7-22-09

 
7-22-09
Merced Sun-Star
State investigation faults Merced County CEO Tatum on land deal
No punishment meted out but letter says he got gift...JONAH OWEN LAMB
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/963047.html
Merced County CEO Demitrios Tatum broke the law by accepting a gift when he purchased a parcel of land from Pacific Holt Corp. in Planada in 2005, according to an investigation by the state's anti-corruption arm.
The Fair Political Practices Commission, the state body charged with ferreting out political corruption, sent a warning letter notifying Tatum and his lawyer of the completion of the investigation.
The letter, sent by the FPPC's enforcement arm on July 16 said, "Although we have decided not to pursue an enforcement action in this matter, the information in this case will be retained and may be used against Mr. Tatum should an enforcement action become necessary due to newly discovered information and or Mr. Tatum's failure to comply with the Act in the future."
The FPPC decided not to take any enforcement action on the matter despite their findings because the the cost would outweigh the benefits, according to the commission.
Roman Porter, the executive director of the FPPC, said the commission has several options when it resolves a case. The commission can reject the complaint, send an advisory letter notifying that the Political Reform Act may have been violated or send a warning letter if the Political Reform Act has been broken. In addition, the FPPC can impose a fine and finally bring the case to civil court.
"A warning letter is when we are saying they violated the law," said Porter. If the same thing happens again they will not receive a warning, he said.
In this case, Tatum was sent a warning letter.
Tatum said that since the letter incorrectly identified the Merced County Housing Authority as Merced County, the letter's other facts have been called into question. "I think we need to amend the factual results," said Tatum. Only then can any results of the investigation be commented upon, he said.
But Porter of the FPPC disagreed. "The imprecise language of using Merced County rather than the Housing Authority may seem confusing as a stand-alone document, however this document was completed after conversations with Mr. Tatum's counsel where all parties understood that the entity in question was the Merced County Housing Authority," said Porter. "The focus on this imprecise language does not change the rest of the letter or the outcome of the investigation."
Merced County Sheriff Employees Association spokesman Jeff Miller said his organization, which filed the complaint, is pleased with the results of the investigation because the FPPC agrees with their opinion that Tatum received a gift from Pacific Holt.
"We hope our action in this matter demonstrates to the citizens of Merced County that no one is above the law," he said.
Tom Nevis of Pacific Holt Corp. did not return the Sun-Star's calls seeking comment.
The initial complaint filed by the Sheriff Employees Association with the FPPC in December 2008 claimed that Tatum accepted a gift from Pacific Holt by paying less than market value for a piece of land the developer sold to Tatum.
Tatum paid $245,000 for a piece of land valued at least $10,000 higher, according to the FPPC's lowest estimate.
The findings of the FPPC investigation, according to their letter, illustrate a confusing and perhaps underhanded series of events and ultimately an unexplained gift through the land deal.
Pacific Holt, according to the investigation, said that it paid $500,000 for a property that it then sold to Tatum for $245,000.
Also noted were several claims by Pacific Holt and Tatum of differing values for Tatum's land.
However, the land appraisal documents were obtained. The FPPC said that the land's value ranged from $252,300 to $336,000. "Ultimately, the report estimated the market value of the parcel to be $255,000, and reported: 'Final opinion of value is over sales price, appears to have sold under market,' " noted the FPPC letter.
The letter went on to say that the difference between what Tatum paid -- $245,000 -- and the actual value of the land -- ranging from $255,000 to $500,000 -- was in the thousands of dollars and "well in excess of the gift limit of $360."
Cardoza testifies that former USP Atwater warden ignored him...MICHAEL DOYLE, Sun-Star Washington Bureau
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/963051.html
WASHINGTON -- The former warden of U.S. Penitentiary Atwater ignored congressional warnings before the June 2008 slaying of correctional officer Jose Rivera, Rep. Dennis Cardoza told lawmakers Tuesday.
