Two similar pieces of legislation introduced last month in the House and Senate that would extend tax relief to homeowners who are underwater on their mortgage loans have been referred to committees and are waiting to be heard.

Congressman Tom Reed (R-New York) introduced the Mortgage Forgiveness Tax Relief Act of 2015 (H.R. 1002) on February 13, and that bill is now being heard in the House Committee on Ways and Means. Two weeks later, Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and Dean Heller (R-Nevada) introduced a similar bill (S. 608), which is currently in the Senate Banking Committee. Both bills would extend relief to homeowners on forgiven mortgage debt – the remaining mortgage balance when a borrower sells a home in a short sale to avoid foreclosure. The bills would allow homeowners to exclude the forgiven debt from federal income tax forms and not report it as…

Great reporting from Propublica!

by Justin Elliott
ProPublica, March 11, 2015, 4 a.m.

The Albany Times Union co-published a version of this story.

Previously undisclosed emails by a mortgage industry lobbyist doubling as a consultant for then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo show the lobbyist played a self-described “critical role” in one of Cuomo’s signature financial crisis investigations.

The emails from 2007 and 2008 detail how the lobbyist, longtime Cuomo confidantHoward Glaser, was involved in an investigation of mortgage industry players that included Glaser’s own clients.

In one email, Glaser touted his influence over a Cuomo deal that weakened rules to prevent misdeeds in the mortgage market. That deal, with mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reflected Glaser’s “significant, critical, and…

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller is trying to stop legislation that would eliminate a consumer protection known as the “settlement conference,” which is a homeowner’s final recourse before their home goes to foreclosure, according to anannouncement on Zoeller’s website.

So far, the proposal has not received sufficient discussion or debate in committee or floor sessions, according to Zoeller. He urged Indiana lawmakers to stop the proposal before it gets any further in order to keep the settlement conference intact as a consumer option to avoid foreclosure and help them stay in their homes.

“After the foreclosure crisis exposed the unethical practices of major mortgage servicers, my office worked extremely hard in our multistate investigation against five major banks to create new consumer protections for distressed homeowners,” Zoeller said. “The right created by law to a court-supervised settlement conference and face-to-face meeting between borrowers and lenders has helped thousands of…

U.S. District Judge Beth Freeman of the Northern District of California on Tuesday sided with lawyers for ServiceNow Inc. that four HP patents related to IT outsourcing cover abstract ideas which cannot be patented. Freeman’s decision rested heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank, which set a high bar for the patentability of certain computer-implemented inventions.
UC-Hastings College of Law Professor Robin Feldman said she wasn’t surprised to see Alice wielded successfully against a Silicon Valley stalwart like HP. Established tech companies, as well as so-called patent trolls, have “applied for the type of broadly worded patents that were slapped down in Alice,” she said.
“Everyone has been hedging bets in recent years, but patent rules must apply to all,” Feldman said. “Innovation benefits from elimination of this style of patenting, and that is good for the Valley.”

via Citing ‘Alice,’ Judge Crushes Four HP…