Author: Serkadis

Police on Chicago’s West Side are questioning three men after officers busted what they said was a large criminal fencing operation that sold stolen goods out of a West Side graystone.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

There have been rumors for a while that, despite the NY Times massive failure with its last attempt at a paywall — which drove away users in bunches, pissed off NY Times writers and did little to help the bottom line — the NY Times might consider going back down that cursed road. And now reports are leaking out that the braintrust at the NYT has made a decision and it’s to kill off whatever value the NY Times’ online presence may have had by putting up a paywall designed to piss off users and take itself out of the online conversation.

Apparently, it considered three options for getting users to pay more for online content — and then chose the worst of the three. Among the rejected ideas were the one that we thought sounded quite promising of creating a CwF+RtB-style membership club, that would give people all sorts of benefits for paying, without taking away the free content. The newspaper apparently also rejected a WSJ-style paywall that is pretty porous, with lots of content for free, and easy ways in if necessary, but some stuff gets blocked out. I don’t think that’s a very good solution long-term, but it surely beats the solution that the NY Times appears to have gone with: a Financial Times-style “metered” system, whereby you can visit a few times per month and are then locked out. I try not to link to the Financial Times because of this particular system. It means when I link to them a large number of my readers can’t read the story, and that is no good for anyone. Why am I going to send people to a story they can’t read? Putting up such a system takes the NY Times out of the conversation online and makes sure that people won’t link to them, won’t share the stories and won’t discuss them.

Will some people sign up and pay? Yes, absolutely. In fact, I’m sure that there will be stories early on about just how many people subscribed. But as we saw with TimesSelect, that initial number plateaued quickly, and getting the next generation of readers to sign up? Yeah… good luck. Putting this system in place is effectively the NY Times saying that it only plans to be the paper of record for an older generation, and plans to give up the next generation.

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The head of the IMF said China and other developing Asian economies are leading a global recovery that is faster and stronger than expected, but warned that money rushing into emerging markets could lead to asset bubbles.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, strongly suggested Monday that the IMF would raise its 2010 global growth forecast from the 3.1 percent it projected in October.

China, India and other emerging Asian economies were close to returning to their pre-crisis growth rates, while rebounds in the U.S., Japan and other advanced economies remained “sluggish,” he said.

“The forecasts we’re going to release in a couple of days will show that this recovery is going faster and stronger than we expected” several months ago, Strauss-Kahn told reporters in Tokyo.

While the IMF doesn’t forecast a “double-dip,” or second recession, risks remain, he said. “We have to very cautious because this recovery remains very fragile.”

While hundreds of billions in stimulus spending by governments around the world avoided another Great Depression, he said, the most important risk facing the global economy is deciding how and when to reverse those polices and deal with resulting debt burdens.

“Now we have to fix the consequences of the policy that has been put in place to fight against the crisis,” he said. “Finding the right time to implement exit policies is really a difficult one.”

“If you exit too late, you waste resources,” he said. “If you exit too early, you have a risk of going back into recession.”

The best indicators for timing fresh growth strategies are monitoring private demand and employment, he said. The IMF recommends that governments devise policies that will support the labor market given still-high joblessness, which could lead to social unrest in some countries.

A key lesson from the global financial crisis is that authorities need to beef up supervision ” more so than regulations” of financial institutions, he said.

“You may have the best regulations in the world, but if it’s not supervised correctly, it’s no use.”

Strauss-Kahan also said he was worried that the unified political will to tackle the crisis demonstrated at the Group of 20 summits last year will vanish as the world economy recovers.

The rush of money into major emerging markets such as China, Brazil and Russia reflects investors’ recognition that these economies are growing rapidly.

But Strauss-Kahn said this could lead to “many problems,” including asset bubbles and a sudden drop in foreign investment, much like Eastern European countries experienced during the global financial crisis.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Twenty business advisors from across the United States, Canada and Australia earned their Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) credential from the Exit Planning Institute (EPI).