In the months preceding Rivera's killing, Cardoza said he had received multiple complaints from Atwater guards about conditions at the maximum-security facility.
But when the Merced Democrat tried alerting then-warden Dennis Smith, he says he got the brushoff.
"I wrote to him and then I called him, and he didn't respond," Cardoza told a House panel. "He wouldn't return my phone calls."
Testifying before the House subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security, Cardoza underscored that it's rare for top federal agency employees to ignore congressional communications.
Unresponsiveness wasn't the only issue.
"There were a number of things that were a failure by the prior warden," Cardoza said, adding that he is very satisfied with the work of the current Atwater warden, Hector Rios Jr.
An April 2009 Bureau of Prisons Board of Inquiry report into Rivera's slaying identified multiple problems at the prison, ranging from widespread availability of "intoxicants" and homemade weapons to infrequent pat searches and troubling gang control over cell assignments.
Smith was transferred to an Illinois prison following Rivera's killing and could not be reached to comment Tuesday. He was named, along with other top Bureau of Prisons officials, in a federal lawsuit filed by Rivera's family.
The $100 million lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno last month contended that federal prison officials bore responsibility for the "dangerous conditions that resulted in the death" of Rivera.
Rivera's family has since withdrawn the lawsuit to first file a required administrative claim.
If the Bureau of Prisons rejects the claim within the next six months, an attorney working with Rivera family lawyer Mark J. Peacock said Tuesday, the lawsuit will resume.
Two former Atwater inmates, Joseph Cabrera Sablan and James Leon Guerrero, now await trial on murder charges.
Both men were intoxicated when they attacked Rivera with an ice pick-type weapon, investigators concluded.
"Sablan admitted to the FBI he was drunk at the time of the incident and stated he did not remember what happened," the board of inquiry report stated.
In their most recent court filings, defense attorneys last week spelled out in 23 pages all of the potential evidence they want from prosecutors, ranging from videos and maps to Rivera's autopsy report and the arrest records of every potential witness.
Rivera was unarmed and not wearing a stab-proof vest at the time he was attacked. His death accelerated calls for additional staffing and better equipment, though some pleas for help had preceded his killing, as well.
In an April 2008 letter sent to Smith as well as Bureau of Prisons Director Harley Lappin, Cardoza stated that "personnel are worried that they simply do not have the resources to cope" with overcrowded, understaffed facilities. Currently, the Bureau of Prisons oversees more than 207,000 inmates nationwide.
In 1997, federal prisons maintained a 3.7 inmate-to-staff ratio. Currently, federal prisons have a 4.9 inmate-to-staff ratio.
"Our number one priority is increasing staff," Lappin told the House panel Tuesday, adding that "we have not had the available funding" to do so recently.
Lappin added that "there is a direct, statistically significant relationship" between prison overcrowding and prison violence.
An increase of one inmate in a facility's inmate-to-staff ratio is associated with an additional 4.5 serious assaults per 5,000 inmates, Bureau of Prisons research has shown.
The House and Senate are working on a fiscal 2010 Justice Department funding bill that includes $70.5 million for additional federal prison staffing.
Union representatives, who have been calling for Lappin's resignation, say they fear the additional money will be used for purposes other than hiring more staff.
Modesto Bee
Study: Pesticides travel far, kill Sierra frogs...The Associated Press
http://www.modbee.com/state/v-print/story/789425.html
FRESNO, Calif. -- A new study shows frogs in the high Sierra are threatened by airborne pesticides that drift eastward from California's Central Valley.
Researchers at Southern Illinois University and the U.S. Geological Survey measured toxicity levels of two pesticides, chlorpyrifos and endosulfan, to Pacific treefrogs and foothill yellow-legged frogs. Both species native to the mountain meadows have seen their populations decline.
The tadpoles developed abnormalities that could increase their vulnerability to predators, flood and drought.
The report said that airborne pesticides catch easterly winds and fall during rain and snow, then are spread by runoff.
