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February 15, 2011

Hundreds of Deportable Criminal Aliens Released

Posted by Van Helsing at February 15, 2011 10:07 AM

As Janet Napolitano would say, the system is working — by releasing hundreds of criminal aliens onto our streets:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to identify more than 800 criminal alien convicts eligible for deportation before they were released from U.S. prisons, including “many” of “the most egregious criminal aliens, who pose a significant pubic safety risk,” according to a report by the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

According to the report, released on Feb. 4, ICE’s Criminal Alien Program, or CAP, “is responsible for identifying criminal aliens incarcerated in federal, state, and local prisons and jails who are eligible for removal from the United States.”

In fiscal year 2009, CAP failed to identify 890 criminal aliens eligible for removal from the United States, according to the report. These criminals had been incarcerated in facilities in Texas and California and were released back into U.S. society.

A criminal alien eligible for removal is a person who is in the United States illegally and is subsequently convicted of a crime or was a legal permanent resident convicted of a removable offense, such as murder and other felonies.

It’s reassuring that even if sneaking into our country illegally is not grounds for removal, at least committing murder after you’ve done so technically is — provided ICE does its job.

“Many of the 890 criminals are believed to have been Level 1 recidivist criminals,” the report added. “Level 1 are the most egregious criminal aliens, who pose a significant pubic safety risk.” …

The audit blamed the “non-identification” of the 890 aliens specifically on ICE agent “staffing challenges” …

The main “staffing challenge” is that no agency is likely to be functional when those at the top of the bureaucratic pyramid have been selected by Comrade Obama, who obviously has no interest in keeping Democrat constituencies out of the country.

According to the report, ICE may have missed vetting some incarcerated criminal aliens eligible for removal because agents are not required to record aliens’ immigration status.

Without recording this information, ICE certainly won’t be deporting all deportable Reconquistadors. But then, with the border unsecured, they would just bounce back anyway. Because our rulers don’t want the border respected, the entire immigration bureaucracy is a sham, existing only so that the Obama Misadministration has a lame excuse to forbid states from enforcing the law.

As the coin was tossed to kick off Superbowl XLV, Anonymous unleashed their anger at a security firm who had been investigating their membership.

HBGary Federal had been working on unmasking their identities in cooperation with an FBI investigation into the attacks against companies who were cutting off WikiLeaks access and financing.

Unlike the DDoS attacks for which Anonymous has made headlines in recent months, this incident involved true hacking skills. Anonymous compromised the HBGary website and replaced it with an image explaining their motivation. In addition to the defacement, they downloaded over 60,000 emails from the company and posted them on The Pirate Bay.

The Twitter account of HBGary’s CEO, Aaron Barr, was also compromised and tweeted multiple offensive messages, as well as his home address, social security number and cell phone. According to Forbes, the LinkedIn accounts of other HBGary executives were compromised “in minutes.”

The research, which HBGary was preparing to sell to the FBI and which allegedly contains names, addresses and other information on Anonymous, was also posted as part of the attack. Anonymous maintains the information is largely bogus and says they are providing it publicly to prove it.

A writer for the DailyKos claims that, in addition to the other damages, Anonymous also deleted the firm’s backups.

From a legal perspective, Anonymous had better hope they remain anonymous. The criminal activities outlined by their own bragging could get them some serious prison time in the US, UK and other countries with strict cybersecurity laws.

While we do not know the methods employed (perhaps Anonymous will tell us that as well) it is a good time to review the basics of security. Audit your own sites, never use the same password on more than one site and try to maintain separation of privileges to prevent the compromise of one account from affecting all of your services.

As of the time of this post hbgary.com is still offline.

Update: According to information from krebsonsecurity.com it appears HBGary was victimized by a combination of social engineering and a shared password between systems. Training employees on the proper verification of identity before exposing secure systems is an essential part of a corporate security program. Staff who feel they need to take any action when someone important like a company executive is apparently asking for help can create disastrous results. The CEO and founders must be subjected to the same rules as everyone else. Employees challenging their superiors should be praised rather than chastised when they follow the policy.

A penetration tester has many roles to perform in order to get the job done correctly. There are different types of penetration testing. A full, unknown test where the tester knows the company name and that's it and the company of course has contracted for this tester to try and penetrate their network. However, usually only a handful of company employees know of the test and its parameters. The purpose of a test like this is to see if the company's perimeter and data can be breached by an outsider. This type of “pen test” as it's commonly referred to is a long term test that should set off internal company alerts and procedures if they have a solid policy in place and if these controls are in working order. The second kind of testing is from the inside - out. This happens when the pen tester knows the network architecture, has been afforded some level of internal access already and is simply looking around at network devices, servers and storage facilities and the people managing these to see if there are software or policy holes that can be compromised. Of course, the first scenario is the sexiest of them all, and all penetration testers really enjoy the challenge of a “hack”, especially when also being paid to perform the service. Let's take a few minutes to talk about the penetration test and how one would work. We'll also discuss how much something like this would cost.

So your company contacts a Certified Penetration Tester (CPT) or a Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) to see how well your network would withstand an attempted data breach. The pen test has several components, and often will last 3-6 months, depending on the size and scope of your network, employee strength and how in-depth the test is going to be. The pen tester will start out with no current knowledge of the network, not its name, layout, anything. They will start the process with looking up publicly available information from many sources such as Dun & Bradstreet, Google, Yahoo Finance, Domain Registration searches, etc. The purpose of this information gathering is to see what the company does (to ascertain the value of the data) and to see what information about network names, IP addresses, corporate officers and other important information is readily available. This gives us a base as to where to start. The next step of many pen testers is to attempt some social engineering. This is where we call different, targeted people in your office and try and trick them into giving us information. A common ploy is to call and say “this is John from tech support/help desk and somehow we messed up your login account. What was your log in ID? Did you have beagle as your password? No? Dang it, sorry about that, what did you have so we can reset that for you?”

Now, to many of us in the IT field, or just with common business acumen, we think we'd hear something like those statements and immediately know not to give out that information. The reality is, many people are tied up in their day, busy with things on their mind and the last thing they want is to think they're going to have troubles logging in and out of their computer to get their job done. On those occasions where someone is smart enough to not give out this information, the tester would simply call someone else within the company and continue to try and glean this information. What also should happen, though, is the person who did not give out information should be contacting their information technology department to alert them of the attempted social attack, which should set off policies or procedures the company should have in place to defend against such attacks.

Now, social engineering isn't the only step in information gathering. There are other methods used to glen information from people, such as posting to public bulletin boards online as a disgruntled employee to see if others will join in and give you information. You may also get a current employee to log on and defend the company, giving you another target of social engineering. Another method is to hang around the company lobby ride the elevators up and down to potentially overhear corporate conversations that shouldn't be held in the elevators in the first place. Pen testers have also been known to follow employees for lunch to listen to their lunch time complaining sessions to also see what information can be gleaned. So as you can see, this part of the process can be quite time consuming and lengthy, but is what a “black hat hacker” would do (a black hat is someone who is out to steal your data for profit, a white hat hacker is a certified professional who is trying to help you, such as your pen tester or CEH).

The next step is to start mapping out the network. There are many tools available to “footprint” your network, the most commonly used being NMAP. This tool in the wrong hands can be deadly to your network, as it not only maps out your network, it can be used to launch attacks as well. Once your network topology is mapped, then the process of trying to break into the data begins. If we already know a user id/password from our social engineering session, we simply try that and see if we can get it. If not, we try and download the SAM file (security file in a windows server holding credential information) and see if we can crack it for the information that it holds. There are also other methods of gaining access to a server, or at the very least, denying you, the rightful owner, access to the machine. In some cases where a hacker is not successful in breaking into the server, there are methods such as MIB walking, SMB walking, etc that can afford the hacker the opportunity to make a change in the server so hard to discover, yet takes the server out of commission. While he may not have access to your data, at that point you don't either. Without a valid data backup, you're in just as much trouble. Both times, the attacker was successful in some way and your company lost money. This part of the process on paper looks easy, but in fact cracking password files with a high end computer can take weeks or months even in some cases, and trying brute force attempts at breaking into servers also are time consuming.

One thing is this; the hacker doesn't have to spend his time constantly trying to get in. Once he has a certain level of information about you, and about your company, he can set software to do the work. While the ongoing attack against passwords, he can also be continuing his social engineering attack against your company's employees to try and gain more access. Some employees can access things that others cannot on your network. The more information the hacker has and the more login ID's he has to try, the better his chances are at getting into something critical.

The most common thing that I hear from companies is this: “We don't have anything a hacker could use so no one would want to break into our system”. Let me clear this up right now, EVERY company has something a hacker wants and that is information. You probably have your payroll or employee records computerized, which is great for ID theft of your employees ID. You might have customer information, again great for ID theft.

How much does a penetration test cost the client? Depending on size and scope, they could run from $3k or $4k up to $100k. One thing I would caution a company to be wary of is this: how much would a data loss or network breach cost you in real money having things fixed, or in customer faith in you that you can keep your data private if the breach were to become public knowledge. Ask many of these banks if a $50K pen test would have been worth the money instead of all the negative publicity they received from people knowing their accounts could have been compromised or were compromised.

Let me tell you a quick story to end this article. A security professional was called in to help a police detective figure out how and who stole money from a small concrete business. Over $50k was stolen from a bank account with checks made payable to someone they didn't know. The police suspected a clerk in the office had printed these checks up and was cashing them. They wanted the security professional to track the movements of the employee on the network to prove they had accessed the system and printed out these checks.

