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When Americans think of the federal government taking on locals to combat racism, they think of Ike sending troops into a Little Rock high school, of JFK sending the National Guard to Ole Miss or LBJ announcing on television the FBI’s arrest of Klansmen for killing a Freedom Rider. Now the Obama administration is arguing that the leafy hamlets of Westchester County are guilty of their own racial discrimination. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development is using all the power it has to bring the locals to heel. The leverage comes from a 2009 consent decree designed to...

No, I'm not talking about the non-event of the Sequester of Doom. Nope, this column is not about Gene Sperling's love letters to Bob Woodward. I think the talking heads that inhabit PMSNBC, The Communist News Network (CNN), and the FOX Neocon Channel (FNC) are doing a fine job of working themselves into a frenzy about these topics, so there's no need for lil' ol' me to offer my two cents. I'd rather present to you actual news that no one is talking about. For example, look what I found while snooping around the Department of Housing and Urban Development's...

Destroying the sovereignty and freedom of United States citizens is well underway with a new doublespeak plan called Seven50, just another euphemism for Globalism through Regionalism. Flying under the radar, federal bureaucrats and alphabet agencies have joined with local politicians in 7 Florida counties in imposing The Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI), a United Nations created plan which divests Americans of Constitutionally guaranteed liberty by introducing social collectivism. Vero Beach County Commissioner Bob Solari warns that the Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI) being pushed by HUD, the EPA, and the USDOT is representative of a culture which believes “government can never be...

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration named Holly Petraeus--wife of retired Gen. David Patraeus, who resigned last week as CIA director after revealing he had had an extramarital affair--to a $187,605-per-yer job in the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB, created by the Dodd-Frank law, was placed by that law under the umbrella of the Federal Reserve. The funding of the CFBP, which comes from the Federal Reserve, is not subject to congressional oversight. Mrs. Petraeus became a member of the CFPB Implementation Team on Jan. 12, 2011. She is now the assistant director for the Office of...

The city’s Civil Rights Commission has pushed to bring attention to housing discrimination based on how a tenant pays rent, including low-income tenants who qualify for and use Section 8 housing vouchers to help pay for housing. At the commission’s Fair Housing Conference here on Thursday, the regional fair-housing director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development took time to emphasize the value of the sometimes maligned “Section 8″ housing vouchers to both extremely low-income households and to the overall economy. Betty Bottiger, who works in HUD’s regional office in Kansas City, Kan., noted that the agency’s “housing...

Misuse of the FHA Preforeclosure Sale Program may have cost the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over a billion dollars for claims that did not meet program according to an audit released this week by the HUD's Region 7 Office of Inspector General (OIG). OIG initiated the audit after noticing significant deficiencies in borrower qualifications during an audit of program claims at one large lender. The Preforeclosure Sale Program allows borrowers in default due to an adverse an unavoidable financial situation to sell their home at fair market value and use the proceeds to pay off an FHA-guaranteed...

Congress must raise taxes on the wealthy "because there just isn't enough to go around," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute today. "Latino growth has meant that often they're at the back of the line for housing assistance or other things," Donovan said during CHCI's annual Public Policy Conference this morning at the Ronald Reagan Building in D.C. "And the fundamental problem here (in part) is, are we going to continue to invest in those things? And if we continue to cut the budget for Section 8 housing and public housing and a...

North Miami violated federal rules and must repay more than $150,000 for not disclosing that the recipient of a federally funded home was the mother of a councilwoman. The city was awarded $2.8 million under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to rehabilitate and sell foreclosed homes to first-time home buyers. The program is run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. One of the recipients who qualified for and later moved into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse was Councilwoman Marie Steril’s mother, Marie Charles-Brutus. According to HUD rules, elected officials must disclose any family ties to individuals who will benefit from...

..[SNIP]...The plan is led by a consortium established jointly by the South Florida Regional Planning Council and the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council and is funded by a $4.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Some 200 public agencies, advocates, business and academic groups are involved, including county and city planners, elected officials, major universities and chambers of commerce. ..[SNIP]..HUD has issued similar grants to 45 U.S. regions in an effort to get more bang for its economic development dollars as federal outlays shrink amid increasing demand. HUD wants to focus its funding on places...