These dedicated professionals join an exclusive group of fewer than 120 professionals worldwide who have received this designation.

The November 2009 class of Certified Exit Planning Advisors successfully completed the CEPA program and proctored exam administered at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center on Nov. 2 – 6, 2009.

The newest class of Certified Exit Planning Advisors received their certificates and award notifications this past week.

Here is a complete listing of the graduates of the November 2009 CEPA program:

• Lee Adams – Consolidated Construction Services – Carlsbad, CA
• Carol Coughlin – Bottomline Growth Strategies – Towson, MD
• Louis Danna – Louis V. Danna – Houston, TX
• Peter Draper – Equity Transitions, Inc. – Milton, ON
• Tim Fawcett – Eastwind Business Solutions – Moncton, NB
• Robert Fiance – US Business Services – Westlake Village, CA
• Thomas Griffiths– Griffith, Dreher & Evans PC – Spokane, WA
• Peter Hickey – MAUS Business Systems – Manly, NSW
• John Howe – New Hampshire Business Sales – Meredith, NH
• Barry Kasoff – Realization Services, Inc. – Bedford Hills, NY
• Jason Kwiatkowski – BDO Dunwoody, LLP – Toronto, ON
• Phil McAlister – The Christman Group – Lombard, IL
• Chad Morissette – Mor-Liquidity M&A – Kanata, ON
• Scott Neal – D. Scott Neal, Inc. – Lexington, KY
• Donald Ramirez – Peak Wealth Advisors – San Luis Obispo, CA
• Gordon Robbie – The Bonadio Group – Albany, NY
• Kaye Simmons – B2B CFO Partners, LLC – Ellicott City, MD
• Frank Stabler – Certified Business Brokers – Houston, TX
• Jeffrey White – Valuation Specialists – Eau Claire, WI
• Scott Yoder – Production Input Solutions – Mason City, IA

About the CEPA Program

This innovative educational program was specifically designed for business advisors who work closely with owners of privately held companies.

Using an executive MBA-style format, the program is designed around a central case study and uses a combination of lectures, group discussions, case studies and individual exercises to introduce participants to concepts and to reinforce skills.

Certification Criteria and Process

Certified Exit Planning Advisors complete a challenging 4-day program that involves approximately 150 hours of pre-course study, 34 hours of classroom instruction, and successful completion of a 3.5 hour proctored examination.

The next CEPA course and examination will be offered at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Management on May 3 – 7, 2010. The application deadline for this program is April 15, 2010.

About The Exit Planning Institute

The Exit Planning Institute is the premier provider of learning, knowledge, and future-oriented research for exit planning professionals. The Institute delivers innovative learning experiences, performance-enhancing resources, and strategic tools designed to advance the exit planning profession.

The Institute is made up of business brokers, accountants, attorneys, financial advisors, investment bankers, valuation advisors, commercial lenders, insurance advisors, and management consultants in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong/China, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.

The common thread that unites these different professionals is their commitment to helping clients exit their companies successfully.

More information about the Institute can be found at exit-planning-institute.org.

IBM and Research in Motion (RIM) announced a partnership today to sell Blackberry devices fully loaded with IBM’s collaboration software. This is the first time IBM has sold Blackberry devices into its business channel.

Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections will both be available on the Blackberry. Lotus Quickr is an IBM document sharing application. Lotus Connections is social software technology that helps find people with a particular expertise.

Sponsor

The two companies are long-time partners. For the past nine years, IBM’s Mobile Enterprise Services organization has worked with clients on integrating the Blackberry Enterprise solution.

On its surface, this latest alliance looks like a smart one, combining Blackberry’s dominance in the corporate market, with Lotus Connections, IBM Software’s fastest growing product. This will add to an existing integration between Blackberry devices and Lotus Sametime, another collaboration software from IBM. Lotus Sametime gives users the ability to see if others are online. it also includes instant messaging and calendar functions.

The alliance is strong but a big issue is the viability of applications on Blackberry devices. Blackberry applications have had little pick up in the enterprise. The applications are pricey, too, costing $10, $20 or more.

