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20080214

Home - Building - History - "Property at heart of financial storm." ... "Real estate is at the very centre of the financial storm that has dragged the US economy close, if not into, recession." ... "The median price of an existing single family home fell 1.8 per cent last year, the first decline since records began 40 years ago, and probably the first since the Great Depression, the National Association of Realtors has said." ... "A large part of the problem has been the overbuilding of homes. In December the supply of new homes hit its highest level since 1981, while sales of new homes hit their slowest pace since 1994, according to the US Census Bureau." ... "Unsurprisingly, the homebuilding industry has been hit hard. Public homebuilders have chalked up more than $20bn in losses on land and buildings they own, based on data from Standard & Poor’s." -By Daniel Pimlott -FT.com
Peoples - Housing - Safety - Emergency - Politics - Government - Science - Investigators - Censorship - Hurricane Katrina - Hurricane Rita - Weather - "CDC Confirms Health Risks to Occupants of Trailers." ... "Federal health officials have confirmed that high levels of formaldehyde gas pose health risks to hurricane victims housed in 38,000 government trailers on the Gulf Coast, and will recommend that occupants be moved before temperatures rise this spring and summer, [Republican President] Bush administration officials disclosed yesterday." ... "The findings cap nearly two years of internal government deliberation over the housing of hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors in the trailers, and come 23 months after FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency ] first received reports of health problems and test results showing formaldehyde levels at 75 times the U.S.[United States]-recommended workplace safety threshold." ... "[Mississippi Democratic Representative] Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, criticized what he depicted as the [Repblican President] Bush administration's tardy response." ... "FEMA announced plans in July to test the occupied trailers after congressional investigators accused it of suppressing internal warnings about the problem. Testing finally began in late December." -By Spencer S. Hsu -WashingtonPost

20080213

US - Global - Home - History - "Global Confidence Weakens for Third Month on Slowdown (Update1)." ... "Global stocks have lost more than $6 trillion this year as credit dried up for some borrowers and the U.S. [United States] expansion stalled." ... "Home sales in the world's largest economy fell at the fastest pace since at least 1963." ... "Financial institutions around the world face $400 billion of write-offs as a consequence of the U.S. subprime mortgage slump, according to Group of Seven estimates, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said on Feb. [February] 9." ... "UBS AG, Europe's largest bank by assets, last month posted the biggest loss ever by a bank after raising fourth-quarter writedowns to $14 billion. The world's biggest financial companies have booked more than $145 billion of writedowns and losses since the beginning of 2007, partly because of the declining value of securities backed by assets including U.S. subprime mortgages." ... "The S&P [Standard & Poor's] 500, the benchmark U.S. index, declined 8.1 percent this year to 1348.86 yesterday." -By Ben Sills and Paul Tobin -Bloomberg

20080206

Emergency - Tennessee - Alabama - Kentucky - Arkansas - People - Homes - History - "Tornadoes in South Kill 50 in Rare Winter Strike (Update10)." ... "The deadliest tornado outbreak in almost a decade tore across the southern U.S. [United States] late yesterday, killing at least 50 people, sparking a pipeline explosion in Tennessee and destroying homes from Alabama to Kentucky." ... "The ``extremely dangerous'' tornadoes, spawned by unseasonably warm temperatures, prompted the first high-risk weather alert issued in February in 10 years, AccuWeather.com said." ... "``Tornadoes in February, especially this many and this strong, is a rare event,'' Buddy Rogers, spokesman for the Kentucky Emergency Management Office, said by phone." ... "The twisters first struck in the late afternoon, killing 26 people in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and four in Alabama, the Associated Press reported, citing emergency officials." -By Demian McLean -Bloomberg

20080201

Jobs - History - Manufacturers - Construction- Housing - Government - "U.S. Economy Suffers Another Body Blow." ... "Nervous employers cut 17,000 jobs in January - the first such reduction in more than four years and a fresh trouble sign that the U.S. [United States] economy is in danger of stalling." ... ""It's very unusual for the economy to lose jobs, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's economy.com. "It only happens during recession," he told CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason. "So the fact that we lost jobs is very symbolic and suggests that the economy is in recession."" ... "Job losses were widespread. Manufacturers, construction firms and a variety of professional and business services eliminated jobs in January - reflecting the toll of the housing and credit debacles. The government cut jobs, too." ... "Although the unemployment rate declined a notch, from 5 percent in December to 4.9 percent in January, the jobless rate - calculated from a different statistical survey than the payroll figures - dipped as people left the labor force for any number of reasons. " -AP via -CBSNews

20080130

John Edwards - Hillary Clinton - Barack Obama - New Orleans - Louisiana - Poverty - Homeless - People - Health Care - US - Iraq - Military - Money - 2008 Election - "Democrat Edwards exits presidential race: Clinton, Obama praise ex-rival, who refrains from endorsing one or other." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Democrat John Edwards bowed out of the race for the White House on Wednesday, saying it was time to step aside “so that history can blaze its path” in a campaign now left to [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Rodham Clinton and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama." ... ""It is time for me to step aside," said Edwards, ending his second campaign in a hurricane-ravaged section of New Orleans [Louisiana] where he began it more than a year ago. “With our convictions and a little backbone we will take back the White House in November.”" ... "Edwards said Clinton and Obama had both pledged that “they will make ending poverty central to their campaign for the presidency.”" ... "“This is the cause of my life and I now have their commitment to engage in this cause,” he said before a small group of supporters. He was joined by his wife Elizabeth and his three children, Cate, Emma Claire and Jack." ... "Edwards said that on his way to make his campaign-ending statement, he drove by a highway underpass where several homeless people live. He stopped to talk, he said, and as he was leaving, one of them asked him never to forget them and their plight." ... "“Well I say to her and I say to all those who are struggling in this country, we will never forget you. We will fight for you. We will stand up for you,” he said, pledging to continue his campaign-long effort to end what he frequently said was “two Americas,” one for the powerful, the other for the rest." ... "Edwards burst out of the starting gate with a flurry of progressive policy ideas — he was the first to offer a plan for universal health care, the first to call on Congress to pull funding for the [Iraq] war, and he led the charge that lobbyists have too much power in Washington and need to be reigned in." (1, 2) -AP via -MSNBC

20080124

Home - Economy - "Home Prices Fell in ’07 for First Time in Decades." ... "In 2007, the median price of an American single-family home fell for the first time in at least four decades, according to the National Association of Realtors, a trade group." ... "The median price declined 1.8 percent to $217,800, the first annual decline since reliable records began in 1968. It's the first price decline in many, many years and possibly going back to the Great Depression, said the group's chief economist, Lawrence Yun." ... "Over all, sales of previously owned single-family homes fell 13 percent in 2007, the biggest drop in a quarter-century. Last month alone, home sales dipped 2.2 percent from November, to a 4.89 million annual rate. (The group s survey excludes newly constructed homes.)" -By Michael M. Grynbaum -NYTimes

20080122

US - World - Housing - Labor - History - "Fed cuts rates sharply, other central banks under pressure to follow." ... "The Federal Reserve made a surprise cut in US [United States] interest rates, slashing its Fed funds rate target by 0.75 percentage points to 3.50 pct [percent] amid growing fears of a US recession and steep falls on world stock markets." ... "It said the rate cut had been decided 'in view of a weakening of the economic outlook and increasing downside risks to growth'." ... "The Fed funds rate cut was the first between regular meetings since Sept 2001 and the biggest easing move since the 1980's." ... "The Fed also cut its discount rate by the same margin to 4.00 pct." ... "Even with these rate cuts, the Fed said 'appreciable downside risks to growth remain' and added that it will 'act in a timely manner as needed to address those risks'." ... "'While strains in short-term funding markets have eased somewhat, broader financial market conditions have continued to deteriorate and credit has tightened further for some businesses and households,' it said." ... "The Federal Open Market Committee also said it saw a 'deepening of the housing contraction as well as some softening in labour markets'." ... "The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 465 points at the start of the session but later recovered to a post a loss of around 200 points." -Thomson via -CNN

20080117

John Edwards - Hillary Clinton - Barack Obama - Money - Drug - Oil - 2008 Election - Health - Home - Law - Union - Nevada - "Edwards sharpens criticism of Clinton, Obama." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards sharpened his criticism of Democratic [2008 Election Presidential Candidate] front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama Thursday night, saying they are helping turn the party into the champion of special interests." ... "“When did our party change? When did we become the party that took more money from drug companies and insurance companies than the Republicans?” Edwards asked." ... "“Not when I'm president of the United States” he told hundreds of supporters who jammed a Reno [Nevada] union hall Thursday night." ... "“The person who raised the most money from oil and gas companies is not a Republican. It's a Democrat. It's [Senator] Sen. Clinton,” Edwards said." ... "The party's 2004 vice presidential candidate said the contributions make his primary opponents beholden to big corporations, causing them to compromise on such things as health care reform and [home] mortgage foreclosures." ... "“You can't take these people's money and challenge them and fight them in a way that is going to be necessary to bring about change,” Edwards said." ... "“We desperately need universal health care for every man, woman and child in this country. Sen. Obama's plan is not universal. It leaves as many as 15 million Americans uncovered,” he said." ... "Edwards said he supports Clinton's call to freeze interest rates for five years and place a moratorium on [home] foreclosures for 90 days but “we have to do more than that.”" ... "“What she has not called for, because the mortgage lending industry is against it, is allowing the bankruptcy court to restructure these loans. We need to give the bankruptcy court the power to restructure these loans,” he said. " -By Scott Sonner with contributions by Ryan Nakashima -AP via -SignOnSanDiego.com
Manufacturing - Housing - Technology - "Dow Plunges More Than 300 Points on Grim Outlook." ... "Stock markets plunged on Thursday as investors confronted a troubling manufacturing report and new indications of the depth of subprime losses and housing woes. The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 300 points." ... "The Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index, a broad measure of the financial markets, tumbled below its low for last year, set in March. At the close, it was down 2.9 percent after giving up early morning gains, bringing its decline since Jan. 1 to 9.2 percent." ... "The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 306.95 points, or 2.5 percent, at 12,159.21, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index was off 2 percent." -By Michael M. Grynbaum -NYTimes
Construction - Business - History - "Housing Starts at 16-Year Low." ... "New home construction fell again in December as builders scramble to cut back in the face of rising inventories and fewer orders. The drop-off is likely to hurt businesses that serve the housing industry, which economists do not expect to bottom out until the middle of the year." ... "Groundbreakings remain at the lowest level in more than 16 years, and permits for new residential construction projects recorded their slowest month since the housing recession of the early 1990s, the Commerce Department said on Thursday." ... "Housing starts fell by 14 percent last month, to an annual rate of 1.006 million, seasonally adjusted. Residential construction dropped nearly 40 percent in 2007 as a whole." ... "Permits for new buildings, a leading indicator of housing construction, dropped by 34 percent last year." -By Michael M. Grynbaum -NYTimes
Homeowners - Illinois - "Wealthy may be next in line in home crisis." ... "A house in this wealthy Chicago suburb [of Hinsdale, Illinois] is far beyond the reach of most Americans." ... "With a picturesque little downtown area and large, expensive houses -- according to the Headrick-Wagner Consulting Group, the average home sale price here in the 12 months to September 30, 2007, was around $1.15 million -- Hinsdale seems a world away from the housing slowdown that may have brought the U.S. [United States] economy to the brink of a recession." ... "But even here, far from the housing crisis' epicenter, high earners with good credit may be heading for trouble as their adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) adjust beyond their means, local real estate agents and others say. In a normal housing market they'd be able to sell, but now they are stuck." ... ""The next wave of problems will come from prime borrowers who bought too much house or borrowed too much against it," said Michael van Zalingen, director of home ownership services at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago [Illinois]. A "prime" borrower is one with good credit." (1, 2, 3) -By Nick Carey with contributions by Eddie Evans -Reuters
Homes - "Merrill Posts Record Loss on $16.7 Billion Writedown (Update6)." ... "Merrill Lynch & Co., the biggest U.S. [United States] brokerage, reported a record loss after $16.7 billion of writedowns on assets infected by subprime mortgages [real-estate and home loans]." ... "The loss was almost three times bigger than analysts estimated and resulted in the first full-year loss since 1989, sending Merrill down 10 percent in New York trading, the biggest decline since the 2001 terrorist attacks." ... "Merrill follows Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Cos. in reporting a loss, capping Wall Street's worst quarter ever. The five biggest U.S. securities firms, which also include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., reported a net total of $10.2 billion in losses." ... "The fourth-quarter loss was the same reported earlier this week by Citigroup Inc., which took an $18 billion writedown related to its subprime-mortgage holdings and slashed its dividend 41 percent." ... "The writedowns by Merrill add to more than $100 billion of subprime-related losses reported since May by the world's largest banks and securities firms." -By Bradley Keoun -Bloomberg

20080111

Countrywide Financial Corp - Consumers - Homes - California - Employees - "Mozilo could reap $115 million: The Countrywide [home mortgage corporation] CEO's [Chief Executive Officer's] potential pay if his company is acquired rankles critics." ... "Countrywide Financial Corp. [Corporation] founder Angelo Mozilo, one of the nation's highest-paid chief executives, stands to reap $115 million in severance-related pay if his troubled company is acquired by Bank of America Corp., regulatory filings show." ... "Free rides on the company jet are also included in Mozilo's departure deal, and the company will pick up his country club bills until 2011." ... "Other executives, including Home Depot Inc.'s [Incorporated's] jettisoned CEO, Robert Nardelli, have garnered bigger going-away packages. But critics say Mozilo's arrangement is especially nettlesome given the losses that Countrywide investors have suffered in the last year. Company shares rallied Thursday to $7.75, up $2.63, but that's still down 82% from their high last year." ... ""He has driven the stock price into the ground and the company has been destroyed," [American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees director of pension and benefits policy Richard] Ferlauto said. "Their customers have lost their homes and he is potentially walking away with more than $100 million. For us, that's unconscionable enrichment."" ... "The [Los Angeles] Times reported last year that Mozilo made changes to his stock-trading arrangements that allowed him to ramp up his sales of company stock before Countrywide shares went into a tailspin." ... "Combining those sales with pay and previous gains on the sale of stock, Mozilo has taken more than $650 million out of Countrywide over the course of the last 10 years, Ferlauto said. Add in potential severance payments and the Calabasas[California]-based company would have enriched Mozilo to the tune of three-quarters of a billion dollars." -By Kathy M. Kristof -LAtimes

20080109

Employment - Housing - "Wall Street Is Seeing More Signs Of Recession." ... "Goldman Sachs became the latest Wall Street firm to predict that the U.S. economy will drop into recession this year, saying the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates to 2.5 percent by the third quarter as a result." ... ""Over the past few months, we have become increasingly concerned that the US housing and credit market downturn would trigger not just a growth slowdown and substantial Fed easing -- our long-standing view -- but also an outright recession," Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients Wednesday. "The latest data suggest that recession has now arrived, or will very shortly."" ... "The recent rise in unemployment is particularly worrisome, Goldman indicated." ... "Merrill Lynch North American Economist David Rosenberg said the U.S. had entered its first-blown recession in 16 years." -CNBC

20080108

Corporate Money - Politics - Ads - 2008 Election - 2004 Election - Workers - Homes - John Edwards - Hillary Clinton - Barack Obama - Mike Huckabee - North Carolina - New York - Illinois - Arkansas - Iowa - US - Consumer - Litigation - Globalization - "Chamber of Commerce vows to punish anti-business candidates: The group indicates it will spend in excess of the approximately $60 million it put out in the last [2004 Election] presidential cycle." ... "Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 [Election] political campaign, the president of the U.S. [United States] Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business." ... ""We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," chamber President Tom Donohue said." ... "The warning from the nation's largest trade association came against a background of mounting popular concern over the condition of the economy. A weak record of job creation, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, declining home values and other problems have all helped make the economy a major campaign issue." ... "Presidential candidates in particular have responded to the public concern. Former [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Senator] Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has been the bluntest populist voice, but other front-running Democrats, including [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Senator] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Senator] Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, have also called for change on behalf of middle-class voters." ... "On the Republican side, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and] former Arkansas Gov. [Governor] Mike Huckabee -- emerging as an unexpected front-runner after winning the Iowa caucuses -- has used populist themes in his effort to woo independent voters, blasting bonus pay for corporate chief executives and the effect of unfettered globalization on workers." ... "Reacting to what it sees as a potentially hostile political climate, Donohue said, the chamber will seek to punish candidates who target business interests with their rhetoric or policy proposals, including congressional and state-level candidates." ... "In advance of today's news conference, Donohue told The Times of his plans to be active in 140 congressional districts this year, as well as the presidential contest." ... "At the state level, Donohue said his organization would be active in nearly four dozen contests for attorney general and state supreme courts. Both state courts and attorneys general are involved in decisions affecting business, including consumer protection and a wide range of litigation." ... "Under Donohue, the organization has also frequently aligned itself with GOP [Grand Old Party=Republican] priorities." ... "Under a system Donohue pioneered, corporations contribute money to the chamber, which then finances attack ads targeting individual candidates without revealing the name of the businesses involved in the ads." -By Tom Hamburger -LAtimes
Money - Discrimination - Crime - Maryland - Homeowners - Consumers - Ohio - New York - "Baltimore Is Suing Bank Over Foreclosure Crisis." ... "Baltimore’s [Maryland state] mayor and City Council are suing Wells Fargo Bank, contending that its lending practices discriminated against black borrowers and led to a wave of foreclosures that has reduced city tax revenues and increased its costs." ... "The recent surge in homeowner defaults nationwide, generated by lax lending practices during the real estate boom, has officials bracing for a range of problems that often accompany foreclosures. Some municipalities, including Cleveland [Ohio] and Buffalo [New York], are trying to make lenders responsible for abandoned properties to ward off crimes like arson, drug use and prostitution." ... "In the suit, Mayor Sheila Dixon joined with the City Council to ask that the court bar Wells Fargo from charging higher fees to black borrowers. Many of these borrowers paid more under the bank’s subprime lending program, designed for less creditworthy consumers, and are more likely to default on their loans." ... "In 2006, Wells Fargo made high-cost loans, with an interest rate at least three percentage points above a federal benchmark, to 65 percent of its black customers in Baltimore and to only 15 percent of its white customers in the area, according to the lawsuit. Similarly, refinancings to black borrowers were more likely to be higher cost than to white ones and to carry prepayment penalties." -By Gretchen Morgenson -NYTimes

20080107

John Edwards - Military - Homeless - Poverty - Accounting - Language - 2008 Election - Politics - "Edwards on Veterans: It Checks Out." ... "Several readers have asked us to check this surprising statistic, often used by [2008 Election Democratid Presidential Candidate John] Edwards. The language may be overly dramatic, but the figure is an official one, from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The department believes that one-third of the adult homeless population of the United States "have served their country in the Armed Services." A posting on the department Web site says that about 195,000 veterans are "homeless on any given night" and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year." -WashingtonPost

20080103

Consumer - Autos - Homes - Money - History - "Delinquent Nation: Late Payments Soar: Late Payments On Consumer Loans Jump To Highest Point Since Last Recession." ... "Late payments on a cluster of consumer loans, including those for autos, home improvement and certain home equity loans, climbed in the summer to their highest point since the country's last recession in 2001." ... "The American Bankers Association reported Thursday that the delinquency rate on a composite of consumer loans increased to 2.44 percent in the July-to-September quarter. That was up sharply from 2.27 percent in the previous quarter and was the highest late-payment rate since the second quarter of 2001, when the economy was suffering through a recession." ... "Late payments on home equity lines of credit jumped to 0.84 percent in the third quarter. That was up from 0.77 percent in the second quarter and was the highest since the final quarter of 1997." ... "Meanwhile, the delinquency rate on "indirect" auto loans — which are arranged through dealerships — jumped in the third quarter to 2.86 percent, a 16-year high." -AP via -CBSNews

20080102

Manufacturing - History - Housing - "U.S. Economy: Manufacturing Shrinks Most Since 2003 (Update3)." ... "Manufacturing in the U.S. shrank the most last month in almost five years, triggering speculation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by half a percentage point to stave off a recession." ... "The Institute for Supply Management's factory index fell to 47.7, from 50.8 the prior month, the Tempe, Arizona-based group said today. The figure was lower than forecast by any economist surveyed by Bloomberg News. Fifty is the dividing line between contraction and expansion." ... "Stocks fell and Treasury notes climbed as the report suggested the housing-market rout is spreading to the broader economy. The ISM's gauge has now fallen six straight months, the longest losing streak since the eve of the economy's last contraction in 2001." ... "The ISM's measure starts pointing to a recession across the economy when it falls below 41.9 for two straight quarters, according to Norbert Ore, chairman of the institute's manufacturing survey." ... "The decrease in today's overall manufacturing index reflected a decline in new orders to the lowest level since October 2001. ISM's new orders index fell to 45.7 from 52.6. The production measure fell to 47.3 from 51.9." ... "The inventory index in today's report declined to 45.5 from 46.9. Figures less than 50 mean manufacturers are reducing stockpiles." -By Courtney Schlisserman -Bloomberg

20071231

Money - Politics - Federal - Housing - Legislation - New Jersey - Georgia - California - Texas - Utah - Maryland- Nevada - Oregon - Washington - 2004 Election - US - Netherlands - "Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess: Ameriquest Pressed For Changes in Laws; A Battle in New Jersey." ... "During the housing boom, the subprime industry succeeded at more than just writing mortgages. It also shot down efforts by some states to curtail risky lending to borrowers with spotty credit." ... "Ameriquest Mortgage Co. [ACC Capital Holdings], until recently one of the nation's largest subprime lenders, was at the center of those battles. Working with a husband-and-wife team of Washington lobbyists, it handed out more than $20 million in political donations and played a big role in persuading legislators in New Jersey and Georgia to relax tough new laws. Those victories, in turn, helped blunt efforts by other states to crack down on reckless lending, critics of the industry contend." ... "Home loans made by Ameriquest and other subprime lenders are defaulting now in large numbers, roiling global credit markets and sparking debate about whether regulators and lawmakers should have anticipated the mess and taken action. A close look at Ameriquest's lobbying and political donations shows how the subprime industry maneuvered to defeat legislation that might have contained some of the damage." ... "Data from federal and state campaign-finance records, Internal Revenue Service filings, and the National Institute on Money in State Politics show that from 2002 through 2006, Ameriquest, its executives and their spouses and business associates donated at least $20.5 million to state and federal political groups. In comparison, over the same time period, Countrywide Financial, another large subprime lender, gave about $2 million in campaign gifts, and spent an additional $6.7 million lobbying in Washington, records indicate." ... "Some of the giving by Ameriquest executives and associates was high-profile. [Republican] President Bush received more than $200,000 for his 2004 re-election campaign, and Ameriquest founder Roland Arnall and his wife, Dawn, contributed more than $5 million to political organizations that backed the president. Last year, [Republican] President Bush appointed Mr. Arnall ambassador to the Netherlands, and his wife took over as chairman of Ameriquest's parent company. California [Republican Governor] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaigns received at least $1.4 million, along with stacks of tickets to a Rolling Stones concert that were used to lure big donors." ... "Last year, ACC Capital, its [Ameriquest Mortgage Company] parent company, agreed to pay $325 million to settle regulators' claims that it charged excessively high mortgage rates and didn't adequately disclose loan risks. Some of the state attorneys general who signed the settlement, including Greg Abbott of Texas, received campaign donations from the firm. Utah's attorney general, Mark Shurtleff, received a $1,000 contribution and Rolling Stones tickets." ... "Ameriquest also handed out Rolling Stones tickets to state legislators in Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and California, according to ethics records and local news accounts." ... "Federal lawmakers didn't pose much of a threat to the subprime industry in recent years. Members of Congress received at least $645,000 in donations from Ameriquest and large sums from other big subprime lenders, Federal Election Commission records indicate." ... "ACC Capital, Ameriquest's parent company, and its executives gave more than $350,000 to Texas politicians in 2006, including $100,000 to [Republican Governor] Gov. Rick Perry, according to state records." -By Glenn R. Simpson -WSJ.com

20071228

Economic - Construction - History - "Sales of New Homes in U.S. Dropped 9% to 12-Year Low (Update3)." ... "Sales of new homes in the U.S. fell to a 12-year low in November, pointing to bigger declines in construction that will hobble economic growth throughout 2008." ... "Purchases dropped 9 percent to an annual pace of 647,000 and October sales were revised down to a 711,000 rate, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Last month's sales were weaker than the lowest forecast in a Bloomberg survey. " ... "A Bloomberg survey of 68 economists forecast sales would fall to an annual pace of 717,000 from a previously reported 728,000 rate in October, according to the median estimate. Economists' forecasts ranged from a low of 685,000 to a high of 750,000." ... "Sales of new homes were down 34 percent from the same time last year, the biggest 12-month drop since January 1991." ... "The housing recession has deepened since the August turmoil in subprime mortgages led to a worldwide credit shortage. Stricter borrowing standards and a freeze on lending to borrowers with poor credit put mortgages out of reach for more potential buyers. That's driving home prices lower, weakening sales as people hold out for even bigger reductions." -By Bob Willis -Bloomberg

20071226

John Edwards - Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - Iowa - Manufacturing - Jobs - Family - Health-Care - Environment - Human Rights - US - China - Corporations - Iraq - Military - Indiana - Idaho - Illinois - Homes - Consumers - 2008 Election - "Behind the Edwards Surge: Right Message at the Right Time." ... "To a far greater extent than [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidates Barack] Obama or [Hillary] Clinton, [John] Edwards has struck at the heart of issues that should matter most in the race to replace not just [Republican President] George W. Bush, but the Bush agenda of corporate giveaways, job-crushing free trade deals, war profiteering in Iraq, and subprime mortgage profiteering in Indiana, Idaho, Illinois and, yes, Iowa." ... "Edwards summed up his increasingly aggressive and powerful anti-corporate themes with a declaration: "What makes America America is at stake: jobs, the middle class, health care, preserving the environment in the world for future generations."" ... ""But all those things are at risk. And why are they at risk? Because of corporate power and corporate greed in Washington, D.C. And we have to take them on. You can't make a deal with them. You can't hope that they're going to go away. You have to actually be willing to fight. And I want every caucus-goer to know I've been fighting these people and winning my entire life. And if we do this together, rise up together, we can actually make absolutely certain, starting here in Iowa, that we make this country better than we left it."" ... "Edwards got to know workers in Iowa. He stood with them in their struggles." ... "Turning a broad question about human rights toward the specific issue of trade policy, the former senator said that human rights, human needs and human values "should be central to our trade policy."" ... ""But," he added, "if you look at what's happened with American trade policy, look at what America got: Big corporations made a lot of money, are continuing to make a lot of money in China. But what did America get in return? We got millions of dangerous Chinese toys. We lost millions of jobs." ... ""And right here in Iowa, the Maytag plant in Newton [Iowa] closed. A guy named Doug Bishop, who I got to know very well, had worked in that plant, and his family had worked in that plant literally for generations. And his job is now gone. The same thing, by the way, happened in the plant that my father worked in when I was growing up. It is so important that we stop allowing these corporate powers and corporate profits to run America's policy, whether it's trade policy, how we engage with China. This is not good for America. It's not good for American jobs. And it's not good for working people in this country."" ... "That's an issue Edwards has taken far, far more seriously than his opponents in what is now a three-way race in Iowa. And that seriousness has benefitted the former senator." -By John Nichols -TheNation
Consumer - Money - History - "U.S. Home Prices Fell 6.1% in October, Index Shows (Update2)." ... "Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in October by the most in at least six years, a private survey showed today." ... "Property values fell 6.1 percent from October 2006, more than forecast, after dropping 4.9 percent in September, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index. The decrease was the biggest since the group started keeping year-over-year records in 2001. The index has fallen every month this year." ... "Prices will probably remain under pressure as the jump in foreclosures puts even more homes on the market just as stricter lending rules make it harder for buyers to find financing. Declining values make it harder for owners to tap home equity for extra cash, posing a risk to consumer spending." -By Joe Richter and Courtney Schlisserman -Bloomberg

20071222

Families - Poverty - Agriculture - Christmas-Holidays- Thanksgiving - Gasoline - Households - Money - People - "Food Bank Shelves Going Bare At Holidays: High Living Costs Hurting Donations, While Increasing Demand By Needy Families." ... "The reports from across the country are dismaying: Food pantries are running short and cannot meet the needs of all those seeking help." ... "In the Department of Agriculture's most recent study of hunger in America, released in November, more than 35.5 million Americans, including 12.6 million children, were found to have "low" or "very low food security" (defined as households where hunger was prevalent, where there was not enough money to buy adequate food supplies, where food purchased did not last, or where family members had to cut down or skip meals - sometimes not eating for a day or longer)." ... "That's roughly 1 in 9 households. And the numbers are rising from last year." ... "Everywhere, people are feeling the crunch of rising gasoline and grocery prices, as well as utility bills, rent and mortgage payments." ... "Those factors also are cutting into people's ability to donate to food banks for others in need." ... "At Thanksgiving, the [America's Second Harvest] organization estimated that food banks nationally were short a total of 15 million pounds of food, or roughly 11.7 million meals. " -AP via -CBSNews

20071218

Fed - Money - Politics - Investigate - Law - History - People's - Homes - Consumer - California - New York - Wyo - "Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread." ... "Until the boom in subprime mortgages turned into a national nightmare this summer, the few people who tried to warn federal banking officials might as well have been talking to themselves." ... "Edward M. Gramlich, a Federal Reserve governor who died in September, warned nearly seven years ago that a fast-growing new breed of lenders was luring many people into risky mortgages they could not afford." ... "But when Mr. Gramlich privately urged Fed examiners to investigate mortgage lenders affiliated with national banks, he was rebuffed by Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman." ... "In 2001, a senior Treasury official, Sheila C. Bair, tried to persuade subprime lenders to adopt a code of “best practices” and to let outside monitors verify their compliance. None of the lenders would agree to the monitors, and many rejected the code itself. Even those who did adopt those practices, Ms. Bair recalled recently, soon let them slip." ... "And leaders of a housing advocacy group in California, meeting with Mr. Greenspan in 2004, warned that deception was increasing and unscrupulous practices were spreading." ... "John C. Gamboa and Robert L. Gnaizda of the Greenlining Institute implored Mr. Greenspan to use his bully pulpit and press for a voluntary code of conduct." ... "“He never gave us a good reason, but he didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Gnaizda said last week. “He just wasn’t interested.”" ... "“The Federal Reserve could have stopped this problem dead in its tracks,” said Martin Eakes, chief executive of the center [Center for Responsible Lending]. “If the Fed had done its job, we would not have had the abusive lending and we would not have a [home] foreclosure crisis in virtually every community across America.”" ... "Mr. Greenspan and other Fed officials repeatedly dismissed warnings about a speculative bubble in housing prices. In December 2004, the New York Fed issued a report bluntly declaring that “no bubble exists.” Mr. Greenspan predicted several times — incorrectly, it turned out — that housing declines would be local but almost certainly not nationwide." ... " “Why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers?” Mr. Gramlich asked in a speech he prepared last August for the Fed’s symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo[Wyoming]. “The question answers itself — the least sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products.”" (1, 2, 3) -By Edmund L. Andrews with contributions by Gretchen Morgenson -NYTimes

20071209

Rudy Giuliani - Police - Politics - Trips - Apartments - New York - Indigent - Lawyers - US - Qatar - Terrorism - 2008 Election - "Giuliani Defends Girlfriend's Expenses." ... "Former New York Mayor [and 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudy Giuliani on Sunday defended the expenses incurred by his security detail as he was beginning an extramarital affair with current wife Judith Nathan, saying police made the decision after she had received threats." ... "Giuliani in recent weeks has faced a barrage of questions about New York police security costs for his trysts with Nathan and about his business clients, which have included the Persian Gulf country of Qatar. The Gulf state is a U.S. ally, but allegations have been made that some prominent Qatari officials sheltered suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. " ... "Records first reported by Politico.com last month showed repeated trips between 1999 and 2002 to Long Island, where Nathan had a condominium. Giuliani's first trip was from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1, 1999 - months before he acknowledged the breakdown of his second marriage in the spring of 2000." ... "Security costs for those trips were charged to agencies like the New York City Loft Board, which regulates loft apartments and was billed $34,000. The Office for People with Disabilities was charged $10,000, while the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office, which provides lawyers for indigent defendants, was charged roughly $400,000. " -By Libby Quaid -AP via -CBSNews

20071203

United States - Debt - Government - Fiscal - Politics - People - Parents - Accounting - History - Homeowners - Japan - China - Britain - Saudi Arabia - Oil - Countries - "National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute." ... "Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day -- or nearly $1 million a minute." ... "What's that mean to you?" ... "It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States." ... "Even if you've escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That's because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion." ... "And like homeowners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the government faces the prospect of seeing this debt -- now at relatively low interest rates -- rolling over to higher rates, multiplying the financial pain." ... "The national debt -- the total accumulation of annual budget deficits -- is up from $5.7 trillion when [Republican] President Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion [$10,000,000,000,000.00] sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009." ... "Foreign governments and investors now hold some $2.23 trillion -- or about 44 percent -- of all publicly held U.S. debt. That's up 9.5 percent from a year earlier." ... "Japan is first with $586 billion, followed by China ($400 billion) and Britain ($244 billion). Saudi Arabia and other oil-exporting countries account for $123 billion, according to the Treasury." ... "Democrats are blaming the runup in deficit spending on [Republican President] Bush and his Republican allies who controlled Congress for the first six years of his presidency." (1, 2, 3) -By Tom Raum -AP via -ChicagoTribune
Noteworthy - Housing - Consumers - Employed - People - Fla - "Foreclosure gridlock threatens economy: Millions 'in limbo' face possible default as adjustable mortgages reset." ... "Like a lot of Americans, Anne Violette is having trouble with her mortgage." ... "Violette, a self-employed photographer, moved to Delray Beach, Fla. [Florida], in 2004 and bought a home with a 30-year fixed-rate loan. A year later, she said, a friend in the mortgage industry sold her on the idea of refinancing with an adjustable-rate mortgage that saved her hundreds of dollars a month." ... "Violette said her problems began when she learned that the rate on her loan could nearly double, despite assurances that it would not rise more than a half-percent a year for the first three years. Eventually her monthly payments rose by $900, and she was unable to keep up. She began making calls to the lender, moving from one department to another, to see if she could work out a payment plan." ... "“They say, 'I’m sorry, but we can’t restructure your loan until you’re caught up,'” she said. “But I keep saying, ‘I can never be caught up until you restructure my loan.'”" ... "After more phone calls, Violette found a bank representative who agreed to help modify her mortgage. That was in August. The bank had her house appraised, but then she got a letter from another bank saying they had taken over her loan. In October, she called the first bank to find out where things stood and learned that the title company she used when she bought the house is out of business and that her loan is "in limbo," she said." ... "As consumers watch home prices slump and their equity melt away, some economists fear the housing recession could spill over to the broader economy." ... "25Over the next four years, some $1.5 trillion in mortgages are scheduled to reset, according to an analysis by Credit Suisse." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By John W. Schoen -MSNBC

