I'm not only cutting their classes, I'm cutting Boston's as well (if you haven't noticed).
Seattle schools may hold lessons for Boston system
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Seattle Shootout
Sunday Globe Special: Seattle Police Under Scrutiny
Monday, October 29, 2012
Sunday Globe Special: Patrick For President
Nothing like putting the cart before the horse:
"Problems at home could hamper Patrick’s ambitions" by Glen Johnson | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
Governor Deval Patrick participated in a bus tour for President Obama’s reelection campaign this weekend, but events back home are a reminder that the road to the White House — for Obama now and, potentially, him in the future — is littered with deep potholes.
The still-unfolding state drug lab case, and the revelation that a state-regulated Massachusetts company was distributing tainted steroids causing deaths across the country, have the potential to mar Patrick’s aura of executive leadership.
See: Mass. Drug Labs a Mess
That will be his calling card when he leaves office in 2014 and returns to the business world or, potentially, seeks higher office as a presidential candidate in 2016.
The governor, a prominent Obama surrogate, went to North Carolina on Friday to rally campaign staffers and volunteers both in the banking center of Charlotte and the capital of Raleigh.
He then spent Saturday making whistle-stop visits to three Virginia colleges: Hampton University, Old Dominion, and William & Mary.
University of Richmond Law School professor Carl Tobias says deploying Patrick in such a manner makes perfect sense, given his dynamic speaking style and the reaction he stirred with his address at the Democratic National Convention.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that the Obama folks are hoping to have very strong student support. That part of the state has a lot of students and it’s a heavy voting area, so he’s likely to be very helpful there,” said Tobias.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Lip-Smacking Debt Collectors
Sure is a hard lesson learned, 'eh, kids?
A campaign statement announcing Patrick’s participation read like one that could have been issued by his press staff back at the State House.
Obama “believes in investing in our future by reforming our schools, producing more homegrown energy, rebuilding our roads, bridges and broadband systems, and accelerating American innovation,” it said.
Where ya' been the last four years?
The “three I’s” in the governor’s own stump speech are investment, infrastructure, and innovation, as in making the spending decisions necessary to build a better-educated workforce and the industries vital to a competitive economy.
The challenge is balancing the work on the road with the problems back at home.
From managing the state budget through a recession to fueling growth industries such as biotech, Patrick has assembled a record over six years in office that would make him an odds-on favorite for reelection were he to seek a third term — something he has already said he will not do.
But in a possible future campaign for the presidency, or even a confirmation for, say, a Supreme Court nomination, problems with the state Parole Board exposed after the killing of Woburn Police Office John “Jack” Maguire, or the more recent drug cases, can mar Patrick’s leadership narrative.
I'm so tired of public relations propaganda.
The Annie Dookhan case carries the specter of freeing more than 1,000 convicted drug offenders who could commit fresh crimes. The legal system from which the Harvard Law graduate emanates, and which he could join as a justice, for example, faces an epic trek to recovery.
Meanwhile, New England Compounding Center’s distribution of tainted steroids is replete with similarly eye-catching numbers. Already more than a dozen people have died, and there is a potential that some 14,000 more people are at risk for fungal meningitis.
The twin perils underscore why the governor moved swiftly in each instance.
He brought in David Meier, a respected former prosecutor now doing criminal defense work, to oversee the investigation into the drug lab case. Meier briefed reporters on Friday while Patrick traveled.
And the oft-placid Patrick did not equivocate this past week when he accused New England Compounding of misleading state regulators by performing work outside the scope of its license.
Both the governor’s official and political staffs say that going forward, he will not be distracted even by the time he is spending prospecting for Obama — and raising his own national profile. It starts with a daily 7:45 a.m. conference call with his staff and continues with e-mails, phone calls, and meetings through the work week and weekend.
“The governor is very aware that he has a day job,” said Alex Goldstein, who runs Patrick’s political committee.
“He has been very action-oriented, and people see he has been quick and decisive and responding with the full force of the tools at his disposal.”
--more--"
"Governor Patrick’s trips for Obama draw fire; As governor travels the country, critics say there’s plenty he could be doing here" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
HAMPTON, Va. — This is the glamorous life of Governor Deval Patrick, campaign surrogate for his friend, President Obama.
On a swing through two college campuses in this battleground state on Saturday, the governor spoke to small crowds, shook hands at Obama campaign offices, and posed for photographs.
The governor has been traveling the country like this since January, attending dozens of Democratic events from Washington State to Iowa to South Carolina. Now, with polls in the presidential race tightening and problems mounting at home, his travel has taken on added sense of urgency and an edge of political peril....
The governor said his next trip may be to Hofstra University on Long Island to join the media “spin room” after the next presidential debate on Tuesday....
The governor, who was flying home to Massachusetts on Saturday night, said he is not sure where else he may be sent in the coming days. “I go where the campaign wants me,” he said. “It all blurs.”
Who is he serving, Massachusetts residents?
--more--"
He won't be getting my vote.
"Problems at home could hamper Patrick’s ambitions" by Glen Johnson | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
Governor Deval Patrick participated in a bus tour for President Obama’s reelection campaign this weekend, but events back home are a reminder that the road to the White House — for Obama now and, potentially, him in the future — is littered with deep potholes.
The still-unfolding state drug lab case, and the revelation that a state-regulated Massachusetts company was distributing tainted steroids causing deaths across the country, have the potential to mar Patrick’s aura of executive leadership.
See: Mass. Drug Labs a Mess
That will be his calling card when he leaves office in 2014 and returns to the business world or, potentially, seeks higher office as a presidential candidate in 2016.
The governor, a prominent Obama surrogate, went to North Carolina on Friday to rally campaign staffers and volunteers both in the banking center of Charlotte and the capital of Raleigh.
He then spent Saturday making whistle-stop visits to three Virginia colleges: Hampton University, Old Dominion, and William & Mary.
University of Richmond Law School professor Carl Tobias says deploying Patrick in such a manner makes perfect sense, given his dynamic speaking style and the reaction he stirred with his address at the Democratic National Convention.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that the Obama folks are hoping to have very strong student support. That part of the state has a lot of students and it’s a heavy voting area, so he’s likely to be very helpful there,” said Tobias.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Lip-Smacking Debt Collectors
Sure is a hard lesson learned, 'eh, kids?
A campaign statement announcing Patrick’s participation read like one that could have been issued by his press staff back at the State House.
Obama “believes in investing in our future by reforming our schools, producing more homegrown energy, rebuilding our roads, bridges and broadband systems, and accelerating American innovation,” it said.
Where ya' been the last four years?
The “three I’s” in the governor’s own stump speech are investment, infrastructure, and innovation, as in making the spending decisions necessary to build a better-educated workforce and the industries vital to a competitive economy.
The challenge is balancing the work on the road with the problems back at home.
From managing the state budget through a recession to fueling growth industries such as biotech, Patrick has assembled a record over six years in office that would make him an odds-on favorite for reelection were he to seek a third term — something he has already said he will not do.
But in a possible future campaign for the presidency, or even a confirmation for, say, a Supreme Court nomination, problems with the state Parole Board exposed after the killing of Woburn Police Office John “Jack” Maguire, or the more recent drug cases, can mar Patrick’s leadership narrative.
I'm so tired of public relations propaganda.
The Annie Dookhan case carries the specter of freeing more than 1,000 convicted drug offenders who could commit fresh crimes. The legal system from which the Harvard Law graduate emanates, and which he could join as a justice, for example, faces an epic trek to recovery.
Meanwhile, New England Compounding Center’s distribution of tainted steroids is replete with similarly eye-catching numbers. Already more than a dozen people have died, and there is a potential that some 14,000 more people are at risk for fungal meningitis.
The twin perils underscore why the governor moved swiftly in each instance.
He brought in David Meier, a respected former prosecutor now doing criminal defense work, to oversee the investigation into the drug lab case. Meier briefed reporters on Friday while Patrick traveled.
And the oft-placid Patrick did not equivocate this past week when he accused New England Compounding of misleading state regulators by performing work outside the scope of its license.
Both the governor’s official and political staffs say that going forward, he will not be distracted even by the time he is spending prospecting for Obama — and raising his own national profile. It starts with a daily 7:45 a.m. conference call with his staff and continues with e-mails, phone calls, and meetings through the work week and weekend.
“The governor is very aware that he has a day job,” said Alex Goldstein, who runs Patrick’s political committee.
“He has been very action-oriented, and people see he has been quick and decisive and responding with the full force of the tools at his disposal.”
--more--"
"Governor Patrick’s trips for Obama draw fire; As governor travels the country, critics say there’s plenty he could be doing here" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
HAMPTON, Va. — This is the glamorous life of Governor Deval Patrick, campaign surrogate for his friend, President Obama.
On a swing through two college campuses in this battleground state on Saturday, the governor spoke to small crowds, shook hands at Obama campaign offices, and posed for photographs.
The governor has been traveling the country like this since January, attending dozens of Democratic events from Washington State to Iowa to South Carolina. Now, with polls in the presidential race tightening and problems mounting at home, his travel has taken on added sense of urgency and an edge of political peril....
The governor said his next trip may be to Hofstra University on Long Island to join the media “spin room” after the next presidential debate on Tuesday....
The governor, who was flying home to Massachusetts on Saturday night, said he is not sure where else he may be sent in the coming days. “I go where the campaign wants me,” he said. “It all blurs.”
Who is he serving, Massachusetts residents?
--more--"
He won't be getting my vote.
Sunday Globe Special: Truck Stop
I'm getting hungry myself.
"Push for healthier truck drivers gaining momentum" by Jamie Stengle | Associated Press, October 14, 2012
DALLAS — In the months after Doug Robinson started driving a truck, he noticed his clothes were increasingly more snug-fitting. He was already overweight but soon realized that spending up to 11 hours behind the wheel, frequently eating fast food, and not exercising was a poor combination.
When his employer, US Xpress, took part in a weight-loss challenge sponsored by the Truckload Carriers Association, the 321-pound, 6-foot-1-inch Robinson signed up.
He’s about 40 pounds into his goal of dropping 100. His truck’s refrigerator is stocked with chicken, tuna, and vegetables. And after his day’s drive, he walks — on trails near rest stops or just circling his truck.
‘‘I have asthma, so with the extra weight on there, it isn’t good for me,’’ said Robinson, a 30-year-old from Philadelphia. ‘‘When I started losing weight, instantly I was breathing better. I was sleeping better at night.’’
I'm all for people being healthier; I just wish there weren't poisons in the land, air, and water while we obsess about obesity in a land where one in six are hungry.
From trucking companies embracing wellness and weight-loss programs to gyms being installed at truck stops, momentum has picked up in recent years to help those who make their living driving big rigs get into shape.
‘‘I think a lot of trucking companies are coming around to the idea that their drivers are their assets,’’ said Boyd Stephenson of the American Trucking Associations, the industry’s largest national trade association. He added that healthier employees help a company’s bottom line.
I knew there wa$ an agenda at work.
There’s an additional incentive for truckers to stay in shape — their job might depend on their health.
I smell a discrimination lawsuit cooking.
Every two years, they must pass a physical exam required by the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. They are checked for conditions that might cause them to become incapacitated — suddenly or gradually — while driving, including severe heart conditions, high blood pressure, and respiratory disorders.
While there are no weight restrictions, a commercial driver who has been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and is not undergoing treatment will not get a medical certificate. Sleep apnea, more common among those who are overweight, leads to daytime sleepiness, a danger on long drives.
But there are obstacles for truck drivers who are mindful of their health. In addition to being seated for many hours at a time, eating options are usually limited to places with parking lots big enough to accommodate their tractor-trailers — most often truck stops, which historically have not been known for wholesome food or workout equipment. That’s something truck stop chains have been trying to change.
TravelCenters of America, which operates under the TA and Petro Stopping Centers brands, launched a program two years ago called StayFit that includes placing small, free gyms in truck stops, offering healthier eating options and half portions, mapping walking routes near truck stops, and building basketball courts in some locations.
