Political News

May 8 (Source: Messenger-Inquirer) – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced that the one-millionth home built with help from the agency’s HOME affordable housing program was built in Owensboro.

(Source: Tulsa World by Caroline Baum) – With U.S. home prices back down to their 2009 lows, you might be wondering what all the government programs to stabilize the housing market have accomplished.

May 8 (Source: The Honolulu Star-Advertiser By Andrew Gomes) – Sweeping new measures to help financially struggling Hawaii homeowners avoid foreclosure became law last week.

(Source: By LESLIE BERKMAN The Press-Enterprise) – State legislation to prevent delinquent borrowers from losing their homes to foreclosure while their lenders are evaluating them for a mortgage modification failed a second time in seven days to win approval from [...]

May 3 (Source: The Florida Times-Union By Kevin Turner) -National foreclosure inventories rose to an all-time high and foreclosure starts spiked in March, signals that bank freezes on foreclosures are finished and mass processing is resuming.

April 30–WILLMAR -(Source: West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn. By Carolyn Lange) – Heartland Community Action received $152,442 in two separate grants from U.S. Housing and Urban Development to provide housing and supportive services to homeless families.

April 29 (Source: The Press-Enterprise By Leslie Berkman) – Legislation to prevent lenders from foreclosing on homes before mortgage modification efforts are exhausted failed to pass a key state Senate committee.

May 1-(Source: The Buffalo News By James Heaney) – After 37 years and $700 million, the federal government for the first time wants money back from the City of Buffalo for mismanagement of anti-poverty programs.

(Source: bostonherald By Jerry Kronenberg) – More than half of “foreclosure-prevention” companies that heavily advertise on local radio or other media allegedly demand upfront fees that Massachusetts law might prohibit, the state Office of Consumer Affairs says.

CHICAGO (Source: Chicago Tribune) – Housing agencies find themselves scrambling to determine how they will serve their communities with dwindling resources after $88 million in housing counseling funds was eliminated from the federal budget.

April 29-(Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel By Rick Romell) -The U.S. Labor Department has sued Brian T. Kiernan, owner of a now-defunct Racine company, Kiernan Heating & Air Conditioning Inc., accusing him of misappropriating $19,811 contributed by 10 employees to [...]

(Source: Los Angeles Times) – A proposed law that would have ended “dual track” foreclosures in California failed to win a key vote in Sacramento on Wednesday.

(Source: The American Prospect David Dayen) – Last week, the mortgage servicing arm of JPMorgan Chase reached an unusual settlement  in a class action lawsuit, acknowledging it had charged illegally high interest rates and wrongfully foreclosed on 6,000 homeowners across [...]

(Source: Examiner By William Lewis) – While the Federal Trade Commission has cracked down on debt settlement and loan modification firms that charge upfront fees, little has been done to rein in tax resolution companies that promise to reduce IRS [...]

April 25 (Source: The Macon Telegraph By Shelby G. Spires) – If the U.S. had to put its debt on a charge card, its bill would be increasing at a rate of about $125 billion each month.

Source: Tulsa World Publication date: 2011-04-25 Arrival time: 2011-04-26 –WASHINGTON – Teri Kidd, who owns restaurants in Tulsa and Broken Arrow, wrote the Federal Reserve Board in Washington recently to complain about the fees that come with accepting debit and [...]

Source: News Sentinel Publication date: 2011-04-27 –WASHINGTON – In a historic break with an almost century-old tradition, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a news conference today.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online Publication date: 2011-04-27 –NEW YORK – The dollar is mostly lower as investors wait for word from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke following a two-day policy-making meeting.

April 25-(Source: The Macon Telegraph By Shelby G. Spires) -If the U.S. had to put its debt on a charge card, its bill would be increasing at a rate of about $125 billion each month.

Source: Commercial Appeal, The Publication date: 2011-04-23 Arrival time: 2011-04-25 –WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department said Friday that an investment program set up during the financial crisis to buy toxic assets from banks is showing a $1.7 billion gain.

(Source: ABC News By SUSANNA KIM) – The Iowa Attorney General’s office is reviewing the case of a couple who paid virtually nothing for their home because of a century-old Iowa law.

April 21-(Source: The News-Herald By John Arthur Hutchison) – When Congress needed to make a deal to avoid a government shutdown earlier this month, federal lawmakers made many funding cuts.

INDIANAPOLIS -(Source: The Times By Dan Carden) – Legislation establishing a process intended to keep local governments out of bankruptcy was changed Wednesday by the Indiana House to not allow local governments to file for bankruptcy.

LYNN (Source: By Thor Jourgensen / The Daily Item) – Claiming attorney David Zak did little to keep them away from foreclosure and charged them $4,500 for his services, Emilio Jimenez and his wife Dominica Mendez joined other foreclosure protesters [...]

(Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer By Mark Fazlollah and Jennifer Lin) – The fired Philadelphia Housing Authority executive director, Carl R. Greene, has warned in a legal filing that giving federal investigators information about his conversations with lawyers defending PHA in [...]

(Source: ABC 7 News Marc Stewart) – An Arvada man’s foreclosed home was auctioned off, while he was on the phone with the bank.

(Source: Wall Street Journal BY PETER J. WALLISON) – As Congress prepares to debate how to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, those in politics and real estate who support a government-backed housing finance system are predicting calamity. Institutional investors, [...]

(Source: Star Tribune, Minneapolis By Eric Wieffering) – Manifest destiny didn’t come cheaply, and maybe that explains why the United States emerged as one nation, under debt.