BusinessWeek Cover Story - Bonfire Of The Builders 
Earlier this year, Beazer received a subpoena from the Justice Dept. seeking documents related to its home loans, and the company is also under civil investigation by the North Carolina Attorney General's office... Wall Street egged on the often-reckless underwriting by buying vast quantities of home loans for repackaging as securities. Now that the boom has fizzled and foreclosure rates are rising, the important role of large homebuilders as lenders is also coming into sharper focus...Builders allegedly violated federal lending standards to get customers to sign on the dotted line. KB Home (KBH) paid a record $3.2 million settlement in July, 2005, to resolve allegations by the Housing & Urban Development Dept. that the builder's mortgage unit overstated borrowers' income, among other practices, to obtain loan approvals. KB, which denied wrongdoing, sold its loan business before settling... Busy developers that provided Wall Street with equity-underwriting business discovered they had friends in the investment banking world.

Building a case
Some Albuquerque homeowners allege Longford Homes cut corners on construction. But Longford says its homes are just fine. Client Juliette Alarcon and her family were among the first to move into the then-new Mountain View Estates development in Southwest Albuquerque in 1998. A bad storm that first year created a sinkhole in front of the home that eventually split the sidewalk and created a channel of water under the house, Alarcon says. Longford told her the problem was caused by a backhoe that cracked a pipe during construction, and it had the hole dried and backfilled, she says. Alarcon says she and her family later that year noticed cracks in the interior and exterior walls. And Alarcon says her bathtub flooded the garage through a leak, and that Longford told her the plumber forgot to seal the tub.

Who is looking after your roof job?
Roofs are only as good as the crews that nail them down, and around Houston, nobody’s officially checking their work. But in Houston, getting a new roof can be costly and infuriating, as 11 News found the Better Business Bureau gets a complaint nearly every day. “The roof was never replaced, and none of the money was refunded to me,” one complainant said. “I have pictures of my interior wall damage, and mushrooms growing out of my carpet,” another added. .. “In Texas, there is no licensing for roofing contractors,” John Giffin said... Morin in Austin is with a Roofers Association, which wants the Legislature to mandate licensing but has failed for years to overcome opposition from homebuilders and other contractors.

Complaint filed against state court justice
A consumer advocacy group filed complaints with three state agencies Tuesday concerning discounted legal services that Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht received to fight charges that he abused his judicial office to promote Harriet Miers, a onetime girl friend, to the U.S. Supreme Court.Texas Watch filed complaints with Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney's office, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and the Texas Ethics Commission claiming that the 25 percent discount he received was worth at least $100,000, exceeding the limit for gifts and contributions.