A sprawling housing complex in the Bronx has been fined $85,000 for not allowing residents to keep emotional-support dogs. The Daily News reports that the company that manages Co-op City was fined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for denying two clinically depressed residents their pets. Co-op City has a strict no-dog policy, but federal law requires housing providers to make accommodations . . .

Enterprise Community Investment, Inc. today announced the closing of the first loan under the Green Refinance Plus program, a partnership between Fannie Mae and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) introduced last year to incentivize energy and resource efficiency improvements in affordable housing.

After edging out Rockefeller 51% to 49% in the winner-take-all race in California, Goldwater had a huge majority of delegates, enough to easily win the nomination at the Republican convention. George Romney set about denouncing Goldwater, and even raised a stink at the convention to have Goldwater′s delegates disqualified. Romney was accusing many of Goldwater′s delegates as being everything from racists, members of the Ku-Klux-Klan, the John Birch Society and even accused some of being Communists! Imagine that! Once Goldwater was named the presidential nominee, George Romney still worked to undermine his campaign, refusing to endorse or support him. So...

From the deranged mind of Shaun Donovan, Chairman Obama's Housing and Urban Development Reichsfuhrer....er, uh... Secretary: (Emphasis added to the juicy parts, outrage is brackets) *********************************** " September 30, 2011 DRAFT - 2012 – 2015 Environmental 1 Justice Strategy for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Message from the Secretary The ongoing housing and economic crisis has touched every family in one way or another – but for low-income and minority communities, it’s been particularly devastating. [Lost your house ? Tough toenails.] Not only have these communities watched as nearly two decades of economic gains were rolled back...

Hey, take a look at what I found on the EPA's website (Yes, I have a life. Really. I do. Promise.): ********************************** "Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies. Meaningful involvement means that: (1) people have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may...

I have heard that the government has started selling lots of foreclosed homes to government approved real estate management firms or property liquidators. 1. Where is more information on this process? 2. Who is getting to bid on lots of homes, how do we find out who is awarded the properties? 3. What are the long term ramifications of this?

Actual title is : It’s baaack! The plan to kill talk radio. Group advising White House wants to restore controversial policy An organization that helped to craft President Obama’s environmental policies has recommended the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, purportedly as a method of silencing critics of the theory of global warming. The Presidential Climate Action Project, or PCAP, last year released an extensive list of recommendations for the White House in a 75-page paper entitled, “Building the Obama Administration’s Climate Legacy.” Primary among the PCAP’s recommendations is that the Department of Energy should join the U.S. Department of Housing...

Last year, we told you about a proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regarding equal access to HUD housing programs regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Among the key requirements of the rule is a prohibition on inquires regarding sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as a prohibition on using sexual orientation or gender identity as grounds for decision-making in Federal Housing Administration (FHA) programs. Additionally, the rule brings the definition of “eligible families� into the 21st century by including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). This afternoon, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan...

What might cause the New York Times editorial board to find, in New York’s suburban Westchester County, an example of “a struggle for racial integration [that] is neither bygone nor exclusively Southern�? Why might “county leaders [be] stonewalling federal authorities over a longstanding housing desegregation case�?More or less, a Republican executive in a deep blue district. Over the past two years, county executive Rob Astorino has garnered widespread attention and praise for defending his county against racially tinged federal overreach in a mundane affordable-housing case, while also reducing the onerous costs of county government.In recent decades, Westchester’s wealth has...

-Hakim Ouansafi, chairman of the Muslim Association of Hawaii and a longtime executive in the hotel industry here, has been selected as the newest head of the state’s public housing agency. The board of the Hawaii Public Housing Agency is scheduled to vote on Ouansafi’s appointment tomorrow. His selection must also be approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. If approved, Ouansafi, 47, would be the ninth executive to serve at the top of the troubled agency in 14 years.

Full Title: Government Pamphlet Taught Banks How To Finance A $70,000 Home With A $500 Downpayment A government publication offering banks guidance on "community development" urged banks to offering low-income borrowers loans with many of the features now deplored as irresponsible and lax lending. The two-volume set uncovered by Clusterstock was titled EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FINANCE/COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT RESOURCE GUIDE.

