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STORIES:
Abandoned
SF mansion hits market for $25 million - (www.sfgate.com) The story is a
sad one. A historic San Francisco estate has hit the market, asking $25
million. Le Petit Trianon, nestled in the heart of Presidio Heights, was built
over a century ago as a replica of a Versailles mansion built for French King
Louis XV around 1768. The San Francisco version is a local and national
landmark, as described by this SF Chronicle article several
years back, but has fallen into disrepair after current owner, Halsey Minor,
purchased it for $22 million in 2007 with intentions to restore it to its grand
reputation. Halsey Minor is well known in tech circles. As a founder of CNet,
he made it big and went on a buying spree of real estate, art and other
luxuries of the rich and famous. But, it seems the spending spree has caught up
to him. Le Petit Trianon never underwent the $15 million planned restoration
and this historic property is only one of many financial related issues he’s
dealing with, including owing back taxes to the state. A couple of years ago, the Bay Citizen described
the neglect:
Wisconsin
Recall Total Disaster for Mainstream Media - (www.newsbusters.org) Up in the top left, the headline read, "EXIT POLLS: RESULTS SIMILAR
TO ELECTION 2 YEARS AGO, SOURCES TELL DRUDGE... '5 POINT MARGIN'...
DEVELOPING... "
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel scolded Drudge writing, "Republican
and Democratic sources in Wisconsin told the Journal Sentinel that the numbers
used by the Drudge Report are wrong. Sources said the exit polls showed that
race as being much tighter than the conservative website indicated." As it
turns out, Walker won by seven points. Of
course, traditional media outlets aren't allowed to make predictions before
polls close. So at 9 PM, over three hours after Drudge correctly called it a
win with a significant margin for Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker,
CNN's Wolf Blitzer led the insanity: WOLF
BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, I'm Wolf Blitzer in for Piers Morgan. He's
in London with the latest on today's Diamond Jubilee celebration. But we begin
with breaking news out of Wisconsin
right now where polls have just closed. The recall vote that could preview
November's election. Look at this. Our exit polls show it's a 50-50 race as of
this minute. These are exit polls, the polls that we conducted throughout the
day, throughout the state of Wisconsin. These are preliminary exit poll
results. Fifty percent for Scott Walker. He's on the left of your screen. Fifty
percent for Tom Barrett, the Democrat, the mayor of Milwaukee. He is on the
right. Scott Walker is the incumbent Republican governor. This is a race to
recall him, to remove him from office. Based on the exit polls that we've been
conducting throughout the day. Right now the exit polls show it's 50 percent
for Walker, 50 percent for Barrett. Doesn't get much closer than this.
Buyers Frustrated by Low Inventory, Rising Prices - (onlinewsj.com) Active home buyers are increasingly concerned about rising prices, prompting a growing number to slow down their purchase plans, according to a new survey. The findings are from real-estate brokerage Redfin, which surveyed more than 1,200 home buyers in 18 metro areas who had toured a home since March 1. The company found that 49% of respondents believe that it’s a good time to buy a home, down from 56% last quarter. The share of buyers who think it’s a good time to sell more than doubled, to 28% of respondents. Nearly six in 10 respondents said that low inventory remained their top concern with buying right now—by far the most predominant worry of buyers. The supply of homes listed for sale nationally is down by 20% from one year ago, and markets such as Phoenix, Orlando and Oakland, Calif., have around half as many homes for sale as one year ago.
OCC
Dropped The Ball On Robo-Signing Scandal, Watchdog Says - (www.huffingtonpost.com) Federal regulators sure did drop the ball on the robo-signing scandal,
according to a government watchdog. The Office of
the Comptroller of the Currency, an independent bureau of the
Treasury Department, failed to catch the 2008-2010 robo-signing crisis, in
which banks systematically signed off on foreclosures without properly
reviewing the specifics of the cases, according to a report released last week
by the Treasury Department Inspector General (h/tAmerican
Banker.) The OCC's
examination procedures "were not sufficient in scope or
application to identify significant weaknesses in national banks’ foreclosure
documentation and processing functions," the report said.
Sleeping
in Vermont Dumpster Shows Psychiatric Cuts'Cost - (www.bloomberg.com) Katherine Gluck blurts out to the judge, “I’m guilty.” Gluck, 47, is
charged on this March morning with threatening her former husband with a
hammer. Police who arrested her in Burlington, Vermont, know those tired eyes
and stringy blond hair. In December, Gluck was charged but not jailed or
hospitalized after she slammed a dead raccoon against the front door of City Hall. Her family urged her to get help
for her bipolar disorder, which usually involves getting back on medication.
She refused. Now, court-appointed lawyer Sarah Reed hopes Judge Thomas Devine
will send Gluck to a hospital. The odds aren’t good. Hurricane Irene wiped out the last
state-operated psychiatric beds in Vermont nine months ago. Since then,
private-hospital emergency rooms have been backed up with mentally ill patients
-- some handcuffed to ER beds for as long as two days. Dozens of people are
turned away each month without being admitted, and calls to Burlington police
about mental-health issues increased 32 percent over the prior year.
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