Florida man fights to keep vegetable garden in front yard

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An Orlando man is fighting city officials to keep his vegetable garden in his front yard. You have to step over radishes, wax beans and kale to get to Jason Helvingston's front door in College Park.

However, his 25 x 25 foot micro-irrigated vegetable garden is against city code, and the city of Orlando has asked Helvingston to dig it up by Wednesday.

"I said, 'You'll take my house before you take my vegetable garden,'" he said.  "There's nothing wrong here, there's nothing poisonous here.  This is a sustainable plot of land."

City code requires ground covers to be planted in a way that gives off a finished appearance so neighborhood lawns are clean, and inviting -- keeping property values up.

Helvingston has decided not to listen to the city.  Instead, he's trying to petition the code to allow for veggie gardens in the front yard.

He's gathered more than 200 signatures, including one from his neighbor, Shelly Snow. "(I'm) definitely not bothered by it.  As a matter of fact, we love it," she said. Helvingston hopes the city will reconsider the code when he meets with a code board in December.

"This is another example of the government telling us what we can do with our own property -- that should never happen," he said.

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Orlando shooting suspect had recently filed bankruptcy

CNN reports
The suspect in Friday's shooting of six people in a downtown high-rise is a 40-year-old "man with economic woes that include a recent bankruptcy filing, federal records show.

In his filing last May for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, under which he sought to have his assets liquidated and his debts discharged, Jason S. Rodriguez listed his assets at $4,675 and his liabilities at $89,873.31.

His 2002 Nissan XTerra with 110,000 miles represented $4,000 of those assets. His personal property filing described the vehicle as having body damage on the right side, an air conditioner that did not work and a transmission that was slipping.

He said his monthly income as a "sandwich artist" at a Subway Restaurant in Orlando, where he had worked for nine months, was $890.67, and he listed his monthly expenses at $815.

A man who answered the phone at the restaurant referred a caller to company headquarters, where spokesman Kevin Kane confirmed that Rodriguez had worked for the company, but left six weeks ago. Kane said the company has a job title of "sandwich artist."

Before leaving Subway, Rodriguez's income had already taken a hit, dropping from $27,686 in 2007 to $13,936 in 2008.

Rodriguez estimated the value of his household goods -- a TV, microwave, bed, computer, dresser, two night stands, etc. -- at $500 and said his girlfriend owned the remaining household goods.

He faced an $11,085 claim of child support.

In addition, he was behind on his rent ($1,402.05), owed $450 to American Express, $110 to AT&T for his cell phone service and $343 to Florida Hospital Orlando for unspecified medical services, the document said.

Among his creditors were the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid 2005 and 2006 taxes totaling $2,415.

The largest debts were for student loans -- $8,500 to Wachovia, $28,912 to Sallie Mae.

Orlando lawyer Charlie Price represented Rodriguez in his case. "It's not that atypical from most everyone I see," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "That's how it is right now. He's a very typical client. Of people that are suffering through the economy right now, there's nothing extraordinary about him ... except that."

Price said he had had no contact with Rodriguez for several months, and added that his former client did not owe him money.

Those shifting from U-6 to U-1 are shockingly increasing

According to ZeroHedge, this report has to be read by all to fathom the reality of what is going on out there. "One who should not read it is Phil Orlando, who earlier over on CNBC made the 9.7% unemployment number seem like the desperately good thing that Federated Investors has been looking for all these years. Also, Phil apparently missed that those shifting out of U-6 to fill U-1 are, shockingly, increasing on a net basis, which kinda kills his uber-simplistic green shoot argument, but the 'argument' being made on CNBC, we will let it slide."

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