foreclosure

New fronts are opening in the foreclosure mess.

A lot of people have wondered why no one has gone to jail over what by commonsense standards is fraudulent activity. The possibility that the violations were indeed criminal is finally being investigated. From the Washington Post:

Federal law enforcement officials are investigating possible criminal violations in connection with the national foreclosure crisis, examining whether financial firms broke federal laws when they filed fraudulent court documents to seize people’s homes, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Obama administration’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is in the early stages of an investigation into whether banks and other companies that submitted flawed paperwork in state foreclosure proceedings may also have misled federal housing agencies, which now own or insure a majority of home loans, according to these sources.

The task force, which includes investigators from the Justice Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies, is also looking into whether the submission of flawed paperwork during the foreclosure process violated mail or wire fraud laws. Financial fraud cases often involve these statutes.

Yves here. On the one hand, I would not underestimate the ability of Team Obama to give the banking industry a free pass when tough action is warranted. On the other hand, there is a proud tradition of the Federal government rousing itself when measure by the states run the risk of showing it to have been complacent to the point of negligence (one well known example is when state securities law suits force the generally lapdog SEC to take swing into gear). So if state or even private lawsuits expose enough damaging material, it will be hard for this task force to sit on its hands.

On another front, the ACLU is starting to obtain information to determine whether foreclosures in Florida (the so called rocket docket) violated Constitutional “due process” requirements:

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Florida today filed public records requests with judicial officials in Florida to determine whether homeowners are having their constitutional rights violated during foreclosure proceedings and being unlawfully removed from their homes.

In Florida, where almost half a million foreclosure cases are pending, the state legislature recently spent over $9 million to create special foreclosure courts, staffed by retired judges, with the intent of speeding through the state’s backlog of such cases. But recent media reports in Florida and around the country, which reveal rampant error and fraud in the foreclosure process, have shown that courts should take particular care with foreclosure cases. Instead, in the rush to push foreclosure cases through the courts, Florida may be taking shortcuts and, in the process, forsaking constitutionally-required due process protections….

Filed with the Office of the State Court Administrator and the chief judges of all 20 of Florida’s circuit courts, the requests seek access to, among other things, all documents related to special court systems created to dispose of foreclosure cases and the rules and procedures in place that govern those systems…

Copies of the ACLU’s public records requests are available online at: www.aclu.org/racial-justice/aclu-seeks-information-about-constitutionality-florida-foreclosure-courts

Yves here. These initiatives are only in the early stages, but both show that the foreclosure crisis is moving from narrow legal issues to much bigger ones.

Response from a Banker:

You ungrateful louts!

We bankers worked hard to give the great unwashed masses one helluva “going into bankruptcy” party that lasted for almost four years! We gave a bunch of worthless lumpens an opportunity to live in a house well beyond their means. Now that we have to separate them from the houses and herd them back into the flea infested tenements appropriate to their life’s station, some bottom feeding lawyers have the gall to suggest we don’t have a “legal” right to foreclose. Well I’ll be gob-smacked if that’s not enough to make a grown man cry. As GWB responded when asked about what the Constitution might have to say he retorted, “It’s just a goddamed piece of paper.” We bankers know what we know. And we know these houses belong to our RMBS whether we did everything according to your outmoded rules or not. They belong to us. Get used to it. It’s hard enough to have to explain to some turbaned oil sheik why the 10 million dollars of the RMBS he bought are now worth half that let alone trying to explain why we might not even own the houses that backed the loans. But we want to be fair. So we paid a little overtime plus incentives for a bunch of our backoffice people in India to review the files. By golly they didn’t find a single problem except for one fellow who found over half his cases were problematic. The only good thing about that was we only had to pay him half what the others got. And then we fired him since it was obvious he was a trouble maker.

