Thousands of homes across the country are echoing with the sounds of repairs, thanks to the expanded federal spending for weatherization assistance for homeowners and increased tax credits for those who improve their energy efficiency.

Stimulus funding bolsters the U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program with $5 billion to be spent during the next one to three years.

To put weatherization within reach of more low-income homeowners, the government raised the programs eligibility limits – they had varied from state to state – to 200 percent of the poverty level. That’s income of $21,660 for an individual and $44,100 for a family of four (higher in Alaska dn Hawaii).

Priority is given to people over 60, people with disabilities and families with children. Final eligibility is determined at the local level.

Jewel Kreider

Yorba Linda Real Estate Insider

The HOA assistance grants will offer up to $250 per month, paid directly to the home owners association for a total of up to $3,000 for one year, per qualified buyer.

The maximum purchase price has also been increased to $400,000.

This is an opportune time for first time home buyers – with vehicles for assistance that are more creative and varied during these tough economic times.

Jewel Kreider

Yorba Linda Real Estate Insider

All the facts of his life are on Wikipedia, good and bad. Many headlines and bi-lines deal with the sad and the sordid from the death of his brothers, “Bobby” and “Jack” to his involvement in the Chappaquiddick tragedy. But take those away and you still have one of the most influential politicians of his time. He truly was a Lion of the Senate. Many of the 300 plus bill he put forward were enacted into law. He was Chairman of and served on some of the most important influential Committees in the U.S. Senate. He was its second most senior member and the third longest serving member of all time.

From the cradle to the grave he was groomed for high office and although he was unsuccessful in his bid for his party’s nomination as Presidential Candidate in a political sense he never failed his party or the people. He was one of the few politician to grow stronger the more time passed. He was a man of great vision and principle. His support and endorsement of the presidential candidacy of Barak Obama, was pivotal in getting him elected.

In a letter/email to his supporters the President said that he “and Michelle were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of (his) dear friend”.

He went on to say “In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth and good cheer. He battled passionately on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear and yet still maintained warm friendships across party lines. And that’s one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy….Today, our country mourns. We say goodbye to a friend and a true leader who challenged us all to live out our noblest values. And we give thanks for his memory, which inspires us still“.

The body of Ted Kennedy will lie in repose at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston Mass. A procession on Friday, August 28, will travel from the library to the Mission Church in Boston, where a funeral mass will be held. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near the graves of his brothers.

A Political Giant is not an inappropriate description. He was respected by friend and foe alike. The world of American politics will be much the poorer for his passing.

A.L.

National Politics Insider

LOS ANGELES. August 23, 2009. It was the final game of the season for the Cubs in L.A. and Dempster was in the driving seat. The question was would he be able to drive handfuls of unhitable pitches at the inform Dodgers whose machine appears to be headed towards the play off.

The first innings was a scoreless situation which the Cubs had the better of. They got two men on but D Lee grounded into a double play and next up Ramirez popped out. Ethier doubled for the Dodgers but Dempster got three out before they could score.

In the 2nd Jake Fox homer’d to give the early lead to the Cubs and when it was the Dodgers turn Aramis Ramirez erred.  As a result Kemp got to 2nd base. Abreu then singled to get the RBI and it was the same Kemp who got in for the score. Ouch! I hate it when walks or errors score. When the 2nd ended it was tied at 1-1.

The stalemate continued thru the 3rd, 4th and 5th.

In the 6th Aramis made amends for the error and hit a nice triple off a Billingsley pitch. Fukudome drove out a double (28) to get Aramis home. Jake Fox then singled to get Fukudome home. Fourth up Fontenot reached on a fielders choice but Fox was out. Koyie Hill then grounded into a double play. The Cubs at bat over. It was 3-1 for the Cubs. The measure of the pitching battle was that at this point the Cubs had 9 hits and the Dodgers only 3.

The Dodgers 6th at bat saw Ex-Cub Pierre, who was pinching for Billingsley, get a single. The news came thru that the St Louis were 5 runs to the good in San Diego in the 6th. Who cares! Not much the Cubs could do about that. They had to concentrate on their own game. And they did. Fontenot took a flying dive to stop a solidly hit Furcal ground ball and in the prone position tossed to Theriot to tagged out Pierre and then have a real shot at the double play but he wasn‘t successful. Ethier then grounded into a double play. End of 6th. Cubs still to the good 3-1.

I had a great feeling. Are the Cubs giving up on the season? No way!

