Homeowner Nightmare: Insurance Companies Revoke Policies Because of Drywall
As a New Orleans federal court holds a hearing today on lawsuits alleging that defective Chinese-made drywall.is destroying people's homes and their health, outside the courtroom owners of more than 100,000 houses built with that drywall are learning that some insurance companies are canceling their policies.When James and Maria Ivory of Punta Gorda, Fla., moved into their newly built home, they noticed a rotten egg smell. Then the metal in their home, from bathroom fixtures to air-conditioning components, began to corrode and turn black. And finally, the couple says their health started to suffer.

Insurers dropping Chinese drywall policies
James and Maria Ivory's dreams of a relaxing retirement on Florida's Gulf Coast were put on hold when they discovered their new home had been built with Chinese drywall that emits sulfuric fumes and corrodes pipes. It got worse when they asked their insurer for help "€” and not only was their claim denied, but they've been told their entire policy won't be renewed.. Thousands of homeowners nationwide who bought new houses constructed from the defective building materials are finding their hopes dashed, their lives in limbo. And experts warn that cases like the Ivorys', in which insurers drop policies or send notices of non-renewal based on the presence of the Chinese drywall, will become rampant as insurance companies process the hundreds of claims currently in the pipeline.

Judge finds Tousa was 'insolvent' when loans struck. Orders funds returned to companies by Oct. 23
A U.S. judge ruled that loans taken out by homebuilder and financial services company Tousa Inc six months before it filed for bankruptcy involved fraudulent transfers of assets and voided them, ordering the lenders to return more than $600 million. The ruling, issued on Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, instructed the lenders to wire $403 million plus interest into a disgorgement account on or before Oct. 23. It also ordered other lenders who took as collateral a $207.3 million federal tax refund Tousa received shortly before the bankruptcy filing to turn over those funds plus interest.

Bolivia man sentenced on mortgage fraud charges
A Bolivia man was sentenced in federal court last week to almost six years in prison for his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme out of Whiteville that netted $6 million. Williams pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Cindy Marcus Files Lawsuit in Hawaii against Centex Homes and its Agents 
the area was declared a federal disaster area... According to court records, when people tried to cancel their contracts, many people said that they were coerced into closing against their will because Centex told them they would lose their deposits. Witnesses named in the court records have stated that Centex eventually sold the units of those people whose deposits they kept and they enriched their pockets with money gained from other unsuspecting victims. They allegedly kept many people's deposits which sometimes represented people's entire retirement and bankrupted those who had worked hard all their lives for a piece of the American Dream...Janet Ahmad, the president of HOBB, said, "Too many people have unjustly lost their money to Centex. It is time that this issue gains public attention so potential buyers are made aware of the tactics used by developers to enrich themselves at the expense of unsuspecting consumers."

A Secret Deal Between Wall Street and Washington Shines a Harsh Light on Federal Housing Agency
While the Federal Trade Commission was receiving gut-wrenching documentation of predatory lending abuses at a unit of Citigroup, the Federal agency mandated to level the playing field for low income homeowners, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was quietly awarding 19,968 mortgages of homeowners in distress to Citigroup to dispose of as it saw fit.  HUD legally became Citigroup's joint venture partner in at least two of the deals, retaining a minority interest.

Chinese Drywall Victims Need FEMA Help, Senators Say
According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), it has received about 1,501 reports from residents in 27 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico who believe their health symptoms or the corrosion of metal components in their homes are related to the presence of Chinese drywall. Many homes with Chinese drywall are unlivable, and some homeowners have been driven to the point of bankruptcy...U.S Senators Bill Nelson, D-Fl., Mary Landrieu, D-La., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Jim Webb, D-Va. asked FEMA Craig Fugate administrator for help on behalf of Chinese drywall victims.

Evaluators say county's building department is improving
More than two years after Beaufort County's Building Codes Department came under fire for overlooking defective roof supports in almost 700 Sun City Hilton Head homes, the department is turning itself around, according to an organization evaluating it...County Administrator Gary Kubic brought in IAS in late 2007 to review the building department after news surfaced several months earlier that trusses -- wooden frames that support the roof and secure it to the home's walls -- were defective. The trusses weren't fastened together securely enough with metal plates and nails or they had too few wooden cross beams to provide adequate bracing. Such defects could have allowed the roofs to fly off in extreme winds, experts said.