During the security audit, the professional found that indeed the login id/password of the suspected employee had accessed the accounting software and had these checks printed. What was overlooked by the police, however, is the IP from which the employee was logged in, and the time and data stamps had been modified. It was ultimately proven the employee was guilty of nothing more than having a weak network password that had been compromised by an attacker. That attacker gain access to the appropriate software and was able to create a fake employee into the system, and the automatic payroll complete with direct deposit to an offshore account was created. The company had been paying this fake employee a salary for almost 3 months at a very high wage and no one questioned it simply because “he was in the computer so it must be right”. As you can see no data was stolen, in fact data was added to the company. But some very real money was stolen. The hacker who did this has never been caught to date and much of that is because the company thought they had nothing worth stealing in their computers, and they didn't have the appropriate logging methodology and safeguards in place.

What does your company have to steal? You may contact the author if you need guidance and assistance.

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As overseas electronics manufacturer Foxconn continues to come under fire for a number of suicides over the last year, Apple has officially commented on the matter and revealed that it plans to carry out its own independent investigations.

“We are saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn,” the company said in a public statement. “Apple is deeply committed to ensuring that conditions throughout our supply chain are safe and workers are treated with respect and dignity. We are in direct contact with Foxconn senior management and we believe they are taking this matter very seriously.”

According to Reuters, Apple went on to say that it has added its own investigation team to carry out independent evaluations of Foxconn to “address these tragic events.” Foxconn has come under fire after 10 factory workers are believed to have killed themselves over the last year.

The latest development is not the first time Apple has had to look into Foxconn. In 2006, Apple began conducting a thorough audit of the company's manufacturing plant that created iPods. That came after a newspaper report suggested that workers at the plant were treated unfairly and forced to operate under sweatshop-like conditions.

Apple now releases an annual audit of its overseas partners. Last year's review found that more than half weren't paying their workers valid overtime rates.

But Apple — and numerous other electronics manufacturers — have maintained their business relationships with Foxconn, and the company is believed to be the manufacturer of the next-generation iPhone expected to debut at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 7.

In addition to creating iPhones and iPads for Apple, Foxconn — the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry — is also responsible for products from the biggest companies in the electronics industry, including Apple, HP, Dell, and Nokia. Those companies may use their power to leverage Foxconn into taking further action, Andrew Deng, analyst with Taiwan International Securities, told Reuters.

“It's a crucial issue that Hon Hai has to deal with right away,” he said. “If not, Nokia, HP and Apple might cut their orders as pressure against buying their products could be mounting.”

Just before the 10th suicide on Tuesday, when a 19-year-old worker who had been with the company just 42 days jumped from a building to his death, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou insisted to reporters that his company is not running a “sweatshop.” But the troubles for the company continue to mount, as it most recently issued a letter workers said included a clause saying the company would pay no more than the legal minimum for injuries sustained outside the workplace. Gou later apologized for the letter and took it back, calling the language inappropriate.

Gou also reportedly gave a tour of the Foxconn facilities this week, emphasizing to reporters the worker amenities provided. He showed off an Olympic-size swimming pool, banks, bakeries, and dormitories that the 400,000 employees utilized.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Gou said his company has launched antisuicide measures, including the construction of safety nets around Foxconn's plant to prevent workers from jumping to their deaths. They also brought in academic experts and counselors to talk with employees, invited a group of Buddhist monks to pray for the factory, and established the “Foxconn Employee Care Center.”

Los Angeles County auditors substantiated 101 instances of fraud during the last six months of 2009, uncovering cases large and small in which  taxpayers were cheated, according to a report released Wednesday.

Among the report’s findings:

* A Department of Public Social Services employee, Trang Dinh, inappropriately obtained the personal and confidential information of 82 welfare participants and used the information to file fraudulent income tax returns and obtain refunds totaling at least $100,000. Dinh was discharged and the Internal Revenue Service may file criminal charges, according to investigators.

* A janitorial services contractor, Grace Building Maintenance Co., was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for services it did not provide. The contracts with the Beaches and Harbors and Public Library departments were canceled, and owner Beong Jeong was convicted of a felony and ordered to surrender all rights to his personal residence and pay restitution of $842,000.

[Corrected at 6:05 p.m. Thursday: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that a county audit had identified Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Helen Jo as having received a written reprimand for mishandling a personnel case. She was not the person reprimanded. The audit, which was released Wednesday, did not name Jo. It stated that a "fire manager" had received a reprimand.]

* A Fire Department manager mishandled the hiring of a new employee, Ed’ward Rhone, resulting in additional salary and employee benefit costs to the county. Also, Rhone’s then-future mother-in-law, Sharon Harper, gave Rhone preferential treatment, which resulted in his being appointed to a higher-level position with higher pay. Rhone has subsequently been transferred to a more demanding job in order to justify the salary. The Fire Department manager received a letter of reprimand, and Harper, who had been the second-highest ranking county executive, was demoted and later retired.

* Three senior Fire Department managers played golf during county work hours but claimed a full day on their time cards. One of the employees also recorded overtime for that day. The other two employees, who are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, were not disciplined because at the time Fire Department rules allowed exempt employees to report they had worked full shifts if they worked at least one hour. Fire management has since changed time reporting procedures to ensure that exempt employees properly account for hours worked.

Fire Chief Michael Freeman disputed the auditor’s findings, saying in an interview: “There was no disciplinary action on any managers because there was no wrongdoing.” After speaking with Freeman, the auditor-controller’s office said it had incorrectly reported that one of the managers received a letter of reprimand.

– Garrett Therolf

A Web site is only as good as its usability and usefulness to outside consumers. How can you ensure that your Web site has these qualities? Below is some technical advice which you can use while designing your Web site and its accompanying pages:

Generate a clear visual hierarchy.

Give your users obvious visual cues regarding the relationship between items on a page (which items are related and which items are related to other topics). The more important an item is, the more prominent it should be (bold/large font, bright color, central position). Items that are related logically should also be related visually. For example, items may be “nested” (indented) to show that one item is related to another item.

Compartmentalize your pages.

A Web page should look like an arrangement of compartments, regardless of whether the borders of those compartments are visible or not. This allows users to quickly decide which areas of the page should be focused on and which areas can be safely ignored. An arranged Web page also aids user page scanning, making his/her trip to your Web site more efficient.

Make clickable links obvious.

Whenever possible, links should be a different color from your body text and underlined. A user's eyes should have no trouble finding a link or knowing what is behind it. It is not sufficient (or fair) to have the user click from page to page to page (the tunnel effect) in order to progress to different pages on your Web site. Avoid “mystery meat” navigation, where the user has to sweep over items with the mouse in order to determine just what is, and what is not, a link.

Do not be afraid of using a little redundancy when linking. Links are free resources for your users, so add them in whenever and however often they make sense.

Keep visual/auditory noise down.

If you want a site that is usable and useful for the people who visit, keep your pages simple and streamlined. Avoid creating a distracting look/feel to your pages by filling them with links, backgrounds, or pictures that serve no purpose. For example, purple paisley background wallpaper or a flashing animated GIF may seem a good idea, but may cause your visitors to struggle when finding the content they need. Make the content the loudest element on your page. Everything else is there to support that content.

Web sites with lots of pictures and animation also take a long time to upload. If you do not increase the bandwidth size of your Web site (which can get expensive), your users may end up loading half-finished Web pages with scattered content. Some users may choose to remove all graphics from their page loads altogether. Rather than have your valuable graphics not show up, consider including only the most vital auditory and graphics links, so that the intended meaning of your pages comes through loud and clear.

Audit your Web site.

A Web site that has many links to outside references or internal pages also runs the risk of having dead or misdirected links. Bad links make your site look unprofessional and turn away users. In order to not have this problem, you need to audit your Web site periodically. Software programs like Microsoft FrontPage and Expression Web allow you to perform a hyperlinks report, where all Web links can be checked and edited. You also obtain a links map, showing the relationship of pages to other pages and outside resources.

Once your Web site is launched, periodic auditing should be performed annually, though preferably quarterly or even monthly.

Test your site with actual users.

It seems to be common sense, and yet it is the most overlooked item of all: prior to launching a new site or a redesign of an existing Web site, ask some representative users to test it and provide an assessment of how easy or difficult it is to find things. You can write up a short script or test plan wherein you ask your testers to find a few key resources and then watch them try to find them (the key is to not help…just watch). Their actions will tell you a lot about how well you have designed your site, and give you ideas for any needed revisions.

By following these simple guidelines, your Web site users will have a much easier time when navigating through your pages, resulting in increased page views and/or business for you.

It's pretty pathetic that the job market has been pathetic for so long that authors and publishers have had time to address the issue in books, but such is the case, which is why Ford R. Meyers, has penned Get the Job You Want Even When No One's Hiring. Here are some of his tips for landing a summer job, which is really crucial for those who haven't had spring, summer or fall jobs:

1.Create and Control Your Internet Image. Whether it's LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook, every professional should have an online presence. Many employers research job candidates on the Internet before making hiring decisions. Therefore, it is vitally important that you take control of your online identity and carefully monitor the “personal brand” you're building on the Internet.

2. Invest in Career Coaching. It might seem that career coaching would be a luxury in this difficult economic climate. Actually, this might be the best time to get some career coaching. A qualified career coach can help you get totally clear on your objective, differentiate you from the competition, market you effectively, get the offer, and negotiate the best compensation.

3.Tune Into the Network. Summer is one of the best times of the year to make new connections and find new opportunities. Contrary to popular belief, there are many summer networking events, planning meetings and social activities going on.

4. Perform an Internal Career Audit. Summer is a perfect time to take an honest look at your career — where you've been, where you are today, and where you'd like to go. Identify new goals based on your own definition of career success and then take action.