We bankers are geniuses when we bother to think about it. We managed to turn an $80,000 rathole in the ghetto of Pittsburgh, CA (and that’s 90% of it) into a $280,000 palace in just three years and then sold it to a poor Hispanic cook working at a retirement home. He makes $45,000 a year and his wife works at McDonald’s making $20,000. You should have seen the happy looks on their three kids’ faces at the housewarming. We got them into a great negam loan that only cost $650 a month for the first three years. Sure, it ballooned to $1400 but it looked like that house would be worth nearly a million by then. At least that’s what the Iranian real estate salesman said. And he was their best friend so they certainly thought he was giving an honest opinion. How could he have guessed it would auction for $55,000 three years later? Life is uncertain. And now they’re back in a two bedroom apartment with cots and a sleeper in the living room. I like to think this experience has whetted their appetite for a better condition of living now that they’ve had a first hand experience at “living the dream.” Unfortunately, the refinance mortgage they took out two years in for a half percent better rate didn’t have the “jingle keys” provision so they’re paying back the $250,000 they owe the bank week by week. But you know what? They made a deal with us and they signed the papers. We didn’t have a gun to their head. A deal’s a deal. You gotta respect the law in these matters. That’s very important for you to understand. We expect you to stand by your commitments and read the fine print.

You need to understand that we’re just middle men who go out and put deals together for our “clients.” Our clients are primarily the Sovereign Wealth Funds all sitting on piles of cash accumulating from the obscene profits being made on oil. That money has to go somewhere and it’s our job to create investment opportunities that at least appear to have a better rate of return than T-Bills. We’re just working schmucks like anyone else. Maybe paid a little better – but we earn every dollar! It’s hard working with fools on both sides of the deal. Our tongues are bloody nearly every day.

You all have the gall to want to “rein in” the investment professionals at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. Do you realize what would happen if you had your way? If our great investment bank’s operations were curtailed, the clients would just go elsewhere to find someone willing to put together a great money making deal like, for instance, buying a 75 year lease on Chicago’s parking meter operation. Suppose that deal hadn’t gone through. An hour’s parking would have remained at two bits instead of a buck. By jacking the rates, extending the hours and making the meters operate seven days a week instead of five we are doing our part in reducing traffic conjestion. And what thanks do we get? None. Shows you just how sincere these “green” people are. All they can do is belly ache about the loss of street fairs because the new meter owners demand fair compensation for the lost revenue. It’s obvious these “street fairs” are losing propositions or they’d make enough money to pay the franchise with money left over. We’re promoting social efficiency by eliminating these economically sterile activities. We have stores if the lumpenfolk want to buy things. In fact we have more “store per person” than any other country in the world – nearly 25 square feet of it. We need to generate sales in those stores so the renters can pay back the CMBS holders. Street fairs are diverting dollars to sales that do not benefit our clients and, therefore, do not benefit our country.

My suggestion is that you folks get back out there and start spending again because, face it, that’s the only task you’re really fit to perform. You are the Great American Consumer and it should make your chest swell with pride. Your consumption is a vital part of the wonderful world wealth making machine. China makes stuff and you consume it and digest it and drop it out your backsides. We have tried to keep you supplied with enough dollars so that you can do your job. But now you have reneged on your obligations. You have failed to heed your wonderful V.P. Dick Cheney’s advice to hold hands and buy an SUV. There is a price to be paid for your stubborn refusal to spend beyond your means. You are now “little people.”

So stop whining about your government catering to the banks. We fund your government. You bitch and moan at the thought of any tax increase so your government has to come to us, hat in hand, every year for a couple trillion dollars in loans. You think a government in that kind of financial condition is in any position to tell us how to run our business? Just keep in mind that the Fed is an independent organization. In fact it can’t even be audited. I advise you entertain a certain meekness when dealing with the organization that owns your government and that your uncharitable understanding of the situation puts the cart before the horse.

bench craft company

For Fox <b>News</b>, Most Viewers Ever for a Midterm Election - NYTimes.com

Fox News, a favorite of Republicans, averaged 6.96 million viewers in prime time on Tuesday, according to ratings results from the Nielsen Company. Fox more than doubled CNN's numbers, which averaged 2.42 million viewers, and more than ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: How good is Sprint 4G in NYC?

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Why Facebook Deals is Bad <b>News</b> for Foursquare - Techland - TIME.com

Foursquare just got Facebooked. And it's more than just a poking. It might be a body blow to one of the location-based service's killer features. When I first covered Foursquare for TIME in January, I gave the (then) pint-sized start-up ...

bench craft company

New fronts are opening in the foreclosure mess.

