Daily Newspaper

Advocates of a welfare-to-work program created by last year’s stimulus bill are calling on Congress not to jeopardize some 240,000 jobs by letting the program expire at the end of September.

Republicans and a handful of moderate Senate Democrats blocked a reauthorization of TANF Emergency Fund back in March. The progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported Thursday that as the program’s Sept. 30 horizon looms, “states are ramping down their subsidized jobs programs, stopping new placements and giving notice that existing jobs will end.”

“They’re telling the moms once the fund ends, you’re going to have to work for free,” Diana Spatz told HuffPost Friday in an interview. Spatz is the executive director of Lifetime, a California membership organization that helps low-income parents pursuing post-secondary education that employs eight moms and two dads thanks to the program. “They can work through the end of this month and then I think we’re going to be able to keep two or three of them, but we aren’t sure,” she said.

Read More…
More on Unemployment

Excerpt from:
TANF Emergency Fund, Welfare-To-Work Program That Created 240,000 Jobs, Nears End

Utah QB is a real Wynn-erStandardNet… Wynn has to be the face of Utah football in the midst of one of the program's most critical seasons. And so it was that Wynn led the Utes into their …

Washington PostUtah Utes football: Blechin's pick in OT caps a big night by Utes' defenseDeseret NewsSALT LAKE CITY [...]

See the original post:
utah utes

Utah QB is a real Wynn-erStandardNet… Wynn has to be the face of Utah football in the midst of one of the program's most critical seasons. And so it was that Wynn led the Utes into their …

Washington PostUtah Utes football: Blechin's pick in OT caps a big night by Utes' defenseDeseret NewsSALT LAKE CITY [...]

Excerpt from:
utah utes

Halle Berry returned stateside for a lunch at Ron Perelman’s Hamptons home on Sunday.

Berry, a face of Revlon, was there for a conversation for The Jenesse Center’s Program for domestic violence.

Last week Berry was photographed in London with ex Gabriel Aubry and their daughter Nahla, having spent time before that in South Africa to film her movie ‘Dark Tide.’

Read More…

Follow this link:
Halle Berry Surfaces In East Hampton (PHOTOS)

A new program in Los Angeles rates teachers based on the test scores of their students. Though many factors are considered in assessing student performance, the success of students on aptitude tests will reflect directly on their teachers in the new project.

This system has shed some new light on the progression and effectiveness of L.A.’s teachers, the school board says. For example, teacher quality, they found, is not directly related to their level of education. After implementing the program, test scores in different classrooms varied wildly, even in the same school.

As CBS News reports, however, many in the teachers union disagree with the program, arguing that it takes more than test scores to evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher. (The new film Waiting For Superman, from the director of An Inconvenient Truth, argues that teachers unions are part of the problem in preventing the removal of bad teachers and the promotion of good teachers.)

Read More…
More on Education

Link:
New Program Rates Teachers By Student Performance; Info Available For Parents To See

Homeless people in London are now finding employment as tour guides, giving visitors a unique perspective on the city’s streets and monuments.

The Guardian reports the program was the brainchild of volunteers of Sock Mob, a local group that brings clean socks, food supplies and friendship to London’s homeless. Group organizers received a small grant from an organization that funds social entrepreneurship to launch Unseen Tours.

The point of the tours, says [Co-organizer Lidija] Mavra, is to, “present [homeless people] in a very different light so that people can see them as having something to offer. We tend to have this very doom and gloom version of homeless people”. The tours are intended to give homeless people a little more “ownership” of their lives, she says.

Read More…
More on Homelessness

View post:
‘Unseen Tours’ Give Jobs To London’s Homeless

The great American Dream of owning a home has never looked so impossible to achieve: roughly 1.65 million homes are in the foreclosure pipeline, housing prices are at an all-time low, and nearly 7% of mortgage holders are more than 60 days late on their payments. Despite the dreary picture, there are an ever-increasing number of lifelines for people trying to avoid foreclosure:

One of the biggest national hotlines for free home counseling is 888-995-HOPE, run by the Congress-funded Home Preservation Foundation. To date, the HOPE hotline has counseled four million homeowners since 2008, and helped 70% avoid foreclosure within a year. HOPE is the number to call before you seek a loan modification or expensive legal representation: a counselor will listen to your housing and financial concerns and, if necessary, facilitate a three-way conversation with a third party for additional help. With 550 employees stationed in 8 centers around the country, Diane Zyats, VP of Communications at the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, says there is rarely a backlog of homeowners waiting to receive advice. This, Zyats stresses, is key to preventing a distressed homeowner from falling for one of the many foreclosure scams out there.

The HOPE website also offers this helpful list of warning signs of a scam. Foremost? “No one should charge,” she says. “There are so many sources for not charging that there is no reason to charge.” Click here to see more.

