WEEKEND EDITION, SEPTEMBER 17 SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

ACADEMIA ADVERSARIES ADVOCATES BLOGOSPHERE LEGAL LEGISLATE OP-ED HOMEOWNERS NEWS ForeclosureGate.org Is A Public Service Homeowner Coalition and Cooperative, Created To Exchange News And Information And To Advance Justice For American Homeowners

Wall Street, Washington, the press corps, everyone sits and stares like so many dumb cows Striding barefoot through the fields of his farm in the Adirondacks, S. B. Lewis, known as Sandy, is talking without pause, gesturing this way and that in a soft summer rain. That Mr. Lewis is in a rage is not unusual. A few days earlier, he had watched as the computerized stock trading of Knight Capital ran amok. He is just warming up. News reports have revealed a world he knows intimately. Goldman Sachs pays vast fines to avoid prosecution for mortgage securities fraud. Barclays manipulates interest rates. The Senate exposes HSBC as a racketeering enterprise, laundering money for drug cartels. Banks are laden with bad assets.

Foreclosures rise in August The flood of foreclosures now coursing through the judicial states has swelled in the aftermath of the $25 billion foreclosure abuse settlement, signed off on this past April, that laid out a clear path of conduct for lenders when pursuing foreclosures. That caused many banks to push more cases though the foreclosure pipeline.

Stopping Foreclosures, A Local Action Plan Foreclosures remain at the heart of the economic crisis that has plagued the United States since the collapse of the financial markets in 2008. Experts agree that the country will not be able to solve the crisis without addressing the foreclosure epidemic. And as bad as it is, we are not even halfway through.

How Investors Are Skewing Home Price Recovery What is playing a strong role is a combination of investor activity in the market and supply, both of which have been falling. Listed inventory in July was down nearly 24 percent from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Why Housing? Our short version of the bubble is that financial intermediaries exploited private-label securitization's information problems to inflate a bubble that produced short-term gains for them through fee-based income. In other words, this was a man-made bubble, not the product of government affordable housing policy.

FICO dispels myth: Short sale may damage credit score as much as foreclosure Turns out that a short sale doesn't protect a homeowner's credit score as much as originally thought. This blog post from FICO is several days old, but still too good to give a miss. It's title asks: "Are short sales really that bad?" The answer, they explain, is yes. While it is true that short sales represent slightly better risk than foreclosures, the post states, they do not.

Schneiderman Investigating Bain Capital, Amid No News of Any Investigation on Mortgage Fraud Task Force As you may know, back in late January New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman agreed to a relatively toothless settlement over mortgage servicing and foreclosure issues in exchange for becoming a co-chair of a task force designed to investigate and prosecute fraud in the securitization market.

Occupy activists paint picket spotlight foreclosure crisis

fence

to

A break for those facing foreclosure At a meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted that some stimulus action could be coming next month that could bring mortgage rates even more. With 1.5 million properties in foreclosure, two big banks rolled out test programs to keep people in their homes.

Occupy Eugene could not have picked a more iconic activity for a Labor Day service project meant to draw attention to the U.S. foreclosure crisis. Some 20 activist volunteers turned out Monday at the groups current occupation site: the yard of a Eugene house in foreclosure.

>>>>>>> Mortgage Seizure Via Eminent Domain For Community Stabilization Debate And News Updated Daily http://paper.li/EmDomainDebate/1342319964

Page 1 of 5

WEEKEND EDITION, SEPTEMBER 17 SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

ACADEMIA ADVERSARIES ADVOCATES BLOGOSPHERE LEGAL LEGISLATE OP-ED HOMEOWNERS NEWS ForeclosureGate.org Is A Public Service Homeowner Coalition and Cooperative, Created To Exchange News And Information And To Advance Justice For American Homeowners

WA State court ruling deals blow to U.S. bank mortgage system [MERS] The highest court in the state of Washington recently ruled that a company that has foreclosed on millions of mortgages nationwide can be sued for fraud, a decision that could cause a new round of trouble for the nation's banks. The ruling is one of the first to allow consumers to seek damages from Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a company set up by the nation's major banks, if they can prove they were harmed.

WI Mayor wants state to turn over foreclosure settlement money In February, state officials announced that Wisconsin would be receiving $140 million as part of a $25 billion settlement. In April, Walker signed off on a plan in which the state kept $24.3 million of the estimated $30.2 million it received in direct payments to help plug the state's budget gap. Then in June, Atty. Gen. J.B. Van Hollen said $1.3 million would be used for raises and bonuses for state prosecutors.

