, Wisconsin hotel, of a mass shooting by Living Church of God church member Terry Ratzmann earlier this month.Bump for those in...

Terry Ratzmann was laid to rest quietly Friday, at a private service emphasizing forgiveness and attended by a few dozen fellow church members, including some survivors of his shooting rampage. About half of the 75 people who attended were from the local Living Church of God congregation that Ratzmann sprayed with bullets just six days earlier before taking his own life. The rest in attendance Friday were Ratzmann family members, including his mother and two sisters, said Thomas Geiger, a member and spokesman for the local congregation. ... Despite the havoc the 44-year-old Ratzmann wreaked on his congregation, Geiger said,...

Investigators probing the massacre of seven people during a church service outside Milwaukee focused on the gunman's apparent anger with the church and brought in experts to break into his encrypted computer files, authorities said Tuesday. "All we know is he was very upset with the church, either with church generally or a portion of the church or a sermon," said Waukesha (Wis.) County District Atty. Paul Bucher. "We've ruled out everything else." Terry Ratzmann, 44, of New Berlin, Wis., shot and killed himself after the weekend rampage at a Living Church of God service at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield...