Free Republic

In September, Susan Rodolfi celebrated an unusual anniversary: five years of missed mortgage payments. She is like a ghost of the housing market’s painful past, one of thousands of Americans who have skipped years of mortgage payments and are still living in their homes. Now a legal quirk could bring a surreal ending to her foreclosure case and many others around the country: They may get to keep their homes without ever having to pay another dime. The reason, lawyers for homeowners argue, is that the cases have dragged on too long. There are tens of thousands of homeowners who...

Jerald Rice typed his wife's name into an Internet search engine. A series of unsettling stunts had perplexed him. Advertisements for sex with his wife popped up. "Adult entertainment of all types when my husband is not home," the ads said. "Not for the faint of heart. Come see me during the day while my husband is at work and we can get our freak on." Some ads contained the couple's address and a photograph of the home they shared with their two children. Some had his wife's photograph, he said. Alarmed, he called his wife at work and then...

Archaeologists Relocating Graves Found In Yard In Oak Brook August 1, 2014 7:34 AM CHICAGO (CBS) – A team of archaeologists has been excavating the yard of a west suburban home for the past two weeks, after the residents unearthed several graves from a 19th century cemetery. WBBM Newsradio’s Nancy Harty reports property along what’s now known as Kimberly Court in the Brook Forest subdivision of Oak Brook was once part of a cemetery that was active from 1830 to 1890. Dr. Kevin McGowan, director of the Public Service Archaeology & Architecture Program at the Uiversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,...

My youngest is getting married in less than two months. Although we are deep in the midst of wedding plans and to-do lists, she still manages to spend a good chunk of time every day dreaming about her first home with her soon-to-be hubby. How will they decorate? How will they use their budget? How will they entertain guests? She is incredibly enthusiastic about it, too. You would think the endless list of things to think about would be exhausting, but instead, the wealth of possibilities gives her loads of energy. I think there is something important to learn from...

The man pretended to be drunk long enough to get to his safe and pull out a gun. One suspect ran away and the victim held the other suspect at gunpoint outside his apartment. He then told the suspect to leave.

Jacksonville police have judged that a homeowner who shot and killed an intruder inside his house was justified in firing the shot. But the homeowner, whose name has not been released, has been arrested for a misdemeanor violation of injunction for having a firearm, and was taken into custody Saturday afternoon, police said. The shooting occurred around 10 a.m. at a house on the 2700 block of Aubrey Avenue. The intruder was taken to UF Health Jacksonville and pronounced dead, said Sgt. Jay Farhat with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

CEDAR HILL –– Throughout his five terms as the city's mayor, Rob Franke has been open about his stepson's battle with addiction. On Tuesday he spoke openly about his stepson's death. Joshua Slaven, 31, was fatally shot by a homeowner as he broke into a residence located on Stoney Creek Drive around midnight Christmas Eve. Franke says his stepson of more than 25 years has battled addiction since he was a teenager. Throughout his life, Slaven checked into numerous rehab facilities to treat his heroin addiction. (snip) "We saw that Josh was on something, and something different," said Franke. "He...

MARSHALL COUNTY, AL (WAFF) - A homeowner shot aburglary suspect in the groin after catching two men trying to steal scrapmetal from his property, according to authorities. (snip) The homeowner told authorities that when he asked the two men to leave, one of them came towardhim and threatened to kill him. That's when the victim told deputies he shot the suspect once in the groin with his rifle. Both suspects managed to flee thescene.

A Cedar Hill homeowner fatally shot a suspected would-be burglar overnight, authorities say. Joshua Slaven, 31, was pronounced dead at 11:59 p.m. on Christmas Eve, according to the Dallas County medical examiner. Authorities say the shooting occurred on Stoney Creek Drive about midnight when a man attempted to break in through a window.

"The homeowner indicated the individual, the victim had broken into his house and confronted the homeowner in the front room, living room area and the homeowner had a long gun and discharged his weapon at least one time," said IMPD homicide detective Lt. Kevin Kelly.