The study was published in the August 2009 issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Patterson Irrigator
Wal-Mart still serious about Patterson...James Leonard
http://pattersonirrigator.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Wal-Mart+still+serious+about+Patterson%20&id=2999468-Wal-Mart+still+serious+about+Patterson&instance=home_news_lead_story
Wal-Mart’s push to bring a store to Patterson was so hot and heavy earlier this year, city officials became concerned when things went silent.
But it turns out the five months or so without significant correspondence from Wal-Mart was not a sign that the retail giant was considering abandoning its proposed 158,000-square-foot supercenter on the southwest corner of Ward and Sperry avenues.
Patterson City Manager Cleve Morris said last week that Wal-Mart’s temporary lack of communication came as the company was reworking its design prototype — a revision that led to subtle changes in the design for the Patterson store.
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman confirmed that earlier this week.
“We’ve always been moving forward with this project,” spokeswoman Angie Stoner said. “We’re working internally on some modifications to some architectural elements of the store to be consistent with our new corporate branding.”
Rod Simpson, Patterson’s planning director, said Wal-Mart’s original application to the city, submitted in February, was found to be missing some minor information. It was sent back to the company for completion, but because Wal-Mart was changing its design, it decided to wait before submitting a new application.
Simpson said he spoke with Wal-Mart representatives earlier this month. At that time, they said they’d be turning in their final application by the end of last week. Late last week, Simpson said, Wal-Mart told him the application would be in sometime this week. Stoner said the company hopes to have the application submitted by the end of the month.
Once the final application is received and approved, it will set in motion a lengthy environmental review that will study the effects the proposed store would have on traffic and the local economy, among other issues.
Though Wal-Mart has already begun some of the preliminary work on the environmental impact report, Morris said, the full review would likely take eight to 10 months to complete. It’s not the only hurdle the company is expecting.
“They anticipate they’ll be sued,” Morris said, likely by a citizen group trying to block the store from coming into town.
A local Wal-Mart opposition Web site, pattersonopposeswalmart.wordpress.com, was created in February, when news first broke about the company’s desire to come to Patterson.
The group’s organizer, Sergio Cuellar, said at the time the goal was simply to get local businesses and residents together in opposition of Wal-Mart and to convince the City Council not to support it. Any decision on filing a lawsuit, he said, would depend on the amount of support the group receives and the money it’s able to raise.
If a lawsuit is ultimately filed by Cuellar’s group or anybody else, it would cause a delay in a process that’s expected to take up to two years anyway.
“They’d like to be open by 2011,” Simpson said.
Morris said the changes to the design prototype were barely noticeable when compared to the original renderings the city received in February — the grocery section being moved from one side of the store to the other, for instance. The overall look and feel of the design was not changed, he said.
Stoner said the new design also incorporates more landscaping surrounding the store.
“We’re still moving forward with a design specific for this project, using architectural elements that are environmentally friendly and designed to blend the building with surrounding area,” Stoner said.
Fresno Bee
3-year countdown begins for Atlanta's water future...GREG BLUESTEIN and BEN EVANS - Associated Press Writers
http://www.fresnobee.com/641/v-print/story/1550070.html
ATLANTA Georgia faces the dire prospect of losing metropolitan Atlanta's main water source if political leaders can't broker a solution with Alabama and Florida over rights to a major reservoir within three years.
That doomsday scenario would cut off water from Lake Lanier for more than 3 million residents, driving a stake through the heart of Atlanta's decades of rampant growth and threatening one of the Southeast's main economic engines amid a sour economy.
Experts say they doubt a recent federal court ruling will shut the taps off, but it does put Georgia in a weak position and could finally push the three states back to the negotiating table after nearly two decades of stalemate.
After all, said Atlanta Regional Commission Chairman Sam Olens, "FEMA isn't going to provide enough trucks to have drinking water for 4.5 million residents" in the Atlanta region. About 3 million of the residents get their water from Lake Lanier.
