Foreclosure Crisis Banks and Government Fail Homeowners (File photo, Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images) Written by Paul Kiel Late last year, the country’s bank regulators launched a massive program to evaluate millions of foreclosure cases and compensate…
No Income? No Problem! Steve Lance put both his sons through college by taking out federal Parent Plus loans. Like many parents, he’s now deeply in debt. (Mark Abramson for The Chronicle) By Marian Wang,…
Written by Olga Pierce (File, Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) David Heath of the Center for Public Integrity recently investigated a new breed of corporate dental care chains that cater to low-income adults and children. Heath collaborated with…
Foreclosure Fail: Study Pins Blame on Big Banks A study by government and academic researchers finds that approximately 800,000 homeowners missed out on mortgage modifications because of big banks’ poor performance. (David Zalubowski/AP Photo) Written…
Rhode Island financial planner and lawyer Joseph Caramadre is the subject of a 66-count federal indictment relating to investments in variable annuities and corporate bonds. (Matthew Healey for ProPublica) Written by Jake Bernstein Joseph Caramadre…
By Blair Hickman (iStockPhoto) This week, we launched Nursing Home Inspect, an interactive tool that lets you search more than 20,000 inspection reports from nursing homes nationwide. Below is a sampling of the types of…
(iStockPhoto) by Charles Ornstein and Lena Groeger In February 2011, a nursing home resident in Michigan wandered away in a blizzard, unnoticed by staff. He was wearing only pajama pants, a sweater, canvas shoes and…
Written by Peter Maass and Megha Rajagopalan In a phone call with reporters today, senior FTC official David Vladeck, above, said the trade commission was investigating Google “well before” the company was outed by published…
Written by Suevon Lee ProPublica Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, releases a report flagging high rates of loan default, aggressive recruiting practices and higher than average tuition,…
(File photo by Mel Evans/AP Photo) Much like the mortgage market, the market for private student loans has gone through a big boom and a messy bust. Some banks and lenders played fast and loose…
Linda Carswell poses at the Langham High School track by a memorial plaque for her husband. Her lobbying and testimony played a crucial role in the Jerry Carswell Memorial Act, a new informed consent for…
Written by Cora Currier (Getty Images) Last week, the British bank Barclays was slapped with $450 million in fines and penalties for manipulating information used to set a critical interest rate. Settlements filed by government…
Francisco Reynoso, with his wife Silvia and daughter Evelyn in the background, co-signed for his son’s student loans. When his son Freddy was killed in a car accident after graduating from college, Reynoso not only…
by Paul Kiel Yesterday, administration officials stood alongside state attorneys general to announce a $25 billion mortgage settlement. It was reminiscent of a big announcement by administration officials three Februarys ago involving an even bigger…
(Andres Cediel/Frontline) by Chisun Lee and A.C. Thompson, ProPublica, and Carl Byker, PBS “Frontline”Nothing, it seemed, was unusual about Joseph Shepter’s death. A retired U.S. government scientist, Shepter spent his final two years dwelling in…
Written by Marian Wang As Congress tries to deal with its long list of unfinished business, among the top and most contentious items has been the proposed extension of the payroll-tax cut. It has certainly…
Written by Paul Keil This Treasury Department data shows how the largest mortgage servicers participating in the administration’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention program have been performing. Banking regulators this week launched the government’s latest attempt to help…
Written by Jesse Eisinger Back when the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was doing its work, I would check in periodically with someone who worked there to find out how it was going. “Good news!” my source would…
Written by Paul Kiel Why has the administration’s flagship foreclosure prevention program been so ineffective in helping struggling homeowners get loan modifications and stay in their homes? One reason: The government’s supervision of the program…
by Lois Beckett (Rui Vieira/PA Wire, AP Images) As we reported last week, many states have failed to implement simple and effective checks for teacher cheating. Scandals involving cheating by teachers and schools to pump…