5. Update Your Career “Tool Kit.” Most job seekers use only their resume as the cornerstone of their search because their other “tools” are weak or nonexistent. But there are many other documents you should have in your “career tool kit” — accomplishment stories, positioning statement, a one-page biography, target company list, contact list, professional references, letters of recommendation, and more. These items are important not just to land the next job — but also to maximize your long-term career success.

6. Solidify Relationships. During the summer, most people are naturally more relaxed, convivial and generous in spirit. There is simply no better time to solidify existing relationships and forge new ones.

7. Volunteer. There are myriad volunteer opportunities available during the summer. This is a good way to help people, to feel good when you need a boost, to have a renewed sense of purpose during your search, and to meet other professionals who may be able to help you.

8. Call People. Make new connections through your network and follow up with people you've already met. In many cases, people who are at work during the heat of the summer will not only be available for conversation, but will be grateful just to speak to someone.

9. It is Better to Give Than to Receive. The fastest and most effective strategy for getting help is to offer help to others. Ask the people in your network who they might like an introduction to or if there is any way that you can be of assistance to them.

10. Become and Opportunity Magnet. Always think and speak positively and never say anything negative. This will help you to become an opportunity magnet — poised to attract, interview and “hire” your next employer.

It seems like pretty solid advice, save for the part about investing in career coaching, which happens to be the author's trade. If you're unemployed it's just silly to throw money at an adviser.

Get the Job You Want Even When No One's Hiring

(Thanks, Ilyse!)

Hoo boy. Jim Newberry is up a creek:

Gray shot right back into the fraud assessment report, asking Johnston when he wrote it. He explained that he did so in 2008, and then brought it up once more in 2009, with no one showing any concern over it. Gray then asked him how many times in his career he had taken this drastic step of making a fraud assessment report. In all of his years, these were the only two times. It was a rare step, which again highlights how important he thought this fraud was. Martin asked what type of fraud this was, and Johnston again answered that he couldn’t do so without fear of legal action against him.

Then another big twist happened. George Myers stepped in and revealed that he is a member of the internal audit board, and he said that this complaint was never brought to them and he’s never seen it. He wanted to know why (speaking towards one of Newberry’s staff) this was never brought to his attention.

-SNIP-

Lawless then asked about KLC insurance details from Johnston, and he started going into detail about brokers, services and premiums, as the Newberry lackeys had a look of horror on their faces.

-SNIP-

Then another Newberry lackey stepped up from the back of the room and called Johnston a liar. His name is Tom Sweeney. And yes… he works with the Kentucky League of Cities. Yeah.

You just need to read it all because it gets much, much worse…

Oh, and Newberry campaign folks? You may want to stop making allegations to random people in Lexington that a couple bloggers are on the payroll of Jim Gray and Jack Conway. Attacking and demeaning the messenger only strengthens the resolve to oust corruption.

After the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, Congress dictated that oil companies be responsible for dealing with major accidents – including paying for all cleanup – with oversight by federal agencies. Spills on land are overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency, offshore spills by the Coast Guard.

“The basic notion is you hold the responsible party accountable, with regime oversight” from the government, Allen said. “BP has not been relieved of that responsibility, nor have they been relieved for penalties or for oversight.”

He and Coast Guard Adm. Mary Landry, the federal onsite coordinator, direct virtually everything BP does in response to the spill – and with a few exceptions have received full cooperation, Allen said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was even more emphatic.

“There's nothing that we think can and should be done that isn't being done. Nothing,” Gibbs said Friday during a lengthy, often testy exchange with reporters about the response to the oil disaster.

There are no powers of intervention that the federal government has available but has opted not to use, Gibbs said.

Asked if President Barack Obama had confidence in BP, Gibbs said only: “We are continuing to push BP to do everything that they can.”

The White House is expected to announce Saturday that former Florida Sen. Bob Graham and ex-EPA Administrator William K. Reilly will lead a presidential commission investigating the oil spill. Graham is a Democrat. Reilly served as EPA administrator under President George H.W. Bush. The commission's inquiry will range from the causes of the spill to the safety of offshore oil drilling.

BP spokesman Neil Chapman said the federal government has been “an integral part of the response” to the oil spill since shortly after the April 20 explosion.

“There are many federal agencies here in the Unified Command, and they've been part of that within days of the incident,” said Chapman, who works out of a joint response site in Louisiana, near the site of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

Criticism of the cleanup response has spread beyond BP. On Friday, the Texas lab contracted to test samples of water contaminated by the spill defended itself against complaints that it has a conflict of interest because it does other work for BP.

TDI-Brooks International Inc., which points to its staffers' experience handling samples from the Exxon Valdez disaster, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service helped audit the lab and approved its methods.

“A typical state laboratory does not have this experience or capacity,” TDI president James M. Brooks said.

The company's client list includes federal and state agencies along with dozens of oil companies, among them BP, a connection first reported by The New York Times. TDI-Brooks said about half of the lab's revenue comes from government work.

Test results on Deepwater Horizon samples will figure prominently in lawsuits and other judgments seeking to put a dollar value on the damage caused by the spill.

Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes, who traveled to the Gulf the day after the explosion and has coordinated Interior's response to the spill, rejected the notion that BP is telling the federal government what to do.

“They are lashed in,” Hayes said of BP. “They need approval for everything they do.”

If BP is lashed to the government, the tether goes both ways. A large part of what the government knows about the oil spill comes from BP.

The oil company helps staff the command center in Robert, La., which publishes daily reports on efforts to contain, disperse and skim oil.

Some of the information flowing into the command center comes from undersea robots run by BP or ships ultimately being paid by BP. When the center reported Friday that nearly 9 million gallons of an oil-water mixture had been skimmed from the ocean surface, those statistics came from barges and other vessels funded by BP.

Allen, the incident commander, said the main problem for federal responders is the unique nature of the spill – 5,000 feet below the surface with no human access.

“This is really closer to Apollo 13 than Exxon Valdez,” he said, referring to a near-disastrous Moon mission 40 years ago.

“Access to this well-site is through technology that is owned in the private sector,” Allen said, referring to remotely operated vehicles and sensors owned by BP.

Even so, the company has largely done what officials have asked, Allen said. Most recently, it responded to an EPA directive to find a less toxic chemical dispersant to break up the oil underwater.

In two instances – finding samples from the bottom of the ocean to test dispersants and distributing booms to block the oil – BP did not respond as quickly as officials had hoped, Allen said. In both cases they ultimately complied.

“Personally, whenever I have problem I call (BP CEO) Tony Hayward” on his cell phone, Allen said.

___

Associated Press writers Frederic J. Frommer and Ben Feller in Washington, Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, Matt Sedensky in Marathon, Fla., Ray Henry in Atlanta and Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss., and Michelle Roberts in San Antonio contributed to this story.

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At one time, the push to audit the Fed was limited to the fringe of both the Left and the Right.  Yesterday, the idea officially became mainstream, with the Senate voting unanimously for an audit of the Federal Reserve.  Along the way, though, the proposal got narrowed — so much so that the movement’s unofficial sponsor suggests that the word “audit” is a bit of a misnomer:

The Fed amendment was submitted by Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) and co-sponsored by colleagues on both sides of the aisle. It gives the Government Accountability Office expanded power to audit the Fed and requires the central bank to disclose details about firms that received emergency aid during the financial crisis.

“We are beginning to lift the veil of secrecy on what is perhaps the most important agency in the United States,” Sanders said.

Facing pressure from the Obama administration and fellow lawmakers, Sanders agreed last week to narrow his initial proposal, which would have required the Fed to submit to regular audits.

Instead, under the legislation, the Fed must undergo a one-time examination of its massive emergency lending programs and post details on its Web site by December about the firms that benefited from its lending during the crisis. The new language, however, prevents investigators from peering into the central bank’s deliberations on interest rates and other elements of monetary policy. …

Paul expressed disappointment with the Sanders amendment, writing on his Web site that “while it is better than no audit at all, it guts the spirit of a truly meaningful audit of the most crucial transactions of the Fed. In fact, rather than still calling the Sanders Amendment an audit, maybe it should instead be called more of a disclosure at this point.”

For Paul and Sanders, the original point was to shed light on the Fed’s manipulation of monetary policy, not just to examine its books.  The audit, or what Paul more accurately calls a disclosure, will give lawmakers its first peek into the machinations conducted by the Fed in the collapse and stabilization of the financial markets over the past two years.  The Fed itself didn’t object to this version of the bill, which should give an indication that they expect nothing to come to light that will embarrass the institution.  The Senate’s unanimous support shows how politically safe going this far and no farther has become.

This will almost certainly leave the people who most wanted an audit — and a commitment to audits on a regular basis — unsatisfied.  Many (although not all) audit advocates prescribe to a theory that the Fed operates within or heads a conspiracy to manipulate wealth and power in arbitrary, secret, and vaguely evil ways.  Exempting its monetary policy deliberations from disclosure will do nothing to address those fears, or for the Fed to put them to rest.

That won’t be the only disappointment in this bill, either.  An amendment to start disconnecting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the government failed, mostly along party lines, 43-56.  Filed by Judd Gregg, John McCain, and Richard Shelby, the amendment would have mandated an end to government support of the failed GSEs within two years.  Taxpayers have already poured $145 billion into the lending guarantors, who issued a combined request of $21 billion in more aid over the past two weeks.

Why did it fail?  It’s become clear that Democrats don’t want to disconnect Fannie and Freddie from government control, or even plan for it.  They want to have them on hand for their next manipulation of the lending markets in service to their ideas of social engineering — which was the underlying cause of the financial collapse in 2008.  That’s a much bigger problem than anything the Fed is doing, audit or no audit.