‘‘We wanted to remove as many barriers to drivers’ health as possible,’’ said TravelCenters spokesman Tom Liutkus, who said the company has gyms at 42 of its more than 240 locations, with plans to outfit them all by the end of next year. He added that the gyms have been accessed more than 30,000 times.
‘‘We know that we have an audience out there that needs help,’’ said Snap Fitness chief executive officer and founder Peter Taunton. By the end of the year, the company plans to install gyms inside Pilot Flying J truck stops in Georgia and Tennessee.
--more--"
Time to climb into the cab and get me some sleep.
"Push for healthier truck drivers gaining momentum" by Jamie Stengle | Associated Press, October 14, 2012
DALLAS — In the months after Doug Robinson started driving a truck, he noticed his clothes were increasingly more snug-fitting. He was already overweight but soon realized that spending up to 11 hours behind the wheel, frequently eating fast food, and not exercising was a poor combination.
When his employer, US Xpress, took part in a weight-loss challenge sponsored by the Truckload Carriers Association, the 321-pound, 6-foot-1-inch Robinson signed up.
He’s about 40 pounds into his goal of dropping 100. His truck’s refrigerator is stocked with chicken, tuna, and vegetables. And after his day’s drive, he walks — on trails near rest stops or just circling his truck.
‘‘I have asthma, so with the extra weight on there, it isn’t good for me,’’ said Robinson, a 30-year-old from Philadelphia. ‘‘When I started losing weight, instantly I was breathing better. I was sleeping better at night.’’
I'm all for people being healthier; I just wish there weren't poisons in the land, air, and water while we obsess about obesity in a land where one in six are hungry.
From trucking companies embracing wellness and weight-loss programs to gyms being installed at truck stops, momentum has picked up in recent years to help those who make their living driving big rigs get into shape.
‘‘I think a lot of trucking companies are coming around to the idea that their drivers are their assets,’’ said Boyd Stephenson of the American Trucking Associations, the industry’s largest national trade association. He added that healthier employees help a company’s bottom line.
I knew there wa$ an agenda at work.
There’s an additional incentive for truckers to stay in shape — their job might depend on their health.
I smell a discrimination lawsuit cooking.
Every two years, they must pass a physical exam required by the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. They are checked for conditions that might cause them to become incapacitated — suddenly or gradually — while driving, including severe heart conditions, high blood pressure, and respiratory disorders.
While there are no weight restrictions, a commercial driver who has been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and is not undergoing treatment will not get a medical certificate. Sleep apnea, more common among those who are overweight, leads to daytime sleepiness, a danger on long drives.
But there are obstacles for truck drivers who are mindful of their health. In addition to being seated for many hours at a time, eating options are usually limited to places with parking lots big enough to accommodate their tractor-trailers — most often truck stops, which historically have not been known for wholesome food or workout equipment. That’s something truck stop chains have been trying to change.
TravelCenters of America, which operates under the TA and Petro Stopping Centers brands, launched a program two years ago called StayFit that includes placing small, free gyms in truck stops, offering healthier eating options and half portions, mapping walking routes near truck stops, and building basketball courts in some locations.
‘‘We wanted to remove as many barriers to drivers’ health as possible,’’ said TravelCenters spokesman Tom Liutkus, who said the company has gyms at 42 of its more than 240 locations, with plans to outfit them all by the end of next year. He added that the gyms have been accessed more than 30,000 times.
‘‘We know that we have an audience out there that needs help,’’ said Snap Fitness chief executive officer and founder Peter Taunton. By the end of the year, the company plans to install gyms inside Pilot Flying J truck stops in Georgia and Tennessee.
--more--"
Time to climb into the cab and get me some sleep.
Sunday Globe Special: U.S. Firefighting Funds All Burned Up
And the fires are still burning even though I only see scattered reports in my paper.
"Forest Service runs short of funds to fight wildfires" by Darryl Fears | Washington Post, October 14, 2012
WASHINGTON — In the worst wildfire season on record, the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service ran out of money to pay for firefighters, firetrucks, and aircraft that dump retardant on monstrous flames.
That's what happens when they pour all your money into wars and Wall Street.
So officials did about the only thing they could: take money from other forest-management programs. But many of the programs were aimed at preventing giant fires in the first place, and raiding their budgets meant putting off the removal of dried brush and dead wood — the things that fuel eye-popping blazes, threatening property and lives.
It's called the robbing Peter to pay Paul syndrome.
Recently, Congress stepped in and reimbursed the Forest Service and the Interior Department, which plays a far lesser role in fighting fires, with $400 million from the 2013 continuing resolution, allowing fire-prevention work to continue. Forestry specialists at state agencies and environmental groups greeted it as good news.
But they also faulted Congress for providing at the start of the fiscal year only about half of the $1 billion it actually cost to fight this year’s fires.
Ever notice Israel and corporations never lack for funding from the U.S. Congress?
They argued that the traditional method that members of an appropriations conference committee use to fund wildfire suppression — averaging the cost of fighting wildfires over the previous 10 years — is inadequate at a time when climate change is causing longer periods of dryness and drought, giving fires more fuel to burn and resulting in longer wildfire seasons.
Actually, the link I led the post with says human error, neglect, or intent.
But hey, what's one more like in an inferno of them, 'eh?
Once running from June to September, the season has expanded over the past 10 years to include May and October. It was once rare to see 5 million cumulative acres burn, agriculture officials said.
This year’s wildfire burn was nearly 8 million acres at the end of August, about the time that the budget allocated to fight them ran dry.
Over seven years starting in 2002, $2.2 billion was transferred from other accounts for fire suppression when the budget came up short, according to the Forest Service. Congress at times reimbursed a fraction of those funds.
But banks are made whole.
‘‘We did have to transfer the money,’’ said Jim Hubbard, deputy chief of state and private forestry for the Forest Service. ‘‘It was not a major impact this season, but would have been if Congress didn’t restore it.’’
A spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee said its chairman, Representative. Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky, and members ‘‘believe that providing adequate funding for wildfire suppression is of the utmost importance. This is why they fought for hundreds of millions in funding in recent . . . legislation,’’ as well as in appropriations bills.
See: More than a dozen wildfires burning
Staff members on the committee acknowledged that using the 10-year average cost of wildfire suppression to determine the budget is not ideal. The spokeswoman, Jennifer Hing, said the committee will continue to operate as it has.
Each year that money was removed from brush-disposal and timber-salvage programs, the Forest Service’s efforts to prevent fire fell ‘‘further and further behind,’’ said Jake Donnay, senior director of forestry for National Association of State Foresters. ‘‘Even with the appropriations they get, they’re not able to catch up.’’
I'm sure the American people understand that phenomenon.
--more--"
Related: Stamping Out a Forest Fire Post
If I see any more smoke in my Boston Globe I will update.
Also: Getting Set For Sandy
Yup, weather (sic) it was infrastructure, radar, or fighting forest fires, your tax money has been wasted, Americans -- by a government that professes to love and care for you so much.
"Forest Service runs short of funds to fight wildfires" by Darryl Fears | Washington Post, October 14, 2012
WASHINGTON — In the worst wildfire season on record, the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service ran out of money to pay for firefighters, firetrucks, and aircraft that dump retardant on monstrous flames.
That's what happens when they pour all your money into wars and Wall Street.
So officials did about the only thing they could: take money from other forest-management programs. But many of the programs were aimed at preventing giant fires in the first place, and raiding their budgets meant putting off the removal of dried brush and dead wood — the things that fuel eye-popping blazes, threatening property and lives.
It's called the robbing Peter to pay Paul syndrome.
Recently, Congress stepped in and reimbursed the Forest Service and the Interior Department, which plays a far lesser role in fighting fires, with $400 million from the 2013 continuing resolution, allowing fire-prevention work to continue. Forestry specialists at state agencies and environmental groups greeted it as good news.
But they also faulted Congress for providing at the start of the fiscal year only about half of the $1 billion it actually cost to fight this year’s fires.
Ever notice Israel and corporations never lack for funding from the U.S. Congress?
They argued that the traditional method that members of an appropriations conference committee use to fund wildfire suppression — averaging the cost of fighting wildfires over the previous 10 years — is inadequate at a time when climate change is causing longer periods of dryness and drought, giving fires more fuel to burn and resulting in longer wildfire seasons.
Actually, the link I led the post with says human error, neglect, or intent.
But hey, what's one more like in an inferno of them, 'eh?
Once running from June to September, the season has expanded over the past 10 years to include May and October. It was once rare to see 5 million cumulative acres burn, agriculture officials said.
This year’s wildfire burn was nearly 8 million acres at the end of August, about the time that the budget allocated to fight them ran dry.
Over seven years starting in 2002, $2.2 billion was transferred from other accounts for fire suppression when the budget came up short, according to the Forest Service. Congress at times reimbursed a fraction of those funds.
But banks are made whole.
‘‘We did have to transfer the money,’’ said Jim Hubbard, deputy chief of state and private forestry for the Forest Service. ‘‘It was not a major impact this season, but would have been if Congress didn’t restore it.’’
A spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee said its chairman, Representative. Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky, and members ‘‘believe that providing adequate funding for wildfire suppression is of the utmost importance. This is why they fought for hundreds of millions in funding in recent . . . legislation,’’ as well as in appropriations bills.
See: More than a dozen wildfires burning
Staff members on the committee acknowledged that using the 10-year average cost of wildfire suppression to determine the budget is not ideal. The spokeswoman, Jennifer Hing, said the committee will continue to operate as it has.
Each year that money was removed from brush-disposal and timber-salvage programs, the Forest Service’s efforts to prevent fire fell ‘‘further and further behind,’’ said Jake Donnay, senior director of forestry for National Association of State Foresters. ‘‘Even with the appropriations they get, they’re not able to catch up.’’
I'm sure the American people understand that phenomenon.
--more--"
Related: Stamping Out a Forest Fire Post
If I see any more smoke in my Boston Globe I will update.
Also: Getting Set For Sandy
Yup, weather (sic) it was infrastructure, radar, or fighting forest fires, your tax money has been wasted, Americans -- by a government that professes to love and care for you so much.
Sunday Globe Special: The Joke is on Jamaica
Not funny.
"Tourists bypass new Jamaican port town; Locals expected bigger economic boost from ships" by David McFadden | Associated Press, October 14, 2012
FALMOUTH, Jamaica — Jamaica’s port authority and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. pitched the $220 million port as a place where passengers would dive into the historic city, but since the industry’s biggest ships started arriving early last year that warmth and those dollars have been kept at a distance.
‘‘We were promised that we’d be able to show people our Jamaican heritage, sell our crafts. But most of the tourists stay far away from the local people,’’ said Asburga Harwood, an independent tour guide and community historian. ‘‘We’re on the losing end.’’
Trade groups say the flourishing cruise ship industry injects about $2 billion a year into the economies of the Caribbean, the world’s number one cruise destination. But critics complain it produces relatively little local revenue because so many passengers dine, shop, and purchase heavily marked-up shore excursions on the boats or splurge at international chain shops on the piers.
The World Bank said in a 2011 report on Jamaica that as much as 80 percent of tourism earnings do not stay in the Caribbean region, one of the highest ‘‘leakage’’ rates in the world....
The criticism isn’t confined to Jamaica. Some Caribbean ports are even designed to prevent interaction with the surrounding communities.
In Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, tourists step off Royal Caribbean ships to visit the fenced-in beach attraction Labadee on the country’s north coast. The visitors are prohibited from leaving the cruise line’s property, which features white-sand beaches and one of the longest zip lines in the world....
So no one stays at the hotel?
--more--"
"Tourists bypass new Jamaican port town; Locals expected bigger economic boost from ships" by David McFadden | Associated Press, October 14, 2012
FALMOUTH, Jamaica — Jamaica’s port authority and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. pitched the $220 million port as a place where passengers would dive into the historic city, but since the industry’s biggest ships started arriving early last year that warmth and those dollars have been kept at a distance.
‘‘We were promised that we’d be able to show people our Jamaican heritage, sell our crafts. But most of the tourists stay far away from the local people,’’ said Asburga Harwood, an independent tour guide and community historian. ‘‘We’re on the losing end.’’