20071130

Rudolph W Giuliani - Crime - History - Economy - Housing - Transit - Law - Politics - New York - New Hampshire - Illinois - 2008 Election - "Citing Statistics, Giuliani Misses Time and Again." ... "Discussing his crime-fighting success as mayor, Mr. Giuliani [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, New York] told a television interviewer that New York was “the only city in America that has reduced crime every single year since 1994.” In New Hampshire this week, he told a public forum that when he became mayor in 1994, New York “had been averaging like 1,800, 1,900 murders for almost 30 years.” When a recent Republican debate turned to the question of fiscal responsibility, he boasted that “under me, spending went down by 7 percent.”" ... "All of these statements are incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong." ... "For instance, another major American city claims to have reduced crime every year since 1994: Chicago [Illinois]. New York [City, New York] averaged 1,514 murders a year during the three decades before Mr. Giuliani took office; it did not record more than 1,800 homicides until 1980. And Mr. Giuliani’s own memoir states that spending grew an average of 3.7 percent for most of his tenure; an aide said Mr. Giuliani had meant to say that he had proposed a 7 percent reduction in per capita spending during his time as mayor." ... "Last weekend, speaking about his belief in supply-side economics, Mr. Giuliani said, “I lowered, argued for lowering, and got the hotel occupancy tax lowered by 33 percent. And I was collecting $200 million more from the lower tax than the city had been collecting from before I was mayor from the higher tax.”" ... "In fact, the increase in revenues from the hotel occupancy tax was just over a quarter of what Mr. Giuliani asserted — the city’s hotel tax revenues grew by roughly $58 million during his term, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office — and a booming economy, as well as the reduction in crime Mr. Giuliani helped produce, probably played a part." ... "Factcheck.org has reported that the Giuliani campaign exaggerated when it boasted on its Web site that “Mayor Giuliani increased the police force from 28,000 to 40,000,” noting that most of that increase came from his merger of the Transit and Housing Police Departments with the New York Police Department, a transfer of more than 7,000 existing officers to the department." (1, 2) -By Michael Cooper -NYTimes

20071129

Home - Building - Markets - "Home prices: Worst drop since '70: New home prices were down 13% in October, yet sales pace still falls well short of forecasts. August and September sales reading cut." ... "The biggest plunge in new home prices in 37 years was not enough to revive October sales, according to the government's latest reading on the battered housing and home building markets." ... "Also depressing sales and prices was a record 191,000 completed new homes on the market that have not yet been sold." ... "The report showed that the median price of a new home sold in October plunged 13 percent from year-earlier levels to $217,800. It was most severe year-over-year drop since September 1970, when the median price was only $22,600, or less than the cost of a typical new car purchase today." ... "And the price figure may actually be underestimating how the bottom has fallen out of prices in recent months." -By Chris Isidore -CNN

20071115

Alphonso Jackson - Criminal - Corporate - Federal - Housing - Politics - Law - New Orleans - Louisiana - Georgia - Virgin Islands - SC - "A Helping Hand." ... "By all accounts, Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson is a tough, hands-on manager who gets what he wants. "He's not flying at the 50,000-feet level," says a former senior official in the Housing and Urban Development Department. "He is definitely into the weeds." Yet when it comes to dealing with contracts at HUD, Jackson insists he never gets involved -- "I don't mess" with contracts, he said in a sworn interview with federal investigators last year. But his record as secretary, and as deputy secretary before that, suggests otherwise." ... "Behind the scenes, Jackson has helped to arrange lucrative contract work running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for friends and associates who went to work at HUD-controlled housing authorities in New Orleans [Louisiana] and the Virgin Islands, according to people familiar with his actions. Indeed, one of Jackson's good friends, Atlanta [Georgia] lawyer Michael Hollis, appears to have been paid approximately $1 million for managing the troubled Virgin Islands Housing Authority. Before landing at the authority, some sources said, Hollis had no experience in running a public housing agency." ... "Jackson's past efforts to aid his friends are causing him no end of headaches. For several months, a federal grand jury, Justice Department prosecutors, the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation], and the HUD inspector general's office have been exploring Jackson's role in contracting decisions at the housing department. According to people familiar with the investigation, federal agents are focusing on Jackson's relationship with one friend in particular, William Hairston, a stucco contractor from Hilton Head Island, S.C. [South Carolina.]" ... "In interviews several weeks ago with National Journal, Hairston acknowledged that Jackson had helped him land a lucrative job around January 2006 at the Housing Authority of New Orleans, or HANO. HUD and a former HANO official have said that Hairston was paid about $485,000 for working as a construction manager at HANO during an 18-month period. As it turns out, new information uncovered by National Journal suggests that Hairston was paid even more than that. HSD, a Georgia company that was affiliated with Hairston, was paid $186,280 under a direct contract with HUD, federal procurement records show. A HUD document identified Hairston as a representative of HSD." ... "Federal investigators are digging deep into Jackson's relationship with Hairston, a sometime golfing buddy of the secretary's. According to the people familiar with the inquiry, federal investigators are also reviewing allegations that Hairston did work on Jackson's vacation home in Hilton Head." ... "Simply put, investigators are exploring whether Jackson lied when he said he did not get involved in HUD contracting. Federal criminal investigators would not comment on their inquiry." ... "At least four associates of Jackson have benefited from contracts awarded at the New Orleans and Virgin Islands housing authorities." -By Edward T. Pound -NationalJournal

20071114

Children - Food - Poverty - Homeless - "Over 35.5 million found hungry in 2006." ... "More than 35.5 million people in this country went hungry in 2006 as they struggled to find jobs that can support them, a figure that was virtually unchanged from the previous year, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday." ... "Single mothers and their children were among the most likely to suffer, according to the study." ... "The 35.5 million people represented more than 1 in 10, or 12.1 percent, who said they did not have enough money or resources to get food for at least some period during the year, according to the department's annual hunger survey. That is compared with 35.1 million people who made similar claims in 2005." ... "The survey was based on Census Bureau data and does not include the homeless. About three-quarters of a million people were homeless on a given day in 2005, according to federal estimates." ... "Of the 35.5 million people reporting periods of hunger last year, 12.6 million were children." -By Hope Yen -AP via -SeattlePI

20071111

Don Young - Criminal - Transportation - Construction - Real Estate - Jet - Travel - Money - Politics - Alaska - New York - Florida - "Alaska lawmaker promoted earmarks, raked in cash." ... "As chairman of the House transportation committee, Alaska Congressman Don Young flew at least three times to upstate New York aboard a sleek jet owned by Robert Congel, an ambitious shopping mall developer seeking federal highway dollars." ... "With Young’s help, Congel got millions of dollars to boost his dream of building the largest mall in North America. The veteran Republican congressman got something, too: more than $33,000 in political donations from Congel, his family and his associates." ... "For Young, the Congel story was hardly unusual. Time after time, Young approved millions of dollars for highway projects for people who in turn fattened his campaign coffers." ... "With money pouring in from transportation interests, Young amassed $6.5 million in political contributions from 2001 to 2005. Facing weak political opposition at home, he didn’t need much for his campaign. Instead, Young tapped his campaign fund to travel the country, often lavishly and in corporate jets, to meet with more developers and view their proposed highway projects." ... "Now, though, Young’s campaign donations are going for another purpose. He’s spent nearly $450,000 on criminal defense lawyers after he learned of an FBI investigation into his relationships with political donors, who include a Florida real estate developer seeking a highway ramp near his undeveloped land." -By Greg Gordon and Erika Bolstad-McClatchyDC.com

20071109

Bernard Kerik - Rudolph Giuliani - Secret - Apartment - Book - Money - Law - New York - New Jersey - "Ex-NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik surrenders in corruption probe." ... "[Former Police Commissioner Bernard] Kerik is charged with conspiracy, tax fraud, making false statements and depriving the city of his honest services while he was [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Rudolph] Giuliani’s corrections commissioner and top cop." ... "The one-time nominee to be [Republican] President Bush’s Homeland Security czar faces charges that carry a top prison sentence of 142 years, if convicted. He also faces more than $4 million and fines, and would have to repay $255,000 in free rent he got from a Manhattan developer." ... "Kerik is charged with trying to convince city investigators that a New Jersey contractor secretly renovating his Bronx apartment was free of mob ties." ... "He also faces multiple allegations of tax fraud, including failing to report those renovations as income, hiding $75,000 in income from his book, “The Lost Son, and to taking a bogus $80,000 charitable donation." -By Thomas Zambito and Greg B. Smith -NYDailyNews.com

20071108

Bernard B Kerik - Rudolph W Giuliani - Crime - Money - Apartment - Construction - Wiretapping - Politics - New York - New Jersey - 2008 Election - "Kerik Indictment on Tax and Corruption Charges Imminent." ... "Federal prosecutors are planning to unveil an indictment against former New York City police commissioner Bernard B. Kerik as early as week's end, spotlighting alleged corruption that occurred a decade ago when he worked was a trusted adviser to former New York mayor -- and now [2008 Election Republican] presidential candidate -- Rudolph W. Giuliani, according to people familiar with the case." ... "Kerik, 51, rejected a plea bargain earlier this year and was informed by prosecutors that he was likely to be indicted on charges that could include tax evasion or tax fraud, public corruption and filing false information regarding his failed 2004 nomination to be [Republican] President Bush's homeland security chief." ... "The federal investigation has focused on gifts that Kerik is alleged to have accepted while New York City's corrections chief and police commissioner, including $165,000 in apartment renovations in 1999 from a New Jersey construction company that sought his help overcoming allegations of ties to organized crime so it could compete for business from Giuliani's mayoral administration." ... "Last year, Kerik pleaded guilty to a New York state ethics charge in connection with those gifts and was placed on probation. Federal authorities pursued their own, broader investigation that also examined Kerik's conduct during his vetting to be the homeland security nominee." ... "The FBI also has investigated whether Kerik played a role in a conspiracy to commit illegal wiretapping involving former New York attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro." -By John Solomon -WashingtonPost

20071024

California - Wildfires - Disaster- San Diego - Homes - People - History - "Wildfires Cause More Than $1B In Damage: Thousands Of Homes In Southern Calif. [California] In Peril; Nearly 1 Million People Evacuated." ... "On the fourth day of a vicious firestorm, exhausted firefighters and weary residents looked forward Wednesday to a break - an expected slackening of the fierce wind that has fanned the state's explosive wildland blazes." ... "San Diego County officials say the property damage from this week's wildfires has reached at least $1 billion countywide." ... "[Republican] President Bush continued to step up federal engagement in the California wildfire emergency Wednesday, signing a major disaster declaration that funnels money to people whose property losses aren't covered by insurance." ... "Bush had already declared a federal emergency on Tuesday for seven California counties, triggering short-term federal help. On Wednesday, responding to a late-night request from [Republican Governor] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bush went a step further and issued the broader major disaster declaration." ... "With nearly 1 million people ordered out, it marks one of the largest evacuations in U.S. history, reports CBS' The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith." ... "The fires have burned 410,000 acres, or about 640 square miles." ... "The 16 wind-fed wildfires have destroyed nearly 1,500 homes. " (1, 2) -AP via -CBSNews

20071007

US - Iraq - Kuwait - Construction - Homes - Health - Safety - Blackwater - Military - Politics - "Iraq Embassy Cost Rises $144 Million Amid Project Delays: Planning, Workmanship Cited as Problems." ... "The massive U.S. embassy under construction in Baghdad [Iraq's capital] could cost $144 million more than projected and will open months behind schedule because of poor planning, shoddy workmanship, internal disputes and last-minute changes sought by State Department officials [under Republican President Bush], according to U.S. officials and a department document provided to Congress." ... "The embassy, which will be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, was budgeted at $592 million." ... "The growing price tag and delayed opening have alarmed members of Congress, some of whom regard the troubled project as the latest in a series of State Department management problems in Iraq. The department has been criticized for failing to send enough reconstruction specialists to assist U.S. forces in Baghdad and for not providing adequate oversight of its principal private security force, Blackwater USA, whose personnel have been accused of using excessive force to protect U.S. diplomats." ... "Department officials contend that some of the delays are a result of poor workmanship by the project's primary contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trade and Contracting, a Middle Eastern firm. Apparent building and safety blunders in a facility to house embassy security guards have made it unsafe to open. Originally due to open last December, the facility is still not operational because of formaldehyde fumes in 252 prefabricated residential trailers." ... "A Sept. 18 internal report on problems with the guard facility's electrical system, prepared for Charles E. Williams, the director of building operations, suggested that KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary hired to run the facility, was responsible for overloading the system." (1, 2) -By Glenn Kessler -WashingtonPost

20071006

Religious - University - Home - Remodeling - Jet- Trip- Autos - Clothes - Money - Political - Family - Oklahoma - Texas - California - "Scandal brewing at Oral Roberts." ... "[Televangelist Oral Roberts son and Oklahoma's Oral Roberts University President] Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay." ... "She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."" ... "San Antonio [Texas] televangelist John Hagee, a member of the ORU board of regents, said the university's executive board "is conducting a full and thorough investigation."" ... "The university reported nearly $76 million in revenue in 2005, according to the IRS." ... "Oral Roberts is 89 and lives in California." ... "Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa [Oklahoma] mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of the university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have worked on the campaign." -By Justin Juozapavicius -AP via -Yahoo

20071004

Alphonso Jackson - Government - Money - Politics - Hurricane Katrina - Housing - Construction - Texas - New Orleans - Louisiana - SC - "Questionable Contracts." ... "In April last year, Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson traveled to Dallas to deliver a speech to a group of minority real estate executives. The event should have been pretty routine stuff. But Jackson -- and these are his words -- shot off his mouth by describing how he believed contracts should be awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Developmen [HUD]t. The secretary recalled, for instance, how he once had killed a contract award because the contractor had disparaged his friend [Republican] President Bush." ... "Not too long after his speech, when he was back in Washington, Jackson realized he had blundered. Democratic lawmakers, citing concerns about political favoritism in HUD contract awards, called for an investigation by the department's inspector general. One powerful senator demanded Jackson's resignation. Jackson, meanwhile, issued an apology: HUD contracts, he said, were never "awarded, rejected, or rescinded" because of political influence or bias." ... "The matter, however, didn't end there. HUD Inspector General Kenneth Donohue launched an investigation. In September 2006, Donohue rendered his verdict in a lengthy report: Although Jackson had, in fact, urged senior aides to consider the political views of contractors in doling out department business, "no direct evidence" linked political favoritism to such awards. Jackson, it seemed, had dodged a bullet." ... "But perhaps not, because federal investigators are once again on Jackson's trail. And this time, the investigation seems more serious. Donohue's investigators are now working with the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigationv], a federal grand jury in Washington, and prosecutors from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. The investigation appears to focus, in part, on whether Jackson misled Congress when he testified earlier this year that he had never intervened in awarding HUD contracts. "I don't touch contracts," the HUD boss told a Senate panel on May 3." ... "Investigators are exploring whether Jackson, despite that testimony, had actually lined up a contract at the HUD-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans [Louisiana], or HANO, for a golfing buddy and social friend from Hilton Head Island, S.C. [South Carolina] The friend, William Hairston, was paid more than $485,000 for working at HANO during an 18-month period, according to figures provided by HUD and a former HANO official. The work was not competitively bid." ... "In an interview, Hairston, a stucco contractor, said that Jackson had indeed helped him land the job at HANO. He said that the New Orleans housing agency, which HUD manages under receivership, was struggling to repair and rehab its housing units in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and needed a construction manager. "The secretary asked me if I would go to New Orleans and help them out," Hairston told National Journal." -By Edward T. Pound -NationalJournal

20070905

Homes - Workers - "US pending home sales plunge, private job gains fade." ... "Pending sales of existing U.S. homes plunged by a record 12.2 percent in July, and private employers hired the fewest workers in more than four years in August, according to reports released on Wednesday that point to a weakening U.S. economy." ... "Planned lay-offs at U.S. companies surged by 85 percent in August due to turmoil in the subprime mortgage market, another report said." ... "The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in July, fell to a reading of 89.9, the lowest since September 2001 when the index stood at 89.8." ... "The fall, the largest month-over-month decline since the series began in 2001, was much bigger than the 2 percent drop in the index economists were expecting for July and helped paint a bleaker picture of the housing market moving forward." (1, 2, 3) -By Lucia Mutikani with contributions by Burton Frierson, Lynn Adler, and Joanne Morrison -Reuters

