Legal Mess Continues for Banks - Zacks.com

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan turned down the dismissal of a lawsuit by a lower court ruling on Friday. The lawsuit was filed by the New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund against The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBS - Snapshot Report), Deutsche Bank AG (DB - Snapshot Report), Wells Fargo & Company (WFC - Analyst Report) and NovaStar Mortgage Inc.

The lodged complaint claims that these banks misrepresented documents as an underwriter in the sale of over $1.3 billion in mortgage-backed securities in 2007. The fund alleged that the banks deceptively sold the mortgage-linked securities that gradually failed and also misrepresented the value of instrument by providing materially misleading statements.

Moreover, the New Jersey pension fund alleges that the banks failed to expose NovaStar?s ignorance in complying with its own underwriting standards and the company?s use of overstated appraisals. The banks have been blamed for overlooking these issues while buying loans from NovaStar and selling them as securities to investors. Eventually, the market showed a downtrend, resulting in huge losses for common investors.

Previously, the pension fund sued a larger group of securities in six offerings worth $7.7 billion. However, in 2011, U.S. District Judge, Deborah Batts dismissed the complaint, claiming that the fund invested in just one offering and therefore a lawsuit cannot be filed for the other five offerings. Moreover, the judge highlighted the absence of supporting documents related to the case.

After the dismissal of the case, the pension fund again filed the lawsuit in 2011 over 2007 securities. Currently, the appeals court approved the allegations and regarded them as adequate for proceeding with the case. Moreover, the lower court has been intimated to analyze whether other offerings can be sued by the fund.

However, spokesmen from the banks refrained from commenting on the issue.

The continuously increasing number of lawsuits is apprehended to dent the reputation of the banks and financials. However, investors who lost their hard-earned money in such investments should get some reprieve.

Among other banks, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM - Analyst Report) and Citigroup have also been legally accused of distorting documents related to mortgage-backed securities and other losses in 2011.

Source: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/93890/legal-mess-continues-for-banks

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The Easy*, Cheap* Way to Build a Kick-Ass BBQ Pit in Your Backyard

After one of the wettest, blizardiest winters in recent memory, it's high time for some spring grilling. But why spend thousands on a gas grill that can't even cook a whole hog when you can create your own wood-fired pig pit for under $300? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lRArt3qzMvU/the-easy-cheap-way-to-build-a-kick+ass-bbq-pit-in-your-backyard

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WWE Hall of Famers confirmed for 'Old School' Raw

?The Million Dollar Man? Ted DiBiase, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and ?Hacksaw? Jim Duggan will be among the WWE Legends to appear on tonight?s?special ?Old School? edition of Raw, WWE.com has learned. (WATCH PREVIEW)

It remains to be seen what these WWE Hall of Famers will have in store when Raw turns back the clock, but it?s clear the WWE Universe is in for excitement as ring icons mingle with today?s Superstars on one of the most unpredictable and nostalgia-laden stops on The Road to WrestleMania. (COMPLETE WRESTLEMANIA 29 COVERAGE)

Additionally, as tweeted by WWE COO Triple H (@TripleH), The Game?s D-Generation X cohorts The New Age Outlaws will be in attendance for this momentous Raw, emanating from Buffalo, N.Y.?s First Niagara Center. Given Billy Gunn & Road Dogg?s controversial track record in tandem with Triple H, no one will want to miss the return of these Attitude Era icons. (LIST: ATTITUDE ERA SUPERSTARS)

Who else will drop in on the festivities when WWE goes ?Old School? on Monday Night Raw? To find out, tune in tonight at 8/7 CT, only on USA Network.

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Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2013-03-04/old-school-raw-legends-revealed

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Biden leads re-enactment of voting rights march

SELMA, Ala. (AP) ? The vice president and black leaders commemorating a famous civil rights march on Sunday said efforts to diminish the impact of African-Americans' votes haven't stopped in the years since the 1965 Voting Rights Act added millions to Southern voter rolls.

More than 5,000 people followed Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma's annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

The event commemorates the "Bloody Sunday" beating of voting rights marchers ? including a young Lewis ? by state troopers as they began a march to Montgomery in March 1965. The 50-mile march prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act that struck down impediments to voting by African-Americans and ended all-white rule in the South.