But it is interesting to note that IBM will be selling the Blackberry devices already fully loaded with the Lotus software. This means the applications will be immediately available to customers. Corporate IT has to this point been reticent about allowing access to applications on Blackberry devices. This may make for an easier sell by combining the hardware and software into one package.

A major hindrance is Blackberry’s core functionality as a messaging device. It is not designed to serve applications. The iPhone and the Nexus One both have an optimized touch screen interface that makes the devices better suited for applications. The Blackberry’s keyboard makes it ideal for email and text messaging.

We expect the Lotus applications will be primarily used for viewing documents. Writing to documents on a Blackberry device seems like it would be quite laborious. Emailing comments to the collaboration environment would be more suitable, playing to the strengths of the Blackberry device.

It’s unclear how fast the enterprise will adopt mobile applications but all signs show huge interest in smart phones by business users who want access to corporate application whenever or wherever they may be. According to Forrester Research, IT managers are dramatically underestimating the demand for mobile in the enterprise. Forrester expects that perception will undoubtedly change as demand for access to corporate applications soars over the next two years.

But RIM does look like it is on the right track with the choice in applications. According to Forrester, mobile collaboration technologies are just beginning to grow in usage by smart phone users. Adoption will increase as more collaboration vendors make its applications available on mobile platforms.

Forrester:

“So what are employees doing with their smartphones? They mostly do basic things to stay productive: email, contact management, and calendaring. Productivity tools — the ability to open, view, and perhaps mark up documents — comes next, followed by a slew of specialized applications and one important nugget: team collaboration applications. Why isn’t team collaboration adoption level higher? Because few companies are currently making applications like Cisco WebEx, Microsoft SharePoint, or Lotus Connections available to mobile devices.”

We are seeing partnerships emerge that combine hardware and software technologies. Last week, Microsoft and Hewlett–Packard announced a $250 million partnership that will feature Microsoft software on Hewlett-Packard hardware to sell into data centers and cloud service providers.

Further, Google is now offering its own smart phone. HTC manufactures the device. An enterprise phone is in development. It will undoubtedly feature Google Apps as the collaborative software built into the smart phone.

Discuss

You know what’s great? My smartphone puts the world in my pocket. Broadband puts 2,454,399 channels on my HDTV. I can access the internet from a freaking airplane! You know what’s unsustainable? Paying for it all.

Here’s why: a well-equipped geek will, in our research, have a subscription and service bill total of between 200 and 750 dollars a month.

Let me break it down. You’ve got your smartphone bill, your cable bill, your home broadband bill. Those are unavoidable expenses—there’s not much you can do about them.

Then think about the must-have gadgets on the horizon: a smartbook that requires a data plan. A tablet that’ll require Wi-Fi HotSpot access or a 3G dongle. The same for a thin-and-light notebook. And those are just your 1:1 service fees for devices.

Now throw in all of the wonderful content and service subscriptions you either already have or will soon. You’ve got TiVo, which is better and cheaper than most cable-provided DVRs but still about $11 a month. Netflix, to rent or stream unlimited movies. Hulu’s free for now, but we know they’re going to start charging any week. If you’ve got an Xbox 360, you’ve got an Xbox Live Gold membership. I’m a city slicker with no car, but if I had one I’d need a navigation app that’s good enough for everyday use. A free Flickr membership is fine today, but once HD camcorders gain prominence, you’re going to want a Flickr Pro membership for high-def playback. And so on.

If that doesn’t sound so bad, see how it looks when you add it all up:

That’s right: if you want to stay even close to fully connected, you’re expected to cough up nearly $1,000 a month. Not for hardware. For fees. And that doesn’t even include niche services like Vimeo and Zune Pass, or one-off purchases like eBooks or iTunes downloads. Or, god forbid, food and shelter.

