| Real estate appraiser sues WaMu
Washington Mutual Inc. has been sued by a real estate appraiser who claimed her contract with the biggest U.S. savings and loan was terminated because she prepared appraisals that indicated market conditions were declining. California appraiser Jeniffer Wertz earned more than $100,000 a year doing two or three appraisals a day for Washington Mutual until May, when she refused to revise reports to falsely indicate market conditions were stable, according to a complaint filed Jan. 10 in California state court in Sacramento. A bank sales manager "insisted" Wertz "change her appraisal to indicate 'stable' market conditions so the loan could be approved," she said in the complaint. If Wertz didn't, she claimed, the sales manager said she would be "prevented from doing any WaMu appraisal work." The independence of appraisers has been raised as a potential factor in the subprime mortgage crisis.
Flushing Them Out (52)
She never knows if he'll come home. Daniela has very few friends — there's no one she can trust not to report her, especially now that the county sheriff has an illegal immigration hotline. She can't leave her house to buy groceries; she's heard that the sheriff stations deputies at Food City. Daniela lives down the street from a drug dealer, not a safe environment for a young family. She knows the guy's name, his address and she's seen him do business. But she can't call the police — they might take her away. She's learned how to walk quietly, to stay in the shadows. The only place Daniela allows herself to go is her children's elementary school. She volunteers there six hours a day. She says it's her responsibility to be active in her children's education. But when she walks to school (she won't drive, ever) she makes sure to go with one of her few friend or her kids.
Editor's mailbag: Start chewing gum, farmers
Gordon Shadle (Jan. 14, "Never doubt the pig committee") makes a valid statistical point: Small errors add up. But does he think he's the first to realize that?News flash: The guys at the IPCC are better at this than he is. Whole careers have been devoted to the mathematics of uncertainty in physical modeling.But that's just taking the pigs committee's word for it, I guess, so look at it this way.Suppose, instead of one furnace, you had 300 tiny little heaters in your house. If you turned them all up from 60 to 70 degrees, knowing that the dials are only 99 percent accurate, would you expect only a 5 percent chance that the house would warm up?Gordon ignores at least two important points. First, most parts of climate models are far more than 99 percent reliable. They are like the little heaters.
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