| WHY WE'LL MISS
Baseball - real baseball, where the stats count - is back, and that's great. But spring training is a year away, which, for us Floridians, is not. Here are the top five reasons I miss the spring. 5 Day baseball. I'm a sucker for night games, but there's something special about spending a sun-drenched afternoon in the bleachers, with the smell of beer, concession stands and suntan lotion wafting over the crowd. 4 No need for a second mortgage. For less than 10 bucks, you can buy a bleacher seat - a seat right on top of the action, not 450 feet away. Affordable for everyone, families included. 3 Everyone's here. Bradenton feels like a baseball hub for a month, with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, etc. all a simple drive away.
California Investigates Subprime Mortgage Industry (Update2)
March 29 (Bloomberg) -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown is investigating the collapsing subprime mortgage industry in the state, the largest U.S. market for high-risk home loans. Gareth Lacy, Brown's spokesman, said yesterday that the attorney general has an ``active and open investigation'' that's a continuation of probes into predatory lending practices that began a couple of years ago. Lacy wouldn't say which companies may be targeted or how far the probe has progressed. ``I think it's appropriate for the attorney general to take a look, especially if there's been abuses in lending practices,'' state Senator Mike Machado, a Democrat from Stockton, California, said in a telephone interview. ``There's a lack of scrutiny over the practices and the brokers engaged in originating some of these loans.'' Half of the 20 biggest U.S.
ResCap Bonds Cut by Bank of America as Finance Executives Leave
March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Bonds of GMAC LLC's Residential Capital division, or ResCap, were cut to ``neutral'' from ``buy'' by Banc of America Securities LLC following the departure of two top finance executives. GMAC announced the resignation of ResCap's chief financial officer, James Giertz, on March 23. Three days earlier, treasurer Louise Herrle said she planned to leave in April. The company attributed the resignations to personal reasons. Yield premiums on ResCap bonds have increased since the beginning of the year on concerns about rising default rates on subprime mortgages. ``We view the departure of ResCap's two most senior finance executives as a significant negative given the challenges the company is facing,'' Banc of America credit analyst John Guarnera in Charlotte, North Carolina, wrote in a research note today.
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