SACRAMENTO, CA - April 12, 2008  - (OBSNEWS) A fast growing online real estate company specializing in buying houses and providing foreclosure houses to first time homebuyers has expanded their services to incorporate a include real estate relocation company aspect to their operations.  Famous for their ‘we buy houses’ slogan, www.TheHomeBuyingCenter.com has expanded their efforts across the United States to provide relocation services to consumers and corporations alike. 

Seeing a great need for people who want to sell or buy real estate and have all aspects of their transition coordinated by one team, TheHomeBuyingCenter.com acted to provide more services than simply buying houses.  In addition to buying houses quickly for cash, the company also has a nationwide network of certified real estate agents who are specially trained in how to sell houses fast in difficult markets and how to buy foreclosure houses for their clients from banks and other lenders who have REO properties for sale.

The company reports that if a home meets the company’s team of investors’ criteria one of the  nationwide investors will buy it from you for a no-hassle quick closing for cash.  In addition a full range of real estate relocation services if offered to help you get top dollar for your house quickly and to buy foreclosure houses at a fraction of the cost of similar homes on the resale market.

As presidential contests gets underway in four states, Clinton greets voters in Houston and Obama visits a livestock show. McCain plans victory party in Dallas.

By Louise Roug, Scott Martelle and Maria L. LaGanga

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, hoping for a comeback in her presidential race against rival Barack Obama, greeted voters at polling places this morning in Houston and Dallas before leaving Texas to await election results in Columbus, Ohio.

“I feel really good about today,” the New York senator told reporters outside a Houston elementary school . “Let’s wait and see what the voters have actually decided — I think it’s going to turn out well.”

Obama, a freshman senator from Illinois who is hoping to extend his string of 11 victories and deliver a knockout punch to Clinton’s campaign, began his day at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Houston. He looked at cows and bulls, shook hands with high schoolers with the Future Farmers of America and donned a green-and-yellow John Deere baseball cap. He planned broadcast interviews today and a San Antonio rally this evening..

“I hope we do well, but we’re working hard,” he told reporters.

With 370 pledged delegates at stake in today’s contests in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont, voters were turning out in record numbers. Voters in Ohio faced raw, late-winter weather, including freezing rain in the north and flood warnings or watches across most of the state.

But the weather did little to dampen early turnout, with one small precinct in a Columbus neighborhood attracting a steady stream of voters, including Kevin Frazier, a 45-year-old nurse technician. Once in the camp of former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina because of his focus on poverty, Frazier said he voted for Obama.

“Hillary Clinton, she voted with Bush too much for me,” he said. “She did a lot of things for kids and tried to do the universal healthcare … but she never looked at the full picture.”

Clinton, hoping to rejuvenate her campaign and keep the contest going to the Pennsylvania primary on April 22, gave television interviews to stations in all the major media markets in the voting states. In job-strapped Ohio, she bashed Obama for his supposed back-signal to Canadians over the North American Free Trade Agreement. In border-conscious Texas, she talked tough about Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.

Speaking to several stations in Dayton, Clinton said, “Sen. Obama came to Ohio and said one thing about NAFTA and then had a foreign government told something else,” she told WKEF/WRGT. Later, talking to the Spanish-language Telemundo, Clinton said, “President Chavez has taken actions that are very dangerous. … For the life of me, why Hugo Chavez would side with the terrorists is inexplicable.”

Later, talking to reporters, Clinton said, “You don’t get to the White House without winning Ohio.” She added that her campaign also hopes to “put Texas in play.”

Putting Texas in play is complicated by the state’s two-stage voting process some are calling “the Texas two-step.” After the polls close there, voters who cast a primary ballot are eligible to participate in a caucus that will decide roughly a third of the state’s 228 delegates.

On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain has scheduled a victory party for Dallas today, hoping his combined wins in the four states will give him the 159 delegates he needs to clinch the GOP nomination.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, in an interview on CNN, said he is still hoping for a win in Texas.

Noting dryly that McCain, who spent the weekend at home in Arizona, has “been on vacation,” Huckabee told CNN, “We think in an election anything can happen.”

Asked whether the mathematics suggests he should drop out of the race, Huckabee, the choice of hard-core conservatives displeased by McCain’s stances on immigration and campaign-reform policies, said he sees no reason to withdraw before one candidate has received the 1,191 delegates needed to win the nomination.

“It would be nice to get to that point before we drain the bathtub,” he said.

The Pentagon is planning to shoot down a damaged spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March, the Associated Press reported Thursday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The satellite, launched in December 2006, lost power almost immediately and never reached its final orbit. It is expected to crash-land in early March, though officials don’t know where it will land.

