Repinned to . Shared with your followers. See it now. Continue reading →
Aman Makkar, founder and CEO of AppraiserLoft. (YouTube screenshot) An Arizona judge has heard two dozen complaints against a now-defunct San Diego company that home appraisers in that state say failed to pay them in a timely manner or at all for completed work. Diane Mihalsky -- an administrative law judge who heard the cases late last week in Phoenix -- said she will make a recommendation on the claims against AppraiserLoft within the typical 21 days, or in early- to mid-June. Neither company founder Aman Makkar nor his wife, Harpreet Makkar, majority owner of the company, appeared at the hearing. AppraiserLoft's role was to serve as a buffer between lenders and appraisers by assigning and managing appraisal orders across the country. The company boasted ... Continue reading →
JULIAN A brush fire broke out Friday afternoon east of Julian near the Banner Grade, growing to five acres with several aircraft joining the fire-fight.Firefighters in the area noticed smoke about 2:15 p.m. at the lower end of the Banner Grade, where state Route 78 nears the Anza-Borrego Desert floor, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Nick Schuler said.Four air tankers and two helicopters were assigned to the fire, joining more than a dozen fire engines, in Cigarette Canyon. Schuler said several engines have been designated to protect structures, but he did not know of any buildings actually threatened by the flames. Continue reading →
NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- Better hurry: Time is running short if you want to buy a condo so Junior or Sis won’t have to pay room and board at college this fall. You’ll have to find a place, haggle a price and, if you need to borrow, get started on a mortgage-approval process that could easily take 90 days or more. But before you start, how about a reality check? Does buying a condo for a college kid really make sense? A recent SmartMoney story touts the condo-instead-of-dorm strategy: “That way, you'll avoid paying through the nose for a dorm room or apartment with no hope of any profit. And if you buy a condo that has some extra space, you can rent it out ... Continue reading →
Sallie Krawcheck is submitting her opinion on JP Morgan's $2 billion (and counting) CIO trading debacle. The former executive of Merrill Lynch, Citi, and Bernstein published a thoughtful op-ed in The Financial Times. She notes that everyone has been overly focused on the 'Who did what?'; 'How much was lost?'; and 'What should we do now?' questions while missing one key thing. Much of this commentary misses a crucial point: the size and risk of the trading position was identified to the management team by an outside party (the press) and once highlighted, it took weeks for them to understand and quantify the loss. This occurred despite JPMorgan being run by one of the financial sector’s savviest management teams. Rather than focusing on JPMorgan's particular ... Continue reading →
Traffic ahead of Memorial Day in 2010 Southern California gasoline prices, though falling, are at their highest level ever for Memorial Day weekend.Regular-grade gas sold for $4.32 gallon on average in San Diego on Thursday, down about 5 cents from a week ago, according to AAA's daily fuel gauge report. Heading north beyond Orange County prices go even higher -- $4.37 on average in the Santa Barbara area. Despite declining crude oil prices, California retail prices surged higher in early May on low gasoline stocks, a consequence of West Coast refinery outages.“Gas prices are fortunately decreasing by a penny a day or more right now, but we’re not yet seeing any stations with prices under $4 a gallon as was the case earlier this month,” ... Continue reading →
Earlier this year, we wrote about Kings County Beef Jerky, an artisanal jerky company in Brooklyn (of course). Sure, it's easy to mock artisanal jerky companies. The jokes basically write themselves. But the company may represent the future of U.S. manufacturing. We wrote: The Kings County approach is a model for how manufacturers in many sectors can do better. Ignore low-priced commodity products. Focus instead on customizing high-quality goods for a select audience willing to pay a premium. The same idea turns out to hold true for beer. Beer production has been flat in the U.S. for decades — it's actually a tiny bit lower than it was 30 years ago (find a comprehensive data set here). And the number of big breweries has gone ... Continue reading →
Eight months after the Pat & Oscar's chain filed for bankruptcy, its franchisees have collaborated to create a new brand that will preserve some of the old, but update the decor, menu and name.O's American Kitchen, the name of the new San Diego company, plans a gradual roll-out of nine of the former Pat & Oscar's restaurants, including the recently closed store at Westfield Parkway in El Cajon.When the former Pat & Oscar’s management team purchased the company in early 2009, there were 19 Southern California locations. By the time the Carlsbad-based chain filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, there were just 11, all franchisees.Today, the 11 Pat & Oscar's are located in San Diego and Orange Counties, as well as in San Bernardino and Palm ... Continue reading →
