Trump escalates his attacks on cultural institutes
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Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Fed Found Over 22,000 Mortgages Like Those Pulte Is Flagging
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump and his allies are demanding Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook resign over alleged owner-occupancy fraud — a practice the central bank itself has found to be 'broad-based' across the US. Philadelphia Fed researchers in a 2023 report assessed the number of 'fraudulent investors' in the mortgage market, which they defined as those who had more than one owner-occupied home purchase loan within four quarters after the first one was originated. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has said that Cook took a mortgage on a property in Ann Arbor, Michigan, stipulating that it would be her primary residence, and then two weeks later declared the same for another mortgage on a Georgia property. Why New York City Has a Fleet of New EVs From a Dead Carmaker Trump Takes Second Swing at Cutting Housing Assistance for Immigrants Chicago Schools Seeks $1 Billion of Short-Term Debt as Cash Gone A London Apartment Tower With Echoes of Victorian Rail and Ancient Rome The paper's data set consists of 584,499 loans made from 2005 to 2017. Of those, 22,431 were considered fraudulent. The share of those claiming occupancy for better mortgage terms peaked ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, though remained steady for much of the ensuing decade at about 2% to 3%. The findings are based on a subsample of data, meaning the number of mortgages fitting the central bank's criteria could be higher. The researchers also caution that there are likely cases of accidental occupancy fraud, such as when borrowers were unable to sell their original home because of a worse-than-expected real estate market. Scrutinizing the mortgages of Cook, who was nominated to the Fed by former President Joe Biden, appears to be the latest way in which Trump and his allies are using novel methods to pressure the central bank to lower interest rates. The president said Wednesday that Cook 'must resign now,' while Pulte claimed his accusations give him 'cause to fire' her. If she were forced out, it would create another opening for Trump to appoint someone who would likely push for more aggressive rate cuts. Pulte said 'anybody can go look at these public documents' from Cook in a CNBC interview Wednesday. He cited four criminal statutes for Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe for potential charges. No charges have been filed and it's not clear whether she will investigate. Ronel Elul, a senior economic adviser and economist at the Philadelphia Fed who co-authored the 2023 report, didn't elaborate beyond what was in the paper when reached for comment. The Fed declined to comment. Cook, in a statement Wednesday, said she has 'no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet.' She added that she is 'gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.' David Joffe, a federal criminal defense attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said in his experience, occupancy cases are rare. Still, 'like anything else, if you look at it under a microscope you're bound to find something that's wrong,' he said in an interview. Mortgage fraud cases tend to relate to overstating assets and income rather than misstating a primary residence, said Stephen Cazares, a former federal prosecutor who's now a defense lawyer at Foundation Law Group. Those based solely on a home being falsely identified as a primary residence are 'unusual' but 'not unheard of,' he said. They're rare because the theoretical loss to a financial institution is lower in cases based on primary residence, where the lender 'basically got cheated out of a higher interest rate' rather than the value of the home, Cazares said. The Philadelphia Fed report found that about a third of all property investors misrepresent their status as owner-occupants. It found that doing so allowed them to obtain lower interest rates and higher loan-to-value ratios. 'This type of fraud is difficult to detect until long after the mortgage has been originated,' the researchers said in their paper. Cook's mortgages in question were from 2021. Trump's administration has also made mortgage fraud allegations against California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both are Democrats and political foes of Trump. --With assistance from Erik Larson. (Updates with Cook statement starting in ninth paragraph.) Foreigners Are Buying US Homes Again While Americans Get Sidelined What Declining Cardboard Box Sales Tell Us About the US Economy Women's Earnings Never Really Recover After They Have Children Survived Bankruptcy. Next Up: Cultural Relevance? Americans Are Getting Priced Out of Homeownership at Record Rates ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Local candidates certified for November election
