New group steps in to save Bucks County Playhouse

Banks Accused Of Breaking Into Homes
Arriving at her home in Truckee, Calif., Mimi Ash found it had been cleared of her possessions New York Times: TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the word...

Christmas cheer under wraps
A local nonprofit is warming the hearts of needy kids by giving away hundreds of winter coats. “The gift of a coat is really a symbolic gesture of how a community can really come together and, to use the metaphor, to wrap our arms around kids,” said the Rev. June Cooper, Executive Director of City Mission Society, which is partnering with other nonprofits to hand out about 800 winter coats to Homeless and other needy kids. The City Mission Society held a giveaway yesterday at the Ol...

Brown plans low-key, low-budget inaugural
Reporting from Sacramento — It'll be a little more upscale than the impromptu dinner at a Chinese restaurant where Jerry Brown celebrated his first swearing-in as California governor three decades ago — but maybe not by much. Brown, who takes back the office on Jan. 3, won't be holding an extravagant inaugural ball and raising eye-popping sums to fund it as the last few incoming governors have done. His party will be a decidedly modest affair. Special interests eager to curry favo...

Cherry Lane Theater Artistic Director to Leave and Sell Building
Angelina Fiordellisi, the artistic director of the nonprofit Cherry Lane Theater, a Greenwich Village institution since 1924, will step down next year, she said on Tuesday. She said that she plans to sell the building, at 38 Commerce Street, and that constant financial struggles in recent years and the changing nature of the business had led to her decision. In September, Ms. Fiordellisi announced that the Cherry Lane would not produce plays on its main stage for a year or longer to buy time to ...

Cherry Lane Theater Artistic Director to Leave and Sell Building
Angelina Fiordellisi, the artistic director of the nonprofit Cherry Lane Theater, a Greenwich Village institution since 1924, will step down next year, she said on Tuesday. She said that she plans to sell the building, at 38 Commerce Street, and that constant financial struggles in recent years and the changing nature of the business had led to her decision. In September, Ms. Fiordellisi announced that the Cherry Lane would not produce plays on its main stage for a year or longer to buy time to ...

Banks Break Into Homes, Not Always Legally
Banks have made the occasional huge mistake in the massive home Foreclosure crisis of the last decade, including illegally ordering home break-ins once in a while. When Homeowners are behind on their Mortgage payments, or attempting to modify their home loan, or even on occasion fully paid up but lost in the bureaucratic shuffle, they are in danger of having their home broken into and their possessions removed by the banks. A New York Times report details the occasional terrible mistakes banks h...

A Visit From St. Bernanke
; The Economy was flung by Timmy without care, In hopes that St. Bernanke soon would be there; The Regulators were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of trannies danced in their heads; And Obama in his ‘kerchief, listening to his rap, Had just started contemplating the US Debt trap; When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, Tea partiers? Femen? What was the matter? Away to the window Obama flew like TARP cash, Which even Kashkari now admits was too rash. The buffoon with ...

More on the FDICs Fight Versus Other Bank Regulators on Servicer Abuses; Rep. Miller Backs More Aggressive Action
We’ve mentioned that the FDIC has been pushing to reform the securitization process, including imposing standards on servicers. That has put it at odds with the bank-friendly Treasury and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the SEC has proposed securtization reforms but of a much more modest nature than the FDIC’s). This behind the scenes battle is heating up further because Dodd Frank calls on bank Regulators to draft new rules to improve the operation of the Mortgage secur...

Existing Home Sales Come At 4.68 Million, Miss Estimates Of 4.75 Million, Home Inventory At 9.5 Months Supply
home sales, which came at 4.68 million units, a slight improvement to the almost all time lowest number posted in October (4.43 million), a miss to expectations of 4.75 million, and 27.9% off the cyclical peak of 6.49 million from November 2009, when the first-time buyer Tax Credit expired, and was shockingly not extended. The data follows this morning atrocious MBA numbers which showed a plunge of 18.6% in Mortgage applications, and 24.6% drop in refinancings. But if you listen to Goldman, the ...

Home sales rise 5.6% in November
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Existing Home Sales picked up steam in November, though they are still down nearly 30% from this time last year. Sales of previously-owned homes jumped 5.6% in November to an annual rate of 4.68 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. The rate was down 27.9% from 12 months earlier, when a homebuyer Tax Credit helped lift sales to a two-year high of 6.49 million. Email Print Comment The report came in slightly better than expected. A consensu...

"I Wish the Law Had Worked": A Dispatch from the Land of Unintended Consequences
Once upon a time, people seeking Loan Modifications got screwed by lawyers who promised to save their homes, took a few thousand dollars, and disappeared from the face of the Earth. Then the light of Regulation shone upon California and a Task Force was convened, Legislation was devised, and everyone smiled when it passed by an overwhelming 36-4 in September 2009. Now, this: Lawyers throughout California say they have no choice but to reject clients [seeking help with Mortgage modifications] be...

Banks to Homeowners: Were In Ur Houses, Changin Ur Lockz
Photo: iStockPhoto Bank of America might be on edge about what would happen if BrianMoynihanSucks.com gets into the wrong hands, but they're not afraid to look like the bad guy. According to a federal Lawsuit, Bank of America not only wrongfully foreclosed on Mimi Ash's ski home, but they also broke in, changed the locks, and threw out all her possessions, including a wooden box inscribed with the words Together Forever that held the ashes of her late husband, Robert. Alan Jaffa, chief executi...

