As a blood relative of Samuel Adams - I think it is fitting that I acknowledge that today is the day of his birth back in in 1722.
Real news from Aspen, Colorado would confront the corporate-government media's ongoing baloney of green shoots and happy days are just about here again!
Officials Tell Colorado Residents to Be "Mean" to the Bears ABC News - September 27, 2009 - 21 hours ago. Residents fight back as scarce food causes bears to disrupt community. ""Bears are emblematic of the Aspen community,"," said Aspen resident Mark Goodman. ...
Interesting how even the Wall Street Journal had a story weeks back on September 1st about Aspen, Colorado and the bears:
Colorado Struggles to Run Bears Out of Town Wall Street Journal - - Sep 1, 2009
In Aspen, the hardest-hit town, police have received more than 460 calls for help dealing with bears since July 1, including 15 during one 24-hour period ...Bear Territory: One wild night in Aspen Fox 31 KDVR.comBear injures sleeping Aspen woman Aspen Daily NewsGrand Junction Sentinel - Aspen TimesAspen digs deep for green marketing; local bears largely unimpressed The Colorado Independent
City of Aspen lays off 12, cuts 4 jobs Grand Junction Free PressASPEN, Colo. (AP) — The city of Aspen has laid off 12 employees, and it is eliminating four other positions to cope with plunging tax revenue. The cuts Thursday are expected to save $1.36 million.
The city previously cut $2.4 million in its 2009 general fund budget, which included eliminating or freezing 20 positions and laying off nine employees.
In February, the city froze employee salaries and eliminated or reduced some benefits and bonuses to save about $1.4 million. Salaries also are being frozen for 2010.
Through July, sales tax collections were down 18 percent from the same time last year, while lodging taxes were down 27 percent. Building and planning fees were down 46 percent through August compared with last year.
SINKHOLES DON'T TAKE THE WEEKEND OFF!
NECN/WSB: Gwinnett County, Ga | Gwinnett sinkhole swallows car, driver
SOLAR SYSTEM NEWS
SpaceWeather.com | Impressive Solar Prominence Activity
SOLAR ACTIVITY: Around the world, amateur astronomers are watching an impressive display of solar prominence activity. "Wow and then some!" exclaims from Steve Riegel who sends this picture from Santa Maria, California
Commuters wade through waist-deep floodwaters on Buendia, Makati following heavy rains spawned by tropical storm 'Ondoy' Saturday. AP-Bullit MarquezThe rainfall brought by tropical storm "Ondoy" to Metro Manila and nearby areas in a span of six hours on Saturday was the most in recorded history, surpassing the previous record for the metropolis in 1967, a weather bureau official said.
Nathaniel Cruz, weather services bureau head of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), told GMANews.TV that the total rainfall from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday surpassed the highest 24-hour rainfall that the weather bureau recorded 42 years ago.
Cruz said the total rainfall from "Ondoy" in the first six hours of the storm, which measured 341 millimeters (13.4 inches), broke the record for the highest 24-hour rainfall of 334 millimeters in metropolitan Manila recorded by Pagasa in June 1967. It was still raining at the time of this posting, as flood waters brought large portions of a mega city of over ten million to a virtual standstill. [See: Storm 'Ondoy' makes landfall, causes widespread flooding]
Climate change?
“We were able to break that record in a span of six hours. Today, we really experienced an extreme weather event," he said.
Cruz also said the amount of rain caused by "Ondoy" in six hours is almost equal to the average monthly rainfall in Metro Manila, which he pegged at 392 millimeters.
“Ibig sabihin nito, ‘yung ulan natin ng anim na oras, halos malapit nang maabot ‘yung kalimitang dami ng ulan natin buwan-buwan (This means our rainfall for six hours today is nearly equal to our average monthly rainfall)," he explained.
Cruz attributed the extreme rainfall caused by "Ondoy" to climate change.
“This could be again a manifestation of climate change. Due to climate change, we should expect more extreme weather events like extreme rainfall," he said.
He added that other factors such as Metro Manila’s poor drainage system, pollution, and garbage problem might have worsened the effects of the heavy downpour that ‘Ondoy’ brought to the area.
“Maybe 10 years ago, maaaring hindi ganito kabaha (The floods might have not been this bad). The heavy flooding might have been caused by these other factors," he said.
Many residents said Saturday's floods were the worst ever in recent decades, and appeals for help from those stranded in rooftops or inside their houses poured in. Major streets in Manila went under water, and even an underground pedestrian walkway in Makati was inundated up to street level.
Cruz also said that the extreme weather event might be nature’s way of calling the public's attention to human activities that contribute to climatic fluctuations. “Parang paalala lang ito sa mga tao," he said.
Ondoy (international code name Ketsana), the 15th tropical cyclone to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility, slammed into the eastern side of Luzon Island from the Pacific Ocean before noon Saturday with maximum winds of 85 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 100 kph. [See: Metro Manila, 25 provinces placed under state of calamity]
The storm battered Central Luzon Saturday and was expected to be 230 km west-northwest of Iba, Zambales by Sunday morning as it exits towards the South China Sea. - GMANews.TV
CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - 2 FOOT SEA RISE ON EAST COAST
- Sea Levels Rose Two Feet This Summer in U.S. East
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090910-sea-levels-rise.html - Sea levels rose as much as 2 feet (60 centimeters) higher than predicted this summer along the U.S. East Coast, surprising scientists who forecast such periodic fluctuations. The immediate cause of the unexpected rise has now been solved, U.S. officials say in a new report. But the underlying reason remains a mystery. Now a new report has identified the two major factors behind the high sea levels-a weakened Gulf Stream and steady winds from the northeastern Atlantic. This summer, for reasons unknown, the Gulf Stream slowed down,, sending water toward the coasts-and sea levels shooting upward. Adding to the sustained surge, autumn winds from the northeastern Atlantic arrived a few months early, pushing even more water coastward. But the underlying puzzle remains. "Why did the Gulf Stream slow down? Why did the fall wind pattern appear earlier?" NOAA's Edwing said. "We don't have those answers."
