CoreLogic Announces Sale of First Advantage Businesses

Electrical plant closing results in lost jobs and money
FORT DRUM — A coal-powered electrical plant shut down in the last year, causing local officials to worry about lost jobs and Tax Revenue. Though Fort Drum owns the land where the plant sits on Second Street, which makes it tax-exempt, the facility itself has been charged taxes. Town of LeRay Supervisor Ronald C. Taylor said the plant ran a little over last winter, but just to keep it warm. "I believe they shut down in April," he said. "It's not going to be running this winter, from w...

Wall St. watchdog
Attorneys-general of New York state have a record of demagoguery in bringing ill-founded Lawsuits for political gain. The important civil suit outgoing Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed against the auditors of the collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers is entirely different. What the auditors (the big firm of Ernst & Young) did simply smells. A serious lawsuit on an accusation of aiding a Fraud is an excellent place to get answers. The facts are not disputed. Ernst & Young approved Leh...

Invasion of Privacy :The American Community Survey
I received a letter telling me that soon I would be receiving the American Community Survey, and that I was required to complete it and send it back. I was told that this information was crucial to the planning of my community for such important infrastructure items as fire stations, libraries, and schools. The following week I received the 28 page booklet asking me for information that I would not share with 99.9% of the people I know. According to the US Constitution, a Census is authorized o...

Haddon Heights strikes deal to build houses near Haddon Lake Park
Haddon Heights has struck a deal with a developer to build homes on a former Public Works site, officials announced Thursday. Bob Meyer Communities will build up to 28 houses on the 6.3-acre property next to Haddon Lake Park. The deal comes during a historic dip in the region's Real Estate market. The developer and the town have agreed to a sale price for the land of $1.55 million, which the developer will pay off as the houses are sold, Mayor Scott Alexander said. "We're very confident,&qu...;

Hockett on the Financial Crisis
There is a growing consensus that our Mortgage markets are fundamentally broken. In a recent article in The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner surveys a number of leading legal academics’ prescriptions for the Foreclosure crisis: Katherine Porter, a Law Professor at the University of Iowa and an expert in Mortgage servicing, recently testified to the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that according to lawyers for both home-owners and banks, “a...

Wells Fargo agrees to modify California ARM loans
Wells Fargo Bank has agreed to make $2 billion in loan modifications for California Homeowners with risky pay-option, adjustable-rate Mortgages that Wells purchased from other banks, and to pay $32 million to 15,000 borrowers who had similar loans and lost their homes to Foreclosure, according to an agreement with the California Attorney General's office. "Customers were offered adjustable-rate loans with payments that mushroomed to amounts that ultimately thousands of borrowers could not aff...

How higher rates boosted home sales
Hooray? Higher Mortgage rates spurred Home Sales uptick Posted by Nin-Hai Tseng, writer-reporter December 23, 2010 3:18 pm The country's economic engine seems to be running in reverse as more expensive borrowing spurs home sales, and an uptick in borrowing sends Mortgage rates back down. Image by magro_kr via Flickr The recent surge in Mortgage rates, by all rational calculations, should have made America's already troubled Housing Market worse off. Instead, higher borrowing costs modestly b...

Illegal Immigration and Terrorism
I first heard the news report about the threat that al Qaeda might attempt to have their operatives poison foods in restaurants and hotels yesterday morning when I was listening to the local CBS Radio Station in New York City. That is certainly not the way you want to start your day! Fox News has been airing news reports about the potential that al Qaeda might attempt to have their Terrorists carry out attacks on our soil by poisoning the food at restaurants and hotels. Here is part of a press ...

Laid off worker to Governor-Elect: I believe I have made New York State a safer place
Here’s another Open Letter from an anonymous upstate DMV employee who will be losing [his/her] job at the end of the year. As an investigator, this reader was tasked with catching criminals and fraudsters with multiple licenses or non-driver IDs. Dear Governor Cuomo, For the past 7 ½ years I have been employed as an investigator for the Department of Motor Vehicles.  I was one of 40 investigators hired after 9/11 when it was determined that the 19 hijackers utilized multiple licenses

Cerberus says bye to Chrysler Financial
Cerberus saying goodbye to Chrysler Financial Posted by Dan Primack December 21, 2010 7:46 am Cerberus just announced that it has agreed to sell auto-loan company Chrysler Financial to TD Bank (TD) for $6.3 billion. According to a Press Release, The Dollar total is "comprised of net assets of $5.9 billion and approximately $400 million in goodwill." TD Bank doesn't plan to issue any new common equity. I'm working on figuring out exactly what this means for Cerberus from a return persp

Millennium Park restaurant wins tax dispute
ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com reports: The Illinois Supreme Court has sided with the owners of the Park Grill restaurant in a five-year-old dispute with Cook County, ruling that the restaurant in Millennium Park is not required to pay property taxes. In a 4-3 vote, the court affirmed earlier decisions by the Cook County Circuit Court and Illinois Appellate Court that the restaurant is operating under a license with the Chicago Park District, not a lease, which would be taxable. The restaurant, w...

Former AUSA to be General Counsel to Nevada Governor
Nevada Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval (R) on Wednesday named former Assistant U.S. Attorney Lucas Foletta to be his General Counsel, the Associated Press reported. Foletta worked as a prosecutor in the Nevada U.S. Attorney’s office focusing on Mortgage Fraud and Identity Theft cases. He previously clerked for Sandoval when the incoming Governor was a Federal Judge. Click here to cancel reply. Track leadership changes in the 93 U.S. Attorney offices, with Bush holdovers and Obama Candidates. &#...

