Friday, April 13, 2012
My Blog: Putting Some Teeth into the Automatic Stay Violati...
My Blog: Putting Some Teeth into the Automatic Stay Violati...: Putting Some Teeth into the Automatic Stay Violation by Michael Goldstein Phillips Law Offices, LLC One of the most important benefits o...
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Police keeping tabs on entrepreneur's nude maid service in staunchly conservative Texas city
By | Associated Press – 5 hrs agoLUBBOCK, Texas - Police in this staunchly conservative West Texas city are keeping close tabs on a young entrepreneur's recently opened cleaning service that offers nude maids.
Lubbock police Sgt. Jonathan Stewart said the owner of Fantasy Maid Service of Lubbock doesn't have a permit to operate a sexually oriented business and officers are watching for any violation, which would bring a $2,000 fine.
But owner Melissa Borrett insists she's not operating such a business. Customers pay $100 an hour for one maid or $150 an hour for two maids, and no touching is allowed, she said.
"I run a maid service," the 26-year-old entrepreneur said. "We really just clean houses. These girls are not performers. They're maids."
The West Texas native and mother said she started the business about a month ago because she was struggling as a waitress to make ends meet. She had even been living at the Occupy Lubbock encampment near Texas Tech University's campus in Lubbock.
"I just decided to go a little bigger, work a little smarter," she said.
Her business model isn't unique, but the city's ordinance requires all sexually oriented businesses to apply for a permit, which costs $650 a year, and to post a $5,000 surety bond or letter of credit.
Such businesses are defined as any commercial venture whose operations include "providing, featuring or offering of employees or entertainment personnel who appear in a state of nudity, seminude or simulated nudity and provide live performances or entertainment," intended to sexually stimulate or gratify customers "and which is offered as a feature of a primary business activity of the venture."
Stewart wouldn't say how police planned to keep tabs on the maid service, and Borrett said she would hire an attorney to fight any attempt by the city to shut her down.
So far, Borrett said, business has been good and she is now busy interviewing to hire more maids. She currently has three on staff. She offers a regular discount to government employees and law enforcement, and an ad posted Friday on the online bartering site Craigslist offered 20 per cent discounts for Easter weekend.
If requested, the maids would clean fully clothed, but the cost is the same.
"It is kind of pricey, but we're fantasy maids," Borrett said.
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Monday, April 9, 2012
U.S. to propose new mortgage lending rules
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government plans to propose new rules on Tuesday that will give homeowners more ways to avoid foreclosure and get an accurate accounting of their monthly mortgage payments.
Congress mandated changes in the rules covering the mortgage servicing industry in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposed rules would require mortgage servicers to give all borrowers standardized monthly statements and warn borrowers about interest rate or insurance change.
The mortgage servicers would also be required to make "good-faith efforts" to contact borrowers at risk of foreclosure and give them options to avoid losing their homes. There are also stipulations for improving record-keeping and providing foreclosure counseling to those who need it.
The agency said it will formally propose the rules this summer and finalize them by January 2013.
Nearly 8 million Americans have faced foreclosure since the housing bubble burst in late 2006. Many homeowners have said companies that process mortgages failed to verify information on foreclosure documents. The worst practices, known collectively as "robo-signing," included employees signing documents they hadn't read or using fake signatures to approve foreclosures.
In February, the nation's five largest mortgage lenders agreed to overhaul their mortgage servicing practices and pay $25 billion to U.S. states to help those who lost their homes or face foreclosure.
A mortgage servicer collects payments from the borrower on behalf of a loan's owner and typically handles customer service, escrow accounts, collections, loan modifications and foreclosures. Most borrowers do not choose their mortgage servicers. The owner of a loan frequently is not the original lender, even when the original lender is the servicer.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau supervises U.S. payday lenders, mortgage companies and private student lenders. It also can write rules to supervise big lending companies.
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Email To Be Investigated By 9th Circuit Court
The Huffington Post | By Mollie Reilly Posted: 04/ 6/2012 10:40 am Updated: 04/ 6/2012 10:56 am
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' chief judge has ordered an investigation of an email sent by a Montana federal judge containing a racist joke about President Barack Obama.
Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit appointed a special judicial committee to investigate the alleged misconduct by Montana Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull, who last month admitted to forwarding an email that contained a racist joke about the president.
The email, sent in February and obtained by the Great Falls Tribune in March, contained a joke that compared African Americans to dogs and implied that Obama's mother had sex with animals. Cebull sent the message from his official courthouse email to seven recipients.
The judge claimed that he is not racist, but forwarded the email because he is "not a fan" of Obama. However, the message sparked a national firestorm, with many groups demanding that Cebull resign from his post.
Cebull later sent a letter of apology to the president. "I accept full responsibility," he wrote. "I have no one to blame but myself."
Kozinski appointed a five-person committee on March 23 to look into the judicial complaint, which was initiated by Cebull himself after the message was published.
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