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Archive for 200804 ( return to current blog )
Tuesday April 29, 2008
Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:15am EDT
By Lynn Adler NEW
YORK (Reuters) - Home foreclosure filings jumped 23 percent in the
first quarter from the prior quarter, and more than doubled from a year
earlier, as more overextended borrowers failed to make timely payments,
real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Tuesday. One
of every 194 households received a notice of default, auction sale or
bank repossession between January and March, for the seventh straight
quarter of rising foreclosure activity, RealtyTrac said. Foreclosure
filings were far-reaching, rising on an annual basis in 46 states and
in 90 of the 100 largest metropolitan areas, to a total of 649,917
properties. The first quarter filings surged 112 percent from the same
period last year. "In most
of the states with the highest levels of foreclosure activity, we're
still seeing the fallout from overheated home prices and people
overextending themselves with risky loans to try to buy those
properties," Rick Sharga, vice president of marketing at RealtyTrac, in
Irvine, California, said in an interview. "I'm
more convinced that we haven't seen the peak of foreclosure activity
yet, and the wave probably won't crest until late third or fourth
quarter of 2008," he added. Nevada, California, Arizona and Florida had the highest foreclosure rates among states during the quarter. A
buying frenzy by speculative investors had sharply inflated home prices
in all of those states before a slide into one of the worst housing
markets in a century began in 2006.
These states are now inundated with unsold homes, many valued less than
the size of the mortgage. The oversupply is pressing prices down,
forcing some owners to walk away and escalating pressure to foreclose. Many
homeowners, particularly those with adjustable-rate subprime mortgages,
are struggling to make payments that have skyrocketed when the loans
reset. One in every 54 Nevada households got a foreclosure filing in the first quarter, up 137 percent from a year earlier. California
had the second-highest rate of filings among states with one in every
78 households, soaring by nearly 213 percent above the same period last
year. "The really insidious
part is that, particularly if you're in a market with a glut of
inventory, as more properties go through foreclosure ... they add
properties on the market that are effectively going to be coming in
with distress pricing, which makes it even worse," Sharga said. Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts and Connecticut were the other states with the top 10 foreclosure filings. Poor underlying economic conditions drove foreclosure filings higher in Michigan and Ohio, according to RealtyTrac. The
share of vacant U.S. homes grew to a record high in the first quarter,
the government reported on Monday, as homeowners struggled to find
buyers and foreclosures escalated. The
percentage of owner-occupied homes sitting empty rose to 2.9 percent,
the third straight monthly rise, for a total of 18.6 million vacancies,
U.S. Census Bureau data showed. With
prices seen falling further at a time when there is an overabundant
supply, some government mortgage relief programs may not preclude
foreclosures from mounting. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for example,
has adopted a program that delays foreclosure proceedings on
owner-occupied properties until owners have met directly with lenders
to attempt a loan workout plan, James J. Saccacio, chief executive
officer of RealtyTrac, said in a press release. "While
we're hopeful that programs like those in Philadelphia will have a
positive long-term impact, they could be simply deferring another flood
of foreclosures," extending the time it takes for housing to recover,
he said. Metro areas in
California and Florida had 13 of the 20 cities with the highest
foreclosure filing rates. Stockton and Riverside-San Bernardino in
California had the top two spots. One in every 30 households in Stockton got a foreclosure filing during the quarter, 6.6 times the national average. Las
Vegas had the third-highest foreclosure filing rate among metro areas,
at one in every 44 households. The rate was up 1 percent in the
quarter, and 134 percent from the first quarter of last year. (Editing by James Dalgleish)
| | Posted by alfred at 9:40 AM - | |
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Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; Page A14
A fragmented international effort and weak government in Kabul have
combined to endanger everything that has been accomplished in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban nearly seven years ago, the new U.N. envoy to Afghanistan said yesterday.
Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide said he sees "some hopeful signs" after his
first visit to Afghanistan and talks with European and U.S. leaders.
