Mary Cummins Real Estate Animal Advocates

Call to action real estate appraisers in California - Mary Cummins

2011-09-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

SUBJECT: Call To Action

It’s BAD! In fact it does not get any WORSE! Please, get mad, take action, write Governor Jerry Brown… RIGHT NOW! This Bill is on his desk.

Governor Brown… please VETO SB706

Excerpt from SB 706:

SEC. 35. Section 11317.2 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:

11317.2. (a) In addition to publishing the summary required by Section 11317, the office shall provide on the Internet information regarding the status of every license and registration issued by the office in accordance with the California Public Records Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code) and the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 1798) of Title 1.8 of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code). The public information to be provided on the Internet shall include information on suspensions and revocations of licenses and registrations issued by the office and accusations filed pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code) relative to persons or businesses subject to licensure, registration, or regulation by the office.

________________________________________________________________________

Below are some things you can say… but please, don’t cut and paste the entire thing. Pick one of two or ideas or better yet, write you own comments. The facts are simple. If someone accused you of something and you had no chance to defend yourself, and no opportunity to confront your accuser, you would be smeared in PUBLIC. How do you feel about that? Your reputation, all those years of hard work, down the drain!

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· The OREA website currently publishes information on suspensions and revocations (or surrenders) of licenses, following the direction and example of the federal Appraisal Subcommittee. The public is being protected now!

· The National Registry of the Appraisal Subcommittee only lists revocations, voluntary surrenders, and suspensions of appraisal licensees, AFTER an adjudicative hearing has been completed in the jurisdiction where a violation has occurred. This makes sense!

· SB 706 adds “…accusations filed pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act” to the items that must be listed by OREA. Very bad public policy. This is why we “don’t yell Fire in a Theater." It destroys people.

· The addition of accusations to the items to be listed fails to recognize the uniqueness of the appraisal profession, as compared to other professions regulated under the Department of Consumer Affairs.

· Even the slightest hint of unfounded disciplinary action against an appraisal licensee can be the “kiss of death” to the appraiser’s business; it is equivalent to license revocation. So you destroy someone on a whim. Bad idea!

· Publishing accusations against appraisers on the Internet prior to a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge may constitute a violation of the appraisal licensee’s due process rights. Important in this country!

Take action now. Tell your appraiser friends. This is important.

Governor Brown VETO SB 706… please!

SB 760. Please take action immediately. Email, FAX or Call Governor Brown. Ask him to VETO SB760… this is the bill that requires “accusations” to be posted on the OREA website. So, if someone gets mad at you and accuses you of something – right or wrong – it goes public. This is bad public policy. Your reputation, the one you have spent years developing, is down the drain.

Governor Jerry Brown Tel: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160 Email: http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

9/11 remembered - Mary Cummins

2011-09-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

As I soundly slept around 6:00 a.m. in Los Angeles, California the phone started ringing. My now ex-husband picked it up. A co-worker told him that a plane had crashed into the twin towers. My husband repeated this to me. I thought he meant that a small two seater plane had crashed into the empty Century City twin towers. Upset at being woken up for no real reason I said with great irritation "so?" The person on the phone then said "no, no, no! Turn on the TV!" We reluctantly got out of bed and turned on the TV. The first plane had just struck one of the New York twin towers. It was hard to believe what we were seeing.

While I was watching the news the second plane struck the other tower. It was surreal. It really felt like I was watching a movie of the attack and not the actual attack. I was still watching the news when the first tower collapsed around 7 a.m. right before my eyes. I could not believe it. How is that possible? Were there bombs on the planes? I started to think that this was probably the beginning of World War III.

I had scheduled to get four kittens neutered that morning at Animal Birth Control in West Los Angeles. Still in a daze I loaded up the kittens and headed off to the vet. No one was on the streets. LA was a ghost town for a few hours that day. Everyone was glued to their TV sets. In my car I heard on the news that the second tower had collapsed. Then I heard about the plane flying into the Pentagon. It really felt like the end of the world as I drove alone on the empty streets.

When I got to the vet's office it seems no one knew what was happening in New York because there was no TV or radio. Everyone was sitting in the waiting room contentedly clueless and quiet. I didn't say a word. They would know soon enough.

I dropped the kittens off and headed back home. While I was driving home I was thinking "why am I getting kittens neutered when this may soon be the end of the world as we know it?" Will cat overpopulation really be an issue after we all get nuked? I really thought the US was going to instantly go to war.

By the time I got back home my husband was still watching the news while getting ready to go to work. I was having the bathrooms remodeled and the workmen had arrived. I kept thinking "why is he going to work? Why am I having my bathrooms remodeled if this could be the beginning of the end?" I really thought there would be more attacks on US soil and I thought Los Angeles was a prime target.

I went online and took a lap around the stock message boards. People were trying to find stock brokers who were in the twin towers. I found out that some people I knew had died in the twin towers. It was hard to believe that I'd never see them on the boards again telling everyone to buy, buy, buy some POS stock tout job. Even though I didn't like them I felt bad for their families.

The shorters and hedge fund managers I knew who normally would short on any bad news were telling people not to short the market. They said it'd be very un-American to short under these circumstances. They fortunately ended up closing the stock exchanges after share prices plummeted.

Later that night on the news I saw video of people in the middle east dancing and jumping for joy over the attacks. I had an intense desire to reach through the TV and beat the crap out of all of them even the little old ladies.

For the next few days I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I really thought they might fly a plane into LA City Hall or maybe into a fully packed sports arena. I actually stayed away from City Hall for a couple of weeks for that reason. People who worked at City Hall said they had the same fear.

Over the next few weeks they started investigating 9/11. There were some middle eastern people at my husband's BMW dealership in Beverly Hills who had gone to a party in New York a few weeks before 9/11. They were questioned. They of course had nothing to do with 9/11 but if you looked middle eastern, you were going to be questioned. People were reporting just about any middle eastern person or person they just didn't like to the FBI. It was a very stressful time.

Time passed and things started to calm down. I no longer thought it would be the beginning of WWIII so I started remodeling my kitchen. Because of 9/11 I could not order the appliances I wanted because trucks were not allowed to transport them across the country. I had to buy whatever was on the show room floor. I was now a little pissed at 9/11 because I couldn't get the exact model of appliances I wanted for my kitchen.

It's now almost the ten year anniversary of 9/11. Everyone's a little worried about a repeat performance. If the bad guys were to attack us, how and where would they attack us? Maybe a monument building on the West Coast? A crowded sporting event? I'm sure I'll be looking up every time I hear a plane overhead today and tomorrow. September 12th can't come soon enough.

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins, my grandmother, Maria Rivera

2011-09-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Mary Cummins

My grandmother who raised me.

Mary Cummins, my grandmother. She's 88 here. This is Thanksgiving at my sister's apartment.

October 4, 1899 - June 3, 1991

90 Years

Born Maria Luisa Trinidad Rivera in Tacubaya in the Federal District of Mexico, Mexico City. Her parents were Manuel S. Rivera and Maria Trinidad Baz de Rivera. Her godparents were Manuel Rivera y Baz and Maria Enriqueta Rivera y Baz. Baptized by Sr. Cura Poro D. Rafael Favila Vargas July 15, 1901.

Mary Cummins' baptismal certificate

I have the full family tree and history from the family bible. Because everyone seems to have had 12 to 15 kids each the chart is too big to post. I may post the written history later. I just uploaded the family tree in dynamic html format here. It's interactive.

Her father was part of the Rivera family. The Rivera family is from Spain. It means "family by the river." The Rivera family moved to Mexico City to help build the City during the Spanish occupation. They were doctors and engineers. There were also a few lawyers and judges. Her mother was of German descent. My grandmother was the youngest of 14 children. Her mother died in childbirth with the 15th child who also died. Her older sisters helped raise her. She spoke German, English and Spanish. Back then everyone spoke a few languages.

Mary Cummins wedding announcement

She met and married Robert C. Cumming of Amarilla, Texas, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Cumming. They were cattle ranchers, also had a dairy farm. Cummins is of course Irish. The Cummins family came to the US via New York, Iowa then ended up in Texas. The original name was O'Cummings but they kept dropping letters to sound more American.

While my grandmother obviously had olive Spanish skin and black eyes my grandfather was extremely white with very light blue eyes. That is why my mother, sister and I are lighter than the Mexican side of the family. My grandfather died in WWII. He is buried in Point Loma military cemetery in San Diego, California.

They had one daughter, my mother Marie Juliette Cummins born in El Paso, Texas September 9, 1936. She has a Texas drawl on only a few words because she moved to San Diego, California when she was five. My mother had three girls. The first child she gave up for adoption. We're all half sisters. We don't look or act anything alike. I'm the youngest. Here is my baptism certificate. I was baptized at St. Victor's church in what is now West Hollywood by Monsignor Devlin. I also attended St. Victor's catholic school.

My grandmother was an amazing woman. She was a shrewd business woman who made her money in real estate. She started off with boarding homes in San Diego, California. She also invested in trust deeds and apartment buildings.

A deeply religious woman she went to church regularily. She insisted that we go to catholic school. She also donated money to the church, elderly, home for boys and orphanages. While she was a very hard worker she also loved to travel and attend charitable events. Often times she'd throw events at our house. My sister and I would act as hostesses.

I was very lucky to have had my grandmother in my life. She basically raised me and my sister. She was 65 years old when I was born so that was not an easy job. She instilled in me the value of working hard, treating others as you would want them to treat yourself and obeying the ten commandments. She always insisted that we help out the less fortunate, elderly, children, animals and stand up for what is right. Standing up for what is right has sometimes gotten me into trouble ;-)

I was by her side before she passed away holding her hand telling her that I loved her. I held her hand until she fell asleep. She died peacefully in her sleep soon after I left her hospital room. It's been 20 years since she died but I still miss her. Mother's Day is still sad.

I'm posting this because people seem to think I am my grandmother because we have the same name. If you see lawsuits, property, trusts in the name of Mary Cummins, be sure to check and see which Mary Cummins is involved. I am Mary Katherine Cummins. She is Mary Roberta Cummins. Just because you don't see a middle name doesn't mean we're the same person. Plus, check the dates. If a trust was formed before I was an adult, I did not make the trust. I also did not buy any real estate until I was 19. Real estate bought before then was my grandmother's. My mother also sometimes uses my name or my grandmother's name.

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins on Google+

2011-07-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

l'm on Google+. Email me if you want an invite to beta. Eme direct at mmmaryinla @ aol . com or click the email link in my Google profile.

