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Today the US Treasury Department announced an update to allow refinancing of mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to a first lein position of 125% of the home’s appraisal value. This is a level that was previously set at 105% loan to value.

A University employee was charged by the FBI with child sex abuse June 24 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Frank Lombard, 42, associate director for the Health Inequalities Program at the Center for Heath Policy, is charged with enticing an undercover police officer over the Internet to take part in interstate travel in order to engage in an illegal sex act with a minor during a sting conducted by the FBI and Metropolitan Police Department for the District of Columbia's Child Exploitation Task Force, according to a news release from the FBI. According to The (Raleigh)...

“We believe that the coup was not legal,” the president told reporters on Monday, “and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there.” The administration has not yet officially designated the overthrow of Zelaya as a coup d’etat, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “We do think that this has evolved into a coup.” The official view of the transition makes a difference to the amount of U.S. aid that can be sent to Honduras. Regardless of the official position, however, the president apparently enjoyed saying the word coup, perhaps to show off his...

The nuts are at it again, folks. In this Accuracy in Media interview, an ACORN state organizer and friend describe their infatuation with their Messiah’s health care plan. My reaction to this video is two-fold. On the one hand, I’m amazed that this group has such a dangerous reputation when their members are this grossly inept. On the other hand, I’m not very surprised when I find that the stupid are Obama supporters. Watch and take heart… our mission is to defeat people whose IQ is lower than my family’s cat and whose ability to express coherent thought is rivaled...

V TO THOSE CALLING THEMSELVES REPUBLICANS: “Only to realize far too late in the day,/As stone becomes dust/The world is a field of chameleons.” — from Chameleon by G. G. Falderal I am writing to those of you who currently take the mantle of “Republican” but hold to little, if any, of the party’s core conservative beliefs. Those in this group include, but are certainly not limited to, John McCain, Olympia Snow, Colin Powell, David Brooks, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, Mary Bono Mack, Mike Castle, Mark Kirk, John McHugh, Frank LoBiondo, Leonard Lance, Dave Reichert, and Chris Smith. The last...

When House Democratic leaders were rounding up votes Friday for the massive climate-change bill, they paid special attention to their colleagues from Ohio who remained stubbornly undecided. They finally secured the vote of one Ohioan, veteran Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, the old-fashioned way. They gave her what she wanted - a new federal power authority, similar to Washington state's Bonneville Power Administration, stocked with up to $3.5 billion in taxpayer money available for lending to renewable energy and economic development projects in Ohio and other Midwestern states. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman, California Democrat, included...

...last week I thought Mark Sanford could survive the adultery. But I don't think he can survive his weirdly exhibitionist public meditations on the adultery. I doubt many of his constituents share his view of the gubernatorial office as a personal growth experience the entire state can benefit from, and he might at least run some of the talking points of his thrice-daily confessionals past the staffers: "South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford may be sleeping in the doghouse permenantly after telling the AP that his mistress is his soulmate, but that he'll try to fall back in love with his...

ANNANDALE, Va. (AP) - President Barack Obama hugged a woman who told him at a town hall meeting she has cancer but no way to pay her expenses. Obama said the woman, identified as "Debbie," is a "perfect example" of someone who has gotten caught up and is lost in a broken health care system. He said "she's not getting the best care" and called her "Exhibit A" in the case he's trying to make for a new system.

(CNN) -- Wendy Duren thought she did everything right. Wendy Duren says she doesn't get as much sleep but loves her adopted daughter, Madison. Wendy Duren says she doesn't get as much sleep but loves her adopted daughter, Madison. She broke off relationships with men who didn't want to settle down. She refused to get pregnant out of wedlock. She prayed for a child. Duren's yearning for motherhood was so palpable that her former fiancé once offered to father a child with her. But he warned her that he wasn't ready for marriage. "I get bored in relationships after a...

