Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. The Obama administration threatened the City of Richmond over its groundbreaking anti-foreclosure program, saying it will choke off mortgage lending in the city if it goes forward with its plan to use eminent domain to help homeowners stay in their homes, the LA Times$ reports. The warning by the Federal Housing Finance Agency also is designed to scare off other cities from following Richmond’s lead. Last month, Richmond became the first municipality in the nation to adopt a program in which the city plans to seize mortgages of homeowners who are badly underwater and refinance the mortgages so that people don’t lose their homes to foreclosure. Big banks, however, adamantly oppose the plan and sued earlier this week to block it.