A couple of years ago, we talked about the Infinite Video Format War, and the dozen-plus disc-free video formats that each come with their own subscription models, fees, and offerings. There’s still no resolution there. Think of the Subscription War like that, only extrapolated across all of your devices, content, and services.

The problem isn’t subscriptions themselves. Content subscriptions reward risk-taking, which is great! How many movies have you discovered because of a Netflix recommendation? How many shows have you watched on Hulu that you never would have found on your TV’s channel guide? And individually, they seem cost effective.

The problem is fragmentation. The problem is that each service provider thinks within a bubble, without recognizing the larger ecosystem of payments we live in. It’s like those nights in high school when each teacher would assign you two hours of homework. There weren’t enough hours in the day then, and there’s not enough money in a paycheck now. And there shouldn’t have to be.

There are some ways out: you don’t actually need cable or satellite TV to enjoy your favorite shows. If you’ve got a smartphone, you really don’t need a land line, and you can probably get away with the minimum 450 minutes if you lean on messaging and Skype. There are also free navigation apps that’ll work in a pinch. But at the end of the day, you’re still looking at hundreds of dollars a month for services you don’t need constant access to.

So what’s the answer? Well, ad-supported content generally comes free or highly discounted. But ad-supported solutions require people to purchase the things being advertised. Hulu’s plans to start charging indicates that that model’s not sustainable in the long run. One blanket subscription that lets you access several different sites or services works for the online porn industry, but those linked sites all operate under the same umbrella parent company. Not feasible when the participants are major competitors.

The honest answer is that there may not be one. Not yet, anyway. Eventually the monthly bills will stack up so high that people will have to start cutting ties with companies, who will in turn have to either lower prices or fade away. You’ve already started to see it with AT&T and Verizon cutting prices on unlimited plans last week. Until everyone gets on board, though? We’re all just casualties.

In case you haven’t heard (qjnet/nintendo-ds/japan-getting-rockman-zero-collection-for-ds.html), the Mega Man Zero Collection is the re-release of four Mega Man Zero titles from the GBA in one DS cart. But apart from being repackaged into one convenient collection, the

Danobat has been manufacturing horizontal and vertical lathes since 1954. During all those years, Danobat has supplied many machines in the following industries: car industry, aerospace, subcontracting, power generation, etc.

Danobat develops all the projects by means of a close cooperation with their customers, in order to propose them the right solutions, always taking in consideration the increase of the productivity and the cost reduction. The modular design enables a wide range of specifications to be configured in a short time and to be produced efficiently and cost effectively.

A wide range of options are available: automatic chucks, possibility of a second ram, live spindle, part probing system, tool presetting, telediagnosis, full enclosure, etc.

Danobat VTC’s can machine components up to 6.000 mm in diameter and a height of 4.500 mm.

Proven performances in combining turning, milling and grinding operations with high precision and high productivity has created an important position for the VTC range in many industries. such as: Aerospace, Railways, Power industry, Large precision bearings, Valves and Subcontracting Industry.

Filed under: Etc., Celebrities, Rumormill

Few film franchises have gone into six installments. But then few film franchises have been such enormous box office hits as The Fast and the Furious series. Now it appears that, after four installments already released, NBC Universal could be on its way to filming numbers five and six together for staggered release.

The news was broken by none other than Vin Diesel himself, the star of the film series, on his Facebook page. According to Diesel:

If 2009’s ‘Fast and Furious’ was chapter one, what writer Chris Morgan just delivered is Chapter 2 and chapter 3.
I have never been submitted a two story saga from a studio before… it is very exciting, and shows a commitment level that is hard not to respond to.
Excited about the sexy locations the filming of this sag…

Chris Morgan was the writer behind the last two installments (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast and Furious), and according to Diesel, he’s already written the next two screenplays. That, of course, doesn’t mean they’ve both been approved for production, but with the director, writer and lead actor reportedly already on board, the studio would have to have gone speed-blind to pass up these cash cows.