But he said the overall effort remains "under-resourced" and
uncoordinated. "I think there is a growing recognition that it
is urgent," Eide said. "We all see that if we don't bring a basis of
good government and rule of law" to Afghanistan, progress on the
military and development front will be unsustainable, he said. The post Eide took over last month had been vacant since the end of last year. Afghan President Hamid Karzai rejected Paddy Ashdown
-- the British politician initially selected for the job of
coordinating among international military and civilian activities and
the Afghan government -- on the grounds that he would exercise too much
influence over Kabul's decision-making. In an interview, and in a speech here yesterday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Eide emphasized the need to let Afghans make their own decisions. "I profoundly believe that it is their country and they know it better than we ever will," he said. While
there has been progress in health and education services, he said,
police training, government capacity-building and agriculture still
need more resources. Efforts by individual donors duplicate
each other or overlap, and too many aid projects are tied to purchases
and decision-making in the West. U.S. and NATO forces have scored tactical victories against a resurgent Taliban but have failed to prevent the Pakistan-based extremists from expanding their hold over rural areas. Opium
poppy cultivation, which finances both the Taliban and corrupt Afghan
officials, has increased in some areas as violence and drought have
diminished food supplies. Security in many areas remains
problematic, even without major combat; Karzai himself narrowly escaped
a Taliban attack in Kabul on Sunday that killed three people. The
Bush administration has made little headway in persuading NATO
governments to increase the number of combat troops they contribute to
the international force in Afghanistan. Eide, while agreeing
that security must be improved, said he also expects donor governments
to expand and make better use of economic and development assistance,
and better coordinate their efforts in line with an Afghan development
plan that is to be presented at an international conference in Paris in
June. Despite its long skepticism of U.N. involvement in both Iraq
and Afghanistan, the Bush administration has become eager in recent
years to increase the international profile in both countries. Eide's Washington visit has been given high priority, including a daytime meeting and dinner with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday and a White House visit with President Bush today. "It is a tough job," Rice said of Eide's mission. "We understand that."
| | Posted by alfred at 9:30 AM - | |
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Month's Toll of 44 Americans Is Highest Since September  SLIDESHOW An
Iraqi Army soldier uses a flashlight to signal cars to turn off their
headlights as a sandstorm envelops central Baghdad, Iraq on Sunday,
April 27, 2008. Militants fired a salvo of rockets or mortars at the
heavily guarded Green Zone on Sunday, apparently were taking advantage
of a sandstorm that blanketed the Iraqi capital Sunday and grounded
U.S. helicopters and drones that normally track their activities. (AP
Photo/Khalid Mohammed) (Khalid Mohammed - AP)
An
Iraqi man peers into a minibus where four children were wounded in
clashes between the Mahdi Army and U.S. and Iraqi troops in
Southwestern Baghdad, Iraq on Sunday, April 27, 2008. Police said two
people were killed and 12 wounded during the fighting. (AP Photo/Loay
Hameed) (Loay Hameed - AP)
In
this image released by the Iraqi government, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki, right, meets with Tariq al-Hashemi, left, in Baghdad, Iraq
on Sunday, April 27, 2008. Al-Maliki met Sunday with the Sunni vice
president to discuss reintegrating Sunni political parties into his
Shiite-dominated government as five people died in clashes and a
suicide car bombing in Baghdad, police said. The meeting between Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Tariq al-Hashemi came a day after the
Sunni leader described the return of his boycotting political bloc, the
National Accordance Front, to the Cabinet as a priority. (AP
Photo/Iraqi Government) (Iraqi Government - AP)
 Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; Page A10
BAGHDAD, April 28 -- Four U.S. soldiers were killed in two rocket
attacks in Baghdad on Monday as clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi
forces and Shiite militiamen intensified, the military said. Three soldiers were killed about 1 p.m. in eastern Baghdad, where fighters loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have battled U.S. and Iraqi troops. The fourth American soldier was killed at 4:15 p.m. in the western part of the capital, a U.S. military spokesman said. The military provided few other details about the attacks. The deaths marked one of the deadliest days for U.S. troops in Iraq since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
launched an offensive against Shiite militias in the southern city of
Basra in late March, prompting retaliation there and in the vast Shiite
district of Sadr City in Baghdad. Forty-four U.S. troops have died in
Iraq in April, according to iCasualties.org, which tracks military
fatalities, more than any month since September. Also Monday,
militiamen launched a mortar and rocket attack against a combat outpost
in Sadr City shortly after several top military officials, including
Brig. Gen. William F. Grimsley, had visited. Fifteen U.S. soldiers were
injured in the attack, none seriously, said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a
U.S. military spokesman. "We will continue fighting to get a
safe environment and neighborhood for the citizens of Sadr City,"
Grimsley told reporters during his visit to the outpost. Elsewhere,
U.S. soldiers aboard helicopters and an Abrams tank killed at least
seven people in eastern Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said. U.S.
soldiers came under small-arms attack shortly after 3 p.m. and
responded by firing a Hellfire missile, which killed at least four
people, and a round from an Abrams tank that killed three additional
people, the military said. "I don't know what's going through
the enemy's mind when they're firing at Abrams tanks," Stover said.
