Predatory Lending

Have you been misled, been lied too or giving false information when applying for a loan? If so, I advise you to report this and sue the crooks. Too many companies have become irresponsible in their business practices. There is a place for honesty, truth, and integrity in business. Please feel free to post information about crooked companies on this web site.

"Ameriquest Faces Lawsuit by Borrowers

by Chris Arnold
May 30, 2007 · Ameriquest was a high-flying sub-prime lender during the housing boom, and was accused of predatory lending by state prosecutors. The company now faces a class-action lawsuit from borrowers.
Chris Arnold talks to people who lost their homes after getting Ameriquest loans and to former employees who describe the hyper-aggressive sales practices.

As the nationwide real-estate boom of recent years goes bust, economists and regulators are questioning the role that mortgage lenders played in helping to create an overheated housing environment. Here, an overview of what happened:

A Rush of New Buyers
In the early 2000s, the economy was healthy, interest rates were low and consumers felt a bit flush – all of which helped push real-estate values up across the country. With values escalating, lenders felt more confident about making mortgages to customers whose poor credit histories had prevented them from buying homes in the past. (When values are rising, borrowers are less likely to default, because they can take money out of their homes if they run into trouble.)

That put more potential homebuyers in the market, helping to raise home-ownership rates to a record 69 percent in 2004 – which pushed housing prices up more. Skyrocketing prices (double-digit growth year over year was common in some areas) lured real-estate speculators, creating even more demand — and driving the cycle further.

Risky Loans Proliferated
To attract this growing pool of borrowers, lenders repurposed "creative financing" products that had previously been marketed to high-income borrowers seeking flexibility with their money. Among the most popular were variations on the adjustable-rate mortgage, or ARM.
ARMs are loans whose interest rates adjust up or down periodically. The initial rate is typically fixed for a period of two or three years. The benefit is that the starter rates are lower for ARMs than for traditional, fixed-rate mortgages. That means lower monthly payments, making homeownership more affordable and allowing borrowers to qualify for a bigger loan.
Some of the creative ARM products that flourished of late included interest-only and payment-option loans. With the former, a borrower only pays the interest on the loan — not the principal balance — during the introductory period. With payment-option ARMs, borrowers get to choose how much they pay each month: enough to cover the interest plus the principal, the interest only... or less than the interest. In that last scenario, the unpaid interest is tacked on to the principal, leaving borrowers owing more than the amount of the original loan.

How prevalent were these loans? Nearly 23 percent of all mortgages taken out in 2005 were interest-only ARMs, and more than 8 percent were payment-option ARMs, according to First American LoanPerformance. In certain once-sizzling markets, the numbers were much higher: For example, 34 percent of all new mortgages in California in 2005 were interest-only.

These products made sense to borrowers who thought they'd live in their homes for a few years, then sell at a profit or refinance. But now that housing sales have stalled and prices are softening, borrowers can't do either very easily.

And many borrowers are facing painful payment hikes: According to a First American CoreLogic study, one-third of ARMs taken out between 2004 and 2006 began with "teaser" rates below 4 percent. Payments on these loans will double on average – if they haven't already done so, says study author Dr. Christopher Cagan.

Growth in Subprime Lending
And then there were the loans to borrowers with poor credit. Subprime loans expanded to 20 percent of the mortgage market in 2006, from 9 percent a decade earlier. These loans carry higher interest rates to compensate for the risk posed by borrowers. They can be traditional fixed-rate loans, but most are ARMs, according to Susan Wachter of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Recent subprime loans were rife with risky terms — interest-only payment options, penalties for paying off the loan early (which makes it costly to refinance into a better loan), and low documentation requirements, meaning borrowers needed little paperwork to verify that they could, in fact, afford the loans. (These so-called "liar loans" accounted for about 58 percent of all loans in 2006, according to First American LoanPerformance).

Kathleen Keest of the Center for Responsible Lending says the pairing of these new loan types and new pool of borrowers was dangerous.
"They took the riskiest of products and sold them to the weakest borrowers to compound risk," Keest says.
Unethical Practices

In the old days, most homeowners obtained mortgages from their local bank or credit union, which adhered to strict lending rules. Nowadays, the lion's share of homebuyers' business (70 percent) goes to independent mortgage brokers — some of whom get bonuses for steering borrowers to higher-interest loans.