Trade groups say the flourishing cruise ship industry injects about $2 billion a year into the economies of the Caribbean, the world’s number one cruise destination. But critics complain it produces relatively little local revenue because so many passengers dine, shop, and purchase heavily marked-up shore excursions on the boats or splurge at international chain shops on the piers.
The World Bank said in a 2011 report on Jamaica that as much as 80 percent of tourism earnings do not stay in the Caribbean region, one of the highest ‘‘leakage’’ rates in the world....
The criticism isn’t confined to Jamaica. Some Caribbean ports are even designed to prevent interaction with the surrounding communities.
In Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, tourists step off Royal Caribbean ships to visit the fenced-in beach attraction Labadee on the country’s north coast. The visitors are prohibited from leaving the cruise line’s property, which features white-sand beaches and one of the longest zip lines in the world....
So no one stays at the hotel?
--more--"
Sunday Globe Special: The Redemption and Resurrection of Dominique Strauss-Kahn
I love vomiting upon a Sunday morning. It's my new religion. Get a Globe and puke a prayer.
"Disgraced IMF leader seeks redemption" by Doreen Carvajal and Maia de la Baume | New York Times, October 14, 2012
PARIS — More than a year after resigning in disgrace as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is seeking redemption with a new consulting company, the lecture circuit, and a uniquely French legal defense to settle a criminal inquiry that exposed his hidden life as a libertine.
Strauss-Kahn, 63, a silver-haired economist, is seeking to throw out criminal charges in an inquiry into ties to a prostitution ring in northern France with the legal argument that the authorities are unfairly trying to ‘‘criminalize lust.’’
That defense and the investigation, which is facing a critical judicial hearing in late November, have offered a keyhole view into a clandestine practice in certain powerful circles of French society: secret soirees with lawyers, judges, police officials, journalists, and musicians that start with a fine meal and end with naked guests and public sex with multiple partners.
In France, ‘‘Libertinage’’ has long history, dating from a 16th-century religious sect of French libertines. But the most perplexing question in the Strauss-Kahn affair is how a career politician with ambition to lead one of Europe’s most powerful nations was blinded to the possibility that his zest for sex parties could present a liability, or risk blackmail.
The exclusive orgies — lavish champagne affairs costing around $13,000 each — were organized as a roving international circuit from Paris to Washington by businessmen seeking to ingratiate themselves with Strauss-Kahn.
Some of that money, according to a lawyer for the main host, ultimately paid for prostitutes because of a shortage of women at the mixed soirees orchestrated largely for the benefit of Strauss-Kahn, who sometimes sought sex with three or four women.
On Thursday, Strauss-Kahn broke a long silence to acknowledge that perhaps his double life as an unrestrained libertine was a little outre....
This month Strauss-Kahn won a major legal battle after a French prosecutor dropped part of the investigation into an alleged sexual assault at a hotel in Washington. A Belgian prostitute recanted her earlier accusation, saying the encounter was just rough sex play, but Strauss-Khan is still a suspect for involvement in a prostitution ring.
Translation: Pre$$ure was brought to bear.
Buoyed by that first victory, Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers predict he will triumph in France, where having sex with prostitutes is not illegal, although soliciting and pimping are.
In essence, they argue, there is nothing criminal about the sexual life of a libertine, according to Strauss-Kahn’s lead lawyer, Henri Leclerc.
And that makes it all right?
That defense may not satisfy the charges in a New York civil lawsuit filed by Nafissatou Diallo, who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault last year in a New York hotel where she was a chambermaid. Lawyers representing both sides deny there are financial negotiations under way.
‘‘His travels will eventually bring him to a courthouse in the Bronx, where he will face justice,’’ Kenneth Thompson, the lawyer representing Diallo, said in an interview.
All of Strauss-Kahn’s current legal woes in New York and France mixed together last year, with devastating results.
Strauss-Kahn’s name first surfaced in the French inquiry by chance, in May 2011. French investigators were tapping the telephones of Dominique Alderweireld, an owner of Belgian sex clubs who is also a suspect in the prostitution ring....
The investigation into the prostitution ring in Lille ultimately swept up 10 suspects, including Strauss-Kahn. They knew one another largely through their membership as French Freemasons, according to Karl Vandamme, a defense lawyer who represents Fabrice Paszkowski, the owner of a medical supply company who played a crucial role in organizing the sex parties.
‘‘Libertines are people like you and me: people who have a normal life,’’ said Vandamme, who said his client invested around $65,000 in party expenses, betting on the political rise of Strauss-Kahn.
I'm sorry, but no, they are not like me.
--more--"
He even looks like a scum.
Also see: Strauss-Kahn Sexcapades
Or don't if you don't have the stomach for it.
And from what I understand his replacement's popularity has been dropping as well. Must have something to do with being around bankers.
"Disgraced IMF leader seeks redemption" by Doreen Carvajal and Maia de la Baume | New York Times, October 14, 2012
PARIS — More than a year after resigning in disgrace as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is seeking redemption with a new consulting company, the lecture circuit, and a uniquely French legal defense to settle a criminal inquiry that exposed his hidden life as a libertine.
Strauss-Kahn, 63, a silver-haired economist, is seeking to throw out criminal charges in an inquiry into ties to a prostitution ring in northern France with the legal argument that the authorities are unfairly trying to ‘‘criminalize lust.’’
That defense and the investigation, which is facing a critical judicial hearing in late November, have offered a keyhole view into a clandestine practice in certain powerful circles of French society: secret soirees with lawyers, judges, police officials, journalists, and musicians that start with a fine meal and end with naked guests and public sex with multiple partners.
In France, ‘‘Libertinage’’ has long history, dating from a 16th-century religious sect of French libertines. But the most perplexing question in the Strauss-Kahn affair is how a career politician with ambition to lead one of Europe’s most powerful nations was blinded to the possibility that his zest for sex parties could present a liability, or risk blackmail.
The exclusive orgies — lavish champagne affairs costing around $13,000 each — were organized as a roving international circuit from Paris to Washington by businessmen seeking to ingratiate themselves with Strauss-Kahn.
Some of that money, according to a lawyer for the main host, ultimately paid for prostitutes because of a shortage of women at the mixed soirees orchestrated largely for the benefit of Strauss-Kahn, who sometimes sought sex with three or four women.
On Thursday, Strauss-Kahn broke a long silence to acknowledge that perhaps his double life as an unrestrained libertine was a little outre....
This month Strauss-Kahn won a major legal battle after a French prosecutor dropped part of the investigation into an alleged sexual assault at a hotel in Washington. A Belgian prostitute recanted her earlier accusation, saying the encounter was just rough sex play, but Strauss-Khan is still a suspect for involvement in a prostitution ring.
Translation: Pre$$ure was brought to bear.
Buoyed by that first victory, Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers predict he will triumph in France, where having sex with prostitutes is not illegal, although soliciting and pimping are.
In essence, they argue, there is nothing criminal about the sexual life of a libertine, according to Strauss-Kahn’s lead lawyer, Henri Leclerc.
And that makes it all right?
That defense may not satisfy the charges in a New York civil lawsuit filed by Nafissatou Diallo, who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault last year in a New York hotel where she was a chambermaid. Lawyers representing both sides deny there are financial negotiations under way.
‘‘His travels will eventually bring him to a courthouse in the Bronx, where he will face justice,’’ Kenneth Thompson, the lawyer representing Diallo, said in an interview.
All of Strauss-Kahn’s current legal woes in New York and France mixed together last year, with devastating results.
Strauss-Kahn’s name first surfaced in the French inquiry by chance, in May 2011. French investigators were tapping the telephones of Dominique Alderweireld, an owner of Belgian sex clubs who is also a suspect in the prostitution ring....
The investigation into the prostitution ring in Lille ultimately swept up 10 suspects, including Strauss-Kahn. They knew one another largely through their membership as French Freemasons, according to Karl Vandamme, a defense lawyer who represents Fabrice Paszkowski, the owner of a medical supply company who played a crucial role in organizing the sex parties.
‘‘Libertines are people like you and me: people who have a normal life,’’ said Vandamme, who said his client invested around $65,000 in party expenses, betting on the political rise of Strauss-Kahn.
I'm sorry, but no, they are not like me.
--more--"
He even looks like a scum.
Also see: Strauss-Kahn Sexcapades
Or don't if you don't have the stomach for it.
And from what I understand his replacement's popularity has been dropping as well. Must have something to do with being around bankers.
Sunday Globe Specials: Helping the Homeowner
The loan modification is a life preserver and the government threw it to you:
"Underwater mortgages hurt Nevada tax revenues" by Jennifer Oldham | Bloomberg News, September 23, 2012
DENVER — ‘‘There are so many people like me who aren’t paying their mortgage so they can buy groceries and gas,’’ said Tamara Harris, who was rejected for loan modification programs. ‘‘It’s creating this whole false economy.’’
Must be the nonexistent recovery she's talking about.
As the nation emerges from the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, Nevada remains the only state in which the total value of single-family homes is less than the amount owed on them, according to second-quarter statistics released by CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, Calif., firm....
Lawmakers say they are concerned that public-sector job reductions will contribute to a second wave of foreclosures in an economy already reeling from the nation’s worst unemployment rate. They are working on programs to help homeowners like Harris....
‘‘You really can’t fix the economy until you fix housing,’’ said Terry Johnson, director of Nevada’s Department of Business & Industry. ‘‘If you are a business person, you want to know if there will continue to be demand for goods and services. If purchasing power is being curtailed by negative equity, you think about that.’’
Homebuilders think the inventory of existing homes is being suppressed by a law enacted last year that requires banks to present the original deeds of trust before starting foreclosures, said John Oceguera, the Nevada State Assembly speaker and a congressional candidate....
The guy is complaining that fraudulent foreclosures are down even as the banks hold properties off the market to keep prices up.
Lawmakers and banks need to discuss a program that would reduce the principal homeowners like Harris owe on underwater mortgages in exchange for the lending institution receiving part of the profit when a house sells, he said....
Once again, the banks are HELPING THEMSELVES!
‘‘If you were to walk through the building you would see office after office after office that’s empty,’’ said Susan Brager, the commission’s chairman, who also owns a home that she says is worth half of what she paid for it. ‘‘It creates a cycle. The more people who are laid off, the more homes go into foreclosure, and the more people don’t buy dishwashers and cars.’’
--more--"
Gee, I thought banks were our friends.
At least that's not the case in good ol' Mass.:
"Write-downs give some homeowners a break; Pushed by government incentives and political pressure, mortgage lenders are forgiving millions in loans" by Jenifer B. McKim | Globe Staff, October 07, 2012
BROCKTON — The loan modifications are part of a federal government-driven campaign to help “underwater” borrowers — people who owe more than their homes are worth — and deal with the long-lingering foreclosure crisis.
Yup, there is that federal government coming to help. Go tell it to the Robbins.
Lenders, who have traditionally resisted wiping out mortgage debt, are now forgiving millions of dollars in loans, pushed by government incentives, political pressure, and a $25 billion settlement between five major lenders and 49 attorneys general....
But there is still disagreement among policy makers, economists, and housing advocates over the benefits of principal write-downs.
Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, prompted a political backlash in July when he rejected a US Treasury plan to give the taxpayer-controlled lenders money to fund write-downs.
In a letter to Congress, DeMarco allowed that up to 248,000 borrowers could be eligible for help, saving taxpayers as much as $500 million. Nonetheless, he turned down the plan saying it “would not make a meaningful improvement in reducing foreclosures in a cost effective way for taxpayers.”
I keep telling you the government works for the banks, not you. It's no big $ecret why anymore.
Specifically, he warned of added administrative costs and the potential for “moral hazard,” meaning that by forgiving debt for some homeowners, the government might encourage others to default on their mortgages so they, too, could receive bailouts....
Translation: WALL STREET BANKS GET CONTINUOUS BAILOUTS with YOUR MONEY for all their fraud and deception while you do NOT, Amurkn!
