KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Monday September 6 Housing and Economic stories

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Mansion squatters return in a big way - (seattletimes.nwsource.com) By this chapter of this curious tale, Mark von der Burg surely is wondering: Why me? What did I do to deserve this? He's the Eastside real-estate agent who, two months ago while prepping for an open house to sell a $3.3 million mansion in Kirkland, was stunned to find that complete strangers had moved in and were staking a tortured legal claim to the foreclosed property. The squatters story went national. It was an apt symbol of the housing meltdown. At the time, I wrote that "mansion squatting" might be the "most naked expression yet of what the crash was all about — the lure of something for nothing." Now, I swear I didn't mean the word "naked" literally. But I'll get to that twist in a minute. Von der Burg says that while the mansion-squatting story may have been entertaining — it ended when police retook control of the house for the bank that owned it — it cost his client, a bank, $35,000 in legal fees and bills for locksmiths, security and cleanup. So count him as not amused that this week, the same team of squatters apparently attempted to stake claims to three new mansions on the Eastside — including a $2.2 million, 5,000-square-foot Craftsman in Bellevue for which von der Burg is, once again, the listing agent. "These people need to be stopped," he said. "How long are we going to let this go on?" Police say no one has as yet moved into any of the houses. But all three had letters tacked to the front doors ordering anyone claiming ownership "to surrender possession within three days." And then threatening "judicial proceedings" against anyone who doesn't comply.

15 Cities With Ridiculously High Sales Taxes - (www.businessinsider.com) I will give you a hint. 6 of the 15 are in California, one of the worst business climates in the US with corrupt unions and politicians that pander to business and union interests. The top 15 sales tax list includes Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fremont, Oakland, and Long Beach. The threat of rising taxes haunts the U.S., as the Bush tax cuts are set to expire by year end. House Republican leader John Boehner wants the White House to stop their expiration, feeling American's are already too burdened as it is. And with the threat of a Value Added Tax (VAT) looming, people have a lot to worry about. But the tax situation is already horrific for many purchasers in cities across the U.S.. Every single city on this list slaps at least 9.25% worth of taxes on purchases, according to The Tax Foundation. May want to think twice about where you are going ahead of back to school shopping, or plans for a holiday shopping spree.

Subscriber growth suddenly stops for cable TV industry - (www.arstechnica.com) According to data gathered by market research firm SNL Kagan, cable companies saw a noticeable drop in the total number of subscribers during the second quarter of 2010, a first for an industry that has thus far seen nothing but growth. The number of cable subscribers dropped by 711,000, according to SNL Kagan, with six out of eight cable providers reporting their worst quarterly subscriber losses to date. Other parts of the industry were able to add just enough subscribers to make the net loss more like 216,000. Cable's share of the pay-TV market dropped slightly too, from 63.6 percent to just 61 percent during the quarter.

10 Big Retailers Closing Stores - (www.dailyfinance.com) Both Saks (SKS) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) said they were closing stores in several parts of the country. Meanwhile, other stores like the struggling Blockbuster video rental chain, continue to slash stores by the dozens. American Apparel (APP), which is close to defaulting on its loans, just may be next. Consumers just aren't shopping the way they used to. Even Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), which typically fares well during tough economic times, is worried. "The slow economic recovery will continue to affect our customers, and we expect they will remain cautious about spending," said president and CEO Mike Duke in a statement that was released during the company's second quarter earnings report. Store closing numbers include Saks (5 stores), French Connection (17), A&P (25 stores), American Eagle (28 stores), Winn-Dixie (30 stores), Beb (48 stores), Men’s Wearhouse (50-60 stores), Abercrombie and Fitch (11), Charming Shoppes (100-1200), Blockbuster (500-545), etc.

"National Security Letter" Makes You Disappear - (www.sott.net) One of the creepier weapons in the arsenal of the national-security state is the "national-security letter" or NSL. It's no ordinary letter, and it travels postage-free, but at enormous expense to the taxpayers. The FBI issues roughly 50,000 of them a year, and the Justice Department's own internal review in 2007 concluded that many of them were issued abusively, skirting the law and internal rules. The idea is simple: the device is something like a subpoena, though it doesn't require approval of a judge to issue. Instead, the FBI requires the recipient to help it in an investigation targeting a third party. It might be dropped on a librarian, with a demand that she tell the FBI every book that a certain subscriber checked out, every magazine he perused, and every time he accessed the Internet using a computer at the library. Or it might go to an Internet service provider, requiring information about every website viewed by a certain customer. But the NSL also imposes a gag order on its recipient: you may not tell anyone you got this letter. On several occasions, the issuance of an NSL has been challenged by the recipient, but then the gag order applies to the litigation as well. The suit is brought by "John Doe," and the claimant is required to keep the whole matter secret. One recipient wrote an anonymous op-ed in the Washington Post: living under the gag order has been stressful and surreal. Under the threat of criminal prosecution, I must hide all aspects of my involvement in the case...from my colleagues, my family and my friends. When I meet with my attorneys I cannot tell my girlfriend where I am going or where I have been. But how can long-term gag orders be reconciled with the Constitution's protection against warrantless search and seizure and the protection of free speech and press? Judge Richard Cardamone, writing a concurring opinion for the Second Circuit in one NSL case, acknowledged that a gag order might be imposed for a short period, but he observed that "a perpetual gag on citizen speech of the type advocated so strenuously by the government may likely be unconstitutional." Now as a result of a partial settlement in one of several cases in which the FBI's use of NSLs is being successfully challenged, one of the recipients has been allowed to emerge from the shadows. His name is Nicholas Merrill, a Manhattan native who ran an Internet start-up named Calyx. He was hit with an NSL demanding that he "provide 16 categories of 'electronic communication transactional records,' including e-mail address, account number and billing information." That isn't all of it - but the FBI insists that most of its requests remain secret. The FBI withdrew its NSL to Merrill in 2006, apparently after concluding it had bitten off more than it could chew.Ellen Nakashima profiles Merrill in a piece in the Washington Post: For six years, Nicholas Merrill has lived in a surreal world of half-truths, where he could not tell even his fiancee, his closest friends or his mother that he is "John Doe" - the man who filed the first-ever court challenge to the FBI's ability to obtain personal data on Americans without judicial approval. Friends would mention the case when it was in the news and the normally outspoken Merrill would change the subject. He would turn up at the federal courthouse to hear the arguments, and in an out-of-body moment he would realize that no one knew he was the plaintiff challenging the FBI's authority to issue "national security letters," as they are known, and its ability to impose a gag on the recipient.