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Increased railing height would have prevented Rangers fan's death, Mary Cummins

2011-07-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

Firefighter and Rangers fan Shannon Stone died after falling over a railing trying to catch a baseball. The railing was 33" tall. Stone was 6'3" tall. Was the railing too low? Should minimum railing heights be increased in sports arenas?

In 1999 a UCLA student fell over a 36" balcony railing and died. l wrote an article about this railing death because the railing was not high enough. l also wrote a letter to editor in the Times about legal roof top deck railings when they ran a story about making a roof top deck with NO railings at all. Besides being an expert witness in real estate cases such as these l put a roof top deck on a property l owned so l knew the railing requirements.

The UCLA student death made everyone rethink safe railing heights. This also brought up the issue of immediate and mandatory retrofitting of older buildings. Generally retrofitting is done upon sale or transfer only.

As of January 2008 California balcony, landing, porch and deck railings for residential properties must be a minimum of 42". California has the strictest building codes in the nation. In other states it is generally 36" to 42".

If you take a look at the video footage of the fall, it appears to me that there was no way he was not going to fall over the railing. Stone was 6'3", probably had a 33" inseam. His center of mass was easily over 36" off the ground. He had momentum as he was moving toward the railing with his arm out stretched over the 33" railing bending down for the ball. As soon as his upper body was over the railing and his body hit the round railing he was almost flipped over the railing. Things were made worse by the fact that he was only standing on his forward foot with his rear leg up behind him with both arms over the railing. He is not much taller than an average man. He was not doing anything that you wouldn't normally do at a ball park.

Here are some stills which show my point. His waist is quite a bit higher than the railing.

Here is the video. Obviously it's graphic because you see him flip over the railing. You do not see him land.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aesp8ViZbro

City officials said that the railing was seven inches higher than required which they state is 26". 26" is the minimum between rows, not at the bottom of the aisles as in this situation. They are misquoting the 2003 International Building Code and the 1988 Uniform Building Code. The minimum height at the bottom of aisles is 42" according to the International Building Code.

I believe that if that railing were 42", he would not have fallen over it. I realize there are line of sight issues with tall railings but they can use clear material for the railings like they do at The Pond in Orange County. I bet there will be a lawsuit and the plaintiff's family will win. Hopefully these sports arenas will raise the railing heights. This tragic death could have been prevented.

UPDATE: Texas Rangers agree to raise the railing heights. Thank you!

Texas Rangers to raise rail heights in wake of deadly fan fall

By the CNN Wire Staff

July 19, 2011 4:37 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- The Texas Rangers will raise the height of the rails at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, the team said Tuesday, after a 39-year-old fan fell to his death while trying to catch a ball.

"Even though all current rail heights in Rangers Ballpark in Arlington currently exceed code, the Rangers intend to raise the height of all rails in front of seating areas to the highest standard in the United States at this time," the team said in a statement.

As the rails are being refitted, the Rangers said they would take "interim" steps, such as posting new signs that will remind fans not to lean, sit on or stand against the rails. The team will also issue a warning prior to the start of each game via its public address system, the Rangers said.

The news comes in the wake of the death of Shannon Stone, a veteran firefighter and Rangers fan whose death prompted a national outpouring of condolences.

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Facebook page for Cummins Real Estate Services

2011-04-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

We just started a Facebook local business page for Cummins Real Estate Services.

We also have a Google places page.

Come visit us!

Mary Cummins is a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California. Mary Cummins is also President of Animal Advocates and is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game.

Mary Cummins, Cummins Real Estate Services, curriculum vitae

2011-03-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

Mary K. Cummins

645 W. 9th St. #110-140

Los Angeles, CA 90015

www.MaryCummins.com

Curriculum Vitae

Abstract

Cummins is a high energy, versatile, results-oriented professional having signiﬁcant expertise in real estate sales, leasing, inspection, evaluation and expert witness testimony. In her 26 years in the business she's appraised and sold over 10,000 residential, residential income, commercial, raw land, construction projects, industrial and mixed-use properties.

Cummins has worked for lawyers, expert witness companies, relocation companies, builders, credit unions, banks, mortgage brokers, factors, brokers, investment bankers and private individuals evaluating and selling property in all of California.

Education

• Beverly Hills High School 1982 - Dean's list, swim team, water polo
• University of Southern California 1984 - Dean's list, swim team

Licenses

• Real Estate Sales License 1985
• Real Estate Brokers License 1986
• Real Estate Appraisal License 1994 (1994 was first year appraisers needed to be licensed)

Work Experience

• 1985 Merrill Lynch Real Estate - Sales, Comparative Market Analysis
• 1985 to present - Cummins Real Estate Services - Real Estate Appraisal, Sales
• 1986 Apartment Owners Association - Commercial Brokerage Division
• 1986 Westside Properties - Real Estate Appraisal, Sales. 100% ofﬁce
• 1986 Forensis Group - Expert Witness

Selected Legal Cases

• 1989 Schine vs Schine - Appraisal of Ambassador Hotel as land for development
project with Donald Trump. Deposed.
• Various cases for Forensis Group 1986-2006
• 2009 Union Paciﬁc vs Jimmy Nasralla. Criminal. Court appearance.
• 2010 Don Carstens vs JP Morgan. Civil. Court appearance.

Selected Clients

• Crestview Financial, Mortgage Broker
• Don Carstens, Attorney at Law
• Home Savings, Bank
• Countrywide Home Loans, Mortgage Lender
• Chase Financial, Bank
• First Franklin, Mortgage Broker
• Forensis Group, Expert Witness
• Western Relocation Services

Selected Professional Education

• 1984 Lumbleau School of Real Estate - Real estate sales
• 1984 Merrill Lynch - Real estate sales, CMA
• 1986 Lumbleau School of Real Estate - Real estate broker
• 1988 Apartment Owners Association - Income property evaluation and sales
• 1986 to present - Various real estate schools - Expert Witness Testimony, Appraising Apartments, USPAP, FHA Appraising, Appraising Manufactured Homes, California Laws and Regulations, Environmental Issues for Appraisers, Fair Housing, LEED Real Estate, Foundations in Sustainability: Greening the Real Estate and Appraisal Industries, Review Appraisals, REO and Foreclosures, The Cost Approach.

Other Experience

• Bilingual - English/Spanish
• PC, iMac, iPhone
• PDF, Doc, Html, FTP, Power Point
• Type 100 wpm
• MLS, Homeputer, Loop Net
• Real estate photography
• E&O insurance, no claims
• Perfect driving record

Mary Cummins Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation Los Angeles, California: California Ground Squirrel makes the alarm call - ...

2011-02-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

Mary Cummins Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation Los Angeles, California: California Ground Squirrel makes the alarm call - ...: "A California Ground Squirrel makes the alarm call. This little boy is paralyzed. He could ultimately walk around though not that fast. He's ..."

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, spotted skunk on D...

2011-01-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, spotted skunk on D...: "A photo of one of our spotted skunks made it on Squee! More photos of spotted skunks can be found in our Flickr account. Western Spotted S..."

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, baby opossum calls...

2011-01-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, baby opossum calls...: "This is a baby opossum calling for its mother. Her mother died so she is now being cared for by Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates a wildlife ..."

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, baby skunks stomp ...

2011-01-18T09:00:00.002-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, baby skunks stomp ...: "These are baby skunks. They are striped skunks. This is how baby skunks play. They stomp their feet, go into a handstand then scoot back. Th..."

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, baby raccoons in t...

2011-01-18T09:00:00.001-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, baby raccoons in t...: "These are baby raccoons. They are in the tub while I ready their cage. They will be released back to the wild. Mary Cummins of Animal Advoca..."

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, raccoons being rel...

2011-01-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, raccoons being rel...: "These raccoons were found as orphans. Their mother had died. We took them in, bottle fed them then taught them how to be wild raccoons. They..."

Mary Cummins Animal Advocates links

2011-01-16T14:12:00.000-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins rescues a baby bunny, Animal Advocate...

2011-01-16T13:51:00.002-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins rescues a baby bunny, Animal Advocate...: "This baby bunny is the only surviving baby of a litter. A dog found the nest and killed the others. A kind woman delivered this baby to Mary..."

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates and an opossum

2011-01-16T13:51:00.001-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates and an opossum: "This opossum was found as a baby. His feet were deformed. His toes had grown together. He was unreleasable so he was used for education. Thi..."

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates and a baby opossu...

2011-01-16T13:51:00.000-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates and a baby opossu...: "This is a baby opossum. She is calling for her mom. If mom were nearby, she'd come and retrieve her baby. Unfortunately this baby's mom is d..."

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: "Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilit...

2011-01-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

"Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: "Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilit...: ""Mary Cummins" Animal Advocates Wildlife Rehabilitation: Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates and baby skunks t...: 'These are baby sk..."

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

2011-01-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates
The City of Los Angeles Approves a New Wildlife Policy
8/24/2004 2:50:00 PM
LOS ANGELES, Aug 24, 2004 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Los Angeles Animal Services Commission yesterday unanimously approved a new wildlife policy for the city. Under the new policy, the department will allow wildlife rehabilitators licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game to respond to calls from members of the public, and take ill, injured and orphaned wildlife from city animal shelters. Additionally, the department will only issue trapping permits to trap animals that are ill, injured, orphaned, or pose an immediate threat to public safety. Animal Services will no longer issue permits to trap healthy wildlife that pose no threat. As per Fish and Game regulations, all healthy trapped wildlife taken to the shelter legally would have been killed. Mary Cummins

LA Animal Services Commission Vice President Alex Rubalcava said, "Animal Services' new wildlife policy reflects our desire to teach city residents how to co-exist with the native wildlife in their communities, and minimize the flow of animals into our shelters. Working with rehabbers -- who have the requisite knowledge and experience, as well as licensing from Fish and Game -- was the perfect way to achieve our goal of returning animals to their habitats instead of being forced to euthanize them. Our thanks go out to Animal Advocates, The Urban Wildlands Group, and others who helped us devise this program." Mary Cummins.

Mary Cummins, President of Animal Advocates, first submitted the proposed wildlife policy over two years ago. Cummins stated "Animal Advocates is very pleased to have been able to help the city implement a plan to save the city's wildlife. We would like to thank Mayor Hahn, City Council members, LA Animal Services commissioners, members of the Wildlife Committee, The Urban Wildlands Group and the Department for their help in approving this much needed new policy." "We applaud this forward-looking effort to live more harmoniously with the City's wildlife," said Catherine Rich, Executive Officer of The Urban Wildlands Group. Mary Cummins.

