Via Realtor.com: Ashlee Simpson’s home has been relisted with an asking price of $3.69 million, down from the original price of $4 million. Built in 1992, Simpson bought the home in 2007 for $4.5 million. Located in Beverly Crest, the Mediterranean-style home has five bedrooms and six and half bathrooms. The property also features an art studio, dance room, media room, service entrance, meditation garden, fire pit, pool with spa, and cathedral beamed ceilings in the living room. The 7,100 square foot, Beverly Hills Post Office villa displays views of both the hills and canyon.

Ashlee Simpson recently made headlines when she filed for divorce from husband, Pete Wentz of the band, Fall Out Boy. The twenty-five year old Simpson is also mother to Bronx Mowgli Wentz. Jory Burton of Sotheby’s International Realty represents the listing. Burton has also represented real estate listings for Simpson's ex-boyfriend, Ryan Cabrera.

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Via Curbed LA: This 1927 Spanish-style home in Altadena seems to be covered almost completely with gorgeous tile. Saltillo (terra cotta) tiles cover most of the floor, and moroccan/moorish-style tiles line the stairs, entryways, bathrooms, and gardens. The five bedroom, four and a half bathroom home is 4,216 square feet and sits atop an 18,000 square foot lot. According to the original listing, the home was built by New Yorker Maurice Swetland, who published the American Architect magazine.

The original listing notes that Swetland and his family were European travelers who "incorporated internat'l stylistic ideas into the homes they built." Curbed LA also mentions an added bonus: "The property also boasts award-winning gardens wherein one might find a friendly bobcat as well as an open-air greenhouse." The home has been on the market for forty-two days as of this posting and is priced at $1.545 million.

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Via Curbed LA: This 1926 English Tudor home sits high in the Hollywood Hills, about half a mile from the Mulholland Highway hiking trail to the Hollywood Sign. According to the listing, the two-story property has almost 3,000 square feet of living space on a "rare double lot" of over 19,000 square feet. English Tudor features include the turret, which encompasses both the entryway and an upstairs dressing room. The home also has original wrought iron railings and banisters and is surrounded by wooden patios and winding paths that lead to well-manicured gardens. There are four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a two-car garage, and an "updated cook's kitchen."

Tudor revival homes, inspired by English medieval architecture during the Tudor period, started gaining in prominence throughout Europe in the late 1800s. From the Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources (PDF): "The first Tudor Revival buildings in the United States were built in the late 1890s. In Los Angeles, the first Tudor style buildings were built in the early 1900s, and the style was popular through the 1920s."

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Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker is using phony budget projections to manufacture a staged "fiscal emergency" in his state so that he can whack programs and political opponents, but even his fake "emergency" pales in comparison to the cost of the Afghanistan War to his state. In fact, the U.S. would only have to bring home 151 troops from Afghanistan to save more money than Walker's ridiculous union-busting plan.  Better yet, ending the Afghanistan War altogether would save taxpayers in Wisconsin $1.7 billion this year alone, more than ten times the amount "saved" in Walker's attack on state employee rights.

One might ask, "Isn't Walker's fake budget crisis a state budget issue? How would ending the Afghanistan War pay for that?" We get this question a lot when we talk about the cost of war to a state's taxpayer. Keep in mind that state budgets are tangled with federal spending. That's especially true over the past couple of years, as state budgets have relied on federal Recovery Act funds to balance their books during the recession.  Spending decisions at the federal level are therefore doubly important, as they not only affect the national budget, but also what funds are available to help preserve state-level public structures.

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