20070831

Homeowners - Market - Law - California - "Bush's plan for aiding homeowners is less than it appears." ... "[Republican] President Bush on Friday unveiled his plan to address homeowners who face foreclosure in the nation's credit crunch and housing slump." ... "The plan was announced days before Congress returns from its August recess with housing issues high on its agenda. The proposals, however, duplicate efforts already under way by Congress and other federal agencies, would help at most 21 percent of the homeowners facing foreclosures and would do little to help areas in which inflated real estate prices are a problem." ... "Bush called on Democrats to approve a modernization of the Federal Housing Administration, which passed the House of Representatives last year with bipartisan support but was quashed by Senate Republicans." ... "He promised to require greater disclosure from lenders, a move on which federal bank regulators already have provided guidance. He promised to get tough with unscrupulous mortgage brokers, but they're largely regulated on the state level. And during a briefing Friday, a senior administration official acknowledged that the plan would do little to help states with high real estate prices, such as California." -By Kevin G. Hall -McClatchyDC.com

20070828

Home - History - "Home prices fall record 3.2% nationally: Values down in 15 of 20 major cities, Case-Shiller finds." ... "U.S. home prices fell at a faster rate in the second quarter, down 3.2% compared with the same period in 2006, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday." ... "It marked the largest year-over-year decline ever recorded in the 20-year history of the Case-Shiller home price index." ... "A year ago, home prices were rising at a 7.5% pace nationally." ... ""The pullback in the U.S. residential real-estate market is showing no signs of slowing down," said Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC, which computes the price index for S&P." ... "In an interview with MarketWatch, Shiller noted that the figures were for activity ending in June -- well before the more recent blowup in the mortgage markets." ... "Falling prices make it more difficult for homeowners to tap their home equity or refinance their mortgages." ... "The last time prices fell so much, it took more than eight years for home prices to return to their peak level." -By Rex Nutting -MarketWatch

20070827

US - Housing - Market - Global - "US home resales lowest in nearly 5 years." ... "The US housing downturn appeared to worsen last month as sales by Americans of their homes fell to the lowest level in nearly five years amid a crisis in the subprime mortgage market that has triggered a global credit crunch." ... "Economists fear a vicious circle as rising defaults on high-risk subprime mortgages trigger a crisis of confidence in credit markets that will weigh on demand and make it more difficult for distressed homeowners to sell or refinance their property." -By Eoin Callan -FT.com

20070826

Consumer - Housing - History - California - Illinois - Minnesota - Texas - "Drop Foreseen in Median Price of U.S. Homes." ... "The median price of American homes is expected to fall this year for the first time since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950." ... "Economists say the decline, which could be foreshadowed in a widely followed government price index to be released this week, will probably be modest — from 1 percent to 2 percent — but could continue in 2008 and 2009. Rather than being limited to the once-booming Northeast and California, price declines are also occurring in cities like Chicago [Illinois], Minneapolis [Minnesota] and Houston [Texas], where the increases of the last decade were modest by comparison." ... "The reversal is particularly striking because many government officials and housing-industry executives had said that a nationwide decline would never happen, even though prices had fallen in some coastal areas as recently as the early 1990s." ... "While the housing slump has already rattled financial markets, it has so far had only a modest effect on consumer spending and economic growth. But forecasters now believe that its impact will lead to a slowdown over the next year or two." ... "Unless the real estate downturn is much worse than economists are expecting, the declines will not come close to erasing the increases of the last decade." (1, 2) -By David Leonhardt and Vikas Bajaj -NYTimes

20070817

Peru - Earthquake - Peoples - Homes - Medical - Water - "Toll nears 500 in Peru quake: More than 16,000 homes are lost in the 8.0 temblor. The mayor of coastal Pisco says, 'Our city is destroyed.'" ... "The death toll in a massive earthquake that battered Peru's Pacific coast soared toward 500 on Thursday as rescue workers struggled to reach scenes of devastation and stunned victims appealed for medical aid, water and coffins." ... "Teams dug beneath the rubble in the cities of Pisco and Ica and the nearby town of Chincha, all situated near the epicenter of the magnitude 8.0 quake south of the capital, Lima. The damage and casualties appeared to be concentrated in those three communities, which also lost power and telephone service." ... ""Our city is destroyed," Mayor Juan Mendoza of Pisco, a port city of about 130,000 people, said, sobbing in an interview with Peruvian news media. "The dead are scattered by the dozens on the streets."" ... "Mendoza estimated that 70% of the structures in his city had been leveled." (1, 2) -By Adriana León and Patrick J. McDonnell -LAtimes

20070813

Hurricane Katrina - Real Estate - Disaster - Politics - Alabama - Mississippi - Louisiana - Government -Construction - Legislation - "Katrina aid goes toward luxury condos." ... "With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama's football stadium [in Tuscaloosa, Alabama]." ... "About 10 condominium projects are going up in and around Tuscaloosa [Alabama], and builders are asking up to $1 million for units with granite countertops, king-size bathtubs and 'Bama decor, including crimson couches and Bear Bryant wall art." ... "And they intend to take full advantage of the generous tax benefits available to investors under the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, or GO Zone, according to Associated Press interviews with buyers and real estate officials." ... "The GO Zone contains a variety of tax breaks designed to stimulate construction in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama." ... "The GO Zone was drawn to include the Tuscaloosa area even though it is about 200 miles from the coast and got only heavy rain and scattered wind damage from Katrina." ... "Locals say Tuscaloosa was included in the GO Zone through the efforts of Republican [Alabama Senator] Sen. Richard Shelby, who is from Tuscaloosa, graduated from Alabama and sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee. But Shelby aides said Tuscaloosa made the cut because it was classified as a disaster area by the government after Katrina, not because of the senator's influence." -By Jay Reeves -AP via -USATODAY

20070810

Worldwide - United States - EU- France - Netherlands - Japan - Germany - Home- "Mortgage Losses Echo in Europe and on Wall Street." ... "Turmoil in the home loan market ricocheted from the United States to Europe and back again yesterday as stocks on Wall Street suffered their biggest one-day decline since February, reflecting growing concerns about tightening credit worldwide." ... "Big losses on packages of American home loan securities sold to investors turned up unexpectedly in French and Dutch [Netherlands] banks yesterday, adding to worries at hedge funds and financial institutions around the globe. With trillions of dollars of securities outstanding, those announcements raised expectations that more problems may soon emerge in other unlikely places as well." ... "The spreading fears forced the European Central Bank and, later, the Federal Reserve to inject billions of dollars into the financial system to help prevent borrowing and lending in credit markets from freezing up." ... "Japan’s central bank followed suit, injecting more than $8 billion into money markets as stocks there plummeted Friday morning." ... "Citing “tensions in the euro money market,” the European Central Bank in Frankfurt [Germany] lent more than $130 billion overnight at a rate of 4 percent to tamp down a surge in the rates banks charge each other for very short-term loans. The Federal Reserve injected $24 billion into the United States banking system to keep its benchmark overnight lending rate at 5.25 percent, after it opened this morning at 5.5 percent." (1, 2) -By Vikas Bajaj and Mark Landler with contributions by Julia Werdigier, James Kanter, and Julie Creswell -NYTimes

20070806

Homeowners- Financial - Law - Politics - Ill - "Mortgage Maze May Increase Foreclosures." ... "In 2003, Dianne Brimmage refinanced the mortgage on her home in Alton, Ill. [Illinois], to consolidate her car and medical bills. Now, struggling with a much higher interest rate and in foreclosure, she wants to modify the terms of the loan." ... "Lenders have often agreed to such steps in the past because it was in everyone’s interest to avoid foreclosure costs and possibly greater losses. But that was back when local banks held the loans and the bankers knew the homeowners, as well as the value of the properties." ... "Ms. Brimmage got her loan through a mortgage broker, just the first link in a financial merry-go-round. The mortgage itself was pooled with others and sold to investors — insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds. A different company processes her loan payments. Yet another company represents the investors as the trustee." ... "She has gotten nowhere with any of the parties, despite her lawyer’s belief that fraud was involved in the mortgage." ... "Almost 14 percent of subprime borrowers were delinquent in the first quarter of 2007." ... "And the very innovation that made mortgages so easily available — an assembly line process known on Wall Street as securitization — is creating an obstacle for troubled borrowers. As they try to restructure their loans, they are often thwarted, lawyers say, by strict protections put in place for investors who bought the mortgage pools." ... "Some homeowners have problems simply identifying who holds their mortgages. Others find the companies that handle their loan payments, known as servicers, are unresponsive, partly because modifying loans cuts into profits." ... "Even if circumstances suggest fraud when a loan was made, lawyers say, the various parties protect each other by refusing to produce documents." ... "Compounding the problem is a law stating that when a loan is passed to another party, that entity cannot be held liable for problems." ... "“I don’t think there is anything in the entire securitization process that is at all focused on the borrower’s interest,” said Kirsten Keefe, executive director of Americans for Fairness in Lending. “Everything they do is, ‘How are we going to make a profit, and how are we going to secure ourselves against risk?’ ”" ... "At the end of last year, $6.5 trillion of securitized mortgage debt was outstanding." ... "More than 60 percent of home mortgages made in the United States in 2006 went into securitization trusts. Some $450 billion worth of subprime mortgages, those made to borrowers with weak credit, went into securitizations last year." (1, 2) -By Gretchen Morgenson -NYTimes

20070803

Home- Employees - New York - California - "American Home to Declare Bankruptcy, Employees Told by Managers." ... "[New York-based] American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., a U.S. lender that halted operations yesterday, intends to file for bankruptcy, according to two employees told of the decision by managers in meetings." ... "American Home would become the second-biggest U.S. mortgage lender to seek bankruptcy protection this year and the biggest that caters to people with good credit. The company this week stopped making loans and fired 90 percent of its 7,000 employees after a surge in borrower defaults prompted investment banks to quit extending credit. American Home issued almost $60 billion of loans last year from 550 offices in 47 states." ... "At least 11 other mortgage companies have declared bankruptcy in the past year, most of them because of losses on so-called subprime loans made to people with blemished or limited credit histories. The biggest, Irvine, California-based New Century Financial Corp., sold subprime mortgages." -By Bob Ivry and Bradley Keoun -Bloomberg
India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - Nepal - Weather - Floods - History - UN - People - Children - Homes - "Millions flee 'worst ever' floods." ... "Monsoon rains in South Asia have driven millions from their homes and caused what the United Nations says is the worst flooding in living memory." ... "More than 1,000 people have been killed or injured by rising waters, but aid agencies say the figure is expected to rise sharply." ... "U.N. children's body UNICEF said it had lost track of how many people had been affected by the floods across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal." ... "So far about 20 million people are known to have fled their homes or trapped in villages at risk from landslides, snakebites and disease." ... ""Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, their possessions, livestock and fields and will have to begin their lives from scratch when flood waters recede," UNICEF said." -CNN
Canada - Russia - Denmark - Real Estate - Ocean - Oil- UN - Law - "Ottawa assails Moscow's Arctic ambition: 'You can't go around the world these days dropping a flag somewhere,' MacKay says. 'This isn't the 14th or 15th century'." ... "[Canada's] Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed to defend his country's sovereignty over its northernmost territories yesterday after Moscow [Russia's capital] sent two submarines deep under the North Pole ice to plant a flag on the ocean floor." ... "The two deep-diving Mir mini-submarines were sent on their sub-Arctic expedition to bolster Russian claims to much of the area's oil and mineral wealth." ... "They dropped a titanium capsule containing the nation's flag on the bottom, symbolically claiming almost half of the planet's northern polar region for Moscow." ... "The Russians, meanwhile, are not the only ones eyeing the Arctic seabed." ... "The Danish government, which also has extensive Arctic claims because of its sovereignty over Greenland, scoffed at Russia's planting of the titanium flag capsule on the seabed." ... "Like Canada, Denmark is preparing its claim to the region around the pole under the UN Law of the Sea Convention." -By Gloria Galloway and Alan Freeman -GlobeAndMail

20070801

Lisa Murkowski - Ted Stevens - Don Young - Alaska - Real Estate - Money - Politics - "Ethics Questions Plague Other Alaska Senator." ... "Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, has been drawn into a swirl of ethics accusations that have already brought F.B.I. scrutiny to the two other members of the state’s Congressional delegation and resulted in a raid this week on the home of [Alaska Republican] Senator Ted Stevens." ... "There is no evidence that Ms. Murkowski faces a criminal investigation, unlike Mr. Stevens and the state’s sole member of the House, Representative Don Young, both Republicans." ... "But she has been forced to defend herself publicly against conflict-of-interest accusations and announced last week that she would sell back 1.27 acres of riverfront land that she had bought for $179,500 from a local real estate developer who is tied to the investigation of Mr. Stevens." ... "Local real estate agents in Alaska said the property, on the banks of the Kenai River, had a value of up to $350,000." -By Philip Shenon and David M. Herszenhorn -NYTimes

20070731

Ted Stevens - Alaska - House - Money - Politics - Law - "Warrant served at Stevens' Girdwood home: FBI, IRS examine residence; remodeling job under scrutiny." ... "Federal law enforcement agents raided [Alaska Republican Senator] U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' Alaska home in Girdwood on Monday, hauling off undisclosed items from inside and taking extensive pictures and video." ... "Neighbors said agents showed up between 11 a.m. and noon and that a commercial locksmith was called to open the front door. Some two dozen agents were still there at 9:30 p.m." ... "The agents were obviously cataloging the house and its fixtures, from light switches and electrical outlets to a big stainless steel barbecue grill on a second-floor deck that neighbors said was hoisted there with a crane. At one point, agents climbed on the pitched metal roof to take pictures of heat tape in the gutters." ... "A federal law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of not being identified by name, said the FBI is trying to determine whether Stevens has received a hidden benefit stemming from his position in Congress." ... "If Stevens received renovation work for which he did not pay, it could be deemed unreported income by the IRS. Receipt of unreported renovation work also could amount to an illegal gratuity. Or if it were performed in return for political favors, it could be considered a bribe." -By Richard Mauer and Erika Bolstad with contributions by Greg Gordon -McClatchyDC.com -ADN.com

20070730

Ted Stevens - Alaska - Oil - Money - VECO - House - Construction - Politics - Enforcement - "FBI, IRS searching Stevens' Girdwood house." ... "Federal law enforcement agents are currently searching the Girdwood home of Alaska [Republican Senator] U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens." ... "Federal investigators and grand juries looking into public corruption in Alaska have been asking questions about a 2000 remodeling project that more than doubled the size of the Girdwood [Alaska] house -- particularly the involvement of the oil field services firm Veco." ... "One of the contractors who worked on the job said he was hired by Veco CEO Bill Allen for the job, and while his bills were paid by Stevens and his wife, Catherine, invoices were reviewed first by Veco." ... "Allen and a Veco vice president pleaded guilty in May to bribery, extortion and other charges connected with paying off state legislators." -By Richard Mauer and Erika Bolstad -ADN.com

20070720

Lisa Murkowski - Money - Politics - Alaska- Real Estate - "Sen. Murkowski defends price paid for Kenai land: ETHICS: Watchdog groups say purchase constitutes an illegal gift to a politician." ... "[Alaska Republican Senator] U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday she believes she followed the rules when she bought Kenai River property from a friend and political supporter, but national watchdog groups said disclosure of the price raises new questions." ... "A former Pennsylvania prosecutor now chairing the anti-corruption National Legal and Policy Center said Murkowski's purchase from real estate developer Bob Penney for the borough's assessed value of the property constitutes an illegal gift to the senator. Ken Boehm said he is considering filing a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics and the U.S. Justice Department." ... ""You have two grown-ups who know what this piece of property is worth, and they picked a sales price that's not what it's worth," Boehm said." ... "Boehm said Senate ethics rules ban giving senators anything of value, and in this case there appears to be a gift of equity in the property." -By Brandon Loomis and Erika Bolstad -ADN.com
Housing - Construction - Consumer - Politics - "US mortgage crisis could cost lenders $100bn, says Fed chief." ... "· Once top-rated bonds slashed to junk status · Default rates among low earners rising rapidly." ... "Losses from the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States could reach $100bn (£50bn), the US Federal Reserve warned yesterday." ... "Giving evidence to the Senate, the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke stressed that there would be a hefty cost of clearing up the bad debts resulting from the downturn in the US property market." ... ""The credit losses associated with subprime have come to light and they are fairly significant. Some estimates are in the order of between $50bn and $100bn of losses associated with sub-prime credit products," Mr Bernanke told a Senate banking committee hearing." ... "Figures out earlier this week showed no let-up in the decline in the US housing market, where rising interest rates have pricked the real estate bubble of two years ago. Construction activity has declined as builders seek to rid themselves of unsold properties while default rates among low-income borrowers have been rising rapidly." ... "In a second day of testimony to Congress on the health of the economy, the Fed chairman said the central bank would seek to prevent a recurrence of the questionable lending practices used by financial companies to persuade those on low incomes to take out home loans." -Guardian.co.uk