Biden, the first sitting vice president to participate in the annual re-enactment, said nothing shaped his consciousness more than watching TV footage of the beatings. "We saw in stark relief the rank hatred, discrimination and violence that still existed in large parts of the nation," he said.

Biden said marchers "broke the back of the forces of evil," but that challenges to voting rights continue today with restrictions on early voting and voter registration drives and enactment of voter ID laws where no voter fraud has been shown.

"We will never give up or give in," Lewis told marchers.

Jesse Jackson said Sunday's event had a sense of urgency because the U.S. Supreme Court heard a request Wednesday by a mostly white Alabama county to strike down a key portion of the Voting Rights Act.

"We've had the right to vote for 48 years, but they've never stopped trying to diminish the impact of the votes," Jackson said.

Referring to the Voting Rights act, the Rev. Al Sharpton said: "We are not here for a commemoration. We are here for a continuation."

The Supreme Court is weighing Shelby County's challenge to a portion of the law that requires states with a history of racial discrimination, mostly in the Deep South, to get approval from the Justice Department before implementing any changes in election laws. That includes everything from new voting districts to voter ID laws.

Attorneys for Shelby County argued that the pre-clearance requirement is outdated in a state where one-fourth of the Legislature is black. But Jackson predicted the South will return to gerrymandering and more at-large elections if the Supreme Court voids part of the law.

Attorney General Eric Holder, the defendant in Shelby County's suit, told marchers that the South is far different than it was in 1965 but is not yet at the point where the most important part of the voting rights act can be dismissed as unnecessary.

Martin Luther King III, whose father led the march when it resumed after Bloody Sunday, said, "We come here not to just celebrate and observe but to recommit."

One of the NAACP attorneys who argued the case, Debo Adegbile, said when Congress renewed the Voting Rights Act in 2006, it understood that the act makes sure minority inclusion is considered up front.

"It reminds us to think consciously about how we can include all our citizens in democracy. That is as important today as it was in 1965," he said.

Adegbile said the continued need for the law was shown in 2011 when undercover recordings from a bribery investigation at the Alabama Legislature included one white legislator referring to blacks as "aborigines" and other white legislators laughing.

"This was 2011. This was not 1965," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/biden-leads-enactment-voting-rights-march-210955154.html

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Crews begin demolition of Fla. home over sinkhole

Jeremy Bush places flowers and a stuffed animal at a makeshift memorial in front of a home where a sinkhole opened up underneath a bedroom late Thursday evening and swallowed his brother Jeffrey in Seffner, Fla. on Saturday, March 2, 2013. Jeffrey Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but managed to escape unharmed. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Jeremy Bush places flowers and a stuffed animal at a makeshift memorial in front of a home where a sinkhole opened up underneath a bedroom late Thursday evening and swallowed his brother Jeffrey in Seffner, Fla. on Saturday, March 2, 2013. Jeffrey Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but managed to escape unharmed. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

In this undated photo released by Jeremy Bush, shows his brother Jeff Bush. Jeremy Bush heard a loud crash and screaming coming from his brother's room early Thursday, March 1, 2013 in Seffner, Fla. A large sinkhole opened under Jeff's bedroom and he disappeared together with most of the bedroom furniture. Jeremy jumped into the hole and was quickly up to his neck in dirt. Jeff is presumed dead. (AP Photo/Jeremy Bush, HO)

Brenda Bush is escorted by a Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputy as she places flowers, Saturday, March 2, 2013, at a makeshift memorial in front of a home where a sinkhole opened up underneath a bedroom late Thursday evening and swallowed her son Jeffrey in Seffner, Fla. Jeffrey Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but managed to escape unharmed. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

An engineer, tethered with a safety line, walks in front of a home where a sinkhole opened up underneath a bedroom late Thursday evening and swallowed a man in Seffner, Fla. on Saturday, March 2, 2013. Jeffrey Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but managed to escape unharmed. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Engineers talk in front of a home, where a sinkhole opened up underneath a bedroom late Thursday evening and swallowed a man, in Seffner, Fla. on Saturday, March 2, 2013. Jeffrey Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but managed to escape unharmed. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

SEFFNER, Fla. (AP) ? Crews with heavy equipment on Sunday began the demolition of a Florida home over a huge sinkhole where a man is presumed dead after being swallowed by the earth three days ago.

