Ryan couldn’t call K.Michelle to help him out? SMH. Just goes to show you that times are hard even when your son is making big money athlete checks. According to RadarOnline reports : Ryan Lochte was a money-making machine after the 2012 London Olympics, even landing his own reality TV show — but RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned he was unable to help save his parents’ home, which they lost to foreclosure. According to court documents obtained by Radar, the final judgement on the foreclosure of Steven and Ileana Lochte‘s Port Orange, Fla. home was handed down on Oct. 31, 2013. The Lochtes were first sued in 2012 by CitiMortgage claiming the couple took out a loan for $258,000 in 2007, requiring $1,609.58 payments per month. But the bank then claimed the Lochtes stopped making their payments in Feb. 2011 and owed more than $242,239! The Olympic swimmer’s parents were sued in Volusia County, Fla. for foreclosure over the money owed and lost last October. The judge signed a judgement in favor of the bank to the tune of $304,219.95. Although the bank hasn’t listed the house for public auction yet, it’s only a matter of time before they do as they were issued the Certificate of Title on Dec. 18, 2013. Interestingly, just before the Lochtes stopped making payments on their home Steven was arrested and charged with a DUI on April 11, 2010 blowing a .207 and .217 on the scene. Steven lost his driver’s license for one year. Dang. They stopped paying their mortgage even before Ryan won his medals. Looks like somebody gave no fawks about keeping that house!
Ryan couldn’t call K.Michelle to help him out? SMH. Just goes to show you that times are hard even when your son is making big money athlete checks. According to RadarOnline reports : Ryan Lochte was a money-making machine after the 2012 London Olympics, even landing his own reality TV show — but RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned he was unable to help save his parents’ home, which they lost to foreclosure. According to court documents obtained by Radar, the final judgement on the foreclosure of Steven and Ileana Lochte‘s Port Orange, Fla. home was handed down on Oct. 31, 2013. The Lochtes were first sued in 2012 by CitiMortgage claiming the couple took out a loan for $258,000 in 2007, requiring $1,609.58 payments per month. But the bank then claimed the Lochtes stopped making their payments in Feb. 2011 and owed more than $242,239! The Olympic swimmer’s parents were sued in Volusia County, Fla. for foreclosure over the money owed and lost last October. The judge signed a judgement in favor of the bank to the tune of $304,219.95. Although the bank hasn’t listed the house for public auction yet, it’s only a matter of time before they do as they were issued the Certificate of Title on Dec. 18, 2013. Interestingly, just before the Lochtes stopped making payments on their home Steven was arrested and charged with a DUI on April 11, 2010 blowing a .207 and .217 on the scene. Steven lost his driver’s license for one year. Dang. They stopped paying their mortgage even before Ryan won his medals. Looks like somebody gave no fawks about keeping that house!
GTFOHWTBS! Wall Street wins…again. We knew politicians were shady as hell but, to throw in perks for banks like Morgan Stanely, that have already been bailed out by US already, is just a cotdayum slap in the face! And according to The Huffington Post , there’s a loooong azz list of other tax breaks for that 1% that we couldn’t even try to pull with Uncle Sam: The 11th-hour deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff preserved billions of dollars in corporate tax giveaways even as it slashed take-home pay for millions of American workers. Tucked inside the last-minute fiscal cliff package were more than a dozen tax loopholes, many of which will benefit Wall Street financial firms and some of the nation’s biggest corporations. These breaks will cost hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming year, underscoring the lobbying power of corporate interests. The deal was less kind to the middle class. Congress permitted a cut in the payroll tax to expire, meaning that the tax burden for the average worker will increase about $1,000 in 2013. “This shows that the lobbyists are able to get what they want even when everyone else is starving,” said Phineas Baxandall, senior analyst for tax and budget policy at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. “It also shows they are best able to get what they want when no one else is paying attention.” The corporate loopholes were part of a package of so-called tax extenders tacked onto the main bill. The extenders package, first approved by the Senate in early August, mixes popular benefits, like a deduction for teachers who buy classroom supplies, with corporate-friendly carve-outs, such as the “active financing” exception that permits businesses earning interest on overseas lending to defer U.S. taxes on that income indefinitely. There is even a tax break for construction of new racetracks. The