"The soldiers have a right to protect themselves." U.S.
officials say they are fighting bands of Iranian-backed militias that
are ignoring a cease-fire order issued by Sadr last year. The cleric
has in recent weeks issued statements saying his followers are being
indiscriminately targeted by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. He has
threatened to wage an "open war" and assailed the presence of U.S.
troops in Iraq, but has stopped short of lifting the cease-fire
outright. Meanwhile, rockets continued to strike the Green Zone
on Monday, a day after the fortified enclave that houses U.S. diplomats
and Iraqi government officials was pummeled as rocket launchers took
advantage of a heavy dust storm that grounded U.S. military
helicopters. Leslie Phillips, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad,
said the Green Zone was struck by an undisclosed amount of rocket or
mortar fire Monday. She said she had no reports of embassy personnel
being killed or wounded in the attacks. Also Monday, U.S.
soldiers said they killed 10 suspected Sunni insurgents in five
operations near Baghdad, the military said in a statement. The
clashes in Sadr City, which is home to nearly 3 million people, have
exposed residents to nearly daily fighting, sharply limited their
mobility and made food and medical supplies scarce, according to aid
organizations. President Jalal Talabani
met Monday with the speaker of the Iraqi parliament and political
leaders of Sadr's movement to discuss the situation, the president's
office said in a statement. The politicians are trying to alleviate the
humanitarian crisis in Sadr City, where hundreds of people have been
killed in recent months, the statement said. On Sunday clashes
in the densely populated part of the capital killed at least 38 people,
the military said. U.S. troops used Abrams tanks Sunday to fend off at
least three attacks, the military said Monday. That clash
started after 6 p.m. in northeastern Baghdad when Iraqi soldiers
manning a checkpoint came under small-arms fire, the U.S. military said
in a statement. U.S. soldiers on Abrams tanks fired back with 120mm rounds and rifles, killing at least 22 people, the military said. Shortly
before that confrontation, soldiers on foot in northeastern Baghdad
were attacked with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Seven
of the suspected attackers were killed when U.S. soldiers struck back
from a tank, the military said. About 3 p.m. Sunday, the U.S.
soldiers on a tank killed a suspected militiaman after the soldiers
were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, the military said. Eight
other people the military described in statements as "criminals" and
"evildoers" were killed Sunday in an airstrike and clashes on the
ground, the military said. One of those clashes occurred at 3:15 p.m.
when a U.S. combat outpost came under small-arms fire. Staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Washington and special correspondent Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad contributed to this report.
| | Posted by alfred at 9:22 AM - | |
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Gallery Two Iraq veterans are studying art while recuperating from serious injuries.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; Page A01
Private donors are trying to help, too: B.G. and Charlotte Beck of
Fairfax Station gave $1 million to Arkansas State University to provide
training, rehabilitation, guidance and extensive support for veterans
on campus. In June, the American Council on Education
will host a conference hoping to spur colleges to start or expand
initiatives for veterans. Dartmouth College President James Wright said
he realized after visiting wounded soldiers that most of them were
eager to go to school but had no idea where to begin. He worked with
the education council, raising money to pay for a counselor at four
military hospitals. So this past year, Heather Bernard, a
former college counselor with a son serving in Iraq, has been working
with wounded soldiers and Marines at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center. She helps them plan ahead, choose schools, dig up old transcripts, prepare for standardized tests.
She found an evening art class for Calvin Linnette and Andre Knight,
two soldiers who have to schedule around daytime medical appointments,
at Montgomery College because it is close enough to Walter Reed that they can get there despite their injuries. The professor often helps them with a ride.
This month, Bernard was waiting nervously outside the admissions dean's
office at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, where Toews was
interviewing. High school was easy; Toews got good grades and
SAT scores and was accepted into the engineering program at California
Polytechnic State University. But his family couldn't afford tuition.