As we approach the end of another year, we all need to focus on the single most IMPORTANT issue facing our country today. If you truly are a real patriot, whether Republican, Democrat or whatever; it is extremely important for the American people to get behind Electoral Reform now. If you care about the future of our nation's children, then you will understand that nothing is more important than your vote being counted as a real vote. Yes, the accuracy of the vote count during elections is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE today. What is at stake here is our entire election system. The system we have is based on consent of the governed. If the government operates without our consent, or if people are falsely elected, we have NO country, we have no consent, we have no freedom, we have absolutely nothing. If 3.4 million more Americans claim that they voted than the actual total of voters — this is what the Census Bureau told us last May - then this is grounds alone for serious investigation.

The fact that our voting machines don't give us a receipt of what our votes were, that can be compared to the results later, is an abomination of our liberty! Not only that but the fact the our future lies in the hands of electronic voting machines that cannot verify your vote, and that the totals shown on them can be easily manipulated is a total FARCE against ALL American citizens! How can people sit there and not give a shit about something so incredibly fucked up that it calls into question all that it means to be an FREE American citizen! The essence of our Democracy is at stake here.

We need an government agency with subpoena power to truly investigate the situation. Take the Ohio results during the last 2004 election, for instance. Why should the companies that made the electronic voting machines be able to legally not answer an investigators questions like they have done. Only someone with something to hide would refuse to answer any questions. John Conyers tried to do his own investigation, but he was stonewalled by Ken Blackwell, the Secretary of State of Ohio and other officials, including the Triad Computer Company, who basically refused to answer his questions. What right have they to refuse to answer questions when something so important as our elections are at stake. How can anyone anywhere in the USA trust the election results? We deserve to have a persuasive answer to what happened in 2004.

The Democrats wouldn't contest the 2000 theft of the election. The only thing they could bring themselves to do was sort of whine about electoral reform. 'We have to have electoral reform.' So, what the White House did was very cleverly say, 'Yes, electoral reform. We're very interested in electoral reform,' and on that basis, they shoved through the Help America Vote Act. Now, there are some decent provisions in that act, but it's that act that mandates the use of touch screen voting machines throughout the entire country eventually. That's already a serious problem. Those private vendors should be outlawed. We shouldn't be using them at all. THE VOTES TALLIED ON THEM ARE UNVERIFIABLE. COMMON SENSE dictates that there should be paper ballots that are hand counted. Guess how many counties of the hundreds of counties in the 50 United States do this? ONLY approximately 1% of these counties are there are paper ballots — and these are hand counted properly — the way all of our counties should be counting our ballots! ONLY 1%!

One of President George W. Bush's major donors was Diebold's CEO Walden “Wally” O'Dell, of Ohio. O'Dell was on record stating that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President” that year. On September 26, 2003, he hosted an Ohio Republican Party fundraiser for Bush's re-election at his Cotswold Manor mansion. Diebold made the electronic voting machines used in Ohio in 2004. Conflict of interest? None of these Diebold machines provided a paper receipt of the vote. Why not? Why would these machines be made this way, against common sense. Diebold, located in North Canton, Ohio, does its primary business in ATM and ticket-vending machines. Critics of Diebold point out that virtually every other machine the company makes provides a paper trail to verify the machine's calculations. Oddly, only the voting machines lack this essential function. Why? State Senator Teresa Fedor of Toledo introduced Senate Bill 167 late last year mandating that every voting machine in Ohio generate a “voter verified paper audit trail.” Secretary of State Blackwell has denounced any attempt to require a paper trail as an effort to “derail” election reform. What sense does that make?

A joint study by the California and Massachusetts Institutes of Technology following the 2000 election determined that between 1.5 and 2 million votes were not counted due to confusing paper ballots or faulty equipment. The federal government's solution to the problem was to pass the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. One of the law's stated goals was “Replacement of punch card and lever voting machines.” The new voting machines would be high-tech touch screen computers, but if there's no paper trail, how do you know if there's been a computer glitch? How can the results be trusted? And how do you recount to see if the actual votes match the computer's tally? Bait and switch or what! Bev Harris, author of “Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century”, argues that without a paper trail, these machines are open to massive voter fraud. Diebold has already placed some 50,000 machines in 37 states and their track record is causing Harris, Johns Hopkins University professors and others great concern. Johns Hopkins researchers at the Information Security Institute issued a report declaring that Diebold's electronic voting software contained “stunning flaws.” The researchers concluded that vote totals could be altered at the voting machines and by remote access.

Harris writes that hacked documents taken from Diebold's website expose how the mainstream media reversed their call projecting Al Gore as winner of Florida after someone “subtracted 16,022 votes from Al Gore, and in still some undefined way, added 4000 erroneous votes to George W. Bush.” Hours later, the votes were returned. One memo from Lana Hires of Global Election Systems, now Diebold, reads: “I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16,022 when it was uploaded.” Another hacked internal memo, written by Talbot Iredale, Senior VP of Research and Development for Diebold Election Systems, documents “unauthorized” replacement votes in Volusia County. This is trustworthy system for counting our votes? In an 87-page CBS news report, it was noted that “According to CBS documents, the erroneous 20,000 votes in Volusia was directly responsible to calling the election for Bush.” The first person to call the election for Bush was Fox election analyst John Ellis, who had the advantage of conferring with his prominent cousins George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Coincidence?

The electronic voting industry is dominated by only a few corporations - Diebold, Election Systems & Software (ES&S) and Sequoia. Diebold and ES&S combined count an estimated 80% of U.S. black box electronic votes. The far-right Ahmanson family sold their shares in American Information Systems (AIS) to the McCarthy Group and the World Herald Company, Inc. Recently, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel disclosed in public documents that he was the Chairman of American Information Systems and claimed between a $1 to 5 million investment in the McCarthy Group. In 1997, American Information Systems purchased Business Records Corp. (BRC), formerly Texas-based election company Cronus Industries, to become ES&S. One of the BRC owners was Carolyn Hunt of the right-wing Hunt oil family, which supplied much of the original money for the Council on National Policy. In 1996, Hagel became the first elected Republican Nebraska senator in 24 years when he did surprisingly well in an election where the votes were verified by the company he served as chairman and maintained a financial investment. In both the 1996 and 2002 elections, Hagel's ES&S counted an estimated 80% of his winning votes. Due to the contracting out of services, confidentiality agreements between the State of Nebraska and the company kept this matter out of the public eye. Hagel's first election victory was described as a “stunning upset” by one Nebraska newspaper. VERY INTERESTING! He owned the companies that made the voting machines, and then somehow won in an area where Republican's have never won before. Wonder how that miracle happened? Maybe it was the testing ground for stealing the 2000 and 2004 national elections? Worked great on the local level, why not do it for the big election?

Bob Urosevich was the Programmer and CEO at AIS, before being replaced by Hagel. Bob now heads Diebold Election Systems and his brother Todd is a top executive at ES&S. Bob created Diebold's original electronic voting machine software. Thus, the brothers Urosevich, originally funded by the far Right, figure in the counting of approximately 80% of electronic voting in the United States. Like Ohio, the State of Maryland was disturbed by the potential for massive electronic voter fraud. The voters of that state were reassured when the state hired SAIC to monitor Diebold's system. SAIC's former CEO is Admiral Bill Owens. Owens served as a military aide to both Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, who now works with George H.W. Bush at the controversial Carlyle Group. Robert Gates, former CIA Director and close friend of the Bush family, also served on the SAIC Board. Oh, how CONVENIENT!

Why are these CRIMINALS getting away with stealing our very DEMOCRACY from the nation? CAUSE WE ALL do nothing but watch TV and wait for “someone” to do something about things. If these crooks are putting us into a huge cage, in a virtual prison box, it is our own fault for not educating ourselves and getting involved. If you care about the future of America, check out: http://www.votefraud.org/ and then go out and do something! Complain to your local congressman, petition for vote reform, do something. DEMAND that your local polling places must hand count ever vote coming in. “Computer scientist Peter Neumann spent two decades looking into computer software security. He's big on computers, it's safe to say, but when it comes to computers and elections he says “paper” is the way to go; pointing out computerized touch-screen voting machines can provide no assurance our votes have been recorded. Neuman is, like hundreds of his colleagues, a proponent of paper ballots despite the advent of high tech voting options.”

Wherever Diebold and ES&S go, irregularities and historic Republican upsets follow. Alastair Thompson, writing for scoop.co of New Zealand, explored whether or not the 2002 U.S. mid-term elections were “fixed by electronic voting machines supplied by Republican-affiliated companies.” The scoop investigation concluded that: “The state where the biggest upset occurred, Georgia, is also the state that ran its election with the most electronic voting machines.” Those machines were supplied by Diebold. IS THIS THE KIND OF COUNTRY WE WANT? We might as well be a one of those small third world countries that only hold fixed elections for the gangsters that run their country and steal them blind. Wired News reported that “. . . a former worker in Diebold's Georgia warehouse says the company installed patches on its machine before the state's 2002 gubernatorial election that were never certified by independent testing authorities or cleared with Georgia election officials.” Great, isn't that great?

Also, questions were raised in Texas when three Republican candidates in Comal County each received exactly the same number of votes - 18,181. Why, it must have been the HAND OF GOD THAT DID THIS MIRACLE! PRAISE THE LORD! Why even vote anymore then? Just let the electronic voting machines pick our next president, that way we don't have to miss any TV shows during the elections! We are all gutless for letting this happen without question, without research, without investigations. Sure, FOX news made fun of people questioning vote results, “crazy conspiracy buffs, hah, hah, hah!”. So, everyone sighed with relief and went back to their TV shows. Gutless! The American people have become GUTLESS! We are one step from being burned alive in ovens. Following the 2003 California election, an audit of the company revealed that Diebold Election Systems voting machines installed UNCERTIFIED software in all 17 counties using its equipment. Why would you buy a voting machine from a company like Diebold which provides a paper trail for every single machine it makes except its voting machines? And then, when you ask it to verify its numbers, it hides behind 'trade secrets'. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states. It is UNREAL that criminals can get away from stealing our own country right from under us like that.