NeighborWorks America is another Congressionally-funded program that provides financial and technical support to community-based foreclosure prevention efforts, such as the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program (NFMC), which boasts a 60% success rate. It also manages this exhaustive database of certified, HUD-approved foreclosure counselors by state.

At a local level, many communities are showing an incredible display of humanity and compassion for their neighbors facing foreclosure. For example, the non-profit Brooklyn Volunteer Lawyers Project is a coalition of 80 Brooklyn-based lawyers serving low-income Brooklynites on a pro bono basis. Although volunteers receive credited continuing legal education (CLE) training, taking on a case can take up a huge chunk of time. For example, foreclosure cases take anywhere from three months to years and usually require multiple court appearances and ongoing counsel. But
Jamie Lathrop, director of foreclosure intervention, sees it as a simple matter of civic duty, “Why help? These people are our neighbors. They keep our neighborhoods clean, watch our kids on the street, return our mail to us. They let us know when someones scratched our car,” he says. “It’s part of being in a community.”

Currently the BVLP handles over 160 active foreclosure cases, and has successfully prevented 45 from final foreclosure through mediation. Brooklyn is one of an increasing number of areas around the country where mediation has become mandatory before a home can be foreclosed on. Although victims don’t need legal representation at these settlements, it can provide an immense amount of reassurance.

Over in Philadelphia, the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program is often touted as the first successful city-sponsored foreclosure prevention plan. Under the compassionate eye of Judge Annette Rizzo, recipient of the 2009 Louis J. Goffman Award, this two-year-old program makes it mandatory for borrower and lender to meet face-to-face, and discuss every possible option before the home can be foreclosed on. These options include forbearance, settlement, stay of sale, loan modification or reinstatement, and as a last resort, a “graceful” exit.

Each homeowner is also assigned a housing counselor to accompany them to court and guide them through the process, and it’s effective: the program has delayed foreclosures in 75-80% of the cases that have made it to mediation. Thanks to the program’s success, it has become a model for many other city-sponsored programs, such as in Boston, Pittsburgh, Miami, Cook County, Prince George’s County, Louisville, and the state of New Jersey.

At best, even the combination of all these programs will make a mere dent in America’s astronomical foreclosure levels. But like with any overwhelming problem, every little bit helps.

Have you avoided foreclosure recently? Are there other groups we should have added? Let us know in the comments section below!

More on Housing Crisis

Read the original:
America Fights Foreclosure: Lifelines For People Fighting To Keep Their Homes

WASHINGTON — Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration’s flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out.

The program is intended to help those at risk of foreclosure by lowering their monthly mortgage payments. Friday’s report from the Treasury Department suggests the $75 billion government effort is failing to slow the tide of foreclosures in the United States, economists say.

More than 2.3 million homes have been repossessed by lenders since the recession began in December 2007, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. Economists expect the number of foreclosures to grow well into next year.

“The government program as currently structured is petering out. It is taking in fewer homeowners, more are dropping out and fewer people are ending up in permanent modifications,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Besides forcing people from their homes, foreclosures and distressed home sales have pushed down on home values and crippled the broader housing industry. They have made it difficult for homebuilders to compete with the depressed prices and discouraged potential sellers from putting their homes on the market.

Approximately 630,000 people who had tried to get their monthly mortgage payments lowered through the government program have been cut loose through July, according to the Treasury report. That’s about 48 percent of the those who had enrolled since March 2009. And it is up from more than 40 percent through June.

Another 421,804, or roughly 32 percent of those who started the program, have received permanent loan modifications and are making their payments on time.

RealtyTrac reported that the number of U.S. homes lost to foreclosure surged in July to 92,858 properties, up 9 percent from June. The pace of repossessions has been increasing and the nation is now on track to having more than 1 million homes lost to foreclosure by the end of the year. That would eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, the firm says.

Lenders have historically taken over about 100,000 homes a year, according to RealtyTrac.

Zandi said the government effort will likely end up helping only about 500,000 homeowners lower their monthly payments on a permanent basis. That’s a small percentage of the number of people who have already lost their homes to foreclosure or distressed sales like short sales – when lenders let homeowners sell for less than they owe on their mortgages.

Zandi predicts another 1.5 million foreclosures or short sales in 2011.

“We still have a lot more foreclosures to come and further home price declines,” Zandi said. He said home prices, which have already fallen 30 percent since the peak of the housing boom, would drop by another 5 percent by next spring.

Many borrowers have complained that the government program is a bureaucratic nightmare. They say banks often lose their documents and then claim borrowers did not send back the necessary paperwork.

