Queens Chronicle Editorial: Beefing Up Code Enforcement
Beefing Up Code Enforcement 
Every week, it’s the same story with a different headline. City fails to enforce building codes in Glendale. Controversial developer halted in Maspeth. Builder blasted for shoddy work in Bayside. It’s no secret that the city has failed to keep pace with development—and that, time and again, the consequence has been unmonitored construction that leaves residents with oversized eyesores and slipshod structures in their community. Read more...

Homebuilder Bob Perry buys headlines and influence
Homebuilder Bob Perry nation's biggest political donor
Houston homebuilder Bob Perry was the largest political donor in Texas _ and the nation _ in the recent election cycle, according to a group that tracks campaign donations. Perry spent $6.7 million in statewide and legislative campaigns and $9.3 million on national candidates and committees seeking to elect Republicans to Congress, Texans for Public Justice said in its report. The group supports campaign finance restrictions. The spending produced mixed results: Perry's money backed more losers than winners in state legislative races and nationwide, but the group of Texas statewide candidates he supported won. See more related news on Bob Perry and his money...  Read more...

Bob Perry - And the money continues to flow
Who is Bob Perry and why does he care about Minnesota politics?
Why would a Texan, who has no business interests in Minnesota, spend $500,000 on Minnesota's governor's race? Bob Perry, a Houston based home builder, did just that, when he contributed to a special interest group that ran campaign ads against Democrat Mike Hatch. Listen to MPR broadcast - Listen to feature audio… Read more...

Minnesota sees Texas Builder Bob Perry's campain spending as a need for legislative change
Late anti-Hatch funds were local, too
Newly filed data show Minnesota donors added nearly $200,000 to the $500,000 given by a wealthy Texan to a defeat-Hatch effort...The Minnesota money is on top of $500,000 that Houston homebuilder Bob Perry gave to the ad campaign against Hatch. The Texan's contribution also wasn't reported before the election. The disclosures are expected to revive calls in the Legislature next year for greater transparency and timeliness in reporting large campaign donations during the homestretch of election campaigns... The 2007 Legislature almost certainly will give serious consideration to proposals to require prompt, pre-election disclosure of large late-campaign spending and contributions by such tax-exempt groups, legislative leaders in both parties and in the House and Senate said Wednesday. Read more...

KB Home CEO facing charges & Bankruptcy Possible?
Is KB Home heading to bankruptcy court?
Another strain that could send KB into bankruptcy is litigation associated with the options scandal. The board's ouster of Karatz instantly made him and the company high-profile potential targets for federal prosecutors, legal experts told The Los Angeles Times. As the head of a business with $10 billion in annual sales, Karatz automatically would present a higher priority to government investigators than executives who ran smaller companies facing similar options scandals, several attorneys told the Times. There are about 150 companies facing similar options investigations. Legal experts say companies naturally would prefer not to dismiss executives because doing so can imply wrongdoing by the company and invite lawsuits from angry shareholders. Read more...

KB's Bruce Karatz could be potential target for federal charges
Ousters can raise chance of charges
By ousting KB Home chief Bruce Karatz over inflated stock option awards, the Los Angeles company's board instantly made the executive a high-profile potential target for federal prosecutors, legal experts say... "The reason that companies typically terminate executives is to take a step to avoid prosecution of the company itself," said Matthew Jacobs, a criminal defense lawyer at McDermott Will & Emery in Palo Alto.But by conducting a detailed probe that exposes possible wrongdoing by executives, companies may also increase the likelihood of government charges against the dismissed officers, lawyers say..."It's one thing for a company to cut the cord to an executive and restate earnings, but it's not a straight line between that and the ability to indict and convict," Jacobs said. Read more...

Small Claims helps homeowners
Homeowner takes contractor to court
District Judge Sandra J. Zemgulis' courtroom on South Side Easton resembled "The People's Court" on Tuesday afternoon. Besides the judge, the scene included a plaintiff and homeowner, Bea Kemmerer, and a defendant and home-improvement contractor, Ronald A. Schmidt. Skip past the TV cameras and lights or studio audience -- unless you consider several people who attended on Kemmerer's behalf and one curious action line columnist. Read more...

