A federal judge has ordered Bank of America to pay a $1.27 billion fine for fraud perpetrated by Countrywide Financial Corp., a mortgage company the bank acquired in 2008.
, a jury held Bank of America liable for bad loans Countrywide sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of its "Hustle" mortgage-lending program as the housing market soured in 2007 and 2008.
In his ruling Wednesday, Federal District Judge Jed Rakoff did not mince words.
Judge Orders Bank Of America To Pay $1.3 Billion Fine
Leading Sierra Leone doctor is second med worker to die of Ebola
Sierra Leone is in mourning after a leading virologist who risked his life to treat dozens of Ebola patients became the latest health care worker to die from the lethal virus, which has now killed more than 670 people across West Africa.
Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan was working at the Kenema Government Hospital in eastern Sierra Leone when Ebola broke out in the country for the first time this spring.
Fracking 'a huge load of hype', say Friends of the Earth
The government claims that tight restrictions in the new licences that have been made available to frack for shale gas across vast sheaths of the UK means areas of outstanding natural beauty and national parks will not be drilled, unless there are 'exceptional circumstances'.
A number of incentives to help kick-start the industry have also been included including tax breaks, payments of £100,000 per site plus a 1% share of revenue to local communities.
GOP Senate Candidate Caught Saying States Can Nullify Laws
“You know we have talked about this at the state legislature before, nullification. But, bottom line is, as U.S. Senator why should we be passing laws that the states are considering nullifying? Bottom line: our legislators at the federal level should not be passing those laws. We’re right…we’ve gone 200-plus years of federal legislators going against the Tenth Amendment’s states’ rights.
We are way overstepping bounds as federal legislators. So, bottom line, no we should not be passing laws as federal legislators—as senators or congressman—that the states would even consider nullifying. Bottom line.”
Bruce Enberg: We're not Fair and Balanced, we tell the truth
New unemployment claims dipped to 284,000 in the past week, and this is the lowest number since the week of February 18 2006. This was about the time that it became apparent that the Bush Depression was going to happen. History tells us that without significant gov't intervention it takes about ten years to recover from a Bank Panic, that's what they used to call these things prior to the New Deal that made bank crashes impossible to happen.
Of course Reagan, Bush, Clinton & Bush undid all of those regulations and safeguards with the predictable result.
So now we're seeing the recovery start to pick up speed, but let's be clear, it's not because Obama has been able to do much to fix things. He just hasn't done any new damage and has more or less kept the Republicans in check. Corporate America is another matter, despite record stock prices, record profits, record CEO salaries and trillions in cash on hand they are refusing to invest at pre-crash levels.
U.S. fighter jets escort plane back to Toronto
A 25-year-old Canadian man is in custody after two U.S. fighter jets escorted a Panama-bound flight back to Toronto on Friday.
The Sunwing plane was forced to turn around when a passenger said he wanted to bomb Canada, eyewitnesses reported. Flight 772 departed from Toronto at 7 a.m. Friday, heading toward Panama City with 181 passengers, two infants and a crew of six on board.
Fire at fracking fluid storage site in North Dakota sparks concerns
-North Dakota's Health Department said it's surveying air quality near the site of a fire at an industrial park in Williston, the heart of the state's oil patch.
Chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing caught fire at an industrial warehouse in Williston. Officials said they're going to let the fire burn out on its own because pouring water on the blaze would create a secondary problem for nearby waterways.
Scientist: "We Are Living in the Steroid Era of the Climate System"
June 2014 has become the second consecutive record-setting month for heat, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday. The averge global temperature last month was 61.2°F (16.2°C), which is 0.2°F than 2010, the previously hottest June, and 1.3° degrees higher than the 20th century average. It is the 352nd hotter than average month in a row.
Derek Arndt, NOAA's climate monitoring chief, said unusually hot oceans — especially the Pacific and Indian oceans — were the driving force behind June's heat.
"We are living in the steroid era of the climate system," Arndt said.
MH17 plane crash: Ukraine rebels hand over black boxes
Rebels in eastern Ukraine have handed over two flight-data recorders from the downed MH17 plane to Malaysian experts.
A senior rebel leader signed them over to the Malaysian officials at a meeting in the city of Donetsk. The handover came hours after the UN Security Council voted unanimously to demand immediate international access to the crash site.
The Malaysian Airlines passenger jet crashed last Thursday, killing all 298 people on board.
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