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Dec 3, 2024 | 
comobusinesstimes.com | Brian Toohey
Does Columbia Care About Inflated Housing Costs? We’re about to find out. Residential development in Columbia and Boone County has been controversial for many years, with neighbors living close to proposed development areas shouting, “Not in my backyard” at city and county meetings.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
johnmenadue.com | Brian Toohey
The Foreign minister Penny Wong should recall Kevin Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to Washington. Australia badly needs an ambassador who performs the traditional diplomatic role of trying to prevent a war: in this case, one involving Australia, China and the US. Instead, Rudd is promoting a new book in the US, “On Xi Jinping: How Xi’s Marxist Nationalism Is Shaping China and the World”. He has also been performing his many other ambassadorial roles.
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
comobusinesstimes.com | Brian Toohey
In the fall and early winter, people in central Missouri are busy starting school, excited about football — especially this year — and surviving the holiday season. Among those events, who would want to add the potential stress and time it takes to search for and buy a new home? Even though it’s still a “seller’s market” and a busy time of year, the fall and early winter can be a great time to buy a house, particularly this year.
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Sep 10, 2024 | 
comobusinesstimes.com | Brian Toohey
The condition of the real estate market has been in the news for the past month, as some areas of the country are starting to see something of a slowdown in sales and price appreciation. Some experts are even calling area markets “buyer’s markets” for the first time in years. So, how has the real estate market performed in Boone County and Columbia for the first half of 2024?
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Aug 5, 2024 | 
comobusinesstimes.com | Brian Toohey
Schools can be an essential decision driver people consider when they buy a home, even when they do not have school-age children. In Columbia, homebuyers definitely factor in school attendance areas when they purchase a home, which can drive up prices in certain parts of the city, as an intrinsic value is placed on schools. This is one of the reasons why it has become such a complex issue when Columbia Public Schools (CPS) redraws attendance maps to accommodate new schools in a growing city.
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Jul 15, 2024 | 
johnmenadue.com | Brian Toohey
The security vetting process has gone off the rails in Australia. It’s been outsourced to the private sector, which has a financial incentive to make renewing a security clearance as lengthy as possible. Those with high-level jobs in many government departments, agencies and the defence bureaucracy have to renew their clearance every five years. They can be tied up chasing requests for more and more personal documents and to do psychometric tests, etc.
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Jul 2, 2024 | 
comobusinesstimes.com | Brian Toohey
The gathering and monetizing of property data has been attempted by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Zillow, and many others. Each of these companies has run into the complexity of cataloging properties in local markets across the county and the amount of data to display to the public. How and when property data is displayed can pose significant risks, as a homeowner’s personal space and property details are exposed to the public without an owner’s knowledge.
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Jun 10, 2024 | 
comobusinesstimes.com | Brian Toohey
The real estate industry has been buzzing with a recent federal class action lawsuit settlement. One of the settlement’s most significant outcomes is the requirement of Buyer’s Representation Agreements. Starting in August 2024, all real estate professionals who are members of the National Association of REALTORS will be required to have a signed Buyer’s Representation Agreement before showing a buyer property.
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Jun 3, 2024 | 
johnmenadue.com | Brian Toohey
Politics have come to this in America. Several former US presidents committed extremely serious war crimes that killed, maimed and displaced huge numbers of people without any suggestion that they be charged with these crimes. However, a former president Donald Trump has been found guilty of the crime of trying to cover up a brief sexual encounter with a porn actress that he denied occurred. Just how this is a crime is a little hard to understand.
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May 22, 2024 | 
johnmenadue.com | Brian Toohey
The Ghost Shark, a new underwater drone being developed for the Australian Navy, could kill off the deeply flawed plan to acquire eight nuclear submarines for a projected cost as much as $360 billion. Australia’s defence department says the new undersea drone would provide the navy with “a stealthy, long-range autonomous undersea warfare capability which can conduct persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike”.
