Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on Tuesday called for sweeping new government powers to prevent another economic collapse, protect consumers and dismantle failing institutions. Dodd's 1,100 page-draft would strip the Federal Reserve and other regulators of their powers to regulate banks and hand that job to a single agency. The bill also would take away the Fed's ability to monitor credit cards and mortgages and establish a new "Consumer Financial Protection Agency." The bill, inspired by last year's financial meltdown, will minimize "economic turmoil and protect(ing) the interest of taxpayers," the Connecticut Democrat wrote.

Bailed out Citigroup fund spends $10 billion buying 44 foreign toll roads. Just one week after receiving a pledge of $306 billion in support from US taxpayers, Citigroup announced the intended $10 billion acquisition of a debt-laden Spanish toll road group. Citi Infrastructure Partners will hand over $3.6 billion in cash and assume $6.3 billion in debt from Sacyr Vallehermoso, the parent company of the Intinere Infraestructuras toll road group. Itinere operates 32 toll roads in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Portugal and Spain and Ireland. Another twelve concessions are under construction. Sacyr today issued a statement to Spanish investors noting...

Representative Charles B. Rangel paid no interest for more than a decade on a mortgage extended to him to buy a villa at a beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic, according to Mr. Rangel’s lawyer and records from the resort. The loan was given to him by the resort development company, in which Theodore Kheel, a prominent New York labor lawyer, was a principal investor. Mr. Kheel, who has given tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Rangel’s campaigns over the past decade, had encouraged the congressman to be one of the initial investors in the project. The loan, which...

Will there be a MORTGAGE-GATE controversy in the 2008 election? Judicial Watch has filed a complaint against the sweetheart deal that Senator Obama Barack has received in terms of a mortgage. So has Senator Christopher Dodd, D-CT, who is chair of the Senate Banking Committee. One must ask the question are these two Democrats: are they Dumb, Dishonest, or both -- to have accepted these sweetheart mortgage deals for their personal life? Should the US Justice Department start investigating these politicians and others for such deals to receive favorable treatment in legislation now that the mortgage industry is in serious...

While liberal journalists have moved on from the Christopher Dodd-Countrywide Financial scandal, questions linger about the sweetheart loans he got in 2003 from Angelo Mozilo. At the time, Mr. Mozilo was chairman and CEO of Countrywide, which would become a leading player in the subprime-mortgage crisis and would benefit greatly if Congress passes Sen. Dodd's lending-industry bailout bill. Does anyone believe Sen. Dodd when he says he and his wife did not "anticipate any special treatment" from Countrywide and were unaware they got it? A senator get treated royally everywhere he goes. He gets his jollies from the rump kissing...

An Arkansas commercial developer confirmed his role in a no-cost "incentive deal" packaged by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to attract a Mexican Consulate to Little Rock. Meanwhile, an Arkansas legislator expressed concern that Huckabee used taxpayer funds inappropriately in a plan ultimately designed to assist illegal immigrants in Arkansas. "Any taxpayer money that is used to help facilitate breaking the law is wrong," Green emphasized. WND previously reported Robert Trevino, commissioner of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, had signed a lease providing the Mexican Consulate space in an Arkansas Rehabilitations Services building at a cost of $1 per year. The...

NEWPORT NEWS - The decision to seek no time behind bars for a former Newport News police officer who pleaded guilty to molesting two teenagers in the 1980s and 1990s came down to getting a sure conviction rather than taking chances with a jury trial on a long-ago case, a prosecutor said. Randolph D. Smith, 60, pleaded guilty Thursday to six counts of indecent liberties with children, getting a 45-year sentence - all of it suspended. All the incidents occurred while Smith was a sworn police officer.

Abdel Majid left behind family and friends in Morocco four years ago to study and work in the United States. Yesterday, as he heard the traditional Muslim call to prayer at the new Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury, he truly felt at home. “The population here - most of them are immigrants far from where they grew up,” said the 29-year-old Revere man. “To hear the call of prayer makes you feel this is really your country.” Yesterday, Muslims from across the region watched the capping of the mosque’s minaret, the tower from which the call to...

On Thursday, the Lubbock, Texas city council voted to delay installation of red light cameras after a local television station exposed the city's short timing of yellow lights at eight of the twelve intersections where the devices were to be installed. "Many folks believe this is a money grab and then we found out through KCBD Television there's a discrepancy in timing," Councilman Gary Boren said, as quoted by KCBD. Earlier this month, the station cited the rule-of-thumb that Lubbock City Engineer Jere Hart asserted as the basis for timing lights at city intersections. At most of the proposed camera...

City could get close to half of $1.9 billion Ottawa fund Federal funds to be used for transit, water or sewer systems KERRY GILLESPIE STAFF REPORTERS Toronto will get about $900 million in gas tax money over five years as the federal government opens the taps on funding for Ontario's cities and towns. Ottawa is set to sign a deal on Friday that will see Ontario's municipalities share $1.9 billion in federal money. Under the deal, municipalities, including Toronto, will be required to spend the new funding on "environmentally sustainable" projects such as improving public transit and upgrading sewer and...

MUNICH, Germany (AP) - U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton offered support Sunday for reforms to strengthen the United Nations, but also had a world of personal appreciation for U.N. chief Kofi Annan. "I also thank him for giving my husband a new job," she said, smiling. Annan recently appointed former U.S. President Bill Clinton as a special U.N. envoy to countries hit by December's Indian Ocean tsunami. Rodham Clinton was among a group of U.S. senators attending an annual security conference in Munich, where Annan was the keynote speaker Sunday. She backed his call for an overhaul of the world...