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National Park Service officials cited the government shutdown as the reason for ordering an elderly Nevada couple out of their home, which sits on federal land. "Unfortunately overnight stays are not permitted until a budget is passed and the park can reopen," an NPS spokesman explained to KTNV. Ralph and Joyce Spencer, aged 80 and 77, respectively, own their home, but the government owns the land on which it sits. "I had to be sure and get his walker and his scooter that he has to go in," Joyce Spencer told the local news outlet. "We're not hurt in any...

4x4 fans look away now! Land Rovers imported to U.S. are CRUSHED by customs for failing safety rules because they don't have airbags • The exclusive vehicle was seized by customs officers in Baltimore • Its importer had attempted to fool the authorities by changing its plate • But they spotted the ruse and deemed it unfit for the US' roads • Often selling for upwards of $100,000, this one is now worth just $30 The wrecking claw hangs over the Land Rover Defender as its operator prepares to crush the exclusive vehicle on the orders of US customs. Moments...

Fannie and Freddie have been in operation for decades without problems until recently. Fannie began in 1938 as a quasi-governmental agency making affordable homes available to people by making the financing easier and funds more readily available by establishing a secondary market for mortgages. Previously banks had held onto their mortgages in a system called portfolio mortgages and were made mostly to their own account holders. With the homes as collateral, the banks then lent out that same money again to other local borrowers. If you remember the scene from It's a Wonderful Life when there is a run on...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested the mayors of Miami Lakes and Sweetwater Tuesday on bribery charges. “They both were surprised,” a source familiar with the case told CBS4′s Jim DeFede. The arrests, first reported by CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald, will be separate cases involving different people... Maroño is not only the Mayor of Sweetwater, but also president of the Florida League of Cities and was part of Governor Rick Scott’s transition team.

WASHINGTON — A judge signed an order today that will give former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. time to pay a $750,000 forfeiture arising out of his criminal case. In the order, the judge agreed to a request from lawyers in the case to postpone until Oct. 25 a decision on whether the government may seize Jackson’s interest in two homes and an individual retirement account should he fail to pay up. **SNIP** The order came after prosecutors and defense lawyers involved in Jackson Jr.’s case told the judge Thursday that the former congressman will "make his best efforts" to satisfy...

Daylight checkpoints

Student forgotten in DEA holding cell gets $4.1M SAN DIEGO — A UCSD student scooped up in a drug raid and left in a Drug Enforcement Administration holding cell for 4 1/2 days without food or water will get $4.1 million to settle his claims, his attorneys announced Tuesday. Daniel Chong, 25, was among seven people detained in an April 21, 2012, raid on a University City home. Chong, an student at UCSD, was handcuffed and put in 5-by-10-foot cell, by an officer who told him, “Hang tight. We’ll come get you in a minute,” his attorney Julia Yoo said....

HUD's New 'Fair Housing' Rule Establishes Diversity Data for Every Neighborhood in U.S. o ensure that "every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of," HUD has published a new fair-housing regulation intended to give people access to better neighborhoods than the ones they currently live in. The goal is to help communities understand "fair housing barriers" and "establish clear goals" for "improving integrated living patterns and overcoming historic patterns of segregation.

The Obama administration, already under fire for the IRS scandal and National Security Agency snooping of the computers and cellphones of Americans, is also spending millions to have private contractors conduct a dragnet for confidential and personal credit and bank transactions without a warrant. Newly obtained documents from the Obama-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reveal that the administration has OK'd a project to accumulate the personal financial data of some 5 million and share it with other agencies to build a "nationally representative panel of credit information on consumers for use in a wide range of policy research projects." The...

PRESENTING: The Bubble With No Name Yet Joe Weisenthal Jun. 22, 2013, 7:12 AM This week we put together our quarterly feature on the most important charts in the world based on the suggestions of many of Wall Street's brightest investors, economists, and analysts. Given the recent turmoil in markets, the contribution from SocGen's Kit Juckes was very timely. He titled it: The Bubble With No Name (Yet). It demonstrates that each of the last big bubbles have been characterized by periods where the Fed Funds rate has been held well below year-over-year nominal GDP growth. He argues that this...

ALL GLOBAL MARKETS GOT SHREDDED: Here's What You Need To Know Sam Ro June 20, 2013 No one was safe today. First, the scoreboard: • Dow: 14,758.3 -353.8 -2.3% • S&P 500: 1,588.1 -40.7 -2.5% • NASDAQ: 3,364.6 -78.5 -2.2% And now, the top stories: • Stock, bonds, commodities, and currencies around the world got destroyed today."Rare to see every futures market I follow down," tweeted bond trader Ed Bradford. Today's drop in the S&P 500 was the worst one since 2011. • Today's calamity was really an extension of yesterday's sell-off, which appeared to be triggered by comments made...