[Source: Facebook | Image: Charley Gallay/Getty]

No Escaping the NAWS: Vin Diesel hints at Fast and Furious 5 and 6 on Facebook originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

• Doesn’t the outpouring of American aid, from both the public and the private sector, show once again that Americans are the most generous people on this planet?
• Is it time to buy timeshares? We snooped around a little and were blown away by how cheap some of these have gotten. When everyone is selling, it’s probably a good time to be buying.
• Oops, we meant to include a link to the clip from Splendor in the Grass last week but accidentally linked to an Elvis Presley clip.  Here’s the scene we intended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtO5rF-ORWc&feature=related
• If you work for GMAC, does that mean you work for the government? We’re just kidding, but the government does own 56% of the company.
• Have you been following the imminent foreclosure of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in New York City ?  This is New York ’s biggest apartment complex, with over 11,000 units.  Here’s the deal: (1) Tishman Speyer and Blackrock bought it for $5.4 billion in 2006. (2) Each invested $112 million, raised capital from other investors, and got a $3 billion first mortgage. (3) Piggybacking on the 1st, they simultaneously got a $1.4 billion second mortgage. (4) They got the $3 billion first mortgage from Wachovia, but (5) Wachovia securitized it and sold most of it. (6) Who bought the securities? The biggest investors are FNMA and Freddie Mac.  Analysts say the soon-to-be foreclosed property has dropped in value from $5.4 billion to about $1.8 billion.
• We wrote of hero Miep Gies last week, and it got us to thinking about our childhood heroes. One was cowboy star Roy Rogers. He represented the Western virtues of straight talk, courage, honesty, decency, courtesy to women and a dedication to the law.  He always fought by the rules, and if you think back, he never once killed anyone.  When he was forced to use his gun, he never killed people it but would just shoot the gun out of the bad guy’s hand. 
  

If you grew up as a little kid in the fifties, you loved him.   He had a wife named Dale, a dog named Bullet, (or maybe vice versa) and a horse named Trigger. He was just a TV character, but he was a great role model for kids.

• The MBA is predicting that total mortgage volume will be down 40% in 2010, with refinances off 60%.  We’re seeing too many budgets that show the company’s volume increasing this year.  Unfortunately, plans that assume growth also have to assume all the things that go with growth, the main one being increased spending.  If you insist on such an optimistic budget, how about also having a shadow budget that’s more reflective of falling loan activity?
• It’s a sad time for gourmets everywhere. Donald Goerke died last week, and he was the Campbell Soup executive who invented Spaghetti-Os, one of nature’s more perfect foods.

• We were at a mid-Atlantic Bank not too long ago, and the CEO was livid over secondary market leakage.  He was angry at the head of secondary and their hedging advisor.  Our audit revealed that processors had mislabeled a bunch of non-owners as owner-occupied loans, and they naturally took a big hit when they were sold.  Two lessons here:  (a) Figure out first why certain losses have occurred before you start assigning blame (it’s often not as obvious as it appears), and (b) how about assigning the losses to the true source of the problem, in this case, production?  You need to isolate such situations from your gain-on-sale calculation or you’ll get a highly inaccurate picture of your secondary marketing department’s performance. Capiche?

