Indymac Boys Get Sweetheart Deal

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Loan program fails island homeowners

Foreclosures startle residents enrolled in the mortgage modification program

Hawaii homeowners have had their residences sold in foreclosure even though the sales were supposed to be halted while their applications for federal mortgage relief were processed, attorneys and advocacy groups say.

Exact numbers are hard to come by, but officials who help distressed homeowners say it appears to be happening more and more here, an indication that nationwide problems with the federal Home Affordable Modification Program have reached isle shores. The program has been widely criticized as ineffective, mired in bureaucratic bungling, and bringing many homeowners closer to financial ruin than financial stability.

One Makakilo woman said she was told in January by her lender that the upcoming foreclosure sale of her home would be stopped—as federal regulations require—because she was eligible for a loan modification and her application was in the pipeline.

Yet four days later, unbeknownst to the woman, her home was sold at a nonjudicial foreclosure auction, according to court documents. She now faces imminent eviction.

"Unfortunately, that story has a very familiar ring to it," said Hawaii HomeOwnership Center Executive Director Dennis Oshiro, who noted that such cases seem to be on the rise. Several other officials whose organizations or law firms assist homeowners agree.

The Makakilo woman, who asked that her name not be used for privacy reasons and because of the stigma associated with foreclosures, is fighting her eviction in court. But her chances of success are uncertain, and she soon could be forced to vacate the residence she has owned since 2001.

Her experience underscores the many problems distressed Hawaii homeowners have encountered as they attempted to seek relief under the federal program launched in early 2009 with great fanfare.

While the so-called HAMP program, designed to alleviate a growing foreclosure crisis, provides substantial savings to financially strapped homeowners who are able to get their mortgages modified, it has been beset by processing problems across the country, partly because of the huge volume of applications.

"There are so many things wrong with the system," said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, whose members help homeowners.

A half-dozen Hawaii homeowners told the Star-Advertiser that they have encountered numerous roadblocks, including repeatedly receiving inconsistent or inaccurate information from their lenders, having to fax or mail the same documents again and again, not being able to deal with the same person each time they call, spending hours on the phone with few results and frequently being given conflicting instructions. All their lenders are mainland banks with no local offices.

For some of the homeowners, the problem-plagued process has meant ruined finances, uncertain futures and overwhelming stress. Some said they still don't have their loans restructured after applying more than a year ago.

Big Island homeowner Denise Houghtaling said she has been getting the runaround for months and several times broke down on the phone from sheer frustration, sobbing as she spoke to a lender representative about yet another snag.

"It's been a nightmare," said Houghtaling, whose three other neighbors lost their homes through foreclosure while attempting to modify their loans. "You can't imagine what we've gone through."

Laura Motta, another Big Island homeowner, echoed those sentiments. Even though she has been in a temporary modification plan for more than a year and has been making regular payments, she said she recently got a notice claiming she wasn't in any plan and hasn't been making any payments.

The process, she said, is "cruel. It's really, really wrong. It makes you feel like you're a criminal, when you're not."

Those involved in the program acknowledge that problems still exist—especially involving communication—but that much has improved in recent months, particularly given the size and complexity of the federal initiative.

New rules recently took effect, for instance, requiring lenders to make eligibility decisions within 30 days of getting a completed application. Initial applications often are submitted incomplete.

HOPE NOW, an alliance that includes housing counselors, mortgage companies and their loan servicers, has started a web-based resource that streamlines the submission of documents, enhancing communication between counselors who assist homeowners and the lenders.

"We've made a lot of progress," said Faith Schwartz, senior adviser to the HOPE alliance. "But clearly, the industry has room to improve" in the communication area.

While many problems result in delays and add to customer frustrations, the most serious seems to be people losing their homes despite lender assurances to the contrary or in apparent breach of the program rules.

Maui resident Michelle Vogele said she had been receiving monthly notices from her lender that her home's foreclosure sale would not happen as long as she continued making her modified trial mortgage payments. Vogele said she has made those payments regularly for the past eight months.

Recently, however, she learned that her home was sold—unbeknownst to her—at a foreclosure auction June 2.

"I was traumatized," Vogele said, adding that her lender, Bank of America, had erroneously determined she was late with her initial trial payment, putting her into default.

