Free Republic

House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Friday that he would reintroduce legislative language next week that would require large financial institutions to pay for federal mortgage assistance programs. Frank said his bill would allow four federal mortgage programs that Republicans are working to eliminate this month to continue operating without threatening to increase the U.S. budget deficit and debt. He said his bill would be similar to language that he tried unsuccessfully to include in financial reform legislation last year. "I don't mean to demonize, but I think Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo, and the Bank...

MILTON, Ontario (AP) -- The glowing amber dot on a light switch in the entryway of George Tsapoitis' house offers a clue about the future of electricity. A few times this summer, when millions of air conditioners strain the Toronto region's power grid, that pencil-tip-sized amber dot will blink. It will be asking Tsapoitis to turn the switch off -- unless he's already programmed his house to make that move for him. This is the beginning of a new way of thinking about electricity, and the biggest change in how we get power since wires began veining the landscape a...

MILTON, Ontario (AP) -- The glowing amber dot on a light switch in the entryway of George Tsapoitis' house offers a clue about the future of electricity. A few times this summer, when millions of air conditioners strain the Toronto region's power grid, that pencil-tip-sized amber dot will blink. It will be asking Tsapoitis to turn the switch off -- unless he's already programmed his house to make that move for him. This is the beginning of a new way of thinking about electricity, and the biggest change in how we get power since wires began veining the landscape a...

Cul-de-sacs are getting cul-de-sacked. Cities across the country — including many in Minnesota — are declaring war on the stubby dead-end streets that are icons of suburban life. Northfield has virtually banned cul-de-sacs, and many new suburban projects limit or eliminate them. "Why would anyone do that?" asked Sherri Fassbender, 41, on Thursday as she watched her children cavort on the quiet expanse of street that is her Woodbury cul-de-sac. "You'd have to be crazy not to want to live on a cul-de-sac." Families love them and officials hate them — for the same reason. Cul-de-sacs limit connections to the...