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She found out it's possible to owe nothing to the bank and lose your home anywayIn a tough housing market, many people are underwater on their homes. But it’s also possible to owe nothing to the bank and lose your home anyway, as a North Miami-Dade condominium owner found out. Christy, a woman who lived at the Jade Winds condo complex in North Miami Beach, said she owned her place outright and pad the condo fees automatically, but ended up getting kicked out over a $200 monthly assessment. Christy, who only wanted her first name published, said her trouble started...

Between 1764 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 Americans produced a rich series of pamphlets and resolutions listing their grievances against the central government of the British Empire. As I have pointed out before, reading those pamphlets is very helpful in understanding what the Constitution really means. And ignorance of them contributes to common constitutional mistakes. These pamphlets are particularly useful in comprehending the Founders’ version of federalism. This is because the constitutional balance between states and federal government partly reflected what the Founders had wanted the balance to be between colonies and imperial government. One of the most...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: It's not a good day for the left and you're not gonna hear much about this. The media is not gonna talk too much about this. Colorado voters have rejected an attempt to raise state income and sales taxes to fund education. ... With 38 percent of precincts reporting," that's when I printed this out, "Prop 103 was going down in flames across the state; 35% in favor of raising taxes, 65% against." What's the final number here? Da-da-da-da-da-da. It's about that. Sixty-five, 35% is about what it ended up. Also true in Denver. That was the...

<p>It's like a traditional neighborhood watch, but instead of crime, volunteers will be on the lookout for grime. And they'll put neighbors on notice for basic problems ranging from overgrown grass and unkempt shrubs to parking on the lawn and putting trash out too early.</p>

A zoning board in Fairfax County, Va., is standing firm in its decision to order a war veteran to destroy a tree house he built for his two young sons. County officials determined Mark Grapin, an Army aviation specialist, violated zoning regulations when he built a tree house in his backyard. “The boys wanted a tree house,” Grapin told Fox News Radio, explaining it was a promise he made to his 8-year-old and 10-year-old sons before he left for Iraq. “It was a commitment I made to the boys and, frankly, we should do our best to keep our commitments...

(CNN) -- Charlotte Bevins' long blond hair blows in the wind as she stands amid protesters, her eyes red and puffy from crying. Just four months ago, Bevins' brother, Charles, lost his life in a drilling accident in central New York. He was 23, a father of two small children. Gazing at the ground, Bevins tightens her grip on the handles of the baby stroller that cradles her young niece while hundreds of protesters lining the nearby streets wave signs and yell around her. No fracking way. No fracking way. No fracking way, the crowd chants. Bevins recently made the...

THE United States became the world’s largest economy because we invented products and then made them with new processes. With design and fabrication side by side, insights from the factory floor flowed back to the drawing board. Today, our most important task is to restart this virtuous cycle of invention and manufacturing. Rebuilding our manufacturing capacity requires the demolition of the idea that the United States can thrive on its service sector alone. We need to create at least 20 million jobs in the next decade to offset the effects of the recession and to address our $500 billion trade...

A 64-year-old woman trying to raise money to pay for medical bills incurred in her fight against a terminal form of bone cancer has been told she must stop her garage sales or face a fine. Jan Cline has been selling off her belongings in the backyard for a few weekends after being diagnosed with a type of cancer that eats through her bones and makes walking extremely difficult. But as the bills for treatment pile up, city officials in Salem, alerted by a complaint from a neighbour, say she is breaking the law and have shut the yard sales...

A south Bossier City homeowners association has sued to force a family to remove a front yard sign supporting their son's military service because it violated subdivision covenants. The Burrs placed a large multicolored banner with a picture of their 20-year-old son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Corey Burr, and the phrase "Our son defends our freedom" in January after Corey Burr was deployed to Afghanistan.

<p>Just in time for Independence Day, a retired Marine will be able to fly his United States and Marine Corps flags without fear of fines.</p> <p>The Lakeland Village Community Association filed a lawsuit Dec. 9 against Mike Merola, who has a 20-foot flagpole in his backyard. The neighborhood association claimed the flagpole violated the northwest Harris County community's design rules.</p>

SAN ANTONIO --With 100-degree, hot, dry days, Armando Urdiales decided to plant a new lawn. Well, not really. It was his HOA, he said, that suggested it, after they found patches of dirt amongst the withered blades in his front yard. "That was the kicker for me. Really? You're going to tell me to grow grass in a drought," Urdiales said. The social studies teacher said after receiving two threatening letters in the last 60 days, he planted $150 worth of sod and started watering it. "Isn't there a better use of our resource--of our precious resource of water--other than...

