Short sales took off in the Seattle area in the fourth quarter of 2011: 925 preforeclosure homes were sold. That's a whopping 46 percent increase from the same period a year earlier and represented 7.4 percent of all home sales in the area, at an average price of $245,403. Buyers of short sale homes reaped a nearly 25 percent discount off nonforeclosure homes.Finally, from a couple of days back. Here's Mark Fischenich of the Mankato Free Press on Tim Walz' latest opponent, GOPer Aaron Miller: "Miller said he will sign the nonewtaxes pledge that the vast majority of congressional Republicans have signed and would join the much smaller group of conservatives that wants to defund the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare, even as other Republicans say the strategy is pointless as long as President Obama is in office and politically dangerous if it leads to a government shutdown. Miller said he would join the group because the health care reform is doomed to failure