Free Republic

Government plans new credit, mortgage programs By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer 19 mins ago WASHINGTON – The government introduced a pair of new programs Tuesday that will provide $800 billion to help unfreeze the market for consumer debt and to make mortgage loans cheaper and more available.

Washington--The government is working on a new loan facility to help companies that issue credit cards, make student loans and finance car purchases. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve will unveil the program Tuesday, according to people familar with the plan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement has yet to be made. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said he plans to use a "relatively modest share" of the $700 billion financial bailout money to pay for the new program. It's the latest effort by the government to break through a dangerous credit clog that has...

Four New Orleans police officers have been cleared of allegations that they looted a Wal-Mart store after Hurricane Katrina, but each was suspended 10 days for not stopping civilians from ransacking the store, the Police Department said. The probe stemmed from an MSNBC report that showed the officers filling a shopping cart with shoes, clothes and other items. When a reporter asked the officers what they were doing, one responded, "Looking for looters" and turned her back. Assistant Police Chief Marlon Defillo, commander of the Public Integrity Bureau, said the officers seen on the video were recently cleared of looting...

Cook County lost more people between 2000 and 2005 than any county in the nation, according to Census Bureau estimates released Thursday that also show continued gains in suburban and exurban counties across the region and portions of the nation. The new figures--based on administrative records and estimates for births, deaths and net migration--show the county lost more than 73,000 people, or 1.4 percent, since the last official count in April 2000. The largest-loser designation can partly be attributed to Cook County's massive size, because raw numbers were used for the rankings. Still, among the nation's 10 largest counties, Cook,...

The New York Times is not always the most collegial place to work, but this story sets a new standard -- if the allegations are true, which remains in dispute. The Times has fired Susan Sachs, its former Baghdad bureau chief. According to Times sources who insisted on anonymity because personnel matters are involved, the paper's management accused Sachs of writing to the wives of two other Times foreign correspondents, to say that their husbands were having affairs. Sachs denied to management that she had written the letters, but she was accused of not telling the truth based on electronic...

As a rule, when I write a piece about all the mistakes my newspaper, the L.A. Times, makes, I have to wait a week or even two to compile a selection large enough to make it worth our while. It’s not that they don’t come up with a ready supply on a daily basis. Heck, UPS doesn’t deliver the goods with such regularity. But some of the goofs are simply too boring to mention, as when they get the days and times of certain events wrong or when they simply misspell someone’s name. Sometimes, too, the corrections run even longer...

Remember the concept “Owning a piece of the American Dream?” That goal you had when you graduated from college to eventually own your own home? Well, some recently released statistics suggest that, although the percentage of homeowners in our nation is at an all-time high, the preponderance of interest-only and home equity loans is creating a society of baby boomers that might never actually achieve this dream. Maybe even more concerning is that these home “lessees” don’t seem to mind. As reported by The Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/content/homes/re_news/story/12425263p-13281615c.html "‘Folks paying off their loans and owning their homes free and clear is...

Many people have many problems with many things. Some you have control over and some you don’t. The real problem begins when you can’t get your problem solved. “What? You won't help me? But? You have my money! My product doesn’t work!” Have you ever been in this situation? I have had problems with products or services several times and they are usually quickly resolved. Well, over the past year I have had several problems that just haven’t gotten resolved. So, what better place to take them than to the public. I may even make this a recurring column and...

The power went off today for a couple hours due to the stormy conditions in Fresno, Ca. (more than 30 spots in Fresno county reported downed wires at one point) and I broke out my battery operated radio to catch the scoop on the poop, so to speak.Paul Harvey's "The rest of the story" was on and I decided a chuckle was in order. Even he laughed at this one. Seems someone in the Census Bureau pulled a fast one concerning a lake in Washington state.Beavis lake was the target of the prankster who changed the name on official census...

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - The U.S. Census Bureau says it is ending a practice of routinely turning over detailed information about Arabs or other minorities to anti-terrorism officials without high-level approval. The Census Bureau revealed Aug. 13 that it had been reporting demographic data about Arab Americans to a Homeland Security agency. The bureau said it only was providing population numbers and not names, addresses or other private details. Responding to requests over the past two years from the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Census Bureau said it had provided files that included a count of U.S. residents...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The second-in-command at the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is recusing herself from Indian gambling and recognition decisions so she can resign and join the private sector - just four months after the head of the department also recused himself from those issues. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Aurene Martin will resign effective Sept. 10, Interior Department spokesman Dan DuBray said Tuesday. Effective immediately, responsibility for tribal gambling and recognition decisions is being given to Mike Olsen, currently the counselor to the assistant secretary. Olsen will become the third official in less than a year...

