Wilkes-Barre mayor used used summer jobs program to hire family, friends

Rob O’Dell, of  the Arizona Daily Star, reports on the shameful acts of three of the largest banks in Arizona.

“Banks that took bailout money were supposed to use part of the taxpayer-provided cash infusion to help customers avoid foreclosure, but instead, many of them are buying up struggling homeowners’ tax debt.

The tax liens earn banks up to 16 percent interest, and if homeowners don’t repay their debt within three years the banks can foreclose on their homes. Since the bailout in 2008, major banks have bought nearly 6,000 tax liens in Pima County that total at least $15.8 million.”

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo are among the top three buyers of tax liens in Arizona.

“Detroit Free Press investigative reporter Jennifer Dixon reports Sunday that Fannie Mae is privately telling banks to foreclose on homeowners who are more than a year deliquent even if the borrowers are seeking a federal loan modification. The policy, uncovered in confidential Fannie Mae records, is contrary to Fannie Mae’s public assurances that homeowners will be protected from foreclosure while applying for a federal HAMP loan.

A report Monday reveals how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are selling foreclosed homes way below market value, lowering property value throughout metro Detroit.”

In 2002, farmers in two Colorado counties experienced a devastating drought but because of shares held in a “century-old irrigation company,” were told they would be able to “keep their coveted their irrigation water.” However, nine years later, the farmers are still facing dry land and looming financial ruin. In this investigation by theDenver Post, reporters Karen E. Crummy and Eric Gorski reveal that the lawyer for the Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Co., also represented the “United Water and Sanitation District,” which was the public water district “attempting to build a Front Range water-delivery system.” The lawyer, John P. Akolt III, received numerous rewards from the FRICO board for creating a contract that essentially failed to salvage the farms.

Steve Neavling and Jim Schaefer of the Detroit Free Press uncover, that despite a third of Detroit’s population living below the federal poverty line, their Human Services Department spent “$182,000 in furniture purchases destined for the department offices at 5031 Grandy, near Warren and Mt. Elliott.”

City officials said the purchases were especially egregious because the agency handles most of the federal money to feed and clothe poor people, find jobs for unemployed people, create subsidized housing, open homeless shelters and operate the early childhood education program Head Start.

"At least $26 million a year – and likely much more – is being spent on judiciary-related offices without the public involvement required by state law, The Lens has determined after a six-month analysis of records involving 11 agencies or offices. The review included five court systems, the Public Defender’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office and the Coroner’s Office."

Matt Davis reports that despite the law that was enacted in 1981, some, such as the Coroner's Office, were unaware it even existed.

"The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. showed how the leadership of Lehigh Valley International Airport followed a risky strategy of buying land around the airport in the mid-1990s. That strategy led to an inverse condemnation and court fight pitting the airport against a group of investors who had hoped to build on the land. Despite using experts that cost the airport as much as $710 an hour, LVIA lost at nearly every turn in court, and now a land deal that could have cost the airport about $8 million is approaching $34 million in total costs." Despite the fact that LVIA has more passenger traffic than before, the court arguments lean toward how long the airport will have to pay back its investors.

In "Million-Dollar Wasteland," The Washington Post's Debbie Cenziper reports that the federal government's largest housing construction program for the poor has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars on stalled or abandoned  projects and routinely failed to crack down on derelict developers or the local housing agencies that funded them. Nationwide, nearly 700 projects awarded $400 million have been idling for years -- some for a decade or longer. One delayed project involved three real-estate speculators, once convicted in the largest HUD scandal in D.C. history, who sold rotting apartment complexes to a HUD-funded nonprofit using an inflated appraisal written by one of the sellers' associates. The nonprofit went bankrupt before any work was done; the District lost millions.

The Press of Atlantic City reports that the former governor of New Jersey pressured the CRDA to make a $4 million loan to another state agency. Corzine's administration pressed the agency responsible for reinvesting casino dollars to make the loan, former Executive Director Tom Carver said. The loan helped a Democratic Party contributor and Corzine adviser to buy an affordable housing complex in Elizabeth, Union County. After the Department of Community Affairs couldn't repay the loan, the CRDA forgave nearly all of the debt.

Wall Street titans have a new sweet spot — as surrogate tax collectors. Huffington Post Investigative Fund reporters Fred Schulte and Ben Protess describe how big financial institutions see profits in tacking on fees and threatening to foreclose when homeowners fall behind on property taxes. Some of the big financial institutions are operating quietly, setting up other companies with whimsical names, and operating out of UPS mail drops. Among Wall Street titans in the business are some who received federal bailout dollars. Homeowners may have owed as little as a few hundred dollars.