A lot of people have wondered why no one has gone to jail over what by commonsense standards is fraudulent activity. The possibility that the violations were indeed criminal is finally being investigated. From the Washington Post:

Federal law enforcement officials are investigating possible criminal violations in connection with the national foreclosure crisis, examining whether financial firms broke federal laws when they filed fraudulent court documents to seize people’s homes, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Obama administration’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is in the early stages of an investigation into whether banks and other companies that submitted flawed paperwork in state foreclosure proceedings may also have misled federal housing agencies, which now own or insure a majority of home loans, according to these sources.

The task force, which includes investigators from the Justice Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies, is also looking into whether the submission of flawed paperwork during the foreclosure process violated mail or wire fraud laws. Financial fraud cases often involve these statutes.

Yves here. On the one hand, I would not underestimate the ability of Team Obama to give the banking industry a free pass when tough action is warranted. On the other hand, there is a proud tradition of the Federal government rousing itself when measure by the states run the risk of showing it to have been complacent to the point of negligence (one well known example is when state securities law suits force the generally lapdog SEC to take swing into gear). So if state or even private lawsuits expose enough damaging material, it will be hard for this task force to sit on its hands.

On another front, the ACLU is starting to obtain information to determine whether foreclosures in Florida (the so called rocket docket) violated Constitutional “due process” requirements:

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Florida today filed public records requests with judicial officials in Florida to determine whether homeowners are having their constitutional rights violated during foreclosure proceedings and being unlawfully removed from their homes.

In Florida, where almost half a million foreclosure cases are pending, the state legislature recently spent over $9 million to create special foreclosure courts, staffed by retired judges, with the intent of speeding through the state’s backlog of such cases. But recent media reports in Florida and around the country, which reveal rampant error and fraud in the foreclosure process, have shown that courts should take particular care with foreclosure cases. Instead, in the rush to push foreclosure cases through the courts, Florida may be taking shortcuts and, in the process, forsaking constitutionally-required due process protections….

Filed with the Office of the State Court Administrator and the chief judges of all 20 of Florida’s circuit courts, the requests seek access to, among other things, all documents related to special court systems created to dispose of foreclosure cases and the rules and procedures in place that govern those systems…

Copies of the ACLU’s public records requests are available online at: www.aclu.org/racial-justice/aclu-seeks-information-about-constitutionality-florida-foreclosure-courts

Yves here. These initiatives are only in the early stages, but both show that the foreclosure crisis is moving from narrow legal issues to much bigger ones.

Response from a Banker:

You ungrateful louts!

We bankers worked hard to give the great unwashed masses one helluva “going into bankruptcy” party that lasted for almost four years! We gave a bunch of worthless lumpens an opportunity to live in a house well beyond their means. Now that we have to separate them from the houses and herd them back into the flea infested tenements appropriate to their life’s station, some bottom feeding lawyers have the gall to suggest we don’t have a “legal” right to foreclose. Well I’ll be gob-smacked if that’s not enough to make a grown man cry. As GWB responded when asked about what the Constitution might have to say he retorted, “It’s just a goddamed piece of paper.” We bankers know what we know. And we know these houses belong to our RMBS whether we did everything according to your outmoded rules or not. They belong to us. Get used to it. It’s hard enough to have to explain to some turbaned oil sheik why the 10 million dollars of the RMBS he bought are now worth half that let alone trying to explain why we might not even own the houses that backed the loans. But we want to be fair. So we paid a little overtime plus incentives for a bunch of our backoffice people in India to review the files. By golly they didn’t find a single problem except for one fellow who found over half his cases were problematic. The only good thing about that was we only had to pay him half what the others got. And then we fired him since it was obvious he was a trouble maker.