The Wildlife Committee is currently looking for more licensed wildlife rehabilitators to help pick up and rehabilitate the wildlife. They also need people to answer inquiries from the public in regard to nuisance wildlife issues.
SOURCE: Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

Animal Advocates, Los Angeles www.AnimalAdvocates.us

Cummins Real Estate Services, http://www.marycummins.com, http://www.mary.cc, http://www.facebook.com/marycummins

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

2011-01-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates - Biography - Resume

Mary Cummins is President of Animal Advocates. She is licensed with the California Department of Fish & Game, was licensed with the USDA and is licensed with the city of Los Angeles to rescue and rehabilitate wildlife. Cummins speaks to local community groups and students about respecting wildlife and humane wildlife control. She is also a Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator. She has written manuals on small mammal rehabilitation besides numerous articles. Mary Cummins

She was born and raised in Southern California. She attended Beverly Hills Good Shepherd Catholic School and Beverly Hills High School. Besides being a member of Junior Mensa and on the Dean's list, she was a top ten national swimmer and competed on the men's water polo team. She began college at the age of 15 attending the University of Southern California on scholarship, majoring in Psychology/Sociology. Mary Cummins

After college Cummins became a licensed real estate agent specializing in income property in Los Angeles. She obtained her real estate appraisal license, real estate brokerage license and currently does real estate consulting, expert witness testimony and review appraisals. Mary Cummins

Click to view videos of Mary Cummins on
Wildlife Rescue television show.

Mary Cummins

mary cummins, animal advocates

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Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, coyote, Mary Cummins

2011-01-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

Animal Advocates has been rescuing ill, injured and orphaned coyotes in the Los Angeles area of California. We also provide humane coyote control and speak to groups about dealing with coyote issues. We recently received our permit to permanently rehabilitate coyotes at our own facility. Mary Cummins

Coyotes in Los Angeles, California weighs 20-35 pounds and stand 23 to 26 inches at the shoulder. The coyote looks similar to a smaller tan colored shepherd-type dog with long pointed muzzle, large ears, long legs and a bushy tail. Mary Cummins

Coyotes, whose natural habitat is the Los Angeles basin, have adjusted to their shrinking habitat by living closer to humans, sometimes in residential areas, parks and on the landscaped areas of the freeway system. Mary Cummins

Because coyotes are now habituating closer to humans, they suffer the effects of our existence. They are hit by cars or are poisoned from eating poisoned ground squirrels and rats. They also succumb to sarcoptic mange from mites.
If you find ill, injured or orphaned wildlife, contact us or visit our website so we can help you or refer you to someone who can. Mary Cummins

Animal Advocates is a non-profit corporation recognized by the IRS. We operate on donations from the public. We are licensed by the California Department of Fish & Game to rescue ill, injured and orphaned wildlife for release back to the wild. We rescue coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, foxes, opossums, skunks, squirrels, moles, voles, gophers, bats and more. Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins
Animal Advocates
www.AnimalAdvocates.us
Mary@AnimalAdvocates.us
www.FaceBook.com/AnimalAdvocatesUSA
mary cummins, cummins real estate services, los angeles, california, animal advocates, wildlife rehabilitator,

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

2011-01-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

Mary Cummins

Dr. Pia Salk wrote an article about a gopher which her friends rescued and gave to me to rehabilitate. The article is in the Martha Stewart website in the Daily Wag section. Her column is titled "Adventures with Francesca and Sharky." She is a major contributor to the blog. Thanks to everyone who helped the gopher! MaryEllen Schoeman is currently carrying for Charlie the gopher until he's ready for release. Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, http://www.marycummins.com http://www.animaladvocates.us http://www.facebook.com/marycummins http://www.facebook.com/animaladvocatesusa http://www.youtube.com/marycummins

mary cummins animal advocates cummins real estate services wildlife rehabilitator wildlife rescue los angeles california

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

2011-01-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

July 17th my vet called me about a wolfdog which needed around the clock care. It seems his owner did not feed him properly and his bones were very weak. He stood up and broke all four of his legs. He'd just had surgery to pin one leg and could not walk. I agreed to care for him. He was born 5/7/10 and was 11 weeks old and weighed 17 lbs. Mary Cummins

He was not allowed to stand so he was confined to a crate. I had to move him every two hours, carry him out to pee and poo, hand feed, water and clean. I could not let his feet touch the ground as he couldn't put any weight on his legs. I'd let him lie on his side or back on the couch to exercise him. Mary Cummins

His owner had been feeding him milk, eggs and meat. As the puppy was under weight he also was not being fed enough food. The vet put him on a new diet of Innova XL puppy food soaked in water, puppy vitamins, vitamin C and Calcium powders and raw chicken necks. He loved his new diet and very quickly put on weight. Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

After two weeks he was xrayed again. His bones showed marked improvement. The bone density increased and the breaks were healing. His baby teeth were still see through and pink. His baby teeth were breaking because they were so thin because of lack of calcium. I only allowed him to have soft bowls and toys for this reason. Mary Cummins

After a few more weeks I slowly let him put a tiny bit of weight on his legs. Then I'd let him stand but only on the couch. Slowly I let him stand more, then he started to walk. After a month he was free to walk about the living room. During this time he became friends with the cats and Lyle the bunny. The cats slept next to his crate, so did Lyle. Here is a video showing him running and jumping September 7. Sirhan video

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

September 25th we took Sirhan back for another xray. By now he was running and jumping around the house. His coat was finally full and plush. His adult teeth started to grow in and they were solid and very white. His xray showed that he was perfectly healthy and did not need any more surgery. We were all thrilled. He now weighed 42 lbs. Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

We contacted the owner who wanted us to ship him over seas to where he was currently living. We got him ready then the owner started stalling. October 5 he told us he didn't want him any more. We would have to find him a new home. October 6 I emailed a few wolf and wolfdog rescuers to see if they knew anyone who would want him. Mary Cummins

I emailed Mike Lehane of Wolfdog Rescue Resources. He put me in touch with a woman who rescues wolfdogs and knew me and my vet. Turns out we'd known her for years but didn't know she and her husband rescue wolfdogs. As luck would have it her husband was driving near my house that same day. Mary Cummins

He came and met Sirhan. I have never seen Sirhan happier! Sirhan was jumping for joy and dancing around him, rolling on his back, showing his tummy, playing with toys and his hat. He agreed to take him. I gave him one last kiss and hug. Then we put him in his crate and loaded him into his SUV with his box of food, toys and nutritional supplements. He already had a few wolfdogs sitting in the back seat. Mary Cummins

I waved a quick goodbye with some happy tears in my eyes. Sirhan has the best home ever! He will live in their house but also have access to their HUGE enclosures with others just like him. He's only an hour away and they told me we can visit him. Sirhan is one lucky wolf. Things could not have worked out better. I will still miss his howling whenever he heard a police siren. Mary Cummins

*All videos and photos are copyrighted. Do not use for your own use without permission.

**Sam Blake, Samuel Blake of Never Cry Wolf Rescue had nothing to do with Sirhan. He stole my photos of Sirhan as a puppy, put his domain name on them, told people Sirhan the puppy needed medical care and they should donate money to Sam. Sirhan is healthy and doesn't need medical care. I cared for Sirhan at my own expense and I'm a non-profit. If he wanted Sirhan to get the funds, he should have told people to donate to me but he didn't. He also offered up Sirhan for adoption with an adoption fee again showing his puppy photos even though he was much older. Sam never had and never would have Sirhan. I asked Sam to remove my photos and his fraudulent story. He refused. Facebook took my photos off of his page along with his fraudulent story. I also asked him to return the money to people. Again, he refused stating because he's a 501 3c, he has the right to solicit donations any way he likes. He does not have the right to defraud people. I've since reported him. Do not give money to Sam for Sirhan. Sirhan is in a good home now and is healthy.

Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, http://www.animaladvocates.us mary cummins, cummins real estate services, http://www.marycummins.com http://www.facebook.com/marycummins

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, Cummins Real Estate Services

2011-01-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

Emu rescue

by Mary Cummins on Monday, December 20, 2010 at 11:19am

Emu's cute face, Mary Cummins

An emu ranch closed down and one emu escaped. He made his way to the neighbor's house on a lake and lived there for a few months. Then the HOA told them they could not have an emu and had to get rid of it. Mary Cummins

December 15th they called me. I only handle wildlife so I contacted Gentle Barn, Animal Acres but no response. Frank Allen of Animal Acres did give me some emu handling tips. I decided to place ads for him on Petfinder, AdoptAPet, Craigslist and Facebook. I offered to transport if someone would adopt him for free. December 16th a few people responded to the ad. I chose the person who already had a female emu and emu experience. Thanks to everyone else who offered him a home. Mary Cummins

I'd assumed that I could get the emu to sit in a large crate in my PT Cruiser (don't laugh). Seems you must transport them in a trailer or truck with sides and top. I called all over to rent a horse trailer but couldn't find anyone with a small horse trailer. The adopters then said that they will transport him in their truck. We agreed to transport him December 19 meeting at a truck stop in Barstow at 1 p.m. Mary Cummins

Morning of December 19 was of course a huge rain storm. I left at 9:15 a.m. to get there by 1. Thank god I did. I had my wipers on high almost the entire way. My car hydroplaned quite a few times. I could only drive in the middle lane of the 10 freeway because the side lanes were flooded. As I approached the 60 a police car slowed traffic and closed that freeway completely because of accidents. Mary Cummins

I continued on in the heavy rain. Even with the wipers on high I could barely see. I was white knuckling my steering wheel while leaning forward and opening my eyes as wide as possible to try to see better. It didn't help. I just ended up with dry eyes and a neck ache. Mary Cummins

When I got to the 15 there were multiple car collisions littered on both side of the highway. I must have seen at least 50 tow trucks that day. There were 4x4, SUV and trucks in those accidents. I was driving a PT Cruiser with a lowered sport package and racing wheels, not what you want to drive in a rain storm. Mary Cummins

By the time I neared Barstow the rain stopped and a rainbow appeared. I was so glad we would be loading the emu in dry weather. I pulled into the truck stop where we were supposed to meet at 12:30. I called everyone. They would all be late because of the weather. Mary Cummins

The adopters truck wouldn't start that morning so they had to jerry rig someone else's truck with a gate, sides and a roof. The people who owned the house where the emu was staying arrived at 1:30. We had fun chatting and joking around until 3:30 when the adopters showed up. By then it was sprinkling and windy. We drove to pick up the emu as a motorcade. Mary Cummins

New owner hugging the male emu, Mary Cummins

As soon as we arrived at their house the emu came towards us to say "hello." The adopter went up and hugged the emu. Now we weren't quite sure the emu was a male or female as none of us are emu experts. I think the emu smelled the female emu on the adopters shirt because he soon showed us he was definitely a male. He tried to make some moves on the adopter. Mary Cummins