Despite DeMarco’s stance, the number of principal write-downs is expected to swell as lenders work to meet guidelines of the national agreement reached in February between attorneys general and five major US banks over alleged foreclosure fraud and sloppy paperwork.
I love the way the monied mouthpiece minimizes the massively criminal foreclosure fraud scheme.
The Treasury Department in February also tripled financial incentives for lenders to offer principal write-downs to homeowners as part of the federal Making Home Affordable program.
Oh, the BANKERS had to be BOUGHT OFF to DO the RIGHT THING!!!
Related: Obama's Foreclosure Failure
And nothing has changed in nearly three years.
“There’s a very robust debate going on about the place that principal reduction can have in working out problems in the housing and mortgage market,’’ said Joe Smith, monitor of the North Carolina-based Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight, which is overseeing the bank settlement. “The experience (in coming months) we have will help inform that discussion.”
Five years after the crash. Little late, donchathink?
The settlement with Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citibank, and Ally Financial Inc., owner of GMAC Mortgage, requires about $10 billion in principal write-downs over the next three years....
Chump change when you consider those banks make about twice that in profit each quarter.
--more--"
"Consumers are flocking to shorter loan terms; Refinancing priorities take turn toward caution" by Jenifer B. McKim | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
As mortgage interest rates fall further into uncharted territory, more homeowners in Massachusetts and across the United States are refinancing home loans to shorter terms, paying off their debts faster and saving thousands of dollars.
Economists say the trend indicates that lowering long-term debt has become a bigger priority for many borrowers than cutting monthly mortgage payments.
“You see people more averse to debt generally,” said Mike Fratantoni, vice president of research and economics for the Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade group based in Washington. “There has been a lot learned about the cost of taking on too much.”
Meaning they don't want to borrow from the bank (blog editor smiles).
***************************************************
Refinancing has surged over the last few weeks following another drop in rates spurred by last month’s Federal Reserve decision to keep buying mortgage-backed securities on a monthly basis.
Yup, WALL STREET is back to the SAME OLD SHENANIGANS and the Fed is PRINTING MONEY to BUY the CRAP!
And you WONDER WHY PRICES keep RISING, Americans?
The Fed’s aim is to inject money into the economy by keeping downward pressure on mortgage rates....
And THAT CAUSES INFLATION, folks -- meaning YOUR BUCK has LESS PURCHASING POWER!
Shorter loan terms also mean buyers pay less interest over the life of a loan, a savings that can be huge....
And that NEVER MAKES USURIOUS BANKS HAPPY!
Amy Tierce, a regional vice president at Fairway Independent Mortgage in Needham, counsels borrowers who are on tight budgets to opt for reduced payments and longer terms. She recommends that mortgage holders pay off all other debts and save six months worth of monthly expenses before considering a truncated loan term....
If they could save money they wouldn't be in this position.
--more--"
Also see: Mortgage Modification Mess
The Help Homeowners Got
With help like that....
"Top mortgage banks report record profits" by Christina Rexrode and Daniel Wagner | Associated Press, October 13, 2012
NEW YORK — Is the mortgage market really back?
The country’s two biggest mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, reported Friday that a surge in home lending pushed them to record profits.
How very interesting.
JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon declared that the housing market ‘‘has turned the corner.’’
See: JPMorgan Made $5 Billion in the Second Quarter
Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf said that ‘‘every quarter, we have more confidence.’’
************************
There were signs, though, that the boom isn’t as strong as it might seem.
The large majority of mortgage lending was driven not by people buying new homes but by owners refinancing mortgages, which is less helpful to the housing market.
The business was also propped up by government programs, like a federal initiative meant to encourage refinancing, and the Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy more mortgage-backed bonds.
The banks’ mortgage units are also a magnet for legal disputes, with both banks facing new mortgage-related lawsuits just this month. And nobody knows how long the revenue gains will last....
Still, the numbers were eye-catching, and it’s all against a backdrop of signs nationwide that the fractured housing market could be healing. A Federal Reserve survey earlier this week found that a stronger housing market helped economic growth in almost every part of the country. Home sales are up, prices are rising more consistently in most places, and builders are more confident....
--more--"
Hmmmmmm, isn't that interesting. The article LEFT OUT the ACTUAL PROFIT MADE!
Well, there is always public housing:
"Barely supervised, some housing chiefs stray badly; Globe review finds a system vulnerable to incompetence, indolence, and worse" by Sean P. Murphy and Scott Allen | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
Easton’s former housing director spent hours at work sending flirtatious e-mails to various men, then resigned before an audit last June showed she had badly neglected the apartment buildings she was supposed to manage. By then, Susan Horner had a new job: teaching other housing officials how to improve their performance.
What I've come to learn over these last six years is GOVERNMENT is simply ONE LONG PARTY for ADMINISTRATORS!
The housing director in Winchester has a second full-time job as a courthouse lawyer, requiring him to be away from the housing authority for 31.5 hours a week the last three years. When the law office learned about Joseph M. Lally’s second job, it froze his pay and launched an audit of his work. But Winchester officials did nothing, saying they’re satisfied Lally gets his town work done on nights and weekends.
How much taxpayer loot is he getting for a part-time job?
Peabody’s former housing director resigned after TV cameras caught him spending much of the work week in local sports bars and social clubs in 2009. Nonetheless, the housing authority board let Frank Splaine stay on the payroll for five extra months, helping to boost his pension, and gave him a $27,000 severance check to boot.
Like I have said, GOVERNMENT SERVICE is ONE BIG PARTY -- even here is Democratic Massachusetts!
Housing directors face remarkably little accountability for their work managing housing for more than 300,000 elderly and low-income people in Massachusetts, a Boston Globe investigation has found. Though the federal and state governments pump $1.2 billion a year into local housing budgets, oversight comes from local boards mainly chosen by mayors or in little-noticed elections. All too often, no one is sharply focused on how money — or time — is spent.
In the worst cases, tenants pay the price for inattentive or indifferent management, enduring leaky roofs, bad heating, rodent infestation, and other hardships.
“Housing authorities are off the books, as far as state and local scrutiny is concerned,” said Barbara Sard, a former senior policy adviser to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development now with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Washington.
The scandal in Chelsea, where former housing director Michael E. McLaughlin is suspected of diverting millions from renovation funds to pay for his lavish salary and other perks, may be the most serious breach of trust in public housing since 2004, when Springfield housing director Raymond Asselin and four members of his family went to prison for running a $1 million system of bribes and kickbacks.
The scandals in both cities speak to the vulnerability of housing authorities to fraud and abuse, sometimes taking advantage of regulators who seem to be looking the other way. Until the Globe revealed McLaughlin’s $360,000 salary in November 2011, he consistently earned “high performer” awards from HUD, which entitled him to reduced oversight of his work. The agency showered similar accolades on the Medford Housing Authority under director Robert Covelle, who resigned last spring amid charges that he illegally funneled work to friends and family.
Likewise, Horner, the former Easton housing director, had been named Massachusetts “member of the year” by the state’s public housing officials in 2009, the year before she resigned after her racy work-time e-mails were revealed. HUD officials had raised concerns about Horner’s poor leadership as early as 2005, but did little more than ask her to submit improvement plans — something she apparently never did.
An Easton housing board member, Thomas Downey, said the state was no help either.
Downey said he tried for years to get the state Department of Housing and Community Development to pay attention to the festering problems, including Horner’s frequent absences and the deteriorating condition of the apartments. But he couldn’t even persuade state officials to appoint a state representative to the five-member Easton board as the law requires, thus denying the board the potential tie-breaking vote on firing Horner. The position remained vacant for seven years.
Hey, at least they help the homeless here.
“They knew” what a bad job Horner was doing, said Downey, who was elected to the Easton board in 2007. “It went on for a long time before I began making noise . . . The state knew and allowed it to go on.”
Contacted at her home, Horner declined to comment.
But state officials say they have limited influence over housing directors, who owe more allegiance to their local boards and political sponsors than to state bureaucrats and often regard themselves as political powers in their own right.
McLaughlin, the former Chelsea chief, forged close political ties to Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray, hosting fund-raisers and urging his employees and tenants to attend political events for Murray and Governor Deval Patrick. Now, two grand juries are investigating whether McLaughlin broke the law — Murray himself had to answer questions under oath as part of the state investigation — since housing directors are legally banned from political fund-raising.
Related: Murray's Moment
It's gone. Forget about governor, scum.
“There is clearly a need to reform the public housing system to increase accountability at local housing authorities for executive directors and board members in order to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure that residents are getting the services they need,” it said in a statement.
Since the Chelsea controversy erupted, state auditor Suzanne Bump has intensified her review of housing authority finances, issuing several tough reports over the past year, including the audit of Easton that found 23 problems, ranging from unsanitary apartments to money missing from the laundry room.
But the watchdog agency is trying to overcome a troubling history: Bump’s predecessor, A. Joseph DeNucci, failed through repeated audits over a decade to detect enormous financial irregularities in Springfield under Asselin or in Chelsea under McLaughlin.
Critics say that part of the problem in Massachusetts is the huge number of housing authorities — 242 — each run like a separate fiefdom, with its own board and a chief often selected for political rather than managerial skills. Only the state of Texas has more housing authorities than Massachusetts, making state or federal oversight of each individual authority challenging.
The vast number of authorities also strains the leadership talent pool, requiring 1,210 board members statewide. Many board members provide little real oversight — the five-member Chelsea board, which resigned en masse in 2011, didn’t even know how much they were paying McLaughlin — while others show signs of serious dysfunction.
At the tiny Georgetown housing authority, the executive director and two board members nearly came to blows during a 2010 confrontation in director Diane Jodoin’s office over how checks were being handled. Jodoin and Bertha Foster, then 78, and Kay Ogden, then 61, ended up swapping charges of kidnapping, harassment, and assault and battery in Haverhill District Court.
“I thought they were going to kill me,” Jodoin testified, explaining that she used her hands to move Foster aside when the pair tried to block her from leaving.
“She loses her temper,” Foster countered in an interview. “She just shoved me out of the way and slapped away my hand. She has a temper; let’s face it.”
To defuse the crisis, state officials placed Jodoin on paid leave while they conducted a 17-week investigation that blamed both sides for being “frequently confrontational.” Jodoin was reinstated, though investigators faulted her for withholding key information from her board. The criminal charges were dropped.
But that didn’t end Georgetown’s dysfunction: In 2011, board chairwoman Martha Robertson, a close ally of Jodoin, had to resign after pleading guilty to her third operating under the influence offense.
Robertson came to meetings reeking of what smelled like alcohol, board member Ed Kiley said.
“She was kind of silly at meetings,” Kiley recalled. “She had a plastic cup and a straw. When you got up close, you could smell it.”
Robertson could not be reached for comment. Local police who reviewed meeting videotapes said they could reach no conclusion on Robertson’s condition.
But when Patrick, furious over McLaughlin’s conduct in Chelsea, attempted to increase the professionalism of housing authorities by reducing their numbers, the idea was rejected almost immediately by the panel Patrick assembled to consider housing reforms. Patrick argued that a smaller number of regional authorities would be more cost-effective and accountable.
“The interests are just too entrenched to make it happen,” said one commission participant, who asked not to be identified for fear of alienating others on the panel. “You would have a thousand commissioners calling their state reps and senators complaining bitterly.”
Patrick settled for recommending more training for board members and a proposal to set up a new agency that could provide administrative support for authorities with fewer than 200 units, including Georgetown.
The Patrick administration plans to file a comprehensive bill on housing authorities governance in January.
Whatever the cause, Massachusetts now has numerous public housing directors who apparently have considerable time on their hands: McLaughlin worked only 15 full days in the office in 2011, based on a Globe review of cellphone records. In Peabody, WHDH-TV filmed former director Splaine frequenting Champions Pub and the Italian American Club on five days in 2009 when he claimed to be working.
Splaine did not return telephone calls. A lawyer for McLaughlin declined to comment.
McLaughlin’s close friend Kenneth Martin, meanwhile, has time enough to be the full-time housing director in Methuen and part-time director in Ayer, jobs that require a combined 57.5 hours a week and allow him to get around the statewide $160,000 cap on director’s pay. The two authorities pay Martin a combined $184,000 and, under his contracts, neither can dismiss him without paying him several years’ salary.