The Associated Press said the Pentagon will publicly discuss the options at a briefing later Thursday, but said sources suggest the U.S. administration’s preferred option would be to shoot a missile from a U.S. navy cruiser to destroy the satellite before it enters Earth’s atmosphere.

The satellite’s thrusters contain a toxic rocket fuel called hydrazine that can cause harm to anyone who comes in contact with it.

U.S. officials told the Associated Press they do not want the satellite to fall into the wrong hands, as it carries a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor.

Last year, China drew criticism from a host of countries, including the U.S., after it used a missile to shoot down an old weather satellite located about 865 kilometres above the Earth. The move was widely viewed as one that could lead to the increasing militarization of space, though China defended its test.

“China opposes the weaponization of space and any arms race,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao at a regular briefing of reporters in Beijing. “The test is not targeted at any country and will not threaten any country.”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sam Lufti, the manager and companion of troubled pop star Britney Spears, has said the singer suffers from “mental issues” and has seen a psychiatrist, talk show host Barbara Walters revealed on Monday.

On her ABC television show “The View,” veteran broadcast journalist Walters said she spoke with Lufti by phone after he reached out to her.

“He said that Britney is suffering from what he describes as mental issues which are treatable,” Walters said on “The View.” “He said that she has been to a psychiatrist and that she, I assume, is starting some kind of treatment.”

Walters said Lufti has been staying with the singer “constantly” and added that Spears has been having “mood swings, she’s been having trouble sleeping.”

Walters said she did not know whether Lufti was indeed telling the truth.

Spears, 26, has seen her life spin out of control in the past year since her late 2006 divorce from ex-husband Kevin Federline.

She has exhibited bizarre behavior in public, including being photographed not wearing underwear, and she and Federline have waged a bitter legal battle over custody of their sons.

Late last year, Spears lost custody and visitation rights to Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, and was ordered to undergo drug and alcohol counseling and parental coaching.

She has failed on numerous occassions to appear in Los Angeles family court for hearings dealing with her and Federline’s custody issues.

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Senator Hillary Clinton won Florida’s Democratic presidential primary, according to network and Associated Press projections, in a contest that was largely a popularity poll because no convention delegates were at stake.

Clinton had 48 percent of the vote to 30 percent for Illinois Senator Barack Obama, with 19 percent of precincts reporting. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards had 14 percent.

Florida violated party rules when it moved its voting contest ahead of Feb. 5, the date sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee. The DNC allowed four early contests: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

While Obama, Edwards and Clinton agreed last September that they wouldn’t compete for Florida because of the party- imposed penalty, Clinton, a New York senator, last week announced she would press to have Florida’s delegates seated at the Democratic convention in August. Florida is a crucial swing state in the general election.

None of the candidates campaigned in the state, though Obama aired television commercials that ran on cable channels. Clinton attended fund-raisers there and held a rally with supporters tonight in Davie, Florida, after the polls closed.

“I am thrilled to have had this vote of confidence that you have given me today,” Clinton said. “I promise you I will do everything I can to make sure not only are Florida’s Democratic delegates seated, but Florida is in the winning column for the Democrats in 2008.”

Florida’s primary is a “beauty contest,” Obama told reporters on his plane to Kansas today. “None of us campaigned there, so people have no idea what the respective candidates stand for and haven’t had a chance to lift the hood and kick the tires.”

Still, tonight represents a “meaningful and decisive public opinion poll,” said Casey Klofstad, assistant professor of political science at the University of Miami.

“It presents an opportunity for Obama to continue his ascendancy or Clinton to put the brakes on that and regain some of the momentum she had before South Carolina,” Klofstad said.

By REUTERS

NEW YORK, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Yahoo reported a drop in quarterly profit on Tuesday and its shares fell nearly 7 percent as Chief Executive Jerry Yang predicted a tough 2008 amid a weakening U.S. economy.

Yahoo reported a fourth-quarter profit of $205.7 million, or 15 cents per share, down from $268.7 million, or 19 cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 8 percent to $1.83 billion a year ago. Excluding payments to advertising partners (OOTC:ADPN) , revenue rose 14 percent to $1.4 billion.

Analysts, on average, had forecast earnings per share of 11 cents on revenue of $1.41 billion excluding traffic acquisition costs, according to Reuters Estimates.

“While we will continue to face headwinds this year, we believe that the moves we are making will help us exit 2008 stronger and more competitive and return to higher levels of operating cash flow growth in 2009,” Yang said in a statement.

Yahoo’s larger share of the display market makes it more vulnerable to any spending pullbacks in a recession. Analysts expect key rival Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) may fare better in a downturn with its dominance of paid search listings, a form of advertising that is viewed as more closely tied to sales.

Yahoo shares fell to $19.40 in extended trading after closing at $20.81 in regular trade.