We bankers are geniuses when we bother to think about it. We managed to turn an $80,000 rathole in the ghetto of Pittsburgh, CA (and that’s 90% of it) into a $280,000 palace in just three years and then sold it to a poor Hispanic cook working at a retirement home. He makes $45,000 a year and his wife works at McDonald’s making $20,000. You should have seen the happy looks on their three kids’ faces at the housewarming. We got them into a great negam loan that only cost $650 a month for the first three years. Sure, it ballooned to $1400 but it looked like that house would be worth nearly a million by then. At least that’s what the Iranian real estate salesman said. And he was their best friend so they certainly thought he was giving an honest opinion. How could he have guessed it would auction for $55,000 three years later? Life is uncertain. And now they’re back in a two bedroom apartment with cots and a sleeper in the living room. I like to think this experience has whetted their appetite for a better condition of living now that they’ve had a first hand experience at “living the dream.” Unfortunately, the refinance mortgage they took out two years in for a half percent better rate didn’t have the “jingle keys” provision so they’re paying back the $250,000 they owe the bank week by week. But you know what? They made a deal with us and they signed the papers. We didn’t have a gun to their head. A deal’s a deal. You gotta respect the law in these matters. That’s very important for you to understand. We expect you to stand by your commitments and read the fine print.

You need to understand that we’re just middle men who go out and put deals together for our “clients.” Our clients are primarily the Sovereign Wealth Funds all sitting on piles of cash accumulating from the obscene profits being made on oil. That money has to go somewhere and it’s our job to create investment opportunities that at least appear to have a better rate of return than T-Bills. We’re just working schmucks like anyone else. Maybe paid a little better – but we earn every dollar! It’s hard working with fools on both sides of the deal. Our tongues are bloody nearly every day.

You all have the gall to want to “rein in” the investment professionals at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. Do you realize what would happen if you had your way? If our great investment bank’s operations were curtailed, the clients would just go elsewhere to find someone willing to put together a great money making deal like, for instance, buying a 75 year lease on Chicago’s parking meter operation. Suppose that deal hadn’t gone through. An hour’s parking would have remained at two bits instead of a buck. By jacking the rates, extending the hours and making the meters operate seven days a week instead of five we are doing our part in reducing traffic conjestion. And what thanks do we get? None. Shows you just how sincere these “green” people are. All they can do is belly ache about the loss of street fairs because the new meter owners demand fair compensation for the lost revenue. It’s obvious these “street fairs” are losing propositions or they’d make enough money to pay the franchise with money left over. We’re promoting social efficiency by eliminating these economically sterile activities. We have stores if the lumpenfolk want to buy things. In fact we have more “store per person” than any other country in the world – nearly 25 square feet of it. We need to generate sales in those stores so the renters can pay back the CMBS holders. Street fairs are diverting dollars to sales that do not benefit our clients and, therefore, do not benefit our country.

My suggestion is that you folks get back out there and start spending again because, face it, that’s the only task you’re really fit to perform. You are the Great American Consumer and it should make your chest swell with pride. Your consumption is a vital part of the wonderful world wealth making machine. China makes stuff and you consume it and digest it and drop it out your backsides. We have tried to keep you supplied with enough dollars so that you can do your job. But now you have reneged on your obligations. You have failed to heed your wonderful V.P. Dick Cheney’s advice to hold hands and buy an SUV. There is a price to be paid for your stubborn refusal to spend beyond your means. You are now “little people.”

So stop whining about your government catering to the banks. We fund your government. You bitch and moan at the thought of any tax increase so your government has to come to us, hat in hand, every year for a couple trillion dollars in loans. You think a government in that kind of financial condition is in any position to tell us how to run our business? Just keep in mind that the Fed is an independent organization. In fact it can’t even be audited. I advise you entertain a certain meekness when dealing with the organization that owns your government and that your uncharitable understanding of the situation puts the cart before the horse.

bench craft company

For Fox <b>News</b>, Most Viewers Ever for a Midterm Election - NYTimes.com

Fox News, a favorite of Republicans, averaged 6.96 million viewers in prime time on Tuesday, according to ratings results from the Nielsen Company. Fox more than doubled CNN's numbers, which averaged 2.42 million viewers, and more than ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: How good is Sprint 4G in NYC?

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Why Facebook Deals is Bad <b>News</b> for Foursquare - Techland - TIME.com

Foursquare just got Facebooked. And it's more than just a poking. It might be a body blow to one of the location-based service's killer features. When I first covered Foursquare for TIME in January, I gave the (then) pint-sized start-up ...

bench craft company

bench craft company

bench craft company

For Fox <b>News</b>, Most Viewers Ever for a Midterm Election - NYTimes.com

Fox News, a favorite of Republicans, averaged 6.96 million viewers in prime time on Tuesday, according to ratings results from the Nielsen Company. Fox more than doubled CNN's numbers, which averaged 2.42 million viewers, and more than ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: How good is Sprint 4G in NYC?

