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Denise Tejada bought a house last month at the age of 20, thanks in large part to a loan guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority. This story offers a dramatic demonstration that, despite the housing bubble causing the worst economic downturn in generations, the ideology of home ownership is alive and well in the United States and still being supported by the government. Without question, Tejada's loan is toxic--to her and to the taxpayers who are backing the loan. Her house cost $155,000. Tejada's loan was apparently made on a micro-down payment of just 3.5%, the minimum down payment to...

Evidence continues to accumulate from far and wide that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is lousy with corruption. The latest revelations come from Louisiana and Oklahoma. In the former, the local ACORN Housing Corp. office received contracts worth a combined $625,000 from the City of New Orleans for repairing existing low-income housing and developing new units in poor neighborhoods. The contracts were paid for with funds from federal Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. An investigation by the Pelican Institute think tank of New Orleans, however, found that no work...

This broke earlier this morning. Bank of America Corp. is suspending its work with the housing affiliate of embattled community organizing group ACORN. The decision comes as three Republicans in Congress ask Bank of America and 13 other financial institutions to give Congress a complete accounting of their dealings with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or its affiliates.

Taxpayer-Owned Citigroup Still Bankrolling ACORN Submitted by Peter Flaherty on Sun, 09/27/2009 - 18:59   Now that taxpayers are Citigroup’s biggest shareholder, owning 36% of common stock, it is time for the company and its foundation to end its relationship with ACORN and its affiliates.Citigroup has received $45 billion in taxpayer TARP funds. In addition, taxpayers are on the hook for the lion’s share of losses on the company’s $335 billion loan portfolio.According to the 2008 annual tax return of the Citi Foundation, it provided the ACORN Institute, Inc. with grants of $500,000 for each of the years 2006, 2007...

Like rats deserting a sinking ship, ACORN's many enablers over the years are racing for the exits as the scope of the organization's shenanigans come to light. Even leftist fellow-traveler -- and, until now, stalwart ACORN defender -- Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is squirming. What took them so long? We've been warning about the group for ages.

More bad news for the Democratic Parties Favorite community organizing group, ACORN. While Harry Reid continues to get heat at home for refusing to allow Senate hearings on ACORN, Senator Grassley had his staff do a little investigation of their own. According to the Capital Research Center, Grassley (R-Iowa), asked the IRS to probe ACORN – and asked that the group be dropped from the Combined Federal Campaign (a charitable program for government workers). This is not the first time the Senator has gone after the ACORN criminal enterprise, in 2006 he asked the IRS to investigate ACORN for voter...

WASHINGTON – The embattled community activist group ACORN appears to be collecting charitable contributions through affiliate organizations that it then uses for impermissible lobbying and political activity, says the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee. The assessment, in a memo to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, further fuels the controversy surrounding ACORN, formally known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The GOP staff memo says ACORN-affiliated charities are being used to raise money which is then funneled to other charities or other organizations for purposes other than what a donor may have intended. In response, ACORN chief...

The IRS yesterday severed its ties with ACORN, the profoundly corrupt community organizing group embroiled in a seemingly never-ending string of controversies, criminal investigations and voter registration fraud charges.  Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau also severed ties with the group. The latest controversy is over the series of videos covertly taped by new media journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.  In these videos, O’Keefe and Giles, posing as a pimp and prostitute, are given tax advice by ACORN representatives in different cities across the country.   The tax advice included listing “performance artist” as the prostitute’s employment code in...

ACORN being called a criminal enterprise. Despite years of warning signs that ACORN was violating the law, many state attorneys general have not investigated the organization or brought enforcement actions. State attorneys general, besides being the chief enforcement officers for violations of state laws, claim unique law enforcement authority over nonprofits. The reasons for inaction by state attorneys general may explain why ACORN is such a problem. ACORN has developed close ties, to put it mildly, with many state attorneys general as well as others deep in the Democrat establishment. The relationship between ACORN and Democrats may be described as...