20070719

Lisa Murkowski - Ted Stevens - Money - Politics - Alaska - Salt Lake City - Utah - "Senator's land deal scrutinized." ... "[Alaska Republican Senator] U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is drawing criticism this week over Kenai River property she bought late last year from real estate developer and political supporter Bob Penney." ... "The national political Web log tpmmuckraker.com raised the issue Monday when it quoted government watchdogs questioning whether the senator should do business with Penney, who has also been a business partner with [Alaska Republican Senator] Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska." ... "In 1998, Stevens invested $15,000 with Penney and other partners to develop a subdivision outside Salt Lake City [Utah]. Stevens later sold his interest in the property for $150,000, according to press accounts at the time." -By Brandon Loomis -ADN.com
Government - Environmental - Health - Science - Politics - Children - Air - Safety - Hurricane Katrina - Emergency - Manufactured - Homes - Construction - Louisiana - California - Lawmakers - "FEMA Suppressed Health Warnings for Workers, Katrina Victims: Agency Rejected Environmental Testing on Formaldehyde Gas Levels." ... "The Federal Emergency Management Agency [run by the Republican President Bush administration] has suppressed warnings from its own Gulf coast field workers since the middle of 2006 about suspected health problems that may be linked to elevated levels of formaldehyde gas released in FEMA-provided trailers, lawmakers said today." ... "Committee Chairman [California Democratic Representative] Henry L. Waxman (D-Calif.) called FEMA's bureaucratic neglect of storm victims "sickening."" ... "Nearly 5,000 pages of documents turned over to the committee "expose an official policy of premeditated ignorance," Waxman charged. "Senior officials in Washington didn't want to know what they already knew, because they didn't want the legal and moral responsibility to do what they knew had to be done."" ... "In May, FEMA said its own tests of 96 new trailers near Baton Rouge [Louisiana] last September and October found formaldehyde at 1.2 parts per million, but levels dropped to 0.3 parts per million after four days of ventilation. FEMA said that is the accepted threshold used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for its manufactured homes." ... "But Mary C. DeVany, an occupational health and safety engineer advising the Sierra Club, testified that that exposure limit of 0.3 parts per million is 400 times greater than the normal limit for year-round exposure set by the CDC-affiliated Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Register. It is also three times the daily exposure limit recommended by the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health, she said." ... ""This misapplication and skewing of scientific results is at best unethical and grossly misrepresents and attempt to minimize the adverse health effects being experienced by thousands of travel trailer residents," DeVany said." ... "Formaldehyde is a common wood preservative used in construction materials such as particle board, plywood, glue, curtains, molded plastic and countertops." ... "The chemical can cause vision and respiratory problems. It has been linked to higher rates of asthma, bronchitis and allergies in children with long-term exposure." (1, 2, 3) -By Spencer S. Hsu -WashingtonPost

20070718

US - EU - Housing - Market - "Dollar at all-time low agains euro." ... "The US dollar fell on Wednesday as expectations of moderating US inflation, a sluggish housing market and moderate growth prospects revived the possibility of interest rate cuts later in the year." ... "By midday in New York the euro was up 0.2 per cent to $1.3810. The yen gained 0.3 per cent to Y121.84, while sterling added 0.3 per cent to $2.0520." ... "Earlier, the dollar had wilted as financial markets were rocked again by investor worries about the fallout from problems in the subprime mortgage sector. Equity markets slumped, while the flight to safety lifted government bonds after Bear Stearns, the US investment bank, declared that its two subprime-focused hedge funds were “virtually worthless”." ... "The dollar hit a new low of $1.3833 against the euro, and a new 26-year trough against the pound at $2.0548." -By Neil Dennis-FT.com
Ted Stevens - Ben Stevens - Alaska - Oil - Legislators - Home - Politics - VECO - "Stevens: My money, not Veco's: REMODEL: Senator is emphatic that filing extensions are unrelated." ... "The money spent on renovations that doubled the size of [Alaska Republican Senator] U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' Girdwood [Alaska] home and led to a federal grand jury investigation came out of his own pocket, the Alaska Republican told reporters Tuesday." ... "A federal grand jury is investigating the renovations in 2000, including work that might have been performed by oil services company Veco and contractors who were hired or supervised by the company. The company's former executive, Bill Allen, has pleaded guilty to bribing state legislators." ... "Interest in Stevens' finances has grown since the FBI raided the office of his son, former Alaska Senate President [Republican] Ben Stevens, as part of a wider corruption and bribery probe. The younger Stevens has not been charged with a crime and has denied any wrongdoing." -By Erika Bolstad -ADN.com
Lisa Murkowski - Alaska - Riverfront - Real Estate - Law - Politics - "Murkowski land deal questioned." ... "Riverfront property on the [Alaska] state's most popular waterway is a hot commodity, and it seems as if [Alaska Republican Senator] U.S Sen. Lisa Murkowski has gotten a sweetheart land deal there." ... "Murkowski bought a lot on the Kenai River from friend and influential land developer Bob Penney. Realtors in the area said she paid far below market value for the land." ... "Others said the deal appears to violate Senate ethics laws." ... "Senate ethics rules prohibit senators from receiving gifts from personal friends if the value is over $250. " ... "[National Legal and Policy Center spokesman Ken] Boehm said it appears Penney just gifted Murkowski about $100,000." -By Jason Moore -KTUU.com

20070703

Ken Calvert - Real Estate - Money - Politics - History - California - "Grand jury finds Jurupa agency violated laws." ... "The Jurupa Community Services District violated state law when it sold 4 acres of public land to [California Republican Representative] Rep. Ken Calvert and his investment partners without first offering it to other public agencies -- including the local park district that wanted it, the Riverside County [California] grand jury concluded in a report released Tuesday." ... "The grand jury recommends that the water and sewer agency turn over the $1.2 million it pocketed from the sale, minus costs, to the Jurupa Area Recreation and Park District." ... "The 4 acres were deeded to the Jurupa Community Services District in 1976 in lieu of annexation fees. Historical documents and news reports at the time indicate the land was to be used for recreation purposes." ... "The park district had expressed an interest in buying the land for park use in 2001." ... "Instead, the community services district quietly sold the land to Calvert, R-Corona, and his partners in 2005 without the required notification to other public agencies and without publicly marketing the land." -By Sandra Stokley -PE.com

20070624

Ohio - Race - Politics - Law - Enforcement - 2004 Election - Civil Rights - Homes - "Ex-Justice official accused of aiding scheme to scratch minority voters." ... "Four days before the 2004 election, the Justice Department’s civil rights chief [under Republican President George Bush] sent an unusual letter to a federal judge in Ohio who was weighing whether to let Republicans challenge the credentials of 23,000 mostly African-American voters." ... "The case was triggered by allegations that Republicans had sent a mass mailing to mostly Democratic-leaning minorities and used undeliverable letters to compile a list of voters potentially vulnerable to eligibility challenges." ... "In his letter to U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott of Cincinnati [Ohio], Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta argued that it would "undermine" the enforcement of state and federal election laws if citizens could not challenge voters’ credentials." ... "Former Justice Department civil rights officials and election watchdog groups charge that his letter sided with Republicans engaging in an illegal, racially motivated tactic known as "vote-caging" in a state that would be pivotal in delivering President Bush a second term in the White House" ... "The tactic ["vote caging"] entails sending mail stamped "do not forward" to voters’ homes and requiring a return receipt. Voters who do not sign for the letters or postcards can then be challenged at the polls or in pre-election hearings on grounds such as whether they meet legal residency or age requirements." ... "J. Gerald Hebert, a head of the Voting Rights Section in the early 1990s and now executive director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, says the tactic is unfair for multiple reasons: it is often racially motivated; voters may be out of town or refuse to sign return receipts on letters from the GOP, and addresses may be inaccurate." -By Greg Gordon -McClatchyDC.com

20070529

Ted Stevens - Ben Stevens - Alaska - VECO - House - Construction - Money - Politics - "Feds eye Stevens' home remodeling project: GIRDWOOD [Alaska]: Veco approved some invoices for 2000 upgrade at senator's house, says builder." ... "The FBI and a federal grand jury have been investigating an extensive remodeling project at U.S. Sen. [Alaska Republican Senator] Ted Stevens' home in Girdwood that involved the top executive of Veco Corp. in the hiring of at least one of the key contractors." ... "Three contractors who worked on the project said in recent interviews with the Daily News that the FBI asked them to turn over their records from the job. One said he was called to testify about the project before a federal grand jury in Anchorage [Alaska] in December." ... "The remodeling work, which more than doubled the size of the house, occurred in the summer and fall of 2000." ... "The FBI and the U.S. Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, which are in the midst of a broad investigation of corruption in Alaska, would not comment." ... "The wide-ranging federal inquiry surfaced in August [2006] when agents raided six legislative offices, including those of then-Senate President [former Alaska state Republican Senator] Ben Stevens, one of Ted Stevens' sons." ... "Ben Stevens has not been charged. But the charges pleaded to by Allen and Smith alleged Ben Stevens improperly accepted $242,000 from Veco for "giving advice, lobbying colleagues, and taking official acts in matters before the legislature."" -By Richard Mauer -ADN.com
Home - History - "U.S. Home Prices Drop for the First Time in 16 Years (Update2)." ... "Home prices in the U.S. dropped last quarter for the first time in almost 16 years, as 13 out of 20 cities reported declines in March." ... "The value of a house dropped 1.4 percent in the first three months of the year from the same period in 2006, according to a report today by S&P/Case-Shiller. Prices last fell during the third quarter of 1991." ... "The drop in prices in the 12 months ended March pales in comparison to the 157 percent gain over the previous 15 years." ... "Sellers are reducing prices to lure buyers as the supply of properties on the real-estate market grows. Rising foreclosures as subprime borrowers default on loans may add to the glut of unsold homes, delaying a recovery from the housing slump, economists said." ... "A recovery in housing is being held back by a wave of subprime mortgage defaults, which is throwing homes back onto the market and prompting banks to tighten lending standards for borrowers with poor or limited credit histories." -By Shobhana Chandra -Bloomberg
Money - "Home Prices Fall for First Time Since '91." ... "U.S. home prices dropped 1.4% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, the first year-over-year decline in national home prices since 1991, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday." ... "The Case-Shiller indexes cover three geographical areas. The national index is released quarterly, while the 10-city and 20-city indexes are released each month." ... "The national decline "is reaffirmation of the pullback in the U.S. residential real estate market," said Robert Shiller, chief economist for MacroMarkets LLC, and co-inventor of the index." ... "The Case-Shiller index is considered a superior gauge of home prices compared to the median sales-price data released by the Commerce Department or National Association of Realtors, because it tracks multiple sales on the same property and is therefore not influenced by a different mix of homes sold in a period." -By Rex Nutting -DJ via -SmartMoney.com

20070519

US - Iraq - Military - Construction - Money- Politics - "U.S. Embassy in Iraq to be biggest ever." ... "The new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad will be the world's largest and most expensive foreign mission, though it may not be large enough or secure enough to cope with the chaos in Iraq." ... "The [Republican President] Bush administration designed the 104-acre compound — set to open in September in what today is a war zone — to be an ultra-secure enclave. Yet it also hoped that downtown Baghdad would cease being a battleground when diplomats moved in." ... "The $592 million embassy occupies a chunk of prime real estate two-thirds the size of Washington's National Mall, with desk space for about 1,000 people behind high, blast-resistant walls." ... "The compound will have secure apartments for about 615 people." (1, 2) -By Anne Gearan -AP via -MLive.com

20070426

Renzi - Arizona - Lawmaker - Government - Land - Politics - "Renzi didn’t reveal $200K." ... "[Arizona Republican Representative] Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) failed to disclose a $200,000 payment he received from a business partner in 2005 in apparent violation of House ethics rules. Prosecutors could use the omission as evidence that Renzi intended to conceal a transaction he knew to be controversial or even improper." ... "The $200,000 was a payment from James Sandlin to settle a debt related to a previous business transaction involving land in northeast Arizona, one of the lawmaker’s attorneys, Grant Woods, told a newspaper last week." ... "This explanation might have been expected to dispel suspicion that Sandlin gave Renzi an illegal gift in exchange for action Renzi took to help Sandlin sell a $4 million parcel of land." ... "But Renzi’s claim that Sandlin’s $200,000 payment was a legitimate business transaction is weakened by the fact that he failed to disclose it in his personal financial disclosure report for 2005 filed with the House clerk." ... "The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the FBI is investigating the Sandlin payment to determine whether Renzi profited from a land deal he may have advanced through his position on the House Natural Resources Committee." -By Alexander Bolton with contributions by Jackie Kucinich -TheHill.com

20070425

Renzi - Gonzales - Miers - Kyle Sampson - Arizona- 2006 Election - US Attorneys - Political - Government - Land - Business - Enforcement - "Delays in Renzi Case Raise More Gonzales Questions." ... "As midterm [2006] elections approached last November, federal investigators in Arizona faced unexpected obstacles in getting needed Justice Department approvals to advance a corruption investigation of [Arizona Representative] Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, people close to the case said." ... "The delays, which postponed key approvals in the case until after the election, raise new questions about whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or other officials may have weighed political issues in some investigations. The Arizona U.S. attorney then overseeing the case, Paul Charlton, was told he was being fired in December, one of eight federal prosecutors dismissed in the past year. The dismissals have triggered a wave of criticism and calls from Congress for Mr. Gonzales to resign." ... "Investigators pursuing the Renzi case had been seeking clearance from senior Justice Department officials on search warrants, subpoenas and other legal tools for a year before the [2006] election, people close to the case said." ... "Mr. Renzi is the subject of a criminal inquiry into land deals, among other things. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that federal agents are focusing on a $200,000 cash payment Mr. Renzi received from a former business partner in 2005 following a land sale that was to be part of a proposed government land-exchange bill." ... "In September, [Republican] President Bush hosted a fund-raiser in Scottsdale [Arizona] on his behalf. About the same time Mr. Charlton was added to a list of prosecutors "we should now consider pushing out," wrote Mr. Gonzales's then-chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, in a Sept. 13, 2006, email to then-White House counsel Harriet Miers." -By John R. Wilke and Evan Perez -WSJ.com

20070424

Renzi - Land - Money - Politics - Enforcement - Arizona - 2006 Election - US Attorneys - "Lawmaker leaves panels after FBI raid." ... "An Arizona [Republican] congressman temporarily stepped down from two more House committees on Tuesday and got caught up in the probe of the firings of U.S. attorneys, less than a week after the FBI raided his wife's insurance business." ... "[Arizona Republican Representative] Rep. Rick Renzi said in a statement Tuesday that he was taking a leave of absence from the House Financial Services and Natural Resources committees. He stepped down from the House Intelligence Committee last week." ... "Even as he insisted that he had been "the subject of leaked stories, conjecture and false attacks" about a 2005 land exchange, Renzi became entangled in the U.S. attorneys probe when his chief of staff acknowledged calling Arizona's prosecutor's office to discuss the matter." ... "The prosecutor, Paul Charlton, was one of the eight prosecutors fired by the Justice Department over the winter." ... "Brian Murray, Renzi's top aide, issued a statement late Tuesday acknowledging that shortly after the local media reported that the congressmen was being investigated, he called Charlton spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle." ... ""I called Mr. Hornbuckle seeking information about press accounts which appeared just weeks before [the 2006] Election Day alleging a pending indictment," Murray said in a statement." ... "Murray's disclosure came a few hours after Charlton related the call to House investigators probing whether the firings amounted to a political purge by the Bush administration." -By Jennifer Talhelm with contributions by Laurie Kellman -AP via -SeattlePI

