For public interest advocates fighting the David vs. Goliath battle to win meaningful reform of the financial system, there was a certain satisfaction in watching Jamie Dimon eat humble pie last week as he announced that JPMorgan has lost a little over $2 billion trading credit derivatives. After all, no one has been less apologetic for the role Wall Street played in triggering the 2008 financial meltdown that left millions of Americans jobless, cost millions more their homes, and brought the financial system to the brink of collapse. No one has been more dismissive of efforts to rein in the reckless bank practices that put the global economy at risk. And no one is accorded greater respect in the halls of power. To his credit, ... Continue reading →
Arizona lawmakers gave final passage to three anti-abortion bills Tuesday afternoon, including one that declares pregnancies in the state begin two weeks before conception. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill to prohibit abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy; a bill to protect doctors from being sued if they withhold health information about a pregnancy that could cause a woman to seek an abortion; and a bill to mandate that how school curriculums address the topic of unwanted pregnancies. The 18th week bill includes a new definition for when pregnancy begins. All of the bills passed the Senate and now head to Gov. Jan Brewer (R) for her signature or veto. Passage of the late-term abortion bill would give Arizona the earliest definition ... Continue reading →
After losing her Florida home to foreclosure in 2009, Sheila Ramos has made a home for her family on a patch of rural land on Hawaii's Big Island. (Paul Kiel/ProPublica) Note: This story is not subject to our Creative Commons license. This story is also being published as an ebook for all devices in partnership with Open Road, and is being made available in partnership with Amazon.com as part of Amazon's Kindle Singles program. Sheila Ramos' grandsons, 10 and 13, started crying. They wanted to know where the house was. There wasn't one. There was only a tent. They had flown from Florida, after Ramos had fallen hopelessly behind on the mortgage for her three-bedroom home, to this family-owned patch of rural land on Hawaii's ... Continue reading →
WASHINGTON — Thanks to hefty profits and a requirement in the health law that takes effect this year, insurers will send subscribers hundreds of millions of dollars in rebate checks this August. But the industry and the Obama administration are at odds over proposed language in a letter that's to go out with the checks, as well as who's to be notified. The administration may require insurers to send notices about rebate rules even to customers who aren't getting rebates. America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry lobby, called that "unnecessary and illogical." It also objects to a proposed message for rebate recipients that mentions the health law in the second sentence, describing the message's language as "inflexible and highly prescriptive." "This letter is to inform ... Continue reading →