WASHINGTON – There is a growing “religion gap” between older Americans and those under 30, according to a new Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey. The study released June 29 found that one-fourth of Americans ages 18-29 said they were atheists, agnostics or had no religion, while only 7 percent of those 65 and over described themselves that way. Eighteen percent of those ages 30-49 and 13 percent of those 50-64 fell into the no religion/atheist/agnostic category. At 7 percent, the under-30s also were more than twice as likely as those 65 and over (3 percent) to say...

James Bond screeches around hairpin bends in them with a beautiful woman at his side, while they are the car of choice for European royalty in which to parade themselves around the Continent’s more opulent capitals. Now, at last, the opportunity to pop out to the supermarket behind the wheel of an Aston Martin will be opened to the more conventional motorist. The Aston Martin Cygnet — a new “luxury commuter concept” car, according to its marketeers — is to be built on the base of Toyota’s existing iQ city car and is likely to be available for less than...

(Bold emphasis added by poster) The Archdiocese of Baltimore plans to investigate whether an Annapolis woman's cure from cancer was a miracle, a possible step toward sainthood for a 19th-Century priest. Mary Ellen Heibel was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2004 and early 2005 for malignant tumors in her lungs, liver, stomach and chest. After she was diagnosed, Heibel began praying to Blessed Francis X. Seelos, and urging others to pray as well. Heibel, whose cancer was terminal, experienced a recovery her doctors did not expect and can't explain.

CHICAGO -- Chanti (SHAN'-tee) Lawrence says visiting the Sears Tower's new glass balconies has helped cure her fear of heights - almost. The Atlanta woman says - at the very least - she took the first step toward conquering her fear by walking out onto the glass more than 1,300 feet in the air. The balconies, nicknamed "The Ledge," open to the public Thursday. Several visitors got a preview Wednesday. Lawrence described the experience as "very cool but very scary."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A militant commander in northwest Pakistan tore up a peace deal with the Pakistani government Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the government's campaign against Islamist insurgents in the extremist-controlled Waziristan region.

McALLEN, Texas (AP) - A Border Patrol agent in Texas has shot a suspected illegal immigrant after a scuffle in a convenience store.

May 29, 2008 By Andrew Walden (Hawai'i Free Press) Nadhmi Auchi, seen here with the Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich (middle) at a 2004 Chicago dinner in Auchi's honor arranged by Antonin Rezko (potentially, right)[1]. All three men have been convicted of corruption related charges (Auchi 2003, Rezko 2008, Blagojevich 2009).[2] “A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser (dual US-Syrian citizen Tony Rezko) just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses. The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi,...

As the July 6th thru 8th US-Russia Summit draws nearer, a plethora of foreign affairs and Russian experts gathered on Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation to discuss the likelihood that the summit produces changes in America’s policies towards Russia. Several panelists agreed that the meeting should lead to the reestablishment of disabled ties between the two states.Former National Intelligence Council Chairman Fritz Ermath said “the Obama administration is trying to improve U.S-Russian relations from their worst or chilliest since the Cold War.”President Barack Obama will be visiting Russia next week as part of a series of trips abroad. The administration’s...

PHOENIX - The Arizona Senate has given final approval to a bill that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry a gun into a business that serves alcohol. The 19-8 vote completes legislative action on the bill and sends it to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer. She has not said whether she will sign it, but she has long been a supporter of gun rights. The measure has pitted powerful groups representing gun and bar owners against each other, sparking a debate about whether guns and alcohol can coexist without bloodshed.

The liberal intelligentsia loves to compare American politics and culture to Europeans for the purpose of illustrating what a backward people Americans are. Yet, the comparisons rarely are valid. More than likely they are fallacious. Not too long ago, famed law professor Alan Dershowitz defended former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s scandalous affair with a prostitute by claiming that the incident would not even make the last pages of a European newspaper. Ergo, it was no big deal. Similarly, advocates of socialized medicine like to say all other industrialized nations have a government run, single-payer health insurance plan and that...

Liberal health reform advocates have talked about ramming a reform plan — including a Medicare-like public insurance option — through the Senate with only 51 Democratic votes. But a leading Senate player says it won’t work.