See video @ WDSU: IRS Leins on ACORN

Bank of America is even still referring people to the ACORN offices caught on tape. A sample from the banks' website: Local Home Ownership Programs We work with local and national organizations to bring potential homebuyers education and financial resources to obtain a mortgage. Phoenix * ACORN. Bank of America works with Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Housing to provide special mortgage products to potential homeowners in Phoenix. For more information, call ACORN's Phoenix office at 1.602.253.1111 or visit the website at www.acornhousing.org. * NCLR. Bank of America works with National Council of La Raza (NCLR) to...

It now looks very much like there was a lot more truth to the criticisms about ACORN—the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now—than its leadership, its allies on Capitol Hill and its supporters in the media were willing to acknowledge.... This latest round of problems for ACORN may be the best documented, but they are not the first nor, for that matter, are they the most serious. A report issued last summer by the Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to Sunday's Washington Times, "presented evidence that ACORN had engaged in criminal misconduct." Among the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The IRS says it is severing ties with ACORN, the community activist group involved in a scandal after employees were caught on video giving advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp. The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it would no longer include ACORN in its volunteer tax assistance program. The program offered free tax advice to about 3 million low- and moderate-income tax filers this spring

As scandals concerning the left-wing "community" group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) continue to metastasize, the organization seems to think it can handpick allies to "investigate" its own transgressions. Fortunately for the rest of us, the growth of independent writers and researchers using modern communications means there are plenty of other outfits that can and will expose corruption. Case in point: The Pelican Institute think tank in New Orleans keeps unearthing examples of federal and state tax liens against ACORN's national headquarters in the Crescent City. The institute's indefatigable research broke into national attention yesterday via a...

Clarice Feldman The federal government should review all tax returns prepared by ACORN tax preparers (and all loan applications prepared by ACORN -- but that is a separate review process). That the IRS knows who these people are is suggested by this article, which I suppose was repeated throughout the country: ... ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) Tax and Benefits Centers in Hartford and Bridgeport are ready to assist CT Taxpayers. ACORN has partnered with the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Preparation (VITA) program to provide free tax preparation for low and moderate income taxpayers who cannot afford...

Remember when Nancy Pelosi made that famous promise? "This will be the most ethical congress ever." Despite all the evidence that Rangel should be taking a "perp walk" rather than the position of Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Pelosi says she is waiting for the House Ethics Committee to complete its wide-ranging investigation before she makes a decision about Rangel..Why is Pelosi supporting Charlie Rangel and ignoring the volume of evidence against him? Its not because of any long standing friendship of loyalty, its because she needs to protect her own political butt:

Remember that promise made by Nancy Pelosi? "This will be the most ethical congress ever." There are many examples of how that was an empty promise, the latest of which is her support of Charlie Rangel. Despite all the evidence that Rangel should be taking a "perp walk" rather than the position of Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Pelosi says she is waiting for the House Ethics Committee to complete its wide-ranging investigation before she makes a decision about Rangel. Others are Not waiting. Today the left wing newspaper, The Washington Post repeated its call for...

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, PATRICIA J. HAYNES, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division ("IRSCID"), JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), RONALD J. VERROCHIO, the Inspector-in- Charge of the New York Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service ("USPIS"), and JAMIE WOODWARD, the Acting Commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance ("NYSDTF"), announced the unsealing of a four-count Indictment charging...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Harriette Monica Walters, 52, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced this morning in federal court to 17 years, six months of incarceration for her eighteen-year-long, $48 million fraud scheme at the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Channing D. Phillips, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Charles Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, Special Agent in Charge C. Andre' Martin of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, J. Russell George,...

Maybe when City College of NY is done building Charlie Rangel's favorite Pork project, the $1.95 million, federal earmark funded Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service one of the first courses they could teach is "Playing Fast and Loose with Ethics 101." This past year, has not been kind to Congressmen Charlie Rangel. In September he admitted a failure to report $75 thousand in taxes. Rangel is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, they write the tax law. You would think that he would be extra-careful to make sure that he would follow the tax law....