Georgia could be forced to make significant concessions to Florida and Alabama that it so far has been unwilling to adopt, like spending hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure, establishing tighter drought restrictions and offering rebates for more efficient toilets, dishwashers and washing machines.
Friday's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson found that nearly all Georgia's withdrawals from Lake Lanier are illegal because the lake was built for hydroelectric power, not to supply water.
Magnuson acknowledged the decision was "draconian" but said he had to recognize how far the lake's operation had strayed from the law.
The governors of Alabama and Florida celebrated the ruling, while Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue vowed to fight, saying he would appeal the decision while working for a favorable outcome in Washington.
"I will not negotiate a deal that's harmful to the future of Georgia. Just won't happen," a defiant Perdue said Tuesday. "We'll take our chance in court before we'll agree to a deal that does not meet the needs of a growing and prosperous Georgia."
Both Congress and the courts could be difficult routes. A federal appeals court in Washington already ruled against Georgia in a related case last year, and Georgia lawmakers would face an enormous challenge to overcome resistance in Congress from their Florida and Alabama colleagues.
Georgia's congressional delegation is looking to Perdue for guidance, and leaders in all the states said any compromise would require significant leadership at the state level. The delegation met to discuss the matter Tuesday, with Perdue on a conference call. But members said afterward that the meeting just explored how to proceed.
"I think the governors all felt they were likely to be victorious. I kept telling them that if you don't settle it, somebody's going to win and somebody's going to lose," said U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. The clear victory for Alabama and Florida "strengthens our hand in a number of ways," he said.
"I don't see Congress resolving this," said U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, a Democrat who represents parts of the Florida Panhandle downstream from Georgia. "I think it's important that the governors come to grips with this and get it resolved."
Georgia, which just emerged from an epic drought, contends the issue is about the survival of its biggest metropolitan area.
But Florida and Alabama depend on downstream flow from Lake Lanier for commercial fisheries, farms, industrial users and municipalities. The Army Corps of Engineers also is required to release adequate water to ensure habitats for species protected by the Endangered Species Act.
Magnuson ordered the lake's water usage to be kept at current levels for three years. If an agreement isn't reached by then, he said the lake's operations would return to its level in the 1970s, when Atlanta was a fraction of its current size.
Perdue, a Republican whose term ends in 2011, will face increasing pressure to forge a deal before his successor takes office.
"The three governors ought to come together quickly ASAP to discuss the decision and craft a joint resolution," said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a leading Atlanta Democrat. "Or else the hammer is coming down on us."
Florida and Alabama may also be more inclined to negotiate with Georgia rather than risk an unfavorable outcome in Congress or by the courts on a possible appeal - particularly if Georgia is willing to hand over long-sought concessions.
"The fact of the matter is we can do more with water conservation that would be appealing to the governors of Alabama and Florida," Olens said.
"This conflict should have been resolved long ago," said Daniel Sheer, founder of HydroLogics, a national water planning consulting company that has worked with Atlanta municipalities. "There really is quite enough water to do everything you need to do."
But, he said, "There is an enormous amount of bad will and an enormous amount of political posturing going on, politicians getting elected by exploiting the conflict ... particularly among the governors."
Environmental groups hope the ruling sounds the alarm for conservation.
"It's a definite signal to Atlanta to examine the way it's been growing the past 30 years and whether that's keeping with the water resources," said Gil Rogers of the Southern Environmental Law Center. "I think this ruling is a signal we can't afford that kind of attitude anymore."
San Francisco Chronicle
Wal-Mart settles lawsuit by Wash. workers for $35M...GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/22/financial/f103654D34.DTL&type=printable
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay up to $35 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of 88,000 workers at Washington state stores who were forced to skip meal and rest breaks or work off the clock.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer and lawyers for the workers jointly announced Wednesday that a King County Superior Court judge has given final approval to the deal.