Huffington Post: Franken's Amendment; the Power and the Promise
Senator Al Franken got my attention and the attention of a lot of other people who care about sexual abuse and violence, with the passing of his Senate Amendment 2566. The Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill provides for the withholding of federal funds from contractors who continue to apply binding arbitration clauses in employment contracts. It was such a clause that prevented Ms. Jamie Leigh Jones from having her day in court after she was allegedly gang raped and locked in a shipping container in Iraq for two days while employed by a subsidiary of Halliburton. Ms. Jones was present at the hearing. I will leave the commentary of Senator Franken's budding political career and those who opposed his amendment to others more qualified than myself. Read all the National News Coverage - OUTSTANDING VIDEOS: SENATOR FRANKEN IN COMMITTEE AND JAMIE LEIGH JONES

Press Release: Rep. Johnson calls for investigation of homebuilders
Rep. Hank Johnson (GA-04) urged Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker to investigate practices of homebuilders and their use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in a letter he sent the state's top lawyer. Citing the example of a Marietta couple (Greg & Kim Cole) who appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Feb. 2009, Johnson told Baker the family was devastated aftera $429,000 new home they purchased became so dangerously overrun with mold that "they were forced to sleep in cars, tents and friends' homes."

Franken's Binding Arbitration Amendment Passes, 30 Republicans Men Senators Voted Against The Amendment. All Women Senates Vote in Favor
...what happens when a similarly taxpayer-endowed contractor attempts to cover up employee-on-employee gang rape by locking up the victim in a shipping container without food and water and threatening her with reprisals if she report the incident? Somehow, it doesn't engender the same level of anger! ...introducing an amendment to the Cefense Appropriations bill that would punish contractors if they "restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court." HOW DID YOUR SENATOR VOTE?  Read all the National News Coverage

Senate Passes Amendment to Stop Contractors From Forcing Employees into Arbitration
Jamie Leigh Jones was a 20-year-old young woman working her fourth day on the job in Baghdad for contractor Halliburton/KBR in 2005, when she says she was drugged and gang-raped by seven U.S contractors and held captive by two KBR guards in a shipping container. But more than four years after the alleged crimes occurred, Jones is still waiting for her day in court because when she signed her employment contract, she lost her rights to a jury trial and, instead, was forced into having her claims decided through secret, binding arbitration.

House Pushes Ahead on Financial-Rules Overhaul
The House of Representatives will consider sweeping legislation rewriting the financial sector's rule book in November, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.), said Tuesday, boosting the chances that Congress will complete a regulatory overhaul this year.  Mr. Hoyer said the House Financial Services Committee would complete its work on legislation this month, and a wider debate on the House floor would occur next month. Many observers have increasingly said that it was unlikely the broad rewrite of financial regulations would be completed this year, in part because health-care legislation has taken longer to work through Congress than the Democratic majority had anticipated.

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111^th Congress - 1^st Session
To prohibit the use of funds for any Federal contract with Halliburton Company, KBR, Inc., any of their subsidiaries or affiliates, or any other contracting party if such contractor or a subcontractor at any tier under such contract requires that employees or independent contractors sign mandatory arbitration clauses regarding certain claims..This would  prohibit mandatory arbitration clauses such as the Halliburton Company, KBR, Inc., contract that was so devastating to Jamie Leigh Jones who was gang raped by the company employees. See bill...

State Regulators to Congress: End Mandatory Arbitration
Congress should prohibit mandatory, industry-run securities arbitration, and instead "offer a meaningful choice between binding arbitration and civil litigation," a leading state regulator told a Congressional panel today. Speaking at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on capital markets regulatory reform, Texas Securities Commissioner Denise V. Crawford, president of the North American Securities Administrators Assn. (NASAA), said that NASAA, a group of state regulators, believes the take-it-or-leave-it clause in brokerage contracts is "inherently unfair to investors," and that Congress "should prohibit the mandatory natures of securities arbitration." Instead, she said, the choice between binding arbitration and civil litigation "should be solely that of the investor."