Politico reveals three members of President Obama’s cabinet who willbe retained in Term Two. No huge shockers here, although there were whispers a few months back that Holder might be resigning after the election. There’s no word as to exactly how long Holder, Sebelius and Shineski will stay on, but unlike Tim Geithner, Hilda Solis and Hillary Clinton, they won’t be leaving anytime soon.
Defendants systematically failed to fully evaluate the loans, largely ignored the defects that their limited review did uncover, and kept investors in the dark about both the inadequacy of their review procedures and the defects in the underlying loans.The office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman • Discussing the fraud lawsuit filed against JPMorgan on Monday, regarding defective loans backing securities which allegedly cost their investors billions of dollars. The lawsuit involves a firm which was owned by Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan purchased in 2008 amidst the financial crisis. (JPMorgan would like to emphasize that the charges are “historic” in nature.) The lawsuit is the first action by the the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, a task force which is basically going back and taking on the faults that caused the financial crisis — years after the fact.
During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace asked Issa whether he had “any evidence” that the White House had been involved with the matter.
“No, we don’t,” Issa said.
The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms apparently allowed some gun sales in Arizona to known Mexican criminals. Two of the guns involved were found at the scene of a firefight in which U.S. Customs Agent Brian Terry was killed.
In February 2011, DOJ sent a letter to Congress denying such sales, but retracted that claim in December. It is not clear if either Attorney General Eric Holder or President Barack Obama were aware of the program, and Issa acknowledged Sunday that he has not found evidence Holder was involved.
“I did not say that Eric Holder always knew,” Issa said.
Issa previously suggested at a National Rifle Association conference that the Obama administration attempted to stir up controversy with Fast and Furious in an effort to push an assault rifle ban. This is despite the fact that the Bush administration, which opposed gun control, used similar programs.
Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: A debt collector at bedside.Jessica Silver-Greenberg of The New York Times • In the lede of an article analyzing Minnesota attorney general Lori Swanson’s recent allegations that a debt collection firm has been stationing its employees in hospital emergency rooms. Employees for Minnesota-based Accretive Health would allegedly disguise themselves as hospital staff, request up-front payment from patients, and — if patients did not have a credit card on-hand — were instructed to reply, “If you have your checkbook in your car I will be happy to wait for you.” Accretive declined to comment on whether or not their practices were being investigated, but did release a short statement saying, “We have a great track record of helping hospitals enhance their quality of care.” source (via • follow)
» The deluge of home foreclosures that the U.S. has suffered since the financial crisis has been a crippling blow to the general economy, land value rates in high-foreclosure areas, and most of all the families who’ve found themselves unceremoniously cast out. A notable amount of these foreclosures appear to have been fraudulently engineered, rife with examples of flat-out false documentation, as well as “robo-signing,” a practice in which foreclosure documents are fast-tracked with (in some cases) fraudulent signatures and without the signee ever having read them. This was the impetus for Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filing suit against five major banks — BofA, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Ally Financial.
Where there’s marijuana there’s money. And lots of it. People are using the cover of medical marijuana to make extraordinary amounts of money. In short, (they’re) engaged in drug trafficking.U.S. Attorney for Northern California Melinda Haag • Comparing medical marijuana dealers to drug traffickers — a harsh take, considering medical marijuana is legal in California. The U.S. government is planning a crackdown of medical marijuana dispensaries in the state within the next two months. This actually follows something Eric Holder said about a year ago, when Prop 19 looked like it might have a chance of passing in California. source (via • follow)
I have sought further information from the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and they confirm for me that, in fact, the best intelligence gained from a CIA detainee… was obtained through standard, non-coercive means. … it was not torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees that got us the major leads that ultimately enabled our intelligence community to find Osama bin Laden. I hope former Attorney General Mukasey will correct his misstatement.Senator John McCain • Speaking on the effort made by some — former Bush administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey among them — to claim that “enhanced interrogation” (or torture, as it was unabashedly known and is in many quarters still known today) was vital to gaining knowledge of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. This is the sort of non-partisan candor that made him popular from the start, and it’s well-founded; the effort by some to cast torture as key to the bin Laden raid, a claim made absurdly quickly after his death, when reports of what had happened in the compound were changing by the moment, was as clear and crass an attempt at hijacking a national narrative as you can get. (note: Mukasey has responded) source (via • follow)
We will vigorously enforce the (federal law) against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law.Obama Attorney General Eric Holder • In a pledge he made to uphold the nation’s marijuana laws even as California appears to be heading towards legalization with Prop 19. Yo, Eric, you wanna get a hit of this? You need to mellow out, man. It’s not that bad. source (via)
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