The search for Jeff Bush, 37, was called off Saturday, and a heavy machine with a large bucket scoop was moved into position Sunday on what was believed to be solid ground. The 20-foot-wide opening of the sinkhole was almost covered by the house, and rescuers said there were no signs of life since the hole opened Thursday night.

Jeremy Bush, the man who tried to save his brother, was escorted with a woman by a deputy to the front of the house early Sunday before equipment moved into position. He repositioned some flowers from a makeshift memorial to a safer location, where Bush and the unidentified women knelt in prayer.

People gathered on lawn chairs, bundled up with blankets against unusually chilly weather. Several dozen milled about within view, including officials and reporters.

Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said officials had talked to Bush family Sunday. Crews would try their best to move the structure forward, toward the street, so the family can get some belongings, Merrill said.

"We don't know, in fact, whether it will collapse or whether it will hold up," he said.

He said crews' goal for Sunday is to knock down the house, and on Monday they will clear the debris as much as possible to allow officials and engineers to see the sinkhole in the open.

Bush was in his bedroom Thursday night in Seffner ? a suburb of 8,000 people 15 miles east of downtown Tampa ? when the ground opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five others in the house escape unharmed as the earth crumbled.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is conducting the investigation. Detective Larry McKinnon said that sheriff's office and the county medical examiner cannot declare Bush dead if his body is still missing. Under Florida law, Bush's family must petition a court to declare him deceased.

"Based on the circumstances, he's presumed dead, however the official death certificate can only be issued by a judge and the family has to petition the court," McKinnon said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-03-US-Sinkhole-Swallows-Man/id-3a312d4b977246f7bf990ae72a77eb32

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Car bomb kills 37, wounds 141 in southern Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) ? A car bomb exploded outside a mosque on Sunday, killing 37 people and wounding another 141 in a Shiite Muslim dominated neighborhood in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi ? the third mass casualty attack on the minority sect in the country this year.

No one has taken responsibility for the bombing, but Shiite Muslims have been increasingly targeted by Sunni militant groups in Karachi, Pakistan's economic hub and site of years of political, sectarian and ethnic violence, as well as other parts of the country.

The bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque as people were leaving evening prayers in Pakistan's largest city. Initial reports suggested the bomb was rigged to a motorcycle, but a top police official, Shabbir Sheikh, said later that an estimated 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives was planted in a car.

Col. Pervez Ahmad, an official with a Pakistani paramilitary force called the Rangers, said a chemical used in the blast caught fire and spread the destruction beyond the blast site. Several buildings nearby were engulfed in flames.

Men and women wailed and ambulances rushed to the scene where residents tried to find victims buried in the rubble of collapsed buildings. The blast left a crater that was 2 meters (yards) wide and more than 1 meter (4 feet) deep.

"I was at home when I heard a huge blast. When I came out, I saw there was dust all around in the streets. Then I saw flames," said Syed Irfat Ali, a resident who described how people were crying and trying to run to safety.

A top government official, Taha Farooqi, said at least 37 people were confirmed dead and 141 more were wounded.

Sunni militant groups have stepped up attacks in the past year against Shiite Muslims who make up about 20 percent of Pakistan's population of 180 million people. Sunni militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban view Shiites as heretics.

Tahira Begum, a relative of a blast victim, demanded the government take strict action against the attackers.

"Where is the government?" she asked during an interview with local Aaj News TV. "Terrorists roam free. No one dares to catch them."

It was the third large-scale attack against members of the minority sect so far this year. Two brazen attacks against a Shiite Hazara community in southwestern city of Quetta killed nearly 200 people since Jan 10.

Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the bombings, which ripped through a billiard club and a market in areas populated by Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan more than a century ago. Most Hazaras are Shiites.

Pakistan's intelligence agencies helped nurture Sunni militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in the 1980s and 1990s to counter a perceived threat from neighboring Iran, which is mostly Shiite. Pakistan banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 2001, but the group continues to attack Shiites.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 400 Shiites were killed last year in targeted attacks across the country, the worst year on record for anti-Shiite violence in Pakistan. The human rights group said more than 125 were killed in Baluchistan province. Most of them belonged to the Hazara community.