Before the 2004 election, Ohio Senator Fedor pushed for Senate Bill 167 and the “voter verified paper audit trail.” Athan Gibbs, President and CEO of TruVote International, demonstrated a voting machine at a vendor's fair in Columbus that provides two separate voting receipts. The first paper receipt displays the voter's touch screen selection under plexiglass that falls into a lockbox after the voter approves. Also, the TruVote system provides the voter with a receipt that includes a unique voter ID and pin number which can be used to call in to a voter audit internet connection to make sure the vote cast was actually counted. Brooks Thomas, Coordinator of Elections in Tennessee, stated, “I've not seen anything that compares to the Gibbs' TruVote validation system.” The Assistant Secretary of State of Georgia, Terrel L. Slayton, Jr., claimed Gibbs had come up with the “perfect solution.” DID ANYONE USE IT? NO! U.S. Representative Rush Holt introduced HR 2239, The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003, that would require electronic voting machines to produce a paper trail so that voters may verify that their screen touches match their actual vote. Election officials would also have a paper trail for recounts. DID ANYTHING COME OF IT? NO! What was the result of the 2004 election? Republican upsets all over the country. Recently, executives and owners of the two largest private “vote counting” companies, ES &S and Sequoia, have been convicted of bribery and suborning public officials in more than a dozen states. These two companies were delegated the power to count 60%+ of the USA vote in secret in Presidential Election 2004. It's not just votes for Kerry or Gore that were “lost”, but also other people that have run, like Buchanon, etc. How exactly is this voter fraud done? Check out (read it and weep): http://www.votefraud.org/every_american_needs_to_study.htm

For example, the day after elections, numerous tests were performed and videotaped by losing Council Member candidate Susan Bernecker in New Orleans in 1994 that clearly demonstrated that votes she cast for herself were electronically recorded for her opponent. This test was repeated multiple times with the same result, thus confirming that the machine had been fraudulently altered to influence the outcome of the election. Three times she keyed in her own name on the voting machines, and three times a vote for her opponent was registered. After these proceedings she perhaps justly feared for her life if she kept the secret to herself. She convened a hastily-called press conference, and then retired from public life. Welcome to America! If this was done an a local level, why not the national level? Would you put it past them to do this? I don't. All — not some — but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates. Golly gee! How did that happen? Ohio's infamous Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell clearly and vehemently denied poll access to teams of international observers from the United Nations and other international election observers. Since the election, he has effectively stonewalled and sabotaged all recount attempts, to the point that no credible accounting of the Ohio election has ever been done. To this day, at least 100,000 votes remain uncounted, electronic voting machines remain unaudited, key hardware and data files have been trashed, paper ballots have sat unguarded for anyone to pilfer and tallies in dozens of key counties remain filled with statistical impossibilities.

“some of concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.” Some electronic voting machines “did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected.” And, “It was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate.” Numerous sworn statements and affidavits assert that this did happen in Ohio 2004. The GAO also confirms that access to the voting network was easily compromised because not all digital recording electronic voting systems (DREs) had supervisory functions password-protected, so access to one machine provided access to the whole network. Which means that you only needed a few people to tap into the networked machines and thus change large numbers of votes at will. With 800,000 votes cast on electronic machines in Ohio, flipping the number needed to give Bush 118,775 could be easily done by just one programmer. He exit polls showed Kerry winning in Ohio, until an unexplained last minute shift gave the election to Bush. Similar definitive shifts also occurred in Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico, a virtual statistical impossibility. Election officials in Mahoning County now concede that at least 18 machines visibly transferred votes for Kerry to Bush. Voters who pushed Kerry's name saw Bush's name light up, again and again, all day long. Officials claim the problems were quickly solved, but sworn statements and affidavits say otherwise. They confirm similar problems in Franklin County (Columbus). Kerry's margins in both counties were suspiciously low. In some precincts, there were more votes for Bush than there were registered voters there! In Miami County, at 1:43am after Election Day, with the county's central tabulator reporting 100% of the vote - 19,000 more votes mysteriously arrived; 13,000 were for Bush at the same percentage as prior to the additional votes, a virtual statistical impossibility. In Cleveland, large, entirely implausible vote totals turned up for obscure third party candidates in traditional Democratic African-American wards. Vote counts in neighboring wards showed virtually no votes for those candidates, with 90% going instead for Kerry. Furthermore: John Kerry lost in every precinct in New Mexico that had a touchscreen voting machine. The losses had no correlation with ethnicity, social class or traditional party affiliation—only with the fact that touchscreen machines were used. Oh, there is a LOT more, for the whole report check out: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529 and http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102105Q.shtml . The GAO report now confirms that electronic voting machines as deployed in 2004 were in fact perfectly engineered to allow a very small number of partisans with minimal computer skills and equipment to shift enough votes to put George W. Bush back in the White House. So, not only is this “war” in Iraq based on illegitimate evidence, so it Bush's (election and) re-election itself!

The SAD TRUTH is that we no longer have a democracy, it is all a farce. Isn't it obvious by now that we must have machine free elections, with all computers and mechanical devices rigorously outlawed and excluded from the election process? In 99% of all the counties in this country, the machine count votes without a receipt. In these 99% of counties that use either computer or machine methods of casting a ballot — the Democratic and Republican parties at the county level delegate the “counting” to one of a few mega-companies which allegedly count over 90% of the US vote IN SECRET; in election 2004 the four companies which were delegated the power to count 90%+ of the votes in the USA were Election Systems & Software (aka ES & S), Diebold, Triad, and Sequoia; the local county election boards use armed guards to make sure the citizens, candidates, and reporters cannot see what these private companies are doing to the ballots in the “counting room”. WHY? Then, these private companies controlling the ballots next give a direct feed to a team of manipulators which represent a pool of the AP wire service and the 5 Big TV Networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, & FOX)! Can you believe that the people of the United States of America fall for this obvious total MOCKERY of the American people! WISE UP AMERICA! What's there to stop them from changing the vote count if someone doesn't like the way they came out? Since the counting is done in secret by private companies, how does anyone know for sure that the real voter counts are given to the local election boards? An election result can not be disputed, a recount can not be made because THERE ARE NO PAPER BALLOTS , there is NOTHING TO COUNT, LET ALONE RECOUNT! There is ONLY ONE solution: We print the ballot on paper, with a box next to each candidate's name. We instruct a voter to put an X in their candidate's box. Then we have human beings count the Xs. Otherwise, Goodbye, America the free! You have only yourself to blame, our forefathers that started this country said that we must be ever vigilant of our liberty, are you? The spineless Democrat party has proven itself to be a punch of pussies quickly willing to concede to the equally evil Republican party machine. Again, it is time for Americans to stand up for America and wipe Congress clean of the scurge of the country club politicians /crooks that eat all our hard earned tax payer money. Let's get rid of every long time Congress member and bring in fresh blood. Or someone like Jeb Bush will somehow wind up our next president in 2008 and if that happens it is clear proof that we are no longer in the United States of America, but back under Nazi power. Can we afford to lose our Democracy?

For the real Americans who aren't too busy watching TV, please check out:
http://www.blackboxvoting.com
http://www.votefraud.org
http://nightweed.com/usavotefacts.html
http://www.votefraud.org/how_a_private_company_counts_our_votes.htm
http://www.networkamerica.org/yes_there_is_a_plan_for_2004.htm
http://www.votefraud.org/how_our_votes_should_be_counted.htm
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/archives/cat_vote_fraud.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102105Q.shtml
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1018-22.htm

Even those operating small-to-midsize companies in the greater Boston area looking for innovative, yet economical ways to trim operation costs can benefit from the services of Boston IT experts.

In today's hyper-competitive, dog-eat-dog, take-no-prisoners show-no-mercy business environment, it makes sense to cut costs wherever and however possible. The fact is however that your business and the challenges it faces are unique; therefore, IT solutions must also be unique. This is where the expertise of a Boston IT consultant is of the most benefit. Once you have determined your IT needs, the Boston IT expert will come in and perform an audit which will determine your current service needs in terms of:

- Infrastructure

- operations management

- system integration

- web development

These areas can be arcane to the uninitiated, but trained Boston IT experts can make short work of the most complex IT issues at a minimal cost.

One of the more immediate benefits of using the services of a Boston IT expert is an improved bottom line. The problem with employees is that they represent a tremendous drain on revenue that could better go to CEO salaries and investor dividends. Outsourcing your IT maintenance to a Boston IT expert means there's no need to provide health care, pensions or even supervision and monitoring, since the IT firm deals with those issues. In fact, a Boston IT consultant does not even need to be on-site (though one certainly can be if needed).

Another drain on operating budgets - albeit a smaller one - is hardware and software. Contrary to what you may have been told, it is not necessary to have the “latest and greatest” all the time - which means there is no need to buy new computers and servers every year, nor upgrade software every time a new version is produced. While there are times that you'll definitely want to do this, the fact is that software companies, like your own, are in it to make money, which means new and ongoing sales. However, a Boston IT expert can help in determining what upgrades are actually needed for your specific IT needs and which are not.

It is a similar situation when it comes to hardware. PC-based hardware is actually fairly simple to upgrade; only occasionally is it necessary to replace entire machines. Boston IT consultants are trained by the same companies that provide this hardware and have been certified by the likes of Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM.

