Progress = advance or development toward a better, more complete, or more modern condition.

Think Progress is a News Blog that I read. Perhaps you may like it too. Here are some of the current headlines:

POLITICS
• BREAKING: House Republicans Again Delay Payroll Tax Cut Vote, May Resort To Procedural Gimmicks

JUSTICE

• Gingrich PAC Took $7.6 Million From One Donor, Used Money To Fly Across The Country For Public Events

ECONOMY

• Under Romney, Bain Capital Made Millions From South Carolina Business That Shut Down, Laid Off 150 Workers

POLITICS

• New Hampshire GOP Lawmakers Propose ‘Warning: You Are About To Enter Massachusetts’ Border Signs

ECONOMY

• 70 Percent Of The Cuts In GOP Sen. DeMint’s Deficit Reduction Plan Target Low-Income People

HEALTH

• In 2010, Romney Said He Wouldn’t Repeal The Individual Health Mandate In Obamacare

ECONOMY

• What Happens To The Economy If The Payroll Tax Cut Expires

ECONOMY

• Study: Wealth Inequality In America May Be Worse Than It Was In Ancient Rome

JUSTICE

• Video: 1994 Mitt Romney Explains How 2011 Mitt Romney’s Wall Street Donors Will Corrupt Mitt Romney

SECURITY

• Last Flight Out Of Iraq: ‘It’s Great Being A Part Of History. It’s An Even Better Feeling To Be Going Home’

NEWS FLASH

• PRO-ADULTERY WEBSITE ENDORSES GINGRICH

Darkness on the edge of town, in stores Nov. 16.

A meditation on “Where are you going to stand.”

More relevant now than ever before.

One of the nation’s last sources of no money down financing for home loans appears to be making a comeback: Legislation that restores a Department of Agriculture home-buying program is headed to President Barack Obama’s desk for signature.

The legislation makes the USDA’s Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program self-sufficient, the National Association of Realtors reports. Borrowers will have to pay a higher “guarantee fee” of 3.5%–essentially upfront mortgage insurance–but the fee can be folded into the mortgage.

Buyers won’t mind paying a bit more in fees, says Sue Botelho, a senior mortgage advisor with Waterstone Mortgage Corp. in Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. “It’s great news,” she said. “It’s a huge part of my business. I am thrilled.”

Also happy is LGI Homes, a Texas builder that caters to USDA buyers. Chief Executive Eric Lipar estimates he’s lost 100 sales in the last few months.

“Once funding’s officially in place, we’ve got customers waiting,” he said.

The USDA wasn’t immediately available for comment.

As we’ve reported, the program offering no-money-down loans in certain parts of the country for low- and middle-income borrowers, exhausted its $13.1 billion funding earlier this year, leaving some would-be buyers fearful their financing would fall through. USDA loans were particularly popular this year as first-time buyers tapped the government’s federal home buyer tax credit. They have until Sept. 30 to close.

Despite the last-minute save for USDA borrowers, industry watchers haven’t stopped criticizing zero-down deals-given the role they played in the housing crash. The USDA program is considered safer because up to 90% of the purchase amount is guaranteed, meaning the agency will pay should the borrower default.

The USDA has previously said that last fiscal year’s foreclosure rate was 1.72%, well below the Federal Housing Administration’s 3.32%. Borrowers also can’t make more than 115% of a county’s median income, preventing McMansion-sized loans: The average USDA loan is $112,000.

The strong guidelines weed out potentially troublesome borrowers, Ms. Botelho said. “When they approve a loan, it’s a very, very good loan,” she said.

I couldn’t resist this headline after I came across this story.

Don is the owner of Meletharb Ice Cream. His ice cream was voted 2010 Best Ice Cream by Yankee Magazine

MELETHARB ICE CREAM, Wakefield
Dozens of flavors, made on the premises in small batches, attract a steady stream of ice-cream lovers, in weather both fair and foul. The shop’s creativity is best displayed in the honey-accented flavor with chunks of baked baklava blended in. Delicious! 393 Lowell St. 781-245-4946; meletharb.com

$16 Park All Day

As I sort of expected plan A was a no go, all spaces were taken. Enter plan B. I parked at Prudential Center Parking and got to the workshop on time. I figured even if they charge me for a half day $8 will be OK. Three hours later, workshop is over, I hand the cashier my ticket, in the card reader it goes and he turns to me smiling and says, $35.00 please. I immediately had an out-of-body WTF moment of shock like when you realize you’ve just been sucker-punched, hard. Regaining my voice I asked what about the sign out front, $16 all day? You need a stamp, he said, again with the smile. At that point I knew that I was trapped. I surrendered my $35.00 got my receipt and grumbled all the way home. So, as a result a lesson was learned. I will not park at Prudential Center Parking again.

The counter person was perfectly willing to commence the transaction until she heard “and I don’t want to pay for this”. She said just a moment and exits into a rear office. Next up, the store manager. She asks some background questions about the purchase. I show her the defects. Then she starts with the “I cant’s” and a string of denials of responsibility. This takes us about three minutes and she appears to have really dug in. Just at that time out of the corner of my eye I see some customers waiting for the clerk. An idea forms and I quickly pick up my pants holding them so the manager and customers can see the open seam and I say to the manager “You can’t tell me this is not a defect.” There was an instant whoosh like when you win a hard fought tennis match. The store manager responded quietly “I’ll take it to the tailor and see what I can do.”

Five minutes later she returns with pants repaired and a stone face. I complemented her judgement and said she had made a return customer. The stone face remained. I left the store pleased.

Update: Oops! Just noticed the date of the most recent post on MoreStuff4Less is December 2008. OK, well, there’s nothing more constant than change.