Boom for Builders – Foreclosures Now Housing Bubble Buster
Study Predicts Foreclosure for 1 in 5 Subprime Loans
About one in five subprime mortgages made in the last two years are likely to go into foreclosure, according to a report released yesterday, ending the dream of homeownership for millions of Americans. At that rate, about 1.1 million homeowners who took out subprime loans in the last two years will lose their houses in the next few years, the report said. The foreclosures will cost those homeowners an estimated $74.6 billion, primarily in equity...The report offers a somber assessment of loans that had helped millions of Americans with blemished credit attain homeownership. About 2.2 million borrowers who took subprime loans from 1998 to 2006 are likely to lose their homes. Read more...

OUTSTANDING MIAMI HERALD REPORT- HOUSE OF LIES 
HOUSE OF LIES REPORT - Where's the Housing?
In the nation's least-affordable city, the Miami Dade Housing Agency lost millions of dollars on dead projects, insider deals and developers who never delivered, stranding the poor in rotting and unsafe homes. A year-long Miami Herald investigation exposed a series of ill-fated government deals that played out under the noses of county leaders, enriching well-connected developers at the expense of the community's coveted funds for affordable housing. Miami Herald 6 Part Report

Fly-by-Night contractors operate freely 
Woman ripped off in roof repair scam
Everyone has heard horror stories about people getting ripped off by the home improvement business, but for one Houston woman, those horror stories became a reality – and now she has a message she wants all homeowners to hear. Read more...

Watch out builders!
Real estate agent gives guns to homebuyers
A Texas real estate agent looking to add more bang to her business is offering clients in law enforcement a free Glock pistol if they buy a home from her. Julie Upton, a Houston-area real estate agent, spurned traditional buyer incentives like free gasoline cards or home improvement store gift certificates. Instead, she placed an advertisement offering a pistol with the purchase of any home worth at least $150,000 in the city police department's monthly publication, "Badge & Gun." Read more...

Lawmakers, developers should step up efforts to stop wood rot
Better insulation makes newer homes more susceptible to moisture problems
Newer homes are much tighter than those built long ago and provide more insulation. But as a recent Kansas City Star report on water problems shows, today’s construction methods and cheaper materials can contribute to serious trouble. To cut costs, many builders are making greater use of plywood or building stock made from glued wood chips, both of which are less resistant to moisture. If the builder — or the design — fails to allow for sufficient drainage, moisture can be trapped in porous materials.  Area inspector Dan Bowers says that once it’s wet, chipboard sheathing can become spongy and “crumble like a wet Saltine cracker.” Read more...

Ordinary law abiding taxpayers denied access to the courts
Corporate America: Get Behind Your Product!
It’s funny that criminals like murderers and robbers have full access to courts of general jurisdiction, but ordinary law-abiding taxpayers do not.  What I don’t understand is why so many companies have resorted to binding mandatory arbitration. Don’t they stand behind their products any more?  Why do they find it necessary to sneak BMA clauses into the fine print of sales contracts? BMA has truly reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and it needs to be stopped. Businesses need to be held accountable for the goods and services they sell instead of blaming their customers, or forcing them to surrender access to the courts. Read more...

Greedy CEO - New Homeowners stuck with defective homes
How KB Home CEO's pay went through the roof
Over the last three years, former CEO Bruce Karatz made $232.6 million in compensation. That's nearly three times what the chief executives earned at Pulte Homes Inc. and Centex Corp., which are bigger and more profitable.  Karatz may also have benefited from a friendly board of directors, in particular the five-man compensation committee, which is led by Occidental Petroleum Chairman and Chief Executive Ray Irani. Irani is no stranger to high pay. Oxy paid him $49 million in cash and stock and gave him options with a potential value of $97 million in 2005. Also on the committee are two other chief executives: Leslie Moonves of CBS Corp., who earned $22.8 million in 2005, and J. Terrence Lanni, chairman and CEO of casino company MGM Mirage, who earned $9.6 million and was granted options with a potential value of $35.5 million. Read more...

SEE HOBB.ORG FOR MUCH MORE NEWS...