A Bank of America spokeswoman reached late Friday in California said there wasn't sufficient time to research the case to provide comment.

Local consumer lawyers and nonprofit groups contacted by the Star-Advertiser had no estimate on how many Hawaii residents have lost their residences while their modification applications were being reviewed.

But several said they are hearing about more instances of the servicers not telling the Hawaii attorneys handling the foreclosures to stop the upcoming sales pending modification decisions.

"There's a huge disconnect right now in that line of communication," said Legal Aid Society of Hawaii attorney Ryker Wada, who supervises that group's consumer unit.

Recently enacted HAMP regulations prohibit the servicers from conducting foreclosure sales until a decision is made that the applicant is ineligible, the applicant enters a trial period and fails to make a payment on time, or for several other specific reasons.

But the lenders suffer no penalties if they don't follow the rules, and homeowners who aren't treated fairly have no clear recourse, according to Stein, the California nonprofit executive.

Stein's coalition recently surveyed more than 50 California housing counselors whose agencies see about 10,000 clients monthly, and most respondents indicated that they have seen the same problem as encountered by the Makakilo woman, according to Stein, citing preliminary survey results.

In the Makakilo case, the homeowner learned of the foreclosure sale several months later when the new buyer posted an eviction notice on her front gate, she said.

The woman took the news particularly hard because she had turned down a $250,000 offer from another buyer earlier this year, according to attorney Gary Dubin, whose law firm represents the woman. She turned down the offer because of the assurance by CitiMortgage, her lender, that the foreclosure auction was halted, she said.

The private sale would have netted the woman about $100,000, she said.

CitiMortgage could not be reached for comment.

The various problems reported by homeowners across the country have triggered multiple mainland lawsuits against lenders, the federal government and others. Some are seeking class-action status.

Despite the HAMP problems, roughly 1,300 Hawaii homeowners through May have been able to get their loans permanently modified, resulting in a median savings of about $870 on their monthly payments, according to federal data.

Oshiro, of the HomeOwnership Center, said one of his agency's clients, who had been resigned to losing his home before entering HAMP, ended up getting nearly 50 percent cut from the monthly payments.

Oshiro cites such examples when proffering this advice: "The process can be frustrating and overwhelming at times, but hang in there. Be persistent."

Such advice is of little consolation to those who already have lost their homes or the Makakilo woman who soon could lose hers.

"How come they didn't let me know that they were going to go ahead with the foreclosure?" the woman asked. "This has wiped me out economically."

What summer? Record cold at LAX as July gloom continues

Unusually cold temperatures in Southern California continued, with Los Angeles International Airport setting a record low on Friday.

LAX got to only 67 degrees, breaking a record set in 1926, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures are expected to stay fairly cool Saturday, with highs around 70 on the coast and in the 80s inland. Conditions will be a bit warmer on Sunday, according to the weather service.

July has turned out to be cooler than normal.

Instead of daytime highs approaching the mid-80s, downtown L.A. has experienced temperatures in the mid- to high 70s. From June 1 to July 5, daytime and nighttime temperatures have averaged a relatively cool 69.8 degrees.

That makes that stretch one of the cooler ones for that time of the year in the last 10 years, just slightly warmer than the same period in 2004 (69.4 degrees) and 2002 (68.9 degrees). The cooler ocean air early in the day has a moderating effect on daily temperature conditions. And low-lying clouds have been tempering the sun's heat.

-- Shelby Grad

A Brutal Case of Backwards Justice in America

Michael Ellner said this about our crazy society: “Just look at us. Everything is backwards. Everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information, and religion destroys spirituality.”

	This case should not be about an alleged black troublemaker and an overzealous white cop.

This past week, BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted in State court of involuntary manslaughter in the case of the New Year’s Day 2009 fatal police shooting of an unarmed man, 22-year-old Oscar Grant. The local black community is rightfully outraged, but this is much bigger than race — it’s about how our society defines justice.

