Wells Fargo Pushed Risky Loans on Hispanics and Other Minority Borrowers

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Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES

The Chicago area’s Cook County has filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo & Co., accusing the nation’s biggest mortgage lender of subjecting Hispanic and African American borrowers to discriminatory and predatory lending practices.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in damages are allegedly involved.

According to the suit, Wells Fargo purposely issued out these high-risk loans to minority borrowers because most of them did not qualify for traditional loans.

The lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in Chicago, contends that Wells Fargo engaged in the practice known as “equity stripping,” which involves imposing inflated or unneeded rates and fees, plus penalties to refinance. That practice, alleged to have taken place for much of the past decade, may involve up to 26,000 loans and compensatory damages that could top $300 million, according to the lawsuit.

“Equity stripping is an abusive form of ‘asset-based lending’ that maximizes lender profits based on the value of the underlying asset and onerous loan terms, while in disregard for a borrower’s ability to repay,” the lawsuit alleges.

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House Passes Symbolic Measure to 'Block' Obama's Executive Amnesty

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

By Guy Benson.

It’s symbolic because it’s dead on arrival in Harry Reid’s Senate (a formulation that will meet its glorious expiration date in a few weeks), and because President Obama has already issued a veto threat if Reid and company accidentally passed the thing. Congressional Republicans, and some Democrats, believe that Obama lacks the authority to impose his amnesty fiat. Obama disagrees, naturally — although his stance on that question was both adamant and completely different not too long ago. Barack Obama’s legal constraints depend on Barack Obama’s political needs. Regardless, this afternoon’s vote was little more than an on-the-record ‘sense of the House’ rebuke:

A small handful of partisans on each side broke with their parties; conservative Democrats, and a number of Republicans from heavily Hispanic districts. The narrative that this vote was at its core about immigration, rather than preserving the Constitutional order, was too powerful for some to resist, evidently. Which helps explain why the White House has zero problem flouting the law and pushing executive power as far as its has: Republicans have few viable retaliatory options, and the separation of powers issue at stake is easily sidetracked and demagogued as just more proof that the GOP hates brown people, or whatever. So long as the public loathes the idea of a shutdown, and so long as that same public is primed to reflexively blame Republicans for any shutdown, the GOP is basically cornered. They and their base don’t want to allow Obama’s power grab to go unchallenged, but many of the tools at their disposal aren’t politically attractive or practical. Hence the White House’s extraordinary arrogance.

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SOWELL: ‘PSYCHIATRIST’ NEEDED TO EXPLAIN GOP WANTING MORE FOREIGN WORKERS

By Breitbart TV.

Thomas Sowell, author of “Basic Economics,” argued that increasing the number of foreign workers in the US “will keep down the wages of American workers” and that “you would have to get a psychiatrist” to explain the GOP’s support for increased foreign labor on Thursday’s “Laura Ingraham Show.”

“The competition will keep down the wages of American workers, I mean, this is not a new principle. I mean this has been known for hundreds of years,” he stated.

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Senate Conservatives Huddle With House Members to Plot Immigration Revolt

By Joel Gehrke.

A trio of senators crossed the Capitol last night to discuss the congressional response to President Obama’s recent executive orders on immigration. The consensus: Republican leadership doesn’t want to fight Obama, so the lawmakers have to hope that grassroots activists can goad their colleagues into a more aggressive posture.

“I hope that the American people will speak up and share their views with Congress and good strong language will come out of the House,” Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) told NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE Thursday afternoon.

Sessions demurred when asked about coordination with House colleagues — “all of us are curious about what they’re doing,” he said — but multiple sources tell NROthat Sessions, Senator David Vitter (R., La.), and Senator Mike Lee (R., Utah) met with a group of House members last night in the office of Arizona representative Matt Salmon. Vitter also organized a conference call with some House Republicans Wednesday afternoon. The purpose of the two encounters, which happened on the same day that Texas senator Ted Cruz met with Iowa representative Steve King, was to emphasize that “the first bill that you guys do was really our best and only chance,” according to one Senate aide; the Senate hawks won’t be able to instigate a fight if the House passes a bill that provides long-term funding for the entire government.

In the evening meeting, the lawmakers compared notes about their distrust for Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and House speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio)

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‘This Isn’t Education, It’s Indoctrination’: Notre Dame Offers Seminar On White Privilege

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Screen-Shot-2014-06-12-at-3.11.33-PM-e1417730659266The University of Notre Dame is offering a one hour credit seminar discussing the critical issue of white privilege. The class is being offered in the spring semester of 2015.

