
The Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 19 that the Obama administration was pushing heavily to get the 50 state attorneys general to agree to a settlement with five major banks in the “robo-signing” scandal. The settlement would let Wall Street bankers off the hook for crimes that would land the rest of us in jail.

Martha Biggs and her four children – displaced like so many others from Cabrini Green and currently homeless – will be moving into a house at King and 72nd Street near Meyering Park, two years vacant and foreclosed on by one of the top four banks responsible for home foreclosure in Chicago: Deutsche Bank.

Labeled a crime fighting tool, gang injunctions are ineffective, counter-productive and further strain the relationship between residents and police. Pack the courtroom Friday, May 6, 2 p.m., 1225 Fallon, Dept. 20, Oakland, for a hearing on the Fruitvale gang injunction.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters and the African American members of the House Financial Services Committee were recently honored by the NNPA – the Black Press of America – for their work to strengthen the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Eight young people, who the Fire Department said were “trying to stay warm,” perished in a raging fire during the night of Dec. 28 in New Orleans. Will we look into our abandoned buildings and look into the eyes of our abandoned daughters and sons and sisters and brothers? Will our nation address unemployment, high housing costs and low wages? Or will the fires continue and the lives end?

Christmas in Richmond is an event which feeds and clothes people who are less fortunate than others. It started in 2006 by one family’s unselfishness around the holiday season.

The original owner of the home is sitting in the catbird seat and doesn’t know it. Millions of people who THINK they have lost their homes still own them. If we the people pick up the tab for more Wall Street bankruptcies, we should insist on owning the banks.

Foreclosures are soaring. Some housing experts say 4 million foreclosures are possible in 2010. To fight back, organizations across the U.S. are engaging in “housing liberation” and “housing defense” to exercise their human rights to housing. Here are a few examples.

It is time for a revolution. Government does not work for regular people. It appears to work quite well for big corporations, banks, insurance companies, military contractors, lobbyists, and for the rich and powerful. But it does not work for people.

“I applaud and welcome the passage of H.R. 4173, The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” declared Congresswoman Barbara Lee, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), several of whose members, led by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, were responsible for the bill’s key provisions. “Nobody has more at stake here than Black America,” says Kai Wright, senior writer for The Root.

I believe healthcare, housing and education are basic human rights, not privileges. Nancy Pelosi, my opponent, can come up with $850 billion when her buddies need it; now, my buddies, THE PEOPLE, need a bailout!

Banco de Venezuela is one of the most important banks in Venezuela, with a 12 percent share of the market in loans and obtained profits of US$170 million in the first half of 2008, a 29 percent increase on 2007, when its profits had already increased by 20 percent. It has 285 offices and 3 million customers. Banco de Venezuela was nationalized in 1994 after a massive banking crisis which bankrupted 60 percent of the banking sector, only to be privatized in 1996 and bought by the Spanish multinational banking group Grupo Santander for only US$300 million. In only nine months Grupo Santander recovered its original investment.