Now to try to get the emu in the truck. We had no ramp so we'd have to lift him into the truck. Mind you he's 6' tall and weighs 150 lbs. Emus also have sharp claws on their feet. In fact a few weeks earlier a six foot side winder bit the emu on the leg. Then the emu killed it with his feet. His leg swelled a little and he was under the weather for half a day but he was fine. The vet they called said emus aren't too badly affected by venomous snake bites. Mary Cummins

They also have sharp scales on their legs which they can open at will and cut you like multiple knives. We decided to wrap his legs in a towel I'd brought then lift him into the truck. The adopter, his daughter and I lifted him into the truck sideways. Unfortunately the towel didn't cover all of his legs and the scales really cut the adopter's thumb. There was blood all over his bumper. He wrapped his thumb and applied pressure but it kept bleeding. Mary Cummins

Loading up the emu in Barstow to go to Canyon Country

After securing the emu in the truck with all the gates it was time to go to his new home. The old owner gave us some cookies and cake for the road. The first few miles the emu was sticking his head out, slipping, butt in the air, feet in the air, feathers in the air. He finally calmed down when we hit the freeway. Then it started to rain, and rain, and rain. Mary Cummins

We took the 15 freeway south but then had to take a two lane highway all the way to Canyon Country. There was a lot of mud, some rocks and tons of water. Every time we'd hit a dip we'd get sprayed with muddy water from the other cars. One time a semi-truck hit a flooded muddy dip and literally sprayed a tsunami of solid mud over both the truck and my car. Even with my wipers on high it took six wipes to get the mud off so I could just barely see. I was going 50 at the time, driving blind. Mary Cummins

We finally made it to the 14 and could see a ton of flashing lights ahead across the entire freeway. The police shut down the 14 freeway and rerouted us because of yet another multiple car collision. A few miles later we were finally able to get on the 14 with no traffic. After another half an hour or so we were at the emu's new home. Fortunately the rain trickled down to a light shower. Mary Cummins

The emu's new home is a ranch mansion! As soon as we pulled into the automatic gates the female emu came up to us. She was making her sex calls and getting in the position. She let us pet her. Mary Cummins

Motion sick male emu in the truck bed. We had to help him out.

By now her new friend was really motion sick. He was just sitting in the truck with a green look on his face. We had to help him out of the truck. Then he took a big dump then stumbled away. The new adopter went up to him and held him steady while he walked. It really looked like someone walking a drunk out of a bar. They walked around a bit then took him to see the female. Even though he was in the mood when we left he was too motion sick to even say "hello" to her. They did do a group hug at least. He finally sat down for 20 minutes or so. The female came over and checked him out. Mary Cummins

Helping the emu walk. He was really dizzy from motion sickness.

New owner with male and female emus together. The male is still dizzy from the trip

Motion sick male emu sitting on the left while the female checks him out

His new owner was giving me some produce from his other truck for my animals. I was filling up my bags with produce when the male emu came to investigate. He had to look in the bags. I was so glad he was feeling better. We then said our goodbyes and I drove home. I drove over 300 miles that day because of the closed freeways.

Unfortunately when I got home my office was flooded. I guess it rained hard here at home as well. The roof leaked at the sky light right on top of my desk. The only leak in the house would be on top of my iMac, laptop, camera chargers, wireless network. I took apart my laptop and chargers to dry. The laptop is working, will have to take the iMac to the shop.

Video one of the rescue

Video two of the rescue

Full photo album of the rescue
Mary Cummins
President
Animal Advocates
http://www.animaladvocates.us
Cummins Real Estate Services
http://www.marycummins.com

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, Cummins Real Estate Services

2011-01-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

Mary Cummins

By James Spooner of Timeless Tattoo in Hollywood, California. You can't use shading needles on hand tattoos as they can't get the ink deep enough. He could only use the bigger deeper needle. Hand tattoos fade (and hurt) so they aren't recommended. Colors fade more than black or brown. This will fade into a solid color in a little bit. In this photo you still see the blue outline from the transfer. That will wash off. It's a black/brown tattoo. Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Cummins Real Estate Services

I rescue coyotes. I also lobby for them. I want to shake politicians' hands with my coyote paw print tattoo. Mary Cummins

Contact James Spooner at spoonertattoo@gmail.com or http://www.facebook.com/jamesspooner or http://jspooner.wordpress.com Great article about him here http://www.veganmainstream.com/interview-vegan-tattoo-artist-james-spooner His shop is Timeless Tattoo at 738 N. Vine (near Melrose) Hollywood, CA 90038. He's Vegan and a real nice guy.

*He did not want to do a palm tattoo because they hurt and fade quickly. I convinced him to give it a shot. I told him I'm okay if it hurts or fades. I've noticed with palm tattoos that it's the colors that fade which is why he used no color.

Mary Cummins

Animal Advocates

http://www.AnimalAdvocates.us

http://www.facebook.com/AnimalAdvocatesUSA

Mary Cummins, http://www.marycummins.com mary cummins, animal advocates, los angeles, california cummins real estate services mary cummins

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, Mary, Cummins

2011-01-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

Animal Advocates year end report and thank you

by Mary Cummins on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 at 1:06pm

Animal Advocates 2010 year end report

Here are a few things we've accomplished in the last year. Mary Cummins

Wild animals we rescued

125 Fox Tree Squirrels
122 Opossums
27 Raccoons
18 California Ground Squirrels
5 Gophers
7 Striped Skunks
7 Pigeons
4 Wild bunnies
3 Coyotes
1 Stick Insect
1 Praying Mantis
1 Spotted Skunk

321 with a 95% release rate (3% euthanized, 2% died)

Domestic animals we rescued - Mary Cummins

1 Dog: Buddy
1 House Bunny: Beaux
1 Guinea Pig
1 Emu: Mumu
3 Cats: Mac, Beauty Queen, Hattie
1 red eared slider
1 Wolfdog: Sirhan

9 (6 were re-homed, 2 are still here, 1 died)

Other activities - Mary Cummins

Paid to spayneuter 18 animals owned by others
Received our coyote rider so we can rescue coyotes
Built new coyote enclosure
Added two more large enclosures
Gave wildlife presentations at two public events
Became a full YouTube partner
Uploaded 117 new videos to YouTube
Now have over 2,000 YouTube subscribers
Now have almost 3,000,000 video views on YouTube
Posted viral video "Baby bunny noms a flower" on YouTube for 920,000 hits
Became top three pet channel on YouTube for a week because of bunny video
Videos/photos picked up by over 21,000 websites
Uploaded 847 photos of animals rescued to Facebook
Helped out at a cockfighting raid on HSUS NDART team with over 1,500 birds
Rescued a human bicyclist with a broken collar bone and wrist
Protested the sale of whale meat and animals in the circus
Attended Ratfest and recruited a new volunteer
Attended bat research techniques seminar at Desert Research Center
Taught a class with Dr. Jennifer Conrad at the Ecostation
Helped Dr. Conrad with her documentary on cat declawing
Fed baby bats from 7 a.m. to past midnight for a week straight
7,500 new fans of Animal Advocates Facebook page
Responded to over 1,200 emails asking for animal advice/help
Responded to over 1,500 phone calls asking for animal advice/help
Attended the Zoo & Wildlife Veterinary conference in Spain
600 new MySpace friends

300 new Twitter followers
300 Flickr animal photos/videos with 7,500 views
500,000 hits on our website Animal Advocateswww.AnimalAdvocates.us
2,100,000 hits on our website Squirrel Rescuewww.mary.cc/squirrels
Rescued animals were featured on Cuteoverload three times
Rescued animals were featured on LA Times "morning adorable" twice
Glue trap gopher featured on Martha Stewart's "Daily Wag" by Pia Salk
FDA released final results of Petag investigation showing formula was tainted
Strangled a bull fighter in Spain (not for real but it was still fun)
Got a tattoo of a coyote paw on my hand

With all positive news also comes some sad news. The sad passing of animal friends Peach the educational opossum, Daisy the head injured squirrel, coma squirrel boy, paralyzed girl squirrel, Mac the cat and stick bug. Also the sad passing of human friends Dr. Frank Ryan a great animal lover, Andrew Sacks a much loved High School friend and Bill Tobin an irreverent man with a razor sharp wit. Mary Cummins.

With every year there are also many thanks. Many thanks to the people who adopted animals especially Buddy the dog, Mumu the emu, and Sirhan the wolfdog. Thanks to Dr. Kenneth Jones and his wife Suzann for all their amazing help. Thanks to Ha of Rescue Helper for all the dog food, treats, formula and cat milk. Thanks to bunny rescue for the 450 lbs of rodent blocks, caging, blankies and toys. Thanks to all who made money donations. Thanks to people who helped transport animals. And of course, thanks to Vice President MaryEllen Schoeman and all the volunteers. Thanks everyone for all the love and support. And a special thanks to anyone I accidentally left off the list. Mary Cummins

Animal Advocates has many more things planned for 2011.

We're looking for a new house with more land that backs up to city or state parkland.
We'll be rewriting our wildlife rehabilitation manuals and finishing a book.
We'll be redoing the websites.
We expect to get our wildlife rescue numbers back up. No more dog fostering.

If you're doing some year end tax planning, keep in mind that Animal Advocates is a 501 3c non-profit corporation recognized by the IRS and California Attorney General. All donations are tax deductible. Our PayPal button is on our website http://www.animaladvocates.us/ or you can always send a check to Animal Advocates, 645 W. 9th St. #110-140, Los Angeles, CA 90015. That's a p.o. box so don't deliver animals there. If you want your donation to go toward MaryEllen's rescues, put her name on the bottom of the check or in the PayPal comment box.

Thanks from everyone at Animal Advocates for caring about animals. We wish you a happy and wonderful New Year!

Mary Cummins

President

Animal Advocates

http://www.AnimalAdvocates.us/

Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, Cummins Real Estate Services, Cummins-Cobb, Mary, Los Angeles, Mary Cummins,

Mary Cummins, raccoon rescue, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates

2011-01-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

Rescuing a raccoon from a tiny, dirty cage from a boat

by Mary Cummins on Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 3:59pm

Your changes have been saved.

Raccoon in his tiny dirty cage. Four year old male not neutered with cataracts in both eyes. He can see a little out of one eye. He was kept in this cage for four years on a boat by a mentally ill person. He only ate dry cat food. He broke his teeth chewing on his cage. They put a chain around his neck, don't know why. We removed it. Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins received an email this morning from Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue. He said the Los Angeles County Sheriff had impounded a boat that had a raccoon in it in a tiny dirty cage. Mary Cummins assumed someone had trapped a raccoon and just forgot about it. I drove to the Sheriff station to take a look at the boat. Peter agreed to meet me there to help.