Police say Antione Garret, 34, and his girlfriend awoke to the sound of someone breaking into their home on Leybourn Avenue. When Garret heard the front window shatter, he ran downstairs and saw Randy Estrada, 21, climbing inside. Garret fired his handgun several times, until Estrada climbed back out the window and ran away.

Tulsa, Okla. — A homeowner returns from a walk Saturday evening and finds an intruder inside his home near Skelly and Lewis. Police say they received the call around 6 p.m., but not just for a burglary.

Police say the man was shot by a homeowner who caught him coming through his bedroom window. (snip) Police say the homeowner heard a noise coming from his bedroom, grabbed his gun and shot a man as he was coming through his window. Police say the burglar tried to run for it, but the homeowner was able to get the drop on him and hold him in the backyard until officers arrived.

The resident called 911 around two o'clock Friday afternoon to report the shooting. It happened in the 1000 block of north Firefly, near 119th street West and Central. Police say the resident shot at the door and the alleged burglars drove off. Police caught up with them a short time later and found a 22-year-old with a gun shot wound to the head. Two other 19-year-olds in the car were arrested. Police say the homeowner was protecting himself and will not be charged.

The House Financial Services Committee (HFSC), headed by chair Jeb Hensarling, has approved proposed bill entitled, “Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act” (PATH) that is being sold to the American public as a way “to create a sustainable housing finance system.” Hensarling explained : “Our plan helps taxpayers and homeowners. It gives power and control back to consumers. Under the current broken system, unaccountable Washington elites have more of a say over who gets a mortgage than your local bank. The current system is a government monopoly run by the same types of Washington bureaucrats who run the IRS. America...

Two armed men kicked open the front door or a Lafayette, La., home early Wednesday morning and were greeted by a homeowner who opened fire, killing one of the suspects, police told FoxNews.com. Many details of the home invasion remain unclear, but police have some of the broad strokes. Cpl. Paul Mouton said the two masked suspects were armed with handguns forced their way into the home. Once inside the home, the suspects exchanged gunfire with the home owner, he said.

If you are an illegal alien, criminal or other various leeches on our society, this won't concern you. Your health care will be paid for by US CITIZENS and you will never have to pay it back! This concerns the typical US citizen who has worked for decades, followed the rules, sacrificed to pay off his house, or most of it. Buried deep in Obamacare (remember Nancy Pelosi told us we had to pass it to find out what was in it!) is a provision taken from the Budget reconciliation act of 1993, signed into law by Bill Clinton. Often...

The generous mortgage-interest tax deduction that homeowners have long enjoyed could be diminished or eliminated as part of efforts to reduce the federal deficit, disproportionately hurting Massachusetts and other regions where real estate is especially costly. Proposals to change the deduction include limiting it to the 28 percent tax bracket and lower; converting the deduction to a less generous tax credit; reducing the maximum allowed mortgage balance from $1.1 million to $500,000; and eliminating the benefit for second homes and equity loans, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., nonpartisan think tank.

CHEHALIS, Wash. - An Onalaska man who shot and killed a man who he thought was going to rob him will spend more than five years in prison. Lewis County Judge Nelson Hunt sentenced Ronald Brady to the maximum possible sentence, 63 months. A jury found Brady guilty of manslaughter last month. "I think the jury missed this one," said Jack Tipping, a friend of Brady. "This is a great victory for burglars."

As Wisconsin heads toward lifting a ban on carrying concealed weapons, researchers at the University of California-Davis have turned up some unsettling information about those who may take advantage of the law. In a study using 15-year-old data -- the most recent available -- published online in the journal Injury Prevention, the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program says those who carried concealed weapons or who had confronted someone with a gun were twice as likely to be heavy drinkers than non-gun owners. Gun owners who drove with loaded weapons were four times more likely to hop behind the wheel...