JonLowder.com

links for 2009-06-30

• A Good Renter is Hard to Find?
  According to this Biz Journal article, finding qualified renters is getting harder to do.
  (tags: apartment economy)
• Winston-Salem Coupons
  Gonna have to let my significant other know about this.
  (tags: winston-salem)
• Advice Worth $1 Billion - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
  For once a positive story about consultants.
  (tags: economics)
• Mortgage Bankers Assn Report is Icky
  "The Mortgage Bankers Association is revising downward its 2009 forecast for U.S. loan originations.

  The industry group now expects nationwide mortgage originations this year of $2.03 trillion, down more than $700 billion from what it was forecasting in March.

  The association says fewer home purchases account for $84 billion of the drop. The rest is due to fewer refinancings.

  The MBA now expects 4.8 million existing-home sales in 2009, a 1.2 percent decline from 2008. The association forecasts new-home sales will drop 27 percent to 352,000 units."

  
  
  (tags: economics realestate finance)
  
  
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  New Watchdog in Town
  
  
  From the article: "Former N.C. State Auditor Les Merritt has teamed with Frank Perry, a veteran FBI agent who worked for both the N.C. Ethics Commission and the N.C. State Auditor’s office, to launch the Foundation for Ethics in Public Service.

  The nonprofit will facilitate the investigation and reporting of public corruption by receiving tips about alleged acts of corruption, ascertaining their credibility and passing the information along to investigative reporters or enforcement agencies."

  
  
  (tags: northcarolina ethics)
  
  
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  Krugman Explains the Current Recession
  
  
  Links to audio and PDF files from Paul Krugman's Robbins Memorial Lectures at the London School of Economics
  
  
  (tags: economics)
  
  
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  Clearing the air, or not, on Charlotte summers - CharlotteObserver.com
  
  
  Welcome to North Carolina and here's what you need to know.
  
  
  (tags: northcarolina)
  
  
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  Health-Care Market Characterized By Consolidation, Not Competition ...
  
  
  Why the argument that a public health insurance option would destroy competition is misleading; basically any real competition in health insurance disappeared a while ago.
  
  
  (tags: health healthcare healthinsurance insurance)
  
  

Lewisville in the News

You never like to hear stories about people being shot because someone shot into their home for seemingly no reason, but it's even worse when it happens close to home:

A Lewisville man was hit by a bullet Saturday night when someone shot into his home on Shallowford Road, the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office said.

George Bargoil, 55, and his wife were in bed when they heard gunshots about 11:50 p.m., said Maj. Brad Stanley, a spokesman for the sheriff's office.

Bargoil got up, and that's when a bullet hit him in the arm, Stanley said.

Bargoil was taken by ambulance to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, where he was treated and released.

Lewisville also made the news in a roundabout way when Kevin Jennings, who grew up in Lewisville, became the focus of a Family Research Council effort to block his nomination for Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education:

The Family Research Council (FRC) aims to keep Winston-Salem, N.C.-native Kevin Jennings — founder and former executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) — from taking his post as assistant deputy secretary of education for the department’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

The FRC has set up StopJennings.org, which lists quotes from past Jennings speeches and writings, including from his memoir “Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son,” recounts his life growing up in conservative North Carolina.

In a press release, FRC said the statements on their campaign website are “Kevin Jennings’ most outrageous quotes.” The website allows the public to send an email to the president and Congress opposing Jennings’ appointment...

Jennings takes his post on July 6. The appointment was originally decided on May 19 and publicly announced June 1. Jennings grew up right outside of Winston-Salem, in small town Lewisville, N.C. He is the son of a Baptist preacher. Jennings attended Harvard College, graduating magna cum laude, began a career as a school teacher and later founded GLSEN.