Experts say many recent borrowers were put into ARMs that are likely to cost far more over the life of the loan than if they'd chosen a fixed-rate option. Often, consumers could have locked in fixed-rate loans at low interest rates, but lenders downplayed the advantages of these loans.
Experts also cite numerous cases where borrowers say they didn't understand the loan structure — and the escalating payments; in many cases, they couldn't really afford them. Jennie Haliburton, a 77-year-old widow in Philadelphia, told NPR she refinanced into a subprime ARM that now costs her $300 more than the $800 she was originally told she'd pay. Her loan resets in May 2008. If the current interest rate holds, the monthly payments will grow to $1,218; depending on rates, they could eventually reach almost $1,700 — 95 percent of her Social Security income.

Loose Oversight
New loan products allowed more Americans to own their own homes than ever before. But regulators exercised little oversight over the booming mortgage market. The Federal Reserve and four other federal regulators did not issue guidance for nontraditional mortgages until last year. They recommended that lending institutions consider the borrowers' ability to make payments over the life of the loan before underwriting, and that they improve disclosure to consumers.

Yet many, including Federal Reserve executive Roger T. Cole, say it was too little, too late. "Given what we know now, yes, we could have done more, sooner," Cole told Congress in March.

But the loans are already out there; all that's left is to wait for the fallout. According to First American CoreLogic, this year and next, about $260 billion in prime ARMs and $376 billion in subprime ARMs will begin to reset.

So What Now?
Several lenders are taking steps to curtail the rising tide of foreclosures. Washington Mutual plans to refinance up to $2 billion in subprime loans at below-market rates. Citigroup and Bank of America are working with an advocacy group to similarly target $1 billion in subprime mortgages, focusing on cities with high foreclosure rates. Freddie Mac is fueling the market with a commitment to buy up to $20 billion in subprime loans, and Ohio is floating a $100 million bond issue to help troubled homeowners.

The new environment may also drive new solutions. Lenders now face falling home prices, large loan portfolios with no money down, and a home-foreclosure process that may cost them tens of thousands of dollars. Renegotiating loans -– lowering the interest rate or extending the payment period –- may be more attractive than foreclosing."

BUSINESS CALLS for CLIMATE CHANGE LAWS

"WASHINGTON, D.C., May 8—The United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) announced today that it has doubled its membership to include new members American International Group (AIG), Alcan, Boston Scientific, ConocoPhillips, Deere & Company, The Dow Chemical Company, General Motors Corp., Johnson & Johnson,Marsh,PepsiCo, Shell and Siemens, along with The Nature Conservancy and the National Wildlife Federation.

The coalition, which continues to broaden and deepen its membership, brings together key sectors
of the economy—from energy, transportation, agriculture and technology to telecommunications,
infrastructure and financial services—with environmental and conservation leaders.
This diverse group of businesses and environmental organizations stands together in calling for
the federal government to take immediate action to enact mandatory national legislation to
achieve significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

“GM is very pleased to join USCAP to proactively address the concerns posed by climate change
and applauds its members for recognizing the important role that technology can play in
achieving an economy-wide solution,” said Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO of General
Motors. “A central element as we see it is energy diversity – being able to offer consumers
vehicles that can be powered by many different energy sources and advanced propulsion systems
to help displace petroleum and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

With its new members, USCAP companies now have total revenues of $1.7 trillion, a collective
workforce of more than 2 million and operations in all 50 states; they also have a combined
market capitalization of more than $1.9 trillion. (Market capitalization, or market cap, is derived
from a company’s current stock price per share times the total number of shares outstanding.)
The non-governmental organizations have more than two million members worldwide, and
represent America’s environmental interests and its conservation traditions. The Nature
Conservancy, known for its nonpartisan, science-based approach to policy issues, believes the
climate crisis must be urgently addressed.

“Climate change will be the biggest threat by far to our mission of protecting nature and to the
many investments in lands and waters we have made over the past 60 years,” said Steve
McCormick, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. “One of The Nature Conservancy’s
goals is to ensure that the important role intact forests and other ecosystems play in mitigating
climate change is recognized as a vital part of any policy framework developed to address this
critical challenge.”