EL-ERIAN: The Fed Better Be Right About The Economy Mohamed El-Erian, ContributorJune 20, 2013REUTERS/Frank Polich Virtually every segment of the fixed income, equity and commodity markets sold off viciously this afternoon on the back of the Fed statement and Chairman Ben Bernanke’s subsequent remarks. In the process, liquidity evaporated in certain places causing even more disorderly price moves. The immediate trigger for this afternoon’s market debacle was heightened concern that the Fed intends to reduce its support of the economy, undermining the markets’ notion of the “central bank put.” And in reacting to signs that the Fed may gradually take...

This Car Won’t Move Jeffrey TuckerMay 3, 2013 The latest unemployment data reveal the hope and tragedy of the American economic plight. Cheers went up for a modest increase in hiring, one that: • barely keeps up with population; • features mostly temp workers; • leaves out prime-age males and all young workers; • and keeps labor participation rate at a low level from 1979. This is good news? Hmmm… But the central bank will save us, right? So say economic journalists. They love metaphors. Actually, professional economists love them too. The latest phrase being tossed around is that world...

Bernanke Cancels Jackson Hole Appearance Four Months Out Due To 'Personal Scheduling Conflict' Matthew BoeslerApril 22, 2013 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke won't be attending the annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium in August due to a "personal scheduling conflict." The event, held by the Kansas City Fed every summer in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, usually features a keynote speech from the Chairman of the Fed. In recent years since the financial crisis of 2008, the speech has been used to signal important monetary policy shifts as the Fed has experimented with unconventional monetary policy tools. As MNI's Steven Beckner points...

Boston was battered but vigilant on Tuesday as an army of federal agents raced to find out who attacked the city’s historic marathon, leaving three dead and more than 100 injured amid a war zone of shattered glass and bomb debris on Patriots Day.

It's a rough job market for anyone looking for work as we continue to just barely break stagnation levels in the Slowest Recovery Ever, but the picture is particularly bleak for the fresh-faced youths looking start careers. According to a new economic report, the situation is going to be “extremely difficult” for the crop of 2013 college graduates: Unemployment remains high for young college grads. For those who will find jobs, many will probably have to settle for low-level positions, the Economic Policy Institute said Wednesday.The unemployment rate for recent college grads between the ages of 21 to 24 has...

FBI investigators for at least five years have routinely used a sophisticated cellphone tracking tool that can pinpoint callers’ locations and listen to their conversations — all without getting a warrant for it, a federal court was told this week. The use of the “Stingray,” as the tool is called, “is a very common practice” by federal investigators, Justice Department attorneys told the U.S. District Court for Arizona Thursday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Installed in an unmarked van, Stingray mimics a cellphone tower, so it can pinpoint the precise location of any mobile device in range and...

A growing number of states are moving forward with legislation to exempt them from new federal gun controls and, in some cases, brand as criminals anyone who tries to enforce them. While many of the bills are considered symbolic or appear doomed to fail, the legislative explosion reflects a backlash against legislative and regulatory efforts in Washington to tamp down on gun violence. As of this week, at least 28 states had taken up consideration of gun bills this year, according to new data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. More than 70 bills have been put forward...

Now, this is awkward. One agency of the federal government is suing a company for fraud while another agency continues to endorse it. On Monday in Los Angeles, the Department of Justice sued Standard & Poor's and its parent McGraw-Hill MHP -0.25% for $5 billion. The claim is that S&P committed civil fraud when it issued high credit ratings on mortgage-related securities prior to the financial crisis of 2008. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have piled on the suit. No doubt investors who relied on the opinions of S&P and the other big credit-rating agencies, Moody's and Fitch,...

The "Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Preservation Act" is now working its way through the Oklahoma legislature. Introduced by state senator Nathan Dahm, this legislation puts Oklahoma shoulder-to-shoulder with Wyoming and Texas by putting federal gun-grabbers in check. The language of the legislation is clear: "Federal acts, laws, orders, rules, regulations, bans or registration requirements regarding firearms constitute an infringement on the individual right [to keep and bear arms] in the Constitution of the United States...and are hereby declared to be invalid in the State of Oklahoma." The legislation mentions the "intent" of America's "Founders" and the Constitution's "ratifiers," and sets forth...