The raccoon lived in that 2' x 2' x 2' cage. The cage door didn't open. When we finally took off the front of the cage we realized he was living on top of four inches of feces. He had no water. The boat was impounded. Sheriff called me when they saw the raccoon. Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins met Sheriff Office McSchwab who told me about the raccoon. He said it wasn't in a trap but a cage like a pet. It had a chain around its neck. He took me to the boat to take a look. This is what I found. A four year old male raccoon in a 2' x 2' x 2' cage. There were four inches of feces on the bottom of the cage and no water. There was no door as it looked like the owner never opened the cage. The cage was in an awkward spot and had been assembled in the boat which would make transfer to the carrier more difficult. Fortunately Peter Wallerstein showed up to help. Unfortunately so did the "owner" of the raccoon.

We had to take the cage apart to get the front off. Then we placed the carrier in the cage with the door off. I wedged the carrier over the raccoon and pressed it against the back wall. Peter and the Sheriff then replaced the carrier door on the other side. The raccoon was in the carrier. We went inside to wash up.

As I went to get my car to drive it around to the dock to pick up the raccoon the owner started following me. He's an older man whom I believe is mentally ill. He said "why did you put the raccoon in that small box when I had him in a big cage?" I ignored him and went to pick up the raccoon.

Because he was a pet raccoon and could be unpredictable I thought I'd take him to Dr. Kenneth Jones in Santa Monica to get the chain off his neck and look him over. The raccoon had shown no aggression at all, just a little cage craziness. I gave him some water out of a sippy bottle because he looked dehydrated. He was very gentle and thirsty.

At Dr. Kenneth Jones giving the raccoon anesthesia. We wrapped the pet carrier in a plastic bag. This is the safest way.

Dr. Jones' staff gave the raccoon anesthesia so we could examine him. The easiest way to anesthetize an animal like this is to wrap the carrier in a big trash bag then use gas. After he was under they removed the chain. He had cataracts in both eyes though one cataract was smaller. He could probably see a little out of one eye. He had a cracked canine probably from chewing on the bars of his cage. He had some matts and was dirty and smelly.

This is his new enclosure, 6' x 6' x 4'. It has a padded cage and is smaller than my other enclosures. He's never climbed or walked before so I need to start him in something small. UPDATE: I just added a ramp in his cage. He cannot climb at all and can barely see anything.

I took him home and put him in a 6' x 6' x 4' cage with a padded floor. He came out of his carrier then I realized he couldn't really walk. He walks on the back of the "wrists" on his forelegs and on the heels of his back feet. I don't think he's ever stood up all the way. He cannot climb at all and has very little vision. He was relaxed and sweet. I can easily hand feed him food. I had to add a ramp to his cage so he can get to the lower level. I have him next to the baby raccoons so he won't feel threatened by my injured adult females. He is a bit smaller than my adult females, probably from malnutrition.

This is how he walks. He walks on the back side of his wrists. He also sleeps with them in this position. Obviously some metabolic bone disease. The pads of his feet look fine.

Thanks to the Los Angeles County Sheriff http://www.lasd.org/ and Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescuehttp://www.marspecialists.org/ I wouldn't have been able to rescue the raccoon without their help. I will add updates on his progress.

Mary Cummins, Cummins Real Estate Services, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins, Animal Advocates, http://www.marycummins.com http://www.animaladvocates.us http://www.facebook.com/marycummins http://www.youtube.com/marycummins

Mary Cummins - Real Estate Appraiser - Animal Advocates

2009-12-30T14:36:00.001-08:00

Mary K. Cummins

Cummins Real Estate Appraisals

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate Services has been in real estate since 1984, over 25 years. She is licensed by the California Office of Real Estate Appraisers. She was an agent and broker licensed with the California Department of Real Estate selling residential income, commercial buildings, raw land and homes for Merrill Lynch Realty in Beverly Hills and Westside Properties in Los Angeles before forming her own business and concentrating on appraisals.

Cummins currently provides real estate appraisals, expert witness testimony, historical research, legal real estate research for mortgage brokers, banks, lawyers, insurance companies, financial consultants and private individuals.

Cummins was born and raised in Southern California. She attended Beverly Hills Good Shepherd Catholic School and Beverly Hills High School. Besides being a member of Junior Mensa and on the Dean's list, she was a top ten national swimmer and competed on the men's water polo team. She began college at the age of 15 attending the University of Southern California on scholarship, majoring in Psychology/Sociology.

Cummins started a non-profit organization in 2002 by the name of Animal Advocates. Animal Advocates rescues ill, injured and orphaned wildlife for release back to the wild. She is licensed with the California Department of Fish & Game, was licensed with the USDA and is licensed with the city of Los Angeles to rescue and rehabilitate wildlife. Cummins speaks to local community groups and students about respecting wildlife and humane wildlife control. She is also a Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator. She has written manuals on small mammal rehabilitation besides numerous other articles on wildlife.

Press below to e-mail Mary Cummins for more information

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Mary Cummins gives expert witness testimony in legal case

2009-09-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

"As events unfolded, though, it became questionable if Jimmy was actually living on Union Pacific property. The LAPD, for example, was unsure if the homeless man lives on railroad land, and L.A. City Councilman Greig Smith's office, which represents Northridge, told the Weekly that Jimmy lives on "county property." Longtime real estate expert Mary Cummins, in fact, said that she had no doubt Jimmy resides on county land.

Since two of the three charges against Jimmy involve trespassing on Union Pacific land, the findings were a major blow to the city attorney's case. Incredibly, the private/county property question came as a surprise to Atteukenian, whose boss is Carmen Trutanich.

When Atteukenian was confronted with Cummins' findings during one of Jimmy's court hearings this summer, the prosecutor was caught off guard, said he would make some calls, and asked for a continuance. Atteukenian obviously hadn't done the basic homework of finding out if Jimmy lived on private or county property -- if justice, in fact, was being properly applied to the homeless man's case.

Atteukenian's less than exemplary work as a prosecutor only got worse from there.

At another court hearing on August 3, Atteukenian started to realize the impact of Cummins' and City Councilman Smith's findings. Before the hearing started, the prosecutor approached Jimmy and his friend, Edward Muzika, holding out a business card. With his fingers purposefully obscuring most of the card, Atteukenian used it as proof that he had a contact with the county's Department of Public Works, and said that the unnamed official wanted Jimmy off county land."

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2009/09/is_la_city_attorney_carmen_tru.php

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins gives expert testimony in legal real estate case

2009-09-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

LA Weekly. "Jimmy on the edge of town."

"Mary Cummins, a longtime real estate assessor, has independently deduced that he is, indeed, on county-owned land. But she questions whether or not Union Pacific issued a valid citation for trespassing. If Jimmy is living on county-owned property edging the railroad spur, Cummins’ logic goes, then the railroad company may not be able to charge him with “trespassing” on the railroad’s “private property” or of “lodging without [their] permission.”

As an expert real estate assessor for more than 25 years in the Los Angeles area, Cummins knows how to read tract maps. Just recently, for example, she was hired to testify in court over a major real estate dispute at the Ambassador Hotel. Feral-cat activist Muzika started looking into Jimmy’s case, and he asked Cummins, a friend from animal-rights circles, to help.

Cummins, who normally charges $100 per hour for her expertise, took up Jimmy’s cause for free. She looked up Jimmy’s location on Google Earth, found an L.A. County Assessor’s map, and placed the Google map on top of the county’s map. “You can clearly see Jimmy’s on the L.A. County flood-control channel” land, Cummins says. She is also “absolutely certain,” and would testify in court, that Jimmy is on county-owned property, not the railroad’s.

Cummins sent her findings to Muzika, who e-mailed the maps information to Councilman Smith’s office, and alerted the city attorney at Jimmy’s court hearing on July 1 in the Los Angeles Superior Court in the small town of San Fernando, in the far northeast Valley.

In court that day, the prosecutor handling the case, Apraham Atteukenian, looked surprised when Muzika, with Jimmy near his side, offered up the disputed land-ownership evidence. It’s clearly very basic land-ownership homework that Los Angeles city prosecutors should have done before hauling a man into court for trespassing on railroad property. The prosecutor promised to “make some calls.” Jimmy is defending himself pro per, having dumped a Los Angeles County public defender who advised him to plead guilty to trespassing against Union Pacific. Jimmy is now facing trial August 3, yet, Cummins says, even now, the city attorney and Smith’s office have not responded to her finding that Jimmy is not on railroad land."

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins gives real estate testimony in legal case

2009-08-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

"So Jimmy, along with his animal rights friends Edward Muzika and Mary Cummins, took a trip to the Los Angeles Superior Court courthouse in the city of San Fernando to fight back. It had been an interesting few days for Jimmy, whose story was featured in last Thursday's issue of L.A. Weekly, titled "Jimmy on the Edge of Town."

After the article came out, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department came by his tent for a quick visit and several new friends, who apparently read the piece, dropped in and offered him food and money.

"They offered me financial help and I refused," said Jimmy, taking a break from the courtroom. "I said they could give me cat food."

On Monday, the City Attorney's Office wasn't so charitable.

In the courtroom, a prosecutor named Apraham Atteukenian appeared now and then, suggesting to Jimmy and Muzika, who was acting as a kind of advisor to his friend, that the city had a slam dunk case.

Attenukenian refused to back down from his stance that Jimmy was trespassing on the private property of the Union Pacific railroad, even though Los Angeles City Councilman Greig Smith and longtime real estate assessor Cummins had independently concluded that Jimmy lives on county property -- a finding that would seem to hurt the City Attorney's case."