In January, USCAP issued a landmark set of principles and recommendations to underscore the
urgent need for a policy framework on climate change. The solutions-based report, titled A Call
for Action, laid out a blueprint for a mandatory economy-wide, market-driven approach to climate
protection.
USCAP’s recommendations are based on the following six principles:
• Account for the global dimensions of climate change;
• Recognize the importance of technology;
• Be environmentally effective;
• Create economic opportunity and advantage;
• Be fair to sectors disproportionately impacted; and,
• Recognize and encourage early action.
These principles and recommendations are the result of a shared goal of slowing, stopping and
reversing the growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the shortest period of time
reasonably achievable. Top executives from USCAP companies have driven this effort, and new
members were chosen carefully to preserve a high-level consensus approach.
The non-partisan USCAP urges policy makers to enact a policy framework for mandatory
reductions of GHG emissions from major emitting sectors, including large stationary sources and
transportation, and energy use in commercial and residential buildings. The cornerstone of this
approach would be a cap-and-trade program. The environmental goal is to reduce global
atmospheric GHG concentrations to a level that minimizes large-scale adverse impacts to humans
and the natural environment. The group recommends Congress provide leadership and establish
short- and mid-term emission reduction targets; a national program to accelerate technology
research, development and deployment; and approaches to encourage action by other countries,
including those in the developing world, as ultimately the solution must be global.
The founding members of USCAP include Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar, Duke Energy,
DuPont, FPL Group, Inc., General Electric, PG&E, and PNM Resources, along with four leading
non-governmental organizations – Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council,
Pew Center on Global Climate Change and World Resources Institute."

Source: http://www.us-cap.org/index.asp

Update: The Suncoast Hotel Resort closing

Update: The Suncoast Hotel Resort will be closing on June 17, 2007.

http://www.suncoastresort.com/

Gov. Charlie Crist chops millions

The honorable Charlie Crist is hell of a governor. Let us pray that he stays on this path. Crist budgetary decisions simply make sense. His comments also show a sincere understanding for the economic concerns of Floridians. Students should especially applaud his veto of tuition increases. Kudos to Governor Charlie Crist!


"Crist chops millions, halts hike in tuition; Gov. Charlie Crist signed a $71.5 billion budget into law after slashing a record $459 million in spending. FLORIDA BUDGET

Source: The Miami Herald 05/25/2007

If the hundreds of millions in pet projects state lawmakers tucked into the budget were a test of how far they could push the new governor, the response was sharp Thursday: Not far.
Gov. Charlie Crist, striking back at legislators who refused to pay for many of his top priorities, axed a record $459 million from the state budget, which takes effect July 1.

Most significantly, he rejected a 5 percent tuition increase at state universities and community colleges, provoking the state's top education official to threaten a challenge.
''Honoring the fact that the people across the state are pinching their pennies, so are we,'' Crist said, noting what he called the ''crushing'' effects of property insurance, property taxes and gas prices on citizens and the economy. ``We're asking local governments to tighten their belts, too. We are tightening ours. We can do no less.''

The vetoes caught some lawmakers off guard. Nevertheless, legislative leaders said they will not buck the governor's decisions on the $71.5 billion budget.
In a short statement, Senate President Ken Pruitt said the work on the budget was now done and that he had ''no intention'' of supporting any effort to override Crist's vetoes.
There are questions over whether Crist overstepped his authority when he nixed the tuition hike for community colleges and universities, including Broward Community College, Miami-Dade College and Florida International University.

State University System Chancellor Mark Rosenberg said universities need the money to hire faculty and keep up with enrollment growth and predicted the governor's veto ``in all likelihood will be challenged.''

Florida's Board of Governors, the panel that oversees state universities, may consider a legal challenge at its June meeting.

''We thought [the tuition increase] was a very modest initiative by the Legislature to help us close the gap in funding to keep our doors open,'' said Rosenberg.

Crist, however, said it was the wrong time to hit families with a tuition hike.
He also said that a separate bill that authorizes higher tuition at the University of Florida, Florida State University and University of South Florida was ''doomed'' and that he will veto it as well.
''I feel for our students and I feel for their families,'' Crist said. ``They are paying higher insurance rates. They are paying higher property taxes. They are paying higher gas prices. I don't think it's right to make them pay higher tuition, too.''

Crist's vetoes cover every aspect of state government, from road projects to reading programs, to school construction, to programs that help minorities, seniors, the disabled and children. At least $24 million was cut from Miami-Dade -- which did get to keep tens of millions in the budget. Broward lost $13.9 million; Monroe $250,000.
Among the items cut: $1.3 million for streetscape improvements for Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale; $840,000 for Exponica International, a three-day Latin America cultural and trade festival in Miami, and $900,000 for a gospel music museum planned in Broward.
''I don't think there's any ink left in his veto pen,'' said Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat and House minority leader. ``This was his chance to be a fiscal conservative.''

Crist said many of the projects he killed were ''meritorious'' but that some were more appropriately funded by local governments or private charities. The governor also vetoed projects viewed as likely to benefit a single private vendor, a rationale used to cut millions that legislators set aside for pilot reading programs.

Crist did give some leeway to items sought by top legislative leaders such as Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Crist left intact $20 million for Jackson Memorial Hospital that was a top priority for Rubio and did not touch more than $40 million to help Florida Atlantic University take over the troubled Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution.