20070401

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Military

Social Security

"Bob Perry Needs a Hug." ... "Like many election campaigns last fall the [2006 Election] race in Colorado's Seventh Congressional District between Democrat Ed Perlmutter and Republican Rick O'Donnell was a bruising affair. Personal attacks and negative advertising were the order of the day. According to Perlmutter, O'Donnell was a right-winger with dangerous ideas who wanted to privatize Social Security, while pro-O'Donnell ads attacked Perlmutter for being soft on immigration. One such thirty-second spot was especially pointed, claiming that, as state senator, "Ed Perlmutter sponsored legislation giving taxpayer money to illegal immigrants."" ... "On its face, this ad seemed typical, one of thousands run last fall in an unusually hostile political season. Closer inspection, however, revealed that the ad was, on just about every level one can imagine, not what it seemed. For one thing, it wasn't true. The legislation that Perlmutter sponsored did concern taxpayer-funded benefits, but they were for legal immigrants, not illegal ones. The casual viewer might also have assumed that the advertisement had been produced by or in cooperation with O'Donnell's campaign. But his staff had nothing to do with its content, nor was it produced or financed within a thousand miles of Colorado. The ad's genesis, in fact, was a sort of miracle of remote control. Reporters who dug into the story found that funding for the ad had come from a 527 group called Americans for Honesty on Issues (AFHOI). The past several election cycles have seen a large number of these so-called 527's, which are named after the section of the federal tax code that exempts certain political groups from paying taxes." ... "Normal campaign finance limits in raising and spending money do not apply to 527's, a loophole through which millions of dollars have flowed. Due in part to this lack of oversight, 527's have developed a reputation for being shadowy, and AFHOI was no exception. In 2006 the group produced adversarial television ads in nine congressional races across seven states, but when the press started probing, it seemed to vanish into thin air. Its address was a post office box in a UPS store in Alexandria, Virginia; its "contact" was a conservative political consultant in Houston [Texas] named Sue Walden who didn't return calls.Reporters studying the story were unable to determine exactly who had come up with the idea for the ads, who had produced them, or how the Perlmutter-O'Donnell race had been targeted in the first place." ... "The one thing they did find out was the identity of the man who had pumped $3 million into AFHOI and was its sole benefactor: a wealthy Houston homebuilder named Bob Perry. Perry is the nation's largest individual political donor. In 2004 and 2006 he gave a total of $29 million to state and federal races. Last year, more than $9 million of that was channeled through three 527's that aggressively targeted races for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In spite of such a massive political presence, Perry is as mysterious as some of the groups he funds. He never talks to the press, rarely appears in public, and remains an inscrutable figure even to people to whom he has given hundreds of thousands of dollars. He might have maintained this relatively low profile indefinitely, except that in [the Election of] 2004 he was the largest funder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth [that attacked the military service of 2004 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry], the controversial 527 that many people credit with derailing John Kerry's presidential campaign. Almost overnight, Perry became a poster boy for the notion that a cabal of wealthy donors, shady consultants, and unaccountable 527's was taking over American politics." ... "Perry first appeared as a real force in Texas politics in 2002, when he dropped $3.8 million into [2002 Election] campaigns, most of it aimed at taking over the state legislature and ultimately recarving Texas into Republican-friendly congressional districts—a gambit coordinated by then-House majority leader [and Texas Republican Representative] Tom DeLay and also heavily funded by San Antonio [Texas] doctor James Leininger and other wealthy Republican donors. He later became the largest single contributor to [Republican] Governor Rick Perry's reelection campaign." ... "[Bob] Perry ultimately contributed $4.5 million to the effort [of the Swift Boat attacks on military veteran John Kerry]." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By S. C. Gwynne

-TexasMonthly.com

20070330

Rudolph W Giuliani - Bernard B Kerik - New York - Police - Politics - Apartment - Money - "Testimony by Giuliani Indicates He Was Briefed on Kerik in ’00." ... "[Republican] Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik’s relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik’s appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records." ... "Mr. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Mr. Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony." ... "Mr. Giuliani’s testimony amounts to a significantly new version of what information was probably before him in the summer of 2000 as he was debating Mr. Kerik’s appointment as the city’s top law enforcement officer. Mr. Giuliani had previously said that he had never been told of Mr. Kerik’s entanglement with the company before promoting him to the police job or later supporting his failed bid to be the nation’s homeland security secretary." ... "Mr. Kerik pleaded guilty last summer to improperly allowing the company, Interstate Industrial Corporation, or its subsidiaries, to do $165,000 worth of free renovations on his Bronx apartment in late 1999 and 2000. The company has denied paying for the work, and has disputed any association with organized crime. But the two brothers who run it have been indicted in the Bronx on charges they lied under oath about their dealings with Mr. Kerik." ... "Mr. Giuliani was a key backer of Mr. Kerik when [Republican] President Bush nominated him to be homeland security secretary in December 2004. Mr. Kerik withdrew his name a week later, citing possible tax and immigration problems involving his family’s nanny." (1, 2) -By William K. Rashbaum -NYTimes

20070326

Homeless - People - Food - Poverty - Religious - Politics - FL - TX - NV - NC - "Cities set limits on serving food to homeless people." ... "Cities are cracking down on charities that feed the homeless, adopting rules that restrict food giveaways to certain locations, require charities to get permits or limit the number of free meals they can provide." ... "Orlando [FL], Dallas [TX], Las Vegas [NV] and Wilmington, N.C., began enforcing such laws last year. Some are being challenged." ... "Last November, a federal judge blocked the Las Vegas law banning food giveaways to the poor in city parks. In Dallas, two ministries are suing, arguing that the law violates religious freedom." -By Emily Bazar -USATODAY
Homeless - People - Food - Poverty - Religious - Politics - Texas- "The 'Lord's table' illegal in Dallas." ... "[Don] Hart, who owns five Good Feet arch-support stores in Texas, is founder and pastor of BIGHEART Ministries. He and his volunteers host a combination church service-food giveaway every Saturday morning at the corner of Ervay and Corsicana Streets." ... "They're breaking the law." ... ""I'm not stopping. If they were to take me to jail, there will be people who will come take my place," Hart says. "We're out here having these people pray for salvation, for healing, for jobs. And we give them a wonderful meal."" ... "Hart's group and Rip Parker's Ministry are suing the city in federal court over an ordinance that limits how charities and individuals feed the homeless." ... "The law restricts food giveaways to specific locations. The city has designated about nine spots, says Karen Rayzer, director of environmental and health services. Hart's intersection is not on the list." ... "Will Edwards, director of Rip Parker's Ministry, says he has gotten warnings. The ministry feeds homeless people every day, mostly in places other than the designated locations." ... "Edwards and Hart say the law infringes on their religious freedom. "We're a Christian-based organization. We follow our direction from Christ and the Bible," Edwards says. "It specifically tells us to go out amongst the poor, the wretched, the sick, the homeless and minister to them."" ... "Jason Norwood, a lawyer for the ministries in the lawsuit, says the law violates other constitutional principles such as freedom of association and equal protection. "To what extent can a government prohibit private acts of charity, especially those that are religiously motivated, between one citizen and another?" he asks." -By Emily Bazar -USATODAY

20070215

Market - "Housing sales drop in 40 states." ... "The slump in housing deepened in the final three months of last year with sales falling in 40 states and median home prices dropping in nearly half the metropolitan areas surveyed." ... "Formerly red-hot areas were among the hardest hit as the five-year housing boom cooled considerably in 2006." ... "While some economists said they believed the worst may be over for housing, others predicted more price declines to come until near-record levels of unsold homes are reduced." -By Martin Crutsinger with contributions by Natasha Metzler -AP via -SeattlePI

20061113

Richard Shelby

Corporate

Crime

Government

Law

Politics

Digital

Technology

Online

Consumer

California

Alabama

"Inside America's Richest Insurance Racket: Title insurance firms rake in $18 billion a year for a product that is outdated, largely unneeded--and protected by law." ... "Parker Kennedy's roots run deep in the California company his family founded 112 years ago. Through four generations the clan (unrelated to the Massachusetts political dynasty) has run what today is First American [Corporation], the largest title-insurance company in the nation. It collects $5.8 billion a year selling this age-old mainstay of homeownership." ... "All that cash--for an outdated product that should have been all but wiped out by digital technology." ... "Title companies appeared a century ago, helping to protect home buyers from being swindled by crooks who sold properties they didn't own. A title insurance policy protects the buyer in case the deed turns out to be defective but the seller cannot be collared to refund the purchase price. It is far less necessary in these days of computerized records, online searches and rare instances of title fraud or hidden liens." ... "Yet First American and its two main rivals--number two Fidelity National (no relation to Fidelity mutual funds) and third-ranked LandAmerica--are fat and thriving in an $18-billion-a-year business that has quadrupled in ten years." ... "First American has doubled its prices in a decade, to an average charge of $1,472 per home for a title search and insurance. Meanwhile, thanks to computerized record-keeping, the cost of searching for a home's ownership records online has fallen to as low as $25. Technology also has helped make mistakes rarer; now only $74 of each policy goes to pay claims--that is, make home buyers with defective deeds whole. That leaves a $1,373 spread for overhead and for profit." ... "Fancy this: racetracks that keep 93% of your money and return only 5% in winning tickets. They wouldn't last long, not unless they could somehow rig the rules to both forbid price competition and make the purchase of race bets mandatory. That's more or less what the title insurance industry has done to American homeowners." ... "Kennedy attributes his profits to the long housing boom and the efforts his company has made to deploy technology and move jobs offshore. "Nobody's cutting a fat hog," he says." ... "But the title industry's halcyon days owe much to antiquated state laws that thwart new competition, allow prices to soar despite declining costs and force almost every home buyer to pay for insurance that most of them will never need. In all but a handful of states, laws bar insurance giants in other fields, such as AIG or State Farm, from offering title insurance and undercutting incumbents' prices. It also is illegal for anyone to offer guarantees that provide the same protection as title insurance." ... "In 2004 the title industry stared down another threat, this one in Washington, D.C. HUD [Housing and Urban Development] had pushed for rules that would allow lenders to package title insurance with a mortgage, something federal law currently forbids. The title industry, fearing the power of banks to negotiate lower title insurance rates, was violently opposed to the rules and found a key ally in [Alabama Republican] Senator Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican who is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee--and who owns the Tuscaloosa Title Co. [Company.] (A Shelby spokesman says the senator's attitude toward HUD's proposals is unrelated to his sideline business.) HUD is now considering other options for reforming the industry." ... "Yet another movement for change comes from efforts by the nation's county recorders to agree on a uniform way to store property records online, which could severely curtail the need for title insurers. But even if they succeed, most state legislatures would have to lift a thicket of creaky old laws that have enriched the title industry for decades--and bilked home buyers out of billions of dollars." (1, 2) -By Scott Woolley

-Forbes

Note: First American Corp contributed $56,000 to Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby (2001-2006)

via -OpenSecrets.org

20061030

Ken Calvert - Gay - Government - Transportation - Real Estate - Money - Law - California - "Running for Their Lives." ... "Ken Calvert, a Republican representative from California, was caught in a car with a prostitute during his first term but, after putting out campaign literature implying that his Democratic opponent was gay, held on to his seat. Last year Calvert and a business partner bought a four-acre parcel of land in Riverside County for $550,000; after securing federal funds for the expansion of a nearby freeway interchange, along with federal money to support commercial development in the area, they sold the property for nearly $1 million. But Democrats say they are not running a serious challenger against Calvert, because the seat leans strongly Republican." -By Juliet Eilperin -TheAtlantic.com

20061025

Renzi - Phoenix - Arizona - Real Estate - Money- Politics - Law Enforcement - "Lawmaker's Influence in Land Deals Probed." ... "U.S. prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation into whether [Republican] Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) twice pressured landowners to buy a 480-acre parcel owned by his former business partner, a major backer of Renzi's political campaign, according to federal law enforcement sources." ... "The deal ultimately netted the business partner a $3 million profit, according to Arizona land records." ... "The Arizona transaction has drawn the interest of the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI's Phoenix field office. Three law enforcement officials said both are investigating Renzi's involvement in two land deals -- one of which was not completed -- designed to put the 480 acres under federal protection from development in exchange for land more fit for commercial development." ... "According to sources, the investigation is focusing on whether, in exchange for political contributions and business support, James Sandlin received special treatment from Renzi for a parcel of land that earned him a $3 million profit." ... "Sandlin bought into Renzi's real estate firm in 2001, then paid about $200,000 for half the business and, after he was elected to Congress, $1 million to $5 million for the rest." ... "Investigators want to know whether Renzi twice attempted to arrange deals for Sandlin, including once by proposing legislation, two sources with knowledge of the investigations said." -By Jonathan Weisman and Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20061024

Renzi- Arizona - Real Estate - Money - Politics - Government - Legislation - "Officials scrutinize Ariz. land deal." ... "A land deal involving Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz. [Republican-Arizona], is being scrutinized by the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona, a law enforcement official in Washington said Tuesday." ... "Records and officials involved in the October 2005 deal say Renzi helped promote the sale of land that netted a former business partner $4.5 million." ... "The property eventually was to be part of a swap in which potential buyers could exchange it for land owned by the federal government. And while Renzi's business partner, James Sandlin, made money off the land sale, Renzi never introduced legislation in Congress to complete the swap for the new owners." ... "State records indicate that Renzi and Sandlin were partners in a real estate development firm dating back to at least 2002. It is unclear whether the two still have a business relationship." -By Jennifer Talhelm with contributions by Arthur H. Rotstein -AP via -BostonGlobe

20060922

Government - Housing - Money - Politics - Alphonso Jackson - "Probe Finds Jackson Urged Favoritism in HUD Contracts." ... "An inspector general's report charges that top U.S. housing official Alphonso Jackson urged staff members to favor friends of [Republican] President Bush when awarding Department of Housing and Urban Development contracts. But investigators so far have found no direct proof that Jackson's staff obeyed." ... "His chief of staff told investigators that Jackson, the HUD secretary, "personally intervened with contractors whom he did not like . . . these contractors had Democratic political affiliations," says the report, a copy of which was made available to The Washington Post." ... "Awarding contracts on the basis of party affiliation violates federal law." ... "According to two senior HUD officials, at a staff meeting this year "Jackson had advised . . . that when considering discretionary contracts, they should be considering supporters of the president," the report says." ... ""I don't recall doing that. They might have misconstrued it," the report quoted Jackson as saying." -By Elizabeth Williamson -WashingtonPost

20060921

Government - Housing - Money - Law - Alphonso Jackson - Calif- "HUD Secretary urged favoritism in awarding of contracts." ... "Top aides to Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson testified that they and other senior staff members were advised to take political leanings into consideration when awarding discretionary contracts, according to an internal report issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general." ... "Despite Jackson's edict, there is no evidence that "information regarding political affiliation was routinely or generally received, maintained or applied to the contracting process; however, there were some limited instances where political affiliation may have been a factor in contract issues involving Jackson," the report found." ... "The findings led Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., to call Thursday for Jackson's resignation." ... ""If this report is accurate, Secretary Jackson should resign immediately," Waxman said. "We must not allow taxpayer-funded contracts to be handed out to political allies as rewards for loyalty."" -By Christine Perez -BizJournals
Government - Housing - Money - Law - Texas - "HUD staff told to favor allies." ... "[Republican appointed] Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson urged top aides to take contractors' politics into account when handing out grants and deals, an internal department review has found, though there is no "direct evidence" that favoritism actually occurred." ... "The department's inspector general began investigating Mr. Jackson after he boasted in a Dallas [Texas] speech that he'd once scuttled a deal because the would-be contractor disparaged President Bush." ... "Several top HUD officials themselves political appointees testified that Mr. Jackson told senior staff at a meeting a few months before the April 28 speech in Dallas that they should consider contractors' political leanings. He urged them to give contracts to Bush supporters and voiced concerns about any going to active Democratic donors, the aides said." ... "Mr. Jackson, a longtime Bush friend, spent three years in HUD's No. 2 job before being sworn in to lead the $32 billion agency in April 2004." ... "It is a violation of federal procurement law to reward or punish a contractor based on political views." -By Todd J. Gillman with contributions by Sudeep Reddy -DallasNews.com

20060815

Mississippi - Hurricane Katrina - Homeowner - Disaster - Business- Wind - Water -Weather - "Katrina storm surge damage not covered by homeowners insurance, judge rules." ... "A federal judge ruled Tuesday that an insurance company's policies do not cover damage from wind-driven water in a decision that could affect hundreds of upcoming cases related to property damage from Hurricane Katrina." ... "U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. ruled that a Mississippi Gulf Coast couple cannot collect damages from storm surge caused by Katrina because Nationwide Mutual Insurance's policies do not cover wind-driven water damage." ... "Senter Jr. said Paul and Julie Leonard of Pascagoula could be compensated for damage that they could prove was caused by high winds." ... ""This reading of the policy would mean that an insured whose dwelling lost its roof in high winds and at the same time suffered an incursion of even an inch of water could recover nothing under his Nationwide policy," he wrote." -AP via -USATODAY

20060805

Connie Mack - Vacation - Home - Politics - Florida - Virginia - Family - Law - "Mack divorce proceedings include sale of $825,000 home." ... "After 9½ years of marriage, U.S. [United States Florida Republican Representative] Rep. Connie Mack IV and his wife, Ann, are divorced, but the Congressman gets to keep is gold Presidential Rolex." ... "Divorce records obtained Friday by the Daily News show that the couple will sell their Alexandria, Va.[Virginia], home — which is listed for sale by owner at $825,000 — and their condo at 15081 Tamarind Cay Court in South Fort Myers [Florida] as part of their final divorce settlement. The proceeds of both sales will be split between Ann McGillicuddy and Cornelius McGillicuddy, R-Fort Myers [Florida Republican Representative known as "Connie Mack"]." ... "They have two children, Addison, 6, and Cornelius McGillicuddy V, 3." ... "Ann McGillicuddy had said that the Southwest Florida congressman didn't really live in the area, but used the condo as a vacation home. To hold the office Mack would have to live in the 14th congressional district." ... "According to [Florida's] Lee County Property Appraiser records, the just value of the condo unit for tax purposes this year is $235,000." -By Kristen Zambo -DailyNews

