| Susan Collins: Better buying practices will pay off
"It pays to shop around." Following that maxim has saved many consumers money. Smart consumers know that competition helps to ensure the best prices and the highest quality. Unfortunately, the federal government's award of contracts without "shopping around" for the best value has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and on costly, poor quality reconstruction projects in Iraq. Whether the problem is the purchase of unusable manufactured homes for hurricane victims or excessive prices and shoddy construction of schools and clinics in Iraq, we must do a better job of protecting taxpayer dollars. After Hurricane Katrina hit, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded many contracts without competition — such as a no-bid contract with an original ceiling of $100 million that later ballooned to more than $1 billion.
Powerful tornado hits Holly
A tornado ripped through the center of Holly, a small town near the Kansas border, Wednesday night, seriously wounding area residents and leaving homes in rubble, witnesses said. The twister touched down in the area of Main Street, about a block south of U.S. 50, a Colorado State Patrol dispatcher told the Associated Press. Authorities had no immediate estimates of damage or injuries. Witnesses reported seeing three to four ambulances with several patients each heading to Prowers Medical Center in Lamar. A hospital official could not determine how many people were injured or if anyone had been killed. Resident Cheryl Roup was driving into town just as the tornado touched down around 8 p.m. and demolished her wood-framed home. She said the twister went through the center of town from south to north, damaging homes along Cheyenne Street and ripping up trees in the city's central park.
Palm Harbor Homes Announces Completion of $117 Million 2007 ...
DALLAS -- Palm Harbor Homes, Inc. (NASDAQ: PHHM) today announced that CountryPlace Mortgage, Ltd., the Companys 80 percent owned full-service chattel lender subsidiary, has closed CountryPlace Manufactured Housing Contract Trust 2007-1, a $117 million Rule 144A securitization. The securitization consists of asset-backed certificates secured by a portfolio of chattel loans and land-and-home loans originated and serviced by CountryPlace Mortgage. The proceeds from the securitization will be used to repay borrowings from its warehouse facility and to originate new loans. The Company has also renewed its $150 million warehouse facility through March 2008. The securities were offered and sold only to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
Mobile home park could have violated agreement
Action may soon be taken by the North Branch Village Council against the operators of a local mobile home park. Village council was recently informed North Branch Meadows is in some cases occupying homes with individuals and families who are moving in on a rent-to-own basis. Officials said at last Thursday's council meeting, according to a court-mandated consent judgment between the village and Beacon Hill Properties, no renting of homes is supposed to occur. Operators, meanwhile, say the issue is one of legal semantics and those who have moved in under rent-to-own terms do eventually take title to their homes. In the consent judgment, operators are prohibited from using "creative financing" to fill the lots and homes with buyers, officials added. All homes in the park are supposed to be owner-occupied under the agreement between the village and the park.
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