| Governor visits Jackson, talks up school funding
Gov. Phil Bredesen spent Thursday afternoon among friends he hopes will help him sell his "Schools First" initiative to the state legislature, via the voters. "You need to get out and talk to your legislators, and to those influential residents who have relationships with legislators. Convince them this is what we need to do," Bredesen said to a town hall meeting at the Jackson-Madison County Public Library. .
Oz low-doc loans safe, say lenders
AUSTRALIA'S $10 billion low-doc home loan industry could be spared the financial instability emerging in the US because of key product differences in our market. US lender New Century Financial, the second biggest player in the so-called sub-prime market segment, lending to customers with poor or incomplete credit histories, is unable to repay loans called in by its own backers, including investment banks Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. This followed the collapse of the US housing boom, a development which could result in 1.5 million Americans losing their homes, some analysts say. But Moody's Investors Service head of securitisation Nicola O'Brien said the rating agency was not concerned about the health of the non-conforming lending market in Australia.
GE's WMC Mortgage loans hit subprime index
NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric Co.'s (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) subprime mortgage unit is responsible for some of the worst-performing loans in the benchmark index for the $575 billion market for home equity asset-backed securities, showing few lenders are immune to recent U.S. housing sector problems. Losses on more than $2.6 billion in loans issued by WMC Mortgage, a Burbank, California-based unit of GE Money Bank, are expected to top 15 percent, the highest projected rate of any bond in the widely watched ABX derivative index of bonds issued in early 2006, a UBS Securities model showed. The ABX-HE 06-2 index of subprime mortgage securities plunged as much as a third this year as concern that bonds and companies represented don't fully reflect potential losses created by loans to the riskiest borrowers.
Bridging Islamic divide
AUSTRALIA - Sheik Bilal Philips should have been speaking at the Australian Islamic Conference in Melbourne at the weekend. Instead, the Saudi-trained Canadian cleric has been banned from entering the country, supposedly for security reasons. Philips, an advocate of fundamental Islam, has been named by United States officials as an "un-indicted co-conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing that killed six people and injured 100 others. Also absent from the conference will be Saudi academic Professor Jaafer Idris, another Wahhabist fundamentalist. But among the foreign speakers who were granted visas was Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist who converted to Islam after being captured by the Taleban in Afghanistan. She gained notoriety for describing suicide bombers as martyrs, supporting Hamas and approving the distribution of videos of Iraqi insurgents beheading hostages.
FAST FOOD for FITNESS
CANON CITY - A former competitive marathoner has run full circle, having returned to her roots to help others find a healthy path. Kim Cooper, 45, has been on the run since age 8, when she was growing up in Penrose and nurturing a love for rural Colorado and horsemanship. The 1979 Florence High School grad not only ran track but became an avid cheerleader for other athletes - a pursuit she would continue during a two-year stint at the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo, where she added rifle team and softball to her list of athletic feats. But it was her first marathon - the 1985 Pikes Peak Marathon - that got her addicted to distance running. She moved to California, competed in close to 50 marathons and tried several 31-mile races, doing well enough to attain a professional status that earned her a Reebok shoe endorsement in 1989.
EXCLUSIVE: GEST SET TO BE NEW X FACTOR JUDGE
DAVID Gest is in line to replace dumped X Factor judge Louis Walsh to boost the show's flagging appeal. Bosses hope the I'm A Celeb star will add spice to the programme. They felt it had grown dull under Walsh and host Kate Thornton, who has also been axed. They have lined up the 53-year-old Californian to take over from judge Walsh, 54, who was branded "boring" and axed along with co-star Kate Thornton. Gest is said to be in advanced negotiations with ITV. An insider said: "Talks are well under way and ITV chiefs think David is just what the show needs to give it a new kick. It's just a case of sorting out money and scheduling. "David was a real hit on I'm A Celeb... so they know how popular he is. Simon Cowell wants someone who would bring fresh humour to the show.
Wells Fargo Launches Home Rebate Card(SM) to Help Mortgage ...
SAN FRANCISCO, April 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) announced today that it has launched the Wells Fargo Home Rebate Card(SM) -- a special credit card product only for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage customers who want to pay down their mortgage faster, build equity quicker and potentially save thousands of dollars on mortgage interest. Wells Fargo will begin promoting the card through in-store merchandising during its Spring Into Action campaign, which starts April 16 and focuses on financial solutions for the home. "The Wells Fargo Home Rebate Card is another innovative product that can help our customers make smart use of their money and help them succeed financially," said Peter Ho, Wells Fargo Home Rebate Card product manager. "Our pilot program showed us that our mortgage customers understand that with this card their day-to-day spending is better managed, better protected and better rewarded." Virtually every purchase (purchases minus returns/credits) customers make with the card counts toward 1 percent rebate credited to the principal on their Wells Fargo Home Mortgage loan.
TalkTalk concedes: we do have problems
TalkTalk admitted last week that it is still struggling with customer service and technical issues - a year after the launch of its 'free broadband forever' offer. The Observer has been keeping up the pressure on the company through our 'Why Are We Waiting?' campaign, after being deluged with letters and emails over the last year from frustrated customers who have been paying for a broadband connection they have never received. Now the company - the landline arm of Carphone Warehouse - has conceded in a trading statement to the City that its problems are not yet over. The company says that, as a result, it will be ploughing an extra £10m to £15m into meeting 'additional customer service costs' this year. Unless the results are immediate, this will do little to appease existing customers, who continue to write to us on a daily basis with a variety of technical problems.
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