McDonald replaced Billingsley to pitch the 7th. Theriot got a single but the Cubs didn’t add to the score.

Dempster, who had pitched 83 pitches, was left in the game by “The Guru” Lou. Twelve pitches later he had the three Dodgers up to bat out.

At the start of the 8th Ramirez. A. got a single for the Cubs. Fukudome was out at left field. Fox singled but Aramis was out. Hong Chih Kuo replaced McDonald and got the final Cub of the inning out. It remained 3-1.

When Dempster gave a walk to at the start of the Dodgers 8th Lou took his customary slow stroll out to the mound to pat Dempster in a manly way on the rear end to say job well done. He made a couple of fielding changes and brought Grabow in to finish the 8th. But Grabow gave Abreu a walk. Two on. Loretta grounded into a force out.

Then the Cubs got the breaks that have been a long time coming. Fontenot got Abreu out at 2nd base. It looked a close call. I’m not complaining. Next up Hudson hit a ball out just over 2nd base. It bounced and Martin got in to score. But the score didn’t count. Wally Bell, the 3rd base umpire was calling time out just before the ball was pitched. Good call although the home fans were unhappy. The replay will prove them wrong. Bell was waiving his hands in the air before the ball was pitched.

Castro, who was a pinch runner for Loretta, and Hudson were out on the next double play. The Cubs were 2 runs to the good at 3-1.

Although they didn’t score in the 9th the Cubs Koyie Hill did get a double. But I think that was because they were anxious to get to the Dodgers and Carlos Marmol closed out the game with a ground out and two strike outs. Nice! No sweep here! Who says the Cubs are throwing in the towel on the season?

A.L.

Chicago Baseball Insider

If the Cubs were ever going to stand a chance of taking the game it would necessitate more than just Lilly‘s pitching. The Cubs Offence was going to have to get some runs too. But as it turned out it was the Dodgers pitcher who got the batting back up.

The Dodgers scored in the 2nd and the 4th. Matt Kemp got the first homer and Casey Blake got the second. Lilly did well as games go except for the two homers. He only left another three men on bases in his 6 innings pitched with 80 pitches and 55 strikes.

It was still 2-0 for the Dodgers when Heilman came into the game in the bottom of the 7th to pitch for the Cubs. The Cubs had their own chances leaving men on bases nine times with five hits and five walks. But they were unable to capitalize.

A swarm of bees took residence in the park during the latter half of the game which caused a distraction for some of the fans to the amusement of others. Then in the 8th with Cubs runners on 2nd and 3rd Broxton, in to pitch instead of the Dodgers starter Haeger, put a ball in the dirt and it went by the catcher. But for the fact that it hit the leg of the Home Plate umpire the likelihood is that at least one run would have got in. Isn’t that life. Don’t the successful always get the breaks? And it was a real break for the Dodgers because they eventually got out of the 8th with their 2 run lead intact. Sherrill came in to close for the Dodgers and gave the home fans a scare when Soto got a single and he then gave Soriano a walk. Baker and Fox were the two already out. Theriot who was pinched in for Fuld ran it all the way to a full count. But the 7th pitch was grounded out and the game was over.

It was more than just a routine loss for the Cubs because the St Louis Cardinals won to take an eight game lead in the Standing. The eight ball that the Cubs are behind… it is now as large as the moon. That is what the Cubs now have to aim for.

A.L.

Chicago Baseball Insider

We all have a short attention span when the worry of how tough things are for the Cubs is to the forefront of our brains. But let me remind you what I said yesterday!

“In a perfect world where there were no fielding errors and the pitching staff were strong and confident and not giving up walks the Cubs would be well on the way to the Play-offs”. I also said that just “one slip” was enough to tumble you out of the game! Prophetic words?

The Dodgers had no fielding errors versus just one for the Cubs! That was the difference between the sides, that and the Dodgers pitcher Randy Wolf.

As close games go this was a true chess game of the pitchers. Wells gave up only two runs out of 7 hits and where he will find the pain is that with two out an Aramis Ramirez error was responsible for Hudson for the Dodgers getting to 1st base and extending the innings. It was simply the bobble of the ball. This was in the 2nd innings and Russell Martin was also base.

Two on, two out! Up comes your nemesis, the opposing pitcher. So how do you feel when he gets the end of his bat to your 91mph breaking fast ball and hits it out to hop off the centerfield wall and all you see is two runs romping home and the pitcher Randy Wolf, your opposing pitcher scooting around for what turned out to be the game winning double. What do you do? At the end of the game you join your manager in a quiet corner and silently shed a tear with him!