More Illegal Foreclosure Bank Break-Ins
I wonder if you could go to a Bank CEO’s home, break into his house, and throw out all of his personal possessions — family heirlooms, photos, awards — then claim a paperwork error. That is the excuse they have been using: “In an era when millions of homes have received Foreclosure notices nationwide, Lawsuits detailing bank break-ins like the one at Ms. Ash’s house keep surfacing. And in the wake of the Scandal involving shoddy, sometimes illegal paperwork that has b...

Weekly Audit: Republicans Poised to Declare War on Welfare State
Senate Republicans scuttled a Bipartisan $1.2 Trillion dollar spending Omnibus Bill last week. Now, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is scrambling to pass a temporary funding bill to keep the Federal Government’s lights on. The GOP abruptly pulled the plug on the omnibus, a massive piece of Legislation that Republicans and Democrats had collaborated on for months. Why? Because the Republicans want to start over in the next session of Congress when they will control the House and pick up...

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...

On self-regulation in banking
I spoke to Max Keiser recently about a number of issues in a wide-ranging interview featured below. In the video, Max and Stacy Herbert talk about some of the hot button issues of the day like the banking sector in Ireland and the lack of criminal prosecutions in the US for the first 13 minutes or so. In the last half of the video I talk to Max about a lot of topics including gold, Mortgage Fraud, Wikileaks, currency revulsion, and Sovereign Debt. Let me focus on one: fraud. It is astounding whe...

U.S. expects foreclosure probe results next month
WASHINGTON | Mon Dec 20, 2010 5:12pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Obama administration Task Force examining allegations of Fraud in the Mortgage Foreclosure process will deliver its findings next month, two Top Officials said on Monday. "We expect the results of the investigations will be presented to us next month," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a joint statement after meeting with the task force. "The Task Force will t...

Pennsylvania loses Congressional seat
Due to the fact that people are leaving Pennsylvania in droves and flocking to States with lower taxes and less draconian governance over businesses, Pennsylvania's growth in the last decade has only been around 3% (compared to National growth of around 9%). Put all of that together on two pieces of bread and you get a Loss-of-a-Congressional-Seat Sandwich. The Keystone State will now go from having 19 members of the US House to 18. Governor-Elect Tom Corbett and the new Republican majority in t...

Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board dispensing the fail
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, also known as the governing body over State-run liquor stores and, consequently, the only game in town, are having problems with their vending machines inside Supermarkets all across Pennsylvania. Fox 29 reported that the machines were taken offline last night at 9pm so the company who developed the machines can fix them. This is no shock considering that anything Government run is always full of problems and failure. There's no alternative to buying liquor...

Pa., NJ To Lose House Seats In Congressional Reapportioning
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The latest federal Census figures add up to fewer seats in Congress for Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Nationwide, the population grew by 9.7 percent over the last decade, reaching more than 308½ million people. But the greatest growth continues in the South and West. So, as the 435 Congressional Seats are reapportioned, Pennsylvania and New Jersey will each lose one seat, going down to 18 and 12, respectively. Now, the political bloodsport of redistricting begins, ...

Strangler On The Loose In Philadelphia
Philadelphia police say that they are now looking for one attacker who, according to DNA evidence, has been linked to the Murder of three woman in the city. The less-than-affluent neighborhood of Kensington is just north of Philadelphia and was the site of the third victim's recovery, according to CNN. Casey Mahoney, 27, was found one week ago, and fluid analysis linked her to the assailant that allegedly killed both Elaine Goldberg, 21, and Nicole Piacentini, 35, in November. The police and federal a

Give until it hurts
Boston’s nonprofit institutions are being placed on notice: More of them will be expected to pay tribute to the city - cash tribute - because the Hub is having trouble paying its bills. Merry Christmas from Tom Menino! Yes, after two years of study a mayoral Task Force examining the issue of PILOT payments - payments made by tax-exempt nonprofits to the city in lieu of taxes - has issued its final report and recommendations. The Task Force found that Boston’s voluntary PILOT program...

Here And Now
State IG Joseph Fisch is retiring. Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo is expected to name Ellen Biben, his special deputy AG for public integrity, to replace Fisch. Gov. David Paterson “doesn’t have a pot to piss in,” a source tells Fred Dicker, and is running out of campaign cash to pay his high-priced attorney and recent $62,000 Yankees tickets fine. Paterson has just three bills remaining on his desk to either sign into law or Veto, all of which were sponsored by outgoing Sen./A...

Waste company donates money for 'preconception' program in area hit by birth defects
FRESNO, Calif -- FRESNO, Calif. - Kings County will develop a program to improve birth outcomes using grant money from the company that runs a hazardous waste dump near Kettleman City, a community that has been rocked by a Controversial string of Birth Defects. The county has received $158,000 from Waste Management Inc. to create a two-year "preconception" care program for women in the county, said Keith Winkler, the county's health director. Concern about the birth defects in Kettleman City pr...

Gov.-elect Scott chooses Prendergast as chief of staff
TAMPA - Gov.-elect Rick Scott today chose a retired Army colonel and former Congressional Candidate to be his Chief of Staff and announced several other appointments, including those of a couple Tallahassee Lobbyists. The announcements from Scott's transition office come just two weeks before he is to be sworn in as Florida's next Governor, succeeding Charlie Crist on Jan. 4. The Republican's transition is proceeding so slowly that he's asked most of Crist's agency heads and other top Staffers t...