ROSWELL, Ga. -- A public declaration of affection written on a Roswell family's property has them at odds with their neighborhood association. Resident Duden Yegenoglu said her father left the love note on her driveway for her mother. "He was washing my car one day about a month and a half ago, and he wanted to be cute, so he wrote 'Benur,' which is my mom's name, 'I love you,' on our driveway," Duden Yegenoglu told Channel 2’s George Howell. The pressure-washed message was written in all caps, inside a heart. Several neighbors said it was sweet, but while the...

U.S. Veteran Faces Legal Action for Flying American Flag Published June 26, 2011 | FoxNews.com A retired U.S. Army chaplain is being threatened with legal action for flying the American flag in his front yard, the Daily Mail reports. Fred Quigley, 77, of Macedonia, Ohio, a minister who served active duty during the Vietnam War, has been told by the homeowners’ association that his flag violates the property rules. The association has offered to fly the flag at the entrance of the building development, but Quigley refused the offer. “If they can dictate to me that I cannot fly an...

A 77-year-old Army veteran is being threatened with legal action for flying the American flag in his front yard. Fred Quigley, of Macedonia, Ohio, a retired Army chaplain and minister who served active duty during the Vietnam War, has been told his flag violates his homeowners association's rules on flagpoles. As an alternative, the association offered to place the flag at the entrance of the development, but Mr Quigley refused. ***** Mr Quigley's lawyer Gerald Patronite said the association has no right to stop his client. He cites a 2003 state statute that addresses the homeowner's rights in such a...

Perhaps this will feel a little counterintuitive after seeing today’s jobless numbers, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Gallup’s latest poll on soak-the-rich tax policies show that Americans are less open to redistributionism than at the peak of the pre-Great Recession economy, with a plurality rejecting “heavy taxes on the rich”: Americans break into two roughly evenly matched camps on the question of whether the government should enact heavy taxes on the rich to redistribute wealth in the U.S. Forty-seven percent believe the government should redistribute wealth in this way, while 49% disagree, similar to views Gallup found...

EDGEWATER, Fla. -- A Central Florida homeowners association is preparing to vote on banning children from playing outside. The revamped rules and regulations are being considered by the HOA at the Persimmon Place subdivision on North Ridgewood Avenue in Edgewater. The neighborhood consists of 48 townhomes surrounded by a parking lot and little room for children to play. "I think it's ridiculous. I think the kids should be allowed to play," a resident said. "I think people forgot what it was like to be a kid and want to go outside and play," said resident Shawna Magee, who is fighting...

UNITED NATIONS -- Somalia's U.N. Mission said Friday that pirates hijacked a yacht carrying four U.S. citizens in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast.

The debate is over how much power an association should have and Harvella Jones, President of the National Homeowners Advocate Group, says associations can serve a purpose, but they've gone too far. “My goal is to stop the foreclosures because they don’t have the right to take our homes for maintenance fees when the Constitution does not give them the authority,” says Jones. Jones adds some associations have been compared to the mafia for how they act. “That is how they operate sometimes and sometimes they use strong arm methods to shut you down when you start complaining,” Jones says....

BALDWIN, Pa. – A western Pennsylvania man has been ordered to remove a 24-foot illuminated cross from his front yard following complaints by his neighbor, who claims the act of faith is actually an act of revenge. Carl Behr, 24, of Baldwin, Pa., received a notice on Monday ordering him to remove the cross within five days or face a penalty. But Behr plans to fight the order at a Baldwin Borough meeting late Tuesday. "It's all about my faith, and some people are trying to turn this into a real circus," Behr told FoxNews.com. "They're going to get a...

A Marine Corps veteran is being sued by his Cypress-area homeowners association because the flagpole on which he flies the United States and Marine Corps flags does not meet his subdivision's design guidelines. Mike Merola and his lawyer, Lee Thweatt, say this is a classic case of overreach by a nitpicking homeowners association. Lakeland Village Community Association says it is seeking to enforce its rules evenly on all residents. Standing in his backyard in a black T-shirt bearing an eagle and the American flag, the 60-year-old Merola called that argument "a lame excuse." After his application to erect a 20-foot...