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2009/08/jimmy_nasralla_city_attorney.php

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins campaign contributions Los Angeles

2009-04-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

Mary Cummins

Campaign Contributions

City of Los Angeles Candidates

05/14/09

Mary Cummins
(Real Estate, Mary Cummins)
Los Angeles, CA 90015

Carmen Trutanich
City Attorney

1316351 - TRUTANICH FOR CITY ATTORNEY - GENERAL 2009

A - Monetary Contribution Received
(IND - Individual)

[Period:05/14/09 to 06/30/09]

$100.00

[Election:

05/19/09]

02/19/05

Mary Katherine Cummins Cobb
(Real Estate, Mary Cummins)
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Antonio Villaraigosa

1267602 - Villaraigosa for Mayor 2005

A - Monetary Contribution Received
(IND - Individual)

[Period:01/23/05 to 02/19/05]

$100.00

[Election:

03/08/05]

04/10/05

Mary Katherine Cummins Cobb
(Real Estate, Mary Cummins)
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Antonio Villaraigosa

1275257 - Villaraigosa for Mayor 2005 - GENERAL

A - Monetary Contribution Received
(IND - Individual)

[Period:04/03/05 to 04/30/05]

$250.00

[Election:

05/17/05]

07/10/08

Mary Katherine Cummins-Cobb
(Real Estate, Mary Katherine Cummins-Cobb)
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Dennis Zine
Council Member - District 3

1305620 - Zine 2009

A - Monetary Contribution Received
(IND - Individual)

[Period:07/01/08 to 09/30/08]

$500.00

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Beverly Hills BMW case

2005-08-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

I worked on the Beverly Hills BMW website from 1999 to 2003. A cybersquatter obtained the BeverlyHillsBMW.com website and wanted $10,000. BH BMW decided to go with BeverlyHillsBMW.net instead.

Within a couple of weeks I found out who was cybersquatting the .com website. It was a close friend of their web designer! They'd done this cybersquatting scam to BH Ford and other clients. I told them to release the domain name or I'd tell their clients about their scam. They would buy the main domain name themselves before they got the contract to design their website. I then purchased it and offered it for free to BH BMW. I instantly signed it over to BH BMW for no money. I received a "thank you" letter from Step Jones.

Thank you letter from Step Jones of Beverly Hills BMW.

BH BMW never put the paperwork through. I received a notice that they had not paid hosting. I paid hosting and even renewed the domain name. I again signed papers to transfer ownership. They again did not file the papers. The .com extension always pointed to BeverlyHillsBMW.net The website was always live the entire time I controlled the domain name.

BH BMW was bought out by Sonic Automotive. They reduced everyone's salary and fired quite a few people including Klakauskas and Waddington. I continued to provide service for their website. I sent in a bill which they never paid.

In 2005 they realized that I controlled BeverlyHillsBMW.com and asked me to turn it over. I told them I'd turned it over three times before but they never finalized the transfer. They could pull up the old transfers and transfer it themselves. In the meantime I'd been paying for hosting, renewing the domain and working on search engine rank. I told them to pay my bill and I'd hand over the domain name again. They refused and sued me.

Original lawsuit

http://www.marycummins.com/bmwlawsuit.pdf

My declaration
http://www.marycummins.com/mary_cummins_declaration_bmw.pdf

Statement of the AGM of BH BMW.
http://www.marycummins.com/Klakauskas.pdf

Statement of Waddington
http://www.marycummins.com/waddington.pdf

Statement of Seth Waskow
http://www.marycummins.com/sethwaskowdeclaration.pdf

My motion to strike Waskow's statement
http://www.marycummins.com/mottostrikewaskow.pdf

My motion in response to BMW
http://www.marycummins.com/mary_cummins_motion_bmw.pdf

We finally settled. I transferred the domain name again and they paid my bill. They never should have sued me. They wasted $7,900 on legal fees and still had to pay my bill. They originally demanded that I turn over the domain name but refused to pay their outstanding bill. This could have been handled with a polite phone call but instead their lawyer wanted to make some money by turning it into a lawsuit.

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins wins Kathy Knight-McConnell lawsuit

2005-06-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

On July 7, 2003, Kathy Knight-McConnell sued Mary Cummins for securities law violations, trademark infringement, defamation, and other claims in federal court in New York. At the time of the litigation, Knight-McConnell ran a forum for investor discussions and published a newsletter on various stocks. According to a court decision in the case, Cummins, a stock trader from California, posted statements on website discussion groups and on her own website describing Knight-McConnell as a securities fraud "criminal" and "paid to lie to investors," among other things.

In addition, Knight-McConnell alleged that Cummins intentionally maligned certain stocks that she promoted in order to drive their price down in violation of the securities laws. Knight-McConnell also claimed that Cummins violated trademark law by linking to Knight-McConnell's website without permission, using Knight-McConnell's name in the post-domain path of URLs for seven of her web-pages, and posting links on Internet chat forums and discussion boards directing users to visit these pages.

In a July 2004 opinion, Judge Buchwald dismissed the securities and trademark claims. The court indicated that Knight-McConnell had no standing to bring a securities law claim because she did not allege that she purchased or sold the stocks in question in reliance on any statement by Cummins. The court dismissed the trademark claim because linking to Knight-McConnell's site without permission was not likely to cause confusion as a matter of law:

"Even if we assume that plaintiff's name is a valid and protectible mark, plaintiff has not alleged that the defendant engaged in any conduct that is likely to cause confusion as to the origin of the defendant's website. The mere appearance on a website of a hyperlink to another site will not lead a web-user to conclude that the owner of the site he is visiting is associated with the owner of the linked site. This is particularly true in this case because defendant's website advertises real estate and web design services, not investment services, and defendant is continuously dissassociating herself from plaintiff by criticizing her and accusing her of misconduct."

Judge Buchwald also determined that using Knight-McConnell's name in URL paths was not likely to cause confusion as a matter of law because a URL "merely shows how the website's data is organized within the host computer's files" and does not suggest affiliation, source, or sponsorship.

Looking at Knight-McConnell's many state law claims, Judge Buchwald determined that the complaint likely stated a cause of action for defamation, but that a defamation claim was not sufficient to confer personal jurisdiction on the court. Buchwald indicated that Knight-McConnell's tortious interference with contract claim might be sufficient to establish jurisdiction under New York's long-arm statute, but that Knight-McConnell had failed to adequately plead this cause of action. The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice and granted Knight-McConnell permission to amend her complaint.

Knight-McConnell amended her complaint, but, upon a renewed motion by Cummins, Judge Buchwald dismissed the case for lack of personal jurisdiction in June 2005.

Full docket report
http://www.freecourtdockets.com/Dockets/Knight-McConnell-v-Cummins-1-03-cv-05035-New-York-Southern-Federal-District-Court-Docket-Page-1-87407-87407.htm

Independent review of the case by Citizen Media Law Project. I have no idea why these people had an interest in this frivolous case. Of course this was the very beginning of internet law.
http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/knight-mcconnell-v-cummins

Mary Cummins is a real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California. She also advocates for the protection of investors from stock scams especially those perpetrated by company paid stock promoters. She aided the SEC in their prosecution of stock promoter John Westergaard in 2000 and 2001. She also warned investors about stock scams involving the following companies, TMOT Titan Motorcycle Company, EZR Easyriders, UMCC Ultra Motorcycle Company, NPCT Nanopierce, JNOT Jag Notes and others.

Kathy Knight-McConnell was a company paid stock promoter at the time of the lawsuit. She worked for Nanopierce symbol NPCT. NPCT was never profitable.

Here is her old website. I saved copies of all of it. Click "about" to see her photo of herself. Click "boycott raging bull" to see how she feels about me. Click "NPCT" to see her paid tout job.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030206180859/http://investortoinvestor.com/

Pdf copy of the docket from Pacer

http://www.marycummins.com/kathy_knight-mcconnell_vs_mary_cummins_docket.pdf

I wish I could find her original complaint. I had to read it three times just to try to figure out what the hell she was suing me for. It was all over the place. Finally figured it out and replied.

May 25, 2004. MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF
DEFENDANT’S RULE 12(b) MOTIONS TO DISMISS FOR LACK OF
SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION, LACK OF PERSONAL
JURISDICTION, IMPROPER VENUE, and FAILURE TO STATE A CLAIM

http://www.marycummins.com/knight_mcconnell_motion_to_dismiss.pdf

Knight-McConnell then filed a motion to strike my motion to dismiss claiming I had a ghost writer. March 25, 2005 Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald orders me to "send an affidavit attesting to the fact and explaining how you obtained the legal scholarship that is reflected in the motion papers." It's called being stressed out of your mind that you are being sued so you stay up many long nights researching how to write and file papers. This was also my second pro se lawsuit as a defendant. I was previously sued for something similar in a Philadelphia court, see Ashton Technology vs Mary Cummins. I learned a lot from JohnDoes.org . They pointed me in the right direction to similar cases. I also learned a lot from Silicon Investor "Investment chat board lawsuits" thread. A lawyer did not write any of my documents or help me in any way.

http://www.marycummins.com/knight_Mcconnel_judge_order.pdf

April 26, 2005. The judge is satisfied with my affidavit. Plaintiff's motion to strike defendant's motion to dismiss is denied.

http://www.marycummins.com/knight_mcconnell_motion_denied.pdf

Knight-McConnell filed an amended complaint and I replied
http://www.marycummins.com/mary_cummins_reply_to_knight-mcconnel_amended_complaint.pdf

PIKE & FISCHER INTERNET LAW & REGULATION review of case. Note, I never had to pay any fees because the court never had jurisdiction over me. I should have never been served in the first place. The final current docket reflects this. I'm amazed they wrote such a lengthy article about this frivolous case. This was the beginning of internet law so maybe that's it. Or maybe it was because it was a pro se vs a pro se?

http://techlawadvisor.com/docs/knight-mcconnell.pdf

I found my old due diligence page for Kathy. None of the links work. Note, the photo of Kathy in question was posted on the main page of her own website. I added the "toxic funding is awesome!" part, that's it. This is a photo she herself had on the main page of her website.

http://www.marycummins.com/kathy_knight-mcconnel_stock_promoter.html

Mary Cummins comment to the SEC

2003-11-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

My comment to the SEC on a proposed rule for short sales

From: MMMARYinLA@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 1:48 PM
To: rule-comments@sec.gov
Subject: File No. S7-23-03

I have read a few articles about the new shorting regulations and would
like to comment. I believe that in order to have a balanced market the
investor should be allowed to play the market up and down equally with
the same set of rules. If there are not enough shares to borrow to cover
short positions, a short squeeze occurs and the price shoots up artificially
to the benefit of the "long" investors and companies. This balances out the
market. Someone can also borrow shares to play them in an up trend through
leverage. Borrowing is borrowing, if one plays it up or down. Investors need
to be able to play markets up and down. That's capitalism, that's the
American way.

I also believe that it is the broker who is responsible for processing the
paperwork and following the rules. The investor just puts in an order and
has no idea how that order is executed or what regulations are involved. With
that said I have a few more comments about the entities who are begging the
SEC to stop all this "criminalistic naked shorting that is taking food out of
orphans mouths."

