“What happens often is that after a foreclosure, a broker or an agent comes to the house and, as though the law didn’t exist, tells renters the house has been foreclosed and they have to leave,” says Judith Liben, senior housing attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.

The law Liben is referencing is the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, passed in spring last year and intended to remain on the books until 2012. It was intended to mitigate the collateral damage from the foreclosure epidemic by making banks give tenants on month-to-month leases 90 days notice before evicting them following the home owners’ foreclosure; and by ensuring that tenants in good standing with year, or multi-year, leases couldn’t be evicted mid-lease following a foreclosure. The new owners would, according to this act, have to honour the terms of the lease, keep up repairs on the property, and repay the tenants’ security deposits upon completion of the lease.

Housing advocates cheered the law as representing a signal victory for struggling tenants in an increasingly brutal real estate environment. In the months since it was passed, however, many have concluded that in practice it is a largely toothless wonder: most tenants don’t know about its existence, many banks – desperate to evict tenants living in foreclosed homes so that they can more easily sell the properties – have continued sending out illegal eviction notices; some even hire bailiffs to change the locks and to throw possessions out onto the street. And the federal government has no real mechanisms to enforce the act’s provisions.

It is not uncommon for tenants in these situations to come home and find intimidating, anonymous, and legally misleading, posters stuck to their doors. One such starts with “Attention!! This property has been foreclosed and is now bank-owned. The eviction process has started. The property is being monitored.” The words are in bold and the text is circled for emphasis. Another begins: “To whom it may concern: We were informed this property was vacant. We have changed the locks.” Another resorts to financial intimidation: “The eviction process has been started by the bank. It is in your best interest to avoid having an eviction added to your credit report. It is very difficult to rent a property with an eviction on your credit report.”

readmore

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/06/housing-us-subprime-renting-tenants

Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 6, 2010; 11:11 AM

BAGHDAD — The Pentagon has acknowledged that an American contractor for the Defense Department is missing in Baghdad, an apparent confirmation of a Shiite militant group’s claim this week that it abducted an American in Baghdad last month.

The case marks the first reported kidnapping of an American citizen in Iraq in more than 18 months.

The Pentagon said in a statement that contractor Issa T. Salomi, 60, of El Cajon, Calif., has been missing since Jan. 23. He was last seen in Baghdad, where he worked alongside U.S. soldiers. Salomi’s wife, Muna, confirmed that the man in the video is her husband.

Salomi was abducted in Karrada, an upscale neighborhood in central Baghdad, after militants tricked him under the pretense of meeting with distant relatives, the Associated Press reported, citing Iraqi defense officials. The AP said Salomi is of Iraqi origin.

The League of the Righteous, a militant group that has kidnapped Westerners in Iraq in the past, posted a statement and video on its Web site showing the hostage. The statement demanded the release of militants who have fought U.S. forces.

The Pentagon said in a statement that “search and recovery efforts are ongoing” but disclosed no additional information.

readmore http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/06/AR2010020600752.html

By Daphne Benoit (AFP) – 5 hours ago

ANKARA — US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said on Saturday he doubted a deal to send some of Iran’s uranium abroad for enrichment was close, directly contradicting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

The latest spat comes amid Western powers’ growing impatience with Iran over what they say is a failure to respond clearly to the enrichment proposal, amid suspicions the Islamic republic is trying to acquire a nuclear bomb.

“I don’t have the sense we are close to an agreement,” Gates told reporters in Ankara, the day after Mottaki said that Tehran was “serious” about sending some uranium abroad for enrichment and that a final deal was near.

“If Iran has decided to accept the proposal of the P5-plus-one, they should do that to the IAEA”, (the International Atomic Energy Agency), he added, referring to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany.

Mottaki told the Munich Security Conference that “with regard to discussions with the different parties, I personally believe that we have created conducive ground for such an exchange in the not very distant future.”

“Under the present conditions that we have reached, I think that we are approaching a final agreement that can be accepted by all parties.”

He added that Iran “has shown it is serious about doing this, and we have shown it at the highest level,” referring to remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Tehran would have “no problem” with the proposal.

However, Western powers have suspected a delaying tactic to avert a fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran and have urged Ahmadinejad to send a formal response to the IAEA.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, also at the Munich Security Conference, said that Iran needed to respond directly to UN atomic agency in order to “build badly needed confidence.”

“Iran must now respond to the director general of the IAEA… There is a proposal on the table, a creative attempt to build confidence with Iran, on a practical cooperation in the nuclear area.”

Iran needs nuclear fuel to power its UN-monitored reactor but the West fears its uranium enrichment programme is masking efforts to produce atomic weapons — claims vehemently denied by the Islamic republic.

In a bid to allay Western concerns, the IAEA made a proposal from the P5-plus-one group of countries that Tehran ship out its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France to be further purified into reactor fuel.

read more http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jmoNgN5sBEBPtZCoYNUWvgHTkaJw

Postal delivery was suspended Saturday for Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., Southern Maryland, and Suburban Maryland, MyFoxDC.com reported.

Patrick Murphy, spokesperson for the Postal Service for Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., made the announcement early Saturday morning as a blizzard continued to batter the Mid-Atlantic region.

Several thousand people in West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania had lost electricity and more outages were expected as the snow began to bring down power lines. Authorities blamed the storm for hundreds of accidents. Some area hospitals asked people with four-wheel-drive vehicles to volunteer to pick up doctors and nurses to take them to work.

The snow comes less than two months after a Dec. 19 storm dumped more than 16 inches on Washington. Snowfalls of this magnitude — let alone two in one season — are rare in the area.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
from http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2010/02/06/postal-service-suspended-mid-atlantic-areas-hit-storm/

The latest congressional budget estimates out Tuesday predict a $1.35 trillion deficit for this year as the economy continues to slowly recover from the recession.

President Barack Obama announces economic initiatives for struggling middle class families, Monday, Jan. 25, 2010, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across from the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

(AP)

The Congressional Budget Office report predicts a sluggish economic recovery and continued high deficits that present twin political problems for President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies.

The report sees a slow rebound of the economy, with unemployment averaging 10.1 percent this year as the economy grows by just over 2 percent. It would grow only slightly more next year with an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent.

readmore..http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9661795

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