Aug. 20—Ironton council, school board races will be competitive this election Candidates for local offices were certified on Friday and there are several races with more candidates than open seats and at least one race where a person will have to be appointed to fill a position. The race with the most competition this year is the Ironton School Board race with a pair open seats and four times as that many candidates. Trending * A servant to the public and to God (WITH GALLERY) * In memoriam — Ruby Kerns School Board Races —By far, the most candidates running for open seats is the Ironton School Board, which has two open seats and eight candidates, including two incumbents, Rae Ann Whitt and Kevin Hacker and six new candidates, Sasha Riley, Michael Burcham, Walt DeLong, Brian Pauley, Hugh Scott and John Hammonds. —In the race for Chesapeake school board's two open seat, there is one incumbent, Bobby Hamlin and one new candidate, Jeremy Estep. —At Dawson-Bryant, there are three seats with three incumbents running for another term, Robert Mulkey, who was appointed, Brady Harrison and Debra Hammond and one new candidate, Shanna Murphy. —At Fairland, there are three seats and three candidates including incumbents Jeff Bennett and Martin Appleton and one new candidate, Eric Salyers. Trending * Stuck in the middle with you * TPC Wellness maintains garden at facility —At Rock Hill, there are two open seats and one candidate, incumbent Dennis Hankins. —At South Point, there are two open school board seats and two candidates are incumbents, Tifanie Arbogast and Kevin Southall, who was appointed. —At Symmes Valley, there are three open seats and four candidates, incumbents Uriah Cade and Derek Wilson and two challengers, Montana Runnels and Lacy Kauffman. —At the Education Service Center, there are three open seats and two incumbent candidates, Phil Carpenter and Jamie Murphy, who was appointed. Council Races —In the race for Ironton City Council, there are four open seats and six candidates. There are three incumbents running again, Bob Cleary, Nate Kline and Craig Harvey. George McClavin, Sarah Simmons and Troy Scott are running for council for the first time. —For the South Point Village Council, there are four open seats and six candidates, including incumbents David Classing and James Adkins. New candidates are Sandra Daniel, Maria Chapman, Robert Payne and Charles Withrow. —For the Athalia Village Council, there are four open seats and only three candidates, incumbent Hope Johnson and Deborah Blevins, who was appointed, and new candidate, Andrea Shafer. —For the Coal Grove Village Council, there are four open seats with new candidate, Nick McKnight and three incumbents running, Gregory Massie, as well as Michael McKenzie and Dianna Wise, both of whom were appointed, are all running. —For the Chesapeake Village Council, there are four open seats and only two candidates, incumbents Christina Parsons and Lisa Blake, both of whom were appointed. —For the Proctorville Village Council, there are four open seats and three candidates, incumbent John Mayes and two new candidates, Daniel Swann and Courtney Chapman. Township Trustee Races In most of the township races, the candidates have already served as a trustee. All the trustee races have two open seats. —In Aid Township, incumbents Brian Pancake and George Gabriel Patterson are running for another term. —In Decatur Township, incumbents Ronnie Cox and Timothy Blagg are running for another term. —In Elizabeth Township, incumbents Steve Wilds and Riley Cox are running for another term. —In Fayette Township, incumbents Mike Jones and Travis Wise are running for another term. —In Hamilton Township, incumbents Bob Blankenship and Forrest Kerns Jr. are running for another term. —In Mason Township, incumbents Jeff Odie Estep and Stephen Colegrove are running for another term. —In Perry Township, incumbents Barry Blankenship and George Row are running for another term. —In Rome Township, incumbents Brian Pinkerman and Mark Bailey are running for another term and Ashley Salyer, who was appointed to the position is running to fill the term until 2028. —In Symmes Township, incumbents Ronald Hatfield and Sammy Mitchell are running again and Jason DeLawder is seeking one of the open seats. —In Union Township, incumbents Jason Forbush and Haskell Scott Webb, who was appointed are running for another term. —In Upper Township, incumbents Randall Wise and Tony Sites are running for another term. —In Washing Township, incumbents Jerry Kelly and Robert Jenkins are running for another term. —In Washington Township, incumbents Robert Burcham and Robert Jenkins are competing against Brian Williams for the two open seats. The local options that will appear on the November ballot are being certified by the state and will be available soon. The Ohio General Election will be Tuesday, Nov 4. You Might Like Gallery A servant to the public and to God (WITH GALLERY) News In memoriam — Ruby Kerns Education Stuck in the middle with you Business TPC Wellness maintains garden at facility Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
