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Latest News
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New Jersey code official charged with taking bribes |
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Tuesday, 18 October 2005 |
Ronald Estepp accused of accepting free meals and work in exchange for approving a construction project
HILLSBOROUGH -- After a seven-month investigation into his department, the township's chief code enforcement officer was charged Monday with receiving $14,000 worth of work on his home and free meals in exchange for approving a construction project without proper inspections or permits...in violation of New Jersey State Uniform Construction Code -- a set of regulations and safe building standards that Estepp himself had helped to create as a member of the International Building Code Council and a former president of the New Jersey Building Officials Association. Estepp was named Builder of the Year by the association in 1999 and also sat on several committees that made amendments to the state Uniform Construction Code.
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Tuesday, 18 October 2005 |
Avoiding rules they wrote
In 1994, engineer Gene Dawson Jr. served as the articulate chairman of a committee that wrote new rules intended to protect the Edwards Aquifer...Since then, Dawson's engineering firm has been prolific in helping developers avoid the very ordinance he authored...Pape-Dawson Engineers Inc. has sought exemptions from the water quality rules for clients 477 times — a third of all cases and more than any other firm. |
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San Antonio Express-News Day 3 |
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Tuesday, 18 October 2005 |
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Part 3 Special Series
When S.A. said, 'Stop,' Austin said, 'Go ahead'
When San Antonio's top developers threw a fundraiser last year for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, architect Steve Heflin assured colleagues the poolside gala would pay off... "All of you who participated and contributed — Gov. Perry thanks you for it," Heflin wrote. "Next year when we are campaigning for vested rights legislation, we know we have a friend at our state capitol." Heflin later insisted campaign cash didn't buy the governor's support for an obscure "vested rights" statute that offers developers a way to sidestep modern city land-use ordinances, saving the industry an untold fortune.
See 2nd article - Avoiding rules they wrote
In 1994, engineer Gene Dawson Jr. served as the articulate chairman of a committee that wrote new rules intended to protect the Edwards Aquifer...Since then, Dawson's engineering firm has been prolific in helping developers avoid the very ordinance he authored...Pape-Dawson Engineers Inc. has sought exemptions from the water quality rules for clients 477 times — a third of all cases and more than any other firm.
Graphic: A look at builders and development interests that gave money to state lawmakers between 2000 and 2004 |
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San Antonio Express-News Day 2 |
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Monday, 17 October 2005 |
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Part 2 Special Series
Priced out of protection |
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San Antonio Express-News Day 2 |
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Monday, 17 October 2005 |
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Part 2 Special Series - 2 Articles By John Tedesco
Express-News Staff Writer
Dig up an old plan, get vested
But records show the developers began cutting down 600 acres of trees in August 2001, the same month the city signed off on their exemption to the tree rules...Today, homebuilders who bought parts of the property from Powell and Denton are preserving the 400 acres and wiping out much of the remaining forest, grinding the landscape to bare limestone for 2,000 homes.
See 2nd article: Priced out of protection |
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Express-News Editor Robert Rivard comments on series |
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Sunday, 16 October 2005 |
Part 1 Special Series
Robert Rivard: Losing ground: Aquifer faces peril as a city grows wrong way
The original plan called for publication nearly two months ago of "Losing Ground," John Tedesco's exhaustive examination of unchecked development over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone. It begins today on Page 1 and continues inside for five pages. The series itself continues into the week. "Losing Ground" is not an effort by the Express-News to vilify developers or to send an anti-growth message. Smart, planned growth in one of the nation's fastest growing cities is the prescription. And while many developers have built and are building neighborhoods and subdivisions that feature native trees, lush vegetation and substantial green space, others are throwing up cookie-cutter developments that are void of trees and seemingly supplant the very beauty of the land that is the reason people are attracted to the Texas Hill Country. What readers need to know, whatever stance you take on these complex public policy issues, is that local government actually exercises very little control over development. See photos of clear cutting |
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San Antonio Express-News - Losing Ground |
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Sunday, 16 October 2005 |
Part 1 Special Series
Losing Ground: How we did this report
The Texas grandfathering law has played a pivotal yet often hidden role in shaping San Antonio's growth. To determine the law's impact, the San Antonio Express-News pored over files for each vested project, conducted scores of interviews and analyzed several government databases. |
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Express News - Four Part Series - Losing Ground |
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Sunday, 16 October 2005 |
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Part 1 Special Series
Losing Ground - Law lets developers ignore growth controls
An obscure Texas law written for developers has cost San Antonio millions of dollars, stripped parts of the scenic Hill Country of trees and blocked attempts to protect the region's water supply. The "vested rights" law stops cities from imposing new restrictions on a real estate project once a developer files virtually any kind of plan for it. From that point on, the project is "vested" and frozen in a time warp of more lenient city codes. See photos of clear cutting ...
