HOUSING AND OTHER NEWS

HOUSING AFFORDABILITY HITS NEW HIGH; 

BANK FORECLOSURE ABUSE SETTLEMENTS 

UNDER DISCUSSION; 

PUBLIC SCHOOL CUTS SOLUTIONS

With the national median family income at $64,400, the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo announced that 74.6% of new and existing homes sold in 1Q-2011 were affordable to these families.  This is the highest level recorded in more than 20 years since the index has been measured.  In 2010 73.9% was the figure.  Interest rates are at historically low levels, but credit is very tight.  

Freddie Mac is offering up to 3.5% closing-cost assistance and a $1200 bonus to buyers agents on sales of HomeSteps properties.  Offers must be received by July 31 with escrow closing onor before September 30.

Five of the nation’s largest banks were told by state attorneys general that they face liability of at least $17BB in civil lawsuits unless they can reach a settlement regarding improper foreclosure practices.  There are additional potential claims of billions of dollars from federal agencies including HUD and DOJ. Banks have proposed a $5BB settlement to compensate any previously wronged borrowers and to provide transition assistance for borrowers ousted from their homes.  Federal and state officials say that is insufficient and want $20BB to resolve these problems which the state attorneys general from all 50 states and DC have been investigating since last fall.  

New home sales April gains as opposed to March gains were 7.1%.  However, this is down 23% from sales in April 2010.

Budget cuts are causing some public schools to shift costs to students for enrolling in some courses and activities.  Parents are being asked to pay for supplemental materials such as printer ink, biology lab safety goggles and algebra workbooks, some schools offering installment pay plans and others accepting credit cards for a small fee.  Some fees are waived for low-income families.  In California, the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the State for allowing districts to charge a wide array of fees.  Enrichment programs have been cut or eliminated such as advanced math and science, music, art, drama, foreign languages, sports, gifted student courses and help for struggling readers in order to meet budget.  Some teachers noted that many students have taken on part time jobs to pay for activities they want to take part in such as athletics and music.

By Asher Price AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 5:38 a.m. Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Published: 9:57 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A demolition whiz, an expert parachutist and diver, a pilot of mini-submarines and, at one point, an aspiring journalist if Rambo were a Renaissance man, and a lot thinner and taller, he might look like Bill McRaven.

Long before he devised the strategy for how to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, McRaven began preparing for a career as a super-commando while he was an undergraduate at the University of Texas.

McRaven, 55 and now a vice admiral, had been something of a bin Laden hunter for at least a half-dozen years before successfully directing the attack Sunday as the leader of the Joint Special Operations Command.

McRaven, who hails from San Antonio, began preparing for his storied career with the Navy SEALs, the elite special operations forces, while still a member of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at UT, from which he graduated in 1977 as a journalism major.

"He had drive," said James Gruetzner, who was in the same Navy ROTC battalion as McRaven. "He went on extraordinarily long runs to stay in shape. He was very dedicated."

McRaven grew up in a military family — his father, a former football player, had served as a pilot in World War II — and early outings as a 10-year-old to scuba dive at the YMCA put him on the Navy path, said his sister Nan McRaven, an Austin public affairs consultant who serves on the board of Austin Community College.

"He became very focused on SEAL training," said Curtis Raetz, who also was in the ROTC battalion. "He was able to lap us all no matter how hard we tried."

Students aiming to become SEALs were "fanatical" about physical training, said Greg Colchin, another member of the battalion.

"People think of it as a physical thing, but it's also a mental thing," said Nan McRaven, who said her brother has loved to read ever since their mother compelled him to recite poetry as a boy. "He's focused, and he has the humility for real leadership."

Eventually he would become a qualified diver, parachutist, demolition expert and submersible pilot. He also had smarts. He earned a master's degree in national security affairs, and in 1995, he wrote "Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare Theory and Practice," in which he developed his own definition of a special operation as one "conducted by forces specially trained, equipped, and supported for a specific target whose destruction, elimination, or rescue (in the case of hostages), is a political or military imperative."

Nominating McRaven for a fourth star this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Joint Special Operations Command "ruthlessly and effectively (took) the fight to American's most dangerous and vicious enemies."

At its head was McRaven, who "is reputed to be the smartest SEAL that ever lived. He is physically tough, compassionate and can drive a knife through your ribs in a nanosecond," a former commander told Newsweek in 2004.

He also has shown a capacity for contrition. In April 2010, a couple of months after a special forces team mistakenly killed an Afghan police chief, a prosecutor and three unarmed women, McRaven pleaded for forgiveness from a local patriarch, bringing with him an offering of two sheep as part of a custom to make amends.

That followed McRaven's decision to tamp down commando raids in Afghanistan to avoid civilian deaths.

Whatever successes he achieved remained outstripped by the specter of bin Laden, whose elimination, to use McRaven's own word, remained an "imperative."

As long ago as 2004, having already commanded the team that helped capture Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein — soldiers based at Fort Hood also were involved — he turned his attention to capturing Public Enemy No. 1.

But he was stymied until this spring, when intelligence officers determined that bin Laden was in hiding in Pakistan.

McRaven spent weeks working with the CIA on the commando operation, The New York Times has reported, coming up with three options: a helicopter assault using American commandos, a strike with B-2 bombers that would obliterate the compound or a joint raid with Pakistani intelligence operatives who would be told about the mission hours before the launch.

The decision, to swoop in with a crew of American commandos, was in keeping with McRaven's view of special operations.

In 2001 congressional testimony on military training, McRaven described the two primary missions of Navy SEALs: "Reconnaissance and what we call direct action: raids, ambushes, swimmer sneak attacks and optical clearance for amphibious landings," he said. "Most of these missions originate from the water and require us to work in small units, behind enemy lines at night, with little or no outside support."

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/seal-who-directed-bin-laden-effort-started-journey-1452367.html