IT makes a great deal of sense (and ultimately, dollars) to hire the services of a Boston IT consultant when it comes to maintaining your system and protecting that all-important data.

Real estate finance is made up of buyers, sellers, lenders and the applicable property. In most states, to complete a transaction, there is the action of an escrow closing. When the buyer of a property needs, external to his own equity, more cash to complete a transaction, he must seek either an exchange, or a loan [in some cases, in lieu of more cash from a buyer, a seller might accept other "boot"-something in lieu of cash. It might be other assets or a mortgage note]. This report does not discuss the exchange approach since it is mostly a tax situation and seeks to find an equilibrium valued property. This paper also does not discuss “boot.” Within the loan world related to real estate, there exists institutional financing such as banks, pension and insurance funds), seller financing and private financing. Riddiough, T. J (Oct2004)

Seller financing means the seller is willing to carry a private mortgage note for part or all of the price of the property. In those instances when a bank is unwilling to provide financing and the seller wishes to be “cashed out” [be handed a check for the entire purchase price minus selling expenses], the buyer must find an alternative source to the bank. One alternative is “hard money” which is also known as an “equity only” loan and in some cases, an equity-only, hard money loan. When this hard money, or equity only loan is sought, a problem becomes one of finding such a lender. Some mortgage banks and individual investors make these sorts of loans. One could say that what venture capital is for a business, hard money is for real estate. A stock market investor, when asked if he might provide hard money funds, responded that “this type of loan is dangerous and complicated.” In reality, because of fewer regulations and less paperwork, a hard money loan is easier to handle and understand than an institutional loan.

Herein lies our problem; a total misunderstanding of the characteristics of a hard money [equity only] loan. Where many people feel that government insured funds are the safest, they are not. The lack of comparisons, for the purpose of this book, is critical. In order to obtain a license to be a mortgage broker, one is tested regarding the laws and policies that both banks and that securities buyers have-such as Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Ginny Mae. Until someone brings it to market, there is no national process for converting mass numbers of hard money mortgage notes into securities for either residential or commercial real estate hard money [equity only] loans. History of the Problem Institutional lenders have been designed to lend money to prospective and current home owners. These funders have been making home loans since 1190.(Marples)

Mortgages started in England. English common law would protect a creditor by giving him an interest in his debtor's property. Thus, the mortgage was a conditional sale. Although the creditor held title to the property, the debtor could, in the event the debt wasn't paid, sell the property to recover his money. In the word “mortgage”, the “mort”- is from the Latin word for death and “gage” is from the sense of that word that means a pledge to forfeit something of value if a debt is not repaid. So mortgage is literally a dead pledge. It was dead for two reasons, the property was forfeit or “dead” to the borrower if the loan wasn't repaid, and the pledge itself was dead if the loan was repaid. Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) says of the word “mortgage”: It seems that the cause why it is called mortgage is, for that it is doubtful whether the fee offer will pay at the day limited such sum or not, if he does not pay, then the land which is put in pledge upon condition for the payment of the money, is taken from him for ever, and so dead to him upon condition, And if he does pay the money, then the pledge is dead as to the Tenant. Originally, ownership rights extended from the center of the earth to the sky. Mortgages came to the Americas as pioneers moved from Europe to settle in America. They brought their mortgage systems with them. So much so that by the early 1900s, they were already widespread and readily attainable. However, not everybody could get a mortgage.

In those days, those seeking to buy property were often required to pay a 50% down payment on a 5-year mortgage. At the end of that 5 years, the unpaid (and unchanged) balance of $5,000 would have to be either paid or refinanced. This system continued through to the Great Depression, when lenders had no money to lend, and borrowers had no money to pay. The whole system collapsed with thousands of foreclosures. Mortgages were just not available. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal included new laws governing the securities and banking industries were kept under tight supervision, which in turn revolutionized the way mortgage loans were structured and made available to average Americans.

In 1934, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was created to insure mortgage lenders against losses from default. With that the risk removed, lenders again offered mortgages. The FHA also developed the 30-year fixed-rate loan program, providing homeowners lower payments and more stability. Lenders didn't always have enough money to lend. And loan terms and interest rates were set according to the local economy, which varied around the country. More money, and a more consistent plan was needed.

In 1938, to make this money available, the government established the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), better known as Fannie Mae. It bought FHA-insured loans and sold them as securities on the financial markets. This kept the pool of mortgage-lending funds full, in effect, creating the secondary mortgage market. Another advantage of Fannie Mae was the introduction of more fair and efficient mortgage-lending practices. Now that lenders were going to a central source for their money, loan terms, interest rates and underwriting guidelines became similar. And lenders had to follow Fannie Mae's guidelines and restrictions if they wanted to sell their loans to the secondary market.

In 1944, the Veterans Administration, in a similar program to the FHA, was given the right to guarantee mortgage loans made by private lenders, but only to veterans. So in 1970, U.S. Congress chartered the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), better known as Freddie Mac, to increase the supply of mortgage funds available to commercial banks, savings and loan institutions, credit unions and other mortgage lenders, thus making more funds available to more Americans. In the 1950s and 60s, most mortgages were for 20-30 years. However, in the 1970s, interest rates rose rapidly, and the system had to adjust. Mortgages were reduced to 1, 3 or 5 year-terms, although even the 5-year mortgages were rare in the early 1980s when interest rates climbed to more than 21%. By 1998, the 5-year mortgage rate had fallen to an average of 6.99% and the 1-year rate to 6.5%. Banks, forbidden to lend mortgage money before 1954, had written about 63.6% of the more than $381 billion worth of mortgages that were outstanding in the third quarter of 1998.

This thesis author has discovered that most investors feel that a return on investment of 6.5% to 12.5% is considered good. Good means safe, minimum risk, and instantly liquid-accessible. Since this 9% average return on investment is considered normal, it is also the return on investment that its protégé believe is safe and worthy. It is the return which is discussed at length in all business books taught in college classes. It is a return that is better than no return at all, but it is not the only viable return. This treatise shall introduce other investment tools' returns, indicate why they are usually ignored by the business schools/colleges and further, disclose why their returns, while being considerably higher than any provided by the Fortune 500, are nevertheless viable and relatively risk-free.

Research on the topic and myriad internet searches on the web, at libraries and via word of mouth, have uncovered no formal literature on the topic of hard money-either finding it or lending it. Peripheral data exists on the caution many banks take to protect their depositors money when making loans but only inferences to hard money is made when doing so.

A double escrow into one's REIT is an ideal way to gain equity for a REIT. Edelstein, R.H.,.Uroševic, B., Wonder, N. (2005. [Two contracts, two different prices, two different

buyers, both contracts closing on the same day-NOT to be confused with a "flip" which is a contract ASSIGNED to someone else.]

One of the criteria for the REIT or for any property acquisition program is identifying the type of property one wants to buy. Fisher, J. D.,.Goetzmann, W. N.(2005, September. REITs,

Real Estate Investment Trusts, are good investment tools especially because they allow for incision into a public shell, thus re-capitalizing it. Darrat, A. F.,Shelor, R. M., Topuz, J. C.. (2005, November) When one identifies a property for acquisition, the REIT can pay cash for get financing for it. Titman, S., Tompaidis, S., Tsyplakov, S., (2005, Winter) When the REIT is sufficiently capitalized and the borrowers want off of personalized responsibility, it is an ideal time to either back into a public shell, a weak public firm or if not the most viable approach, an IPO. Dierker, M., Quan, D., Torous, W., (2005,Winter)To determine if the REIT one wants to purchase is prepared for its audit, one will need to hire a financial team to review the financial records. Jaffe, C. A.. (2001). Significance of the Problem USA banks make many loans to home buyers annually. These same banks and pension funds also make loans to buyers or builders of commercial properties; shopping centers, office buildings, industrial parks and free standing non-residential buildings and specialty buildings.

Frequently, an opportunity is made available to a buyer and this buyer cannot get seller, bank or pension-fund financing. In those cases, including when the seller will not trade or take a chattel item in exchange for part or all of the price, the buyer must seek an alternative funding source and often this becomes the search for the elusive hard money lender. Instead of this occurring one time in 100 (only one in a hundred of any type of real estate purchased) this occurs as often as one of every 5 purchase contracts. Thus, in some years, fewer than 5% of real estate commercial real estate purchase contracts are successfully completed.

While it is true that many teachers (facilitators), feel economically pinched, they have at their disposal considerable research and literature (both academic and working world) which discloses investment vehicles that provide returns of from 6.5% (the Fortune 500) to 2,500 % (K & S Investments; Phoenix, AZ) per annum, and the return's security is risk free. These inordinate returns are as safe as funds invested in any Fortune 500 blue chip stock, and carries the additional advantages of depreciation, control over (amount of) return, and is as liquid as stock without its return being taxable. By simply filing the necessary income tax documents provided by the Internal Revenue Service, one can learn how the return available with some investment tools (provided in this paper– and which are not taxed) yet are totally supported by IRS rulings, instead of fly-by-night, flim-flam systems and methodology.

Methods of creative financing as we have seen include Double Escrows, Hard Money Equity Only Loans, and Seller Carry-Back Paper. As real estate professionals, will agree that often, it is how a property is acquired that will determine the amount of profit to be gained. Thus, this section of the paper discusses methods of financing intended to produce the most profits. The most popular institutional financing systems include fully documented loans by credit worthy buyers whose notes are converted to securities and sold to FANNIE Mae or other securities firms discussed above. Real estate professionals will agree that of acquisitions systems used, this one is the least valuable. This book discusses three other types. Double Escrows Deal-doers find properties for 30-80% of the cost to rebuild (thus, 15-50% below fair market value).