20060622

Dennis Hastert - Secret - Lawmaker - Financial - Government - Transportation - Real Estate - Illinois - "Speaker Hastert's Land Deal Questioned: Group Says Lawmaker Pushed For Highway Funding To Boost His Profits." ... "House Speaker Dennis Hastert [Illinois Republican] denied Thursday that he pushed for federal funding for a proposed highway in northeastern Illinois so he and his wife could reap about $1.8 million from land deals near their home in Kendall County." ... "The Sunlight Foundation, a newly created group whose declared aim is to inform the public about what members of Congress do, has accused Hastert of not divulging connections between the $207 million earmark he won for a highway, the Prairie Parkway [in Illinois], and an investment he and his wife made in nearby land." ... "The Foundation says Hastert used an Illinois trust to invest in real estate near the proposed route of the Prairie Parkway, and notes that Hastert's 2005 financial disclosure form, released Thursday, makes no mention of the trust. Hastert lists several real estate transactions in the disclosure, all of which were done by the trust. Kendall County public records show no record of Hastert making the real estate sales he made public today; rather, they were all executed by the trust, the Foundation says." ... "However, Hastert disclosed the transactions on the annual personal financial statements members of Congress are required to file, the Chicago Sun Times reports. But Hastert did not take the extra steps called for in the House Ethics Manual and volunteer that he held land in a secret land trust called "Little Rock Trust," the newspaper says." (1, 2) -AP via -CBSNews
Lawmakers - Government- Transportation- Money - Dennis Hastert - Real Estate - Illinois - California - "Lawmakers' Profits Are Scrutinized: Hastert and Others Defend Land Gains." ... "House Speaker [Illinois Republican] J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) made a $2 million profit last year on the sale of land 5 1/2 miles from a highway project that he helped to finance with targeted federal funds." ... "A Republican House member from California, meanwhile, received nearly double what he paid for a four-acre parcel near an Air Force base after securing $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles away. And another California GOP congressman obtained funding in last year's highway bill for street improvements near a planned residential and commercial development that he co-owns." ... "In all three cases, Hastert and Reps. Ken Calvert [California Republican] and Gary Miller [California Republican] say that they were securing funds their home districts wanted badly, and that in no way did the earmarks have any impact on the land values of their investments. But for watchdog groups, the cases have opened a fresh avenue for investigation and a new wrinkle in the ongoing controversy over earmarks -- home-district projects funded through narrowly written legislative language." (1, 2) -By Jonathan Weisman -WashingtonPost

20060616

Dennis Hastert - Secret - Financial - Government - Transportation - Illinois - "Land Deal Gives Hastert 300% Profit." ... "Speaker of the House [Illinois Republican] Dennis Hastert (R-IL) realized an estimated $2 million dollar profit last year on an Illinois land deal that included acreage near a future interstate highway Hastert pushed to build." ... "The land was sold just five months after Hastert inserted a $207 million appropriation bill for the Prairie Parkway highway [in Illinois] during a closed-door Congressional budget conference." ... "The deal, representing a 300 per cent return on investment, was reported in Hastert's financial disclosure form filed this week, although the role of a secret trust set up by Hastert to sell the land was not disclosed." -By Rhonda Schwartz -ABCNEWS.com

20060615

Noteworthy - Government - Police - Civil Righs - Politics - Samuel Alito - Sandra Day O'Connor - Homes - "Police don't have to knock, justices say: Alito's vote breaks 4-4 tie in police search case." ... "The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even if they don't knock, a huge government victory that was decided by President Bush's new justices." ... "The 5-4 ruling clearly signals the court's conservative shift following the departure of moderate Sandra Day O'Connor." ... "The case tested previous court rulings that police armed with warrants generally must knock and announce themselves or they run afoul of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches." -AP via -CNN
Police - History - Civil Righs - Politics - Samuel Alito - Antonin Scalia - John Roberts - Homes - "Court Limits Protection Against Improper Entry." ... "Evidence found by police officers who enter a home to execute a search warrant without first following the requirement to "knock and announce" can be used at trial despite that constitutional violation, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday." ... "The 5-to-4 decision left uncertain the value of the "knock-and-announce" rule, which dates to 13th-century England as protection against illegal entry by the police into private homes." ... "Justice Antonin Scalia, in the majority opinion, said that people subject to an improper police entry remained free to go to court and bring a civil rights suit against the police." ... "But Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the dissenters, said the ruling "weakens, perhaps destroys, much of the practical value of the Constitution's knock-and-announce protection." He said the majority's reasoning boiled down to: "The requirement is fine, indeed, a serious matter, just don't enforce it."" ... "In addition to Justice Alito, those who joined the majority opinion by Justice Scalia were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy. Justice Breyer's dissenting opinion was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg" -By Linda Greenhouse -NYTimes

Drug

Police

Home

Privacy

History

"Court Rules Warrant Is Enough." ... "A closely divided Supreme Court ruled today that drug evidence found in the search of a home may be used against a suspect even if police officers violated the law by not giving the homeowner fair warning before they rushed inside." ... "In the past, the court has insisted that evidence must be thrown out if the police violated the Constitution's ban on "unreasonable searches and seizures." This so-called exclusionary rule was among the most controversial legal developments of the 1960s, and it continues to irritate many law and order conservatives." ... "In 1995, the justices agreed unanimously that the 4th Amendment usually required officers to knock on the door and call out "Police!" before they burst into a home. This rule helped protect the safety of the police and the privacy of the residents, the court said then." ... "Until now, however, it was not clear whether the police would be penalized if they ignored this rule. Officers were told they should usually wait about 20 seconds after announcing their presence before they tried to enter a house. They may move faster if they suspect the residents are going to flush drugs down a toilet, the court said." -By David G. Savage -LAtimes

20060614

Government- Transportation - Finance- Housing - Dennis Hastert - Illinois - "Group claims Hastert benefited from highway bill: House Speaker owned land near Prairie Parkway project, group says." ... "House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert [Illinois Republican] personally benefitted from a controversial $207 million earmark that he secured in last year’s highway bill for the proposed Prairie Parkway project west of Chicago [Illinois], a watchdog group alleges." ... "An attorney for Mr. Hastert, an Illinois Republican, denies the accusation." ... "The Sunlight Foundation, a recently formed Washington-based group of long-time campaign finance experts, said that the speaker’s 2005 financial statement released Wednesday didn’t disclose Mr. Hastert’s interest in land was part of a housing development that could benefit from construction of the highway." ... "The report said that four months after the highway bill was enacted last year a trust, in which Rep. Hastert had a 25% interest, sold land a few miles from the proposed corridor for $4.9 million. In his 2004 financial disclosure, the land in question was estimated to be worth between $250,000 to $500,000." -ChicagoBusiness.com

20060607

Government - Military - Computer - Database - Identity Theft - People - Homes - Education - Consumer - "Data on 2.2M Active Troops Stolen From VA: Pentagon Says Data on About 2.2 Million Active-Duty Troops Among Material Stolen From VA Employee." ... "Nearly all active-duty military, Guard and Reserve members about 2.2 million total may be at risk for identity theft because their personal information was among those stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee last month." ... "In a new disclosure Tuesday, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said the agency was mistaken when it said over the weekend that up to 50,000 Navy and National Guard personnel were among the 26.5 million veterans whose names, birthdates and Social Security numbers were stolen on May 3." ... "The number is actually much higher because the VA realized it had records on file for most active-duty personnel because they are eligible to receive VA benefits such as GI Bill educational assistance and the home loan guarantee program." (1, 2) -Hope Yen -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

20060529

Housing - Consumer - "Apartment rents expected to rise 5%." ... "Rents are rising faster than they have in six years." ... "Apartment rents are expected to increase 5.3% this year — about double last year's increase — the National Association of Realtors says. That's the highest jump since 2000, when the Internet boom created lots of jobs for young adults out of college. In April, rising rents were largely to blame for a sharp jump in consumer inflation." -By Noelle Knox -USATODAY
Indonesia - Earthquake - Homeless - Food - U.N. - "Trickle Of Aid Reaches Quake Survivors: Death Toll Tops 5,400; About 200,000 People Made Homeless In Indonesia." ... "A trickle of aid began reaching survivors of the Indonesian earthquake that killed more than 5,400 over the weekend, but desperate villagers said the meager deliveries were not enough." ... ""We have 300 families in this village and have only gotten two sacks of rice," said Lastri, 27, begging beneath the blazing sun, a 5-month-old baby in her arms. "It's not enough."" ... "More aid was on the way — a U.N. World Food Program was scheduled to arrive near the quake zone on Java island on Tuesday with high-energy biscuits and blankets, tents and generators, and U.N. trucks traveled roads lined with increasingly desperate children, women and elderly seeking handouts." -AP via -CBSNews

20060518

US - Memorial Day - Military - Homeless - Poverty - Health - Government - Money - Politics - Iraq - Calif. - "Number of Homeless Vets Called a 'Disgrace': A Third of Homeless Men in the U.S. Have Served in the Military." ... "One of every three homeless males in the United States is a veteran, and each night as many as 200,000 men and women veterans go to sleep with no place to call home, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs." ... "With Memorial Day approaching, Democratic members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee held a forum on homeless veterans." ... "Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chaired the forum, was blunt. "It's a disgrace that we let any of our vets get in this position. If we spend a billion dollars every 2½ days in Iraq, we can spend a lot more for those who have served us but will be out on the streets tonight."" ... "According to recent statistics, the VA provided health care services to more than 100,000 homeless veterans in 2004, and the agency spent more than $1 billion to assist tens of thousands of homeless and at-risk veterans." (1, 2) -By Dean Norland -ABCNEWS.com
Business- "Greenspan says US housing boom is over." ... "Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday that the "extraordinary" boom in the U.S. housing market in recent years is over." ... "Greenspan said there was a "high degree of froth in the system," and that it was clear that home equity extraction and the turnover of home sales was waning." (1, 2) -Reuters

20060505

Government- Housing- Money - Free Speech - Law - "HUD secretary's blunt warning: Alphonso Jackson says deal was scuttled after contractor admits not liking Bush." ... "After discussing the huge strides the agency has made in doing business with minority-owned companies, [U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso] Jackson closed with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor." ... ""He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years," Jackson said of the prospective contractor. "He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.'" ... ""I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary.'" ... ""He didn't get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."" -By Christine Perez -BizJournals

20060321

Consumer - Working - Families - Money - History - "Fewer families can afford a home." ... "Nearly 70% of Americans own their homes, a record high, but the rate of homeownership for working families with children is lower than in 1978, according to a study being released Wednesday by the Center for Housing Policy." ... "The surprising trend is being driven by a combination of factors: soaring housing costs that have overshot wage increases, higher health care bills and a rise in the number of single parents." ... "Minority working families have struggled the most. Their homeownership rate has stagnated at 45%, far below white families (71%) as of 2003, the last year for which figures are available." -By Noelle Knox -USATODAY
"Working Families with Children Less Likely to be Homeowners Now Than They were in the 1970s, New Study Details U.S. Homeownership Trends." ... "These comprehensive findings are particularly troubling because of the evidence that homeownership may play a positive role in helping children do better in school. Yet working families with children, and especially minority working families with children, are lagging far behind." -NHC.org
[PDF-2.6MB]- "Locked Out: Keys to Homeownership Elude Many Working Families with Children." -NHC.org

20051229

Economy - "U.S. Economy: Home Resales Fall to Lowest in 8 Months (Update4)." ... "Sales of existing homes fell to an eight-month low in November, leaving the number of houses on the market at the highest since 1986 and suggesting one pillar of the U.S. economy will weaken next year." ... "Home sales dropped 1.7 percent to a 6.97 million annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. Mortgage rates are higher than a year ago and today's report showed the median price rose 13.2 percent since November 2004 to $215,000, making homes less affordable." ... "The housing industry accounts for only about 5 percent of the U.S. economy and yet generated half of the growth in this year's first six months and more than half of the private jobs added since 2001, Merrill Lynch & Co. said in an August report. Price appreciation helped add $5.2 trillion to Americans' balance sheets during the current expansion, or 68 percent of all wealth creation, according to the Federal Reserve." -By Courtney Schlisserman and Andrew Ward -Bloomberg
Texas - Oklahoma - Homes- Disaster - "Five die in wildfires sweeping US: At least five people have died in the wildfires which have swept across parts of the US states of Texas and Oklahoma." ... "The fires, fanned by strong winds and dry weather, have destroyed nearly 200 homes and scorched thousands of acres of land in the past two days." ... "An estimated 124 homes were destroyed in Texas and 50 in the neighbouring state of Oklahoma." ... "Worst hit was the central Texan town of Cross Plains, where the fires forced its 1,000 inhabitants to leave."-BBC /News

20051201

Australia - US - Business - Home - Health - History - "James Hardie to Sign Asbestos Compensation Deal Today (Update3)." ... "James Hardie Industries NV, whose top executives quit last year amid an asbestos probe, will today sign a A$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) agreement to compensate Australians sickened by its products." ... "James Hardie is the biggest seller of home siding in the U.S., where it gets 80 percent of its profit. In February, the company said it doesn't expect a significant number of compensation claims in the U.S., where its subsidiaries never used the asbestos." ... "James Hardie started using asbestos in Australia in the 1920s. It began to phase out blue asbestos in 1968, and all products were asbestos-free by 1986. The fibrous mineral has been linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a form of cancer affecting the chest or abdomen." -By Miriam Steffens -Bloomberg
Louisiana - New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina - "Last section of New Orleans reopens." ... "The last neighborhood in New Orleans that had remained closed after Hurricane Katrina reopened Thursday, with some residents of the Lower 9th Ward saying they planned to abandon the area and others vowing to rebuild." ... "Residents were allowed in for the day to gather what belongings they could. Until now, people had been able to view the destruction only on bus tours. Residents still cannot stay in the neighborhood, which has no electrical power." ... "Decisions to rebuild hinge in part on the extent of damage, whether insurance will require a new home to be elevated and whether the owners qualify for federal aid." -AP via -CNN

20051101

Pakistan - People - Earthquake - History - Homes - "Pakistan seeks more medical aid as quake toll rises." ... "Pakistan appealed for antibiotics and painkillers on Tuesday as it raised the toll from last month's devasting earthquake to 57,597 killed and nearly 79,000 injured." ... "The updated figures from Pakistan Federal Relief Commission brought the total official toll from the disaster to nearly 59,000 -- including 1,309 confirmed deaths and 6,622 injuries on on the Indian side of the devasted Kashmir region." ... "At 7.6 magnitude, the quake was the strongest to hit the South Asian region in 100 years. It destroyed huge numbers of houses and left more than three million people homeless or in need of emergency shelter with a brutal winter just weeks away." -By Robert Birsel with contributions by David Brunnstrom -Reuters via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
California - Market - "California officials say tax plan would hurt state homeowners." ... "A proposal by a presidential tax panel Tuesday would make higher home mortgages ineligible for tax breaks. It ran into strong criticism from California officials who said it would hurt people who live in the state's hot housing markets." ... "The recommendation by the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform would convert the home mortgage interest deduction into a credit equal to 15 percent of mortgage interest paid. The $1 million limit on mortgages eligible for the tax break would shrink to the average regional price of housing, with an upper limit of $412,000." -By Erica Werner -AP via -MercuryNews

20051024

Harriet Miers - Political - Real Estate - Law - Business- "Report: Texas overpaid Miers in land sale." ... "Texas officials paid Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' family more than $100,000 for a small piece of land in 2000 - 10 times the land's worth - despite the state's objections to the way the price was determined, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported Saturday." ... "The three-member committee that determined the price included Peggy Lundy, a friend of Miers, and property-rights activist Cathie Adams, Knight Ridder reported. They were appointed to the panel by state District Judge David Evans, who had received at least $5,000 in campaign contributions from Miers' law firm." -AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource

20051013

Home - Energy - "As winter approaches, home heating prices start to rise." ... "Those who have natural gas heating their homes could see a roughly 15 percent rise in costs, while those with electric heat might see a three percent increase. But oil customers are facing the worst potential hit, with costs expected to rise up to 40 percent." ... "Nationwide, about 30 million households qualify for the federal heat assistance program, but there's only enough money for about 5 million households." -AP via -OregonLive.com

20051012

Pakistan- Earthquake - Disaster - Homes - UN - Food - "Aid still failing to reach most of Pakistan's 4m earthquake survivors." ... "Humanitarian aid has reached only a small proportion of the 4m people whose homes have been destroyed or damaged by the devastating earthquake that struck Pakistan four days ago, according to a disaster assessment by UN officials." ... ""This is a huge catastrophe and the more we see the worse it's getting," said Andrew Macleod, a member of the UN's disaster assessment team, yesterday. "It's no criticism of Pakistan to say that it's only a small proportion of the affected population that has received any aid, and that there are areas that may not for some time."" ... "The UN yesterday appealed for $272m (€225m, £150m) to support its efforts for six months, of which $62.5m would be spent on shelter and non-food items and $50m on food. It said strong aftershocks had left survivors afraid to go back inside damaged houses and many preferring to sleep in fields." -By Jo Johnson and Farhan Bokhari -FT.com

20050930

Hurricane Katrina - New Orleans - Homes- Environment - "Gulf Wracked By Katrina's Latest Legacy—Disease, Poisons, Mold." ... "A month after Hurricane Katrina tore through the U.S. Gulf Coast, medical experts are now struggling with the latest crisis in the region: contamination." ... "Katrina left New Orleans and other communities tainted with oil, sewage, and possibly poisons leached from federal toxic waste sites, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says." ... "Health and environmental agencies are advising people to avoid contact with the sludge. They recommend that people wear gloves, goggles, and dust masks, and that they wash promptly if exposure occurs." ... "In addition to the toxic sediment, sprawling blooms of mold have now taken hold in many flooded homes." (1, 2) -By Adrianne Appel -NationalGeographic>News

