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Permalink Reply by Stephen M. Weeks on April 3, 2009 at 3:43pm

I have a patent on a home refinancing method that can dramatically lower housing prices and turn toxic loans into performing assets.

I am hoping you could take the minute and a half to watch the attached youtube video decide whether it is worthwhile to review the website to consider it for a story on one more tool to stop the housing crisis.

The following YouTube link gives a brief overview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omx9XdQln60 and a detailed lay explanation can be found at www.termownership.com (Including a copy of the patent). Depending on your e-mail settings you may have to cut and paste these into your browser.

In a nutshell Term Ownership is a third form of property ownership (between renting and full ownership) that was prevalent in the 1200's and 1300's but faded out of use because financial institutions and investors did not exist to get the system up and running in a meaningful way. Individuals had to pay for it all up front with their own resources. Now with banks and investors needing safe, performing assets, this program could halt hundreds of thousands (if not millions of foreclosures). But people need to learn it exists, or it will merely go the way of so many good ideas – in the scrapheap of history.

Please help if you can, millions of families are truly hurting right now, many needlessly.

I thank you for your time.

Stephen Weeks

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Permalink Reply by Rhonda on May 8, 2009 at 1:11pm

I am hearing more about the Federal Reserve these days, and it's really scaring me. Can Diane Rehm help those of us who have not followed financial politics closely in the past get caught up on what the Financial Reserve actually IS, and how much power they actually have, and who they are truly accountable to?

As I try to learn more, many of my online searches are leading me to connections to Ron Paul and his bill HR 1207 (for better auditing of the Fed Reserve.?). This sounds like a no-brainer to me, but a lot of Ron Paul supporters also sound like conspiracy theorists and it's hard to sort out what's real and true. Is there conspiracy? Is the Federal Reserve running the world? If so, why don't we all know more about it? If not, why can't I learn more about who they are, what they control, and who they are accountable to? "Trillions in unaccounted for dollars??" Whose keeping track of these people?

When I see things like this brief youtube video, I really want to understand more about what is going on with our country's money...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXlxBeAvsB8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fww...

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Permalink Reply by David Sakrison on June 3, 2009 at 4:21pm

Meymo,
Here's my news release. I will call you in a few days about a possible interview.
Cheers,
--David Sakrison

NEWS
For Immediate Release: June 1, 2009
For more information, contact:
David Sakrison, phone: (920) 748-6125; e-mail: sakrison@charter.net

“Ultralight-Led Whooping Crane Migrations” is featured program
Washington— The author of the acclaimed book, Chasing the Ghost Birds, will present a slide/lecture program on “Ultralight-led Whooping Crane Migrations,” Wednesday June 24 at 7 p.m. at the Audubon Naturalist Society, 8940 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase, MD. The program will touch on the natural history of whooping cranes and describe in detail efforts by biologists and conservationists to teach young captive raised “whoopers” to migrate—a project that has been described as “the wildlife conservation equivalent of putting a man on the moon.” A book signing will follow the program.

Chasing the Ghost Birds, by David Sakrison, documents three groundbreaking wildlife conservation projects to protect whooping cranes, trumpeter swans, and Siberian cranes. Reviewers have called the book “a remarkable chronicle” and “part environmental essay and part adventure tale.”

Sakrison will make several appearances in the greater Washington DC area:
· * Pickering Creek Audubon Center, Easton, MD, Monday June 22, 7 pm, slide program
· * Air & Space Museum on the Mall, Weds. June 24, in-service program for staff and docents (not open to the public)
· * Audubon Center at Mill Creek, Audubon, PA, Thurs. June 25, 7 pm, slide program
· * National Museum of Natural History, Saturday June 27, 11 am to 5 pm, book signing

There were fewer than 20 wild whooping cranes on the planet in 1946. Federal protection brought the single surviving flock to about 200 birds by the 1990s when biologists began efforts to create a second migratory flock in the eastern United States. Today there are nearly 400 wild whoopers in three separate flocks. Sakrison spent two years documenting the whoopers’ odyssey from near-extinction to fragile recovery. Chasing the Ghost Birds also describes efforts to reintroduce North America’s trumpeter swans and Russia’s Siberian cranes to their historic ranges.