NEWS UPDATE ABOUT MY OWN PERSONAL BANK
Do I know how to choose them or what?
Al Lewis: Wells Fargo Bank Sues Itself
You can’t expect a bank that is dumb enough to sue itself to know why it is suing itself.
Yet I could not resist asking Wells Fargo Bank NA why it filed a civil complaint against itself in a mortgage foreclosure case in Hillsborough County, Fla.
"Due to state foreclosure laws, lenders are obligated to name and notify subordinate lien holders," said Wells Fargo spokesman Kevin Waetke.
Being a taxpayer-subsidized, too-big-to-fail institution, it’s possible that one of the few ways for Wells Fargo & Co. to know what it is doing is to notify itself with a court filing.
In this particular case, Wells Fargo holds the first and second mortgages on a condominium, according to Sarasota, Fla., attorney Dan McKillop, who represents the condo owner.
Nebraska banks that I found on the (UNOFFICIAL) Problem Banks List
(Only copied a few of columns)
Problem Bank List (Unofficial) Sept 25, 2009
http://cr4re.com/PBLSept2509.html
| 2009q2 Assets $(000s) | Class | Agency | Name | City | State | Date | Enforcement Action Type | Reason |
|---|
| 177,610 | N | OCC | Charter West National Bank | West Point | NE | 10/3/2008 | Supervisory Agreement | CRE lending |
| 159,756 | NM | FDIC | Hastings State Bank | Hasting | NE | 6/24/2008 | Cease & Desist | General |
| 27,455 | SM | FRB | Nebraska Bankers' Bank | Lincoln | NE | 9/3/2009 | Written Agreement | General | | |
| 18,061 | NM | FDIC | The Farmers Bank | Lincoln | NE | 3/13/2009 | Cease & Desist | General |
| 35,594 | N | OCC | The First National Bank of Wayne | Wayne | NE | 10/16/2008 | Supervisory Agreement | CRE lending |
| 3,159,206 | SA | OTS | TierOne Bank | Lincoln | NE | 1/15/2009 | Supervisory Agreement | CRE lending | | |
NATIONAL FORECLOSURE NEWS
This article explains the function of MERS - a system created by the Banksters well:
September 25, 2009 by christine
In case you haven’t heard, a Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that MERS has no standing to foreclose.
It was just a matter of time before a court somewhere decided against MERS.
For those of you who don’t know who or what MERS is, it’s the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, essentially an electronic database that was created by the mortgage industry to circumvent the proper recording of deeds at the local level.
They are a private company owned by the banks, and mortgages that are registered with MERS are usually done so at the time of the loan closing. In fact, some of you might have seen the MERS fee of three or four dollars on your HUD-1 settlement statement.
As we mentioned in an earlier blog post on MERS, its alleged status as a “beneficiary” under Deeds of Trusts is false. MERS is an electronic database! MERS is not a beneficiary under any Deeds of Trusts or mortgages and it cannot foreclose because it cannot and does not have standing to.
This decision is significant because there are SIXTY MILLION mortgages registered in their database, about half of all the mortgages in the United States, and MERS has no standing to foreclose on any of them.
It will be interesting to see how the banking industry will maneuver its way out of this mess. In the meantime, millions of homeowners in Kansas just got an extension of time.
I’ll bet the lenders start negotiation with homeowners in Kansas now! They may not have a choice, knowing they cannot foreclose.
You can read the full decision here.
TODAY'S TENT CITIES PICTURES
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR MIGRATING PELICANS
Kansas.com | Behold the mighty pelican
Unlike their relatives, t
he coastal brown pelican, white pelicans don't dive below the surface from flight. Instead they skim the surface or may tip their tails up and reach down with their bills. White pelicans are one of the few species of birds known to use teamwork. Often just the activity of so many big birds gets baitfish jumping. Flocks have been seen paddling and flapping together to force hapless baitfish to the shallow water, where they'll be easy scoopings. Full Story
BAT DIE-OFF IN THE UNITED STATES CONTINUES
Martinsburg, West Virginia Journal News | Southern bats now dying from fungus
September 27, 2009 - MARTINSBURG WV- It's only been three years since White-nose syndrome was discovered in bats living in caves near Albany, N.Y., but the number of bats now believed to have this fungus has grown significantly and spread to other states such as West Virginia.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, who are working to determine the cause of this problem, are not only worried about an "unprecedented die-off of thousands of bats in the Northeast," but also are concerned about bat populations nationwide.
"We have found sick, dying and dead bats in unprecedented numbers in and around caves and mines from Vermont to Virginia. In some hibernaculum, 90 to 100 percent of the bats are dying," a Fish and Wildlife Service Web site reads.
In a cave advisory issued earlier this year, federal officials said it has not only "killed hundreds of thousands" of bats in northeastern states, but it threatens to spread to the Midwest and Southeast - home to many federally endangered bat species, as well as one of the largest bat populations in the country.
Full StoryUS MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX COMES UP WITH NEW BOMB
US drone crashes into Iraqi office building
It said there was currently no indication that the aircraft, which hit the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, had crashed as a result of "enemy action," but added that the incident was under investigation. American soldiers recovered the drone and were discussing repairs to the building with local officials. Full Story
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