20050926

Business - "Home sales surge as prices continue to rise." ... "Existing home sales soared to the second highest pace on record in August, while prices took the biggest annual jump in 26 years, the National Association of Realtors said Monday." ... "The median price for an existing home was $220,000, up 15.8% from the $190,000 of a year ago and the fastest annual appreciation since July 1979." -By Sue Kirchhoff -USATODAY
Business - "Greenspan: Homeowners could weather price drop." ... "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, softening his concern about a possibly overheated housing market, said Monday that many homeowners have enough equity to cushion the shock if prices drop." ... "On housing, Greenspan continued to register concerns about soaring house prices and some people taking out risky mortgages to buy expensive homes that they otherwise couldn't afford." -By Jeannine Aversa -AP via -USATODAY

20050910

Florida- Texas - Louisiana- Mississippi - Alabama - - - "Red Cross Paying Hotel Bills for Thousands." ... "In a massive, costly and little-noticed effort to calm a housing catastrophe that reaches from Florida to Texas, the American Red Cross has quietly created a program that it says is now picking up hotel bills for at least 57,000 people who fled Hurricane Katrina. Room charges are being paid out of the $503 million that the Red Cross has collected so far for hurricane relief." ... "The program began early this week, when several thousand hotels and motels in and around the Gulf Coast area were notified by the Red Cross that registered guests who can show that they lived in 256 storm-affected Zip codes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be eligible to have their unpaid room charges covered by the Red Cross." (1, 2) -By Blaine Harden-WashingtonPost

RedCross.org

20050907

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - New Orleans - Louisiana - - - - - - "Katrina Takes Environmental Toll: Warning Issued On Water; Federal Probes Of Relief Loom." ... "The dank and putrid floodwaters choking this once-gracious city [New Orleans, Louisiana] are so poisoned with gasoline, industrial chemicals, feces and other contaminants that even casual contact is hazardous and safe drinking water may not be available for the entire population for years to come, state and federal officials warned Tuesday." ... "As hundreds of police officers, emergency workers and volunteers waded through flooded neighborhoods trying to coax remaining residents from their ruined homes, health officials offered the first tentative assessments of the environmental damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina and its resulting floods: They ranged from contaminated water to the destruction of coastline that acts as a buffer against hurricanes and other severe weather." ... "State officials also released new tallies of Katrina's destruction, with up to 160,000 homes in Louisiana destroyed and nearly 190,000 public school students displaced by the storm and its aftermath." (1, 2, 3) -By Timothy Dwyer, Jacqueline L. Salmon, and Dan Eggen with contributions by David Brown, Juliet Eilperin, Michael A. Fletcher, Spencer S. Hsu, Shankar Vedantam and Lucy Shackelford -WashingtonPost

20050902

Hurricane Katrina - Louisiana - TX - - - - "New Orleans evacuations under way: Health emergency declared; thousands may be dead." ... "The first of New Orleans' evacuees began arriving in Texas early Thursday as the Gulf Coast began to grasp the magnitude of what President Bush called "one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history."" ... "Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath damaged beyond repair tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the region and left more than 78,000 people in emergency shelters, the president said." ... "Bush announced a massive federal mobilization to help victims, warning that "the challenges that we face on the ground are unprecedented."" ... ""This recovery will take years," Bush said in an address from the White House Rose Garden, hours after viewing parts of the Gulf Coast from aboard Air Force One." -CNN

20050831

Hurricane Katrina - Mississippi - Louisiana - Disaster - - - - "Hurricane damage 'enormous'." ... "The Gulf Coast on Tuesday began to confront the aftermath of one of the most devastating hurricanes ever to hit the United States." ... "Officially, the regional death toll was put at 55 Tuesday morning, but officials warned that it was certain to rise; Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi said the toll in just one county in his state could be as high as 80." ... "Some of the worst damage reports came from east of New Orleans [Louisiana]. An estimated 40,000 homes were reported flooded in St. Bernard Parish. In Gulfport, the storm left three of five hospitals without working emergency rooms, beachfront homes wrecked and major stretches of the coastal highway flooded and impassable." -By Joseph B. Treaster, Kate Zernike, and Ralph Blumenthal with contributions by Abby Goodnough, Michael M. Luo, James Dao, Jeremy Alford, Diane Allen, Terence Neilan, Christine Hauser and Shadi Rahimi -NYTimes

20050830

Hurricane Katrina - Louisiana - Disaster - - - - - "Crews Pass Dead to Reach Storm Survivors." ... "Rescuers along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast pushed aside the dead to reach the living Tuesday in a race against time and rising waters, while New Orleans sank deeper into crisis and Louisiana's governor ordered storm refugees out of this drowning city." ... "Two levees broke and sent water coursing into the streets of the Big Easy a full day after New Orleans appeared to have escaped widespread destruction from Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 80 percent of the below-sea-level city was under water, up to 20 feet deep in places, with miles and miles of homes swamped." ... "Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown warned that structural damage to homes, diseases from animal carcasses and chemicals in floodwaters made it unsafe for residents to come home anytime soon. And a mass return also was discouraged to keep from interfering with rescue and recovery efforts." -By Brett Martel with contributions by Holbrook Mohr, Mary Foster, Allen G. Breed, Brett Martel, Adam Nossiter and Jay Reeves -AP via -SFGate.com

20050829

- "Homebuilder insiders on selling spree: Analysts worry sales may presage downturn after boom." ... "A rash of insider selling in recent months at red-hot homebuilders appears reminiscent of a similar trend right before the technology bubble burst in 2000, Merrill Lynch said Monday." ... ""There has been record insider selling within the last 10 months across a broad range of homebuilding companies despite very few sell ratings by Wall Street analysts and the general perception by investors that the stocks are undervalued," Richard Bernstein, the firm's top strategist, wrote in a note to clients." -By John Spence -MarketWatch

20050824

- "New-home sales rise to record in July; prices drop." ... "Sales of new homes jumped 6.5% to a record high in July, defying economists' expectations for a decline, as purchases soared in the Northeast and West and median prices dropped, a government report showed Wednesday." ... "While sales climbed, so did supply. The inventory of homes available for sale at the end of July stood at a record 460,000, up 1.8% from June and 15% higher than a year ago, the report showed. At the current sales pace, the supply of homes represented 4 months' worth in July." -Reuters via -USATODAY

20050823

- "Housing market strong but slowing." ... "The U.S. housing market remains strong but is chilling a bit, with the annual rate of July home sales falling 2.6% from June, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday." ... "At the same time, the NAR and the Mortgage Bankers Association — two leading industry trade groups — joined Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and others in adopting a more cautious view of the high-priced housing market." -By Edward Iwata -USATODAY

20050808

- - - Autos - - - - Homes - "Bush Signs Massive Energy Bill Into Law." ... "In the near term, the new legislation will extend daylight-saving time, give tax breaks to drivers who buy cars with fuel-efficient technologies and try to jump-start the construction of new nuclear power plants." ... "Environmental groups and other opponents say the bill amounts to a gift to energy companies that does nothing new to promote renewable energy." ... "The measure funnels billions of dollars to energy companies, including tax breaks and loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants, clean coal technology and wind energy." ... "For consumers, the bill would provide tax credits for buying hybrid gasoline-electric cars and making energy-conservation improvements with better windows and appliances in new and existing homes." -By Nedra Pickler -AP via -Guardian.co.uk

20050727

IL - - - Homes - "Developers win big at Navy sites: Glenview, Ft. Sheridan projects hailed by Kirk." ... "The Navy's final plan for Ft. Sheridan will free up about 45 acres for private development, protect pristine bluffs and replace hundreds of dilapidated housing units for military families, [Illinois Republican] U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk said Tuesday." ... " Under the military's recent public-private partnership initiatives, the federal government retains land for housing but allows developers to build the houses and lease them back." -By M. Daniel Gibbard -ChicagoTribune

20050602

- - - Homes - "Landslide destroys 17 homes: 1,000 flee California neighborhood." ... "Houses cracked, telephone poles snapped and streets buckled as a landslide sent homes sliding down a hill in Laguna Beach [California] before dawn Wednesday, leaving large homes dangling in the air." ... "The landslide destroyed 17 homes in a neighborhood of multimillion-dollar dwellings. Another 11 were damaged, authorities said." ... "Streets had buckled onto themselves, manholes had risen into the shape of volcanoes and telephone poles were toppled." ... "Geologists say the Bluebird Canyon landslide was made more likely by last winter's near-record rains that have taken months to saturate deeper into the soil and bedrock." -By Mai Tran, William Lobdell and Christine Hanley with contributions by John Spano, Daryl Strickland and Don Kelsen -LAtimes via -ChicagoTribune

20050524

Homes - "Home sales soar to record: Low rates, strong demand, push April rate to 7.2M; median price tops $200,000 for first time." ... "Existing home sales jumped to a record last month as persistent low mortgage rates helped keep the real estate market sizzling." ... "The numbers from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) were immediately seized by both sides in the long-running debate about whether there's a bubble in the nation's housing market, a debate into which Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan waded last week." -By Chris Isidore -CNN
CA- Connecticut- Massachusetts - New York - Homes - "Million dollar homes double since 2000: California leads states with the most million-dollar homes and highest median home value." ... "Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts and New York followed California as the places with the largest percentages of seven-figure homes." -CNN

20050521

Homes - - "Greenspan Sees Bubbles in Housing: The Fed chief perceives extreme overpricing in many local markets, but not nationwide." ... "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday that some regional housing markets were showing signs of unsustainable speculation and "froth" and that there were "a lot" of local housing bubbles." ... "The central banker went beyond his comments in February by describing how he saw "very significant acceleration" in the turnover of U.S. homes, partly because of purchases of second homes. He said speculation in both the housing and mortgage markets had accelerated." -By Annette Haddad -LAtimes

20050517

Homes - Consumer - "Home Depot First-Quarter Profit Rises on Home Installations." ... "Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home-improvement retailer, said first-quarter earnings rose because of increased appliance sales and home installation services." ... "Chief Executive Officer Robert Nardelli is expanding installations of kitchens and decks while adding new washers and refrigerators to protect sales from faster growing No. 2 Lowe's Cos. Earnings gains this year may slow as higher gasoline prices and rising mortgage rates curb consumer spending on homes." ... "Both Home Depot and Lowe's have benefited from a strong housing market, with existing home sales setting a record last year, according to the National Association of Realtors." -By Steve Matthews -Bloomberg

20050503

- - Homes - "Homes: U.K. went cold; U.S. could too: U.S. homeowners can learn a lot from the housing slowdown in the U.K. market." ... "Americans aren't the only ones who've gotten rich off real estate. In fact, home price gains in the United Kingdom dwarf those of the United States." ... "Between the fourth quarter of 2000 and 2004, U.K. home prices increased 88 percent, on average, according to the Halifax house price index. U.S. home prices, meanwhile, increased 35 percent during that time, according to the National Association of Realtors." ... "Then, with little warning, the market cooled." ... "While economists disagree on whether the U.K. is experiencing a temporary lull or the beginning of a housing bust, buyers there seem to be waking up to the idea that double-digit price gains can't last forever. Prices overall have been flat, with small increases in some areas and declines in others." -By Sarah Max -CNN
Mother's-Day - Homes - Florida - Georgia - Austin - TX - IL - Des-Moines - IA - Connecticut - Oklahoma - WA - Nebraska - Phoenix - AZ - Virginia- CA - Utah - North Carolina - "Women helping build homes." ... "Women Build is a partnership of Habitat for Humanity and the Lowe's chain of home improvement stores. It is an annual event that gives women a chance to help needy families. Female crews have built 650 Habitat houses in the United States." ... "[Along with Pensacola, Florida] Other cities with Mother's Day Women Build projects are Atlanta [Georgia]; Austin, Texas; Chicago [Illinois]; Des Moines, Iowa; Hartford, Conn. [Connecticut]; Oklahoma City [Oklahoma]; Olympia, Wash. [Washington]; Omaha, Neb. [Nebraska]; Phoenix [Arizona]; Richmond, Va [Virginia].; San Francisco [California]; Salt Lake City [Utah]; Tacoma, Wash. [Washington]; and Winston-Salem, N.C. [North Carolina]" -By Bill Kaczor -APvia -NJ.com

Habitat.org/wb

20040331

- - - "Pushing the limits of 'public use'." ... "Rene Corie installs drapes in Florida mansions. Her husband, David, builds the mansions' gates." ... "Eight years ago, the working-class couple finally found some waterfront real estate they could afford: a two-bedroom house for $70,000 in Riviera Beach, a poor town near the wealthy enclaves of Palm Beach and Jupiter." ... "But Riviera Beach now wants to bulldoze the Cories' home and 2,200 others to make way for one of the nation's grandest redevelopment plans: a collection of high-rise condos, bigger homes and upscale shops. The city plans to use eminent domain — its power to confiscate private property for projects that benefit the public — to take the homes of 5,100 people if the residents do not agree to move." -By Dennis Cauchon -USATODAY

20030312

- "Applications for mortgage refinancings hit a record." ... "The MBA [Mortgage Bankers Association] said the number of refinancing applications last week reached its highest level since the group began its weekly survey in 1990. Refinancings accounted for 79.8% of all mortgage applications the week ended March 7, and the refinancing index was up 35% from the previous week, the MBA said." ... "The average rate for the most popular home loan in the USA, the 30-year mortgage, fell 0.15 percentage points to 5.42% the week ended March 7, the Mortgage Bankers Association said."-Reuters via -USATODAY

20030224

- "Location, Location, Education: The Best Places With the Best Education." ... ""The investment that communities make in their school system pays back in more than the education of their children. It also pays back in property values," says Ruth Kennedy, a principal at real estate services firm LandVest in Boston. "Property values can vary as much as 30 percent to 40 percent based on the local school district."" ... "Indeed, in a January 2003 National Bureau of Economic Research paper, co-authors Lisa Barrow and Cecilia Rouse found that for every $1 increase in state aid spending per pupil, property values increased $20 in aggregate per pupil housing." -By Betsy Schiffman -Forbes via -ABCNEWS.com

20021209

- - "U.S. begins war game in Qatar in possible preparation for Iraq war." ... A U.S. war game believed to be a rehearsal for an invasion of Iraq began Monday in Qatar with senior commanders and battle planners conducting a computer-assisted exercise to improve their ability to fight a war in the region." ... General Tommy "Franks and his staff are controlling all of Central Command's forces from a high-tech, portable headquarters set up on Qatar's As Sayliyah army camp in the desert 20 miles outside of the capital, Doha." ... "The modular, portable buildings and the high-speed digital communications equipment, constructed by American defense contractor Raytheon, is being used for the first time." -AP via -USATODAY

20020814

"Manufactured homes go mainstream: Manufactured homes lose the stigma of 'trailers' while remaining affordable housing." ... "Fewer than 5 percent are ever moved from the owner's original site, according to the Manufactured Housing Institute. In fact, "mobile" was officially dropped and "manufactured" adopted in the early 1980s. And although there are numerous single-section older mobile homes that look their age, new double-wide, multisection, and even stacked models may be showing the way to a promising future for this affordable housing option." -By Ross Atkin -CSMonitor/buy

20020724

"Norway 'best place to live'." ... "For the second year running, Norway has been named as the best place in the world to live, according to an annual report from the United Nations." The U.S. was rated sixth, after Sweden, Canada, Belgium, and Australia. ... "Sierra Leone was placed last, and the bottom 24 countries are all in Africa." -BBC /News

20020429

"Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Face New Scrutiny Over Derivatives: Critics including Greenspan question the use of such complex contracts by the two mortgage giants." ... "The Federal National Mortgage Assn., created by Congress during the Depression, and later the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. were given access to emergency lines of credit from the government and exemptions from some securities regulations. Their mission is to create a secondary market in mortgages to make it easier for Americans to buy homes. Though backed by the government, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are private companies with shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange. They have grown so large that they are involved in nearly half the mortgages written in the country." -By Eileen Alt Powell -AP via -LAtimes

Search Google: <"Freddie Mac"> = FHLM, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
Search Google: <"Fannie Mae"> = FNMA, Federal National Mortgage Association

20020404

"How Fair Is Fair Isaac? The secrecy surrounding the company's proprietary credit-scoring system is sparking a firestorm of criticism -- and legislative action." ... "Since January, 2001, hundreds of Washington State residents have complained to the state insurance commissioner that their rates were being unjustly hiked. In response, the state House and Senate overwhelmingly passed bills to prevent insurers from using a consumer's credit score to cancel or not renew personal-insurance policies." ... "The issue is fast becoming one of the hottest topics in state legislatures across the country. Hawaii and Connecticut have also passed legislation aimed at curbing the use of credit scores in insurance underwriting, and 21 more states have bills pending." ... "At the center of the storm is little-known California company Fair Isaac (FIC ), number 50 on the S&P SmallCap 600. Fair Isaac creates the credit scores, known as FICO scores, that tell lenders whether a consumer is a good credit risk. Scores range anywhere from 300 to 850. The higher the score, the better the credit risk. A consumer with a FICO score of 700 will pay approximately $382 per month for a $20,000 auto loan over 60 months, according to E-LOAN, a California-based Internet lending institution. The same loan for someone with a score of 680 costs $393, while a borrower with a FICO of 580 will pony up $495."-By Jane Black -BusinessWeek/Daily

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