Insane Dunk
Summer Can’t Come Fast Enough!
18 foot snake attacks child in Las Vegas
A three-year-old boy and his mother are recovering from an attack by an eighteen foot snake in Las Vegas.
The family was taking care of the snake for some friends who were remodeling their business, where it is normally an attraction.
They are calling the attack a freak accident, because they do not know how the snake got loose.
Authorites agree, and credit the mom’s quick thinking for stopping that accident from being a lot worse. Read more about the family’s account of what happened by clicking here.
“It took all six of us to get that snake into custody. It made just a little loop on my hand while we were wrestling with it, and it felt like a vice. I’ve never felt anything like that,” says Metro Sergeant, Steve Custer.
Custer and officer, Jerry Ybarra, have almost half a century of law enforcement experience between them, but even that could not prepare them for the snake attack they rushed to Tuesday.
“We go into bars after bad guys all the time, guns, never blink an eye, but we looked at that snake, and there was a lot of dancing and screaming going on,” says Custer.
“Once animal control got there, we’d try to grasp him with her little tool that she has, and he would just hiss at us, and that was pretty terrifying,” adds Ybarra.
The Reticulated Python was about eighteen feet long, far bigger than the three-year-old boy it had wrapped itself around.
But, maternal instinct proved to be far stronger than eighteen feet of muscle.
“The mom said that he was initially crying, then she came out and went for the knife. At one point, he did stop crying and was turning blue. Then, she was able to get the baby away from the snake,” says Ybarra.
The knife wounds were so severe, the snake had had to be euthanized at Lied Animal Shelter, where the family’s five other, much smaller, snakes were taken.
Fortunately, though, mother and child will be just fine.
“This was definitely a first for me,” says Ybarra.
“I’ve seen and done some amazing things in my 36 years of being here, never come across this, ever,” adds Custer.
Large snakes are allowed to be kept privately in Clark County, as long as they are not poisonous.
Metro says that no laws were broken, and that the attack can be likened to any other by a family pet, like a dog, for example.
Credit Scores
The most common credit score used today is the FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) score and it ranges from a low of 350 to a high of 850. The ideal number to be above is 720. If you are lower than 720, interest rates start to go up and the more difficult it is to obtain a loan. Five critical credit criteria that make up your credit score are the following:
1. Payment History: Paying your bills on time accounts for 35% of your credit score. Be sure to avoid late fees.
2. Credit Ratio: The amount of debt you have accounts for 30% of your credit score.
3. Credit Type: The type of accounts you have applies to 10% of your score.
4. Credit Maturity: The length of time you have had your individual credit accounts makes up 15% of your score.
5. New Credit: Recent credit history makes up 10% of your score.
Is A Mortgage Modification For You?
Is A Mortgage Modification For You?
Home loan modifications are designed to save homeownership, but they’ve also created a new mortgage maze pitted with “buyer bewares.”
Both government-sanctioned counseling agencies and local community service agencies concede they have been swamped recently by demand for loan modifications.
The demand stems from a proliferation of federal, state and local level foreclosure relief and bailout efforts from both government and the private lending industry.
Mortgage modifications have been around for years, but those recent relief efforts have raised the profile of the mortgage workouts as an alternative to foreclosures, short sales, auctions, and bankruptcy.
The demand has opened the floodgates of loan modification services now offered by real estate agents, mortgage brokers, attorneys, government agencies, lenders, and other professionals.
No matter where they start, homeowners seeking mortgage modifications are at the mercy of lenders. The workouts are often voluntary and, completed on a case-by-case basis, they frequently come without standardized procedures.
Caught in the lurch, homeowners are finding it tough to know when a modification will work and how to best obtain one. This story and a follow-up next week will shed some light on the subject.
What is a mortgage modification?
A home loan modification, granted only upon the existing lender’s approval, permanently reworks some of the terms of an existing mortgage in order to make the loan more affordable to the homeowner.
The strategy is typically designed for homeowners struggling to pay their mortgage, not for those who can pay their mortgage or are eligible for a refinanced loan.
Modifications are generally lender fee-free and involve the lender or loan holder lowering the interest rate and or changing an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) to a fixed rate mortgage (FRM) with a 30-year term. Some form of mandated homeownership counseling generally comes with the deal.
Less common loan modifications include adding missed payments to the loan balance and extending the term of the loan. Least common is getting the lender to reduce the principal or wipe out any second mortgages.
A mortgage modification is not a refinanced mortgage — a brand new loan written to pay off the old home loan.
“A mortgage is one of the most complex transactions there is. A loan modification is also a gray area for a lot of people. So of course people need someone to walk them through the process to tell them this is what you need and this is what you don’t need,” said Ginna Green, spokeswoman for the California office of the Center for Responsible Lending in Oakland.
Is a loan modification for you?
Greg Pennington, a San Francisco-based mortgage banking consultant and counselor with Parker-Pennington Enterprises, says a loan modification isn’t for everyone.
A loan modification may not be viable if:
“You can do a loan modification and not be aware of where you stand. You can get a loan modification for a home you don’t want to be in,” said Pennington.
A financial, housing or credit counselor can help you determine your best option. Just be prepared to hold down the fort for the 60 to 90 days or more it could take to complete the modification, due to potential complications and document processing times.
Written by Broderick Perkins
Current Facebook & Twitter Status
 Friend Anastasia on Facebook |
Friend Brian on Facebook |
 Follow Brian on Twitter |
Polls
Are you planning on taking a vacation of 3+ days this summer?
- Yes (70%)
- No (30%)
Poll Ends: June 30, 2009 @ 8:45 am
Loading ...Say What?
Long-time Occupant Homeowner Exemption - Cook County 3
olga marinic, Kevin F, Kevin F
545 PEOPLE 4
Diesel, Maxx67, Aron, dad 1
The American form of government 1
Morningstar
Elite: Supermax 15
dp, melissa, Barri John, Ylanne, Ylanne [...]
Gay Jesus? 25
vagomania, ki, chlore, Judy, Bryner [...]
Monkeyism 16
Vowoxiuraxi, Gary G, TheChubbyConservative, J-Dub, Gary G [...]
-
Gallery
One Year Ago
- No articles on this date.
Recent Posts
- Air traffic in 24 hours
- Send Text Message (SMS) via Email
- All things to all people
- Six Flags Great America
- The American form of government
- Link Dump
- 1,474 megapixels
- Atheist Holiday
- 18 foot snake attacks child in Las Vegas
- Credit Scores
- Is A Mortgage Modification For You?
- Facebook is killing Meaninglis
