Countrywide
Financial cuts 12,000 jobs
The largest home-mortgage lender in the U.S. announced Friday its plans to trim costs in the face of “the most severe down cycle in the contemporary history of our industry,” according to Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide Corp’s CEO. The combination of rising defaults and falling house prices has created a stampede of nervous investors who now deem the market for many types of mortgages too risky, according to business publications. The company expects to reduce its work force by about 20 percent – some 12,000 jobs – over the next three months, in anticipation of a predicted 25 percent drop in new mortgages for 2008 from 2007’s loan business. The Wall Street Journal reports that over the past few weeks, Countrywide, which has offices in downtown Sonoma, borrowed $11.5 billion and sold a $2 billion stake to Bank of America so it could continue to operate its retail banking and mortgage lending businesses.
Firefighter injured in El Verano
house blaze
A Sonoma firefighter received second-degree burns while fighting a fire that consumed an El Verano home Thursday September 6. After being hit on the forehead by falling debris, he drove himself to the hospital, where he was treated and released, according to a Sonoma Valley FireMed spokesman. Responding to a call reporting flames inside a single-story residence at 19017 Willow Street in El Verano, three engines and a battalion chief were dispatched. Finding the house fully involved, they struck a second alarm. An additional three vehicles arrived, accompanied by a duty officer to manage the scene. Firefighters from Glen Ellen, the California Department of Forestry and Schell Vista assisted in getting the fire under control. None of the five residents was injured, though damage was estimated at over $100,000. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
“Bottle Shock”
producers borrow SDC campus
The makers of the feature film “Bottle Shock” donated an undisclosed sum of money to the Sonoma Developmental Center in appreciation for the use of their bucolic, sprawling campus for several of the film’s scenes. The film’s base camp was staged along Arnold Drive in Glen Ellen where equipment trailers, catering trucks, and cast and crew parking slowed traffic. The donation was made to SDC’s client benefit fund, which pays for facility wide events at the Center. The Sonoma Developmental Center is the state’s oldest and largest facility dedicated to serving the needs of persons with developmental disabilities.