FTC launches online tools for consumer protection week
The Federal Trade Commission launched a blog and website for National Consumer Protection Week, which is slated for March of next year.  The annual campaign, hosted by the FTC and nearly 30 other government agencies, aims to educate consumers about keeping kids safe online, Privacy, credit and Debt, Identity Theft, Mortgages, and how to recognize Fraud and scams.  The FTC said "consumer experts" will provide posts on the blog. David Vladeck, the FTC director of the consumer protection burea

The Foreclosure Mess: Florida Judges Can Do Better
In the face of banks' rampant disregard for the law in pursuing Foreclosures with false paperwork, the judiciary has started to emerge as the great defender of Due Process and the Rule of Law. For example, in October, New York put an end to the fraudulent document problem in its courts. Some Ohio courts started making similar efforts. And on Monday, New Jersey put in place rules to end document Fraud in its system. New Jersey also called out major banks and demanded they affirmatively demonst...

The rich are much richer than you and me
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The gap between the rich and the Middle Class is larger than it has ever been due to the bursting of the Housing Bubble. The Richest 1% of U.S. households had a net worth 225 times greater than that of the Average American household in 2009, according to analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Think Tank. That's up from the previous record of 190 times greater, which was set in 2004. Email Print Comment The widening gap came even as wealthy hous...

Wilder's slavery museum property might face tax sale
Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder could be on the verge of losing the 38-acre property in Fredericksburg where he had planned to build a Slavery museum. Wilder's inactive U.S. National Slavery Museum has not paid Real Estate taxes on its property for nearly two years and now faces a delinquent bill of $142,571.22, city Treasurer G.M. Haney said. If the taxes remain unpaid after Dec. 31, the property would become eligible for a tax sale. However, it is unclear how quickly a sale could be scheduled. H...

Have I got a gift idea for you
HAVE I GOT A GIFT IDEA FOR YOU.... It's Dec. 24, which is pretty late in the game for last-minute Christmas Shopping. You could rush out at the last minute, dealing with crowded malls and overworked Post Offices, and hoping for the best, or you could a gift that they're sure to like: a gift subscription to the Washington Monthly. If you're a regular reader of the print edition, you know that the Washington Monthly offers cutting-edge reporting and analysis, breaking big stories well ahead of m...

Have I got a gift idea for you
HAVE I GOT A GIFT IDEA FOR YOU.... It's Dec. 23, which is pretty late in the game for last-minute Christmas Shopping. You could rush out and deal with crowded malls and overworked Post Offices, and hope for the best, or you could a gift that they're sure to like: a gift subscription to the Washington Monthly. If you're a regular reader of the print edition, you know that the Washington Monthly offers cutting-edge reporting and analysis, breaking big stories well ahead of major mainstream outle...

The New York State Tax-Cap Illusion
At a time when Americans are feeling overburdened, capping property taxes can sound like a great idea. It certainly does to Andrew Cuomo, the Governor-elect of New York. But a tax cap sounds a lot more helpful than it is. It is a blunt instrument that ends up punishing many of the Taxpayers and communities in need of relief. History shows, painfully, that caps can do more harm than good. California’s Proposition 13 led to the deterioration of universities, schools and other public facilit...

Boston wants more money from nonprofits
Boston is scheduled to unveil a fairer formula to calculate how much the city's nonprofits pay in lieu of property taxes. The 128-page report scheduled for release Wednesday ties payments in lieu of taxes to property values and quantifies Scholarships, volunteer work, and other value that colleges, Hospitals and museums bring to Boston. Mayor Tom Menino says it's only fair that the institutions help pay for city services, including police and fire coverage, that they take advantage of. Some nonp...

Preparing to implement Prop 1
Proposition 1, originally known as Renew Houston but now apparently dubbed “Rebuilding Houston”, was passed by voters last month, which means that the Mayor and City Council must come up with a way to raise the $125 million per year for the dedicated fund. Mayor Parker has laid out the basic steps for making this happen. The 20-year, $8 billion infrastructure program will be paid for with property taxes, developer impact fees and drainage fees ranging from $5 to $10 a month for an ...

Dilapidated house to be torn down in Gouverneur
GOUVERNEUR — The village is preparing to demolish a dilapidated house on Trinity Avenue. "The house is just awful and it was when people were living in it," Mayor Dorothy L. Vorce said. "It's a hazard. It really and truly is." Property taxes amounting to $14,440.43 on 63 Trinity Ave. have not been paid since 2007. The house, which includes several apartments, has been vacant for some time. "I told them to do whatever they wanted to do because we can't pay on it," said owner Tina ...

Mayors in Miami, Chattanooga and Omaha all being targeted for recalls after tax hikes
Mayor Carlos Alvarez of Miami-Dade County faces a recall after opponents gathered enough signatures to force an election. The drive came after the county raised the property-tax rate to balance its Budget. The county commission must call an election in 45 to 90 days, Harvey Ruvin, clerk of courts, said Tuesday. Recalls are also being sought in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Omaha after proposed Tax Increases. If more politicians in this country are living in fear of angry voters, I'd say that's general...

The Wealth Tax
Over at Zero Hedge there’s a post that points out something interesting and dismaying. Although property values for houses have fallen 30% since their peak in 2006, property taxes haven’t fallen along with them: You might think that with Home Prices off by 30% or more since the housing/credit bubble popped in 2006, property taxes would have declined by a similar percentage. But you’d be wrong: they’ve gone up. As if the massive reduction in home equity wasn’t enou...

Roof of building in deadly fire called 'defective' in 2007
After his South Shore laundry failed about six years ago, Chuck Dai said he gave up on the broken-down building on East 75th Street that he and a relative had been struggling to hold on to. Taxes went unpaid and the building's problems stacked up, among them a wooden truss roof that city inspectors found defective in 2007 and ordered Dai to repair. Today, the building's roof collapsed during a fire, killing two Chicago Firefighters and injuring 17 others, officials said. Dai said he saw a repo...