Crime Survivors Inc., Announces 7th Annual Survive and Thrive 5k Run Walk Health and Safety Expo a NEW location

The Orange County Crime Victim’s support and education organization, Crime Survivors, hosts its 7th Annual Run Walk – Health & Safety Expo on October 9, at The Orange County Sheriff’s Regional Training Academy.

This great community event began in 2004 when Patricia Wenskunas, a crime survivor, founded Crime Survivors, to increase public awareness of victims’ rights and needs. Patricia also wanted to provide resources, support and information to empower crime victims to survive and thrive.

Many civic and law enforcement agencies, corporations, local businesses and individuals support the organization, which has proactively partnered with many other nonprofit organizations.

Hundreds of runners and walkers are expected from survivors and supportive citizens to members of law enforcement and other civic agencies and over one hundred event and vendor booth sponsors are expected to participate this year. This event promises to be a day of fun, learning and even healing for some.  Crime Survivors welcomes sponsors, vendors, volunteers and Run/walkers.

Corporate and non-profit Booth and Team sponsorships are available. Individual 5K participants can also call: (949) 872-7895 (or) Log onto www.surviveandthriverunwalk.org to register.  The pre-registration fee is $25.00 and will include the 5k Run / Walk, t-shirt, medal, goody bag, entertainment and the Health & Safety Expo. “Day of” registration will include the same items at $30.00.

Orange County Sheriff/Coroner Sandra Hutchens and Robin Sax, author, advocate and former LA County Prosecutor will be our special guests and speakers.  Event Registration begins at 7 am, special guest presentations begin at 8:15 am and the event will conclude at 12pm.

Sponsors include Marsy’s Law For All, Santa Ana College, Wells Fargo, KOCE, Boomers, Trade American Card, Glendale Kia, Grove of Anaheim and many more including In Kind Supporters.

About Crime Survivors

The mission of Crime Survivors is to ensure the public knows victims’ rights and needs and to provide resources, support, and information to empower crime victims to survive and thrive. Crime Survivors vision is for victims of crime to recover from their experience mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially, by receiving the respect, support, and protection from law enforcement, the judicial system, and the community.

If you don’t know where to turn, or are confused or frustrated with the public services that are available to you as you recover or seek justice, Crime Survivors can help. Our web site will provide information; resources and tools that will help you become a “Survivor”.

Crime Survivors is committed to serving our community by being an advocate and resource for crime victims and their families.

During August 2010, home owners in the US have the option to refinance their mortgages at a mere 4.44%. This figure is the lowest that has been recorded in the realty markets for over a few decades and while this is good news, there are many citizens who are unable to take advantage of this fabulous offer.

Though the economy is still recovering and the government is pumping in more money to stabilize it, there is still a lot that stands in the way of a homeowner and his refinancing options. The applications for home loan refinancing increased from 58.7% in April to 78.1% in August. And while there is a sharp rise in the rate, there are many potential candidates who have been rejected. The reasons for the decline in allotment of the refinance are various, ranging from low credit scores to insufficient income.

Since most home owners are disqualified or unsuited to get a refinance, the lower rate does nothing for the owners or the economy. However, an exact opposite effect should have been recorded. Is it a little like the various prescription drug side effects we notice normally? It could be, except that the prescribed drugs ensure that they cure the illness they are being taken for however we notice here, that lower rates are doing nothing to boost the economy or individual investments.

The only short term solution one can look forward to is the shortening of the qualification checklist a candidate has to adhere to. Once this is done, not only do a lot of home owners become eligible for a refinance they also help the economy rise by pumping in money when and where required. However, this seems like a forlorn dream because the US Treasury Department is not in favor of reducing any items on the checklist just yet.