—30—

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:
David Sakrison, phone: (920) 748-6125; e-mail: sakrison@charter.net

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Permalink Reply by John Antonelli on June 24, 2009 at 11:40pm

Meymo, I got this from an internet website that I frequent. This person has been reliable in the past. May I suggest you follow this up to see if there is any there there.

Hi Group
I pass this along because this topic is obviously
of great interest to some of the members and because
though it's basically a rumor it DOES come from
someone who's been in the rail transit business
for about 30 years. He says a colleague (also in the
business) told "he was told" that WMATA had been
having a rash of problems with the train control
signals on the Red Line, the system's oldest. They'd
become so cranky and unreliable the train control
feature was disabled on some signals. Too many false
stops impacting service.

In other words, if a train approached a signal at
too fast a speed the signal's failsafe feature -- which
"tells" the train's onboard sensors to slow down --
were disabled and the train would not be slowed or
stopped. This would explain why the ATC system failed
to slow the "striking train" (as the NTSB is calling it).

He also said, IF this is true, it means a) WMATA was
operating a two-track rail line with max speed of 60 mph
on headways of two minutes on what was basically
a "dark" (i.e. unsignaled) railroad. And b) there will
soon be many vacancies in WMATA's upper management.

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Permalink Reply by Pamela S. Boers on June 25, 2009 at 12:03pm

Follow up on how the State Governments are using funds made available to explore Solor energy and other renewable energy sources. Has any particular state require any true vision or long term plan?

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Permalink Reply by Meymo Lyons on June 25, 2009 at 1:57pm

Hey John,

Please give me a bump in the newsroom. 202 885-1233. I am interested in knowing more.

Thanks,

Mem

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Permalink Reply by Amber Harding on June 30, 2009 at 8:37pm

Hi Meymo. Here's the press release I mentioned on the event on Thursday.
Amber

Contact: Eric Tars, Cell: (202) 302-0538, etars@nlchp.org
Eric Sheptock, Cell: (240) 305-5255, ericsheptock@yahoo.com


Homeless Advocates Demand that DC Government Meet the Urgent Needs of DC Residents Experiencing Homelessness
Advocates Proclaim July 2nd “Inter-Dependence Day”

WASHINGTON, DC, July 2, 2009 – It has been almost one month since the death of Renee Paige, who died on a bench outside of three homeless shelters after trying numerous times to enter the shelters only to be told there was no space. DC residents have been turned away from shelter hundreds of times since then because there is not enough space in the emergency shelter system. On July 2nd at 10:00 AM, people experiencing homelessness, advocates, community members, churches, and homeless service providers will rally at Freedom Plaza and then descend upon the Wilson Building (City Hall) to proclaim a Declaration of Inter-Dependence and send a loud, clear message that the District must meet its obligation to help those residents most in need.

During the rally and subsequent visits to government officials, service providers will release a report on the unmeet needs in the emergency shelter system. The report shows that, in May 2009, shelters for men and women were filled to capacity on 16 of 31 nights and went over maximum capacity on 18 of 31 nights, compared to zero nights in May of 2008. For families, the numbers experiencing homelessness in the District have risen 25% since last year, over 200 families remain on the priority list for emergency shelter, and dozens of families get turned away from shelter intake without any services every week. Meanwhile, the D.C. General family winter shelter is slated to close because there is no funding to run the shelter past the winter months.

One woman had been to the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, the central intake site for families, three or four times after running out of family members and friends houses where her family could stay. She lost her job in September and was evicted in May after she couldn’t pay the rent. She slept in her car at night and had her children sleep at friend’s houses after being told that she couldn’t get into shelter. She says she’s been taking it one day at a time and never knows if the family will have a place to stay the next night. Still, she doesn’t blame the intake site, “The people at Virginia Williams can only give as much help and information as they have available…and right now, it seems like it’s out of their hands.”