In the course registrar, the course is listed as Sociology 25280 and is named “White Privilege Seminar.” The course will meet eight times next semester for two hours each time. The course description goes into more detail as to the logistics of the class. “This six-week preparatory class is designed to educate and train White Privilege Conference delegation participants on the definitions of, historical/current paradigm of, and causes/effects of white privilege.”

Along with the training seminar, students will be required to attend the White Privilege Conference after the training class from March 8-14. The course description’s claims the main objective for each student is “personal transformation: to leave the class and conference more aware of injustices and better equipped with tools to disrupt personal, institutional, and worldwide systems of oppression.”

Campus activist Mark Gianfalla found the class to be ridiculous, “The problem I see with this course is that it is teaching a flawed and inherently racist sociological theory as fact,” Gianfalla told The Daily Caller. “This isn’t education, it’s indoctrination. Where is the required counterpoint course on affirmative action? It does not exist because that idea does not fit with the social and racial agenda of the professor,” he continued.

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Reports: Obama Mulling Sanctions on Israel

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Obama administration is refusing to discuss reports that emerged early Thursday claiming that the White House is considering imposing sanctions on Israel for continuing construction on Jewish homes in Jerusalem.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dodged several questions on Thursday when confronted with reports that the administration had held secret internal meetings to discuss taking action against Israel for its ongoing building in East Jerusalem.

The classified meetings were reportedly held several weeks ago and included officials from both the State Department and White House, according to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, which first reported on the meetings.

The possibility of sanctioning Israel for its ongoing construction sends a signal that the Obama administration is willing to go further in its denunciations of Israel then any previous White House.

At the same time, the White House is vigorously pushing Congress against passing new sanctions on Iran.

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'Game We Can’t Win': Coal States Brace for Growing Number of Plant Closures Over EPA Rules

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dcl_coal_120314The energy industry and coal-producing states are projecting a wave of power plant closures in the final two years of the Obama administration as Environmental Protection Agency regulations take hold.

The goal of the agency’s campaign is to cut down on carbon pollution. However, industry groups and agencies say the EPA’s demands are simply too difficult to meet and will lead to powering down many facilities — eliminating hundreds of jobs and hurting cash-strapped state economies.

“It’s a game we can’t win,” Alan Minier, chairman of the Wyoming Public Service Commission, told FoxNews.com.

The number of projected closures has steadily risen. Though estimates vary,according to the Institute for Energy Research a total of 37 states including Wyoming are seeing closures. The group lists nearly 170 plants that have closed or are closing, or are being converted to other purposes.

IER cites a handful of existing EPA regulations, as well as a major proposal to cut emissions from existing power plants. That calls for cutting emissions nationally by 30 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. The plan assumes emissions can be curbed through remedial action in four general areas: improved efficiency of coal plants, enhanced energy conservation measures, increased natural gas and renewable power generation.

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Satanic Temple Approved For Capitol Holiday Display

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Photo Credit: Satanic Temple

Photo Credit: Satanic Temple

Florida’s Capitol will have a new holiday decoration this year. The Satanic Temple will be among its nativity scenes and secular presentations.

It’s for Festivus, a non-commercial festival “for the rest of us,” is close to coming back as a 6-foot stack of empty beer cans.

The Florida Department of Management Services this week approved the proposed holiday display from the Satanic Temple, which a year ago was rejected because the agency said its proposal was “grossly offensive.”
The temple’s entry was one of five displays that got approval to be put up in the first-floor rotunda of the Capitol for the end-of-year holiday period.

Two additional requested displays, including one to mark the sitcom-created Festivus holiday, are pending final approval.

The state agency offered no explanation with its approval of the displays.

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'A Well-Understood Agreement': Top GOP Leader Promises Total Amnesty In 2015

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

House Speaker John Boehner’s top committee chairman says he wants an immigration bill that would allow millions of foreign migrants to stay and work jobs sought by Americans.

“I’m going to use my assets and resources in the new year to work with this Congress… to have a well-understood agreement about what the law should be, and how we as communities, and farm communities, and tech communities, create circumstances where we can have people be in this country and work, and where not one person is quote ‘thrown out’ or ‘deported,’” said Rep. Pete Sessions, the chairman of the powerful House rules committee, told a group of Democratic legislators.