"This lawsuit was filed years ago and the allegations are not representative of the company we are today," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore said in a news release. "Our policy is to pay associates for every hour worked and to make rest and meal breaks available."
Wal-Mart announced in December it would pay as much as $640 million to settle 63 lawsuits across the country over wage and hour violations. Each settlement had to be approved by courts. Only cases in California and Pennsylvania went to trial, and those verdicts are on appeal, said Beth Terrell, a Seattle lawyer for the Washington plaintiffs.
In Washington, the plaintiffs' lawyers will receive $10.5 million to cover eight years of legal fees. Three workers who brought the lawsuit will receive $10,000 each, and other workers will get between $50 and $950, depending on how long they worked for Wal-Mart and how much detail they can provide about the violations they suffered.
The class members must file their claims by Aug. 19.
The settlement also requires Wal-Mart to continue steps it has taken to prevent wage and hour violations at its 50 stores and Sam's Clubs in Washington, Terrell said.
Calif. university system OKs 20 percent fee hike...TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/21/state/n125326D40.DTL&type=printable
Long Beach, Calif. (AP) -- The California State University system raised student fees Tuesday by 20 percent as part of a budget plan that would also shrink enrollment and furlough nearly all employees for two days a month.
The Board of Trustees voted 17-1 to raise undergraduate fees by $672 a year to $4,827 in the nation's largest four-year university system, which has about 450,000 students.
The fee increase, which follows a 10 percent hike approved in May, is part of the university's plan to close a $584 million budget shortfall caused by an unprecedented drop in state funding to the 23-campus system.
"We face a huge economic tsunami," board Chairman Jeffrey Bleich said. "What we're doing today doesn't give anyone pleasure."
The board voted for the hike despite protests from students who marched, chanted and banged drums outside the meeting hall in Long Beach.
Even with the increases, which begin this fall, undergraduate fees at CSU remain less than those at most comparable universities but more than twice the amount students paid seven years ago.
Fees also were raised $780 a year for teacher credential students, $828 a year for graduate students and $990 for nonresident undergraduates.
The increase is expected to generate $236 million, a third of which will be set aside for financial aid.
For many students, the increased fees will be offset by expanded financial aid and federal tax credits included in the $787 billion economic stimulus package, CSU officials said.
The state is expected to reduce funding for its two public university systems — CSU and the University of California — by 20 percent under a tentative budget deal reached Monday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders to close a $26 billion deficit.
Last week, the UC Board of Regents approved a budget plan that would lead to deep funding cuts at its 10 campuses and force most employees to take furloughs and pay cuts ranging from 4 percent to 10 percent.
CSU, sometimes called the "People's University," has been one of the country's most affordable universities and has large numbers of low-income, minority students who are the first in their families to attend college.
Student protesters, who traveled to Long Beach from across California, said the fee hikes, enrollment reductions and program cuts would reduce access to the university.
"You're going to see the gentrification of the CSU and the door close to higher education for working-class people," said Aaron Buchbinder, 26, a graduate student in social work at San Francisco State University. "I'm going to pile up more debt, and it's going to take me longer to pay off."
Vanessa Rojas, a senior English major at CSU Bakersfield, said the budget cuts would lead to fewer course offerings, larger class sizes and longer graduation times.
"Fees are increasing, but the quality of education is going down," Rojas said.
Chancellor Charles B. Reed said the university has no attractive options for addressing its budget shortfall.
All of our choices go from bad to worse," he said. "I want us to maintain quality and serve as many students as we can."
Under Reed's plan, all CSU employees except public safety officers would take unpaid leave two days a month and see their pay cut by about 10 percent. If all groups participate, the furloughs would begin Aug. 1 and save $275 million.
Reed set a July 28 deadline for employee unions to decide whether to take furloughs, which are intended to reduce layoffs and preserve health care and pension benefits.
The California State University Employees Union, which represents about 16,000 nonacademic workers, said its members have approved a furlough agreement.