By VINNEE TONG

Liberty Media Corp.’s John Malone, a longtime business partner of Barry Diller, took action Monday to oust Diller from the board of the IAC/InterActiveCorp Internet conglomerate.

The move is the latest in dueling lawsuits the two sides have filed in Delaware courts, following IAC’s announcement that it would break into five separate publicly traded companies. Liberty says that would rob the media holding company of its shareholder voting power.

Malone’s lawyers sought the removal of seven IAC board members in all, including Diller, his wife the designer Dianne Von Furstenberg, Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Steven Rattner. Liberty proposes they be replaced by three people it named in the court filing.

Three other current IAC board members were not named as targets, including a former Coca-Cola Co. executive, Donald Keough, and retired Army Gen. H Norman Schwarzkopf.

Diller has long controlled Liberty Media’s voting rights in board matters, per a proxy agreement, but Liberty lawyers argue those rights were revoked when Diller decided to pursue the spin-offs without Liberty’s consent. Malone’s lawyers claim such consent is required under the agreement that gives Diller the rights in the first place.

Liberty also said in court papers it would remove Diller as a director of an entity called BDTV, which it argues would take away his power to vote its shares, which constitute roughly half of Liberty’s IAC voting power. About 99 percent of BDTV is owned by Liberty subsidiaries.

An IAC spokeswoman said the company had no comment as of late Monday, although Diller gave a statement to The Wall Street Journal that calls Liberty “insane.”

Malone and Diller joined up in the mid-1990s and have worked together as Diller built IAC’s business. As IAC shares suffered in recent years, the two began to show their differences.

Malone is a cable pioneer and has been chairman of Liberty Media since 1990. A trained engineer, he started his career at Bell Labs/AT&T and rose to become the chief executive of cable company TCI.

Diller started in the mail room at the William Morris Agency after dropping out of UCLA. He is widely known for creating the movie of the week at ABC and creating the Fox Broadcasting Co., and he was previously chief executive of Paramount Pictures.

In November, Diller announced plans for IAC to spin off its HSN home shopping network, Ticketmaster ticketing service, Interval time-share business and LendingTree mortgage referral units.

But in IAC board meetings earlier this month, Malone challenged the breakup plan.

Liberty Media owns about 23 percent of IAC common stock, which is entitled to one vote per share, and all of its outstanding Class B common stock, which carries 10 votes per share. The company thus owns about 30 percent of IAC equity but 62 percent of the voting power of its outstanding stock.

Under the breakup plan approved by IAC directors, each of the spin-off companies would have a single-tier voting structure, with each share of common stock having equal voting power. Liberty’s voting power thus would shrink to about 30 percent in the spin-off companies.

Monday’s lawsuit to oust Diller is the third lawsuit to be filed in the Malone-Diller fight.

In a complaint filed in Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday, attorneys for IAC asked that the spin-off plan and one-tier voting structure be declared proper under IAC’s bylaws and certificate of incorporation.

Liberty responded with its own lawsuit a day later, accusing Diller of staging a “corporate coup” and breaching the agreement that gives him proxy authority to vote Liberty’s stock. According to court papers, Diller intends to vote Liberty’s IAC shares in favor of any spin-off transaction requiring IAC shareholder approval.

The Delaware court could decide Tuesday when to hear a separate motion filed by Liberty lawyers to restrict IAC to conducting ordinary course business.

New York-based IAC owns the Ask.com search engine, Citysearch, Evite and Match.com.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) — A fire charred the top of two of three wings of the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino on Friday, causing no major injuries but forcing visitors and employees to evacuate, authorities said.

A bit over an hour after it began, the fire was fully contained, according to the fire departments in Las Vegas and Clark County.

Firefighters would remain at the hotel until “the fire is completely knocked out,” said Clark County Fire Chief Steven M. Smith.

That would be at least through the afternoon, he said.

It was mainly an exterior fire, although there might have been slight damage to some rooms, he told CNN after a news conference.

The cause of the fire was unknown. Welders had been working on the roof.

No one was trapped, and there were no reports of major injuries, said Ed Cagalo of the Clark County Fire Department. The 32-floor building was completely evacuated.

The blaze was reported about 11 a.m.

Black smoke and flames poured from the fire, which roared through the building’s exterior stucco and foam until firefighters were able to get on the roof and knock down the flames. 

Most of the damage was to the top floor of the building. Falling debris ignited parts of an exterior ledge four floors below.

“High-rise fires are never easy to fight. As you can see with it being outside, our firefighters actually had to hang out the windows to try and cut the fire off. We directed our fire streams at an angle so we could make contact with the fire. … It wasn’t an easy fire at all,” Smith said. 

He urged motorists and pedestrians to avoid the area.

Earlier, the smoke was visible from more than a mile away, CNN producer Darian Billington said.

Billington said traffic was backed up on the Strip, and crowds of people were gathering to watch the blaze.

