They may be a year behind Pegasus News, but at least they are up. We …er…we are waiting for the market to, um, mature.
A bankruptcy law-practicing FrontBurnvian has the answers. The bottom line: In Texas, pay your mortage, no matter who owns it:
The CEO of FreedomPark Airport Valet Services, Ken Kundmueller, has sent around an e-mail accusing the DFW Airport board of not playing fair. You can read his full email after the jump. The short version: the DFW-branded company that runs the airport’s valet service is losing money. So the airport has waived the minimum annual guarantee that PCI agreed to in its contract. Too, the airport has raised valet parking fees and imposed operating restrictions on the free-enterprise providers like Kundmueller.
This is getting personal. Not only does the Alabama-based bank hold my mortage but as the result of several Dallas bank mergers over the years — the bank has six Dallas offices, from Colleyville to downtown — I find myself owning a modest number of shares. They will apparently become worthless on August 12. (It is never a good sign when the Feds raid one of your state offices.)
But here’s a question or two. My mortgage was undoubtedly sold off long ago to a packager who then resold it to a fund. So what happens if I stop paying? Sure, a computer somewhere will spit out a late-pay notice, and if I ignore it, then at some point a default notice. But then what happens? Who enforces the mortgage? And if that entity, whatever it may be, takes me to court, where is the mortgage they will seek to enforce? Is it even prudent to pay a mortgage holder that has itself defaulted? Should I pay it into an escrow account until the true holder of the mortgage at some point finally identifies itself?
I’m looking at you, Candy Evans.
1. Authorities say that a second young lady was booked as an adult and spent 10 days at Lew Sterrett instead of an appropriate juvenile facility. When the 14-year-old girl was arrested at Target for boosting some lingerie, she gave a fake name, and somehow, cops thought she was 20. Listen, I grew up with strict parents, and they would likely kill me for stealing. But come on. As soon as I heard even the whisper of “Lew Sterrett,” I would sing like a canary: real name, real age, real phone number, real GPA, and even my real weight.
2. Testimony begins today in the death penalty trial of James Broadnax. He’s accused of killing Christian music producers Matthew Butler and Stephen Swan as they left their studio in Garland. The robbery/slaying yielded Broadnax and his partner a mere $2.
3. Donald Patrick Blair did not have the patience for the whole “ask and you shall receive” thing. He took matters into his own hands and opted to steal more than $1.2 million while he worked as a business administrator at Christian Life Assembly of God in Carrollton. After pleading guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion, he has to come up $1.5 million in restitution, and he’ll spend two years in a federal prison.
Yesterday I happened to catch the last part of a WRR 101.1 interview with the former J.C. Penney president who is now running the Dallas Opera (after newly appointed director George Steel pulled a Sarah Palin). John has devoted countless hours to the opera company over the years, yet on the radio he was as fresh and excited and passionate as if he had just discovered it existed. He really got me fired up for the new season (although, John, please do not recommend Madama Butterfly to first-time opera goers: it is boring; other than one or two good songs, all that poor woman does is wail). John’s dedication to the opera is just one more reminder of how lucky we are to get major national companies into the region, no matter where they actually locate — Penney’s is in Plano — because they contribute so much to the civilized life of a community.
Is 11,600 enough people to run Dallas? Are that enough? I hope so. Because that’s how many will be left if City Manager Mary Suhm’s plan is passed by the City Council. She has recommended laying off 840 people and not filling 560 vacant positions.
We heard about this before, but now it is official: Highland Park Village’s Regent theater will be Regent no longer, Park Cities People reports. Hillary Artzt of HP Village says it will reopen late next spring after renovations, but Ray Washburne and Co. are looking for a new cinema company to occupy the space.
At the very least, before the former Texas Tech/Carter High wideout does listen to his cousin David Wells and hold out for the entire 2009 season and re-enter the draft, he should maybe read this lengthy profile written by the Dallas Observer’s Tom Korosec back in 2002. It is eyebrow-raising, to say the least. Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky breaks it down like a fraction:
A partial list of curious episodes before and during Wells’s time as head of David’s Bail Bonds:
•Arrested for stealing boxing gloves from the Dallas Police Athletic League.
•Banned for life by USA Boxing over allegations of misuse of funds.
•Served as the omnipresent bodyguard shoving reporters out of the way for Michael Irvin after his arrest for possession.
•Indicted for serving as a private investigator with a license that had lapsed four years earlier, but exonerated after a dubious receipt appeared showing he had renewed it.
•Let off the hook for $50,000 when one of his clients skipped town, after a dubious document appeared showing he had warned the county.
•Started a security company with a court bailiff, which is illegal due to conflict-of-interest rules.
It looks like Dallas is playing a role this week in the national debate over health care. According to this Breitbart video via Drudge, the AARP pulled the plug on a “town hall” meeting on the subject here after the attendees started speaking up. Don’t they know they’re supposed to keep their traps shut?
Turns out, I didn’t need an excuse. A tweeting FBvian has alerted me to the fact that Tales of the Black Freighter was actually made in Dallas, by the good folks at Reel FX.
Lesson: as always, I am clueless.
In a former life, I hosted a radio show on 93.3 FM with a woman named Yvonne. We had a sidekick of sorts whose nickname was Just Jay. We’d send him out to do interviews with celebs with one caveat: every interview had to end with a specific question. That question was “Can I touch your hair?” With Julie & Julia as an excuse to post the audio, here’s
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in circa 2000 and met Just Jay.