Eminent Domain: Finding a fix for foreclosure mess A San Francisco investment firm is poised to take on Wall Street and the mortgage industry with an unprecedented proposal to have local government use eminent domain to acquire underwater mortgages. Mortgage Resolution Partners has pitched the idea to municipalities across the U.S. hardest hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, including Sacramento, Berkeley, Las Vegas and Chicago..

Requesting County Recorder of Deeds help stopping foreclosures Counties can stop foreclosures from decimating their communities. Spurred by citizen action groups, they can take action at the local level. Under our proposed solution, the county would not seize the title to the real property from the homeowner but rather the contract rights held by the mortgage holder (like a bank).

Occupy Wall Street Begins New Organizing Campaign as Strike Debt Launches I wanted to add some coverage of this new offshoot of the Occupy movement, in the vein of Occupy Our Homes, the successful effort to fight foreclosures through direct action and pressure on individual banks. As you may know, this effort helped dozens of people all around the country save their homes and get loan modifications.

The Blame Game: Treasury Department Blames Banks for Little Foreclosure Progress However, as of May 2012, only one million homeowners had received a loan modification under the program. When asked why the programs weren't as successful as estimated, the Treasury Department blamed the banks for not implementing them.

State foreclosure hotline receives more than 7,800 calls Attorney General Martha Coakley said more than 7,800 borrowers have called the HomeCorps hotline since April, reflecting the scope of the foreclosure problem in Massachusetts. The HomeCorps program is the first of its kind designed to provide direct support to distressed homeowners.

Foreclosure California

Redemption

Process

in

Corporate Profits Hit An All-Time High, Wages Hit An All-Time Low In case you need more confirmation that the US economy is out of balance, here are three charts for you. 1) Corporate profit margins just hit an all-time high. Companies are making more per dollar of sales than they ever have before. (And some people are still saying that companies are suffering from "too much regulation" and "too many taxes."

Judicial foreclosures are on the rise in California and unlike a trustees sale in which a lender is likely to get the property due to a deficiency judgment, a judicial foreclosure provides a redemption period for the delinquent borrower. Time for redemption depends on whether there is a deficiency liability; three months if so, and one year if not.

>>>>>>> Mortgage Seizure Via Eminent Domain For Community Stabilization Debate And News Updated Daily http://paper.li/EmDomainDebate/1342319964

Page 2 of 5

WEEKEND EDITION, SEPTEMBER 17 SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

ACADEMIA ADVERSARIES ADVOCATES BLOGOSPHERE LEGAL LEGISLATE OP-ED HOMEOWNERS NEWS ForeclosureGate.org Is A Public Service Homeowner Coalition and Cooperative, Created To Exchange News And Information And To Advance Justice For American Homeowners

CA: Ragland Vs. US Bank, Opinion, Certified For Publication Applying basic contract and tort law, we reverse the judgment in favor of U.S. Bank on the causes of action for negligent misrepresentation, fraud, violation of section 2924g(d), and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Ragland produced evidence creating triable issues of fact as to whether Downey Savings induced her to miss a loan payment, thereby wrongfully placing her loan in foreclosure, and whether she suffered damages as a result. We affirm summary adjudication of the causes of action for breach of oral contract, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and rescission. Nevada Desert Drowning as Underwater Loans Hurt Schools, Police A 57 percent drop in value since 2006 trapped two out of three Las Vegans in homes worth less than they paid and caused a steep decline in property-tax collections that -- in a state without income tax -- comprise a third of city and county budgets. Multimillion-dollar property-tax losses required Clark County probation officers to. Housing policy virtually a no-show at both parties' conventions Call it the political elephant in the room: 1.2 million families across the country are at some stage of foreclosure, 3.8 million homeowners have been foreclosed upon since September 2008, 11.4 million are underwater on their mortgages and $6.5 trillion in home equity has been lost by owners since 2005.

New Jersey: Lesniak Urges Governor To Take Action To Mitigate Foreclosure Crisis Following news reports that New Jersey rose past Nevada in the second quarter of this year in the number of mortgage defaults, Senate Economic Growth Committee Chairman Raymond J. Lesniak today said that Gov. Christie and his administration have not done enough for people already in foreclosure or facing down foreclosure.