The banking industry said borrowers weren’t sending back their paperwork. They also have accused the Obama administration of initially pressuring them to sign up borrowers without insisting first on proof of their income. When banks later moved to collect the information, many troubled homeowners were disqualified or dropped out.

Obama officials dispute that they pressured banks. They have defended the program, saying lenders are making more significant cuts to borrowers’ monthly payments than before the program was launched. And some of the largest mortgage companies in the program have offered alternative programs to those who fell out.

Homeowners who qualify can receive an interest rate as low as 2 percent for five years and a longer repayment period. Those who have successfully navigated the program to reach permanent modifications have seen their monthly payments cut on average by about $500.

Homeowners first receive temporary modifications and those are supposed to become permanent after borrowers make three payments on time and complete all the required paperwork. That includes proof of income and a letter explaining the reason for their troubles. But in practice, the process has taken far longer.

The more than 100 participating mortgage companies get taxpayer incentives to reduce payments. As of mid-June only $490 million had been spent out of a potential $75 billion the government has made available to help stem the wave of foreclosures.

___

AP Real Estate Writer Alan Zibel in Washington and Alex Veiga in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

More on Housing Crisis

Read more here:
Nearly 50 Percent Leave Obama Mortgage-Aid Program

Edinburgh's Rich PerformanceWall Street JournalThe theme of the 63rd Edinburgh International Festival is “Oceans Apart.” The words, says Australian director Jonathan Mills in his program …

El Nuevo HeraldHabló la amiga de la joven que demandó a William LevyUnivisiónDe acuerdo con el abogado de William Levy, la joven Karla Álvarez envió una carta al actor pidiéndole [...]

Read more:
william levy news

BELL, Calif. — The California city of Bell has ended a loan program devised by the former city administrator whose exorbitant salary sparked a scandal in the small working class city, interim city manager Pedro Carrillo said Tuesday.

“Since learning of the `loan program’ it was immediately terminated,” Carrillo said in a statement. “We are in the midst of determining who benefited from the program, how much money was loaned, and how much money remains to be paid back to the city of Bell,” the statement said. “Once that determination has been made, payment will be immediately requested.”

The Los Angeles Times reported earlier Tuesday that the city gave nearly $900,000 in loans to officials, employees and at least two council members in the last several years.

The Times reported that former City Administrator Robert Rizzo received two loans of $80,000 each. Councilmen Oscar Hernandez and Luis Artiga borrowed $20,000 each but didn’t report the loans on their financial disclosure forms, as required by state law.

Artiga said Rizzo told him about the loan program when he was having financial difficulties last year.

“I cannot think of a reason to provide loans to a council member,” said David Demerjian, head of the Public Integrity Unit of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which is investigating Bell.

Carrillo said at least 50 people received loans over the last eight years.

City officials said no documents show that the City Council approved the program.

After a meeting that dragged on into Tuesday morning, the City Council also unanimously voted to lower property taxes after a state audit showed it overcharged residents to cover pension costs for exorbitantly paid staffers.

The council voted to give control over the next municipal election to Los Angeles County and cut copying fees for public records.

A state audit last week found Bell had overcharged residents more than $3 million during the past three years to pay for pension obligations.

The finding came after prosecutors launched investigations into high salaries paid to the city’s leaders, including nearly $800,000 to the former city manager.

Bell is a community of about 37,000 people located about 10 miles south of Los Angeles.

Hundreds of residents showed up at the meeting, demanding four of the five council members resign and reprimanding the panel for turning Bell into what was called an epicenter of corruption.

“If you have any dignity, you need to resign,” resident Violeta Alvarez said during the public comment period.

A man dressed as a clown referred to the lawmakers as the “City Clowncil.”

Councilman Lorenzo Velez has avoided the anger directed at his colleagues because he was never drawing the high salary of nearly $100,000 a year they were, and he was one of the early supporters of reform in the city.

For the first time in the council’s tenure, a court reporter was hired to record the meeting.

The reduced taxes will apply to those due in November. If a home has an assessed value of $400,000, the owner will save $360 a year under the revised pay structure.

Artiga said the panel also plans to ask the state if it can refund the money directly to taxpayers.

The city manager, police chief and assistant city manager all resigned last month shortly after the scandal broke.

A group called the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse staged a rally before the meeting. The public portion of the meeting ran past midnight, then the council went into private session, adjourning shortly after 3 a.m.

During the public part of the meeting, the council named Jamie Casso of the Meyers Nave law firm as interim city attorney and Pedro Carrillo of Urban Associates Inc. as acting city manager. Velez voted against both appointments.

“We will take appropriate action to restore dignity, trust and faith in City Hall,” Casso said in a statement he read at the meeting.

View post:
Bell Scandal: City Eliminates Dubious ‘Loan Program’ For City Officials