See 2nd article: Losing Ground: How we did this report The Texas grandfathering law has played a pivotal yet often hidden role in shaping San Antonio's growth. To determine the law's impact, the San Antonio Express-News pored over files for each vested project, conducted scores of interviews and analyzed several government databases. |
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Flordia's former head of state licensing agency investigated |
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Wednesday, 12 October 2005 |
Former DBPR head facing inquiry
Tallahassee lobbyist Cynthia Henderson once headed the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the state agency that licenses construction contractors. But the agency, acting on an anonymous complaint, is now investigating whether the remodeling of Henderson's kitchen for the upcoming show "Capital Dish" was done by contractors not licensed to practice in Florida...Just three months after Gov. Jeb Bush first appointed her to head the regulatory agency in 1999, she flew to the Kentucky Derby on a corporate jet owned by a restaurant chain her office regulated, and she was later criticized for firing four lawyers and an investigator who were probing complaints of poor workmanship by a construction company run by the head of the Florida Home Builders Association. |
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USA Today - Mortgage Fraud |
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Wednesday, 12 October 2005 |
Fraud booms with mortgage market
"Criminals are opportunists," says William Matthews, co-author of a recent report on mortgage fraud by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute. "If you've got a booming market, they're going to get away with more fraud."...Lenders last year reported to the FBI 17,000 suspected incidents of mortgage fraud, and the FBI's cases have grown from 534 in 2004 to 642 in the first half of 2005. At the IRS, criminal investigations of mortgage fraud from 2001 to 2004 have nearly doubled to 194 cases. |
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Big Money and Shoddy Construction |
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Tuesday, 11 October 2005 |
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Attention:Texas Attorney General Investigating Washington Mutual |
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Monday, 10 October 2005 |
FOX 4 Investigative Report
File a complaint with the Texas Attorney General
Hundreds of customers of the mortgage giant complain they are getting socked with unnecessary fees and threats of foreclosure. If you have a complaint against Washington Mutual, you should direct those complaints to the Texas attorney general at 512 463-2100 or www.oag.state.tx.us. |
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KFOR News4 - Convicted State Senator paid HUD Funds? |
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Monday, 10 October 2005 |
'No Agent' makes no deal
Kingston was a state senator when he was caught illegally buying HUD properties and renting them out. The government claimed Kingston did not make payments on the properties causing HUD, using taxpayer money, to pay off the mortgages when the properties went into foreclosure. Leo Kingston was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to federal prison and so was his wife Paulette. She is the one now seen in the commercials for 1-800-No-Agent or RAK properties. NewsChannel 4 learned that as a result of his fraud conviction Kingston’s name was on a government list barring him from being a HUD funded landlord for low income properties. See related information: HUD's Broken System |
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70 Families Sue KB Home Mortgage |
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Sunday, 09 October 2005 |
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KB Home recently paid $3.2M in HUD fines for mortgage irregularities. Mortgage scams are catching up with homeowners who are struggling to keep their home but, many may be losing the battle to foreclosure. REPORT MORTGAGE IRREGULARITIES - If you think you are a victim - Report Mortgage Fraud Ft Worth Star-Telegram
The high price of mortgages
The Lights have taken their case to court. They are among more than 70 Tarrant County couples and individuals suing their lender, KB Home Mortgage Co., saying it negligently underestimated the amount of property tax that the homeowners needed to pay into escrow accounts to pay future taxes and insurance premiums... Another KB customer participating in the lawsuit, Ella Gray, moved into her KB-built home in Arlington's South Ridge development in August 2001. Her mortgage required a tax escrow of just under $50 a month, or about $600 a year. But in 2002, she was notified that her taxes for the year were going up -- to $4,129.37, or $344 a month, according to Tarrant Appraisal District data... Gray and other homeowners in South Ridge discovered in 2001 that their neighborhood had been used as a practice bombing range decades earlier and was still peppered with tiny unexploded bombs. Related article: HUD ANNOUNCES $3.2 MILLION SETTLEMENT AGINST KB HOME MORTGAGE COMPANY |
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Dallas - Developers, Bribery, Affordable Housing & FBI Investigation |
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Friday, 07 October 2005 |
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EXCLUSIVE: CHANNEL 11 INVESTIGATES
FBI TAPES ALLEGED TO SHOW MAYOR PRO-TEM DON HILL CLOSELY INVOLVED IN NEGOTIATING CASH PAYMENT, OTHER COMPENSATION, FOR DEVELOPMENT VOTE
A Dallas lawyer and two local contractors claimed to be working closely with Mayor Pro-Tem Don Hill this Spring when a developer paid them a $50,000 down payment on a deal in which Hill would stop stalling a south Dallas project and get it approved, say two independent sources familiar with covert tape recordings of the negotiations. |
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