About 5 million to 7 million properties are potentially eligible for foreclosure but have not yet been repossessed and put up for sale. Some economists project it could take nearly three years before all these homes have been put on the market and purchased by new owners. And the number of pending foreclosures could grow much bigger over the coming year as more distressed borrowers become delinquent and then, if they can’t obtain mortgage relief, wade through the foreclosure process, which often takes more than a year to complete.

Some bankers still say yes.

That is hard to believe considering the drought in lending. U.S. banks posted a 7.5% decline in 2009 in total loans outstanding, the steepest percentage drop since 1942, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Consumer lending fell by 3.8% as roughly 7,200 banks and credit unions pulled back on mortgages, credit cards and other loans, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

THE Obama administration introduced a plan this week to encourage defaulting homeowners to sell their houses at a loss, the latest in a long line of reform packages promising to break the logjam of underwater mortgages. But without major changes to the bankruptcy system, such measures won’t aid the American families torn apart by the economic upheavals of the last two years.

AUSTIN - The State Board of Education tentatively approved new standards for social studies on Friday with members divided along party lines - some blasting them as a fraud and conservative whitewash, others praising them as a tribute to the Founding Fathers that rightly portrays America as an exceptional country.

The standards, which will influence history and government textbooks arriving in public schools in fall 2011, were adopted by 10 Republicans against five Democrats after weeks of debate and across a racial and ideological chasm that seemed to grow wider as the proposal was finalized Thursday.

AUSTIN, Tex. - After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

We reported in May that after passing a millionaire surtax nearly one-third of Maryland’s millionaires had gone missing, thus contributing to a decline in state revenues. The politicians in Annapolis had said they’d collect $106 million by raising its income tax rate on millionaire households to 6.25% from 4.75%. In cities like Baltimore and Bethesda, which apply add-on income taxes, the top tax rate with the surcharge now reaches as high as 9.3%-fifth highest in the nation. Liberals said this was based on incomplete data and that rich Marylanders hadn’t fled the state.

Well, the state comptroller’s office now has the final tax return data for 2008, the first year that the higher tax rates applied. The number of millionaire tax returns fell sharply to 5,529 from 7,898 in 2007, a 30% tumble. The taxes paid by rich filers fell by 22%, and instead of their payments increasing by $106 million, they fell by some $257 million.

IF THERE IS A RECOVERY IN AMERICANS’ FINANCES, they don’t see it.

The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that the net worth of U.S. “households” increased at about a 5% annual rate in the fourth quarter, a good deal slower than the blistering 20% pace over the two previous quarters, but still a solid increase.

Not long after the news was posted on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site early that afternoon, the vituperative comments began to flow. Many simply dismissed the data as inaccurate or worse. The numbers simply didn’t jibe with what they were seeing in their own finances or those around them.

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The proposal would connect Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Wichita and Kansas City and could be moving full speed ahead if supporters can get lawmakers on board.

“It’s been an exciting project to be a part of because it keeps gaining momentum as it goes along,” said Joni Johnson of the Northern Flyer Alliance, a group who’s lobbying for the project.

On March 9, the Wichita (Kansas) City Council voted 6-0 in favor of an ordinance that aims to significantly reduce the theft of scrap metal in the city.

In 2007, the Kansas Legislature passed legislation regulating scrap metal dealers. Wichita incorporated many of the policies, but added a number of additional features to tighten the rules.

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WICHITA, Kansas - Wednesday was Women’s HIV Awareness Day. Statistics say a woman in the U.S. tests positive for HIV every 35 minutes and since there’s no cure, early detection means everything. And that’s why health experts say every woman needs to be tested.

Of the state’s major population centers, Wichita leads the state in unemployment at 8.6 percent. Wichita has been hit hard by job losses in the aerospace industry. Unemployment was lowest in Lawrence at 5.8 percent.

Kansas won its 2,000th game on Thursday, joining Kentucky and North Carolina in the elite club. Taylor has been around for 57 of those wins, but he feels enough ownership that he would prefer he didn’t have to give the shirt to his mother, Jeanell. She is from Hoboken, N.J., she now lives in Lawrence and she inevitably ends up with the spoils of victory that her talented son receives on days like these.

Eric Foss, a law student from Overland Park, is chairman of KU’s student Republican group, College Republicans. Foss said the group is preparing for next semester’s campaign in big ways.

“This year, we’ve been mainly focusing on building up our organization,” Foss said. “I think conservative students and students who consider themselves Republicans are pretty fired up at this point.”

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TOPEKA, Kan. - Kansas would impose a new tax on soda - a penny for every teaspoon of sugar - under a proposal that a key legislator outlined Tuesday while lawmakers considered raising taxes to erase a projected budget shortfall.

The soda tax advanced by Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, would increase the cost of a 12-ounce can of soda by a dime and raise an estimated $90 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Shannon Wilkinson, 42, of Prairie Village, faced a Johnson County judge again Thursday after she was arrested on Christmas Day in Leawood for what court records state is her fifth driving under the influence infraction.

Stephen Maxwell, a former assistant attorney general in the Phill Kline administration, has been subpoenaed to testify against his former boss and Eric Rucker, Kline’s chief of staff in the attorney general’s office.

Reid Holbrook, an Overland Park attorney representing Maxwell, said Tuesday his client would testify in state ethics cases against Kline and Rucker.

Unless Stanton Hazlett, state disciplinary administrator, calls to say he doesn’t need him, “Maxwell will be available to come in to testify,” Holbrook said. “He doesn’t have any choice.”

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves put two groups on notice Tuesday that they will be paying the network more in the future than they have in the past.

Advertisers will pay more in the form of higher prices for commercials. And the network’s local TV affiliates will pay more too, in the form of substantial portions of the retransmission consent fees they receive from cable operators-or they will risk losing their network affiliations.

News release prepared by: Nellie Ryan, 785-532-6415, media@k-state.edu

Friday, March 12, 2010

K-STATE JOURNALISM EXPERT SAYS INTERNET CHANGING NEWS, NEWSPAPERS

MANHATTAN — News is changing in several ways and innovation is taking place at record-breaking speed, according to Angela Powers, director of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University.

Powers researches influences on news content, media leadership and ethics, and media convergence.

“Some newspapers in the U.S. are laying off people, closing their doors,” she said. “Yet, other newspapers have an enthusiasm for new methods and techniques for gathering news and information that is completely changing the way they’re doing business.”

Part of that transformation has to do with the Internet, which has created massive interconnectedness, Powers said.

“Journalists are now routinely producing original content for the Internet and determining which medium is most appropriate, rather than simply covering a story for print or electronic media,” she said. (more…)

The “Diversity Lane” Series by Zack Rawsthorne is re-published with permission.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin adores the company’s social network called Google Buzz. We know this because an engineer working five feet from Brin used Google Buzz to say so. “I just finished eating dinner with Sergey and four other Buzz engineers in one of Google’s cafes,” engineer John Costigan wrote a day after the Twitter-and-Facebook-esque service was announced. “He was particularly impressed with the smooth launch and the great media response it generated.”