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Federal prosecutors Wednesday unveiled the most serious criminal charges yet in the West Virginia explosion that killed 29 workers. The new charges involve officials at former mine owner Massey Energy who were directly responsible for managing Upper Big Branch.
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Meanwhile, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney is also said to be about to unveil a new tax-cut plan.
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A living plant has been generated from the fruit of a little arctic flower, making it the oldest plant by far that has ever been grown from ancient tissue.
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Image courtesy of iStockphoto/vladacanon Scary antibiotic-resistant infections aren’t just lurking in the hospital anymore. They’re in gyms, at the beach , and increasingly, on the farm. More
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The US Geological Survey says the magnitude 4.0 earthquake was centered near the town of East Prairie, Missouri.
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Oil prices jumped to $105 per barrel Monday after Iran halted exports to Britain and France. Oil prices are now at a nine-month high.
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The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the elite Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, the Associated Press has learned.
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The NATO commander in Afghanistan issued a fervent apology on Tuesday for foreign troops having “improperly disposed” of Korans and Islamic materials.
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Who says you can’t turn the clock back? Decades ago, near the end of the Age of Aquarius, a Republican congressman from Texas argued passionately that the federal government should pay for birth control for poor women. Read full article >> |
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Jefferson County, Ala., is drowning under $4 billion in debt, the result of a botched sewer project and corrupt business dealings.
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Motherhood without marriage among younger women across the country is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change.
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Senate passage is considered likely, but the bill’s implementation remains uncertain because its opponents promised to put it on the November ballot.
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With each party saying it pocketed an election-year victory, Congress voted to extend payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits and sent the legislation to President Obama.
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The Society for Worldwide International Financial Telecommunication is preparing to ban sanctioned Iranian banks, companies from using its system.
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The New Jersey Assembly passes gay marriage bill on Thursday, sending the bill to Republican Governor Chris Christie, a possible vice-presidential candidate who has promised to veto the measure.
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An expected live version of the show was replaced by a repeat Wednesday. Comedy Central said Thursday's live show will be off, too.
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c. 2012 Religion News Service FAIRHOPE, Ala. (RNS) For the Rev. Jerry Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church of Fairhope, being Southern Baptist is a defining aspect of life. He embraces the denomination's conservative social values, extols its evangelism — "We reach out to people instead of waiting for them to come to us" — and identifies with its name. read more |
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by Cora Currier .DC-note-container {margin-bottom: 12px;} Citigroup agreed yesterday to pay $158 million to settle a lawsuit over bad loans that the bank passed on to the Federal Housing Administration to insure. The whistle-blower who originally brought the case, Sherry Hunt, an employee of Citi's mortgage department, said the company actively undermined the process that was supposed to check for fraud in order to push through reckless loans and get higher profits. The suit itself makes for good reading. We've pulled out the juiciest bits, and explain just what Citi appears to have been doing. Some background: The FHA insures one-third of the mortgages loans in the country, taking on the risk of homeowners' default from lenders like Citi. The government requires lenders to certify that insured loans meet FHA standards. Citi appears to have flouted those standards. According to the lawsuit, the bank passed along subpar loans to the FHA until very recently, making "substantial profits through the sale and/or securitization of FHA-backed insured mortgages" while "it wrongfully endorsed mortgages that were not eligible." In the settlement, Citi, which was bailed out by taxpayers in 2008 to the tune of $45 billion, "admits, acknowledges, and accepts responsibility" for passing on bad loans. The suit's allegations Citi was passing on mortgages with particularly high rates of default to the FHA, costing taxpayers millions in insurance claims: dc.embed.loadNote('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/293149/annotations/45156.js');The quality control unit in charge of reviewing the mortgages had "marching orders" to pass questionable loans by "brute force": dc.embed.loadNote('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/293149/annotations/45155.js');The company started basing compensation for some employees on how many loans got through quality control, intensifying the pressure: dc.embed.loadNote('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/293149/annotations/45157.js');In January 2011, Citi gave awards to employees who had successfully challenged quality control ratings. In a detailed Bloomberg News story, the whistle-blower, Hunt, said that at the awards ceremony, quality control workers "were humiliated in front of everyone": dc.embed.loadNote('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/293149/annotations/45152.js');Lenders are supposed to self-report to the government when they discover fraudulent or shoddy loans. But Citi almost never did: dc.embed.loadNote('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/293149/annotations/45153.js');At one point, Citi erased the records of nearly 1,000 potentially fraudulent loans: dc.embed.loadNote('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/293149/annotations/45154.js');Citi's settlement The company admits to passing on loans that were "not eligible" for government guarantees: dc.embed.loadNote('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/293150/annotations/45146.js');Citi has to pay $158.3 million within 30 days. Of that sum, $30 million will go to the whistle-blower. The suit was filed under the False Claims Act, which rewards whistle-blowers who bring cases resulting in settlements in which it was alleged that the government was defrauded: dc.embed.loadNote('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/293150/annotations/45147.js');The government has reserved the right to pursue criminal charges: dc.embed.loadNote('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/293150/annotations/45148.js');A spokesman for Citigroup said in an emailed statement: "We take our quality assurance processes seriously and have pro-actively undertaken process improvements to ensure that they are as robust as possible. Our government-related business is very important to us, and we will continue as a participant in the FHA's Direct Endorsement Lender Program with the full support of HUD." Citi isn't the only bank facing these kinds of allegations — as part of last week's mortgage settlement, Bank of America will pay the FHA up to $1 billion for fraud and abusive foreclosure practices. |
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by Lena Groeger Last week several media outlets obtained the federal Bureau of Land Management's draft of proposed rules requiring fracking companies to disclose the chemicals they pump into the ground. Such disclosure requirements have been championed by environmentalists for years and were endorsed by President Obama in the State of the Union, but critics say the rules may not go far enough. In the process of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, millions of gallons of highly pressurized water, mixed with sand and other chemicals, are injected into the ground to extract natural gas from rock. As we've noted before, some of these chemicals are toxic to humans and have contaminated nearby groundwater. Some energy companies have voluntarily made their chemical information public, but others have fought to keep them secret. InsideClimate notes that the proposed national rules would specifically require companies to give both the names and concentrations of individual chemicals used. So far, Colorado is the only state that requires such detailed information for all chemicals; eight other states with fracking disclosure rules either do not require companies to report concentrations or only require them to report concentrations of hazardous materials. The BLM's rules also would compel companies to report the total volume of fracking fluid used, as well as how they intend to recover and dispose of it. Though the BLM's proposed rules are more stringent than most state laws, environmental and health advocates say drillers could circumvent some of the requirements. For instance, the rules would only apply to drilling on federal lands. Also, companies could request that certain chemicals be exempted from disclosure if they are deemed a "trade secret." The trade secret exemptions "could potentially make the rules meaningless if applied broadly," Dusty Horwitt, senior counsel at a public health advocacy group told InsideClimate. While the BLM's proposal states that all the non-exempted information would "become a matter of public record," it makes no mention of how or where the disclosure information would appear — or how it would be made available to the public. To compare the BLM's draft rules with state disclosure provisions, take a look at the table here (which we've recreated from a chart by InsideClimate). You can also read the full draft legislation here. |
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