News in the house
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing — who recently tweeted that there won’t be a RoboCop statue in Detroit, only to see people raise the funds for it anyway — has come up with a better tactic to lure people back to the city. (Better than a RoboCop statue? Pshaw.) Two new programs are being enacted to draw in new citizens. The first offers up to $150,000 in housing renovation money and requires only $1,000 down for any police officers who want to move to the city. (We bet those officers would really appreciate a RoboCop statue in their honor.) The other program offers college graduates as much as $2,500 to rent housing in Detroit or as much as $20,000 in forgivable loans to buy property. We just hope these ‘better than free’ houses have good insulation. It’s so cold in the D.
In other housing news, a Patrick Rodgers of Philadelphia won a judgment against Wells Fargo Home Mortgage when they wouldn’t formally answer any of his questions when they more than doubled his homeowners’ premium. Rodgers took Wells Fargo to court for not answering questions they are required to answer under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). Wells Fargo still didn’t respond, earning him a default judgment of $1,000. When Wells Fargo didn’t pay the court-ordered amount, Rodgers took a page out of their own play book and went to the sheriff. Now Rodgers is the proud owner of a Sheriff’s levy stating that the contents of the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage at 1341 N. Delaware Avenue will go on sale on March 4th if Rodgers doesn’t receive the $1,000 judgment plus another $200 for court and sheriff fees. Delicious.
Oh, Canada.
A police officer in Toronto has apologized for saying “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized” at a university public safety forum when the subject of rape was brought up. I have plans to grope this officer and tell him it’s all his fault for wearing a sexy uniform like that.
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- Detroit is paying police officers and college grads to move into their worst neighborhoods. (SAI, includes an awesome gallery of 100 abandoned houses courtesy of Kevin Bauman)
- Homeowner wins judgment against bank, forecloses on bank when they don’t pay up. Turnabout’s fair play. (Philly)
- Idiot suggests rape victims should stop being so slutty. (TorontoStar)
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- Comcast is launching a 24-hour 3D channel tomorrow, even though 83% of those polled recently said they wouldn’t buy a new TV just to get 3D programs, and 31% said 3D does not “enhance their entertainment experience”. We know a couple cats who love 3D. (CNET)
- The NYSE and the Deutsche Boerse plan to merge, making the world’s largest financial markets company. Expect an increase in sales of Persian cats who enjoy sitting on supervillains’ laps. (France24)
- Zynga — maker of Farmville, Cityville, and other nightmares — has been valued at nearly $10 billion (with a “B”) dollars, and are currently raising half a billion dollars while preparing for an initial public offering. You won’t be able to buy shares until you milk eight pink cows and spam ten of your friends, though. (AllThingsD)
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- While Comcast plans their foray into 3D, Netflix is still destroying their competition. This infographic explores how much Netflix is outperforming Blockbuster. And to think, Blockbuster had a chance to buy Netflix for only $50 million back in 2010. (/film)
- In other TV news, Hulu is still dominating online network TV viewing, drawing twice as many viewers as the web videos on the official websites of the five biggest TV networks combined. But I’m sure the major networks can reverse the trend by adding more 45 second ads to the front of 20 second clips, then autoplaying another ad before letting you rewatch the clip. People love that. (TechCrunch)
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