• This sounds callous, but the devastation in Haiti may actually benefit that poor country.  Billions of dollars are going to flow into Haiti as near-total reconstruction takes place, and all that money will create jobs, new businesses, and for some, real wealth. There will probably be lots of corruption, but still, lots of those dollars will work their way into the economy as they’re spent on food, goods and services. The human toll is incalculable and the loss of life unimaginable.  But the new wealth that will come could create a middle-class, and middle-classes always demand (and get) democratic institutions. In a perverse way, the horrible disaster may drag the country out of its desperate poverty and toward a liberal democracy that acts in the best economic interests of its citizens.
• We get asked a lot how we write this newsletter, and the answer is that it’s much easier than you might think. We keep it open on our computer desktop, and when we see or think of something interesting, we jot it down.   It’s written 30 seconds here, 60 seconds there.  When it looks like we have about 15-16 bullet points, we edit it (albeit poorly) and send it out.  If we tried writing it all at one sitting, it just wouldn’t be the same.  We tried it once, and it came out boring and self-conscious.
• You know what cracks us up the most about our newsletter? About 3-4 times a year, we’ll find someone who takes our newsletter, removes our names at the bottom, and sends it out under his company name!  We don’t get all excited about it, and it mostly makes us wonder who these people are.  Can’t you just see one of the guy’s loan officers saying “Hey, Jack, I like our new newsletter, but I had no idea you liked baseball so much.  You always said you hated it.  And what’s all this stuff about Cal and growing up in the fifties?  If you went to Cal , why do you have that Oregon State diploma on the wall?  And the fifties?  Jack, get a grip. I’m your twin brother, and we were both born in 1977!” 
• Last week we mentioned the coffee mugs given out by Farmers National Bank. We actually meant Farmers Bank & Trust, a great Kansas bank.  They have a very successful mortgage operation, and one of the things we like is that they’re always trying to improve and perfect their processes.  They have an intellectual curiosity about the business that’s refreshing.  We liked them so much that we not only took one of their coffee mugs, but we also opened up a deposit account there.
• The attached article is a year old, but we think it asks questions that still haven’t been answered.  Maybe the Congressional hearings going on will get past management and question some bank Directors who seemed AWOL  
• If kids get heroes like Roy Rogers from watching them on TV, is there a generation that will look upon Richard Simmons as their hero? Here’s the fitness guru himself, in all his embarrassing glory.
  

Shouldn’t there be a law about men wearing short shorts in public?  Last year National Enquirer caught Arnold Schwarzenegger on film wearing a Speedo bikini bottom at the beach, and Speedo’s just don’t look right on guys over the age of about six.  We still have nightmares about Arnold in his G-string swimsuit.

We’ve been writing about leakage, and we’ve gotten quite a few responses. Different companies have different ways of doing the calculation, but the important thing is that many of you are really focusing on it now.  If you’re uncertain about the methodology, your Hedging Advisory Service can give you guidance.  Also, you don’t want to include your hedging cost but should treat that separately. Your Advisor is probably charging you 1-2 bps, so it’s not going to make a huge difference if you do include it, but don’t waste your time trying to figure out the cost of the bid-ask spread.

And finally, for all you Latin lovers, here are two phrases to give to your internal audit or quality control departments: Nil credam et omnia cavebo (Believe nothing and guard against everything) and Quid custodiet ipsos  (And who shall guard the guardians?).

We’re back from New Jersey and Texas and off to Ohio and Seattle , so no newsletters for another week or so.  But we’ll see you s soon as we get back.

Garrett, Watts & Co.

“Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.”

Corky Watts     (408-395-5504)

Joe Garrett      (510-469-8633)

Mike McAuley   (281-250-2536)

It’s lonely at the top, something that is becoming clearer and clearer for Google. It’s being attacked from all sides, government regulators and private companies alike, sometimes over real issues, but most of the time over what amounts to jealousy of Google’s increasingly successful ventures. In the latest case, three German companies and organ… (read more)

We’re fans of Novatel’s MiFi hotspots, which allow a 3G connection to be converted into Wi-Fi. What we are not fans of is a new exploit that lets hackers reveal your location and all your security info.

The exploit, which affects the MiFi 2200s sold by Verizon and Sprint, kicks in when users visit a certain website.

“Among the information the MiFi 2200 will readily share is the WiFi security key – sent in clear text – and with some Javascript Baldwin showed it was possible to change the hotspot’s settings to the point where a factory reset is required in order to restore functionality to the user. Even if GPS is turned off, a remote command can be used to switch it back on.

A further exploit can extract the entire configuration of the MiFi, again in clear text, including all of the security settings.”

If you’re a MiFi user, just be careful out there until Novatel issues a fix. [UMPC Portal via SlashGear]

Forgive us for focusing so much on the betting over at InTrade today — but since the stock market is closed, and since we’re junkies, this will have to do.