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Why Facebook Deals is Bad <b>News</b> for Foursquare - Techland - TIME.com

Foursquare just got Facebooked. And it's more than just a poking. It might be a body blow to one of the location-based service's killer features. When I first covered Foursquare for TIME in January, I gave the (then) pint-sized start-up ...

bench craft company

New fronts are opening in the foreclosure mess.

A lot of people have wondered why no one has gone to jail over what by commonsense standards is fraudulent activity. The possibility that the violations were indeed criminal is finally being investigated. From the Washington Post:

Federal law enforcement officials are investigating possible criminal violations in connection with the national foreclosure crisis, examining whether financial firms broke federal laws when they filed fraudulent court documents to seize people’s homes, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Obama administration’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is in the early stages of an investigation into whether banks and other companies that submitted flawed paperwork in state foreclosure proceedings may also have misled federal housing agencies, which now own or insure a majority of home loans, according to these sources.

The task force, which includes investigators from the Justice Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies, is also looking into whether the submission of flawed paperwork during the foreclosure process violated mail or wire fraud laws. Financial fraud cases often involve these statutes.

Yves here. On the one hand, I would not underestimate the ability of Team Obama to give the banking industry a free pass when tough action is warranted. On the other hand, there is a proud tradition of the Federal government rousing itself when measure by the states run the risk of showing it to have been complacent to the point of negligence (one well known example is when state securities law suits force the generally lapdog SEC to take swing into gear). So if state or even private lawsuits expose enough damaging material, it will be hard for this task force to sit on its hands.

On another front, the ACLU is starting to obtain information to determine whether foreclosures in Florida (the so called rocket docket) violated Constitutional “due process” requirements:

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Florida today filed public records requests with judicial officials in Florida to determine whether homeowners are having their constitutional rights violated during foreclosure proceedings and being unlawfully removed from their homes.

In Florida, where almost half a million foreclosure cases are pending, the state legislature recently spent over $9 million to create special foreclosure courts, staffed by retired judges, with the intent of speeding through the state’s backlog of such cases. But recent media reports in Florida and around the country, which reveal rampant error and fraud in the foreclosure process, have shown that courts should take particular care with foreclosure cases. Instead, in the rush to push foreclosure cases through the courts, Florida may be taking shortcuts and, in the process, forsaking constitutionally-required due process protections….

Filed with the Office of the State Court Administrator and the chief judges of all 20 of Florida’s circuit courts, the requests seek access to, among other things, all documents related to special court systems created to dispose of foreclosure cases and the rules and procedures in place that govern those systems…

Copies of the ACLU’s public records requests are available online at: www.aclu.org/racial-justice/aclu-seeks-information-about-constitutionality-florida-foreclosure-courts

Yves here. These initiatives are only in the early stages, but both show that the foreclosure crisis is moving from narrow legal issues to much bigger ones.

Response from a Banker:

You ungrateful louts!

We bankers worked hard to give the great unwashed masses one helluva “going into bankruptcy” party that lasted for almost four years! We gave a bunch of worthless lumpens an opportunity to live in a house well beyond their means. Now that we have to separate them from the houses and herd them back into the flea infested tenements appropriate to their life’s station, some bottom feeding lawyers have the gall to suggest we don’t have a “legal” right to foreclose. Well I’ll be gob-smacked if that’s not enough to make a grown man cry. As GWB responded when asked about what the Constitution might have to say he retorted, “It’s just a goddamed piece of paper.” We bankers know what we know. And we know these houses belong to our RMBS whether we did everything according to your outmoded rules or not. They belong to us. Get used to it. It’s hard enough to have to explain to some turbaned oil sheik why the 10 million dollars of the RMBS he bought are now worth half that let alone trying to explain why we might not even own the houses that backed the loans. But we want to be fair. So we paid a little overtime plus incentives for a bunch of our backoffice people in India to review the files. By golly they didn’t find a single problem except for one fellow who found over half his cases were problematic. The only good thing about that was we only had to pay him half what the others got. And then we fired him since it was obvious he was a trouble maker.