“It was horrible, there was fire everywhere,” a hotel worker who watched the flames from a parking lot told CNN affiliate KVBC.

Four U.S. Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters with rescue crews were put on standby at Nellis Air Force Base during the afternoon to assist in any rescue efforts, but were not needed, a Nellis spokeswoman said.

The hotel has more than 3,000 rooms, including 211 penthouse suites, and conference rooms.

The more expensive rooms are on the top floors.

The hotel was built in 1996 for $344 million. It is in the heart of the resort corridor.

The Monte Carlo, a subsidiary of MGM Mirage, has about 3,000 employees.

In 1980, a fire across the street at the MGM Grand Hotel, now Ballys, killed 84 people and injured nearly 700.

By SAUL HANSELL

CBS said Wednesday that it would expand its Internet music service, Last.fm, to allow users to listen to any song on their computers whenever they wanted, up to three times.

The move is expected to give a lift to the idea that music through the Internet can be similar to radio — free and supported by advertising — yet give users a choice of what they want to listen to.

Until now, Last.fm has offered what is known as Internet radio. Users could listen to a series of songs selected by the service on the basis of their musical tastes, but they could not choose individual songs. Under the new arrangement, users who visit the service’s Web site (www.last.fm) can search for and select any of 3.5 million songs to listen to on their computers through technology called streaming. There are limitations: any given song can only be played three times.

What is more, the free music cannot be downloaded to a portable player, like an iPod. Song downloads will be offered through a link to music stores, including Apple’s iTunes and Amazon.com.

Ultimately, Last.fm will offer users the chance to buy a monthly subscription that will allow them to listen to songs as many times as they want.

Quincy Smith, the president of CBS’s Interactive unit, said the company would prefer to offer more free music, but said there was a “healthy tension” over this with the music labels.

“They want a subscription-based service more and they want downloads,” Mr. Smith said. “I want to pay attention to the users, and the first thing the users want is free streaming.”

Indeed, music executives say they are skeptical that services like Last.fm will be a source of significant revenue. Greg Scholl, the chief executive of the Orchard, which handles digital sales for a independent record companies, said that Last.fm and other free services resemble radio, which offers promotion for music, except that the labels receive a small payment.

“In the long run, nominally paid promotion is not necessarily going to support artists and labels,” he said. “We are supporters of what they are doing, but we are watching it very carefully to see that it makes economic sense.”

CBS would not comment on the financial arrangements with the record companies. But people with knowledge of the transaction said the record companies would receive a part of the advertising revenue. Some record labels also received an upfront cash payment, subject to a minimum of a fraction of one cent a play.

Independent artists and labels can also upload their songs to Last.fm, and will receive a portion of the advertising revenue.

The music industry has struggled to find attractive alternatives to illegal music downloading, and some consider free ad-supported services as an answer. Real Networks’s Rhapsody service and Napster have both offered free music on their Web sites for several years, but they have mainly tried to attract customers for subscription services that charge $10 or $15 a month for unlimited listening.

“The challenge with the advertising supported models is driving a large enough audience to drive high adverting rates versus the high cost of the content,” said Chris Allen, the chief operating officer of Napster.

CBS will start promoting the Last.fm service on the Grammy awards program on Feb. 10.

CBS bought Last.fm, which is based in London, last May for $280 million. The service says it has 20 million users worldwide.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Britney Spears failed on Wednesday in her latest bid to regain the right to see her two young sons after again ducking a court hearing on the issue, Los Angeles court officials said.

Spears, 26, who has either not turned up at numerous hearings or has turned back because of a media crush, was filmed by news media arriving at the Los Angeles court building on time.

But she did not make it to the courtroom where her lawyers and her ex-husband, dancer Kevin Federline, went ahead with proceedings without her, court spokesman Alan Parachini told reporters.

Spears’ lawyer Anne Kiley told family court Commissioner Scott Gordon she did not believe Spears would attend. Kiley gave no explanation and court officials said Spears left the building after about 30 minutes after apparently changing her mind about attending.

After a brief, closed-door hearing Gordon made no change in arrangements which gave Federline sole custody of the couple’s young sons and denied Spears the right to see them, Parachini said. Federline and his lawyers left without commenting.

The troubled pop star, whose personal life has veered out of control in the last 12 months, lost custody of sons Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, in October but had been allowed to see them three times a week in court-monitored visits.

Those visitation rights were stripped on January 4 after Spears refused to hand back the boys to Federline and reportedly locked herself in a bathroom in a fit of hysterics. That episode ended with her being taken away on a stretcher and hospitalized for two days.

Spears failed in a bid last week to regain her visitation rights after the erratic singer made it to the court house but climbed quickly back into her car and drove off after being mobbed by photographers at the entrance to the building.