Read All About It In the Sunday Papers-June 7, 2009

Lead Story-The (UK) Independent: How the Freedom of Information Act and Investigative Journalism Brought Down the British Government

And, yes, this is precisely how El Somnambulo hopes that Delaware journalists will use their new access once HB 1 becomes law:

Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, in his first interview since the staggering scale of the abuse of public money by MPs first emerged four weeks ago, said the “controversy” demonstrated the true power of the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr Thomas described the three-year struggle to publish MPs’ expenses as a complex legal saga involving a battle against “powerful forces”. He said: “The combination of the Freedom of Information Act and journalism had brought home the importance of transparency and accountability.”

The local media will soon have the tools to look into what has gone on behind closed doors for decades in Delaware. Please use them.

Washington Post: Why GM Is Doomed

They still believe in gaz-guzzling “sexy cars with charisma”:

If you were to believe that (GM Vice-Chair Bob)Lutz commissioned the Volt because he thinks the environment needs to be saved from carbon dioxide emissions, or that the United States has a moral obligation to lead a greening of the planet, you would be wrong. “If you look at most of the mainstream media, you get the impression that 95 percent of Americans today want a vehicle like the Chevrolet Volt or a [hybrid such as the] Toyota Prius,” says Lutz, until recently the former head of GM’s global product development and nowadays the company’s vice chairman and senior adviser. “And that, by God, the reason General Motors is in trouble, is that we have not offered a vehicle like that. But when you look at the reality, at today’s fuel prices, most Americans still want a conventional car.”

Why the Volt then? “Because it is an important symbol. We need it. It has a chance to change our image,” he says.

Got that? The reason GM is in bankruptcy has nothing to do with making cars that people don’t want to buy. Take it from Bob Lutz. He should know. He “drives a gas-thirsty 2009 Corvette, a dream car of muscle lovers.” He’s just like you and me. Except he makes about $40 mill a year.

NYTimes: How Wells Fargo Steered Blacks to Subprime Loans

They steered ’em to subprime loans even when the clients qualified for prime loans:

Wells Fargo, Ms. Jacobson said in an interview, saw the black community as fertile ground for subprime mortgages, as working-class blacks were hungry to be a part of the nation’s home-owning mania. Loan officers, she said, pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages. Another loan officer stated in an affidavit filed last week that employees had referred to blacks as “mud people” and to subprime lending as “ghetto loans.”

“We just went right after them,” said Ms. Jacobson, who is white and said she was once the bank’s top-producing subprime loan officer nationally. “Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches, because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans.”

…The New York Times, in a recent analysis of mortgage lending in New York City, found that black households making more than $68,000 a year were nearly five times as likely to hold high-interest subprime mortgages as whites of similar or even lower incomes. (The disparity was greater for Wells Fargo borrowers, as 2 percent of whites in that income group hold subprime loans and 16.1 percent of blacks.)

“We’ve known that African-Americans and Latinos are getting subprime loans while whites of the same credit profile are getting the lower-cost loans,” said Eric Halperin, director of the Washington office of the Center for Responsible Lending. “The question has been why, and the gory details of this complaint may provide an answer.”

Let us not forget that banks like Wells Fargo and other ‘responsible’ lending institutions have been aided and abetted by the Tom Carpers of the world, who made it much more difficult for people victimized by these banking scams to declare, and emerge from, bankruptcy. The Beast Who Slumbers may just have to lumber on over to the Department of Elections website later today to see just how Wells Fargo showed its ‘appreciation’ to the fiscally-responsible Senator from Delaware. After all, as Dick Durbin said, they “run the place”.

LA Times: Could Ahmadinejad Lose Power in Iran?

Incisive and detailed analysis by the Times’ Borzou Daragahi into behind-the-scenes maneuvering before this week’s elections in Iran:

In addition to protecting their own considerable financial and political interests, which include control of key segments of foreign trade, private education and agriculture, Ahmadinejad’s behind-the-scenes opponents fear that a win by the incumbent will further isolate Iran internationally, weaken the middle class and give more power to the military and the Revolutionary Guard.

“We can’t run Iran like North Korea,” said Saeed Laylaz, a newspaper editor and analyst with contacts among the political elite. “A group of militarists cannot stuff this civilization into a can and put it away. Iran cannot make up for its lack of economic might with nuclear technology, missiles and proxy threats in Lebanon and Palestine and elsewhere.”

The behind-the-scenes maneuvering is an illustration of how power works within Iran’s complicated and fractured circle of power. But it also shows how much division Ahmadinejad has sown within the ruling establishment, where he is a lightning rod for anger and resentment from formidable political heavyweights among moderates and conservatives.

This is must-reading for those looking to really understand Iran as opposed to merely equating Ahmadinejad to Iran. It’s much more complicated than that.

San Francisco Chronicle: Schwarzenegger Considers Offshore Drilling to Help Plug Budget Gap

No, not a complete reversal of his previous opposition. This is actually a complicated story well-told by the Chronicle’s David Baker:

California law still blocks new oil drilling in waters controlled by the state, within 3 miles of shore. But the Tranquillon Ridge project would take advantage of a little-known and extremely specific loophole that allows tapping an oil field in state waters if some of the oil seeps into a federally controlled field, beyond the 3-mile line. Few other oil fields identified along California’s coast fit that description.

Many of the state’s leading environmental organizations support this proposal, but it is ironically complicated by an environmentally-friendly bureaucracy.

El Somnambulo also included this story for another reason entirely. While California is trying to do the right thing here,  it is a virtual certainty that not all states faced with major budgetary shortfalls will act in a responsible manner. Readers should keep their eyes open for long-term negative policy changes enacted to address short-term financial shortfalls. 

Chicago Tribune: Inspector General Stands Up to Mayor Daley

This, boys and girls, is how a State Auditor should function:

“I’m running this office as an independent entity — period,” he (Inspector General David Hoffman) said. “People need to believe that you’re independent of every other part of city government. Especially the mayor.”

Hoffman has demonstrated his independence despite having been appointed by the mayor to a four-year term in 2005. Needless to say, a reappointment is certainly questionable.

However, he demonstrates the essential role an auditor can and should play. In a state with as much political and financial in-breeding as Delaware, there is no excuse for having an auditor who doesn’t audit, except for the classic ‘low-hanging fruit’. Wow, school administrators are overpaid? Who knew?

If Delaware is ever to have a progressive government that works for all its citizens, an independent auditor with both determination and investigative know-how will be essential.

Delaware needs its own David Hoffman.