What you’re about to read is a real blood-boiler. Mortgage meltdowns and housing bubbles don’t cause themselves, they are caused. The root cause of our current housing mess was massive government intervention that went horribly wrong. In previous columns, we covered the early precipitating causes. Now, let’s stroll back to the latter half of the 1990s decade. The Clinton Administration had already hot-wired CRA and HUD to extend home ownership to all citizens, regardless of their creditworthiness. Congress and the Federal Reserve then jumped on the bandwagon. This activism caused mortgage standards to be relaxed across the industry. Clinton juiced-up...

Today's adjustment to the government's HARP program to get anything with a pulse as close to the discount window as possible was not the only proposal to revive the moribund US housing market. According to a new proposal by HUD, beginning this month and continuing for a year, anyone with a just $100 will be allowed to buy a HUD-owned REO home. In essence: the new buyer is merely taking over the mortgage payments in a repeat of what happened in 1970s New York along the Central Park West corridor. Granted for now it is stricly limited to only... 28...

As we all expected, the occupy Wall Street movement is fake and contrived like most things the socialist democrats do. The crowds are a fraction of what Tea Party organizations draw and they obviously do not represent 99-percent. The “occupy insert city here” movement is a bitter faction of radical communists who want to overthrow the very fabric of American society, plain and simple.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday supported President Barack Obama's proposal to tax millionaires and corporations at a higher rate to pay for a jobs program. Cuomo initially declined to comment during a Monday press conference on Obama's proposal until he received "specifics." Hours later, Cuomo urged Congress to support the Democratic president's proposal. Cuomo killed a state proposal by his fellow Democrats in the Assembly earlier this year that would have increased the income tax on wealthier New Yorkers. He said it would hurt the economy and chase wealthier New Yorkers and employers to neighboring states.

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will award Chicago $30.5 million to redevelop the Woodlawn neighborhood on the city's south side. The grant is part of HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, a plan to bring affordable housing, safer streets and better schools to distressed neighborhoods. Under the program, Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago have received a total of $122 million

Four teenagers were wounded Tuesday night in a drive-by shooting in the city's WestWoodlawn neighborhood on the South Side, officials said. The scene of the shooting is just blocks fromWoodlawn Center South, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel is scheduled to meet later today with U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Bobby Rush to discuss a program to revitalize the blighted neighborhood.

Time after time, we have found that this administration cares not one whit about following basic laws. What does it mean for Congress to pass and the president to sign a law banning a corrupt organization and its affiliates from receiving federal funds? Apparently the Obama administration could care less. As you will recall, the Obama Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded a grant of $79,819 to ACORN spin-off Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), despite the fact that Barack Obama signed the ACORN funding ban in October 2009. (And despite the fact that the organization was nailed...

OPINION AUGUST 18, 2011 Raising Hell in Subsidized Housing Section 8 rental subsidies have long helped ruin neighborhoods. Obama administration policies are making things worse. BY JAMES BOVARD Section 8 rental subsidies have long been one of the most controversial federal social programs. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Obama administration is making a troubled program worse. In the 1990s, the feds were embarrassed by skyrocketing crime rates in public housing—up to 10 times the national average, according to HUD studies and many newspaper reports. The government’s response was to hand out vouchers to residents of...

Just when you thought you might sleep better at night, with only worries about feeding your family, keeping your job and home in a terrible economy, the debt ceiling just raised to $2.8 trillion, the United Nation’s “Sustainability” Agenda 21 marches on with the help of a myriad of private and governmental organizations nationwide dedicated to the “fundamental change” of America as we know it. The HUD Secretary just announced on July 28, 2011 the availability of $95 million to support “sustainable local initiatives” through the fiscal year 2011 Regional Planning and Community Challenge Planning Grant Programs. It seems like...

State attorneys general are negotiating to give major banks wide immunity over irregularities in handling foreclosures, even as evidence has emerged that banks are continuing to file questionable documents. A coalition of all 50 states' attorneys general has been negotiating settlements with five of the biggest U.S. banks that would include payment of up to $25 billion in penalties and commitments to follow new rules. In exchange, the banks would get immunity from civil lawsuits by the states, as well as similar guarantees by the Justice Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development, which have participated in the talks.

As a tactic for generating federal subsidies, "bait and switch" works. Case in point: The now-defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. The blogosphere has been alive during the past week over the release this past March by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) of a grant of nearly $80,000 to Affordable Housing Centers of America, which until 18 months ago operated as ACORN Housing Corporation. Though the grant was a carryover from fiscal year 2010, the revelation notwithstanding raises the possibility that the Obama administration is ignoring a 2009 congressional ban on...