The California Faculty Association, the largest union with 23,000 members, is expected to have results of its furlough vote Wednesday.
"You've got faculty out there who are struggling to live on the salaries they have right now," said Cecil Canton, a criminal justice professor at the Sacramento campus who joined the student demonstration Tuesday. "A 10 percent pay cut is going to make it more difficult."
Under Reed's budget plan, student enrollment would be reduced by 40,000 during the next two years. Earlier this month, the university closed admissions for the winter and spring 2010 terms.
In addition, the university system would need to cut a total of $183 million from individual campus budgets, which is expected to lead to staff layoffs, fewer course offerings and cuts to academic programs and student services.
"This is fundamentally changing the university," said Lillian Taiz, a history professor at CSU Los Angeles who heads the faculty union. "We're downsizing this university and really restricting opportunity for a whole generation of California students."
Los Angeles Times
No recovery in California until 2011, forecast says
The Southland's unemployment will rise and personal income will fall as construction keeps sinking and the aerospace, textile and motion picture industries absorb blows, Jack Kyser predicts...Alana Semuels
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cal-econ22-2009jul22,0,2979156,print.story
Unemployment in California and Los Angeles County will increase well into 2010, continuing to exceed the highest levels since at least the end of World War II, according to a local economist whose projections for the Southland economy are among the most negative to date.
Continued sluggishness in key industries such as construction, retail, international trade and hospitality will keep the state from a full recovery until 2011, said the report, released by the Kyser Center for Economic Research at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
Personal income will drop 2% in the state this year, the report said, the first annual decline since 1938.
"Most people haven't experienced anything like this in their lifetimes," said Jack Kyser, founding economist of the Kyser Center.
California's jobless rate, which was 11.6% in June, will average 12.6% next year, according to Kyser, who also projected that Los Angeles County's unemployment rate will be even higher, averaging 12.8% in 2010. The county's jobless rate was 11.3% last month.
Home construction will continue to fall, and the commercial real estate market will go through more distress as vacancies climb, the report predicts. As a result, it says, Los Angeles County will lose 168,000 jobs this year, led by the manufacturing sector, which is projected to shed 38,800 positions.
Some areas outside Los Angeles County are expected to fare even worse.
In San Bernardino and Riverside counties, where unemployment already tops 13%, the jobless rate will climb next year to an average of 14.7%, the forecast said.
"The Inland Empire will experience a longer and deeper recession than the rest of Southern California," the report said. Escalating foreclosures and falling home values have created the region's "worst-ever economic crisis."
The Inland Empire has lost 80,000 jobs in the last year alone, battered by the slowdown in international trade. The region is a major distribution hub for companies that move goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to the rest of the country.
Even quiet Ventura County is in for a rough ride, pulled down by layoffs at corporate giants Countrywide Financial and Amgen. The county will shed 5.1% of its jobs in 2009, pushing average unemployment for 2010 to 10.3%, the forecast said. Ventura posted a jobless rate of 10.2% last month, up from 5.9% in June 2008.
"Whatever the problem seems to be these days, Ventura County has more of it," the report said.
The Kyser Center report may be a little too glum, said Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University in Orange.
"To me, it looks very pessimistic," Adibi said. Kyser predicts the state will lose 694,000 jobs this year, but Adibi's figure is 37% lower, at 437,000 jobs lost.
Monday's resolution of the state's budget crisis is more reason to be optimistic about the future, Adibi said, especially because the governor didn't raise taxes. The psychological effect of the agreement shouldn't be underestimated, he said. What's more, federal stimulus money will buffer some of the cuts in education and transportation.
"A big puzzle today got solved, and that's good news," he said.Kyser did not agree that the budget fix would help matters. Losses in revenue will continue to dog municipalities throughout the state, he said, potentially even pushing some into bankruptcy. Budget cuts will make it even more difficult to create jobs.