tax extenders were passed for only one year, and they still need to clear another potential hurdle: upcoming negotiations over mandated spending cuts and the debt ceiling. President Barack Obama and congressional leaders have indicated they’d like to see a “grand bargain” on taxes, which would feature lower overall rates but close a slew of loopholes. The financial services industry, whose leaders had earlier joined a group of other corporate executives pushing for a “fair” solution to the fiscal crisis, is one of the primary beneficiaries of special-interest tax breaks. The active-financing exception, for example, permits banks like Morgan Stanley to avoid the 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate on interest income from money lent overseas. A handful of other U.S.-based multinational companies with financing arms, such as Ford Motor Co. and General Electric, also use that exemption to lower their tax bills. The two-year cost to taxpayers is an estimated $11.2 billion, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. U.S. financial institutions argue that the active-financing exemption is necessary for them to compete in overseas markets with foreign banks that carry a lower tax burden. The loophole was repealed in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, but was reinstated in 1997 as a temporary measure after fierce lobbying by multinational corporations. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the financial services industry paid an average effective tax rate of 15.5 percent from 2008 to 2010, far lower than that of most other industries. As part of the fiscal cliff deal, Congress also extended another little-known tax break that benefits large multinationals selling products through overseas affiliates. This “pass-through” exemption permits a U.S.-based company to set up a new corporation in a tax haven like the Cayman Islands and sell it a patent owned by the U.S. parent company. Royalties on overseas licensing of that patent would then route to the tax-sheltered firm, instead of the U.S. parent company. The Joint Committee on Taxation says the two-year cost of extending this shelter is $1.5 billion. One of the more unusual tax benefits in the fiscal cliff legislation is a longstanding carve-out for racetracks used by NASCAR. Since 2004, Congress has passed a series of stopgap measures that allow owners of motorsports complexes to accelerate their depreciation expenses. This means that owners can deduct more in expenses, reducing the taxes they must pay. Track owners and NASCAR together have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for the tax benefit over the past five years, according to lobbying disclosure forms. The International Speedway Corp., which owns and manages NASCAR race tracks, has spent more than $1.1 million lobbying Congress since 2008. Over the same period, NASCAR spent more than $300,000 on lobbying efforts, which included a push to “make permanent the depreciation classification.” Supporters in Congress and industry groups have argued that the tax break is necessary to “maintain the current standard expected by our competitors and fans.” According to estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the so-called NASCAR loophole will cost taxpayers $46 million this year and an additional $95 million through 2017. A spokesman for the International Speedway Corp., Charles Talbert, said the industry is simply seeking to preserve a tax designation it has relied on for years. He said in an email that racetracks had always used the accelerated depreciation schedule, but Congress had specifically written it into law after the Internal Revenue Service argued that it was improper in the early 2000s. Though Congress was willing to sign off on all these business-friendly goodies, legislative leaders couldn’t muster enthusiasm for extending the payroll tax holiday, which had cost the federal government $120 billion each year in lost revenue. As a result, a worker who earns $50,000 a year will now pay at least $80 per month in taxes. The payroll tax increase will affect as many as 160 million people. These bullsh*t excuses corporations can throw around in order to get a tax break are inexcusable. The Senate, Congress, and The Pres should all be ashamed of themselves. Images via tumblr
