On Bill Clinton’s watch…

On Bill Clinton’s watch…

 From the New York Times

 
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999

 
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the  New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates — anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.
”Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990’s by reducing down payment requirements,” said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae’s chairman and chief executive officer. ”Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.”
Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.
”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”
Under Fannie Mae’s pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 — a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.
Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.
Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.
Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990’s. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to  Harvard  University ‘s  Joint  Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.
In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.
Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.
In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.
The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systemsused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

For the Birds: The How and Why of Migration

by Matt Soniak

Around this time of year, I always have to take a break from pumpkin planning (I’m making a giant squid this time around) and marvel at bird migration. How do they find their way around the world without Google Maps? We’re not really sure, but research has given us evidence that they use an array of navigation techniques…

1. Migratory reflex and navigational skills appear to be written in the genes. Captive birds have been observed getting pretty fidgety and changing their sleep patterns right before their natural migration time. Ethologists – those who study animal behavior – call the birds’ behavior zugunruhe (“migratory restlessness”). Captive birds display zugunruhe even if they’re not exposed to natural light or to seasonal temperature changes. Even with the restlessness, many of these birds will orient themselves in the direction that they would normally be traveling at that time of year. Researchers say that the fact that the birds know both when and where to migrate without environmental clues suggests that genes, and a biological calendar written into them, play a role in migration.

2. Genes are all well and good to get them started, but how do birds navigate once they get up in the air? The prevailing theory is that the earth’s magnetic field plays a large part. Over the last few years, scientists have discovered tiny bits of magnetite – a magnetic mineral – in the brains of several animal species, including birds, bats, whales and dolphins. The magnetite could enable the animals to use the earth’s magnetic fields as a migration guide, but the research is just scratching the surface. Now that we know that birds and other animals could detect magnetic fields and have explored the mechanisms by which they could do it, further research will need to tackle the question of how the animals gather information from the magnetic field, process it and use it to navigate.

3. A particularly cool study showed that migratory birds also use “celestial navigation” to find their way around in the dark. Captive birds placed in a planetarium changed their directional orientation when the star pattern on the ceiling shifted and became confused when the images of stars were dimmed. The scientists conducting the experiment suggest that birds use the layout of constellations in the sky as a compass.

But why migrate in the first place? And why do birds bother flying back north once they’ve reached a warmer locale? The same reason I have to pull myself away from writing and go to the bodega on the corner: the search for food. While birds might be hard-wired to migrate at certain times of the year, a recent study concluded birds won’t make the trip without certain physiological and environmental cues, the most important being the scarcity of food. Birds fly south in the winter in search of alternate food sources, and even though their summer home might be nicer, they return home in the spring when their usual food stocks are replenished. If there’s still food to be had at either place, though, some birds will delay migration or won’t bother leaving at all, choosing instead to band together in flocks to forage.

Real stuff I couldn’t have made up

Sometimes, the truth is more bizzarre than fiction:

Emmitt Speaks

Emmitt Smith said on Sunday ESPN football that Terrell Owens is not a true Cowboy. Apparently, what Smith meant, we think, is that Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and he were drafted by the Cowboys. I guess that makes you a “true Cowboy.”

We think Emmitt should continue working on his vocabulary, pronunciation, and relationship with fans.

The Road Warrior: Trinity Railway Express adding trains

Watch for Trinity Railway Express schedule changes beginning Oct. 6. Rush-hour and evening trains will be added on the popular Fort Worth-to-Dallas line.

New Dallas-bound train

Leaves CentrePort 4:35 p.m. weekdays and arrives at Union Station at 5:05. With the addition, there will be 26 eastbound trains Monday through Friday.

New trains to Fort Worth

Leaves CentrePort at 5:22 a.m. weekdays. Arrives at Intermodal Transportation Center at 5:54.

Leaves Union Station at 7:15 a.m. weekdays. Arrives at CentrePort at 7:45.

Leaves Union Station at 11:45 p.m. weekdays. Arrives at CentrePort at 12:15 a.m.

With the additions, there will be 27 westbound trains weekdays.

Also

Saturday service will be added to improve Fort Worth bus connections — for a total of 12 westbound and 11 eastbound Saturday trains — including a new train that leaves CentrePort at 7:25 a.m. and gets to the Intermodal Transportation Center at 7:56 a.m. Another train leaves Union Station at 11:45 p.m. and gets to CentrePort at 12:16 a.m.

The TRE doesn’t operate Sundays.

Online: trinityrailwayexpress.org

California: Epilog

I’ve been trying in some small degree, to give you an overview of what a great week that my training class was in Ontario California. I have finally uploaded all of the pics and videos so perhaps now this might appear a little bit more in detail what a super week it was.

I will tell you that our instructors were top notch. Our “Jewish Mom” Dawn, Linda from Little Elm, Texas and Tina were just incredible. They absolutely made this entire week a memorable one. I won’t go into specifics here, but I gotta tell you, Dawn is such an inspiration personally to me. What a class act she is. Thanks to all of our instuctors as this was a pretty large class by average standards.

And then there were the classmates:

Some really good people that were inspirational and interesting to me. I was fortunate to be able to mix with the “younger” generations. It was beneficial for me to see how people think now and I learned a great deal from this experience.

Each morning began with a little music to wake us up and get us going. Little did I realize how much this started a team concept sort of thing.

And without going into the technical details of the training, please know it was a refreshing experience, and one I hope my team members remember as much as I will.

 

What started out in the beginning of class as a bunch of misaligned misfits from all parts of North America, became a close-knit family by Friday.

And then before we knew it, it was time to go home.

Good luck guys…I’m gonna miss ya’ll.

The 20 All-Time Best ESPN GameDay Signs

It all began 15 years ago.

Back in 1993, ESPN took it’s College GameDay show on the road and the rest is history. The very first road show was held at the Game of the Century, Notre Dame vs. Florida State in South Bend. Corso picked FSU and, of course, Notre Dame won.

What has happened since is the transformation of college football into a billion dollar industry.

In honor of the 15th anniversary, Busted Coverage has compiled the “20 All-Time Greatest College GameDay Signs.”

Story

Mug Shot Montage

This guy has been arrested 1,332 times in the same town in Kentucky.  Of course, with arrests come mug shots, and what’s the point of having 1,332 mug shots of the same dude unless you’re going to create a montage out of it?  For those of you who are still looking for a hero, I’d like you to meet Henry Earl:

Edwin Baptiste Best Catch Ever? Video

Edwin Baptiste Best Catch Ever? Video. Edwin Baptiste from Morgan State made one of the best Football Catches ever. You be the judge. That reach back is the best I have ever seen. I know that for sure.

Remembering Paul Newman 1925 – 2008

Rest in peace Paul Newman.

Mention Paul Newman, and a rush of unforgettable film scenes come to mind.

Such as when his prison-camp rebel gorges on those 50 hard-boiled eggs after being challenged in Cool Hand Luke.

Or that early morning bike ride, where his grinning bandit charms Katherine Ross out of Robert Redford’s bed as if he were a bowler-hatted knight on a rickety steed in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Or when his enraged alcoholic lawyer in The Verdict slugs his cold-hearted lover Charlotte Rampling after learning of her deceit — an act only someone like Newman could commit and be cheered for by audiences.