The committee has the power to kill or boost members’ bills because it decides how each bill will be considered in floor votes.’

Sessions’ promise of de-facto amnesty to Democrats was welcomed by Chicago Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who frequently describes unauthorized migrants as members of his community.

“My heart was filled with a lot of joy when you said that people who are working here, who don’t present a danger, basically should be set aside, that those aren’t the people we should be going after,” said Gutierrrez, four hours and 16 minutes into the hearing.

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DEA Agents Fooled for 20 Years by Ponzi Schemer Paid with Taxpayer Funds

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Photo Credit: iStock Photo

Photo Credit: iStock Photo

A con artist fooled more than 100 Drug Enforcement Administration employees into investing in a Ponzi scheme for almost two decades.

Kenneth “Wayne” McLeod ran a company called Federal Employees Benefit Group, and the DEA hired him to give at least 130 “seminars” for members of its workforce. He marketed an investment opportunity for 8 to 10 percent returns in tax-free income.

“DEA officials permitted McLeod to promote himself and his businesses in DEA facilities, and using DEA official channels,” according to the Department of Justice inspector general.

At least some DEA agents at the seminars questioned McLeod’s financial advice and stopped using him for a time, but the seminars soon returned after McLeod donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the DEA Survivors Benefit Fund. At one DEA conference, he presented an over-sized $20,000 check to the charity.

“We believe that this enhanced McLeod’s ability to gain and maintain access to the DEA,” investigators wrote.

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Bill to Stop Nazi Benefit Payments Heads to Obama

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Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A bill that would block suspected Nazi war criminals from receiving Social Security benefits is heading to President Barack Obama for his signature.

By voice vote late Thursday, the Senate gave final congressional approval to a measure that would shut a loophole that allowed suspected Nazis to be paid millions of dollars in benefits, clearing it for the White House. Under the bill, benefits would be terminated for Nazi suspects who have lost their American citizenship, a step called denaturalization. U.S. law currently requires a higher threshold — a final order of deportation — before Social Security benefits can be stopped.

The legislation was introduced after an Associated Press investigation published in October revealed that Social Security benefits have been paid to dozens of former Nazis after they were forced out of the United States.

The House unanimously approved the bill on Tuesday on a 420-0 vote.

The White House and the Social Security Administration signaled support for denying benefits to former Nazis following the AP’s report. The Justice Department said it was open to considering proposals that would terminate the Social Security payments.

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Navy: Women Secretly Filmed in Shower Aboard Sub

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Photo Credit: MC1 Rex Nelson / Navy

Photo Credit: MC1 Rex Nelson / Navy

Some of the first female sailors to serve on Navy submarines were secretly recorded while they undressed.

The women were recorded aboard the ballistic missile submarine Wyoming, Gold crew, which is home ported in Kings Bay, Georgia. Navy officials are investigating an unidentified 24-year-old male who is accused of making and distributing the videos, according to a Nov. 14 incident report circulated among the service’s most senior leaders. The sailor was identified only by his rank: second class petty officer.

The videos are believed to show at least three female officers while showering or undressed that were recorded over more than a year, according to a source who has spoken to one of the alleged victims.

It amounts to a huge scandal for a community that has prided itself on an otherwise smooth integration effort, begun four years ago when women first entered submarine training. And it comes as the Navy moves towards its next milestones, integrating Virginia-class attack subs and then the enlisted submarine ranks.

A ballistic missile sub typically has 15 officers and 140 enlisted on board, with unisex heads in “officer country.” When a woman is using the shower, for example, she puts up a sign to indicate the head is in use by a female officer and men must wait to enter until it’s unoccupied.

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Reports of sexual assaults in the military up by 8 percent

By Charles Hoskinson.

The number of reported sexual assaults in the military rose 8 percent in the past year, which the Pentagon said is a sign of significant progress but is likely to increase pressure for changes in how the cases are handled.

There were 5,983 cases reported in fiscal 2014, up from 5,518 in the previous year, according to a study released Thursday.

Pentagon officials attributed the increase to greater efforts to encourage victims to come forward, prevent retaliation and make prosecutions more victim-friendly.

“In this particular crime, an increase in reporting is a good thing,” said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Snow, head of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault and Prevention Response Office.

“The Department of Defense has been taking aggressive action over the past year and a half to stop sexual assault,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said. “We believe that our efforts to prevent sexual assault are beginning to have an impact.”

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