The recent volatility of the real estate market probably has some realtors and property investors reeling from their loss of income. If they have stuck it out and are not in need of a reasonably priced prescription drug rehab by now, there may be hope for financial recovery. The government-funded first time home buyer tax rebate, coupled with the move up tax rebate, spurred an up-turn in home sales. News of a rebounding real estate market was the first glimpse of hope that they have ridden out the economic storm for many real estate and banking professionals.

Other good news is that many Americans are purchasing foreclosed homes at greatly-reduced prices. Although these deals on foreclosures may be continuing to drive down fair market values of other homes, at least there is some home buying activity on the horizon. Many people who could not afford the homes of their dreams before are finding it possible to reach their housing goals because of reduced prices on foreclosed properties.

Another plus is that while some people have lost their homes, they have moved in with family members. While living in these extended family situations, people are working hard to repair their finances and credit ratings. Within the near future, these people, too, will be able to buy homes again. As the real estate market recovers, banks and mortgage companies will remember the lessons learned during the economic recession. This abrupt education has taught them to carefully screen loan applicants and has caused new loan regulations to be put into place.

Hopefully, these new rules will work together with lending professionals’ screenings and procedures to ensure Americans do not end up over their heads in homes again. Once people begin buying homes within their means again, the real estate market will recover from the economic disaster it has experienced.

According to recent news reports about the real estate, many people are illegally taking advantage of empty foreclosed properties and unwitting victims. Some people are taking up residence in these homes while others are taking money from people through fraudulent real estate deals involving empty homes.

In this market, it is truly a case of “buyer beware.” Scams include scam artists collecting money for rent or down payments for purchases on homes they have no legal rights to rent or sell. Once they have the money, the unsuspecting renters or buyers are left with nothing but fraudulent contracts and lost payments.

Checking the reputability of someone selling or renting a home can be a daunting task. Start by checking with a local realtor for the legitimacy of the home’s availability. Inquiring about the landlord or seller, if it is a business, may be a good idea too. You may also want to look into an affiliate program review to see if the person or business trying to rent or the sell the property participates in this type of marketing. Most people who are not legitimate will not market themselves openly because of the probability of drawing unwanted attention to illegal real estate schemes.

Another real estate scam occurring is people moving into empty foreclosed homes and pretending they own them. For those who are suspicious of the person or family who moved into the empty foreclosed home down the street, it can’t hurt to do a little investigating. Once again, checking with a local realtor to find out if the property is actually sold or otherwise off the market is a good starting point. You might also want to introduce yourself to the new neighbors and tell them about the local neighborhood watch program. If you are still suspicious, contact local law enforcement to check things out more closely.

In mid-August 2010, the U.S. government reported construction of new homes had accelerated. Nevertheless, the new home construction outlook remains poor. Housing starts were up 1.7% over June, according to the Commerce Department. This corresponds to a seasonally adjusted rate of 546,000 units, up from 537,000 in June. New single-family home starts rose by 4.2 percent, and new apartment starts rose 32.6 percent.

However, these figures indicate a 7 percent drop from July 2009. Building-permit applications during the summer of 2010 also slackened, with a 3.7 percent drop compared to last year, indicating the construction industry has not recovered. The housing market has struggled after the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit expired earlier this year.

The National Association of Home Builders released a report in August 2010 suggesting homebuilders’ confidence is still low. The association’s index that measures builder confidence was lower than expected with a reading of 13. A reading must be above 50 to indicate homebuilders a positive impression.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reports mortgage applications for new and existing homes are lower than expected, despite historically low home loan rates of around 4.5 percent.

The National Association of Realtors reported in August that median-sale prices of homes in major metropolitan areas are up a fraction, to $176,900, over prices a year ago of $174,200. Nevertheless, most experts think home prices will fall substantially before rebounding.

In general, consumers continue to lack confidence in the U.S. economy. Many believe America is still suffering through a recession. Fears about losing their jobs, paying for their homes, and mounting healthcare costs worry many Americans. Finding affordable medical care and medical supplies, such as a finger pulse oximeter, is important.