The people who have filed suits over this naked shorting issue are not newly
formed innocent small companies selling shares to raise capital for legitimate
business activities. They are not 100% owned by Joe average investor. They are
owned by insiders, investment companies, stock promoters and major risk takers.
Take a look at some of these companies. Nanopierce NPCT is run by a CEO who
was sued three times by you, the SEC for fraud. The stock promoters were also
sued by the SEC for their fraud in hyping the stock price up. It's worth about
.001 yet went to over $6. Why didn't the company complain about that "artificial"
movement? Because they paid promoters to move the price up as per your own
lawsuit. A large investor is currently suing the company for fraud. Based on
what I know, this company is guilty of securities fraud. This company has
promised profits since 1999 and is on the verge of bankruptcy without meeting
any of its projections. Most of their press releases have turned out to be
unverifiable hype if not outright lies. They even agreed to do toxic funding
knowing full well that their shares would be shorted. Insiders may have even
shorted the shares themselves through holding companies. They used this shorting
to help fund the company. Without shorting, the company would be bankrupt and now
they complain? The SEC has allowed them to fraudulently hype the share price UP
yet now the company asks the SEC to make it even more difficult to short the price
down to it's true value. That is not a balanced market. That is one doomed to
collapse on a larger scale.

There are others on this list which I believe are total stock scams. They have
hired many stock promoters to hype the share price up fraudulently through
newsletters, message boards, "investor conferences," and direct marketing. These
promoters are telling people invested in these stock scams to copy/paste their
comments to the SEC en masse so you will be influenced artificially to change the
regulations. This is the same way they artificially hype share prices up. Please,
read these comments individually.

I follow stock scams so I can alert authorities and investors so the true few
innocent investors won't be scammed. I watched an elderly gentleman invest in a
total scam believing all the hype only to lose his entire retirement fund. Last
I spoke to him he was considering suicide over telling his wife that he lost all
their money. He was never heard from again. I have been sued by these fraudulent
stock promoters just so they can try to silence my honest information about bad
investments. I don't even short these stocks or profit in any way. I also helped
the SEC in two securities fraud cases. If anything, the SEC should be going after
these scamsters even more.

Shorters tell the public the truth about stock scams and loser investments.
Shorters are generally sued frivolously because of releasing honest negative
information. They are doing a service to the public. They regulate the markets
better than the SEC. They should be allowed to play the stocks down just as
others are allowed to play the stocks up. There must be financial gain in order
for them to bear the huge risks and costs involved in releasing negative news.
Why in America do we think that we should only speak positively. That is what
causes our stock market collapses. It's bad enough the major news distribution
companies will not allow negative news to be released about any company unless
it comes from the company itself or they give expressed permission. The US
investor is only allowed to see positive news. All these factors make shorting
a necessity in these markets. If markets were allowed to go up and up, the entire
market would eventually collapse. We need shorters to let out a little market
steam from time to time so the entire market doesn't explode and collapse. Please
allow the markets to be balanced naturally by honest capitalism. It will help
sustain a healthy market and will help all investors in the end.

Mary Cummins
"Just say NO to stock scams"
MMMARYinLA@aol.com
Los Angeles, CA
_____________________

http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s72303/mcummins112503.txt

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins wins Ashton Technology lawsuit

2001-11-09T13:37:00.000-08:00

http://web.archive.org/web/20070630231518/www.johndoes.org/html/pr3.html

A Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Ashton Technology Group, Inc. and its CEO, Freddie Rittereiser, against a frequent online message board critic of the company and its CEO. The lawsuit was filed by Rittereiser and Ashton after the internet poster uploaded documents and other information connecting Ashton and Rittereiser to individuals who work for the Mafia, and who have been arrested by the FBI and indicted by the U.S. Attorney on charges of securities fraud, money laundering, and other Mafia-related activity. In the lawsuit, Rittereiser and Ashton sought court intervention to prevent the defendant, a self-employed Southern California business woman, from posting her research findings and opinions about the plaintiffs to investors on a Yahoo! stock message board.

The allegations were published in the midst of FBI and SEC investigations of Ashton’s financial partners. Earlier this year, Ashton (symbol: ASTN) received notice that its stock would be delisted by Nasdaq by the end of the year. Following the investigations, several former Ashton consultants were indicted and jailed on the fraud charges. Ashton has never derived a profit from its operations since its launch in 1994, but instead relies on revenue from the sale of stock to feed its cash-hungry operations and management. Recently the company announced that it would be relying on death-spiral financing to meet its financial needs for 2001, thus sealing for good any hope that ASTN investors may have of ever recovering their losses. Death-spiral financing usually involves severe dilution of the outstanding shares, causing share value to plummet amidst short perks of market manipulations. Since Ashton filed the lawsuit against the Yahoo! board posters, its stock price has fallen approximately 90% from about $3 to 30 cents, the price at the time of this writing.

The Pennsylvania court ruled that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania held no personal jurisdiction over the defendant, because she had no minimal contacts within the state which would permit jurisdiction under Pennsylvania’s “long-arm” statute. The defendant, who represented herself pro se, relied on the well-publicized case Barrett v. Catacombs Press in which a Philadelphia federal court had previously ruled that Pennsylvania held no jurisdiction in a similar internet case. That ruling by Judge Antwerpen has been cited by state and federal courts in many different states as a model for determining jurisdiction in states which have “long-arm” statutes similar to Pennsylvania.

Frequently companies such as Ashton file so-called SLAPP lawsuits (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) claiming “defamation” when the real intent is to somehow prevent the person from exercising his/her constitutionally protected right of free speech. The Ashton case follows a familiar pattern we have seen repeatedly, that is, that the corporation (we call them “bully corps”) will file suit outside of the state of residence of the defendant, making it difficult of the defendants to defend and to object to discovery. That is because it is known to the company that the suit is frivolous from the outset, and the plaintiffs are counting on the inability of defendants to hire sufficient legal counsel due to economic and other circumstances. For example, one California law firm will not even make a telephone consultation to a defendant without first receiving a $10,000.00 cash retainer. Therefore, many SLAPP plaintiffs are relying on the odds that a defendant will not have the cash resources to launch a substantial defense and counterclaims, and therefore the plaintiff may win by default.

The John Does Anonymous Foundation provides a free legal referral service for anonymous defendants in jurisdictions where lawyers have made their services available to defend on a pro bono or reduced fee basis. In situations where the Foundation is unable to make a referral, or, in cases such as Ashton where the Defendant wanted to represent herself, the johndoes.org web site provides various networking tools where pro se defendants can share information and experiences with one another.

Ashton Technology Group and Freddie Rittereiser were represented by the Pennsylvania law firm of Frank & Rosen. The lawyers for the plaintiffs have requested that the judge in the case reconsider her ruling. The defendant, Mary Cummins, a commercial real estate appraiser in southern California, represented herself pro se.

Staff Report

November 10, 2001
________________

UPDATE: Plaintiff appealed and lost again. Plaintiff can never refile case against Cummins. After the stock scam finally unraveled Ashton Technology went bankrupt.

SEC action against Ashton Technology

March 8, 2001 SEC initiated action against First United Equities who pump and dumped Ashton Technology's IPO. They pled guilty in 2003.
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/33-8282.htm

October 14, 2005 they impose sanctions and slap Winston's wrist
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/33-8627.pdf

January 2006 they do the same to Hirsch.
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/33-8658.pdf

Mary Cummins to be interviewed about "busting" stock scams on public message boards, on the French Connection tonight November 6

LOS ANGELES --Nov. 6, 2002--Mary Cummins an internet "scambuster" will be interviewed tonight on the French Connection radio show. The show will deal with her experiences with public company Ashton Technology now called Vie Financial Group (OTCBB: VIEF). Listen to her talk about being threatened by the CEO and ultimately sued by the company for her honest message board posts. Hear about how she represented herself pro se and ultimately prevailed in the lawsuit. Learn how to avoid stock scams on the internet and how to protect yourself from being sued for posting the truth about dishonest companies. JohnDoes.org will be the host. Tonight at 9:00 PM ET, 6:00 PM PST. Please see **** for other air times and more information. Be sure to download your radio player.

The French Connection airs every Wednesday night, "two hours of passionate empowerment of common people with uncommon valor." The show is broadcast on over 100 public radio stations and on the internet on Fair Network on Live365, the world's largest internet broadcaster.

______________

Wall Street Journal interviewed me and Fredric for an article. They were putting it all together when 9/11 hit, end of article. More important things to write about.

I can't seem to find the case in Pacer any more so I will copy/paste what I have of the old docket. I have all docs on disc. I may post some docs.

I just checked again. All negative lawsuits against Fredric Rittereiser and Ashton Technology are gone from the Pacer system. Very strange. His lawyer did offer me money right before our last hearing if I would just shut up about Freddy. He told me I could speak about the company as much as I liked but he wanted me to leave Freddy alone. I didn't take the offer. I won that hearing and the case was dismissed. I only appeared once in Philadelphia in person at that hearing.

Right before the hearing the plaintiff's lawyer swore "on the eyes of my wife and child" that I will lose the hearing. He told me if I went into the hearing, I'd lose. He told me not to go into the hearing. What an awful lie to tell. Why are some of these lawyers so ruthless? They also refused to send me a copy of anything they filed. Thank god it was all on Pacer quickly. I'd end up only getting a day to reply because of this. The judge reprimanded the lawyers at my last hearing.

Some documents. I don't know if these were my final documents because I see a lot of typos, grammatical errors and mistakes. I had to dig up a CD from over ten years ago. Some formatting may have fallen apart. I can't open some files because they are old .doc files.

My first appearance
http://www.marycummins.com/ashton_appearance.pdf
Letter from their lawyer. They promised to send me copies of what they filed but they didn't
http://www.marycummins.com/frletter.jpg
My old due diligence page on Ashton. Most links don't work.
http://www.marycummins.com/ashton_dd.pdf
Request for deposition of Fredric Rittereiser
http://www.marycummins.com/ashton_deposition.pdf
Request for interrogatories from Rittereiser
http://www.marycummins.com/ashton_interrogatories.pdf
Letter from Ashton to me about scheduling discovery
http://www.marycummins.com/astn_letter_discovery.jpg
My objections, answer to their complaint.
http://www.marycummins.com/ashton_objections.pdf
A proposed order. I meant "with prejudice."
http://www.marycummins.com/ashton_proposed_order.pdf
My request for documents from Ashton Rittereiser
http://www.marycummins.com/ashton_request_for_documents.pdf
A sample post which they called "defamatory." This is not defamatory at all. It's the truth.
http://www.marycummins.com/4.jpg

Fredric Rittereiser aka Freddy.

Freddy speaking on one of those fake stock promotion "interviews."