Republican Dan Lungren Working to Gain Support to Avoid Principal Reduction Tax Time Bomb Heres some good news in an otherwise dispiriting Congressional session. A Republican House member is trying to accumulate support for a bill that would extend the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act by three years. As Ive been reporting, a failure to extend this law would mean that all debt forgiveness.

Facing Foreclosure In Massachusetts? Contact the HomeCorps Hotline Addressing the foreclosure crisis is one of the most important things we can do to restore a healthy economy. Utilizing funds stemming from the recent nationwide state-federal settlement over unlawful foreclosures, the Attorney Generals Office is launching a statewide foreclosure prevention and borrower support initiative entitled the HomeCorps.

The Bipartisan Commission

Policy

Centers

Housing

The Bipartisan Policy Centers Housing Commission aims to reform the nations housing policy by crafting a package of realistic and actionable policy recommendations that consider the near-term and address the long-term challenges in the sector. Making a continual effort to include both Republican and Democratic perspectives in its outreach and research.

WA non-profits to split $43.8M for housing relief Thirteen Washington non-profit organizations will split the $43.8 million the state is getting from the federal government to help with foreclosure relief.The money is part of the settlement with the country's five largest mortgage companies. Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna.

Protesters Stage "Occuparty" at Foreclosed Home in Van Nuys A "tent city" has sprung up in the 14000 block of Leadwell Drive for what Occupy San Fernando organizers are calling an "occuparty." They are there in support of the Hernandez family, who tells KTLA they have lived in the neighborhood for about seven years.

>>>>>>> Mortgage Seizure Via Eminent Domain For Community Stabilization Debate And News Updated Daily http://paper.li/EmDomainDebate/1342319964

Page 3 of 5

WEEKEND EDITION, SEPTEMBER 17 SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

ACADEMIA ADVERSARIES ADVOCATES BLOGOSPHERE LEGAL LEGISLATE OP-ED HOMEOWNERS NEWS ForeclosureGate.org Is A Public Service Homeowner Coalition and Cooperative, Created To Exchange News And Information And To Advance Justice For American Homeowners

WA STATE SUPREME COURT: "Simply put, if MERS does not hold the note, it is not a lawful beneficiary" Page 3: "A plain reading of the statute leads us to conclude that only the actual holder of the promissory note or other instrument evidencing the obligation may be a beneficiary with the power to appoint a trustee to proceed with a nonjudicial foreclosure on real property. Simply put, if MERS does not hold the note, it is not a lawful beneficiary.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announces Consumer Advisory Board members The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today announced the appointment of 25 consumer experts from outside the federal government to its newly-formed Consumer Advisory Board which will provide advice to CFPB leadership on a broad range of consumer financial issues and emerging market trends.

Foreclosure Continue

Crisis:

Buzz

Fades,

Protests

Dozens of disgruntled homeowners walked along East 42nd St. in Manhattan last Thursday afternoon shouting, "Stand up, fight back," and "Freddie, Freddie, you can't hide, we can see your greedy side." Some spoke in hope that someone, other than themselves, would hear their voice. Their target was Freddie Mac, a federally chartered, shareholder-owned corporation that.

CA Enacts Foreclosure Legislation Codifying and Extending Provisions of the National Mortgage Settlement Earlier this year, the state attorneys general from California and 48 other states, the District of Columbia, and federal agencies entered into the $25 billion National Mortgage Settlement (NMS) with the five largest mortgage loan servicers (Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase and Ally). Mortgage loan servicers collect from the.

Realtors group aims to influence politics in new ways The National Assn. of Realtors, a political heavyweight with a million-plus members, has embarked on two initiatives to ensure that when key votes are taken at all levels of government, the Realtors' point of view will be heard loud and clear. As part of a broader consumer outreach strategy, the Realtors group for the first time will engage consumers directly through emails.

Revisiting Statements Around the Mortgage Settlement A little over six months ago, negotiations over the mortgage settlement concluded with a 49 state agreement to address robosigning and other predatory mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices. This was a pivotal moment, because it was possibly the last leverage point to look into problems with the securitization process that led to the financial crisis.

Foreclosure: Bank Owned Blight Take a look around your neighborhood, any neighborhood in Amerika and you will see vacant and abandoned homes that are falling into disrepair. Many times the homes have been abandoned by their rightful owners and many times the homes are languishing in a nether worldforeclosure not yet completed with ownership transferred to the bank that lied and committed fraud, fabricated some alleged right.