U.S. economist at Capital Economics Paul Ashworh commented that the housing market is likely to remain lethargic for several more years. He said that the housing industry was not likely to help the depressed U.S. economy recover.

State Fire Marshal Mandate

Hold open latches on all VST nozzles (Vapor System Technologies) are thought to be so dangerous, that State Fire Marshal ordered them to be removed. 3,000 gas stations in the state have the VST nozzles.

Rather than ordering the gas stations to be closed, the action balances public safety against the economics of closing the gas stations with VST nozzles.

According to the State Fire Marshal’s office, some VST nozzles allowed gasoline spray out unexpectedly, before the nozzle is inserted in the vehicle gas tank.

13 spraying incidents have so far been reported and confirmed by the California Air Resources Board. Seven of the incidents resulted in consumers being sprayed with gasoline.

In order to avoid the possibility of being sprayed with gas, it’s very important for customers fueling with a VST nozzle take the following steps:

• Insert the nozzle into the gas tank BEFORE selecting the grade of gasoline

• DO NOT insert any type of foreign object (gas cap, water bottle, etc) in the handle to keep the gas flowing

• If you encounter a VST nozzle with the hold-open latch still in place, DO NOT use it

State Fire Marshal Gas Station Deadline

Station operators have until October 15 to remove the hold open latches, or face closure, according to the office of the State Fire Marshal.

The 2010 state tax brackets were “indexed” and released today by the Franchise Tax Board (FTB). Each year the numbers are adjusting to reflect changes in California’s Consumer Price Index (CPI).

As well as income tax brackets, filing requirement thresholds, the standard deduction, and certain credits were also adjusted, based on California’s calculated inflation rate of 0.9 percent. The California CPI is measured for all urban consumers from June 2009 to June 2010. Last year was a deflationary year, and California had a deflation rate of 1.5 percent.

Some of the changes:

This year, a new tax law sets the dependent exemption credit for tax years 2009 and 2010 to the indexed personal exemption credit of $99.

The Franchise Tax Board also provides minimum filing requirement thresholds to ensure that most people who will not owe taxes are not required to file a tax return. FTB adjusts these tables each year to include the added senior exemption and the dependent exemption credits. For example, most single people under 65 years old with no dependents would not need to file a state return until they have adjusted gross income of $11,803 or more compared to last year’s threshold of $11,698 or more.

Indexing also affects the Joint Custody Head of Household Credit, Dependent Parent Credit, and Qualified Senior Head of Household Credit.

More information about the 2010 tax rates and exemptions and other tax matters is available at ftb.ca.gov.

Business.com’s Feinstein Wins For Third Time

Business.com VP and general manager, Rob Feinstein, of Business.com, was just named to BtoB Magazine’s ‘Who’s Who List’ in the Search category, for the third consecutive year.

Feinstein helped launch additional Business.com social features for its business users and advertisers. Under Feinstein, Business.com rolled out Tweets for B2B marketers with thousands of followers, expanded the What Works for Business blog and launched Business.com Answers, a Q&A social platform with advice on business solutions from experts and peers.

“Business.com’s continued recognition on BtoB’s list is a testament to our team’s excellent work. It underscores our focus on bringing invaluable services to small businesses and B2B marketers nationwide.”
Rob Feinstein

BtoB Magazine focused on nine categories: marketers, agencies, direct, email, search, business media, demand generation, events and associations.

Feinstein is listed in the search category, one of 100 key thought leaders across a broad spectrum of the marketing industry. Nominations were submitted by readers, marketing organizations, industry experts and B2B editorial staff.

About Business.com

Business.com helps business people make informed, effective business purchasing decisions. With Almost 8 million visitors each month, they are a great connection point for B2B advertisers.

See Business.com in the list at BtoB Who’s Who

When the BLM staged a Helicopter Roundup in Nevada last month, 32 mustangs died. A court hearing has failed to stop a planned massive California Wild Horse Roundup, even as the controversy escalates.