Instead, this mother of two has a message for the Mayor, “ I’d like to ask the Mayor why they aren’t rehabilitating all of these abandoned buildings and creating more shelter space?... It’s really ridiculous the situation that people are put in when they are down on their luck or going through a bad time.”

This family is not alone. Overflow shelters remain open only if the temperature is 32 and below or 95 and above. Much of the year, people are often put out of shelter into the pouring rain, or otherwise exposed to the elements. Ms. Renee Paige’s death is a stark reminder of the consequences faced by those who cannot access shelter. She should have been one of the first to get housed by the Permanent Supportive Housing program due to her illness, but instead she died on a bench in the rain after having been turned away due to lack of shelter capacity.

The Declaration of Inter-Dependence” will emphasize that we all need to support each other in order to enjoy our rights in times of great need. The event comes shortly before July 4th, or Independence Day, which celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence over 200 years ago. That Declaration proclaimed that “all [people] are created equal… with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It is impossible to enjoy those rights without ones’ basic human needs being met, including the right to adequate and safe shelter. The focus on interdependence of rights echoes the Universal of Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed in 1948 by the United Nations, and reaffirmed in a DC City Council resolution last year. The Declaration states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including… housing and … and necessary social services.”

“Emergency shelter does not fulfill the right to housing, but it is a minimum first step toward the progressive realization of that right,” said Eric Tars, Human Rights Program Director at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, “The District is failing to meet even this basic requirement of life. The Declaration of Inter-Dependence and this report emphasize that doing nothing about homelessness affects more than just those who are homeless and that the community pays far more in human and fiscal costs when people are on the street than when they have housing. When District residents are forced to live on the street, they access emergency medical services in increased numbers, their children have a harder time learning in school, and their ability to gain or maintain employment is greatly reduced. All these costs add up to far more than it would take to just give a person a decent, clean place to live.”

The Declaration makes three basic demands: 1) that the number of individual and family emergency shelter beds be increased to meet demand; 2) that the city track and determine the appropriate size of replacement shelter and maintain adequate emergency shelter while continuing to move homeless persons into permanent housing; and 3) that the city monitor and improve shelter conditions to ensure that the basic human dignity of residents is upheld.

Eric Sheptock, a homeless person and one of the organizers of the event, stated the group’s goal: “We hope many people, homeless and housed, will come out and join us as we raise our voices and speak truth to power. Let’s hold the Mayor and his administration accountable to the promise of human rights proclaimed in the Declarations of Independence and Inter-Dependence.”

###

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Permalink Reply by Amber Harding on June 30, 2009 at 8:44pm

Hello again. I meant to include the link to this compelling video about the struggle to get into emergency shelter in DC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWbPsuT58HI

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Permalink Reply by John Antonelli on July 2, 2009 at 8:56am

Meymo here is one and its up Dave Schultz's alley. On 07/11/09 the Arlington County Board will discuss spending 6 million dollars to renovate and 3 million a year to operate the old Newseum site as an arts center. Did I mention there is an arts center rright behind it (Spectrum) at a time when the County raised taxes and cut services to the least fortunate when it adopted the County budget in April http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/ManagementAndFinance/budget/f...

there should be some spirted discussion.

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Permalink Reply by Meymo Lyons on July 2, 2009 at 2:18pm

Thanks John ! Have a wonderful 4th of July weekend.

Mem

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Permalink Reply by John Antonelli on July 7, 2009 at 4:57pm

Meymo, the vote on the second arts center n Rosslyn is going to be on Tuesday 07/14

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Jones on July 9, 2009 at 1:32pm

Hello
I listen to Kojo's show often to hear the Politics Hour, the Wine Guys, the Computer guys, on a regular basis and I think there really really needs to a regular show on The Environment, like the show I heard today with the Riverkeepers. In this area we have so much water, so much oppurtunity for change, and the evnvironment really needs to be in our public discussion way more than it is. Please consider dedicating a slot for consistant conversation about our local environmental situation.
Thank You
Kim Jones

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