We bankers are geniuses when we bother to think about it. We managed to turn an $80,000 rathole in the ghetto of Pittsburgh, CA (and that’s 90% of it) into a $280,000 palace in just three years and then sold it to a poor Hispanic cook working at a retirement home. He makes $45,000 a year and his wife works at McDonald’s making $20,000. You should have seen the happy looks on their three kids’ faces at the housewarming. We got them into a great negam loan that only cost $650 a month for the first three years. Sure, it ballooned to $1400 but it looked like that house would be worth nearly a million by then. At least that’s what the Iranian real estate salesman said. And he was their best friend so they certainly thought he was giving an honest opinion. How could he have guessed it would auction for $55,000 three years later? Life is uncertain. And now they’re back in a two bedroom apartment with cots and a sleeper in the living room. I like to think this experience has whetted their appetite for a better condition of living now that they’ve had a first hand experience at “living the dream.” Unfortunately, the refinance mortgage they took out two years in for a half percent better rate didn’t have the “jingle keys” provision so they’re paying back the $250,000 they owe the bank week by week. But you know what? They made a deal with us and they signed the papers. We didn’t have a gun to their head. A deal’s a deal. You gotta respect the law in these matters. That’s very important for you to understand. We expect you to stand by your commitments and read the fine print.

You need to understand that we’re just middle men who go out and put deals together for our “clients.” Our clients are primarily the Sovereign Wealth Funds all sitting on piles of cash accumulating from the obscene profits being made on oil. That money has to go somewhere and it’s our job to create investment opportunities that at least appear to have a better rate of return than T-Bills. We’re just working schmucks like anyone else. Maybe paid a little better – but we earn every dollar! It’s hard working with fools on both sides of the deal. Our tongues are bloody nearly every day.

You all have the gall to want to “rein in” the investment professionals at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. Do you realize what would happen if you had your way? If our great investment bank’s operations were curtailed, the clients would just go elsewhere to find someone willing to put together a great money making deal like, for instance, buying a 75 year lease on Chicago’s parking meter operation. Suppose that deal hadn’t gone through. An hour’s parking would have remained at two bits instead of a buck. By jacking the rates, extending the hours and making the meters operate seven days a week instead of five we are doing our part in reducing traffic conjestion. And what thanks do we get? None. Shows you just how sincere these “green” people are. All they can do is belly ache about the loss of street fairs because the new meter owners demand fair compensation for the lost revenue. It’s obvious these “street fairs” are losing propositions or they’d make enough money to pay the franchise with money left over. We’re promoting social efficiency by eliminating these economically sterile activities. We have stores if the lumpenfolk want to buy things. In fact we have more “store per person” than any other country in the world – nearly 25 square feet of it. We need to generate sales in those stores so the renters can pay back the CMBS holders. Street fairs are diverting dollars to sales that do not benefit our clients and, therefore, do not benefit our country.

My suggestion is that you folks get back out there and start spending again because, face it, that’s the only task you’re really fit to perform. You are the Great American Consumer and it should make your chest swell with pride. Your consumption is a vital part of the wonderful world wealth making machine. China makes stuff and you consume it and digest it and drop it out your backsides. We have tried to keep you supplied with enough dollars so that you can do your job. But now you have reneged on your obligations. You have failed to heed your wonderful V.P. Dick Cheney’s advice to hold hands and buy an SUV. There is a price to be paid for your stubborn refusal to spend beyond your means. You are now “little people.”

So stop whining about your government catering to the banks. We fund your government. You bitch and moan at the thought of any tax increase so your government has to come to us, hat in hand, every year for a couple trillion dollars in loans. You think a government in that kind of financial condition is in any position to tell us how to run our business? Just keep in mind that the Fed is an independent organization. In fact it can’t even be audited. I advise you entertain a certain meekness when dealing with the organization that owns your government and that your uncharitable understanding of the situation puts the cart before the horse.

bench craft company

bench craft company

For Fox <b>News</b>, Most Viewers Ever for a Midterm Election - NYTimes.com

Fox News, a favorite of Republicans, averaged 6.96 million viewers in prime time on Tuesday, according to ratings results from the Nielsen Company. Fox more than doubled CNN's numbers, which averaged 2.42 million viewers, and more than ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: How good is Sprint 4G in NYC?