Human rights groups have accused the government of not doing enough to protect Shiites, and many Pakistanis question how these attacks can happen with such regularity.

A resident who lived in the area where the bomb went off Sunday said there had been another blast nearby just a few months ago.

"The government has totally failed to provide security to common people in this country," Hyder Zaidi said.

After the Jan. 10 bombing in Quetta, the Hazara community held protests, which spread to other parts of the country. The protesters refused to bury their dead for several days while demanding a military-led crackdown against the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group. Pakistan's president dismissed the provincial government and assigned a governor to run Baluchistan province.

No operation was launched against the militant group until another bombing in February killed 89 people.

The government then ordered a police operation and has said some members of the group have been arrested. One of the founders of the group, Malik Ishaq, was among those detained and officials said he could be questioned to determine if his group is linked to the latest violence against Shiites.

The repeated attacks have left many Shiites outraged at the government. After the last blast in Quetta, Shiites in Karachi and other cities also demonstrated in support for their brethren in Quetta. Shiites in Karachi set fire to tires and blocked off streets leading to the airport. Many Karachi residents planned to strike on Monday as a form of protest following Sunday's attack in their city.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/car-bomb-kills-37-wounds-141-southern-pakistan-185703638.html

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Teens with Learning Disabilities Benefit from Closer Relationships ...

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 2, 2013

Many kids with learning disabilities also face social and emotional challenges, which in adolescence can lead to depression, anxiety and isolation.

For these youngsters, more positive relationships with the significant adults in their lives ? including parents and teachers ? can improve learning and ?socioemotional? experiences, said?Michal Al-Yagon, Ph.D., of Tel Aviv University in Israel.

In a recent study, Al-Yagon reported that teens with learning disabilities were less likely to have secure attachment relationships to their mothers and teachers compared to peers without learning disabilities.

The study, found in the journal of Journal of Youth and Adolescence, suggests the absence of close and supportive relationships can harm a teens? social and emotional functioning. In turn, this void can contribute to behavioral problems including isolation, depression, and aggression.

?We found that more secure child-adult attachments may act as a protective factor during this developmental period, whereas insecure attachments are a risk factor? for social and emotional issues,?Al-Yagon said.

These results could help researchers design more effective interventions for children and adolescents with learning disabilities. Helping to strengthen their relationships with parents and teachers may decrease their emotional and behavioral problems.

Researcher say attachment theory, which describes long-term relationship dynamics, may explain how parental involvement, availability, and support can shape a child?s social and emotional development.

Insecure attachments are damaging to a child, hindering future relationships with peers, romantic partners and family members.

For this study,?Al-Yagon measured the socioemotional state and the security of attachments to parents and teachers for 181 adolescents with learning disabilities and 188 with typical development, all between the ages of 15-17.

Participants completed a series of questionnaires regarding their attachment to their mother and father, perceived teacher availability and rejection, loneliness, experience of positive and negative emotions and behavioral problems.

Adolescents with learning disabilities were discovered to have less secure attachments with significant adult figures compared to their non-disabled peers, which had a direct impact on their socioemotional state.

Within the disabled group, those who had more secure attachments to their mother and father, or who considered their teacher caring and available, exhibited fewer negative emotions, feelings of loneliness, and behavior problems ? all of which can interfere with learning.

Experts say these findings can help guide clinicians in developing effective treatment strategies.

Examples include family intervention techniques that focus on creating more secure attachments between parents and children, or school workshops to help teachers understand the needs of their learning disabled students and make more of an effort to include them in classroom activities, said Al-Yagon.

While social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties cannot be entirely avoided,?Al-Yagon believes that a little effort, care, and attention can go a long way toward helping learning disabled children and teens feel happier and more secure.

?Parents and teachers should be aware not just of academic difficulties, but also of socioemotional difficulties ? and work to treat them. They should not avoid or ignore issues such as depression or aggression, which are another dimension of the original problem,? she said.

Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Mother and daughter spending time together photo by shutterstock.

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2013). Teens with Learning Disabilities Benefit from Closer Relationships. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 2, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/03/02/teens-with-learning-disabilities-benefit-from-closer-relationships/52087.html

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Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/03/02/teens-with-learning-disabilities-benefit-from-closer-relationships/52087.html

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