A common approach goes like this: A deal doer finds a property. The deal doer also brings in a friend to sign a purchase contract. The friend writes two contracts-one as buyer and gives same to the property owner that deal doer finds. In contract number one, the friend is the buyer. After the first contract has been filled out and signed by the seller, the friend writes up another contract and becomes the seller and sells to the deal doer. All the while, the deal doer lines up financing and pays for a new appraisal according to the requirements of the deal doer's lender.

The title firm usually orders clean deeds to be created, termite reports, and title insurance and other items agreed to by both seller and buyer. A double (or triple escrow for that matter) is created when there is a single original seller and two buyers for the same property at two different prices, both contracts closed sequentially, ideally almost concurrently. As an example, buyer Jones finds a deal. A commercial property in Kansas has a cost to rebuild of $1,400,000. Jones sees an appraisal to confirm this. The seller, Frank, has made a first mortgage on this property to James and James has not paid on the mortgage so Frank has foreclosed and re-taken possession of the property. Frank does not want the property so he puts it up for sale, for $400,000 the amount of his original mortgage to get rid of this property quickly. Jones does not have $400,000 cash and does not want to have to borrow just to buy the building and then to have to borrow again to up-date the property and have operating capital. Thus, Jones finds a “straw”buyer, Mr. Cohen. Mr. Cohen, for the fee of $20,000, writes a contract to purchase this property from Frank and offers $400,000 (naturally including on the line of the contract where name goes, he includes “and or assignees”). Frank in this case does not seek financing or even visits the property. Cohen writes a second contract after handing the first contract to Frank. In the second contract, he makes the purchaser Jones (and or nominee), and puts in the purchase price of $1,400,000, the appraised value of the building, per the instructions of Jones. Jones has, concurrent with his review of the building and appraisal, sought and obtained fs24ulfinancing at 75% of the appraised value of the building. Jones's lender is one of the few that does review the contract and appraisal for legitimacy but does not pull a chain of title from the title (escrow) company to see who the actual seller is. This lender is not concerned with this data at this time. This lender only needs to make sure that title insurance is available for this property and that Mr. Jones has qualified to finance it and is responsible for the mortgage.

At close of escrow [the process where a neutral party reviews buyer's and seller's instructions to make sure they match, receives the lender's funds, orders title insurance and cuts checks and closes escrow and files with the county recorder which completes the transaction) the title officer has: Deposited the lender's check, and written a check to the seller Frank, for $400,000. The title officer has also written a check to "straw seller/buyer Cohen for $20,000. The title officer (holding Cohen's instructions too) has Jones sign the lender's note, and gives Jones copies of the note and deed-making Jones the end buyer. The math has become $1,400,000, the building's value times 70% equals a $980,000 loan (plus the loan's expenses) as the gross amount of the check from the lender. $980,000 minus seller Frank's price of $400,000 equals $580,000. Minus $20,000 for Cohen equals $560,000. This final $560,000 minus title insurance fees and other closing costs goes to buyer Jones.

According to the US Supreme Court Ruling, the title officer must give a printed copy of the above to each participant in this transaction. Cohen will go on the chain of title as well, having been for one minute, owner of the property. In the State of Utah, it has been discovered that more than one buyer and seller and appraiser got together and stipulated to a value of a building to be transferred that was not appropriate to the building; creating a non-arm's length appraisal. All appraisals must be arm's length appraisals to be fair and legitimate. There can be no agreement in advance as to the evaluation to be arrived at by the appraiser.

There is also a triple escrow and more if needed. The advantages to a double or triple escrow to the deal doer: getting a property with no cash out of pocket. Getting cash back at close.

Another method of buying includes Seller Carry-back paper/notes, also known as Discounted Trust Deed Notes. A note associated to a trust deed (or mortgage) is a debt or a promise to pay to a lender (or investor) a specific amount of money at a specific rate of interest (it may change, like in an adjustable rate mortgage, known as an ARM), and may have any due date and be assumable or not. Any type of property may have any type of mortgage or deed against it, and there may be any interest rate and due date and it may be for any amount of money loaned.

Hard Money Equity Only Loans.

An equity only loan means one's property has to have a difference between the market value and the remaining mortgage. A hard money loan is one where there is no qualifying involved-no credit check, no application fee, no appraisal, no tax returns, no bank statements. The only document used in a true hard money loan is a single page application. In this application, the borrower indicates the address of the property. In different cases, the lender does not care if the borrower is even a current owner of the property as long as the lender winds up at close of escrow in first position (in rare cases, a hard money lender will accept second position if the first mortgage and the new second mortgage combined are less than seventy (70) percent of the value of the property.

This book author has procured both fully qualifying loans and hard money, equity-only loans. A true equity only hard money loan does not require from the borrower any front fees or documents other than a single page application which simple denotes the borrower's name and address and address of the property to be mortgaged. It is felt important to this paper's writer that some criteria be mentioned here.

There are fully-qualifying lenders nationwide who make full documented loans as has been mentioned earlier in this paper. There are low-documentation loan lenders also who require some documents but not the same number as a fully qualifying loan requires. In an equity only, hard money loan application, some lenders (both banks and private lenders) are trying to create a hybrid loan unethically and perhaps illegally. These newer lenders are asking for front fees, appraisals, and credit applications. Different business writers have commented on this new practice and caution/warn borrowers to be careful about providing front fees to both mortgage brokers and mortgage banks when, in fact, the industry suggests not doing so at all. When this paper writer was asked for front fees, the writer asked the lender for a conditional loan approval. A conditional loan approval is a common document in the lending industry and within it, a lender is committing themselves to making a loan when the borrower satisfies some criteria.

The most common criteria being asked is that of a front-fee to cover a new appraisal. Ordinarily, this sounds feasible. However, a uniqueness of the industry indicates that each lender wants their own appraisal if they want one at all. When a lender stipulates that a fee for a new appraisal is a criteria for a loan, the writer's legal advisors have simply stated to the lender that "a fee to cover a new appraisal is acceptable subject to an agreement that this appraisal is the only barrier or condition to the lender making such a loan."

According to both legal counsel and banks who do loans, a conditional commitment is the only "safety" line a borrower has. As has been discovered by these same lenders, if any fee is advanced to a hard money lender for an appraisal and if the borrower does not have a conditional loan approval in hand, the lender can refuse to lend and often will, by saying "after a review of the appraisal and based on our lending criteria, we have decided not to make a loan to borrower Jones and hereby we return fifteen percent of the amount advanced for the payment of an appraisal." Said appraisal cost the borrower eighty-five percent of the amount of the appraisal fee advanced or the lending application fee. By deduction, and having not heard via contacts seeking funds from those hard money lenders who advertise heavily, it appears that the non-protected borrowers of America are financing the operations of the hard money lenders who are demanding front fees. Seller Carry-Back Paper While banks and insurance companies and other large lenders make most of the full document loans in the US, they are not the only types of lenders as we discussed above with equity only, hard money lenders.

There is another type of lender that has been made very popular in seminars and tapes and books available in public libraries; the house owner lender.

Robert Allen has become famous by writing No Money Down and other books on creative financing. This paper does not focus on methods to buy real estate so much as it does focus on ways to creatively finance real estate. Thus, when discussing seller carry-back financing paper, we will touch on how the paper is created and then, discuss who is doing what with the paper. This paper is not included in the securitized notes that are sold in bundles to Fannie Mae as has been mentioned earlier.

Let's say Jones either cannot or does not want to qualify for a home loan. But Jones wants to occupy by purchasing a home he sees. It is a nice home and is worth $150,000. Jones discovers that the current tenant of the home is the owner (Mrs. Brown) and that the home is mortgage free (not a criteria for this type of financing-it just happens to be this way). Jones offers the owner, Mrs. Brown, five percent down in cash and a note for the remaining amortized for 30 yrs, with a balloon in 6 yrs, at 7% interest. The seller wants to get along with her life, moving to a smaller house and accepts the offer. This is where Robert Allen's book stops-getting control of real estate with little or no money down and no bank financing. Where people earn profits in real estate can include in buying the actual property as identified earlier in this paper or in brokering or buying the paper created.

While we have discovered that security buyers like Fannie Mae buy bulk notes converted into public securities, there is another body of note buyers of seller carry-back mortgages.

According to The Stefanchik Method, there are two new categories of note buyers; good notes and bad (also called delinquent) note buyers. An example of a good note buyer would be: Mrs. Brown, the seller of the house Jones has purchased, now has $7,500 and a note with a face amount of 150,000 minus 7,500 or $142,500.

She gets payments sent to her at an address she has given Mr. Jones and is happy for now. Two years later, Mrs. Brown decides she wants to buy the small condo she has been renting.

She is offered the choice of $125,000 for a cash deal or 145,000 if she wants the seller to carry (as Mrs. Brown did when she sold her house). Mrs. Brown likes the discount available so she opts for a cash deal. Her only thing is that she has retired and cannot qualify for a new mortgage-her social security and other bank resources are inadequate to allow her to qualify for a new mortgage in a traditional lending environment. Mrs. Brown really wants to pay cash for this condo.

She contacts her local mortgage brokerage (instead of this thesis writer) and discovers there is a world of note buyers out there who would be glad to buy her note. She only needs to decide how quickly she wants to perform and what she is willing to accept for her note. In most financial situations, there are either or both fees and discounts applicable in the process of selling/buying a real estate note. Mrs. Brown's mortgage broker has discovered that the note has a face value of $145,000 and it has been paid on normally for two years, generating what is called "seasoning", or bringing a positive history of payments received. This note also has the positive feature of not being the same value of the property upon which the note is written-the note debtor has paid down against the value of the house five percent. For a fast sale, the mortgage broker finds a note buyer who will offer Mrs. Brown $100,000. As this amount is inadequate to complete the sale, Mrs. Brown declines it. After searching for three months, Mrs. Brown discovers a widow (like herself) a Mrs. Green, who has a fair amount of money tied up into CDs and decides to offer Mrs. Brown $135,000 for the note, which is sufficient to pay cash for the condo. We now have Mr. Jones occupying the house and Mrs. Brown paid off and Mrs. Green a new note holder against Mr. Jones's house.

