| Seizing of homes too easy in Md.
When you sue a Marylander for a couple of thousand dollars, he must receive personal notice, a courtroom trial and ample opportunity to appeal. But when you foreclose on his home, none of those bothersome technicalities apply. What kind of system is that? Lenders are seizing thousands of Maryland houses because owners can't or won't make payments. Many of these cases involve weird mortgages whose monthly obligations rise over time. This is not to excuse borrowers' duty to learn about loans and stay current. Many proposed reforms could go too far to protect irresponsible borrowers, which would unnecessarily increase loan costs for everybody. But the protections for somebody faced with losing a house should be at least as high as those for somebody who gets sued over a plumbers' bill or a bar bet.
Pennsylvania's slot machines the richest of the East
But usage can be so heavy that gamblers must wait for the most popular versions. At the busiest casinos, such as Mohegan Sun near Wilkes-Barre, some patrons avoid gambling during peak hours -- after 3 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Analysts say the demand is good -- and understandable -- given the state's young and rapidly growing gambling industry. In just over a year of operations, slots income has exceeded expectations, and this year will yield lower property tax rates statewide.
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Editorial: Cutting Debt
For 22 years, Nick Yarris sat on death row in Pennsylvania for the rape and murder of a Delaware County woman. Yarris would have died in prison if not for a DNA test that showed he wasn't the rapist or killer. His conviction was overturned in 2003, and last week he received the final installment of a $4 million settlement stemming from a malicious-prosecution lawsuit he brought against prosecutors in Delaware County. Yarris' case is just the latest example of why Pennsylvania should follow New Jersey's lead and give the death penalty a dose of sodium thiopental. Beyond the fact that there is scant evidence that the death penalty acts as a deterrent, the overriding reason to eliminate capital punishment is that innocent people may be executed for crimes they didn't commit. DNA testing has helped exonerate 210 people wrongly convicted of various crimes in 30 states.
Jim Paxon's wildfire blog
There is blessed stuff of a White Christmas on the ground in Show Low and even fire ravaged California has finally gotten some rains along with the cessation of Santa Anna winds. Wildland Fire Season 07 is virtually over. Even though this was an unusually mild fire season in Arizona, it was another record breaker in the West and Southeast. Nationwide, there were almost 80,000 fires that burned nine million acres at a cost of 1.5 billion dollars. Thousands of homes and many lives were lost. Contrast that with the last mild fire season prior to this extended drought (1995) which only burned 1.84 million acres with approximately 82,000 fires. This years damage is five times the acreage with approximately the same number of fires. What is going on, we ask? Can we blame it all on global warming? Hardly! We know that fires are burning hotter and are much harder to stop than ever before.
Gazprom, Rosneft at War of Succession
Sibneft and Gazprom have reached principal agreement on selling Sibneft stocks to the gas monopoly, Interfax reported Friday, pointing out the deal parameters, including the budget and sources of funding, have not been determined yet. As long as the price remains unclear, it is too early to speak of any agreement, sources of Kommersant insist. As informed earlier, Gazprom is eying the stake of 92 percent in Sibneft (where the principal holders, including Chukotkas governor Roman Abramovich, own 72 percent) and is in talks to raise a loan of $10 billion.
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Lost scholarships upset governor
Last year, Bredesen proposed putting money into a fund that would be used to help schools get better interest rates on loans for building projects. The proposal did not make it through the General Assembly, nor did a plan backed by Senate Republicans to give school districts grants from the lottery surplus to use on construction projects. The Senate Education Committee will take up a passel of lottery bills Wednesday. The governor also said he would like to see more money put into non-lottery scholarship programs that are geared to help students with financial need. "I couldn't have gone to college without that kind of help," said Bredesen, who graduated from Harvard University in 1967 with a degree in physics.
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Spineless Democrats
Rob Kall: The DCC Just Hung Up On Me (55 comments) I won't tolerate being in an abusive relationship... and that's what it seems to be turning into between me and the Democratic congress. Shame on them. Allen L Roland: *GEORGE W BUSH / TORTURER IN CHIEF WITH NO EFFECTIVE OPPOSITION (2 comments) George W Bush will get his payback for his flagrant transgressions of justice as well as the preemptive death and destruction wrought by his administration. It will be devastating and humiliating and this enormous karmic debt will be called before the end of this decade. But it will not be called by the current Congress for there is no Opposition Party representing the vast majority of Americans who are fed up with Bush. Sunday, October 14: Randy LoBasso: To Change the Subject: Smear (3 comments) Right wing spin has no boundaries.
Off the map in Africa
And most oil companies are neither based in Geneva, best-known for United Nations' agencies and secretive banks, nor expect takeover offers from Asian energy interests, the exit scenario considered most likely by Mr. Gandur, Addax's chief executive officer and controlling shareholder. "We are the reverse of most companies," he said. .
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