Harper flashes star potential in big league debut
18.05.12
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Bryce Harper's first day in the major leagues came with all the hype one would expect for the player dubbed "Baseball's Chosen One" when he was only 16 years old.
The No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft went 1 for 3 in his first game for the Washington Nationals, with a booming double against Chad Billingsley, a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the ninth and a bullet throw from left field that nearly cut down a runner at the plate.
"We played a great team tonight," Harper said. "Billingsley threw a great game and we fought till the end. That's the way you want to start off your career, I think. But I wish we would have gotten the W, or course."
It wasn't enough to keep the Los Angeles Dodgers from winning 4-3 in 10 innings Saturday night on a homer by Matt Kemp, but it was an impressive debut for the 19-year-old.
"I really didn't have butterflies at all. I think that's one of the first times I've never gotten butterflies," Harper said. "I was sitting in the dugout before the game and I was thinking to myself: 'Wow, I'm in the big leagues.' But I was talking to Adam LaRoche before the game and I told him: 'Hey, I'm really calm right now.' I was just trying to look for my pitch and got into some good counts. I think in the next week or so, it'll really sink in.
Source: KTVN
Complaint: Bank-owned homes get less care in minority areas
18.05.12
The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) filed a complaint Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The group said it looked at foreclosed homes in several metro areas and found that they were more likely to be rundown and poorly marketed in minority neighborhoods than in white ones.
Complaints range from failing to cut grass to allowing boarded up homes to decay and failing to put up “For Sale” signs.
NFHA said Wells Fargo is violating the federal Fair Housing Act, which requires banks and investors to maintain and market homes without regard to race or ethnicity.
Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, disputed the complaint generally and said it didn’t have enough information to respond to specific cases.
Tom Goyda, vice president of corporate communications for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, said the company “takes responsibility for managing property preservation for homes with loans that are within our portfolio.” He added that government-backed investors such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and VA control two-thirds of the loans the bank services and manage foreclosed properties, as do some private investors.
Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution