- Treasury Promises First-Ever Release of Loan Modification Records – The Bay Citizen
- At the end of this month, for the first time ever, the U.S. Treasury plans to release to the public a treasure trove of demographic information on people who have received loan modifications. That is, if the government releases the information as promised — information that has a critical impact on policies that prevent home foreclosures.
So far, the Treasury has stalled on making this key information available, despite requests by housing and consumer advocacy groups and media organizations, including New America Media, under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Loan modifications are changes made to the terms of a home loan and could include such things as being granted a different interest rate, a principal reduction or a decrease in how often the loan payments must be made.
none
- Utility Reform May Be on the Horizon – The Bay Citizen
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company could be policed by new sheriffs by the middle of this week.
Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to appoint at least one new member of the five-person California Public Utilities Commission, which currently has three vacancies, on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The CPUC, which is responsible for regulating power companies including PG&E, has long been criticized for being overly friendly to the energy industry. Those criticisms reached a fever pitch in the wake of the deadly Sept. 9 San Bruno explosion of a PG&E-owned pipeline.
- Republicans In A Fix On Infrastructure Spending | TPMDC
- One area the Republican party's anti-spending crusade puts them in a bind is infrastructure spending. Repairing roads and bridges, modernization, etc. have historically been bipartisan priorities — but they've also always cost a lot of money.
Ask Republicans whether they want to include transportation infrastructure in their calls for broad spending cuts, and you don't get a very specific answer.
none
- Bachmann: My SOTU Response Is Not ‘Competition’ With Paul Ryan | TPMDC
- Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) attracted a lot of attention when it was announced last week that she will deliver her own response to the State of the Union address. But as she says, she is not competing with the official Republican response that will be delivered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).
Bachmann was picked by the Tea Party Express group — compared to Ryan, who was picked by the GOP leadership.
- Sanders Hails Decision To Go Light On Social Security In SOTU | TPMDC
- On a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a leading progressive voice on Capitol Hill, praised reports that President Obama will not endorse the changes to Social Security suggested by his deficit reduction commission.
none
[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
The Of interest (Tue, Jan 25th, 9am) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.