Opponents of the roundup say 54 members of congress agree the Interior Department policy is deeply flawed and urge an end to the roundups

On behalf of In Defense of Animals, Attorney Stuart Gross of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy is to file an emergency stay today, to prevent next Monday’s scheduled helicopter roundup of over 2,000 of the last wild horses and 200 burros in California from the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area north of Susanville. Yesterday, Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. denied Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction.

Deadly Helicopter Roundup

Gross will present a letter from 54 members of Congress to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar that demands a halt to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse roundups and recommends reform of “what seems to be a deeply flawed policy. . .” Representatives Barbara Lee, George Miller, Lynn Woolsey, and Mike Honda are among the members of the California Congressional delegation who signed the letter on July 30, expressing concern over the BLM’s recent helicopter roundup of 1,224 Nevada mustangs, which caused the deaths of 34 of these iconic animals, including at least eight foals.

Gross will argue that the proposed roundup, conducted in the heat of summer, will unnecessarily subject many old, sick, lame and vulnerable young wild horses to potential injury and death. He contends that the BLM’s current policy of mass roundups, removals and stockpiling of horses is unnecessary and violates the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. An emergency stay is necessary to prevent harm to the horses until the lawsuit is resolved.

The lawsuit was filed July 16 on behalf of ecologist Dr. Chad Hanson, a researcher at the University of California at Davis and author of numerous scientific studies; Barbara Clarke, wild horse expert and director of 2,000-acre DreamCatcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary in Northeastern California; Linda Hay, a local resident who has visited and enjoyed the Twin Peaks horses for the past thirty years; and In Defense of Animals, a Bay Area-based animal protection organization.

Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C., is joined as counsel in the lawsuit by the national law firm of Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney and San Francisco Bay Area-based environmental attorney Rachel Fazio.

“The Department of Interior’s mismanagement of our public resources, so tragically revealed in the Gulf oil spill, extends to our nation’s treasured wild horses and burros,” said Gross. “This emergency stay aims to stop the agency’s mass and illegal removal of federally-protected mustangs from the range to serve the livestock industry and other commercial interests that exploit our public lands.”

Gross noted that BLM, while deeming wild horses and burros overpopulated, authorizes four to seven times more privately-owned sheep and cattle to graze the nearly 800,000-acre, federally protected Herd Management Area.

“The BLM now warehouses more wild horses in government holding facilities than are left on the Western range. The vast majority of the captured Twin Peaks horses will join the 38,000 mustangs already stockpiled in zoo-like conditions,” said Bill Spriggs of Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney. “This scheme is not only fiscally unsustainable, it is also blatantly illegal.”

“The Department of Interior has a policy of removing mass numbers of wild horses from the range without fulfilling its obligation to establish the need for the action,” said environmental attorney Rachel Fazio. “This circumvention of these legal requirements and the unfounded determination that 2,000 Twin Peaks wild horses and burros are ‘excess’ is a cornerstone of this legal action and emergency stay.”

Wild horses comprise a small fraction of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by livestock nearly 50 to 1. The BLM has recently increased cattle grazing allotments in areas where wild horses are being removed. Currently the BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public lands of which cattle grazing is allowed on 160 million acres; wild horses are only allowed on 26.6 million acres of this land, which must be shared with cattle. The Obama Administration has accelerated the removal of wild horses and burros from public lands in the past year.

See the Congressional Letter

Sixty-four charities in Los Alamitos and Seal Beach are at risk of losing their tax exemption status because they have not filed taxes in three years.

The West-Comm Police Employee Association, the American Legion 857 Post and the Los Alamitos Youth Athletic Association are included in the list.

The Orange County Register’s watchdog Teri Sforza released a comprehensive report about the loss of Nonprofit Status.

See the complete story about loss of Nonprofit Status:  64 local charities could lose nonprofit status