A disbarred Clearwater lawyer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy and wire fraud, admitting he stole millions in a real estate scheme. ...more

December 19, 2007

TAMPA A - disbarred Clearwater lawyer pleaded guilty this morning to conspiracy and wire fraud, admitting he stole millions in a real estate scheme. Graham Kligerman, 33, was disbarred two years ago. When his law practice was failing, according to court documents and a federal prosecutor, he diverted money from the real estate scheme to himself and his law practice clients. ...more

December 18, 2007

Most Americans feel compassionate about anyone facing foreclosure. Witnessing more than a million people staring down foreclosure due to home mortgages leaves all us wanting to save people from this sad situation. But before we spend billions in taxpayer dollars for a bailout, we need to consider how this happened in the first place. When we do that, we'll see that most of the people losing their houses never should have qualified for a home loan in the first place, and that predatory lenders are to blame for most of this mess. The Bush administration reached a deal with mortgage bankers to freeze interest rates on some sub-prime mortgages for five years. Other limitations apply, and only about 225,000 people will benefit from it. In fact, it's fair to say that if these homeowners are already in trouble, freezing interest rates won't help much – if at all. ...more

December 9, 2007