Anyway, in addition to collapsing odds for Martha Coakley, the the contract for the GOP to takeover the House come November is surging, perhaps on a realization that the Democratic party — through unpopular policies, a wave of retirements, and firece infighting — has quickly been thrown into disarray.

Still, the contract is trading at 37.8%, so it’s a big hill to climb.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Martha Coakley Falls To 40% On InTrade
• How Traders Are Making Money On Sarah Palin, Osama Bin Laden, And Tim Geithner’s Resignation

A divorce can oftentimes exert considerable stress on a couple’s financial situation, resulting in the need to make important decisions about the distribution of assets and satisfaction of liabilities.  Where a couple is faced with a property valued under what is owed on a mortgage or the prospect of foreclosure due to nonpayment, a short sale may be preferential.  A short sale is the sale of real estate in which the sale proceeds equal less than the amount owed towards the mortgage or mortgages on the property. A short sale requires that the lender, or holder of the lien on the marital property, agrees to a discounted or reduced repayment of the loan.

In these circumstances, when a short sale is considered, there are frequently many benefits associated with retaining a qualified and knowledgeable real estate attorney. A competent attorney will be able to provide answers to all of your questions regarding the short sale process, as well as review your agreement with the lender and realtor in order to ensure that all potential ramifications of the short sale are accounted for. Important considerations may include tax consequences, credit score and reporting activities on behalf of the lender, and the potential for a deficiency judgment (an amount that may be owed to the lender representing the difference between the loan balance and the proceeds of a short sale).

The first important consideration, in deciding whether to utilize a short sale to solve a financial problem, is the potential effect of a short sale on the couple’s credit report and score. While a short sale will almost inevitably cause a decline in an individual’s credit score, a short sale’s impact on a borrower’s credit score will often depend on the timing of the short sale and will almost always be less than the decline resulting from a foreclosure. In most cases, the longer a borrower is in arrears and is unable to pay amounts owed to a lender, the worse the impact is on the credit score. If a borrower is able to remain current on mortgage payments during the short sale process, the decline in the credit score will be less significant. Understanding the resulting implications of a short sale and the way in which these implications will impact a couple in the future is an important step in making an informed decision regarding the disposition of the marital home.

The next issue to consider is whether the lender will have recourse against the borrower for the difference between the sale price of the property and the amount owed on the mortgage loan.  A deficiency judgment is a judgment awarded by the court which allows a creditor to recover the unsatisfied portion owed on a loan after the sale of the mortgaged property fails to repay the debt owed in full. In order to assure that the lender will not pursue payment of the amount owed after a short sale, it is imperative that an attorney negotiate and draft a forbearance agreement on the borrower’s behalf. Such agreement will outline the terms of repayment and specify that the lender agrees to withhold their right to pursue payment for any amounts owed after the sale. Without the help of an educated attorney, practiced in contract negotiation, drafting, and real estate law, divorcing couples seeking to utilize a short sale may find themselves owing the lender money for years after the conclusion of the short sale transaction.

Lastly, it is important to determine the possible tax consequences of a short sale transaction for a couple investigating the use of a short sale in the distribution of assets during a divorce.  The U.S. tax code taxes individuals based on income or gain. Income is defined as all income from whatever source derived whatsoever. According to American tax law, this definition of income includes cancellation of debt, because it is considered a freeing of assets under the case of U.S. v. Kirby Lumber Co., 284 U.S. 1 (1931). The tax code outlines specific cancellation of debt income which does not need to be included in an individual’s gross income in 26 U.S.C. § 108(f). These exclusions include:

• If the discharge of indebtedness occurs in a title 11 bankruptcy case;
• If the discharge of indebtedness occurs when the taxpayer is insolvent;
• If the indebtedness discharged is qualified farm indebtedness; and
• If the indebtedness discharged is qualified real property business indebtedness