Joseph Lally in Winchester claims to work even more than Martin: a stunning 69 hours a week over the last three years between his $73,000 job in Winchester and his $82,000 post representing low-income people in court for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Lally, 59, acknowledged in an interview that his schedule is exhausting, but he insisted he is “fulfilling my obligations” to both the housing agency and his clients.
And Lally’s board said it sees no reason to question Lally’s second job as a lawyer.
“He’s a hard worker,” said Laura Glynn, the Winchester board chairwoman. “I really don’t care what he does in his off hours so long as” the agency is well-run.
But the public defenders’ office apparently did not know that he was also a housing director, and officials there immediately began an investigation when they found out.
The Committee for Public Counsel Services “has withheld all payments and all new case assignments to Attorney Lally pending completion of our audit,” wrote William E. Shay, director of audits at the public defenders’ office in a statement to the Globe on Oct. 4.
That same day, Lally called Glynn to announce his retirement after 11 years on the job — effective Oct. 5.
Susan Horner’s nearly 20-year tenure as housing director in Easton came to a similarly abrupt end when her husband provided board members with the text of e-mails using the screen name “EastonHA.”
“She is using Easton’s e-mail address to meet men for sexual relations and is doing it during company time,” wrote Mark Horner in January 2010 to board member Downey. The couple has since divorced.
The e-mails, obtained by the Globe, cover the last few months of 2009, showing Horner engaged in extensive discussions of sex and dating with several men....
Mark Horner suggests Susan Horner’s misdeeds may have been more serious than inattentiveness: He showed a reporter a tractor with a “property of Easton Housing Authority” sticker on it at the North Attleborough home the couple once shared.
Authority records show that it was purchased for $7,500 in 2001 and “disposed” later for a sale price of zero.
Greg Horne, the housing agency’s maintenance director, said he had no idea what happened to the tractor, but Mark Horner said it had been at his house for years, used to cut the grass and clear snow. He said his ex-wife claimed it was surplus....
--more--"
Maybe you are better being homeless, readers.
"Underwater mortgages hurt Nevada tax revenues" by Jennifer Oldham | Bloomberg News, September 23, 2012
DENVER — ‘‘There are so many people like me who aren’t paying their mortgage so they can buy groceries and gas,’’ said Tamara Harris, who was rejected for loan modification programs. ‘‘It’s creating this whole false economy.’’
Must be the nonexistent recovery she's talking about.
As the nation emerges from the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, Nevada remains the only state in which the total value of single-family homes is less than the amount owed on them, according to second-quarter statistics released by CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, Calif., firm....
Lawmakers say they are concerned that public-sector job reductions will contribute to a second wave of foreclosures in an economy already reeling from the nation’s worst unemployment rate. They are working on programs to help homeowners like Harris....
‘‘You really can’t fix the economy until you fix housing,’’ said Terry Johnson, director of Nevada’s Department of Business & Industry. ‘‘If you are a business person, you want to know if there will continue to be demand for goods and services. If purchasing power is being curtailed by negative equity, you think about that.’’
Homebuilders think the inventory of existing homes is being suppressed by a law enacted last year that requires banks to present the original deeds of trust before starting foreclosures, said John Oceguera, the Nevada State Assembly speaker and a congressional candidate....
The guy is complaining that fraudulent foreclosures are down even as the banks hold properties off the market to keep prices up.
Lawmakers and banks need to discuss a program that would reduce the principal homeowners like Harris owe on underwater mortgages in exchange for the lending institution receiving part of the profit when a house sells, he said....
Once again, the banks are HELPING THEMSELVES!
‘‘If you were to walk through the building you would see office after office after office that’s empty,’’ said Susan Brager, the commission’s chairman, who also owns a home that she says is worth half of what she paid for it. ‘‘It creates a cycle. The more people who are laid off, the more homes go into foreclosure, and the more people don’t buy dishwashers and cars.’’
--more--"
Gee, I thought banks were our friends.
At least that's not the case in good ol' Mass.:
"Write-downs give some homeowners a break; Pushed by government incentives and political pressure, mortgage lenders are forgiving millions in loans" by Jenifer B. McKim | Globe Staff, October 07, 2012
BROCKTON — The loan modifications are part of a federal government-driven campaign to help “underwater” borrowers — people who owe more than their homes are worth — and deal with the long-lingering foreclosure crisis.
Yup, there is that federal government coming to help. Go tell it to the Robbins.
Lenders, who have traditionally resisted wiping out mortgage debt, are now forgiving millions of dollars in loans, pushed by government incentives, political pressure, and a $25 billion settlement between five major lenders and 49 attorneys general....
But there is still disagreement among policy makers, economists, and housing advocates over the benefits of principal write-downs.
Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, prompted a political backlash in July when he rejected a US Treasury plan to give the taxpayer-controlled lenders money to fund write-downs.
In a letter to Congress, DeMarco allowed that up to 248,000 borrowers could be eligible for help, saving taxpayers as much as $500 million. Nonetheless, he turned down the plan saying it “would not make a meaningful improvement in reducing foreclosures in a cost effective way for taxpayers.”
I keep telling you the government works for the banks, not you. It's no big $ecret why anymore.
Specifically, he warned of added administrative costs and the potential for “moral hazard,” meaning that by forgiving debt for some homeowners, the government might encourage others to default on their mortgages so they, too, could receive bailouts....
Translation: WALL STREET BANKS GET CONTINUOUS BAILOUTS with YOUR MONEY for all their fraud and deception while you do NOT, Amurkn!
Despite DeMarco’s stance, the number of principal write-downs is expected to swell as lenders work to meet guidelines of the national agreement reached in February between attorneys general and five major US banks over alleged foreclosure fraud and sloppy paperwork.
I love the way the monied mouthpiece minimizes the massively criminal foreclosure fraud scheme.
The Treasury Department in February also tripled financial incentives for lenders to offer principal write-downs to homeowners as part of the federal Making Home Affordable program.
Oh, the BANKERS had to be BOUGHT OFF to DO the RIGHT THING!!!
Related: Obama's Foreclosure Failure
And nothing has changed in nearly three years.
“There’s a very robust debate going on about the place that principal reduction can have in working out problems in the housing and mortgage market,’’ said Joe Smith, monitor of the North Carolina-based Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight, which is overseeing the bank settlement. “The experience (in coming months) we have will help inform that discussion.”
Five years after the crash. Little late, donchathink?
The settlement with Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citibank, and Ally Financial Inc., owner of GMAC Mortgage, requires about $10 billion in principal write-downs over the next three years....
Chump change when you consider those banks make about twice that in profit each quarter.
--more--"
"Consumers are flocking to shorter loan terms; Refinancing priorities take turn toward caution" by Jenifer B. McKim | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
As mortgage interest rates fall further into uncharted territory, more homeowners in Massachusetts and across the United States are refinancing home loans to shorter terms, paying off their debts faster and saving thousands of dollars.
Economists say the trend indicates that lowering long-term debt has become a bigger priority for many borrowers than cutting monthly mortgage payments.
“You see people more averse to debt generally,” said Mike Fratantoni, vice president of research and economics for the Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade group based in Washington. “There has been a lot learned about the cost of taking on too much.”
Meaning they don't want to borrow from the bank (blog editor smiles).
***************************************************
Refinancing has surged over the last few weeks following another drop in rates spurred by last month’s Federal Reserve decision to keep buying mortgage-backed securities on a monthly basis.
Yup, WALL STREET is back to the SAME OLD SHENANIGANS and the Fed is PRINTING MONEY to BUY the CRAP!
And you WONDER WHY PRICES keep RISING, Americans?
The Fed’s aim is to inject money into the economy by keeping downward pressure on mortgage rates....
And THAT CAUSES INFLATION, folks -- meaning YOUR BUCK has LESS PURCHASING POWER!
Shorter loan terms also mean buyers pay less interest over the life of a loan, a savings that can be huge....
And that NEVER MAKES USURIOUS BANKS HAPPY!
Amy Tierce, a regional vice president at Fairway Independent Mortgage in Needham, counsels borrowers who are on tight budgets to opt for reduced payments and longer terms. She recommends that mortgage holders pay off all other debts and save six months worth of monthly expenses before considering a truncated loan term....
If they could save money they wouldn't be in this position.
--more--"
More financially stressed homeowners in Massachusetts and across the country are getting mortgage loan modifications that cut their payments enough to keep them from falling into foreclosure, according to federal data and local housing specialists....
The improving success rate for modifications comes as banks are under mounting pressure from federal and state officials to offer real relief to borrowers in danger of losing their homes. Although lenders prefer not to make any loan concessions, they also are increasingly interested in avoiding more foreclosures, which have hurt their profits in recent years....
What an absolute load of BS that paragraph is.
Bryan Hubbard, spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller, said the rate of on-time payments has steadily improved as banks, pushed by regulators, have become agreeable to providing assistance that is more substantive than symbolic....
Some local nonprofits say lenders have become even more willing to rework loans since a $25 billion multistate settlement was reached earlier this year between attorneys general and five major US banks over accusations of sloppy and fraudulent mortgage practices....
Yeah, but they want to avoid foreclosures (sigh).
Related: Coakley Caves
That is what democratically-elected governments do in the face of big banks.
Paul Willen, senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said the growing success of loan modifications is a sign of an improving economy. ‘‘The good news is that the foreclosure crisis is ebbing,’’ he said.
A few years ago, with the US unemployment rate at 10 percent, loan modifications often proved to be a temporary fix, he said. The modest payment reductions offered by lenders then were not enough to keep out-of-work property owners from ultimately defaulting.
‘‘There was a time when helping out borrowers was a hopeless job,’’ Willen said....
Yeah, the poor, altruistic, selfless banks.
Despite the progress in making loans more affordable, there are still myriad complaints about lenders’ efforts. For instance, some borrowers say companies ask for the same documents over and over, delaying loan decisions for months. Gary Klein, a Boston attorney who has filed many cases against major banks over foreclosure practices, said lenders too often steer borrowers away from Home Affordable Modification Program deals....
But DON'T LET THAT SPOIL the MSM's AGENDA-PUSHING SLOP!
Eliza Parad, an organizer with the nonprofit activist group Chelsea Collaborative, which helps troubled homeowners, said even borrowers with HAMP loans are wary because those modifications can add years to loan terms and require a large payment at the end....
But the banks and government are HELPING YOU!!
--more--"
Also see: Mortgage Modification Mess
The Help Homeowners Got
With help like that....
"Top mortgage banks report record profits" by Christina Rexrode and Daniel Wagner | Associated Press, October 13, 2012
NEW YORK — Is the mortgage market really back?
The country’s two biggest mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, reported Friday that a surge in home lending pushed them to record profits.
JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon declared that the housing market ‘‘has turned the corner.’’
Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf said that ‘‘every quarter, we have more confidence.’’
************************
There were signs, though, that the boom isn’t as strong as it might seem.
The large majority of mortgage lending was driven not by people buying new homes but by owners refinancing mortgages, which is less helpful to the housing market.
The business was also propped up by government programs, like a federal initiative meant to encourage refinancing, and the Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy more mortgage-backed bonds.
The banks’ mortgage units are also a magnet for legal disputes, with both banks facing new mortgage-related lawsuits just this month. And nobody knows how long the revenue gains will last....
Still, the numbers were eye-catching, and it’s all against a backdrop of signs nationwide that the fractured housing market could be healing. A Federal Reserve survey earlier this week found that a stronger housing market helped economic growth in almost every part of the country. Home sales are up, prices are rising more consistently in most places, and builders are more confident....
--more--"
Well, there is always public housing:
"Barely supervised, some housing chiefs stray badly; Globe review finds a system vulnerable to incompetence, indolence, and worse" by Sean P. Murphy and Scott Allen | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
Easton’s former housing director spent hours at work sending flirtatious e-mails to various men, then resigned before an audit last June showed she had badly neglected the apartment buildings she was supposed to manage. By then, Susan Horner had a new job: teaching other housing officials how to improve their performance.