LAVEEN, Ariz. — Don’t tread on Andy C. McDonel. This year, Mr. McDonel began flying a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag on his roof in this unincorporated area just outside Phoenix. The historic banner — which dates to 1775, when it was hoisted aboard ships during the initial days of the Revolutionary War — has been adopted by the Tea Party movement. But Mr. McDonel said that he had unfurled the flag for its historical significance and nothing else. He notes that the banner, the Gadsden flag, has been widely used over the years and was even featured on...

Is there anything you can do if HOA is not keeping up their end of the deal?

Michael Clauer is a captain in the Army Reserve who commanded over 100 soldiers in Iraq. But while he was fighting for his country, a different kind of battle was brewing on the home front. Last September, Michael returned to Frisco, Texas, to find that his homeowners' association had foreclosed on his $300,000 house—and sold it for $3,500. This story illustrates the type of legal quagmire that can get out of hand while soldiers are serving abroad and their families are dealing with the stress of their deployment. And fixing the mess isn't easy.---snip---"It's ridiculous how much this is costing...

Michael Clauer is a captain in the Army Reserve who commanded over 100 soldiers in Iraq. But while he was fighting for his country, a different kind of battle was brewing on the home front. Last September, Michael returned to Frisco, Texas, to find that his homeowners' association had foreclosed on his $300,000 house—and sold it for $3,500. This story illustrates the type of legal quagmire that can get out of hand while soldiers are serving abroad and their families are dealing with the stress of their deployment. And fixing the mess isn't easy.

FRISCO — A soldier returned home from combat to find his Frisco home, which was owned free and clear, sold off by his homeowners' association. While there is a law to protect service members from financial disaster while they're off fighting a war, it is frequently broken. On dangerous missions in Iraq, Capt. Michael Clauer of Frisco was responsible for the lives of 130 soldiers. He had a lot on his mind. "You can't worry about what's going on at home," he said. "It's enough stress there the way it is." His wife, Mae Clauer, was under stress, too. She...

PLANO, Texas, -- A Texas couple says they've downsized their garden display of spring bluebonnets, a state tradition, after their homeowners association threatened legal action. Eddie and Melissa Smith's bluebonnet bonanza began five years ago with three plants from a local Plano, Texas, home-improvement store, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday. Explosive growth followed, and the bluebonnets spread over the Smith's entire lawn and jumped the sidewalk to curve around their corner lot, the newspaper said. "We didn't add more seeds, didn't fertilize, didn't water any extra," Melissa Smith said. "It was God's handiwork." But not everyone was a fan....

Europe's largest windfarm was shut down after a blade snapped off one of the huge turbines, operators said today. All 140 turbines at the Whitelee windfarm on Eaglesham Moor near Glasgow are being inspected by engineers following Friday's incident. ScottishPower Renewables said mechanical failure or a lightning strike could be to blame for the breakage, which it described as 'highly unusual'. The 150ft, 14-tonne, fibreglass blade broke off in the early hours in windy conditions and landed at the base of its tower.

Alliant Energy’s Iowa customers will be seeing higher bills this month to pay for the utility’s investments in green energy. The utility plans to ask state regulators for a 13.8 percent, $163 million annual rate increase today to pay for a new $468 million wind farm, and to improve its ability to transmit energy from renewable sources. The 200-megawatt Whispering Willow Wind Farm in Franklin County is the first owned by Alliant’s Interstate Power & Light utility. It began operating in December, and has enough capacity to serve about 150,000 homes at full output. Improving the transmission grid to enable...

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. -- A home in Volusia County is sparking outrage Friday. A homeowner has strung up women's underwear and built mountains of sand in the back and neighbors are desperate for help.

His pristine Ferrari 512 BBi "Boxer" sits in the middle of Holger Schubert's living room in Brentwood, right next to stylish furniture, a built-in bookcase and a flat-screen TV that slides on tracks past walls of glass that frame an ocean view. But Los Angeles officials are about to slam shut forever the garage door that leads to the city's most extravagant parking space City planners have withdrawn permission for Schubert to use a bridge to connect his Ferrari's third-floor resting spot with North Tigertail Road. The ruling by the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission tosses a mechanic's...