''They are leaders in the legislative branch, and they don't ask for things unless they think they are very, very important,'' Crist said. ``I tried to honor that.''
Miami Herald staff writer Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this story. "

Central Floridians: Sports projects low priority

"In an Orlando chamber survey -- not released to the public -- 500 Central Floridians called sports and arts projects their lowest priority. How that and other issues ranked: Violent crime 79% Water and air quality 68% Education 68% Taxes and spending 67% Political corruption 64% Economy and job growth 55% Affordable housing 50% Conservation 47% Growth management 38% Mass transit 33% UCF medical school 29% Business and government relations 26% Entertainment venues 14%

Source: Orlando Sentinel 05/25/2007

The plan to spend $1.1 billion to build sports and arts venues in downtown Orlando ranked dead last in a poll of community priorities, according to a survey conducted by business leaders who are among the biggest boosters of the projects.

The survey of 500 Central Florida voters showed they were far more interested in reducing crime, improving schools and protecting the environment. At least two-thirds of those polled ranked these as high community concerns.

Only 14 percent ranked "building world-class performing arts, sports and entertainment venues" a high priority. That was last among 16 issues surveyed, right below improving business and government relations, which 26 percent rated a "high" priority.
The survey, obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, was paid for by the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce but not released to the public.

The chamber, which includes the area's top business leaders, has been a pivotal booster of the three-venue package, which includes a new arena, performing-arts center and major Citrus Bowl upgrades. The chamber also was an architect of Project Hometown, a lobbying group that paid for radio and TV ads pushing the venues.

"It doesn't surprise me," said County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs. "It's certainly lower [venue support] than what we've been hearing from those who are advocating for them."
Chamber President Jacob Stuart said the March survey was part of a periodic polling effort business leaders use to forge policy strategies. Such results are rarely publicized, he said.

`Not a venues survey'
Stuart said the results should not be used to gauge specific support for the pending plan to build the downtown venues.
"This is not a venues survey," Stuart said.
Stuart said the fact that it's a regional poll mined from across seven Central Florida counties may confuse some respondents who thought the facilities it referred to are in their home county. Also, no project details were shared during the poll, and more venue financing features have emerged since the March 8-11 survey was conducted, he said.

David Hill of Hill Research Consultants conducted the poll. Hill said that while only 150 Orange County voters were among the 500 surveyed, their feelings mirrored sentiments of the region as a whole. Still, that pool is too small to gauge how Orange voters feel about the venues, he said.
"It would be inappropriate to say this was a poll on the venues," Hill said.
Also, Hill said that while just 14 percent rated building the venues as a high priority, only 33 percent of respondents rated the venues as a low priority, leaving 51 percent rating it as somewhere in between. "It's more of a [glass] half full or half empty thing."
On the wrong path?

Stuart said the real gist of the survey is that voters feel the community is on the wrong path. A year before, 58 percent of those answering a similar poll said the region was headed in the right direction. This latest survey saw that number dip to 42 percent, while those saying the community was on the wrong track climbed 13 percentage points to 40 percent.
"Recent prosperity has camouflaged genuine concerns in our community," Stuart said, calling it a regional "malaise."

Stuart said more recent venue-specific polls are more instructive, and reveal public support for the plan.

Yet previous public polls have carried mixed messages.
An April poll commissioned by the Sentinel found that most Orange County residents want a new performing-arts center and upgraded Florida Citrus Bowl, but say the Orlando Magic should pay a bigger share of a new arena.
When the venues are packaged together, 48 percent of Orange residents support building them, with 40 percent opposed and 12 percent undecided. The survey of 500 adults was conducted by the Mason-Dixon Polling & Research firm.

But support for both the Citrus Bowl and the arena erodes when they stand alone, that poll found. It also showed that as financing details were shared, support for the entire venue package dropped.
Magic officials said the Sentinel poll failed to reflect the team's true contribution.
A poll commissioned by the Magic found that the organization's contribution to the cost of a new arena is fair.

Nearly two out of three surveyed by the Magic's consultant -- once told details of the contribution and how it compares with other NBA teams -- say the team's offer is "fair" or "generous and more than fair."

But that survey, released soon after the Sentinel poll, failed to note public costs of the venue.
Increasing questions
Those issues have become more critical since county commissioners, who control the tourist taxes that would pay for much of the venue plan, now question whether the team is contributing enough.
City and county leaders will consider a final venue financing plan this summer. They are waiting on state lawmakers to conduct a special legislative session on property taxes next month, which could hamper the venue's public financing.

