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Big Referral Fees
For Little Work
Do you know someone who wants to sell a home, office or other real estate?
If you do, you could earn thousands of dollars with a quick phone call or e-mail. The Legal Forum pays a base fee of $1,500 for referrals to sellers’ property that sells for at least $200,000. Each $100,000 of value to the property over $200,000 gives the person making the referral an extra $100. A $700,000 dollar property value, for example, would earn a referral fee of $2,000.
Your only obligation is to phone or e-mail Tom Ramstack with the name, address, phone number or e-mail address of the seller. In most cases, it should take no more than 10 minutes of your time.
For more information, click the Real Estate icon on the menu above or contact Tom Ramstack at 240-421-6395 or e-mail tramstack@aol.com.
The referral fees are offered to anyone in the District of Columbia but only real estate licensees in other states. However, non-real estate agents can receive credits equal to the referral fee toward the purchase or sale of property in Virginia and Maryland.
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D.C. Attorney General Seeks Lawyers
To Sue Exxon Over Climate Change
Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine is expected to file a lawsuit soon against oil giant ExxonMobil Corp. on claims the company’s automobile fuels pollute air in the nation’s capital.
Last month, he posted a job solicitation that he announced in a Tweet seeking a legal team “passionate about protecting our environment.”
The solicitation requires the winning job candidates to provide legal services for the attorney general’s "investigation and potential litigation against ExxonMobil Corporation (Exxon).”
The solicitation says a lawsuit would seek to show Exxon violated the Consumer Protection Procedures Act by failing to warn its customers that its fuels can damage the environment, such as by causing climate change.
“Since at least the 1970s, Exxon has been aware that its fossil fuel products were significantly contributing to climate change, and that climate change would accelerate and lead to significant harms to the environment in the twenty-first century,” the solicitation says. “However, despite this knowledge, in connection with selling gasoline to D.C. consumers and others, Exxon has failed to inform consumers about the effects of its fossil fuel products on climate change.”
D.C. in Brief
Legal Briefs
Families of Preschool Children
Sue On Sexual Abuse Allegation
The families of seven children sued the Edlavitch Tyser Early Childhood Center in Northwest D.C. this week on allegations a staff member sexually abused the preschool students over two years.
They also say the Washington Hebrew Congregation, which operates the pre-school, and its top administrator were warned but did not adequately intervene to halt the abuse.
The lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court says an assistant teacher named Jordan Silverman took advantage of the children between 2016 and 2018. The children, both boys and girls, were between two years old and four years old.
Silverman’s actions at the preschool represented the "most grievous, demeaning and damaging forms of sexual abuse" and was "systemic and regular," the lawsuit says.
Evidence of the negligence can be found in administrators’ failure to follow the Washington, D.C. “two-deep” policy that requires at least two adults to be present with children at licensed preschools, the lawsuit says.
"Essential protection against abuse of this type in a child-caring environment requires visibility and accountability of all adults present at all times," the 23 plaintiffs say in their lawsuit. "Defendants provided for neither."
The lawsuit seeks an amount of damages to be determined by a jury.
Washington Hebrew Congregation denied allegations its staff violated any laws but added they are cooperating with a police investigation.
"Child safety has always been our top priority," a statement from the synagogue says.
Former Skadden Arps Partner Pleads
Not Guilty to Foreign Lobbying Charge
Former Skadden Arps partner Gregory Craig pleaded not guilty last week after being arrested on charges that he lied to federal investigators about his role in a foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of the Ukrainian government.
He was indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C.
Craig worked on behalf of Skadden Arps to write a report for the Ukrainian government in 2012 on the prosecution of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
She was a political opponent of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had her jailed and prosecuted on financial corruption charges. Craig’s report was supposed to be an objective analysis but critics said it whitewashed the political motives behind the prosecution.
The allegations against Craig arose from the investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, who was investigating whether Russia influenced the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.
Parents of Murdered Child
Sue D.C. Housing Authority
The parents of a murdered 10-year-old girl are suing the District of Columbia in a wrongful death claim that accuses the Housing Authority of failing to provide residents with adequate security.
The city could have prevented the murder of Makiyah Wilson in the Clay Terrace neighborhood by providing guards, erecting fences with security gates and using video cameras, the girl’s parents say.
In addition, the city had notice of the dangers to residents from multiple murders in the same neighborhood over several years, the lawsuit says.
The fifth-grader was killed nine months ago in the public housing complex when masked men fired more than 60 shots into a courtyard filled with people. She was hit in the back while trying to buy ice cream.
Seven people have been arrested and charged in the murder.
The girl’s parents are claiming $30 million for what they say is the city’s negligence.
D.C. Housing Authority officials have declined to comment on the pending litigation.
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D.C. Joins States in Opposing
Agriculture Dept. Nutrition Rules
The District of Columbia is leading a 21-state coalition to oppose proposed cutbacks in food stamps for some low-income recipients.
The comment letter filed by the D.C. Attorney General is one of two legal actions the city has taken against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the past three weeks.
The Agriculture Department proposes modifying a 1996 welfare law that limits the time to three months that unemployed able-bodied adults without dependents can receive food stamps.
The law allows states to request waivers from the time limit if they have unemployment rates over 10 percent or lack enough jobs to employ food stamp recipients who would lose their benefits.
The proposed Agriculture Department rule would severely restrict states’ ability to obtain the waivers.
Book on Boston Marathon Bombs
Shows Lone Wolf Terrorism Rises
A new book that reports on the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and trial of the convicted killer shows the attack was only an early example of more coming soon.
Boston's Bloody Marathon uses the bombings by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother as an example of the lone wolf terrorism increasingly encouraged by Islamic extremist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.
Lone wolves refer to terrorists who plot their attacks alone, usually with no organization to support them and no official links to violent groups. There is almost no way to know their next target until they strike. U.S. intelligence agencies call them perhaps the biggest terrorist threat to the United States and its allies.
Boston's Bloody Marathon, by Tom Ramstack, is available on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.
Click here.
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