President Obama’s favorite La Raza group has teamed up with a federal agency to promote one of the administration’s many government cash giveaways with Spanish ads encouraging Latinos—possibly illegal immigrants—to apply for free U.S. taxpayer dollars.The new campaign warns Hispanics that time is running out to get up to “$50,000 in help” from Uncle Sam to pay their mortgage, past due charges, taxes, insurance and even legal fees associated with their home. The money is being disbursed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of a billion-dollar Emergency Homeowner Loan Program (EHLP).In 2008 the agency revealed...

Why is Obama apparently defying federal law by funding ACORN? Judicial Watch discovered the administration is flouting the will of Congress by giving federal money to ACORN.Obama's HUD  gave a $79,819 grant to the largest branch of the ACORN tree, ACORN Housing Corp. . AHC filed papers last year legally changing its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America. Worse yet, the grant funds a political agitation and indoctrination program. Here's HUD's euphemistic description of the program: Education and Outreach Initiative grants (EOI) - HUD awarded $6.8 million to organizations that educate the public and housing providers about their rights and obligations under federal, state,...

Santa Fe New Mexico So Pissed In Brief Alexa Schirtzinger April 27, 2011 On April 13, SFR reported on complaints of mismanagement filed by a resident of Casa Cerrillos, a substance-free housing program run by the St. Elizabeth Shelter Corp. At 3 pm the day the story published, Julia, the resident who filed the complaint, was issued a warning by Casa Cerrillos Program Manager Shea Goodluck-Barnes for failing to follow the proper grievance procedure by sending her complaints directly to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. At 3:30 pm, Julia was given a urinalysis test. At 4:50 pm,...

(CNSNews.com) - April is National Fair Housing Month, and to mark the occasion, the Obama administration is addressing discrimination in housing based on national origin. The emphasis is on immigrants, legal or illegal. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Monday that it plans to educate the public -- through community talks and a media campaign -- about discrimination against "persons of foreign descent." “Through this education campaign, HUD will work with communities to prevent housing discrimination and promote immigrant integration into the broader society," said John Trasvina, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal...

The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discriminate based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or families with children. While sexual orientation and gender identity are not prohibited bases of discrimination under the federal Fair Housing Act, housing discrimination against someone who is LGBT may, in certain circumstances, violate the Act's existing provisions, including its prohibition against gender discrimination. "While 20 states and over 200 local governments have led the way to make LGBT-related housing discrimination illegal, HUD is firmly committed to supporting the right of LGBT individuals and families to lead productive and dignified lives, free from housing...

Green Township is being singled out because federal investigators believe the housing authority blocked new public housing there for at least the past two years. More public housing for the poor is likely headed to Green Township and some other communities as part of a deal to resolve a discrimination complaint against Cincinnati's housing authority.

(CNSNews.com) - Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan said that no other President “better understands” the need for public housing than President Obama, adding that the administration will “fight” House Republicans over their proposed cut to public housing funding. “Barack Obama didn’t come to Washington to let your homes be sold off to the highest bidder or let them decay so badly that they won’t be there for future generations and neither did I,” he told the National Low Income Housing Coalition conference in Washington on Monday. “Let’s not forget, let’s not forget that President Obama got his...

WASHINGTON (March 25, 2011)——The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has urged the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) not to adopt a proposed regulation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected categories for which discrimination in HUD programs is prohibited. In comments filed today with HUD, Anthony Picarello, USCCB general counsel, and Michael Moses, USCCB associate general counsel, noted that, when it comes to orientation and gender identity, “a protected classification for purposes of federal housing programs has no support in any Act of Congress and appears at odds with at...

Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., unveiled today his five-year path to a balanced budget, leaving several federal agencies behind. Among the items on the cutting room floor are the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development. “There’s a lot of things in here that everybody could agree to, Republicans and Democrats, but nobody’s leading on the president’s side and on our side we felt we needed to put this forward to get the debate started, at the very least,” the freshman Senator explained at a Capitol Hill press conference this afternoon. The proposal also calls for the repeal...