Yup, Savage was right: he predicted last week that the media would go overboard covering a missing woman, and sure enough .. sadly, but sure enough .. here comes a missing woman in Utah and a suspicious husband. They are purposely avoiding discussing the acts of possible treason and theft of classified documents by the Bergler ..even Geraldo .. it's disgusting. ""When I was informed by the Archives that there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had except for a few documents that I apparently had accidentally discarded." Sandy Berger A very telling Washington Times editorial, posted on...

WASHINGTON (SH) - No matter who is running the Interior Department - Republicans, Democrats or a hybrid of both - they can't seem to get it right with Native Americans, leaving one to believe that the nation's integrity got buried at Wounded Knee alongside Crazy Horse's heart. Ever since the U.S. 7th Calvary of Custer fame (or infamy, whichever side one is on) massacred a harmless bunch of Ghost Dancers and their women and children at that now-sacred site, officially ending 30 years of armed hostility toward the Indians, the government has maintained a policy of corruption that even the...

Census Bureau Underestimates Mass Immigration in Newest Projections WASHINGTON, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. population estimate released by the Census Bureau on Wednesday that shows an unprecedented demographic shift in the country's population is way off the mark because it greatly underestimates the true level of mass immigration, claims the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). A more realistic projection, taking into account uncontrolled illegal immigration and guest worker/amnesty bills being discussed by both parties, would paint a much more alarming demographic change for Americas' future. The new Census Bureau information shows how our population is likely to increase...

PLYMOUTH – A once-tiny, nearly destitute American Indian tribe is pushing hard to build a $100 million casino – but it's not traditional tribal members gunning for riches. Hundreds of people have been newly added to the Ione Band of Miwok Indians' membership rolls, which were opened up by regional Bureau of Indian Affairs officials. Among the new members are several BIA employees and dozens of their relatives. Four congressmen have called for an investigation, though federal officials have so far declined to intervene. Rep. Nick Rahall, ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee, called the BIA's move an apparent...

Whistleblower Coming In Cold From the F.B.I. by Gail Sheehy Sibel Edmonds says she was shocked at the lack of security in the F.B.I.?s counterintelligence squad when she went to work there shortly after Sept. 11. But when she spoke up, she was canned. Gail Sheehy tells her story.

<p>All versions of the story agree on this: On the morning of June 25, federal water officials told Klamath River valley farmers that they might soon face a cutoff in their water supply. Not as much water was flowing into Klamath Lake upstream as expected, and the federal Endangered Species Act might prevent the feds from lowering the lake further.</p>

Middle East/North Africa | Iraq The southern marshes as they looked in 2000. By May 2001, more than 90 percent of the Al 'Amarah and the Hawr al Hammar marshes were almost completely dry according to the UN Environmental Program. (DOS Photo) 24 April 2002Iraqi Regime Devastates Environment of Marsh Arabs Satellite imagery shows extensive injury to wetland ecosystemBy Jim Fuller Washington File Science Writer Washington &#8212; The marshlands of southern Iraq are a unique part of the world. The region, lying between the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, is where the ancient Sumerians, it is...

Voluntary Alternatives to Taxation Stuart K. Hayashi Most Americans believe paying taxes is a patriotic duty. Yet this very nation was founded upon people evading taxes in 1776. When individuals don’t pay taxes, the government goes after them with guns, even though they haven’t used force on anyone else. Thus, taxation is an initiation of physical force against the individual’s right to life, liberty and property. Because taxation is forcible extortion, it violates your right to property. If you don’t pay taxes, you can be jailed, hence depriving you the right to liberty. And if tax “evaders” fight tax...

RUSSIA'S RADICAL NEW FIGHTER Russia’s fabled Sukhoi Design Bureau builds the S-37, a 21st century fighter to go head-to- head with our F-22. By MALCOLM V. LOWE Photos by Katsuhiko Tokunaga/DACT and courtesy of R-Avix; Illustration by John Batchelor A bold, new combat aircraft designed by the legendary Sukhoi Design Bureau and now undergoing tests in Russia has taken aim at America's next-generation fighter, the F-22. The Russian challenge comes in the form of the single-seat Sukhoi S-37, the world’s first combat aircraft to successfully exploit forward-swept wing (FSW) technology. First word of the S-37 leaked to the West...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  A national charity watchdog faulted the American Red Cross' Sept. 11 fund raising, saying solicitations it used to raise hundreds of million of dollars for victims of the terrorist attacks were misleading.</p> <p>In a report issued Thursday, the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance said early Red Cross solicitations for the Sept. 11 Liberty Fund omitted the fact that the charity planned to use some of the donations for broad relief efforts. Later appeals that did disclose the Red Cross' plans for the money "did not do so in a clear and conspicuous manner that would be reasonably understood by potential donors given the circumstances of 9/11," the report found.</p>