Washington Home Foreclosures: A Good Investment? Seattle Sonics Bullied by Bulls: SeattleIAM

This is a selection of recent popular blog articles from SeattleIAM where you will find the best blogs from Seattle, Washington as well as video uploads, social networking, rumors, and blog authoring

Sonics Short Winning Streak is Over

The latest from Gary Washburn at Seattle Sonics Blog reports on the end of the Sonics short winning streak with last night’s loss to the Bulls. “The Sonics were just a step slow, especially in the paint. Kurt Thomas is beginning to tire and may need some rest.” Hopefully their four-day break between the Phoenix and Utah will help. Chris Wilcox and Nick Collison “were just bullied and frustrated by Ben Wallace, Aaron Gray and Joakim Noah.”

Wally Szczerbiak helped keep Seattle close with 21 points, four rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes. Eart Watson added 10 points, but “the Bulls pressure defense forced him into five turnovers but it was a bad night all around for the Sonics offense.” Washburn writes in his post that even though the Bulls were missing Luol Deng and Tyrus Thomas “still were obviously the better team.” If Chicago can get healthy and play together, they “can be a serious threat in the East.”

Is Attorney General McKenna Really Concerned with Government Accountability?

Rick Anderson over at The Daily Weekly writes about state Attorney General Rob McKenna’s contradictory behavior. McKenna says one of his “ongoing priorities” is the promotion of “government accountability by encouraging open access to government.” However, Senate Bill 6294 and House Bill 3219, “companion measures requested by McKenna,” actually restrict that same access. Paul Wright, a former prison inmate and the editor of Prison Legal News, “thinks the bills in fact will discourage the people’s right to know and prevent any new crusaders like him from lawfully seeking government information.”

If the legislation is approved, states the post, it would “change the way compensation is paid when the state violates the public record laws involving prison inmates.” Any penalties won would “be awarded to the crime victims’ compensation program rather than to a prisoner whose record request was improperly handled.” McKenna states that awards such as there are  “a ‘lottery’ attracting unreasonable prisoner record requests, around 4,000 a year.” If there’s no “payday” for inmates when courts “find the state unlawfully failed to disclose public information, perhaps fewer requests will be made.” Wright says this isn’t about paperwork, “it’s about accountability.”

Washington’s Foreclosures May not be a “Good Deal”

Susie Naficy on Redfin: Seattle Sweet Digs reports on the increasing number of foreclosures, and that Washington state is seeing its share of them, just like the rest of the country. “The thought of purchasing property for a double-digit percentage discount might have many investors (as well as home-buyers) salivating.”  But how easy is it to actually grab a “good deal” on a foreclosure? 

According to Naficy’s post, “finding a good investment is easier said than done” and its definitely “not a get rich quick scheme for novices.”  Most foreclosure investors are “in the position to snap up good investments even before these properties come up for auction – called pre-foreclosure.” It is also an extremely risky investment, as there is no inspection and lenders won’t finance the purchases.  The houses are sold “as is” and some people are “surprised with what they find once they take possession.” If you are still interested in foreclosure investing, there are several online monitoring services “that can help streamline the process.” 

Where are Those Green Lanes for Cyclists?

Bike Hugger Dave R. responds to the recent The Seattle Times article on bike safety and infrastructure yesterday. “The focus was mostly on the danger cyclists face from traffic turning right at intersections.” Cyclist Bryce Lewis was killed last September because of this kind of danger. “The city’s taking a few experimental steps to deal with these types of issues, including some Green Lanes, known as Blue Lanes in other civilized portions of the world, at a few intersections.” This is great news, but why has action on this been so slow?

The Times reported that “we’ll be getting 4 Green Lanes to go with the dotted line bike lane markers on Stone Way.” The city will hopefully monitor these intersections “to see how much of an improvement (if any) the new lanes are.” Portland has been using blue lanes for more than 15 years, and “noted that the lanes have changed motorist and cyclist behaviour but not always for the better.” When city officials videotaped the traffic, they “found that motorists yielded far more often to bikes in marked blue lanes — and that cyclists glanced at cars less often, a problem.” It’s good the City’s taking action here, “however embarrassing it is that we’re more than a decade behind our sister city to the south on this front,” states Dave in his post.

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