The recession is real. And not just in the U.S. In fact unemployment is so high in South Africa, more than half a dozen young men DIED trying to qualify for traffic cop jobs. Another 230 collapsed, but a whopping 15,500 people took part in the test in competition for a mere 90 jobs!!! Via UK Daily Mail reports : The massive crowd of jobseekers took part in the deadly fitness test – which was held in a football stadium – after they each received text messages informing them they had been ‘shortlisted’ for the precious traffic police jobs. They were told that they needed to complete a 2.4 mile jog within thirty minutes to meet the force’s minimum fitness level requirement. But by the time they started running late last Thursday afternoon, temperatures inside Pietermaritzburg’s Harry Gwala football stadium had reached over 91.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Many of the desperate jobseekers had neither eaten nor drunk anything all day. They all had very limited access to drinking water. A total of 230 people collapsed from heat exhaustion and dehydration during the run. Of these, six died. A seventh man committed suicide by slitting his throat when he learnt he had not finished the race in time. Among the dead was Lenny Nxumalo, 28-year-old father of two whose body was only discovered over four hours after he died when the vast crowd finally cleared out of the stadium. He had collapsed having completed the race with ten minutes to spare. Yesterday his best friend Brian Ngcobo told the local The Witness newspaper: ‘My friend was so determined to become a traffic officer that he ran his life out because he was such a dedicated person.’ The tragedy is just the latest example of the problems that can occur when South Africa’s desperate youth – who face an effective unemployment rate of around 40 per cent – struggle to make successes of their lives. Government positions, such as those with the police force or army, are highly sought after as they are relatively well paid, have low entry criteria and because the application process positively discriminates in favour of blacks. Previous ‘mass job interviews’ for jobs such as these have seen tens of thousands of desperately poor and ill-educated young people descend on a location in the hope of securing one of perhaps just a dozen positions. In this latest example, over 150,000 people applied for the 90 jobs within the regional KwaZulu Natal traffic police department. Of these, 34,000 were sent text messages on Christmas Day telling them to report to the Harry Gwala stadium in two groups on Thursday and Friday. The politician responsible confirmed that ‘more than 34,000 applicants qualified for the 90 trainee posts which were advertised’, but that ‘scores of them could not cope with the hot weather condition and collapsed.’ South Africa’s Communist Party – which is in political alliance with the ruling African National Congress – demanded a full inquiry into the traffic police fitness test tragedy. And the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party has called on Willies Mchunu, the politician with ultimate responsibility for the debacle, to step down. ‘What happened in Pietermaritzburg was a classic display of being power-drunk, to an extent treating ordinary suffering people as subhuman. ‘No one in their right mind could in the first place short-list about 35,000 people for just 90 jobs,’IFP politician Blessed Gwala said.’ This is just crazy. Somebody has to be held responsible for these deaths! Photo Credit: meunierd / Shutterstock.com
She lost her job after sneaking lunches to a 4th grader whose family sent him to school without food each day. According to KTVI : A St. Louis County cafeteria worker is out of a job after giving away free meals to a child in need. For two years, Dianne Brame worked as a cafeteria manager at Hudson Elementary in Webster Groves, keeping kids’ bellies full for their all-important task of learning. The lunch lady loved her job: “I knew kids by their names, I knew their likes and dislikes, so it was just fun.” But recently, she came across a fourth grader who consistently came without money. She says he used to be on the free lunch program, but language barriers got in the way of reapplying: “I sent them paperwork so that they could get back in contact with me, but it didn’t happen,” she says. For days, Brame snuck the boy lunches. She explains, “I let his account get over $45 which I’m only supposed to let it get over $10, and I started letting him come through my lunch line without putting his number in, and they look at that as stealing. I thought it was just taking care of a kid.” She was trying to protect him from the bullying: a cruel side dish to the default cheese sandwich given to kids without lunch money. “The kids would ridicule and tell them, ah you don’t have any money, that’s why you have to eat cheese sandwiches every day,” Brame says. On Tuesday, word got around to Brame’s supervisor, who put her between a rock and a hard place: either leave, or move to another school in a demoted position. The 60 year-old former manager felt she didn’t have a choice. “My husband died in February, I lost my home, car got repo’ed,” she explains, “Hudson is in walking distance from me, so I took the firing. Fire me.” Gary Woodruff, whose daughter attends Hudson Elementary, finds the punishment to be harsh: “It just seems a little excessive that they would do that to a lunch lady, I mean it’s a little bit ridiculous, especially nowadays with the economy and what not.” Now, jobless and with the holidays right around the corner, Brame is on a tighter budget—giving cookies instead of pricier presents. According to Brame’s employer, she does have the opportunity to appeal the decision. But Brame says she doesn’t want to bother, especially because she knows she violated protocol. Looking back, she says she wouldn’t change a thing: “I don’t think any kid should be hungry. I don’t. And it’s my belief that some of these kids who go to school and get meals, that may be the only meal they eat that day.” SMH…you can’t even feed hungry kids now. Thanks to thousands of people, Mrs. Brame was rehired after their responses to her story. Images via shutterstock/Facebook