I found some interesting audio files while I was going through my old disks. I did indeed call up "Fridays with Freddy" and ask him about the status of his lawsuit against me. I wanted him to publicly state why he was suing me. I did not make any other calls or send any other letters to him. And FTR I never had an affair with John Westergaard. He was 75 when I was 25. I kept refuting his paid touts and reporting him to the SEC while he threatened to sue then "destroy" me. I still have my dd page on WBN and Westergaard if anyone wants it. I never met him in person. He later died of prostate cancer which spread to his spine, karma. Here's the audio from that portion of Freddy's audio show 1.6MB. Keep in mind Freddy was an ex-NJ cop who'd gotten friendly with the mob. There's an in depth article about this on Silicon Investor. It may be linked in my dd page. He then got involved in mob stock scams. This audio is pretty funny.

http://www.marycummins.com/fred3.wav

Many people were indeed pretending to be me. I'd threatened to fly to NY for the shareholder meeting if someone would pay my fare. I didn't go but a woman dressed in a red dress showed up and everyone thought that was "the" Mary Cummins. If I were there, I would have asked the tough questions during the Q&A as I did at the Easyriders and Ultra shareholder meetings. They actually tried to lock me out of the Ultra shareholder meeting. I went because I was local. Other out of state investors asked me to go to ask questions for them.

Freddy also sued John Does 1-5. They were anonymous posters. I posted in my own name. I had prepared motions to quash for them so their identities would not be revealed. Freddy didn't even try to go after them. He just wanted me because I had my dd page with evidence of his illegal activity. I just went through some files. He only attached posts by marycummins, notrealbright_2000 and seersucker_for_sheersuckers. I think he also sued blitz_bud and oily_kittens, not sure. I did not know the names of any of the other posters. They stopped posting after the lawsuit was served on me. They returned when I won. Of course by then the company was toast.

Here are two message boards about ASTN. I am user MMMARY and was_mmmary I think. The Yahoo and Raging Bull boards for ASTN are gone. It was the posts on Yahoo that bothered Freddie the most.

ASTN on iHub
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=558

ASTN on Silicon Investor
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/subject.aspx?subjectid=4251

I just checked up on Freddy. He's 75 y.o. and still doing the same thing. He's still in a public company with his old scam buddy Ivan Gothner! He now calls himself Van Gothner. Chinese AgFeed, I should have known. He has not changed. AgFeed is the new stock scam. Few years back it was anything nano. Before that it was anything having to do with cell phones. CVGC trading on the pinks at .28 These Chinese companies held by US public companies are the new scam du jour. The Chinese companies generally don't exist or have no real assets. The unsuspecting US investor can't tell because he doesn't speak Chinese. There is a shorter named Left who got some translators and has been Googling the companies and outing them for a nice profit. You can only view CVGC on otcbb.com Last trade was a month ago. Look at the numbers.

You can probably see a theme in my last three defamation lawsuits. I tell the absolute truth about bad people who are breaking the law and harming people. I turn them in to authorities. They sue me for defamation. I end up doing a ton more research showing them to be truly bad people. In the end I end up winning the case. Notice all three of these people have huge egos and have personality issues. All three attack other people viciously. Here is a letter Freddy sent to a shareholder. He basically said "quit moaning!" when asked why the company wasn't doing well as promised. Generally CEOs of scam companies say "have faith, just believe, sooooon, great things are happening..." they don't attack the shareholder.

http://www.marycummins.com/fredric_rittereiser_email.pdf

Part of old Pacer docket

Case Description

Case ID: 010402722

Case Caption: RITTERREISER ETAL VS CUMMINS ETAL

Filing Date: Monday , April 23rd, 2001

Court: CZ - COMMERCE

Location: CH - CITY HALL

Jury: N - NON JURY

Case Type: E3 - EQUITY - NO REAL ESTATE (TRO)

Status: CLWCM - WAITING TO LIST CASE MGMT CONF

Related Cases

No related cases were found.

Case Event Schedule

No case events were found.

Case Parties

Seq # Assoc Expn Date Type ID Name

1 ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFF A34414 FRANK, ALAN L

Address: 1835 MARKET ST STE 320

11 PENN CENTER

PHILADELPHIA PA 19103

(215)864-2900 Aliases: none

2 1 PLAINTIFF @4247418 RITTEREISER, FREDERIC

Address: 11 PENN CENTER 1835 MARKET ST

4TH FLOOR

PHILADELPHIA PA 19103 Aliases: none

3 1 PLAINTIFF @4247426 ASHTON TECHNOLOGY GROUP INC

Address: 1835 MARKET ST STE 400

PHILADELPHIA PA 19103 Aliases: none

4 DEFENDANT @4247429 CUMMINS, MARY

Address: 906 N DOHENY DR #214

LOS ANGELES CA 90069 Aliases: none

Docket Entries

Filing Date/Time Docket Type Filing Party Disposition Amount

23-APR-2001

10:57 AM ACTIV - ACTIVE CASE

Docket Entry: none.

23-APR-2001

11:11 AM CIVIL - COMMENCEMENT OF CIVIL ACTION FRANK, ALAN L

Docket Entry: none.

23-APR-2001

11:11 AM CMPLT - COMPLAINT FILED NOTICE GIVEN FRANK, ALAN L

Docket Entry: COMPLAINT WITH NOTICE TO DEFEND WITHIN TWENTY (20) DAYS AFTER SERVICE IN ACCORDANCE WITH RULE 1018.1 FILED.

23-APR-2001

11:11 AM CLWCM - WAITING TO LIST CASE MGMT CONF FRANK, ALAN L

Docket Entry: none.

Mary Cummins quoted in LA Times article, Easyriders

1999-06-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

Easyriders Seeks Direction as the Road Gets Rough; Publishing: New managers grapple with stock crash and protests over the cleanup of the flagship magazine.
[Home Edition]

Los Angeles Times - Los Angeles, Calif.
Subjects: Magazines, Shareholder meetings, Financial performance, Stock prices, Turnaround management, Chairman of the board, Customer relations, Shareholder relations, Motorcycles, Image
Author: DAVID COLKER
Date: Jun 17, 1999
Start Page: 1
Section: Business; PART- C; Financial Desk
Text Word Count: 939

Abstract (Document Summary)

Shares of Easyriders, which made its American Stock Exchange debut in September, have fallen off a cliff. A plan to open a chain of Easyriders Cafes--a concept championed by Chairman John E. Martin, a former Taco Bell chief executive, and others who took over the company--has been abandoned. And in the wake of announced changes to the magazine, some hard-core biker types are grumbling that the new management does not embrace the Easyriders ethos.

Its tricky task to acquire new subscribers while keeping the loyalty of the old guard such as Beverly Hills real estate broker Mary Cummins 33 a critic of ...

Rest is here http://www.latimes.com

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins in Hot Bike magazine

1998-01-10T16:21:00.000-08:00

Hot Bike, January 1998, pg's 66-72.

"Back in the Saddle, a return to two wheels." Courtney Halowell

Mary Cummins, Hot Bike magazine, top 50 bikes

Back before Evolution engines, Love Rides, Harley Davidson Cafes and high-profile celebrities cruising the Sunset strip on their lowered Fat Boys, a very young Mary Cummins fell i love. It wasn't with a boy in her class or a high school football star; Mary fell in love with an Ironhead Sportster. Somehow, she ended up with a '73 Sporty and would ride wearing a full face helmet with a tinted face shield so no one could tell that she was only 14 years old. And while she was too young to get a drivers license and had to keep the bike hidden from her parents for fear they would freak out, for the first time she really felt like she was doing something for herself. Even though Hrleys weren't very "in" an Mary found herself ignoring her friends' disapproving comments on a daily basis, she kept riding her Ironehead up until her second or third year in college. That was about the time Cummins found herself so busy attending school, working and looking after her ailing grandmother that she could no longer find time to enjoy her bike so she sold it.

To read more go here http://www.hotbikeweb.com/

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins in LA Times, People in Westside Real Estate

1986-07-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Times
July 20, 1986

Mary Cummins joins Merrill Lynch real estate in Beverly Hills.

Mary Cummins joins Beverly Hills Merrill Lynch in LA Times

http://www.latimes.com

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins presents her research at the Western Psychology Conference

1984-04-28T14:43:00.000-08:00

I took a senior year psychology research class my freshmen year in college. I always did well in school but was worried about getting an "A." The professor said he would move someone's grade up a grade if they got their research published in a journal article and presented it. I got the article published in the undergraduate journal and presented it in Santa Clarita. My grandmother let me borrow her car to drive up there.

"Western Psychology Conference for undergraduate research. April 28, 1984. Sponsored by the Psychology Department of the University of Santa Clara, California 95053.

Classical conditioning as a factor in response bias. Mary Cummins-Cobb. University of Southern California. Sponsor: Herm Turk. Cognitive field."

Mary Cummins-Cobb, Western Psychology Conference.

Mary Cummins-Cobb, Western Psychology Conference

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins in LA Times, trains with Olympic swimmers

1976-12-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles Times - January 1, 1977

L - R: Coach Boris Zenov, Gold medalist Marina Koshevaya, Mary Cummins, Silver medalist Mariana Yarchenia

Expert advice - Mary Cummins, center, 11 year old breast stroke specialist at the Culver City swim team, gets some helpful hits from Olympic Gold Medalist Marina Koshevaya, left, and Mariana Yarchenia, silver medalist and the Soviet coach Boris Zenov. The Soviet swimmers will leave Jan 3 for the Soviet Union after ending a week's stay with a swim meet Jan. 2 at USC.

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Cummins in LA Times, swim, run, swim in San Diego

1976-09-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

September 16, 1976

Los Angeles Times

Mary Cummins in LA Times, swim, run, swim

"IN TRAINING - Mary Cummins, 10, left, runs along beach in Santa Monica training for annual Swim-Run-Swim at Pacific Beach in San Diego on Sunday, Sept. 19. She will represent the Culver City Swim Club. Running with her are her sister and coach, Juliette, 12 and their dog Charlie. Contest consists of a 1/2-mile swim around the pier, a 3 1/2 mile run on the beach and a return swim around the pier. The ages of those who have entered race range from 9 to 68."

This was Tug's Tavern annual swim-run-swim. Even though Tug's closed in 1985 they have a Facebook page. Tugs Tavern's owner Tom Warren won the Ironman Triathlon in 1979. His appearance on Johnny Carson and in Sports Illustrated was a big part of the popularity for the sport of Triathlon.

Tug's Tavern 2nd annual swim-run-swim September 19, 1976.

I just found the results. I came in 8th for girls 14 and under. The article also ran in the Beverly Hills Independent newspaper and the Beverly Hills Courier.

Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.