Stuart said he did not share the results with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer or Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty, the two main elected proponents of the plan. And the venue results that emerged did not prompt him to rethink his support for the public-private venue effort.
"Did it give me pause?" Stuart said. "Absolutely not." "

Bloggers vs. Big Oil

Checks & Balances Org proudly joins MoveOn org in opposing Big Oil. Please do your part and sign this petition!

I’d like to briefly discuss this petition with you. Many folk view Moveon Org as a far left liberal organization. I have no opinion nor will I argue with this viewpoint. What I am aware of is this pressing issue. The price of gasoline has not reached a plateau. It continues to rise. The public constantly is being sold contradictory reasons for the rise in gas prices.

I did my own research. Here is the FACT. I have found the root cause of this problem is a result of arbitrary costs levied by Big Oil that has raised your price at the pump. The break down looks like this Taxes = 15%, Corporate Operations = 9%, Refining =24%, Crude Oil = 52%. Analysis: Big Oil controls 85% of the cost you pay.

Let me define what I mean by “arbitrary”. Big Oil determines the price of gas by pulling it from their ass.

Please sign this petition. Thank You.

-Anthony

Enough is enough! A bill in the House would make gasoline price gouging a federal crime, and it could pass this week! Can you help be sure it does?

http://pol.moveon.org/stoppricegouging/

Source:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10395079

Jerry Falwell, evangelicals out of politics

In my opinion, churches should have no role in politics nor should one cent of its resources be utilized directly by any political party. Countless evangelical organizations were fooled in affiliating itself with the Republican Party. All while thousands of more “progressive” Christians were shouting in opposition. War, issues dealing with poverty, justice, community grants, the welfare of children, education, and healthcare. These topics in my opinion could be justified interest of church. However, the matter with Terri Schiavo, false claims placed against liberals on abortion, and blindly supporting President G.W. Bush simply showed the manner in which so many evangelicals were misguided.

"Source: Newsweek 05/23/2007

Jerry falwell loved his jet. in 1980, it was no small thing for a preacher to have one, even if he was a preacher with a TV show, "The Old Time Gospel Hour." The plane was a Lear, he told me as we climbed aboard on a September day in that crucial year, "specially reconfigured by an Israeli company." He saw this as providential--as if the jet had been anointed by the engine oil of the Holy Land. And it was dart-quick. His congregation, Thomas Road Baptist, was locked away in the Blue Ridge town of Lynchburg, Va. With the plane, he could roam the Bible belt, from Okeechobee to Oklahoma. This trip, the destination was Alabama.

We lifted off with a prayer in the name of Jesus, but the flight wasn't aimed at saving souls. It was about electing Ronald Reagan. With the advice and financial backing of national conservative and GOP activists, Falwell had launched a group he had the chutzpah to call the Moral Majority. The goal was to use the then-new tactics of "independent" grassroots organizing to draw evangelical and fundamentalist Christians--for decades, reluctant participants in politics--into a Republican crusade.
When we got to Birmingham, I saw what he was up to. He filled the old Boutwell Auditorium with thousands of "Gospel Hour" fans for a rally called "God Save America Again!" It was like a revival meeting--co-written by George Orwell and staged by Lynyrd Skynyrd. With lights dimmed and ominous music echoing in the hall, the stage was framed by giant photos of America's enemies (back then, the Soviet Union). In the spotlight, Falwell warned that Armageddon was at hand, unless God-fearing voters ousted Jimmy Carter (a born-again Christian himself, but never mind) and the rest of the Democrats. Hope lay in only one place: with Reagan and his GOP disciples. When the lights came up, there they were, standing and waving in the audience: not the Gipper himself, but a lineup of Alabama Republican candidates.

The rest, as they say, is history. If you had to reduce American politics of the last three decades to a headline, this is it: conservative christians enter public life and form the core of a new republican party. The edifice is cracking now, stressed by George W. Bush's failures, by disappointments with and second thoughts about playing in Caesar's game. Still, the political migration of millions--evangelicals, fundamentalists and charismatic Protestants, as well as "right to life" Roman Catholics for whom abortion is the central issue--is the biggest electoral story of our time. Falwell did not create this movement, and was never its most pivotal inside player--only its first and most visible. Wooed early and shrewdly by the late Lee Atwater, Falwell became the unofficial guardian of the Bush family's religious-right flank. A procession of would-be Bush successors, including John McCain, an erstwhile enemy, were eager to link arms with him for '08. His clout had faded, but not disappeared.