What I've come to learn over these last six years is GOVERNMENT is simply ONE LONG PARTY for ADMINISTRATORS!
The housing director in Winchester has a second full-time job as a courthouse lawyer, requiring him to be away from the housing authority for 31.5 hours a week the last three years. When the law office learned about Joseph M. Lally’s second job, it froze his pay and launched an audit of his work. But Winchester officials did nothing, saying they’re satisfied Lally gets his town work done on nights and weekends.
How much taxpayer loot is he getting for a part-time job?
Peabody’s former housing director resigned after TV cameras caught him spending much of the work week in local sports bars and social clubs in 2009. Nonetheless, the housing authority board let Frank Splaine stay on the payroll for five extra months, helping to boost his pension, and gave him a $27,000 severance check to boot.
Like I have said, GOVERNMENT SERVICE is ONE BIG PARTY -- even here is Democratic Massachusetts!
Housing directors face remarkably little accountability for their work managing housing for more than 300,000 elderly and low-income people in Massachusetts, a Boston Globe investigation has found. Though the federal and state governments pump $1.2 billion a year into local housing budgets, oversight comes from local boards mainly chosen by mayors or in little-noticed elections. All too often, no one is sharply focused on how money — or time — is spent.
In the worst cases, tenants pay the price for inattentive or indifferent management, enduring leaky roofs, bad heating, rodent infestation, and other hardships.
“Housing authorities are off the books, as far as state and local scrutiny is concerned,” said Barbara Sard, a former senior policy adviser to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development now with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Washington.
The scandal in Chelsea, where former housing director Michael E. McLaughlin is suspected of diverting millions from renovation funds to pay for his lavish salary and other perks, may be the most serious breach of trust in public housing since 2004, when Springfield housing director Raymond Asselin and four members of his family went to prison for running a $1 million system of bribes and kickbacks.
The scandals in both cities speak to the vulnerability of housing authorities to fraud and abuse, sometimes taking advantage of regulators who seem to be looking the other way. Until the Globe revealed McLaughlin’s $360,000 salary in November 2011, he consistently earned “high performer” awards from HUD, which entitled him to reduced oversight of his work. The agency showered similar accolades on the Medford Housing Authority under director Robert Covelle, who resigned last spring amid charges that he illegally funneled work to friends and family.
Likewise, Horner, the former Easton housing director, had been named Massachusetts “member of the year” by the state’s public housing officials in 2009, the year before she resigned after her racy work-time e-mails were revealed. HUD officials had raised concerns about Horner’s poor leadership as early as 2005, but did little more than ask her to submit improvement plans — something she apparently never did.
An Easton housing board member, Thomas Downey, said the state was no help either.
Downey said he tried for years to get the state Department of Housing and Community Development to pay attention to the festering problems, including Horner’s frequent absences and the deteriorating condition of the apartments. But he couldn’t even persuade state officials to appoint a state representative to the five-member Easton board as the law requires, thus denying the board the potential tie-breaking vote on firing Horner. The position remained vacant for seven years.
Hey, at least they help the homeless here.
“They knew” what a bad job Horner was doing, said Downey, who was elected to the Easton board in 2007. “It went on for a long time before I began making noise . . . The state knew and allowed it to go on.”
Contacted at her home, Horner declined to comment.
But state officials say they have limited influence over housing directors, who owe more allegiance to their local boards and political sponsors than to state bureaucrats and often regard themselves as political powers in their own right.
McLaughlin, the former Chelsea chief, forged close political ties to Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray, hosting fund-raisers and urging his employees and tenants to attend political events for Murray and Governor Deval Patrick. Now, two grand juries are investigating whether McLaughlin broke the law — Murray himself had to answer questions under oath as part of the state investigation — since housing directors are legally banned from political fund-raising.
Related: Murray's Moment
It's gone. Forget about governor, scum.
For years, McLaughlin’s work for Murray gave him a powerful ally he
could turn to for favors — such as helping his son obtain a state job —
or advice, exchanging nearly 200 cellphone calls with Murray in 2010 and
2011.
In Easton, state housing officials proved to be deferential to
Horner. They pointedly say it was up to the local board — not them — to
fire Horner if they were unsatisfied. However, the Housing and Community
Development Department officials also concede that the problems reflect
a bigger issue.
“There is clearly a need to reform the public housing system to increase accountability at local housing authorities for executive directors and board members in order to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure that residents are getting the services they need,” it said in a statement.
Since the Chelsea controversy erupted, state auditor Suzanne Bump has intensified her review of housing authority finances, issuing several tough reports over the past year, including the audit of Easton that found 23 problems, ranging from unsanitary apartments to money missing from the laundry room.
But the watchdog agency is trying to overcome a troubling history: Bump’s predecessor, A. Joseph DeNucci, failed through repeated audits over a decade to detect enormous financial irregularities in Springfield under Asselin or in Chelsea under McLaughlin.
Critics say that part of the problem in Massachusetts is the huge number of housing authorities — 242 — each run like a separate fiefdom, with its own board and a chief often selected for political rather than managerial skills. Only the state of Texas has more housing authorities than Massachusetts, making state or federal oversight of each individual authority challenging.
The vast number of authorities also strains the leadership talent pool, requiring 1,210 board members statewide. Many board members provide little real oversight — the five-member Chelsea board, which resigned en masse in 2011, didn’t even know how much they were paying McLaughlin — while others show signs of serious dysfunction.
At the tiny Georgetown housing authority, the executive director and two board members nearly came to blows during a 2010 confrontation in director Diane Jodoin’s office over how checks were being handled. Jodoin and Bertha Foster, then 78, and Kay Ogden, then 61, ended up swapping charges of kidnapping, harassment, and assault and battery in Haverhill District Court.
“I thought they were going to kill me,” Jodoin testified, explaining that she used her hands to move Foster aside when the pair tried to block her from leaving.
“She loses her temper,” Foster countered in an interview. “She just shoved me out of the way and slapped away my hand. She has a temper; let’s face it.”
To defuse the crisis, state officials placed Jodoin on paid leave while they conducted a 17-week investigation that blamed both sides for being “frequently confrontational.” Jodoin was reinstated, though investigators faulted her for withholding key information from her board. The criminal charges were dropped.
But that didn’t end Georgetown’s dysfunction: In 2011, board chairwoman Martha Robertson, a close ally of Jodoin, had to resign after pleading guilty to her third operating under the influence offense.
Robertson came to meetings reeking of what smelled like alcohol, board member Ed Kiley said.
“She was kind of silly at meetings,” Kiley recalled. “She had a plastic cup and a straw. When you got up close, you could smell it.”
Robertson could not be reached for comment. Local police who reviewed meeting videotapes said they could reach no conclusion on Robertson’s condition.
But when Patrick, furious over McLaughlin’s conduct in Chelsea, attempted to increase the professionalism of housing authorities by reducing their numbers, the idea was rejected almost immediately by the panel Patrick assembled to consider housing reforms. Patrick argued that a smaller number of regional authorities would be more cost-effective and accountable.
“The interests are just too entrenched to make it happen,” said one commission participant, who asked not to be identified for fear of alienating others on the panel. “You would have a thousand commissioners calling their state reps and senators complaining bitterly.”
Patrick settled for recommending more training for board members and a proposal to set up a new agency that could provide administrative support for authorities with fewer than 200 units, including Georgetown.
The Patrick administration plans to file a comprehensive bill on housing authorities governance in January.
Whatever the cause, Massachusetts now has numerous public housing directors who apparently have considerable time on their hands: McLaughlin worked only 15 full days in the office in 2011, based on a Globe review of cellphone records. In Peabody, WHDH-TV filmed former director Splaine frequenting Champions Pub and the Italian American Club on five days in 2009 when he claimed to be working.
Splaine did not return telephone calls. A lawyer for McLaughlin declined to comment.
McLaughlin’s close friend Kenneth Martin, meanwhile, has time enough to be the full-time housing director in Methuen and part-time director in Ayer, jobs that require a combined 57.5 hours a week and allow him to get around the statewide $160,000 cap on director’s pay. The two authorities pay Martin a combined $184,000 and, under his contracts, neither can dismiss him without paying him several years’ salary.
Joseph Lally in Winchester claims to work even more than Martin: a stunning 69 hours a week over the last three years between his $73,000 job in Winchester and his $82,000 post representing low-income people in court for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Lally, 59, acknowledged in an interview that his schedule is exhausting, but he insisted he is “fulfilling my obligations” to both the housing agency and his clients.
And Lally’s board said it sees no reason to question Lally’s second job as a lawyer.
“He’s a hard worker,” said Laura Glynn, the Winchester board chairwoman. “I really don’t care what he does in his off hours so long as” the agency is well-run.
But the public defenders’ office apparently did not know that he was also a housing director, and officials there immediately began an investigation when they found out.
The Committee for Public Counsel Services “has withheld all payments and all new case assignments to Attorney Lally pending completion of our audit,” wrote William E. Shay, director of audits at the public defenders’ office in a statement to the Globe on Oct. 4.
That same day, Lally called Glynn to announce his retirement after 11 years on the job — effective Oct. 5.
Susan Horner’s nearly 20-year tenure as housing director in Easton came to a similarly abrupt end when her husband provided board members with the text of e-mails using the screen name “EastonHA.”
“She is using Easton’s e-mail address to meet men for sexual relations and is doing it during company time,” wrote Mark Horner in January 2010 to board member Downey. The couple has since divorced.
The e-mails, obtained by the Globe, cover the last few months of 2009, showing Horner engaged in extensive discussions of sex and dating with several men....
Mark Horner suggests Susan Horner’s misdeeds may have been more serious than inattentiveness: He showed a reporter a tractor with a “property of Easton Housing Authority” sticker on it at the North Attleborough home the couple once shared.
Authority records show that it was purchased for $7,500 in 2001 and “disposed” later for a sale price of zero.
Greg Horne, the housing agency’s maintenance director, said he had no idea what happened to the tractor, but Mark Horner said it had been at his house for years, used to cut the grass and clear snow. He said his ex-wife claimed it was surplus....
--more--"
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday Globe Specials: Helping the Homeless
Certainly that wouldn't be a problem in the allegedly liberal bastion of Massachusetts?
"A safety net that is leaving more people out" by Yvonne Abraham | Globe Columnist, October 07, 2012
“Obviously we want to maintain a strong safety net,” said Aaron Gornstein, undersecretary for Housing and Community Development. “But we also want to make sure we’re spending taxpayer dollars wisely, investing in prevention and permanent housing, and that emergency shelter is a last resort.”
All of a sudden they are concerned about taxpayer dollars. They never seem to be when debt interest payments to banks are due or cutting out a tax check for some well-connected corporation.
The problem is, there isn’t yet enough prevention and affordable housing to save many families from the street. “None of us have a safety net to put under the safety net that has been restricted,” said Jim Greene, director of Boston’s Emergency Shelter Commission.
What’s frustrating to him, and to others who work on the front lines, is that the state seems unwilling to recognize there is a problem here. State officials seem entirely wedded to the notion that almost everybody has somewhere to stay, even when they say they don’t. They say this is based on experience – that their past investigations have shown people can almost always find someone to take them in.
All that public relations promotion about Massachusetts being the compassionate liberal state is just a bunch of illusion and imagery, folks. Sorry.
They’re not persuaded by the stories of families sleeping in cars and on beaches and in the lobbies of apartment buildings, which they believe are exaggerated by advocates determined to grow the shelter system.
Maybe they should start claiming they are Holocaust survivors. No one would dare question them then.
Privately, they have suggested Greene and others are using poor families as pawns.
That is YOUR LOVINGLY LIBERAL STATE GOVERNMENT, folks!!
Publicly, they wonder if advocates are suggesting homeless families put themselves in dangerous situations just to qualify for shelter.
This is REALLY RANK and SICKENING for a SUNDAY!!!
“I hope they’re not coaching them to do that,” Gornstein said.
Seriously? People who have devoted careers to ending homelessness would advise families to give up homes and put themselves in harm’s way?