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Why Facebook Deals is Bad <b>News</b> for Foursquare - Techland - TIME.com

Foursquare just got Facebooked. And it's more than just a poking. It might be a body blow to one of the location-based service's killer features. When I first covered Foursquare for TIME in January, I gave the (then) pint-sized start-up ...

bench craft company

bench craft company

For Fox <b>News</b>, Most Viewers Ever for a Midterm Election - NYTimes.com

Fox News, a favorite of Republicans, averaged 6.96 million viewers in prime time on Tuesday, according to ratings results from the Nielsen Company. Fox more than doubled CNN's numbers, which averaged 2.42 million viewers, and more than ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: How good is Sprint 4G in NYC?

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Why Facebook Deals is Bad <b>News</b> for Foursquare - Techland - TIME.com

Foursquare just got Facebooked. And it's more than just a poking. It might be a body blow to one of the location-based service's killer features. When I first covered Foursquare for TIME in January, I gave the (then) pint-sized start-up ...

bench craft company

For Fox <b>News</b>, Most Viewers Ever for a Midterm Election - NYTimes.com

Fox News, a favorite of Republicans, averaged 6.96 million viewers in prime time on Tuesday, according to ratings results from the Nielsen Company. Fox more than doubled CNN's numbers, which averaged 2.42 million viewers, and more than ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: How good is Sprint 4G in NYC?

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Why Facebook Deals is Bad <b>News</b> for Foursquare - Techland - TIME.com

Foursquare just got Facebooked. And it's more than just a poking. It might be a body blow to one of the location-based service's killer features. When I first covered Foursquare for TIME in January, I gave the (then) pint-sized start-up ...

bench craft company

For Fox <b>News</b>, Most Viewers Ever for a Midterm Election - NYTimes.com

Fox News, a favorite of Republicans, averaged 6.96 million viewers in prime time on Tuesday, according to ratings results from the Nielsen Company. Fox more than doubled CNN's numbers, which averaged 2.42 million viewers, and more than ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: How good is Sprint 4G in NYC?

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Why Facebook Deals is Bad <b>News</b> for Foursquare - Techland - TIME.com

Foursquare just got Facebooked. And it's more than just a poking. It might be a body blow to one of the location-based service's killer features. When I first covered Foursquare for TIME in January, I gave the (then) pint-sized start-up ...

bench craft company bench craft company
bench craft company

bench craft company
bench craft company

For Fox <b>News</b>, Most Viewers Ever for a Midterm Election - NYTimes.com

Fox News, a favorite of Republicans, averaged 6.96 million viewers in prime time on Tuesday, according to ratings results from the Nielsen Company. Fox more than doubled CNN's numbers, which averaged 2.42 million viewers, and more than ...

Scripting <b>News</b>: How good is Sprint 4G in NYC?

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Why Facebook Deals is Bad <b>News</b> for Foursquare - Techland - TIME.com

Foursquare just got Facebooked. And it's more than just a poking. It might be a body blow to one of the location-based service's killer features. When I first covered Foursquare for TIME in January, I gave the (then) pint-sized start-up ...

benchcraft company scam

On December 14, 2007, Maria Lauterbach disappeared in Jacksonville, NC. On January 10th of this year, local police investigators found her body and that of her unborn child buried under a fire pit in the back yard of 103 Meadow Trail in the Half Moon community, just outside the Jacksonville city limits. This week it was announced that the home, owned by Cesar Laurean and his wife, would be sold "As is, where is" at a foreclosure auction on January 5, 2009. The sale is being handled by the firm of Brock and Scott, PLLC, of nearby Wilmington, NC. A foreclosure notice set to display later in the month in the Jacksonville Daily News will detail the specifics of the house and property. From outward appearances it is a ranch style house of red brick and white siding with an attached garage.