"The news from Sacramento is going to create more problems next year," he said. "It could even get worse."
The Kyser Center forecast also measures the health of key economic drivers in Southern California, including aerospace, trade and motion picture production.
Some of the key drivers are in danger of shrinking permanently, Kyser said. Aerospace could shrivel if the Defense Department cuts funding for Boeing's C-17 cargo aircraft program and commercial air travel continues to lag. As international trade stays slow, ports in Canada and Texas and on the East Coast will try to lure business from Los Angeles. Production in the motion picture industry is increasingly taking place out of state, and cutbacks in advertising are hurting the broadcast TV industry.
Perhaps hardest hit is apparel and textile manufacturing, once a key regional driver. In Los Angeles County the industry will shrink 14% between 2008 and 2010, shedding 13,300 jobs, the report said.
Fewer foreclosures initiated in California in second quarter
The number of borrowers who got default notices falls 8% from the first quarter's record high. It's still more than the year-earlier period, however, and a research firm warns of a coming onslaught...Peter Y. Hong
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-foreclosure23-2009jul23,0,1408735,print.story
The number of foreclosure proceedings that banks started against California homeowners dipped slightly in the second quarter compared with the first three months of 2009. Still, more state homeowners were delinquent on their mortgages from April to June than in the second quarter of 2008, and a surge of foreclosures could be on the way later this year, a real estate research firm reported today.
Lenders in the second quarter sent out 124,562 default notices, the first stage in the foreclosure process, to borrowers who had missed several payments. That total was down 8% from the prior quarter's record 135,431 default notices, and up 2.4% from 121,673 in second quarter of 2008, DataQuick reported.
Trustees Deeds recorded, or the actual loss of a home to foreclosure, totaled 45,667 during the second quarter. That's up 5% from 43,620 for the prior quarter, but down 28% from 63,316 in the second quarter of 2008. The number of homes repossessed reached a record 79,511 in last year's third quarter before dropping when state lawmakers passed law that slowed the foreclosure process and lenders imposed voluntary moratoriums.
DataQuick President John Walsh said the bogged-down pace of foreclosures may be ending: "There is a perception that the housing market is dragging along bottom, that it probably won't get much worse, and that the lenders need to get serious about processing the backlog of delinquencies, either with work-outs or foreclosure. We're hearing that some lenders and servicers are doing just that, hiring more people to do the necessary paperwork. That means the foreclosure numbers will probably shoot back up during the third quarter."
New York Times
Relief for the Owl...Editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/opinion/22wed4.html?_r=1&sq=endangered species&st=cse&scp=4&pagewanted=print
The bald eagle aside, few birds have wielded as much influence on public policy as the northern spotted owl, once famously called “that little furry-feathery guy” by the first President Bush. Formally listed as an endangered species in 1990, the owl triggered a series of court cases that persuaded President Bill Clinton in 1994 to protect much of the old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest — the bird’s habitat — from timber companies.
Though the Clinton plan allowed some logging, it was considerably more favorable to the owl and its habitat than it was to industry. Bowing to industry pressure, the Bush administration decided last year to double the allowable logging on 2.6 million acres of prime owl habitat in Oregon and to rescind other protections.
On Thursday, the interior secretary, Ken Salazar, announced that he would reverse those decisions, reaffirming the Clinton plan. This is an important victory for the owl and for the irreplaceable old-growth forests where it lives, which is partly what this fight has been about from the beginning. It is also a victory for the Endangered Species Act. The Bush administration repeatedly sought to ignore or undermine that law, but never so obviously as when it refused to consult its own scientists about the impact of increased logging on the owl as well as other imperiled species, like salmon.
Having rescued the Clinton plan, Mr. Salazar has now promised to update it to see whether modest logging can go forward without imperiling the owl, whose habitat has been further threatened by competition from a more aggressive cousin, the barred owl. The interior secretary has pledged to listen to his scientists at every step of the way. This will be a welcome change.