Could you leave all the ‘unnecessary’ things in life behind in exchange for just enough space and cheaper energy bills ?? According to The Daily Mail , there are lots of folks in DC that are saying ‘Yes We Can’… A neighborhood of miniaturized homes, that look like what some Americans build in their backyards as dollhouses, is propping up in northeast Washington, D.C. The 150 to 200 square feet living spaces in a transformed vacant lot behind a line of row houses, sell for between $20,000 to $50,000 a piece and are part of a national backlash to the conspicuous consumption of the McMansion era. The concept of the tiny residences came from Tumbleweed Tiny House Co., based in Santa Rosa, Calif., that launched in 2000. The plans faced a tepid reception but after the credit crisis of 2008, have exploded in popularity. The lot was purchased in March by a group of four DC residents who became interested in creating a neighborhood of tiny houses as an example of affordable, scaled back living. The group have transformed the concrete abandoned lot into a grassy area for the stall-like homes. They also have plans to construct a garden area and plant 10-15 trees to surround the lot. The group of homes will all circle an open, grassy area with a picnic table open to the community. The homes, ideal for one or two inhabitants, are naturally limited in space and so the neighborhood will include a 8’x20’ garage/storage structure for those items that just can’t be squeezed into the miniature shelters. Jay Shafer, who founded the The Tumbleweed Tiny House Co., has sold more than 1,500 sets of plans for the small living spaces. He said after the recession of 2008, the tiny houses took off. ‘Americans still like our stuff big and cheap, so a 100-square-foot house is not for everyone or big families. But people in tiny homes save a ton of money on heating and AC,’ he told the Washington Post. Though Shafer used to reside in a 90-square foot house, he has since upgraded to a 500-square-foot home after he and his wife welcomed their second child. ‘It’s no longer about impressing your friends with your huge 1980s castle, it’s more about your lifestyle: What restaurants and fitness centers and community life can you walk to? It’s not about driving everywhere and staying inside and spending hours watching TV,’ said Monty Hoffman, chief executive and founder of PN Hoffman, a Washington area condo builder. ‘They’re a statement that no one needs to be trapped in a mortgage they can’t afford in a house that’s too big for them anyway,’ Amy Lynch, a consultant with the Minneapolis-based BridgeWorks, told the Washington Post about the practicality of the miniaturized residences after the housing crisis of 2009. ‘The baby boomers raised their children. Now, they’re looking at all this stuff they have and thinking, ‘What has meaning for me now?’ Plus, these tiny houses are small enough that you can clean — actually clean them!’ The DC neighborhood that is beginning to take shape, called Stronghold, is the brainchild of Boneyard Studios, a group that has mobilized volunteers and residents to join the cause. But the pint-sized homes make some area residents feel like the American Dream is no long attainable. ‘These tiny houses feels like we are going backwards,’ Patricia Harris, who owns a rowhouse in the District, said. Hit the flip for more shots of the tiny lil’ homes…
This is just sad… Woman Commits Suicide By Jumping Off Balcony As Foreclosure Agents Walk Into Her Apartment Via RadarOnline : The financial crisis became too much for one woman who tragically leapt to her death just as foreclosure agents beat down her door. The victim, Amaya Egaña, took her own life by jumping from her sixth-story balcony while a legal team were waiting to foreclose her property. The representatives from the local court in Barakaldo, Spain were forced to call a locksmith after Egaña didn’t come to her door. However when they were eventually let in they found the 53-year-old standing on a chair just moments before launching herself over the balcony. Egaña was found alive, but she could not be saved by paramedics. Spain – like many other countries around the globe – has been hard hit by the recession and Egaña’s suicide is not the first related to foreclosures. Banks and financial Institutions don’t look at the emotional and human side of this economy. They just care about the money. Granted we all have to pay our bills but sometimes you have to pay a little more attention to the human side of all this and the damage it has done to so many people. This is a very sad and tragic story. Rest in peace to her and her family.