Advice for Arizonans on brink of foreclosure Here's some updated advice from one of Arizona's top housing advocates, Patricia Garcia Duarte, chief executive of Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix. Her first piece of advice for homeowners facing losing their homes is to call the Arizona Foreclosure Prevention Hotline....

$3.5 Million Settlement in Mortgage Bias Case A mortgage company has agreed to pay more than $3.5 million to settle allegations by federal prosecutors that it charged higher interest rates and fees on mortgages to nonwhite borrowers than to whites with similar financial backgrounds, federal officials announced on Tuesday.

>>>>>>> Mortgage Seizure Via Eminent Domain For Community Stabilization Debate And News Updated Daily http://paper.li/EmDomainDebate/1342319964

Page 4 of 5

WEEKEND EDITION, SEPTEMBER 17 SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

ACADEMIA ADVERSARIES ADVOCATES BLOGOSPHERE LEGAL LEGISLATE OP-ED HOMEOWNERS NEWS ForeclosureGate.org Is A Public Service Homeowner Coalition and Cooperative, Created To Exchange News And Information And To Advance Justice For American Homeowners

Please Return The 'Lost Or Stolen Tweets' To The #EminentDomain Hashtag. Thank You What happened to the missing Tweets? Had the missing Tweets been reported to Twitter as inappropriate? Do the Twitter police have the missing Tweets in a 'holding cell', for observation? Does someone own the #EminentDomain Twitter hashtag and possess 'get the hell out of here' power? Who is authorized to remove Tweets from what appear to be public Twitter hashtags? Are opposing opinions not tolerated? If not, why not and who decides? Was foul play involved? Surely there must be a simple explanation.

Quashing search for housing fix It's not often that Washington, D.C., gets excited about an idea being kicked around in the Inland Empire, but this is different. The prospect of a joint powers authority using eminent domain to seize mortgages and have them refinanced at current market value has thrown a scare into Wall Street and the national real estate industry.

Equity Advocates and the Obama Administration Talk Solutions for Foreclosure Yesterday, top officials from the White House hosted a forum in Washington, DC with over 150 homeowners, faith leaders, and equity advocates from across the nation to share ideas for protecting affordable housing, stopping the foreclosure crisis, and strengthening our communities.

Bank files lawsuit challenging County foreclosure law

St.Louis

American Bankers Association Creates Slush Fund for Secret Campaign Spending The American Bankers Association, a trade group for thousands of banks headed by former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, voted to start a legal entity for this federal campaign cycle, adding millions of dollars into an already overstuffed election. The ABA entity would reportedly donate to existing Super PACs, so that the member banks can keep their.

A commercial bank on Tuesday filed a classaction suit against St. Louis County, claiming the county overstepped its authority with a new ordinance that requires banks to participate in formal mediation before foreclosing on county residents. The Business Bank of St. Louis filed the suit in county circuit court on behalf of 272 commercial banks throughout the state.

Prepare For The Coming Housing Collapse: Part II In my last BUSINESS INSIDER article posted in May, I explained why a housing collapse in major metros was coming and why you needed to prepare now. Since then, Wall Street economists, analysts and other pundits have smugly noted that a consensus has been reached that housing is bottoming. So its time for me to show you why this consensus view is pure rubbish.

Federal Judge Rejects Out of Control GMAC Executive Bonus Packages No one really knows just how many billions of our taxpayer dollars GMAC received. What is clear is that even after receiving billions from Amerikan taxpayers, GMAC continues to plow right ahead American families into the throwing street. Meanwhile, GMAC filed bankruptcy in an effort to flush out obligations to creditors. But what about relief for the families that bailed them out? Right, once again we get nothing.

Vast majority of retail investors surveyed misidentify mortgage bond disclosures Five years after risky mortgage-backed securitization products helped set off the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, eight in 10 U.S. retail investors still cannot recognize one in trade disclosures, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission study.

Banks labeled 'slumlords' over foreclosure neglect U.S. Bank is the country's fifth-largest commercial bank, with 3,000 branches in 25 states. It's also "one of the largest slumlords in the City of Los Angeles," according to the L.A. city attorney's office.

>>>>>>> Mortgage Seizure Via Eminent Domain For Community Stabilization Debate And News Updated Daily http://paper.li/EmDomainDebate/1342319964

Page 5 of 5