INSPECTORS FOR SALE IN TEXAS - Texas Association of Builders makes a mockery of builders lack of regulation in Texas
The builder/remodeler may use the same or different Fee Inspector for each of the required inspections. Additionally, the builder/remodeler has the ability to hire the Fee Inspector of their choice and is not forced to use any one Fee Inspector for all the inspections.  Inspection records and documents will not be turned over to the TRCC by the inspector or builder. However, the TRCC will conduct random audits of the inspection records...

Certification hardly felt in struggling building industry 
For years, Georgia had the most welcoming home-building industry in the Southeast: Anyone with a hammer qualified to construct a multiton, multistory house. And almost anyone did. Accountants. Pilots. Weekend hobbyists. But after years of initial industry opposition, Georgia this summer began requiring that builders be licensed, just like cosmetologists, hearing aid dealers and auctioneers... "It sounds promising," said Janet Ahmad, president of Home Owners for Better Building, a nonprofit based in San Antonio that pushes for industry regulation. The real test, she said, is how well the state enforces the law, which the Legislature first approved in 2004 but later tweaked and delayed implementation of until this summer.

The outrage in your credit card's fine print
Would you sign a contract that says, "Any term can be changed at any time for any reason, including no reason"? Anyone who uses a credit card already has. Such are the absurd terms of the consumer credit-card industry, which is poised to be the next big crisis (after housing) that banks have aided and abetted in US households... Banks in the card game are raising rates and fees to limit their losses on mortgage loans they made. This is doubly ironic, since their delusional lending and exotic mortgage cocktails gave the housing bubble its irrational effervescence to begin with. So now millions of American households are being dragged under even further.

Housing bill no panacea
The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, signed by President Bush July 30, contains a hodge-podge of new programs, protections and perks for homeowners, home buyers and housing-related companies. But considerable doubt remains as to whether the law will do much to change the current dynamics of the nation's housing markets, which are still mired in misfired mortgages and depressed home sales. The bill may turn out to be not so much too little, too late, but rather misdirected, riddled with loopholes and subject to unintended consequences.

Parade: Don't Get Clobbered By Credit Cards!
When a credit-card company claims you owe money, your legal rights are limited. At least 75% of cards have clauses that say disputes must be resolved in private arbitration forums, according to a recent survey. So when a disagreement arises, a consumer can't take it to court"€”a serious issue if you're a victim of identity theft or, like Troy T. Cornock of Hillsborough , N.H. , you simply don't owe the money. Cornock was hit with a $9446.85 judgment for money he claimed was owed by his ex-wife, who had opened an account in his name. It's only because the creditor went to court to enforce the arbiter's award that Cornock"€”after five agonizing years"€”was able to get the ruling overturned. The banking industry defends mandatory arbitration as a fair and efficient way to handle disputes. However, a study by the consumer group Public Citizen of 34,000 California cases found that consumers lost to companies in arbitration proceedings 96% to 99% of the time. So is there hope? The laws may soon be on your side. Until then, think twice before you whip out a card.

Cisneros says he didn't get special treatment
Henry Cisneros resigned from the Countrywide Financial Corp. board last fall, but he hasn't escaped the harsh spotlight shining on the company in the aftermath of the mortgage meltdown that began last year.  Some media reports would have the public believe that Cisneros, the former San Antonio mayor and U.S. housing secretary, got special rates on loans from Countrywide alongside two U.S. senators "€” Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D. "€” now ensnarled in an ethics scandal. Special treatment such as below-market rate loans would violate the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance law for directors.

That's the way the concrete crumbles
I am shocked at the babble of this obviously unprofessional builder. Greg Hansen of Trade West insults the intelligence of readers and shows his incompetence in an attempt to avoid responsibility, to misinform the public and his customers. Hanson's statement is nonsense; "Concrete is always a builder's and a homeowner's nightmare because it is so hard to understand," Hansen said. "Concrete is very complicated. Typically on exterior concrete, because it is exposed to the weather and elements that are beyond our control, it is not warranted at all." Concrete is hard to undunderstand – very omplicated??? Let's get real, concrete is not rocket science. Ancient civilizations used the same basic components to mix concrete that still exist today. These are new houses. Clearly the builder and/or the concrete supplier decide to cut corners to increase profits and now use ludicrous excuses to try to avoid responsibility. This story needs a follow-up.

