 for the Charleston Gazette: "Teams performing the legislatively mandated review examined only materials from the vertical portion of wells, not from the horizontal drilling at those same sites, which would have included Marcellus Shale mud and drill cuttings. The omission is important because researchers believe material from the Marcellus Shale is generally more radioactive, and citizen groups are expressing growing concern about the risks of handling and disposal of radioactive drilling wastes."
During a legislative briefing on Sunday, Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of WVU's Water Research Institute, cited lack of access to data for not being able to test horizontal drilling, Ward writes. Ziemkiewicz said the state Department of Environmental Protection tried on three occasions "to obtain Marcellus drilling mud from a Stone Energy site in August 2012," but "were told each time that 'drilling malfunctions' made it impossible for them to do so."
Ultra-low interest rates mixed with stabilizing home prices continued to push housing affordability in the 3rd quarter near its highest levels in more than 2 decades, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. For the 3rd quarter, 72.9% of all homes sold were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,200. Prior to the past 11 quarters the Index rarely was above 60%. With interest rates at historically low levels & markets across the country are now within the reach of more households than it has been for nearly decades, according to Bob Neilson, chairman of the National Assoc. of Home Builders.
Looking ahead, it will be important to maintain the affordability, access to natural resources & quality of life that have drawn so many homebuyers to Texas, which is a continued focus of the Texas Association of Realtors. Sales this quarter are comparable to levels in 2002 & 2003, indicating the market is returning to a more normal sales pace, according to Dr. Jim Gaines, an economist with the Real Estate Center at TX A&M University. Texas has a 7.4 month inventory in the 3rd quarter of 2011, but a higher inventory in our area. There is still a backlog of foreclosures, but less in TX, but they will cause our inventory to fluctuate in the coming months. It is better if the inventory is down to 6 or less months for a balanced market. 18% more sales in 3rd quarter 2011, then same period in 2010, partly due the tax credit off.
Texas is one of the states, but must be OWNER OCCUPIED & for full amount of current HUD list price. The buyer will get an FHA 203k loan & instead of the usual 3-5% down, now $100 down & in some cases help up to 3% in closing costs. The 203k program allows buyers to finance both the mortgage and additional money for rehabilitation needs with a single government-insured loan. Necessary to seek out a local lender who can handle this FHA 203k loan. Some cannot. These are HUD repossessed homes. HUD wants homes back in the hands of HOME OWNERS.
 A person who pays his bills on time tends to that in the near-future. That is the basis of credit scoring. To lenders that is your likelihood of making on-time payments in the next 90 days, because after 90 days of nonpayment of your mortgage you go into default. Higher credit scores correlate with a lower default rise, which is why you can receive lower mortgage rates. This applies to all types of loans and lender use the FICO Scoring Model EXCLUSIVELY. 3 main credit bureaus in the U. S. are Equifax, Experian & TransUnion. FICO named for Fair Isaac Corporation, invented in the 1950s & is mortgage industry standard for credit ratings. This is akin to calling all adhesive bandages “Bank-Aids”. FICO is a trade name & not a product. With 20% down a FICO score of 740+ and no discount points required. At 660-679 FICO 2.5 % discount points OR $2,500 per $100,000 borrowed. This fee can be rolled into your loan.There are two giants in Asia – China and India. And when the two are compared, India always comes out unfavourably. Look at the statistics: China gets over US $40 billion as foreign direct investment, while India gets only $2 billion. China had an export turnover of $322 billion in 2002, while India’s will not exceed $40 billion in 2002-03. China’s official defence budget in 2000 was $14.5 billion. In 2001 it was $17.05 billion. The actual figure could be about three times higher at $50 billion. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China, which has 40 members in the 160 member Central Commission, is insisting on a 17 per cent increase in the defence budget next year. China is moving, and moving fast.
Yet, the irony is that India is a democracy, while China isn’t; India is pro-West, while China is deeply suspicious of the West, particularly of the United States; India has been the soft target of Muslim fundamentalism, while China has ruthlessly clamped down on its own Muslim separatism. Yet the West remains totally enamored of China, while completely bypassing and ignoring India, its innate ally in Asia.
In 1948, China understood that its natural competitor in Asia was India, because India could not only match it in terms of manpower, but also in sheer skills and brains. It hit upon a very simple idea to keep India tied-up: It would support Pakistan militarily, even going to the extent of providing Islamabad with nuclear technology, so that it could have its own Islamic atomic bomb. Today, China supplies 70 per cent of military aircraft and main battle tanks (MBT) to Pakistan. Every missile project in Pakistan has been initiated through active Chinese or North Korean assistance and is India specific. The Kargil conflict even saw long lines of Chinese trucks along the Karakoram highway carrying military equipment to Pakistan.
By taking over Tibet, Beijing also made sure it would strategically overlook India. It also kept it destabilised by continuously claiming Indian territories such as Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. Beijing protested the loudest when the BJP exploded its nuclear device in 1998, but this is pure hypocrisy: China has today an estimated stockpile of 400 nuclear warheads ranging from 5 mt to low kt warheads. It has a wide range of missiles from 158 km range CSS-8 weapon systems to the CSS-4 with a range of 13,000 km. According to the CIA, China has transferred one-third of its nuclear arsenal to Nagchuka, 250 km away from Lhasa, a region full of huge caves, which the Chinese have linked together by an intricate underground network and where they have installed nearly 100 Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), many of them pointed at Indian cities. China is also rapidly modernising its blue water navy to achieve its aim of “power projection”. It has a large submarine force of some 71 submarines, though it lacks enough aircraft carriers. China’s immediate naval agenda is to control the sea-lanes of the Indian Ocean, along which a major share of world trade and oil is transported. The US estimates that China would be its main rival by 2015.
China has also been supplying arms to India’s neighbours Burma, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, in order to increase its influence in these countries. To the east of India, China’s close links with Burma has helped it to increase military activities in areas bordering the Bay of Bengal. The Chinese have also built a signal monitoring station in the Coco Islands. They have opened up the old Burma-China road as well as the Irrawady river for traffic. These will facilitate rapid troop movement as and when required. The Chinese navy has already started using Myanmar as a base for operations in the Bay of Bengal and the Malacca Straits. To the south of our country, China is trying to acquire naval facilities in Sri Lanka. To the north of India, China has considerably improved its military infrastructure.
In Tibet, China has constructed some 13 air bases and is laying the Gormo-Laksha oil pipeline to ease its problem of supplying fuel to its forces in Tibet. The problem of supply will further ease with the construction of a rail link to Lhasa on which work is reported to be in progress. On top of that, China still occupies one-third of Ladakh which it took during the 1962 conflict. China has thus thrown an iron ring around India’s neck. Unfortunately, generations of Indian leaders starting with Nehru have decided that India and China are natural brothers in Asia, the infamous “Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai”.
Shortly before China’s attack in 1962, the Indian Army Chief of Staff had drafted a paper on the threats to India’s security from China, along with recommendations for a clear defence policy. But when Nehru read the paper, he said: “Rubbish. Total rubbish. We don’t need a defence plan. Our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. Scrap the Army. The police are good enough to meet our security needs.” We know the results of this very foolish assessment.
Even today, barring Defence Minister George Fernandes, who alone had the courage to say that China is India’s enemy Number 1, everybody keeps mum. Yet the truth is that Pakistan is a small country which has lost all the wars it has initiated against India. Even a nuclear war would be a holocaust for Pakistan, while India would survive. What Indian leaders do not understand is that it is not China that has to be appe