About a year after Sept. 11, 2001, he enlisted. He spent a year in Baghdad, then volunteered to serve in Afghanistan. In
2006, he was a gunner for a small convoy, bringing supplies for an
offensive when the trucks slowed down in rough terrain and "all hell
broke loose," Toews said. Two weeks later, he woke up in a
hospital bed in Bethesda with no idea where he was or why. He spent the
next couple of years getting surgeries and rehab. As people at
Walter Reed kept telling him how amazing his recovery has been, it hit
him: He could work with brain-injured patients. "If I could somehow
help one guy, encourage him or make things easier for him and his
family, that I should do it," Toews said. He still had a lot
to figure out; that could mean studying neuroscience or social work or
occupational therapy. And to write a college application essay? "It's
been six years since I've done that kind of thing," he said. Bernard
coached him through it all, taking him to visit a big university and
then to Dickinson. He talked with the admissions director about some of
the challenges he might face, such as the phys ed requirement and a
taking on a heavy course load after being out of school. A
freshman asked him what he had done in his time off since high school.
"I joined the military," he said, skin grafts shining on his forearm,
thick scars from a craniotomy tracing arcs on his skull, visible
through his hair. "Oh, that's cool," she said politely. He
and Bernard got lunch in the cafeteria, and he looked at the students
swarming through. "They're all such . . . little . . . kids," he said.
| | Posted by alfred at 9:14 AM - | |
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Sunday April 27, 2008
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer Sun Apr 27, 6:42 PM ET WASHINGTON - Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq
reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive
delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects
that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete,
federal investigators say. The audit released Sunday by Stuart
Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction,
provides the latest snapshot of an uneven reconstruction effort that
has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion. It also comes as
several lawmakers have said they want the Iraqis to pick up more of the
cost of reconstruction. The special IG's review of 47,321
reconstruction projects worth billions of dollars found that at least
855 contracts were terminated by U.S. officials before their
completion, primarily because of unforeseen factors such as violence
and excessive costs. About 112 of those agreements were ended
specifically because of the contractors' actual or anticipated poor
performance. In addition, the audit said many reconstruction
projects were being described as complete or otherwise successful when
they were not. In one case, the U.S. Agency for International
Development contracted with Bechtel Corp.
in 2004 to construct a $50 million children's hospital in Basra, only
to "essentially terminate" the project in 2006 because of monthslong
delays. But rather than terminate the project, U.S. officials
modified the contract to change the scope of the work. As a result, a
U.S. database of Iraq reconstruction contracts shows the project as
complete "when in fact the hospital was only 35 percent complete when
work was stopped," said investigators in describing the practice of
"descoping" as frequent. "Descoping is an appropriate process but does mask problem projects to the extent they occur," the audit states. Responding,
USAID in the report said it disagreed that its descoping of the
hospital project was "effectively a contract termination," but that it
had changed the work because of escalating costs and security problems.
Mark Tokola, the director of the Iraq transition assistance office, also responded that the database the IG's office reviewed of Iraq reconstruction contracts was incomplete. Bowen's
office said its review was preliminary and that it planned follow-up
reviews to investigate descoping more closely. Investigators said they
were also looking into whether contractors whose projects were
terminated by the U.S. government due to inadequate performance might
have been awarded new contracts later despite their poor records. Investigators
said the database they reviewed lacked full data on projects such as
those done by USAID, the State Department, and those completed before
2006. But they said the figures cited in the report offered a baseline
in terms of unfinished Iraq reconstruction contracts. "Adding
contract terminations from these (other) sources would certainly raise
the number of terminated projects," the report states. The audit
comes amid renewed focus in recent months on potential abuse in
contracting government-wide, such as Iraq reconstruction. Last year,
congressional investigators said as much as $10 billion — or one in six
dollars — charged by U.S. contractors for Iraq reconstruction were
questionable or unsupported, and warned that significantly more
taxpayer money was at risk. In recent weeks, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has been working with Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Susan Collins,
R-Maine, on legislation that would restrict future reconstruction
dollars to loans instead of grants; require that Baghdad pay for fuel
used by American troops and take over U.S. payments to predominantly
Sunni fighters in the Awakening movement. Danielle Brian,
executive director of the watchdog group Project on Government
Oversight, said the latest audit report points to significant U.S.
taxpayer waste in current reconstruction efforts. "The report
paints a depressing picture of money being poured into failed Iraq
reconstruction projects — contractors are killed, projects are blown up
just before being completed, or the contractor just stops doing the
work," she said.
| | Posted by alfred at 10:45 PM - | |
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