What he did for--and to--America is harder to figure. He believed in the inerrancy of Scripture, and carried that absolutist attitude into politics, which could be a dangerous and divisive thing. Gays had invited the 9/11 attack by turning our country into a Sodom and Gomorrah; the antichrist was on his way--and was a Jew. Falwell could be a bully, lacking in Christian charity.
Yet there was a benign side, too, and a worthy one. There was never an ounce of scandal in his personal life. His large congregation was devoted; Wednesday-night sermons, full of complex diagrams about events in end-times, drew thousands. A college dropout from the rougher side of the Lynchburg tracks, he doted on Liberty University, a school he founded in 1971 with the aim of making it "Notre Dame of the evangelicals." He told me not long ago that he was very proud of the science programs there. "We have kids accepted to graduate school at Harvard all the time," he said. He could be a demagogue, but he was as much a P.T. Barnum as anything else.

I ran into him not long ago in Union Station in Washington. He had no entourage, no jet. His always-florid face was fuller than ever. He had come up on the train from Lynchburg, and was having lunch before making the D.C. rounds. Falwell remained in demand as a talking head, eager to mix it up with the heathens in a city he had helped to transform. It was a long journey from Birmingham. Now Falwell is in a Better Place. I'm not sure that's true of the country. "

China: Sleeping Dragon

United States business leaders would be wiser to push for investment, job creation and innovation in America opposed to questionable economic ideas of negotiated with China to persuade them to adjust its currency and business practices. The U.S.A. approaches other nations with such notions that would be seen as absurdity if presented to us.

"Source: BusinessWeek Online 05/23/2007

Since U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson began talks with Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi and much of the rest of the Beijing Cabinet in Washington Tuesday morning, there has been a notable lack of hard news from the front lines. Sure, there were the obligatory opening speeches, with Paulson warning that Americans are an impatient bunch and will want to see some real progress, and Wu responding that the negotiations should be carried out calmly. Then the doors were shut, and the real work started.

The news blackout, though, has hardly stopped the chatter online, since almost everyone in the U.S. has a stake in the outcome of the talks. The U.S., of course, hopes to achieve what it considers a leveling of the economic playing field, while China aims to avoid making significant changes in its policy, but risks further rankling Congress.

Just about every American company has skin in the game. Microsoft (MSFT) wants to see China crack down on counterfeit software, and studios such as Sony (SNE) and Disney (DIS) are seeking a clampdown on movie piracy. And while many small manufacturers would like to see China's currency strengthen, retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) are more likely to benefit from a continued weak yuan since they import so many products from China. With so much on the line, the U.S.-China trade relationship is always sure to get the bloggers hot under the collar.

China's Upper Hand
At Tokatakiya, a layman-friendly assortment of politically themed posts, blogger "Robb" expresses mixed feelings about the talks. In Robb's estimation, "'the growth of the Chinese economy is a good thing, if you care about poverty." However, he recognizes the great loss China's economic growth represents to U.S. trade interests. In an engaging commentary, Robb gave advice to American officials to remember that "No matter what comes out of these trade talks' everything China does, it does for China--I'm not judging that as being right or wrong, it's just a fact."

All Roads Lead to China, an all-things-China market blog, is at once hopeful and skeptical about the talks. All Roads sees China as having a distinct advantage over the U.S. both in terms of its current position in the trade relationship and its chances for maintaining that position. The blog also offers advice and admonitions for both Chinese and American officials: "For the U.S. team, it is going to be imperative to find common ground quickly'. For the Chinese side'they will need to take some of their own medicine and take the long view on the relationship."
An Opening for Candidates

The finance-oriented BloggingBuyouts takes a wider view of the U.S.-China relationship, connecting the trade talks with China's recent investment in the Blackstone Group 5/21/07, "China's $3 Billion Bet on Blackstone"] as well as the upcoming U.S. Presidential elections.

The blog contends that "China's $3 billion investment in The Blackstone Group is bound to cause ripples across the crowded field of Presidential contenders." While the post doesn't delve too deeply into the notion, blogger Jonathan Berr notes that given the unpopularity of both China and hedge funds these days, "combining these two political bogeymen creates a target that's too good for any Presidential candidate to pass up."

At The Huffington Post, union leader Scott Paul views the talks not so much as an opportunity for negotiation, but as one of many steps the U.S. must take to compel China to abide by international trade laws. Paul cites a litany of China's illegal trade practices: "subsidies, dumping, currency manipulation, violation of labor rights, and lax or nonexistent environmental enforcement."
Paul points out what he calls an "artificial" divide between Americans who are pro-China and Americans who are anti-China. That division is obsolete in the face of "cold, hard facts" indicating that China's trade practices are not only hurting the U.S., but are also illegal. Until Washington enforces the rules that would protect its citizens, Paul claims, the U.S. economy will continue to suffer. "