Strip away all the labels; the fact remains that an armed man shot an unarmed restrained man in the back, period. This case should not be about an alleged black troublemaker and an overzealous white cop. Their race shouldn’t matter; the circumstances of why Grant was detained shouldn’t matter; and Mehserle being a cop shouldn’t matter either. Grant was a sovereign, unarmed, outnumbered, restrained, and harmless American citizen and was shot in the back in cold blood. To make matters worse, Grant was being toyed with by the cops like a domesticated cat does with a mouse before he ultimately rips him to shreds.

The scene was unequivocally premeditated first-degree murder. Furthermore, the backup police officers who witnessed, participated in, and lied about the event should also be prosecuted as accomplices, just as you and I would be if we had done the same thing.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
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A justice system that allows an officer of the law to shoot a restrained man in the back with little more than a slap on the wrist, while citizens defending themselves and their families from an intruder is charged with a crime, is severely backwards. We can now chalk up our justice system as yet another gross failure of America.

I guess by now we should not be surprised that this is how our criminal government works in our upside-down society. After all, we were told that 19 members of Al Qaeda attacked us on September 11th, killing over 3000 people, and we proceed to kill well over 1 million innocent Iraqis who had nothing to do with 9/11. Does anyone still believe our decision-makers are the good guys?

It seems in every case that the media uses race, religion, patriotism, or any red herring they can conjure up to distract us from the obvious truth about right and wrong, justice, and common human decency.

In the heat wave, the case against air conditioning

Washington didn't grind to a sweaty halt last week under triple-digit temperatures. People didn't even slow down. Instead, the three-day, 100-plus-degree, record-shattering heat wave prompted Washingtonians to crank up their favorite humidity-reducing, electricity-bill-busting, fluorocarbon-filled appliance: the air conditioner.

(Photos: People cool down during heat wave)

This isn't smart. In a country that's among the world's highest greenhouse-gas emitters, air conditioning is one of the worst power-guzzlers. The energy required to air-condition American homes and retail spaces has doubled since the early 1990s. Turning buildings into refrigerators burns fossil fuels, which emits greenhouse gases, which raises global temperatures, which creates a need for -- you guessed it -- more air-conditioning.

A.C.'s obvious public-health benefits during severe heat waves do not justify its lavish use in everyday life for months on end. Less than half a century ago, America thrived with only the spottiest use of air conditioning. It could again. While central air will always be needed in facilities such as hospitals, archives and cooling centers for those who are vulnerable to heat, what would an otherwise A.C.-free Washington look like?

At work

In a world without air conditioning, a warmer, more flexible, more relaxed workplace helps make summer a time to slow down again. Three-digit temperatures prompt siestas. Code-orange days mean offices are closed. Shorter summer business hours and month-long closings -- common in pre-air-conditioned America -- return.

(Eye on Earth: A glimpse of how humans might be impacting the natural environment)

Business suits are out, for both sexes. And with the right to open a window, office employees no longer have to carry sweaters or space heaters to work in the summer. After a long absence, ceiling fans, window fans and desk fans (and, for that matter, paperweights) take back the American office.

Best of all, Washington's biggest business -- government -- is transformed. In 1978, 50 years after air conditioning was installed in Congress, New York Times columnist Russell Baker noted that, pre-A.C., Congress was forced to adjourn to avoid Washington's torturous summers, and "the nation enjoyed a respite from the promulgation of more laws, the depredations of lobbyists, the hatching of new schemes for Federal expansion and, of course, the cost of maintaining a government running at full blast."

Post-A.C., Congress again adjourns for the summer, giving "tea partiers" the smaller government they seek. During unseasonably warm spring and fall days, hearings are held under canopies on the Capitol lawn. What better way to foster open government and prompt politicians to focus on climate change?

At home

Homeowners from Ward 8 to the Palisades pry open double-hung windows that were painted shut decades ago. In the air-conditioned age, fear of crime was often cited by people reluctant to open their homes to night breezes. In Washington, as in most of the world's warm cities, window grilles (not "bars," please) are now standard.

In renovation and new construction alike, high ceilings, better cross-ventilation, whole-house fans, screened porches, basements and white "cool roofs" to reflect solar rays become de rigueur. Home utility bills plummet.

Families unplug as many heat-generating appliances as possible. Forget clothes dryers --post-A.C. neighborhoods are crisscrossed with clotheslines. The hot stove is abandoned for the grill, and dinner is eaten on the porch.