It’s hard to reconcile the Deval Patrick who demanded that his party stop apologizing for its values at the Democratic National Convention with the way his administration is handling this.
“I believe the governor when he said it’s about our values,” said Senator Ken Donnelly, an Arlington Democrat who is one of a group of legislators trying to rebalance the shelter regulations. “But they have this feeling that people are somehow gaming the system, and you just look at them and say, ‘What planet are you on?’ ”
They are caught in the bubble of state politic$ -- if you know what I mean.
--more--"
Yeah, that's the Democratic state of Massachusetts, yup.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Sentenced to the Streets
Oh, you can always find a place to stay:
"A young couple caught up in the middle; Randy and Jessica Wood didn’t want it all, just for the old American equation of hard work and opportunity to work for them as it had for generations. But, as for so many, the good life remains just out of reach" by Sarah Schweitzer | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
NORTH ANDOVER — Jessica and Randy didn’t take losses on real estate. They didn’t lose their jobs. But they joined in the easy-credit run-up to the Great Recession, which has left them with a heap of debts that has devoured their paychecks and their future, most recently, their 401(k)....
Across America, political candidates are warring over how best to shore up the middle class.
This after both parties helped in its destruction.
Republican US Senator Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren, his Democratic opponent in the closely watched Senate race, barely speak a sentence without mention of the group.
But just who falls into the middle class is a matter of open debate. Economists wield formulas, but more often, middle class is a self-appended label — one that fewer Americans apply to themselves after the Great Recession, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The route to this most basic American dream seems more uncertain than ever.
Jessica and Randy’s bank account doesn’t look middle-class. Their credit doesn’t qualify. Nor does their car, a barely alive 2002 Saturn they call Big Red that’s been sounding like a mournful cat of late.
Yet they will cheer Maisie at her North Andover Soccer Association games. They will enroll Emmett in karate. They will buy a black desk from Ikea, snug enough to fit in the room that was Jessica’s when she was a girl.
“I feel,” Jessica says, “like I’ve been grandfathered into the middle class.”
**********************************
Shortly before 9 a.m., the video screens mounted on clothing racks at Kohl’s announce temporarily slashed prices under headlines proclaiming, “Power Hour Specials.”
“These!” Maisie says in the shoe section, pointing to a pair of particularly glittered sneakers called Twinkle Toes. Jessica nods and her mother puts them in the cart with other back-to-school items. Emmett likes sneakers with Spiderman crawling on their fronts. “No, they’re hideous,” Jessica says under her breath. She picks up blue and fluorescent yellow Nikes with a $59 price tag. “We can do better than that,” she says, putting them back.
At the register, it is Anne who hands over her Kohl’s credit card while Jessica corrals Maisie and Emmett. “How’d we do?” Jessica inquires afterward in the parking lot. “Good,” Anne says. “180 for everything.”
Jessica will pay her back. The store credit card sliced some 30 percent from the price and Jessica doesn’t have one. Neither she nor Randy has any credits cards because no company will trust them with one.
Not with $60,000 in outstanding student loans, and credit card debt racked up in college that still runs into the thousands. “I was buying groceries and books on the card,” says Randy, the cool-headed son of a factory worker who had little means to help him at Alfred University. There once was a charge for a futon when he needed a bed.
Jessica was a theater major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst whose dramatic flair extended to finances. “Middle class?” she quips now. “I didn’t want to be in any class!” She amassed her debt in a freshman year spending blitz funded by a Discover card she signed up for in the student center on campus. “I went to a cash machine until it said I couldn’t have more,” she said. “I was very artsy, and I wasn’t going to live past 21.”
The debts followed them as they surfed career paths — together waiting tables at a restaurant and counseling troubled teens. After marrying in 2004, Randy turned to beer brewing and Jessica to teaching. There were other gambits along the way. In 2007, they moved West with then-2-year-old Maisie to a yurt in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains where Randy trained to become a wilderness counselor. Randy’s training left no time to earn money. In three months, they were broke.
Back in Massachusetts, they hunkered down. Jessica took a job at a Springfield charter school, Randy became manager of the Northampton Brewery. They blended with the other parents in chunky eyeglasses shopping at the River Valley Coop. They saw Joy Kills Sorrow at the Iron Horse Music Hall. They ran the 5k at Red Fire Farm’s Tomato Festival.
Those are all just down the road.
Financially, though, they were unraveling. They brought home $4,500 a month after taxes, and once they’d paid $1,200 for rent; $1,500 for child care for two children after the birth of Emmett; $500 for utilities, car insurance, and gas; and $800 for food, they had too little left over for the creditors who had come calling.
What, no bailout for them?
They trimmed their handful of extras, buying no-spray vegetables from farm stands rather than organic-labeled ones in stores. They nixed the idea of ski trips. But the demands didn’t relent.
“The credit card companies would bully Randy into paying more than we could afford,” Jessica said. “It was causing heartache in our relationship because it felt like we were more and more trapped.”
They hatched a plan: Randy would become a teacher, a job that offered better hours and greater security than the brewery. In teaching, they saw the promise of jobs that allowed them to do good and escape the factories where, working summer jobs, they had watched workers worry over making quotas and blow their paychecks betting at Rockingham Park.
Yeah, that's all us working slobs do, blow our money. I do every day I buy a Globe. I'll tell you, I wish I made enough to gamble.
But he would have to leave the brewery job to do the two-year training, and they couldn’t survive on one salary.
In April, Jessica’s father called. “If things are hard, there’s always here.”
They were 37 and 38, parents of a kindergartner and a preschooler, and out of options. The four-bedroom house it was....
Oh, they MOVED BACK HOME to the PARENTS HOUSE, huh?
***************************************
Jessica and Randy’s deepened money troubles spring from an economy that seems to them crueler and less fair than the one they’d known. “We didn’t get trapped early on,” Anne says. Tuition at Lowell State was $150 a year. You couldn’t get a credit card if you didn’t have a job. The reward for modest but stable salaries was a fully funded pension.
Well, times $ure have changed.
In the spring, they had considered the pros and cons of opening their home to Jessica, Randy, and the kids. They enjoyed its free-form quiet. She had her book club. He played accordion in high school productions of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Together, they volunteered at a Lawrence kindergarten, where each December, Barry dressed up as Santa Claus, his luxurious white beard grown long.
“We must be out of our minds,” Anne recalls thinking at the time. But then there was this. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my children,” Barry says....
I think most parents feel that way.
*************************************************
Big Red is dying. A mechanic says the Saturn may sputter for a bit more, but it’s not safe to drive and won’t be until $1,500 in repairs are made.
The $4,000 that Randy and Jessica cashed out of their 401(k) to tide them over during the paycheck-less portion of summer has already dwindled — $140 gone for Lands’ End backpacks for the kids, $220 to Pentucket Medical ExpressCare to treat Randy’s bout of poison ivy, and $500 for Emmett’s preschool deposit.
A mechanic at the garage her parents use says he knows of a 2003 Highlander they could get for $10,000.
They can’t drive their children in an unsafe car. They won’t ask her parents for the money.
So on a searingly hot afternoon, days before the start of school, Jessica sits in the office of a local credit union. She is streaked with dust and sweat from cleaning desks and cutting bubble-shaped letters exhorting soon-to-arrive students to “persevere” in her un-air conditioned classroom. Signs above the loan officer’s desk promise car loan rates as low as 1.99 APR. “Apply today!” Jessica knows better. “Where are the bad credit rates? Because that’s where I’m going to be.”
The officer hands Jessica a laminated page and points to the far right column where rates range from 13.49 percent to 14.09 percent. Small print below tacks on another 2 percent for older models, like the Highlander.
Jessica nods. Sixteen percent is her penance.
“The other day my mom said, ‘You’re in the same boat as 70 percent of Americans.’ But it always feels like a personal failure,” Jessica says. “Like I’ve made these bad decisions and so maybe that’s the way it’s going to go for me.”
That's exactly the way the money-grubbing mind manipulators want you to feel.
A day later, someone from the credit union calls. No, she and Randy may not have a loan — even at 16 percent....
Time for me to get moving.
--more--"
And the deepest cut of all:
"Many new city ordinances targeting homeless" by Gillian Flaccus | Associated Press, October 14, 2012
COSTA MESA, Calif. — Army veteran Don Matyja was getting by all right on the streets of this Southern California city until he got ticketed for smoking in the park.
Matyja, who has been homeless since he was evicted nearly two years ago, had trouble paying the fine and getting to court — and now a $25 penalty has ballooned to $600.
Is that what they were fighting for even as they made thousands if not millions of Muslims that way?
The ticket is just one of myriad new challenges facing Matyja and others living on the streets in Orange County, where a number of cities have recently passed ordinances that ban everything from smoking in the park to sleeping in cars to leaning bikes against trees in a region better known for its beaches than its 30,000 homeless people.
Cities have long struggled with how to deal with the homeless, but the new ordinances here echo what homeless advocates say is a rash of regulations nationwide as municipalities grapple with how to address those living on their streets within the constraints of ever-tightening budgets.
Always seem to have enough money for wars though.
The rules may go unnoticed by most, but the homeless say they are a thinly veiled attempt to push them out of one city and into another by criminalizing the daily activities they cannot avoid.
Why not just kill 'em all? That will solve the problem, right?
There’s been a sharp uptick in the past year in the number of cities passing ordinances against doing things on public property such as sitting, lying down, sleeping, standing in a public street, loitering, public urination, jaywalking, and panhandling, said Neil Donovan, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
‘‘It definitely is more pervasive and it is more adversarial. I think in the past we found examples of it but it’s not simply just growing, but it’s growing in its severity and in its targeted approach to America’s un-housed,’’ said Donovan, who compared it to a civil rights issue. ‘‘There’s the whole notion of driving while black. Well, this is sitting while homeless.’’
You know, with all the empty houses due to fraudulent foreclosures maybe we could billet the homeless in empty houses until whenever.
Denver this year voted to make urban camping illegal despite protests from homeless activists. Philadelphia banned feedings in public parks in June but the ordinance was put on hold the following month after homeless groups sued the city. And there’s a new curfew for pets that help their owners beg on the Las Vegas Strip.
Matyja, in Costa Mesa, has gotten multiple tickets for smoking in the
park where he camps out since the law took effect earlier this year.
The Newport Beach Public Library, nestled in a coastal city better known for its surfing and miles of wide beaches, recently updated a policy that says staff can evict someone for having poor hygiene or a strong aroma. The policy also bans lounging on library furniture and creates strict limits about parking shopping carts, bikes, and ‘‘other wheeled conveyances’’ outside the premises.
Library Services Director Cynthia Cowell insists the policy isn’t aimed at the homeless, but the action has nonetheless stirred anger among homeless advocates.
Some cities have seen a legal backlash as homeless advocacy groups sue. Recently, the homeless in Sacramento got checks ranging from $400 to $750 apiece to settle a class-action lawsuit brought after police destroyed property seized during cleanup operations.
In a similar case, a federal appeals court ruled last month that the city of Los Angeles cannot seize property left temporarily unattended on sidewalks by homeless residents.
Oddly, if they were dealing drugs they wouldn't be homeless.
--more--"
Also see: Quick Vet Check
You've come a long way, baby!
"A safety net that is leaving more people out" by Yvonne Abraham | Globe Columnist, October 07, 2012
“Obviously we want to maintain a strong safety net,” said Aaron Gornstein, undersecretary for Housing and Community Development. “But we also want to make sure we’re spending taxpayer dollars wisely, investing in prevention and permanent housing, and that emergency shelter is a last resort.”
All of a sudden they are concerned about taxpayer dollars. They never seem to be when debt interest payments to banks are due or cutting out a tax check for some well-connected corporation.
The problem is, there isn’t yet enough prevention and affordable housing to save many families from the street. “None of us have a safety net to put under the safety net that has been restricted,” said Jim Greene, director of Boston’s Emergency Shelter Commission.
