Dallas officer delayed NFL player as relative died

A police officer was placed on administrative leave Thursday over a traffic stop involving an NFL player whom he kept in a hospital parking lot and threatened to arrest while his mother-in-law died inside the building.

Officer Robert Powell also drew ...

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[Source: Ron Paul forum - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

First Black President to Reinstate Slavery?

First Black President to Reinstate Slavery?
When tyrants want to take the next big step towards
totalitarianism, they usually toss out some “trial balloons,” both
to see how people react and to begin desensitizing people to the
new fascist agenda. If they’re smart, they first propose a big leap
toward totalitarianism, and then cut it back to a small step. [...]


Related posts:

1. H.R.393 - Mandatory civil service - Reinstate the Draft
2. First President In History To Veto Benefits For Vets
3. Black Hole Alert: AIG to Get as Much as $30 Billion More

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[Source: War On You: Breaking Alternative News - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

Bright Spots on the Foreclosure Front?

Amid the gloom and doom of the foreclosure crisis, there’s the state of Nebraska.

In the last three months, nearly 870,000 homes throughout the country have entered some stage of the foreclosure process, 29% more than the same period a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac. But in Nebraska, the cornfield-strewn homeland of Warren Buffett, filings are down 91%.

In fact, Nebraska has only recorded 90 foreclosure filings in the past three months. To put that in perspective, that’s one in every 8,676 households. Nevada, which tops the nation’s foreclosure charts (it logged 45,266 filings in the last three months), has seen one foreclosure per every 24 households.

Nebraska isn't the only place where foreclosures appear to be stemming. RealtyTrac’s latest data show a decrease in foreclosure filings in 16 states, including Montana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Mexico and Colorado, which have all seen foreclosures filings fall by 30% or more. (See our table below for more information.)

So does this mean things are turning around?

Sadly, this trend may be short-lived, says Erin Smith, senior economist with Moody’s Economy.com. Employment in these areas is starting to weaken and you can’t have a strong housing market when unemployment is rising. “We’re forecasting that while foreclosure rates are performing better in these regions, the gap will shrink,” he says. “I wouldn’t expect these states to be outperforming a year from now.”

Many of these states are bucking the foreclosure trend thanks to their relatively stable labor markets. In Nebraska, for example, the unemployment rate in January was 4.3%, up from 3.9% in December 2008, but still low compared with a 7.6% national average for that month. The major industries in the region — mining, manufacturing and construction — have so far held up.

Even construction has remained strong thanks to the region’s relatively mild real estate price declines, says Smith. Nebraska didn't see the wild housing price appreciation brought on by speculators in Florida and Nevada, for example, so it hasn’t had severe price declines.

Between 2002 and 2006, the median price of existing single-family homes in Omaha, Neb., went up just 13%, according to the National Association of Realtors. Between 2006 and 2008, prices declined just 2%. Contrast this to the Miami Beach/ Ft. Lauderdale metro area, where prices jumped 93% between 2002 and 2006 and have dropped 23% since. (All data are as of year-end 2008.)

Local and community banks also remain fairly healthy in regions that didn’t go through these boom-and-bust cycles, so they've been able to continue lending to homeowners, Smith says.

The foreclosure numbers can also be a little deceiving. The decline in foreclosure rates in some states is simply caused by backlogs in the court systems, says Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac. In New Jersey, for example, foreclosure filings per household were down 74% in February, compared with February 2008, even though the housing situation there isn’t getting any better.

The big surprise in February, in fact, was that foreclosure filings continued to increase overall, despite the foreclosure freezes that the big banks unilaterally implemented last month in anticipation of President Obama’s housing rescue plan. “When you have all these big players agreeing to a freeze, it’s surprising to see an increase,” Sharga says. “And one that pushed February to be the third-highest month [in foreclosure filings] so far.”

A sign, perhaps, that the foreclosure tide has been too strong to contain -- no matter what the government tries to put in place to stop it.

Bucking the Foreclosure Trend

These states have seen foreclosure filings over the past three months decline fairly significantly year over year. But just how long can these positive figures last?

State	Total foreclosure filings Dec 08 - Jan 09	Filings per household	% Change from year ago
Source: RealtyTrac.
Nebraska	90	8676	-91
Montana	141	3089	-67
Massachusetts	10221	266	-36
North Carolina	6999	589	-34
New Mexico	903	955	-30
Colorado	13861	153	-30
New York	10623	747	-28
Texas	29776	317	-24
Connecticut	5931	243	-22
District of Columbia	888	320	-20
Oklahoma	3273	496	-17
Tennessee	11237	242	-13
New Jersey	12149	288	-13
Missouri	8873	298	-11
Indiana	13733	202	-5
Ohio	33690	150	-4

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[Source: SmartMoney.com - Consumer Action - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

Pulp friction

Tensions on the border between Argentina and Uruguay

Uruguay and Argentina have argued over a huge new cellulose mill on the Uruguayan side of the river that divides the two countries since late 2006. Now, an industrial accident—a gaseous explosion in the piping of the polemical Botnia plant in Fray Bento, Uruguay on February 27th—has fuelled the dispute anew.

No victims were reported but the explosion was heard throughout the town and across the river in Argentina, and a foul odour covered the plant’s immediate surroundings. Company officials say the accident will have no environmental impact. Yet Argentinian environmentalists who have tried to derail the Finnish investment project for three years will now have new ammunition. ...

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[Source: The Economist: News analysis - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

Revealed: 15 AIG bailout counterparties

Donald Kohn, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, learned this week about blackmail, Senate style, when he refused to disclose the names of financial institutions benefiting from the bailout of American International Group.Bookmark and Share More »Powered by Bookmarkify™

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[Source: Mint Dollar - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

Extortion! The Real Reason for War and Depression

Extortion! The Real Reason for War and Depression
    * by Henry Makow Ph.D.

         ""Woe unto those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness"... Isaiah 5:20

      "The individual is handicapped by com...

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[Source: Ron Paul forum - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

Israel Created Hamas to Split Palestine

Israel’s False Flag Operations Know No BoundsOne thing that truly made me ill while perusing the photos of the world-wide anti-Israel protests in the last few days is the repeated use of Hamas flags/posters, as if Hamas is somehow fighting for the freedom of the Palestinians. Give me a god damn break…For those unaware, Fatah [...]

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[Source: Mint Dollar