I take real positives out of the game. Wells never let his shoulders down. He pitched another four innings and only gave up four scoreless hits. He gave his team a real chance. And they tried hard too. By the way, another positive for Cubs: The Cardinals also lost to the Padres.

But the Wolf was too strong for the visiting Cubs. He pitched a great game. He only gave up one hit. His two blemishes were in the 3rd innings, first was the walk he gave to San Fuld and the second was the single hit by Theriot to get Fuld home for the Cubs’ only RBI of their 9 innings. Yes, the Cubs offence will feel real bad but there is not much you can do when the opposing pitcher freezes you out with a brilliant performance.

The Cubs lost 1-2 to Dodgers by one error and one double. My betting is that they will try even harder tomorrow.

A.L.

Chicago Baseball Insider

When you are walking a tightrope the way the Cubs have been recently one slip is all that is required to send you toppling off and out of the game. That’s what happened to Angel Guzman and the Wrigleyvillers last night.

You can’t ask any more of the team than they keep you in the game and the Cubs hitting side did just that. The Dodgers got a run in the 1st to give them a one run lead. It was Ethier who got the RBI to get Furcal home. Furcal had started with a single and reached 2B on a Gorzelanny pick off throwing error. The Cubs replied in the 2nd with a homer from Fukudome. Back came the Dodgers in the bottom of the 2nd to get a further run off a Furcal single to take Russell in. By the way Russell started with a walk.

In the 3rd Bradley was hit by a Weaver pitch and eventually Aramis Ramirez got the RBI for Bradley to touch home base and tie the game. It was 2-2. And so it stayed for the 4th, 5th and the top of the 6th. Gorzelanny had only pitched 82 times with 52 strikes when “The Guru” Lou chose to take him out of the game.

Maybe it was a matter of keeping him in good shape for what’s to come! Well, it didn’t work. In came Guzman and 20 pitches later the balance of the game had changed. Manny Ramirez got a single off the first pitch. Blake got a single off Guzman’s 5th pitch. His 7th pitch was a sac bunt by Hudson. The next four were intent balls to walk Loney and the next pitch, no. 12, a 91mph middle of the box fast ball was hit straight out to left centre field for the grand slam. It took 8 more pitches to get the next two Dodgers out, but the damage was done.

Caridad pitched the 7th for the Cubs and gave up an RBI to Blake who singled to get Manny home for the last run of the game. It ended at 7-2 for the Dodgers.

In a perfect world where there were no fielding errors and the pitching staff were strong and confident and not giving up walks the Cubs would be well on the way to the Play-offs. Right now a number of things are going wrong for the Cubs.

I was encouraged at the end of the game to learn that the team have not thrown in the towel and will continue to strive for perfection. The gradient for the Cubs gets ever steeper. Lance Armstrong could show them how to continue up the hill with a will to win no matter how steep it gets.

A.L.

Chicago Baseball Insider

Home building expectations have been buoyed by the success of the first-time home buyer tax credit that expires Nov. 30, 2009.  Concerned Chairman Joe Robson of NAHB wonders whether there will be enough momentum to keep us moving toward a recovery, in light of  the severe credit crunch for housing production loans and inappropriate appraisal practices that are scuttling a quarter of all new-home sales.  Unless Congress and the Administration focus on housing there is concern that the current sales may well be short lived.  S&S Builders in Yorba Linda California report that they have a waiting list for condominiums in the 500K range.

Jewel Kreider

Yorba Linda Real Estate Insider

July marked the l3th month that sales topped the year-earlier total and with 3,128 houses and condo’s changing hands, it has marked the biggest month since March 2007 according to Data Quick.

Median sales price for the county is $420,000 for the month.  This is down 8.9 percent from a year ago and 35 percent below June 2007’s peak of $645,000.

Jewel Kreider.

Yorba Linda Real Estate Insider

According to court documents, HART, a former student at Nicholls State University, admitted that on November 5, 2008, admitted that he created a fictitious name and used the photograph of a white supremacist to communicated a threat. He then purported to be a person outraged by the election of President Barack Obama when he used a “Facebook” account on a computer in Poplarville, Mississippi to transmit a threat to an African American student at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana indicating he wanted to kill African American individuals because of the election of the President.

Upon sentencing, HART faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five (5) years, a fine of $250,0000 and three (3) years of supervised release following imprisonment. Sentencing has been scheduled for November 18, 2009.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Marvin Opotowsky and Peter M. Thomson.