What’s frustrating to him, and to others who work on the front lines, is that the state seems unwilling to recognize there is a problem here. State officials seem entirely wedded to the notion that almost everybody has somewhere to stay, even when they say they don’t. They say this is based on experience – that their past investigations have shown people can almost always find someone to take them in.
All that public relations promotion about Massachusetts being the compassionate liberal state is just a bunch of illusion and imagery, folks. Sorry.
They’re not persuaded by the stories of families sleeping in cars and on beaches and in the lobbies of apartment buildings, which they believe are exaggerated by advocates determined to grow the shelter system.
Maybe they should start claiming they are Holocaust survivors. No one would dare question them then.
Privately, they have suggested Greene and others are using poor families as pawns.
That is YOUR LOVINGLY LIBERAL STATE GOVERNMENT, folks!!
Publicly, they wonder if advocates are suggesting homeless families put themselves in dangerous situations just to qualify for shelter.
This is REALLY RANK and SICKENING for a SUNDAY!!!
“I hope they’re not coaching them to do that,” Gornstein said.
Seriously? People who have devoted careers to ending homelessness would advise families to give up homes and put themselves in harm’s way?
It’s hard to reconcile the Deval Patrick who demanded that his party stop apologizing for its values at the Democratic National Convention with the way his administration is handling this.
“I believe the governor when he said it’s about our values,” said Senator Ken Donnelly, an Arlington Democrat who is one of a group of legislators trying to rebalance the shelter regulations. “But they have this feeling that people are somehow gaming the system, and you just look at them and say, ‘What planet are you on?’ ”
They are caught in the bubble of state politic$ -- if you know what I mean.
--more--"
Yeah, that's the Democratic state of Massachusetts, yup.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Sentenced to the Streets
Oh, you can always find a place to stay:
"A young couple caught up in the middle; Randy and Jessica Wood didn’t want it all, just for the old American equation of hard work and opportunity to work for them as it had for generations. But, as for so many, the good life remains just out of reach" by Sarah Schweitzer | Globe Staff, October 14, 2012
NORTH ANDOVER — Jessica and Randy didn’t take losses on real estate. They didn’t lose their jobs. But they joined in the easy-credit run-up to the Great Recession, which has left them with a heap of debts that has devoured their paychecks and their future, most recently, their 401(k)....
Across America, political candidates are warring over how best to shore up the middle class.
This after both parties helped in its destruction.
Republican US Senator Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren, his Democratic opponent in the closely watched Senate race, barely speak a sentence without mention of the group.
But just who falls into the middle class is a matter of open debate. Economists wield formulas, but more often, middle class is a self-appended label — one that fewer Americans apply to themselves after the Great Recession, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The route to this most basic American dream seems more uncertain than ever.
Jessica and Randy’s bank account doesn’t look middle-class. Their credit doesn’t qualify. Nor does their car, a barely alive 2002 Saturn they call Big Red that’s been sounding like a mournful cat of late.
Yet they will cheer Maisie at her North Andover Soccer Association games. They will enroll Emmett in karate. They will buy a black desk from Ikea, snug enough to fit in the room that was Jessica’s when she was a girl.
“I feel,” Jessica says, “like I’ve been grandfathered into the middle class.”
**********************************
Shortly before 9 a.m., the video screens mounted on clothing racks at Kohl’s announce temporarily slashed prices under headlines proclaiming, “Power Hour Specials.”
“These!” Maisie says in the shoe section, pointing to a pair of particularly glittered sneakers called Twinkle Toes. Jessica nods and her mother puts them in the cart with other back-to-school items. Emmett likes sneakers with Spiderman crawling on their fronts. “No, they’re hideous,” Jessica says under her breath. She picks up blue and fluorescent yellow Nikes with a $59 price tag. “We can do better than that,” she says, putting them back.
At the register, it is Anne who hands over her Kohl’s credit card while Jessica corrals Maisie and Emmett. “How’d we do?” Jessica inquires afterward in the parking lot. “Good,” Anne says. “180 for everything.”
Jessica will pay her back. The store credit card sliced some 30 percent from the price and Jessica doesn’t have one. Neither she nor Randy has any credits cards because no company will trust them with one.
Not with $60,000 in outstanding student loans, and credit card debt racked up in college that still runs into the thousands. “I was buying groceries and books on the card,” says Randy, the cool-headed son of a factory worker who had little means to help him at Alfred University. There once was a charge for a futon when he needed a bed.
Jessica was a theater major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst whose dramatic flair extended to finances. “Middle class?” she quips now. “I didn’t want to be in any class!” She amassed her debt in a freshman year spending blitz funded by a Discover card she signed up for in the student center on campus. “I went to a cash machine until it said I couldn’t have more,” she said. “I was very artsy, and I wasn’t going to live past 21.”
The debts followed them as they surfed career paths — together waiting tables at a restaurant and counseling troubled teens. After marrying in 2004, Randy turned to beer brewing and Jessica to teaching. There were other gambits along the way. In 2007, they moved West with then-2-year-old Maisie to a yurt in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains where Randy trained to become a wilderness counselor. Randy’s training left no time to earn money. In three months, they were broke.
Back in Massachusetts, they hunkered down. Jessica took a job at a Springfield charter school, Randy became manager of the Northampton Brewery. They blended with the other parents in chunky eyeglasses shopping at the River Valley Coop. They saw Joy Kills Sorrow at the Iron Horse Music Hall. They ran the 5k at Red Fire Farm’s Tomato Festival.
Those are all just down the road.
Financially, though, they were unraveling. They brought home $4,500 a month after taxes, and once they’d paid $1,200 for rent; $1,500 for child care for two children after the birth of Emmett; $500 for utilities, car insurance, and gas; and $800 for food, they had too little left over for the creditors who had come calling.
What, no bailout for them?
They trimmed their handful of extras, buying no-spray vegetables from farm stands rather than organic-labeled ones in stores. They nixed the idea of ski trips. But the demands didn’t relent.
“The credit card companies would bully Randy into paying more than we could afford,” Jessica said. “It was causing heartache in our relationship because it felt like we were more and more trapped.”
They hatched a plan: Randy would become a teacher, a job that offered better hours and greater security than the brewery. In teaching, they saw the promise of jobs that allowed them to do good and escape the factories where, working summer jobs, they had watched workers worry over making quotas and blow their paychecks betting at Rockingham Park.
Yeah, that's all us working slobs do, blow our money. I do every day I buy a Globe. I'll tell you, I wish I made enough to gamble.
But he would have to leave the brewery job to do the two-year training, and they couldn’t survive on one salary.
In April, Jessica’s father called. “If things are hard, there’s always here.”
They were 37 and 38, parents of a kindergartner and a preschooler, and out of options. The four-bedroom house it was....
Oh, they MOVED BACK HOME to the PARENTS HOUSE, huh?
***************************************
Jessica and Randy’s deepened money troubles spring from an economy that seems to them crueler and less fair than the one they’d known. “We didn’t get trapped early on,” Anne says. Tuition at Lowell State was $150 a year. You couldn’t get a credit card if you didn’t have a job. The reward for modest but stable salaries was a fully funded pension.
Well, times $ure have changed.
In the spring, they had considered the pros and cons of opening their home to Jessica, Randy, and the kids. They enjoyed its free-form quiet. She had her book club. He played accordion in high school productions of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Together, they volunteered at a Lawrence kindergarten, where each December, Barry dressed up as Santa Claus, his luxurious white beard grown long.
“We must be out of our minds,” Anne recalls thinking at the time. But then there was this. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my children,” Barry says....
I think most parents feel that way.
*************************************************
Big Red is dying. A mechanic says the Saturn may sputter for a bit more, but it’s not safe to drive and won’t be until $1,500 in repairs are made.
The $4,000 that Randy and Jessica cashed out of their 401(k) to tide them over during the paycheck-less portion of summer has already dwindled — $140 gone for Lands’ End backpacks for the kids, $220 to Pentucket Medical ExpressCare to treat Randy’s bout of poison ivy, and $500 for Emmett’s preschool deposit.
A mechanic at the garage her parents use says he knows of a 2003 Highlander they could get for $10,000.
They can’t drive their children in an unsafe car. They won’t ask her parents for the money.
So on a searingly hot afternoon, days before the start of school, Jessica sits in the office of a local credit union. She is streaked with dust and sweat from cleaning desks and cutting bubble-shaped letters exhorting soon-to-arrive students to “persevere” in her un-air conditioned classroom. Signs above the loan officer’s desk promise car loan rates as low as 1.99 APR. “Apply today!” Jessica knows better. “Where are the bad credit rates? Because that’s where I’m going to be.”
The officer hands Jessica a laminated page and points to the far right column where rates range from 13.49 percent to 14.09 percent. Small print below tacks on another 2 percent for older models, like the Highlander.
Jessica nods. Sixteen percent is her penance.
“The other day my mom said, ‘You’re in the same boat as 70 percent of Americans.’ But it always feels like a personal failure,” Jessica says. “Like I’ve made these bad decisions and so maybe that’s the way it’s going to go for me.”
That's exactly the way the money-grubbing mind manipulators want you to feel.
A day later, someone from the credit union calls. No, she and Randy may not have a loan — even at 16 percent....
Time for me to get moving.
--more--"
And the deepest cut of all:
"Many new city ordinances targeting homeless" by Gillian Flaccus | Associated Press, October 14, 2012
COSTA MESA, Calif. — Army veteran Don Matyja was getting by all right on the streets of this Southern California city until he got ticketed for smoking in the park.
Matyja, who has been homeless since he was evicted nearly two years ago, had trouble paying the fine and getting to court — and now a $25 penalty has ballooned to $600.
Is that what they were fighting for even as they made thousands if not millions of Muslims that way?
The ticket is just one of myriad new challenges facing Matyja and others living on the streets in Orange County, where a number of cities have recently passed ordinances that ban everything from smoking in the park to sleeping in cars to leaning bikes against trees in a region better known for its beaches than its 30,000 homeless people.
Cities have long struggled with how to deal with the homeless, but the new ordinances here echo what homeless advocates say is a rash of regulations nationwide as municipalities grapple with how to address those living on their streets within the constraints of ever-tightening budgets.
Always seem to have enough money for wars though.
The rules may go unnoticed by most, but the homeless say they are a thinly veiled attempt to push them out of one city and into another by criminalizing the daily activities they cannot avoid.
Why not just kill 'em all? That will solve the problem, right?
There’s been a sharp uptick in the past year in the number of cities passing ordinances against doing things on public property such as sitting, lying down, sleeping, standing in a public street, loitering, public urination, jaywalking, and panhandling, said Neil Donovan, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
‘‘It definitely is more pervasive and it is more adversarial. I think in the past we found examples of it but it’s not simply just growing, but it’s growing in its severity and in its targeted approach to America’s un-housed,’’ said Donovan, who compared it to a civil rights issue. ‘‘There’s the whole notion of driving while black. Well, this is sitting while homeless.’’
You know, with all the empty houses due to fraudulent foreclosures maybe we could billet the homeless in empty houses until whenever.
Denver this year voted to make urban camping illegal despite protests from homeless activists. Philadelphia banned feedings in public parks in June but the ordinance was put on hold the following month after homeless groups sued the city. And there’s a new curfew for pets that help their owners beg on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Newport Beach Public Library, nestled in a coastal city better known for its surfing and miles of wide beaches, recently updated a policy that says staff can evict someone for having poor hygiene or a strong aroma. The policy also bans lounging on library furniture and creates strict limits about parking shopping carts, bikes, and ‘‘other wheeled conveyances’’ outside the premises.
Library Services Director Cynthia Cowell insists the policy isn’t aimed at the homeless, but the action has nonetheless stirred anger among homeless advocates.
Some cities have seen a legal backlash as homeless advocacy groups sue. Recently, the homeless in Sacramento got checks ranging from $400 to $750 apiece to settle a class-action lawsuit brought after police destroyed property seized during cleanup operations.
In a similar case, a federal appeals court ruled last month that the city of Los Angeles cannot seize property left temporarily unattended on sidewalks by homeless residents.
Oddly, if they were dealing drugs they wouldn't be homeless.
--more--"
Also see: Quick Vet Check
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