Retired Army Col. Van Barfoot was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for attacking three German machine gun nests and then three German tanks. He now will be allowed to continue raising Old Glory without having to face a lawsuit from thye Sussex Square homeowners' association near Richmond, Va.

INDIAN HARBOUR BEACH, Fla. -- A frustrated homeowner spray-painted a "Hitler" message on her own house to address an escalating tiff with her homeowners association, causing unrest among neighbors in the quiet community of single-family homes. Sheila Jones, the 45-year-old homeowner, said she wrote the graffiti because, "I am tired of being harassed by the homeowners association." The messages she spray-painted in large red letters on her home, located at 430 Emerald Drive, said, "Hitler would be a welcome neighbor here. Stop the harassment to my family." Another message said "Merry Xmas." Jones told Local 6 News partner Florida Today...

RICHMOND, Va. — A 90-year-old Medal of Honor recipient can keep his 21-foot flagpole in his front yard after a homeowner's association dropped its request to remove it, a spokesman for Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said Tuesday.

Col. Van T. Barfoot, a local Medal of Honor recipient, is under the gun from his Henrico County community's homeowner association. In a five-paragraph letter to Barfoot that he received yesterday, Barfoot is being ordered to remove a flagpole from his yard. The decorated veteran of three wars, now 90 years old, raises the American flag every morning on the pole, then lowers and folds the flag at dusk each day in a three-corner military fashion. ... There is no provision in the community's rules expressly forbidding flagpoles, Barfoot's daughter said. But she said the board ruled against her father's...

In a priority mail five-paragraph letter, the Coates & Davenport law firm in Richmond has ordered Colonel Van Barfoot to remove the pole by 5 p.m. Friday or face legal action. According to the letter, Barfoot would have to pay all legal fees and costs if the legal proceeding pursued by Sussex Square Homeowners Association is successful. Family members say Barfoot is the most decorated American combat veteran alive. He has been awarded more than 20 medals, including the Medal of Honor, The Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, The Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. This fall, his native...

Col. Van T. Barfoot, one of the country's last-surviving Medal of Honor winners, is under the gun from his Henrico County community's homeowner association. In a five-paragraph letter to Barfoot that he received yesterday, Barfoot is being ordered to remove a flagpole from his yard.

In a bad economy, we expect poor people will get poorer. But this recession has taught us that one mishap can snip anyone's strings and collapse middle-class financial security like a marionette. We didn't expect that. Consider planned communities. They're appealing as places where everyone is supposed to keep up: No front lawns going to seed; no cars rusting on top of them. However, the poor economy has meant that some of the neighbors can't keep up – and this hits homeowners associations in a unique way. Neighbors are financially yoked together, and problems for one can mean problems for...

PINELLAS PARK, Fla.- A Florida couple said the homeowners association of their retirement community is trying to evict their 6-year-old granddaughter. Jimmy and Judie Stottler of Pinellas Park said their granddaughter, Kimberly, came to live with them as an infant when authorities took her away from her drug-abusing mother, WSTP-TV, St. Petersburg, Fla., reported Thursday. The girl has stayed with her grandparents in the retirement community since, even though the community's rules don't allow children. The couple said the homeowners association is now pressuring them to comply with the ban on children, but they are unable to move because they...

An Oregon apartment complex is banning its residents from flying American flags, not only from their dwellings but also their vehicles, KATU in Portland reported..... Sharron White, a long-time resident, was told by management to take down the flag she's flown on her car for eight years because "someone might get offended."

An Oregon apartment complex reversed its ban prohibiting residents from flying American flags from dwellings and parked vehicles after the property manager decided she didn't have the legal standing to do so, KATU in Portland reported Wednesday. The American Civil Liberties Union said that Barb Holcomb's ban at Oaks Apartments did not violate any laws, but Holcomb said her legal cousel led her to believe otherwise so she reversed the decision. "If people want to fly any flag of any nationality, it's their right," she told KATU. "When a tenant rents the unit, the inside of the unit belongs to...

An Oregon apartment complex is banning its residents from flying American flags, not only from their dwellings but also their vehicles, KATU in Portland reported. Residents' outrage started when Jim Clausen, whose son is in the military and on his way back to Iraq, was told he couldn't fly an American flag from the back of his motorcycle. If he didn't take the flag down, he was told he'd face eviction, the station reported. "It floored me," Clausen told the station. "I can't believe she was saying what she was saying. It [the flag] stands for the people that can...