Transgendered

“The Rev. David Wynn is off Saturday and Monday, so he will spend the day with his wife Wren and their son Seth, who has eight teeth, one for every month of his life to date, and is just learning how to risk all of them in thrilling freefall flights from the sofa."He's an adventurer," says Wynn. "He'll do anything to get where he wants to go."The same can be said of Seth's father, who spent his own boyhood in a girl's body, a situation at least as confusing to Wynn back then as it is to others now.There are times with Seth, at Bray Park or Sam's Club or anywhere Bradenton dads go, when the furthest thing from David Wynn's mind is the years of therapy, hormones, surgery and the slow, painful confrontation with self that brought him to here.At work, though, as associate pastor of Trinity Metropolitan Community Church in Sarasota, his "journey," as he calls it, is almost always in his thoughts. Ministering to transgendered men and women and those who love them constitutes his special mission, he says. "My calling."It is not his sole focus. Much of Wynn's job involves providing backup to pastor Mona West at Sunday's two services for MCC's congregation of 320, mostly gay men and lesbians, and a handful of transgendered men and women.He organizes the readings for each week -- one each from the Gospel, the Hebrew bible, the Psalms and St. Paul's letters -- and schedules the 75 ushers, lectors, deacons and choristers who, he says, "make Sundays happen around here."Wynn also supervises educational programs and outreach for the church, one of 300 MCC congregations around the world, and plays a senior role in programs such as Trinity's campaign to raise the $3 million needed to build the striking church complex Carl Abbot has designed for them.But it is Wynn who fields calls from people inquiring about transgender issues, as they have with more and more frequency lately, following last week's Newsweek cover story -- "The Mystery of Gender" -- and the various incidents around the country that prompted it, including the back-to-back coming out of a transgender sports writer for the Los Angeles Times and the city manager of a Florida town.The "Susan Stanton factor," the firing of Steve Stanton in Largo and Susan Stanton's current candidacy for the job of city manager in Sarasota, has caused Pastor Wynn to identify himself as transgendered in a more public fashion than he had planned when he came here from his native Texas a year ago."There comes a point where you really want to move out of the place where everybody knew you as ... ," he says, a wave of his hand filling in for the female name he was given at birth.He had been a public high school teacher in several Texas cities, attended college there, and then Perkins Theological Seminary at Southern Methodist University, all as a woman. He had been involved in a 10-year relationship with a woman whose child he helped parent, and the couple became widely known as David's pastoral assignments changed.In Sarasota, he hoped, "Who I was" would have no relevance beyond Trinity's 20-acre campus.But that, as he says, "just wasn't in the cards."'I shut down completely'"Like most transgendered people," says Wynn, "I knew very early, five or so, that there was a difference between how the world saw me and how I saw myself."I knew I was a boy, but nobody else seemed to get it, and somehow I knew even at that age that this was just wrong. So I did what you do, I shut down completely, closed off that knowledge and gradually it just went away."He will not reveal the female name with which he was born, and he will not talk about his surgeries, but Wynn is otherwise candid about both of his lives."My father tends to be this Clint Eastwood man's-man type and my mother is Scarlett O'Hara, very girly, with very strong ideas about how Southern womanhood is supposed to behave. I was always a tomboy, so there was a lot of turmoil there."I was trying to figure all this out in Texas, in the the 1980s, when there weren't any Dateline/20-20 specials going on, no 'Will and Grace' or 'Ellen.'"So I thought, well, I am royally screwed. How do I manage to pull out of this mess that I'm in some chance at any kind of happiness?"Then I thought, well, 'OK, I can do the lesbian thing.' I didn't feel like a lesbian -- I was a boy who was attracted to girls -- but it was as close to a normal life as I was going to have."What strikes most people about David Wynn today is how "normal" he appears.From encroaching male-pattern baldness -- "hormones," he says -- to the tin of Skoal on his desk ("a nasty habit," recently resumed) to the collection of miniature cars and trucks that pop up here and there on his office bookshelves, the Rev. Wynn is very much David.His unequivocal maleness has taken even some of his parishioners a while to get used to."I think some people here were expecting that I would be a gay man, and I'm not, never have been. I'm married to a woman; we have a child. That puts me outside the experience of many people" among his congregation."Gay and lesbian people wrestle with the transgender thing the same as everybody else does, which is: 'It's just odd. I think it's strange and I don't get it and it makes me uncomfortable.'"Even resentful. To some within the gay community, "We muddy the waters," says Wynn. "I mean, 'Here we are trying to fit in and be ordinary and these people are making us extraordinary.' I can understand that."Within any religious community, he says, "you are always going to have people ready to ask you, 'Well God created you in that body and God doesn't make mistakes and how could you be changing his work? It's not natural.'"And so, Wynn says, this has become his work: Explaining the world as it looks to someone who has lived on both sides of the gender divide."I believe that God created me to experience the world in just the way I have, in a transgender body, female first and now male."In sharing what I know from my experience, I'm doing what I am supposed to do."Pursuit of destinyAltar clothes and clergy robes at Trinity MCC will change to red from their Easter white this Sunday, marking the start of Pentecost, which Christian tradition identifies as the start of an organized Christ-based religion.On Pentecost, according to the New Testament, the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles and sent them out into the world to preach the word of God, giving them divine fluency in all languages so they would be understood by everyone with whom they spoke.It is "spirit," David Wynn says, that guides humans to pursue their individual destinies.He refers often to the impact of "spirit" on his own life, for spirit, he believes, is what got him through the difficult time of his transition from female to male five years ago."I was in a long-term relationship with a woman and all of a sudden it stopped being satisfying to me. It felt wrong. Everything felt wrong."I never thought I was crazy. But it's a situation that can make you crazy, feeling, as I did, that you are this freak of nature."Deeply depressed, David's female-bodied predecessor entered therapy for the first time, and for the first time as an adult "put words to that thing I had known as a child."Gradually, "I came to understand that for me to exist soulfully, to be fully present in my life, to live in the way that I felt like I was here to live, then this is what I had to do."Suddenly, and to his shock, he says, he was a teenager again at 37.With the combination of natural exhilaration and artificial hormones -- "Wow," Wynn says, "you never know how powerful those things are until you take them" -- transgendered men and women typically go through a kind of second adolescence."The pendulum kind of has to take a big swing the other way at first," says Wynn, who says he went through a period of "hyper-masculinity" that gradually abated.Nearly five years later now, he has settled comfortably into his new life.As difficult as the transgender journey is for those who undertake it, he says, it may be the rest of society that has the bigger adjustment to make."Don't forget, I'm the person I always knew I was. It's the form you take to move through the world that changes."On Wednesday, Wynn will moderate the first of a series of workshops at the church on "Creating a Life that Matters," and one of the subjects for discussion is how to "recognize your essence, and embrace what it is that drives you, your passion."It is a subject, he says, "that I know a little bit about."