Around town

Saying goodbye to A.C. means saying hello to the world. With more people spending more time outdoors -- particularly in the late afternoon and evening, when temperatures fall more quickly outside than they do inside -- neighborhoods see a boom in spontaneous summertime socializing.

Rather than cowering alone in chilly home-entertainment rooms, neighbors get to know one another. Because there are more people outside, streets in high-crime areas become safer. As a result of all this, a strange thing happens: Deaths from heat decline. Elderly people no longer die alone inside sweltering apartments, too afraid to venture outside for help and too isolated to be noticed. Instead, people look out for one another during heat waves, checking in on their most vulnerable neighbors.

Children -- and others -- take to bikes and scooters, because of the cooling effect of air movement. Calls for more summer school and even year-round school cease. Our kids don't need more time inside, everyone agrees; they need the shady playgrounds and water sprinklers that spring up in every neighborhood.

"Green roofs" of grass, ivy and even food crops sprout on the flat tops of government and commercial buildings around the city, including the White House. These layers of soil and vegetation (on top of a crucially leak-proof surface) insulate interiors from the pounding sun, while water from the plants' leaves provides evaporative cooling. More trees than ever appear in both private and public spaces.

And the Mall is reborn as the National Grove.

Holder Floats Possibility of Racial Profiling Suit Against Arizona

Attorney General Eric Holder, just days after filing a federal lawsuit against Arizona's immigration law, on Sunday floated the possibility of filing another court challenge on racial profiling grounds.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Arizona claimed the state was infringing on federal immigration responsibilities and urged the judge to prevent the law from going into effect at the end of July. Despite some officials' claims that the law could lead to racial profiling, that concern was not cited as grounds for the suit.

However, Holder said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that the federal government was leading with its "strongest" argument in the suit filed Tuesday and would not rule out a second suit months down the road -- if the law ends up going into effect.

"It doesn't mean that if the law for whatever reason happened to go into effect, that six months from now, a year from now, we might not look at the impact the law has had ... and see whether or not there has been that racial profiling impact," Holder said. "If that was the case, we would have the tools and we would bring suit on that basis."

Holder, reacting to the firestorm of criticism from Republicans and border-state lawmakers, said the Justice Department decided to file the suit because Arizona's immigration law is "inconsistent" with federal policy and the U.S. Constitution. He said there's nothing to stop local jurisdictions and states from helping the government enforce immigration law, but described Arizona's law as contradictory to what the federal government is trying to accomplish.

The law makes illegal immigration a state crime. It requires local law enforcement to question anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant on their immigration status -- provided they don't stop them for that reason alone.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., disputed Holder's characterization. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," he said Arizona's law is trying to help, not hinder, the federal government's immigration efforts.

"It's not really a matter of preempting the federal law. It's simply the state of Arizona providing some additional law enforcement assistance for the federal government," Kyl said.

But Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., suggested the Justice Department had more than enough legal basis on which to mount its lawsuit. Speaking on ABC's "This Week," he said that while the government is arguing that its policy preempts the state policy, the case can still be made that the law leads to "racial profiling and civil rights violations."

A Letter to a Senator: Is it Rational? Is it Radical? Is it Right?

Honorable Susan Collins
US Senate
Washington DC

RE: The New Opium War Being Waged On America


Susan-

This lying impostor President is advancing a new drug war on our own nation, as I am absolutely sure the government is behind this new K2 drug being openly marketed over the Internet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/us/11k2.html

At this treason I see no other solution than armed, open rebellion against this illegitimate government.

While you have been busy advancing the cause of a phony Homeland Security, Wall Street, the big banks, big auto, big medicine and a viciously murderous and aggressively land-grabbing Zionist colonial power in the Middle East, this impostor President has been busy debasing the moral fiber of the country's youth by waging a New Opium War upon the people of this nation.

You are acting as nothing less than Israel's whore when you call for war or sanctions against Iran, which to date has not violated the terms of the IAEA.

Get up off your knees. Wake up. Do your duty. Or resign your commission, because you are ineffective against these horrible crimes being committed in the name of the public weal.

Do your duty or wear the crown of the idiot you have become with your hair all done-up in some Washington DC beauty parlor.

You have every appearance of a rank fool.