BUSINESS
March 28, 2013 | By Salvador Rodriguez
Ever wanted to know what your dog was doing all day without having to set up a complicated video camera system? People Power, a Palo Alto software company, has released a mobile app that can easily turn an old iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a security camera. The company's free app, Presence, makes it possible for users who have Wi-Fi to set up one Apple device as a video camera and another as a monitor. For instance, a dog owner could take an old iPhone, turn it into a camera and then watch the pooch on an iPad at work.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2013 | By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the newest member of the Senate Banking Committee, waited patiently for her first chance to question top financial regulators at a recent hearing on Capitol Hill. When her turn finally came after 90 minutes, Warren quickly showed she wouldn't be following the custom that a freshman senator be seen and not heard. After some pleasantries, the longtime consumer advocate and Wall Street critic lit into the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
BUSINESS
May 5, 2013 | By Lauren Beale, Los Angeles Times
On busy Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, some well-kept facades conceal a secret. Behind the Mediterranean with wooden doors, the white stucco two-story with a red tile roof, the long wall obscuring a three-structure compound, hides a singular, massive wealth fueled by obsession. This is Larry Ellison territory, where a Bay Area billionaire with seemingly endless patience and resources is buying up the best spots along Malibu's 21 miles of coast. PHOTOS: Expensive things Ellison has bought The Oracle Corp.
BUSINESS
September 14, 2008 | Mary Umberger, Chicago Tribune
Are homeowners in denial? Are they stubbornly -- maybe irrationally -- clinging to the belief that other people's homes may be losing value, but theirs isn't? How else, one wonders, to explain sellers who cling fast to pre-housing slump notions in this wacko market? Or are they getting it -- to the point where they understand we're in a brave new world of pricing? I guess that depends on who's asking the question. Zillow.com is in the "They're in denial" camp: It recently surveyed homeowners about how much their properties are worth.
BUSINESS
February 22, 2013 | By Alejandro Lazo and Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
Banks are stepping up efforts to forgive mortgage debt for troubled California homeowners, although more than half of the aid offered under last year's landmark mortgage settlement is still geared toward getting people out of their homes. California homeowners have received an estimated $16.9 billion worth of completed aid doled out by the nation's five largest mortgage servicers under the accord reached last year. In the most detailed report to date on how that money is flowing to borrowers, regulators noted an increase in the number of principal reductions, although the single biggest chunk of aid has been short sales.
BUSINESS
March 28, 2013 | By E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times
In a push to simplify mortgage modifications, federal regulators announced a streamlined process that doesn't require borrowers to prove a hardship. "This new option gives delinquent borrowers another path to avoid foreclosure," Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said in a statement announcing the modifications Wednesday. The new modifications, however, would not include reducing the loan balance, a move promoted by housing advocates and others but resisted by DeMarco, who says it would end up costing taxpayers money and would encourage defaults.