Can a politician really relate in just one week? Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton tried to step out of his comfort zone and see what it’s like to live off of $29 a week through the states SNAP Program …and the man didn’t cheat once! Claiming to have lost a few lbs due to lack of food, he’s passionate about fixing the low level of poverty in his state. Arizona has more than 1.1 million folks on food assistance and the US has more than 46 million that are accounted for. This week I joined staff and board members from the Arizona Community Action Association (ACAA), the Valley of the Sun United Way and others in the community in the week-long SNAP Experience when we’ll limit total food purchases to the weekly budget of a typical SNAP participant: $4.16 a day. That’s about $29 a week for one person and $97 a week for a family of four. The SNAP Experience, through which participants also will be asked to blog about its impact, is scheduled Sept. 15-21. September is Hunger Awareness Month. With American poverty levels approaching the highest levels since 1965, 1.1 million Arizonans rely on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps) to feed their families. Identifying, in a concrete way, with struggling families is an important exercise for any leader. By walking in the shoes of those who depend on the SNAP program, I certainly feel like I’ve gained critical perspective as a policymaker. From a broader perspective, I’m starting to think about all the other challenges families on food stamps (SNAP) must face at the same time they are stretching their food benefit. Census data in 2010 showed Arizona had the second highest poverty rate in the nation with 21.2% of its citizens living in poverty. The national figure was 14.3 percent. We’ve improved since then, but we’re still in the 10-poorest states category. Worse, women raising children alone here aren’t doing well. More than 45% of mothers raising children by themselves are in poverty. That’s why turning this economy around is so important. The best “program” for any struggling family is a job that pays a living wage. That’s what I’m focusing on for every Phoenix family. We’re going to give the Mayor credit for making the effort and spreading awareness on the issue. If every politician was required to do this, do you think we’d see more efforts and less b*tching about the needy, struggling, low-to middle-income classes? Images via facebook/shutterstock
She says she’s not proud of using food stamps to buy food. 28-year-old Cindy Nerger and her hubby are feeling the recession and who can blame them. Nerger had to stop working because she’s been on daily 12-hour dialysis treatments for kidney failure since 2008 and is waiting for a kidney transplant. Her husband is a carpenter and owns his own business but work is on and off so she became eligible for Medicare and Social Security Supplemental Income. According to WMAZ: …Nerger went grocery shopping. When she got to the register there was a problem. “He told me I owed him 10 dollars and some change. I am not exactly sure what it was, but I told him, I said I am sorry sir, but there is nothing in my cart that is not covered by food stamps,” said Nerger. She and the Kroger employees went back and forth about this for half an hour when a manager acknowledged was right about the purchase all along. “I was upset, so, I was like, you know, I told you that it was covered under food stamps, you know, so, there was no need for all of this, you know, and he said, “Well excuse me that I work for a living and don’t rely on food stamps like you,” Nerger said. The comment humiliated her, she said. “I honestly was angry. I was angry at first, but it turned into tears because when I turned around and I saw the people there I was like, oh my goodness, and I just started crying,” said Nerger. “I didn’t want to have to go there, you know, nobody wants to have to ask somebody for for help, but it got to the point it was either ask for help or starve,” said Nerger. “We deeply regret that a Kroger customer had an unpleasant shopping experience. Kroger is conducting an ongoing investigation, and look forward to resolving the customer’s concern. We hope she will continue to shop at Kroger in the future.” Nerger said she was contacted by Kroger’s corporate office about the incident. She says they offered her a $15 gift card for her to come back. “I told them, ‘No thank you.” We wish all the self-righteous folks out there would take a seat. Images via WMAZ/Facebook