The report delivered Friday by Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan presents three approaches for a future housing finance system. It also calls the government to shrink “and ultimately wind down” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bailed-out government-sponsored enterprise companies that helped fuel the housing bubble before being felled by investments in subprime mortgages. “This is a plan for fundamental reform -- to wind down the GSEs, strengthen consumer protection and preserve access to affordable housing for people who need it,” Geithner said in a statement accompanying the report. The report also pledges ongoing U.S. government...

The Obama administration proposed raising fees for borrowers and requiring large down payments for home loans as part of a long-term effort to reduce the government's outsized footprint in the housing market, but warned that these moves could increase mortgage rates and potentially reduce the availability of the 30-year fixed rate mortgage, a mainstay of American housing for decades. In a long-awaited white paper, the administration said that it intends to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together with the Federal Housing Administration provide more than 90 percent of housing finance, but said the process could take five...

  The radical nationwide nonprofit network, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - better known as ACORN - has wound down operations in an effort at damage control. A new government report suggests more spin will be needed. On September 21 the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), released an evaluation (see pdf) of certain expenditures of ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC), one of the largest affiliates under the ACORN umbrella. The review concluded that the Chicago-based nonprofit had misspent a sizable portion of the roughly $3.25 million it received from...

Raytheon will install a large, colour display in Lockheed Martin F-16 cockpits, a key enabler for future sensor upgrades. The US Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve selected Raytheon's 6 x 8in (15.2 x 20.3cm) centre pedestal display for a requirement to upgrade hundreds of F-16 Block 30s. Including spares, Raytheon believes the two services could order as many as 720 displays over the next six years. The potential for foreign sales is comparable or even greater, says Tom Lansing, the company's business development senior manager for customised engineering and depot support.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - There were accusations of an executive slush fund, financial shenanigans and dictatorial management. But it was the $900,000 in secret sexual harassment payments that got the head of the nation's fourth-largest housing authority fired and had the mayor asking how the housing board missed it all.</p>

Andrew Cuomo points to his time as Housing and Urban Development secretary as a prime example of how he's made government more efficient and effective. But federal auditors say Mr. Cuomo oversaw a "poorly planned" overhaul of personnel that bulked up HUD's public outreach but undermined the agency's enforcement efforts. During the gubernatorial debate on Monday, Mr. Cuomo touted his four-year record at HUD, saying he "shrunk government" and promising to do the same in Albany if elected governor. "The question in this race is who can actually do it. Who can get it done," he said. While the number...

President Bill Clinton's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Andrew Cuomo answered questions in 1998 at a press conference regarding HUD policy that would ensure that banks could not discriminate against low-income minorities when considering individuals from this group for housing loans. In this video (h/t Eyeblast) he says: "To take a greater risk on these mortgages...yes. To give families mortgages they who they would not have given otherwise?...yes." Mr. Cuomo is then asked if this people in this group could have gotten the loans at all in the first place. In a telling response, he answers: "They would not...

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, April 3) -- Accubanc Mortgage Corporation of Dallas,Texas, has agreed to a pay $2.148 billion in a settlement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development for discrimination in loan practices. HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced the largest settlement ever in an unfair housing dispute. Accubanc will make the money available through mortgage loans and program development to increase home ownership over the next three years. The loans will allow 15,700 low- and moderate-income families and minority families to obtain home mortgages that were previously denied. Accubanc is expected to take a loss on the loans, although the...

A new program run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development allows delinquent borrowers who are unemployed or suffering from a severe medical condition to receive assistance with mortgage payments for up to 24 months. The Emergency Homeowners Loan Program offers up to $50,000 to eligible borrowers at a 0% interest rate. HUD officials called it a true bridge loan because all deferred payments are forgivable provided the borrower lives in a home and remains current on payments for five consecutive years. But the program isn't for everyone. Brian Sullivan, public affairs representative for HUD, said borrowers must have...

At least 120 municipalities spent a combined $700 million in housing funds from 2000 to 2008 without constructing a single new unit, a Times analysis of state data shows. Nor did most of them add to the housing stock by rehabilitating existing units. ___ TITLE BURIES LEAD ___ Second of two parts — Cities across California have skirted or ignored laws requiring them to build affordable homes and in the process mismanaged hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars, a Times investigation has found. At least 120 municipalities — nearly one in three with active redevelopment agencies — spent a combined...