The tax consequences are some of the most important and significant ramifications of a short sale transaction. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 added another exemption to the above referenced list, known as the qualified principal residence exemption, in an attempt to provide relief for qualified taxpayers who were not covered by the traditional exemptions. The Act provides relief from taxation on cancellation of debt income, such as that experienced in a short sale situation, so long as the forgiven or cancelled debt was used to buy, build, or substantially improve a borrower’s principal residence, or to refinance debt incurred for those purposes and the debt was secured by the home. This new exemption may offer assistance to many individuals facing the possibility of a short sale; however, it is important to note that the exemption does not apply to second homes or investment properties. Due to the complicated nature and intricacies of the tax code, as well as the manner in which the tax code can be applied to different individuals in a variety of situations, an attorney can be an invaluable asset in determining whether a short sale is a desirable solution to a divorcing couple’s financial woes.

Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law the Performance Evaluation Reform Act of 2010, a bill to implement new, rigorous evaluations for teachers and school principals across the state.

The new law boosts Illinois’ “Race to the Top” application by addressing one of the four priority areas outlined by the U.S. Department of Education.

“This law is another strong signal to Washington that a top-notch education for all Illinois students is our foremost priority,” said Gov. Quinn.

“Rigorous teacher and principal evaluations will make our education system the best it can be, while ensuring Illinois is at the head of the class when it comes to winning those important federal ‘Race to the Top’ funds.”

Senate Bill 315, sponsored by Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) and Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), requires every school district to incorporate student performance as a significant factor in teacher and principal evaluations.

The new law requires districts to work with its local teachers’ union to meet the new requirements.

More than 350 school districts, representing more than 70 percent of Illinois’ students, have agreed to make student performance at least 50 percent of evaluation criteria if Illinois receives “Race to the Top” funds.

Under the legislation, Chicago Public Schools and dozens of other districts will begin using the new teacher evaluations in 2012, with full statewide implementation by 2016. All districts will implement the new principal evaluations in 2012.

If the state wins “Race to the Top funds,” the timeline would be greatly accelerated with most districts implementing the evaluations in 2012.

Gov. Quinn also signed Senate Bill 616, sponsored by Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) and Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), which allows non-profit organizations, such as Teach for America, to offer alternative certification programs independent from institutions of higher education.

This allows the state to increase the number of high-quality training programs for teachers and principals, a priority established by the U.S. Department of Education. The non-profit programs will be required to undergo the same rigorous approval process as higher education institutions.

These bills represent a four-month effort by the Governor’s Office, the Illinois State Board of Education, the two major teachers’ unions, civic and business leaders, advocates, management groups and legislators from both parties.

“Race to the Top” is a $4.35 billion competitive federal grant process focused on innovative approaches to education.

Illinois could receive up to $500 million in discretionary funds made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Applications are due Jan. 19.

The sales are starting to slide for Modern Warfare 2. Based on the latest Chart Track in the UK, the glitchy-but-top-selling shooter bows out of the top, leaving the throne to Just Dance and Wii Fit Plus.

Eleven fans were ejected from Melbourne Park for disruptive behavior Monday and another group was denied entry on the first day of the Australian Open.

The incidents recalled ethnic tensions that have marred the tennis tournament in recent years, leading to upgraded security this year.

Victoria Police Superintendent Jock Menzel said the 11 people ejected had been standing on chairs and bothering other spectators during Croatian Ivo Karlovic’s win over 13th-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.

One man was found to be carrying two flares that he had smuggled past security officials searching bags at the venue.

“These people have been removed from the stadium and they’re not welcome to return,” Menzel said.

In a separate incident, a group of Croatian supporters in red and white checked clothing and hooded sweat shirts were denied entry to the
park after setting off a flare outside the grounds.

Australia has a large population of immigrants from the Balkans whose ethnic rivalries are sometimes displayed at sports events.

At last year’s Australian Open, a chair-throwing brawl erupted between supporters of Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Bosnian-born American
Amer Delic. Several people are facing court charges over that fight.

On the court, former top-ranked Maria Sharapova was a surprise 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4 loser Monday to fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.