Plenty of Room Upstairs?
R&B singer Beyonce told Glamour UK magazine in a recent interview that she has turned an entire apartment into a closet to hold the designer handbags, clothes, shoes, and accoutrements that come with her diva-esque lifestyle. Beyonce says designers are partially to blame for her storage conundrum for sending her so many gratis designer handbags. “I probably get about 15 bags sent to me a month,” the 27-year-old superstar told Glamour. “There are some bags that are pretty hot. But then I haven’t bought myself a Hermes Birkin bag because I think they are just too expensive.” Apparently, relying on multifamily real estate for A-list self-storage is much more budget-savvy.
Good (Enough) Fellas
U.S.district judge William Martini has tossed out a lawsuit that attempted to leverage anti-organized crime laws to prevent a landlord from renting to illegal immigrants in Plainfield, N.J.—once the haven of reputed crime bosses William Morretti and Chicago Fats. According to Martini’s decision, renting to illegal immigrants does not constitute the harboring of criminals as defined under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. A nonplussed plaintiff group—the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform—said they would appeal. “It’s a road bump in a long struggle,” the group’s lawyer told the Star Ledger. Plainfield’s Hispanic civic leaders, including the Latin American Coalition, lauded the decision
Not-So-Candid Cameras
A Chattanooga, Tenn., landlord found guilty of installing hidden video cameras to spy on his female residents without their knowledge has received a suspended sentence, and victims are outraged. Landlord Leasie Roberts received an 11-month, 29-day suspended prison term for unlawfully videotaping several female residents. “It really disturbs me; it just sickens me that they would give somebody a suspended sentence and put them back on the street so that they could potentially do that to someone else,” former resident and spy victim Jena Pinson told Chattanooga’s News Channel 9. In addition to the hidden cameras, cops investigating the case also found that Roberts had a stash of four guns, which landed the previously convicted felon in the slammer for 13 months. Roberts has since served that time. Seems the laws are pretty particular when it comes to defining point and shoot.
Kicked to the Curb
Missourilawmakers overwhelmingly approved a measure barring evicted tenants from suing landlords for disposing of property they left behind. Voting 158-1, the state House of Representatives approved the measure that protects multifamily operators from lawsuits for selling, removing, or otherwise disposing of personal property left behind by evicted renters. With plenty of Show-Me state common sense, the bill allows residents to sue if the landlords actions were willful, wanton, or malicious, but also demands that property operators make an attempt to notify persons before disposing of their abandoned property, making the suit allowance point somewhat moot.
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