Three years later, Mrs. Green decides she has had enough of the note holding game and wants to help a relative enter into business and seeks a note buyer of her note. Mr. Cohen, a note broker, decides how long it is likely to take to find a buyer for such a note and offers to find a note buyer for a fee of $5,000 to be paid at close. Mr. Cohen thus is offering to find a note buyer who will buy this note for $120,000 and in escrow, the title officer will hold the buyer's cash and give to Mrs. Brown the sum of $115,000.

Mr. Cohen, the note broker, finds a Mr. Rich, who likes to buy notes and after Mr. Rich reviews the history of the note, offers through Mr. Cohen, Mrs. Green $120,000 for the note. While Mrs. Green would like to have had the same amount she paid for the note, she realizes she has received principle and interest payments and decides that the $120,000 is a fair amount and accepts it, minus Mr. Cohen's fee of $5,000 thus netting Mrs. Green $115,000.

As discussed earlier, Mr. Stefanchik mentions two types of notes. Good and bad. We now discuss bad note buying.

Bad note buying Mr. Jones has been paying on the note against his house for 6 years and is happy with the house. Mr. Jones falls on difficult times and is unable to pay a normal payment. Embarrassed, Mr. Jones does not send word of his fiscal concerns or problems with Mr. Rich and simply is unable to pay his next, second payment either. The following month, Mr. Jones is still unable to pay. The fourth month does not find Mr. Jones in any better fiscal situation. It is now four months that Mr. Jones has been unable to pay on his mortgage and by NOTE "rules", the note not only goes into default but its face amount value culturally drops by fifty percent!

Mr. Rich calls Mr. Jones and learns that no payment plan is going to solve this dilemma and must make a decision: sue for default in a court or sell the note. In cases of notes that have been bundled by banks and sold to Ginnie Mae or her sisters, private notes that go into default are either foreclosed on by the note holder or the note is sold. Mr. Rich has other things to do and not needing to live off the proceeds of this note decides that the legal process of foreclosure is not in his best interest. In this case, Mr. Rich contacts his note broker, Mr. Cohen, and asks if Mr. Cohen now knows of any delinquent note buyers. Mr. Cohen, familiar with both good and delinquent notes, is familiar with many delinquent note buyers and, after pulling out his data lists, finds those who buy notes in the geographical area where Mr. Jones's house is located. Of the tens of thousands of delinquent note buyers in Mr. Cohen's database, fifty buy in Wickenburg, Az. The database shows the note buyers will pay from twenty five percent (25%) to sixty percent (60%) of the amount still owing on a house note. Mr. Cohen calls fifteen of these buyers and finds half of them on vacation and not viable buyers at this time. Of the thirty five buyers remaining, thirty are low on funds and cannot buy any more notes at this time. Of the five remaining, three have moved away thus leaving two. Mr. Cohen discusses the deal with the remaining two and one offers $60,000 and the other, $65,000 conditional to a "walk of the property" to review its condition.

No note buyer known will buy any note without walking the property. This is for a simple reason; the property can be in any condition and is being sold without insurance, also known as "as is." The $65,000 note buyer is ready to drive from Phoenix to Wickenburg the next day and does so.

This note buyer, Mr. West, likes the property and brings a cashier's check for $65,000 to escrow the next day. Mr. Cohen has an agreement with both Mr. Rich and Mr. West and Mr. Rich gives escrow a directive to give Mr. Cohen, at close, the amount of $5,000 for his services of finding the buyer for this note.

The following day, Mr. Cohen, Mr. West, and Mr. Rich all meet at their chosen escrow office and after the title company officer reviews the data and instructions, creates a new note for Mr. West and pays Mr. Rich his $60,000 (the agreed upon amount minus fees for Mr. Cohen) and gives Mr. Cohen his fee of $5,000. Mr. West now would likely sue for default and find a new tenant for this house or simply ask Mr. Jones to leave the property and sell the house for approximately ($145,000 plus land appreciation of 35% or an additional 59,750) for a new value of $204,750. Mr. West has only $65,000 invested in this property!

According to Forbes magazine, there are over one trillion dollars trading hands annually in seller carry back paper. Methodology This paper's author has queried real estate deal doers-finders. A real estate deal doer- finder is one who seeks to make a profit out of eclectic real estate transactions; empty lots, ramshackle homes, deserted commercial buildings and inefficiently run income properties. While the main populace of real estate transactions is fairly split between home sellers and commercial property sellers seeking buyers with cash [or those that can qualify for institutional cash], there is a large “mysterious” population that spends time with countless “contacts” and who seek DEALS (deal doers).

This mysterious populace's investor/lender is not regulated (some states do limit the amount of interest that a investor or lender can demand) so the deal-finder is constantly on the search for money.

Bibliography

Edelstein, R.H.,.Uroševic, B., Wonder, N. (2005, June) Ownership dynamics of REITs Jun2005, Vol. 30 Issue 4, p447-466, 20p Journal of Real Estate Finance & Economics; Retrieved February 21, 2006, Business source Premier database. This paper studies the effects that benefits of control and moral hazard have on the evolution of large stakes in REITs. These authors have experience discussing and dealing in REITS, another form of real estate financing. They are professors of real estate. They are authoritative and thus qualified.

Fisher, J. D.,.Goetzmann, W. N.(2005, September), Performance of real estate portfolios, Journal of Portfolio Management; Sep2005, Special Real Estate Issue, Vol. 32, p32-45, 14p, retrieved February 20, 2006 Business Source Premier database.

The abstract indicates the article focuses on the role of portfolio choice in investment analysis. It relies heavily upon indexes for portfolio choice as well as for performance evaluation. Commercial real estate is one of the most important asset classes in institutional investment portfolios Freddie Mac is about to introduce the sales of commercial paper to the secondary market. This article and author introduce the reader to some of the inner workings of the creation Of such notes converted into securities. This professor is a leader in real estate securities research and conducts such work As Charles H. and Barbara F. Dunn professor of real estate at Indiana University in Bloomington. 2 Consulting director of research at NCREIF, and Edwin J. Beinecke professor of finance and management studies, Yale School of Management in New Haven. He has been Director of the International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management in New Haven. The professor is qualified, applicable and focused in the commercial finance field. He has 12 cited references for his work.

Darrat, A. F.,Shelor, R. M., Topuz, J. C.. (2005, November), Technical, allocative and scale efficiencies of REITs: An empirical inquiry, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Vol. 32 Issue 9/10, p1961-1994, 34p, 7 charts, 5 graphs,

retrieved February 20, 2006, Business Source Premier database. The article on REITs mimics the case of commercial investing viability. This paper empirically explores various efficiency aspects of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in light of their remarkable growth in the 1990s While there are no corroborating references, the authors experiences and Prior publishing is exemplary: Department of Accounting and Finance, Southeastern Oklahoma State University Department of Economics and Finance, Louisiana Tech University, Department of Finance, Ohio University

Titman, S., Tompaidis, S., Tsyplakov, S., (2005, Winter), Determinants of credit spreads in commercial mortgages, Real Estate Economics; Winter2005, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p711-738, 28p, 7 charts, retrieved February 20, 2006, Business Source Premier.

The article relates to credit within commercial lending; very applicable to this Student's Paper as it examines the cross-sectional and time-series determinants of commercial mortgage credit spreads as well as the terms of the mortgages. Consistent with theory, our empirical evidence indicates that mortgages on property types that tend to be riskier and have greater investment flexibility exhibit higher spreads. The relationship between the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio and spreads is relatively weak, which is probably due to the endogeneity of the LTV choice.

The article's author is a professor of business, thus the professionalism of the background. McCombs School of Business, Finance Department, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, McCombs School of Business, Management Science and Information Systems Department, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, Moore School of Business, Finance Department, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208

Dierker, M., Quan, D., Torous, W., (2005,Winte), Valuing the defeasance option in securitized commercial mortgages, Real Estate Economics; Winter2005, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p663-680, 18p, 10 charts, 2 graphs, retrieved February 20, 2006 Business Source Premier. The abstract denotes that the article's intent is to protect the interests of investors, commercial mortgage loans pooled for the issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) have restrictive covenants that discourage the borrower from refinancing. Such restrictions limit the borrower's ability to access any accumulated equity. The predominant means of accessing this equity today is defeasance. By defeasing a loan, the borrower substitutes the commercial mortgage with U.S. Treasury or agency obligations whose payments match those of the defeased mortgage.

The professor's teaching background qualifies him as an expert in this field. The paper is applicable as a different way to review a commercial note before it is sold as a security similar to how Freddie Mac sells its paper. The author is a professor at C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14852, The Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095. [book reference] Jaffe, C. A.. (2001), The right way to hire financial help: A complete guide to choosing and managing brokers, financial planners, insurance agents, lawyers, tax preparers, bankers, and real estate agents, Second edition. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, The History of Home Mortgages - A “Dead Pledge”.

The Author Gareth Marples is a successful freelance business writer providing valuable tips and advice for consumers about home mortgages, mortgage rates and credit reports online. His numerous articles offer money saving tips and valuable insight on typically confusing topics. This article on the “History of Home Mortgages” reprinted with permission.