| Longview, Pine Tree share grant for new anti-pollution devices
Marshall was the only other area district that applied, but was put on a "waiting list" because all available 2008 grant money was accounted for, Morrow said. She added that the Harrison County district will be considered in the 2009 funding cycle, which begins Sept. 1 with about $6 million available for retrofits. Gilmer ISD Superintendent Rick Albritton said his district also would attempt to get funds to retrofit 21 of their 26 buses for 2009. The program is open to all public schools with at least one diesel-powered bus. .
Overcrowding plagues NFL pregame shows
THE SPORTS GAL'S PICKS The Sports Gal refused to rant again this week in protest of the fact "nobody made it clear to me that having two kids would suck this much." She's about two weeks away from being wheeled out of the house in a gurney like Britney. Fortunately, she did find time to make her Round 2 picks: Seahawks +7.5; Pats -13; Colts -8.5; Giants +7.5.
Playoffs: 2-1-1
Reg. Season: 136-111-9 .
Unbridled Markets: Conservatives Embrace Securitization Run Amok
It seemed like an interesting idea. Federally chartered financial institutions such a Fannie Mae had been selling mortgage-backed securities to investors for decades. Those securities gave buyers higher yields than they could get on U.S. Treasuries but also proved to be relatively secure investments. Even if one or two homeowners defaulted on their mortgages they represented a small fraction of the total mortgages packaged in such securities. And with ever-rising real estate values the chances were good that the full value of a defaulted loan could be recovered. So why wouldn’t it be a good idea to offer investors an even higher rate of return by packaging the mortgages of less creditworthy homebuyers who could not qualify for a standard mortgage but were willing to pay a higher interest rate to become homeowners? That was the question posed by some of the biggest financial institutions in the United States as they began to purchase, package, and sell "Structured Investment Vehicles" or SIVs. There were in fact a number of reasons that such instruments were not a good idea.
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