Exbibit A, Take Two essays

Exbibit A, Take Two essays "The most pacifistic people in the world said they came out of this movie and wanted to kill somebody" One can only assume Oliver Stone has come to regret the comment he made to the New York Times in 1996, concerning his controversial film Natural Born Killers. Currently, it has been implicated in over a dozen murders. There were the young French lovers, Parisian suburbanites who led police on a car chase, resulting in five deaths. Of course, there were murders stateside as well. A teenaged Texan accused of decapitating a 13-year old girl. A Georgia youth who allegedly murdered an 82-year Floridian with a shotgun and shouted, Im a natural born killer to the television cameras. Then there was the homicidal Utah teen who went so far as to mimic Natural Born Killers antihero Mickey Knoxs sartorical style, complete with tinted granny-style sunglasses and shaven skull. None of these, however, has received the same press as the tale of Sarah Edmondson and Benjamin Darras, a couple who spent the evening of March 5, 1995 dropping acid and watching the film repeatedly. Nineteen and eighteen years old, respectively, the two went for a lengthy drive the next morning in Edmondsons Nissan Maxima, making two stops with intent to murder. On the first occasion, they succeeded; Darras shot Bill Savage, a Mississippi businessman, twice in the head and left with Savages wallet. The next day, it was Edmondsons turn. After entering a Poncharoula, Louisiana convenience store, Edmondson fired a poorly aimed shot into clerk Patsy Byers, paralyzing her. Having forgotten to rob the store, Edmondson returned to steal from the cash register. Stepping over the bleeding Byers, Edmondson remarked, poor old thing, youre not dead yet. In fact, Byers did not die for several more years, and before she succumbed to cancer, she and her family filed lawsuits against Warner Bros., the studio that ...

How the HUD Anti-Flipping Rule Protects Homebuyers

How the HUD Anti-Flipping Rule Protects Homebuyers In May 2003, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a federal regulation intended to protect potential homebuyers from potentially predatory lending practices associated with the process of flipping home mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Thanks to the rule, homebuyers can â€Å"feel confident that they are protected from unscrupulous practices,† said then-HUD Secretary Mel Martinez. â€Å"This final rule represents a major step in our efforts to eliminate predatory lending practices,† he said in a press release. In essence, â€Å"flipping† is a type of real estate investment strategy in which an investor buys houses or property with the sole intent of reselling them for a profit. The investor’s profit is generated through increased future sale prices that occur as a result of a rising housing market, renovations and capital improvements made to the property, or both. Investors who employ the flipping strategy risk financial losses due to price depreciation during declines in the housing market. Home flipping becomes an abusive practice when a property is resold for a large profit at an artificially inflated price immediately after being acquired by the seller with little or no appreciable improvements to the property.  According to HUD, the predatory lending happens when unsuspecting homebuyers either pay a price far higher than its fair market value or commit to a mortgage at unjustly inflated interest rates, closing costs or both. Not to Be Confused With Legal Flipping The term â€Å"flipping† in this instance should not be confused with the completely legal and ethical practice of buying a financially distressed or rundown home, making extensive â€Å"sweat equity† improvements in order to truly raise its fair market value, and then selling it for a profit. What the Rule Does Under HUD’s regulation, FR-4615 Prohibition of Property Flipping in HUDs Single Family Mortgage Insurance Programs,† recently flipped homes are not allowed to qualify for FHA mortgage insurance. In addition, it allows FHA to require persons attempting to sell flipped homes to provide additional documentation proving that the home’s appraised fair market value had truly increased significantly. In other words, prove that their profit from the sale is justified. Key Provisions of the Rule Sale by Owner of Record Only the owner of record may sell a home to an individual who will obtain FHA mortgage insurance for the loan; it may not involve any sale or assignment of the sales contract, a procedure often observed when the homebuyer is determined to have been a victim of predatory practices. Time Restrictions on Resales Resales occurring 90 days or less following acquisition will not be eligible for a mortgage to be insured by FHA. FHAs analysis disclosed that among the most egregious examples of predatory lending was on flips that occurred within a very brief time span, often within days. Thus, the quick flips will be eliminated.Resales occurring between 91 and 180 days will be eligible provided that the lender obtains an additional appraisal from an independent appraiser based on a resale percentage threshold established by FHA; this threshold would be relatively high so as to not adversely affect legitimate rehabilitation efforts but still deter unscrupulous sellers, lenders, and appraisers from attempting to flip properties and defraud homebuyers. Lenders may also prove that the increased value is the result of rehabilitation of the property.Resales occurring between 90 days and one year will be subject to a requirement that the lender obtains additional documentation to support the value to add ress circumstances or locations where HUD identifies property flipping as a problem. This authority would supersede the higher expected threshold established for the above-mentioned 90 to 180 day period and will be invoked when FHA determines that substantial abuse may be occurring in a particular locality. Exceptions to the Anti-Flipping Rule The FHA will allow waivers to the property flipping restrictions for: properties acquired by an employer or relocation agency in connection with the relocation of an employee;resales of foreclosed, bank-owned property by HUD under its real estate owned (REO) program;sales of property by other U.S. government agencies;sales of properties by nonprofit organizations approved by HUD to buy single-family properties at a discount with resale restrictions;sales of properties that are acquired by the seller by inheritance;sales of properties by state and federally-chartered financial institutions and Government-Sponsored Enterprises;sales of properties by local and state government agencies; andsales of properties within Presidentially Declared Major Disaster Areas (PDMDA), only upon issuance of a notice of an exception from HUD. The above restrictions do not apply to builders selling a newly built house or building a house for a borrower planning to use FHA-insured financing.