This is just the latest twist in a case that still has far more questions than answers. Maria Lauterbach was a Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps., stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC. Maria Lauterbach began to date Cesar :Laurean in the Spring of 2007. By May, she learned that he was married to Lance Cpl. Christina Laurean, also stationed at Camp Lejeune. The Laureans have a young child together. On May 11, 2007, Maria reported to her command "two incidents of a sexual nature", and she filed a complaint with the NCIS. She was given a pregnancy test at that time and it was negative. After NCIS opened a rape investigation, Maria was reassigned to a different office and Laurean was ordered to maintain a distance from her of 1000 feet. On May 18, Laurean was interviewed by NCIS agents and denied that he had any sexual contact with her. She fell ill on June 27, and was given another pregnancy test. Her date of conception was estimated to be May 14, which was after she made the original allegations of rape, which had allegedly occurred in April. Over the summer, Maria was apparently harrassed at work by people other than Laurean. Someone keyed her car and she was slapped at one point by another Marine, according to the press conference held by Camp Lejeune officials in January of this year. The NCIS decided in October to wait until the baby was born and do a DNA test to determine if Laurean was the father before proceeding with the case. In November, Sgt. Daniel Durham let Maria Lauterbach move into his home in Midway Park because of her situation. On the day that she disappeared, there were no formal charges against Cesar Laurean at the time and he was not considered a flight risk or a danger to Maria.

Ms. Lauterbach left a note for her roommate saying that she was leaving, and disappeared December 14 from the Midway Park area, several miles from Half Moon where Laurean lived. Her car was eventually located at the bus station, where it had apparently been for several days. Questions abound about how she got from Midway Park to Laurean's home in Half Moon, and exactly how the car got back to the bus station. Did she go to his house of her own free will? To tell him that she was going UA and that the case against him would be over? It wouldn't be, of course. Once she made the allegations, his military career was over, whether he was ever convicted of any of the charges against him or not. Did they fight over that and he murdered her? And what about his wife? The District Attorney's office has repeatedly declined to charge his wife with anything. His wife presented the authorities with a note saying she was buried in the back yard and they recovered the body on January 10th. Laurean had supposedly left the note and left town the day before. The neighbors were very forthcoming with stories of how his wife came over and borrowed a shovel in the later part of December, and about the fire and how terrible it smelled and of the crowd of Marines that were present that day, also near the end of December. They also told news media of how Laurean's wife complained about having to repaint rooms of the house. To cover up the blood? After he left and before his capture, his wife was in contact with him by phone, but this is also supposedly something that is not a criminal act.

Laurean's wife is still stationed here in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune. She was recently granted leave by the Marine Corps. to travel to Mexico and visit her husband. The District Attorney's office in Onslow County agreed to not seek the death penalty and it was assumed that he would be returned here for trial shortly. However, he has appealed again on the basis of the fact that his only other sentencing option should he be found guilty is life without parole. He is petitioning the Mexican Government for assistance on the basis that this is cruel and unusual puinishment as well. He has allegedly killed a twenty year old woman and her unborn child. While NC law does not provide for a separate charge of murder for the death of an unborn baby, you really have to wonder what this guy's thought process is. He is charged with being responsible for the deaths of two people. What does HE think is appropriate punishment? Whether the first contact between them was rape or consensual, he was a married man pursuing a younger woman under his command. For those of you not familiar with military law, he was in violation of it on several fronts, besides the fact that he was apparently giving no consideration to the effect of his actions on his wife and child. This entire situation came from actions initiated by him.

So, on January 5, 2009, the scene of the crime will be sold to the highest bidder. The housing market here in Jacksonville is not in the dismal shape that it is in the rest of the country. This area is expecting an influx of at least eleven thousand permanent active duty Marines and their families in the next couple of years. New homes are going up on every empty patch of land and there is little problem selling existing ones. If a real estate company buys it with an eye to reselling it, they will have to inform any prosepective buyers of the house's history.

The crowds of sightseers and the hoards of national media reporters are long gone. The yard is overgrown with weeds that have turned brown with the recent frosts. Very little is reported on the case these days. We were reminded of it briefly a couple of times this year when other military women in the area, one of whom was also pregnant, were murdered. When asked about the case recently, DA Dewey Hudson replied that he is very busy these days preparing for fifty four other homicide cases that his office is prosecuting. The case that once occupied every newscast for days is quietly fading away. And now soon, someone else will occupy the house at 103 Meadow Trail.

On the Net: www.jdnews.com