Orlando Mayor changes staff

"Source: Orlando Sentinel 05/23/2007
A day after Orlando backed a $1.1 billion downtown venue package, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer on Tuesday reshuffled some of his top political posts.

Chief of Staff Cheryl Henry, a chief architect of the financing plan to build a new arena and performing-arts center and upgrade the Citrus Bowl, will step down June 1 to take a corporate lobbyist post with Ruth's Chris Steak House Inc.

Former top city staffer Joe Robinson will replace Henry, serving again as one of the mayor's key lieutenants. As before, Robinson will spearhead Orlando anti-crime efforts. Former press chief Brie Turek will step into the deputy chief of staff slot, an open position.

Dyer said in a statement that Henry, 33, was pivotal to his team, especially in pushing the venues. But the mayor does not see her departure as hindering a final effort to secure political support for the complex venue financing, Turek said.

While City Council members voted nearly unanimously Monday to approve a series of deals for the proposed facilities, a final financing agreement must still be approved by city and Orange County leaders this summer. When interest on loans is paid off over 30 years in the proposed venue deal, the final cost could top $1.8 billion.

Another wrench in the plans could come from state lawmakers, who are considering property-tax overhauls in a special session next month.

Now Robinson, 48, and Turek, 26, will help secure Dyer's final venue deal. Robinson retired as an Orlando police captain and Dyer's deputy chief of staff in January 2006. He then went to work as chief of staff for Orlando venture capitalist Frank L. Amodeo and his AQMI Strategy Corp.

The company provided consulting services to a 70-company equity firm Amodeo helped found and fund, Mirabilis Ventures Inc. In May 2006, Robinson and fellow AQMI contractor Kevin Billings of Maitland were among several men detained by authorities for nine days in the west African country of the Congo, where they were sent by Amodeo to provide security and political consulting services to a presidential candidate.

Earlier this year, Mirabilis laid off more than 100 workers and shut down numerous affiliated companies. In March, the Orlando Sentinel disclosed that Mirabilis Ventures was under investigation by a federal grand jury in Orlando and that prosecutors had issued more than 100 subpoenas for witnesses and records involving several payroll and human-resource outsourcing businesses controlled or affiliated with Mirabilis, Amodeo or Amodeo-controlled companies.
During the past few months, several top associates of Amodeo's left the company, including Robinson. Dyer's new chief of staff said, "there's no connection with me at all" to the companies in the federal probe. "