8 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump isn't trying to ‘erase history' at Smithsonian — he's reversing a destructive woke takeover
Liberals were up in arms this week after President Trump said he wanted a review of the Smithsonian Institute — saying their displays were too negative, and too focused on slavery. But Trump isn't trying to 'erase history,' he's looking to reverse a woke movement that has indeed rewritten the American story to highlight suffering rather than providing a balanced picture of our past. Trump's criticism that the Smithsonian is overly focused on slavery is not unreasonable: In nearly every exhibit, critical race theory in general, or slavery specifically, makes an appearance. For instance, its new Benjamin Franklin exhibit on his innovations includes a whole section on slavery — with assumptions, but no proof, that slaves assisted Franklin in his electrical innovations. Even if they hadn't, the curators argue that without their work around the house, Franklin couldn't have spent the time on his experiments! 'Franklin held people enslaved during the time he pursued his electrical experiments. Their labor in his household helped make time that he could use to study electricity. Family, friends, and visitors directly participated in electrical experiments. The records are few and unclear, but enslaved people may also have directly assisted his research.' Another example of the obsession with slavery comes from the National Portrait Gallery; nearly every early Founding Father's description includes a statement on slavery. For example, the description for Thomas Jefferson includes the statement: 'Although Jefferson once called slavery 'an abominable crime,' he consistently enslaved African Americans, including his late wife Martha's half-sister, Sally Hemings, with whom he had several children.' The overemphasis on the history of slavery is a fairly recent development, an offshoot of the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2019, Lonnie G. Bunch III took over as the Secretary of the Smithsonian. Prior to that, Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is nearly exclusively focused on the legacy of slavery, with exhibits such as In Slavery's Wake, Slavery and Freedom, and Make Good the Promise, which deal with the history of slavery. Also in 2019, the Smithsonian collaborated with the New York Times on its 1619 Project, which falsely claims that the United States started, not with the Declaration of Independence or Revolutionary War, but when the first slave ship arrived. As curator Mary Elliot remarked at the time: 'This is a shared history, everyone inherited the legacies of slavery.' But America's history is more than just about slavery, and not everyone inherited this legacy — after all, America is also a nation of immigrants who came after the Civil War. In the Smithsonian 2020 annual report, more obsession with slavery comes into view. The Smithsonian is on a mission to have a completely searchable digital museum called 'The Searchable Museum Initiative.' One may think it would begin with digitization of some our greatest moments in history, such as the landing on the moon, the passing of the US Constitution, or even its great Natural History collections. You would be wrong; the digitization began 'with the museum's Slavery and Freedom exhibition.' The annual report claims that 'The Searchable Museum will provide rich, interactive, digital experiences that match the immersive experience of a visit to the physical museum' — unfortunately, likely as biased as a visit to the museum themselves. The problem with modern museums is not just about the obsession with slavery; it's also about dishonestly painting all of American history as evil and full of horrors — with little or no redeeming qualities. For instance, in the Smithsonian's American Indian Museum in NYC, George Washington hardly gets a mention, but his silhouette is used in a description of him as a 'town destroyer' — supposedly a nickname that Native Americans still use to describe our first President. And yet there's no mention in either of the American Indian Museums — in NYC or DC — about slavery practiced by Native Americans, both before Europeans' arrival and afterward. For example, the Cherokee owned slaves. In 1835, 15,000 Cherokee owned 1,592 African slaves; by the Civil War onset, 17,000 Cherokee owned 4,000 African slaves. While museums should provide an honest account of history, they should not be afraid to showcase and celebrate American achievement, which includes ending slavery. At present, however, museums seem more interested in pushing a woke, revisionist history of the United States. With two new Smithsonian museums in development, the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, we can expect more of the same — unless we take action against woke propaganda now. Elizabeth Weiss is a professor emeritus of anthropology at San José State University and author of 'On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors.'