ALBANY, Ore. - At the Oaks Apartments in Albany, the management can fly their own flag advertising one and two bedroom apartments - but residents have been told they can't fly any flags at all. Jim Clausen flies the American flag from the back of his motorcycle. He has a son in the military heading back to Iraq, and the flag - he said - is his way of showing support. "This flag stands for all those people," said Clausen, an Oaks Apartment resident. "It stands for the people that can no longer stand - who died in wars. That's...

Jim Clausen was "shocked" when the manager of the Oaks Apartments in Albany told him he could face eviction if he did not remove the American flags that fly from his Jeep and motorcycle when they are parked at the complex. Barb Holcomb, who manages the Oaks Apartments at 1440 Geary Circle S.E. for owner Stan Keller, said Clausen is correct. She is requiring that tenants take off any flag that flies from their vehicles, and that includes the Mexican flag and college team flags. Political and religous signs at a tenant's unit also are not permitted. "I'm trying to...

At the Oaks Apartments in Albany, the management can fly their own flag advertising one and two bedroom apartments - but residents have been told they can't fly any flags at all. Jim Clausen flies the American flag from the back of his motorcycle. He has a son in the military heading back to Iraq, and the flag - he said - is his way of showing support. "This flag stands for all those people," said Clausen, an Oaks Apartment resident. "It stands for the people that can no longer stand - who died in wars. That's why I fly...

CANTON, Ohio — After taking a class that covered global warming last year, Jill Saylor decided to save energy by drying her laundry on a clothesline at her mobile home. "I figured trailer parks were the one place left where hanging your laundry was actually still allowed," she said, standing in front of her tidy, yellow mobile home on an impeccably manicured lawn. But she was wrong. Like the majority of the 60 million people who live in the nation's roughly 300,000 private communities, Saylor was forbidden to dry her laundry outside because many people viewed it as an eyesore,...

It's not just indoor public places in Eau Claire where lighting up is prohibited. Now residents of a south side, owner-occupied housing complex will have to snuff out smoking in their homes, the most recent sign of public anti-smoking sentiment. Members of the Fairfax Parkside Homeowners Association on Wednesday voted to outlaw smoking inside residences that are part of the 34-unit development. The ban also prohibits smoking in shared spaces, such as porches and garages, but does allow it in yards and on patios. Of the 19 association members who voted on the issue, 15 favored the anti-smoking regulation proposed...

While homeowners associations have been a lightning bolt of controversy in Texas, the push for reform has been pushed back by the Texas Legislature. "The issue isn’t going away,” said Rep. Burt Solomons. The Carrollton Republican introduced legislation in the last session aimed at reining in HOAs. The bill failed to come up for a vote in the Senate. “We intend to continue fighting,” he said. “It’s gotten out of control and it’s very hard to rein them in.” The Dutschke family learned that the hard way. They bought their home in the Harriet Creek Ranch neighborhood in Justin nearly...

I live in a condominum in Diamond Bar, CA (aboyt 30 miles east of Los Angeles. I actually find the area to be a majority conservative (our Congressman, State Senator and State Assembly man are Republicans), but we do have a good number of leftists around.

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Thousands of Americans who have generally kept up with their mortgages are still in danger of losing their homes because they made a fateful trade-off in this shaky economy — they let their homeowner association dues slide. Many homeowners are learning to their surprise that condo and neighborhood associations that oversee security patrols, mow lawns, plant flowers and clean the community swimming pool may have the right to foreclose when dues aren't paid. That right is often written into the purchase agreement signed by the homeowner. Among those who have been threatened with foreclosure is Lacey...

DALLAS - Frank Larison is a disabled veteran with more than 14 years of service, including more than a year of combat duty in Vietnam. The 58-year-old former Marine now finds himself under attack by his Dallas homeowners association for displaying seven decals on his vehicle supporting the Marine Corps. "To me, it's being patriotic, and it shows that I served," the veteran told FOX 4. The board says the decals are advertisements that violate HOA rules, and must be covered or removed. Otherwise, the homeowners association for The Woodlands II on The Creek --- where Larimore has lived for...