What's Lurking in Your Countertop?"
Reports of granite emitting high levels of radon and radiation are increasing... But with increasing regularity in recent months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been receiving calls from radon inspectors as well as from concerned homeowners about granite countertops with radiation measurements several times above background levels. "We've been hearing from people all over the country concerned about high readings," said Lou Witt, a program analyst with the agency's Indoor Environments Division... There is no known safe level of radon or radiation." Moreover, he said, scientists agree that "any exposure increases your health risk." A granite countertop that emits an extremely high level of radiation, as a small number of commercially available samples have in recent tests, could conceivably expose body parts that were in close proximity to it for two hours a day to a localized dose of 100 millirem over just a few months.

DESPERATE MOM KILLS SELF OVER FORECLOSURE WOES
A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house, she would be dead. Carlene Balderrama used her husband's high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, shortly after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m., police said.

WA gov supporters target builders group
Two former state Supreme Court justices who support Gov. Chris Gregoire took aim at one of the Democratic incumbent's most pugnacious foes on Friday, accusing the Building Industry Association of Washington of campaign finance law violations...The BIAW, which has donated more than $1.4 million to political causes so far this election cycle, operates political committees that are registered with the state Public Disclosure Commission and report their income and spending.

Shaky ground: Problems continue for homeowners on expansive soil
The dark farmland, which was used to grow corn and cotton for generations, expands and contracts in the presence or absence of water; that much everyone knows. Special care and precautions, like laying a deep, reinforced foundation, must be taken when building a home on expansive soil. If builders don't adhere to the demands of expansive soil, problems arise. Due to the foundation's movement, the house's back door would not close properly, allowing water to enter the house during storms before it was repaired. Chris Barnhill said the issue of expansive soil, while a serious one, has not been the most unsettling part of their transaction with Lennar. He said every aspect of his home's construction gave him the impression of a job done on the cheap."If they'd done everything else they were supposed to do, we wouldn't be having this conversation," he said. Dozens of homeowners in the Huttoparke neighborhood have similar stories to tell. Nails backing out of ceilings, cracks along foundations and doors out of square, or not cut at a precise right angle, are the most common issues.

Senators Question "Pro-Business" Supreme Court Rulings
The Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday questioned a series of Supreme Court decisions that Democrats on the panel said were unfair to workers and individual citizens who were damaged by big business. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., faulted the court for slashing the punitive damages awarded against Exxon for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He also spoke out against decisions upholding provisions requiring debtors to submit to mandatory binding arbitration and a ruling that barring investors and pension funds from suing accounting firms that "facilitated fraud" in cases like the Enron collapse. When the court upheld contracts requiring credit card holders to submit to arbitration of disputes, Bartholet said the court forced them into a system rigged in favor of the corporations who select and pay for the arbitration process.  She said that even though she ruled in favor of credit card companies virtually all of the time when she worked as an arbitrator for the National Arbitration Forum, she was blacklisted after a single case in which she ruled for a consumer who had filed a counterclaim against his creditor.

Houston Chronicle Letter to Editor: Homebuilders worse 
I have never seen a piece of garbage in print as bad as "The cost of crooked lawyers" Outlook article. I used to be a defense attorney and worked at the most prominent homebuilder defense firm in Texas, and homebuilders rip off consumers more than any trial lawyer in history. There were times when builders built a horrible house with a bad foundation and then they'd claim "Texas soils shift," when it was actually a badly poured foundation. As the walls of the house would crack and fall, the homeowners' lives in ruin because their dream home was destroyed, the attorneys I worked with and the builders would laugh, knowing that Texas law allows a homeowner no real recourse. Since 1989, when a plaintiff's attorney went on 60 Minutes and bragged he had the Texas Supreme Court bought and paid for, there has been nearly 20 years of "tort reform" lobbyists in Texas. While the targets are trial attorneys over and over again, when has the Chronicle ever really done serious front-page journalism on the real people harmed, the people who are injured? AARON A. HERBERT, attorney, Dallas

Proposed Legislation Aims to Curb Mandatory Clauses in Contracts
The ongoing Democratic-led battle against the rise of mandatory arbitration agreements has gained momentum in the last week despite the efforts of business groups to defend their use.  Last week, the House of Representatives' Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law approved three arbitration-related bills, including one - the Arbitration Fairness Act - that would ban pre-dispute mandatory arbitration outright. The other two bills would ban such agreements in contracts dealing with nursing homes and automobile sales. Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is due to consider its own legislation concerning nursing home arbitration, will hear testimony later this week from a former arbitrator who is now a bitter critic of the system.