Federal Aid

So you want to refinance your house, but it's not worth enough for you to get a good loan in the current market? A new Obama administration program is designed to fix that problem for millions of homeowners. Here's how it works. In the past, the federal Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage programs would only handle loans of up to 80% of your home's value, unless you bought mortgage insurance. And if you owed more than your home was worth, you were flat out of luck.

WASHINGTON — Government-controlled mortgage giant Freddie Mac is requesting $19 million in additional federal aid after posting a loss for the first quarter of this year. That is less than the $146 million that Freddie received from the government for the fourth quarter of 2011. The company received $7.6 billion for all of 2011 and $13 billion for all of 2010. McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac said Thursday that its net loss attributable to common stockholders was $1.2 billion, or 38 cents a share, in the January-March period.

A report due to be released today by a Republican senator contends the Obama administration's stimulus program is fraught with waste and incompetence -- evidenced by a turtle crossing in northern Florida that will cost more than $3 million and a snafu in which thousands of Social Security checks went out to people who had died. Modeled after a release from the White House describing 100 stimulus projects that were in the works, the report put out by Sen.

Officials in Lancaster filed a complaint Wednesday against Los Angeles County and its housing authority, charging race-based housing discrimination. The complaint, which officials said was the prelude to a possible class action suit, alleges that the agency unlawfully favors African Americans in granting vouchers under Section 8 of the Federal Housing Act. The authority, officials allege, discriminates against other eligible groups and its actions constitute "unlawful and discriminatory racial steering practices that essentially coerce blacks to move to Lancaster, leaving the city with a disproportionate share of blacks on federal housing assistance.

An audit report released Monday cited serious financial and operational problems involving a nonprofit organization's handling of federal grant money flowing through its social service centers in Inglewood and Long Beach. A Washington-based agency conducted the audit of the United States Veterans Initiative and questioned about $500,000 of the $5.36 million in costs claimed by the group from Sept. 1, 2003, through Aug. 31, 2006.

Federal aid to bankrupt governments? Mexico, si . Orange County, no. MARGARET L. BROWN Dana Point

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that President Obama has reversed an earlier decision and approved federal disaster assistance for individual homeowners, renters and businesses affected by the severe storms and flooding that hit the state in March. The decision came within 24 hours after the state filed an appeal with federal authorities. "This is wonderful news — and it is exactly the right decision," Rell said. "The information we provided just a day ago to the federal government demonstrated conclusively that Connecticut's residents and employers suffered major, unreimbursed losses from these storms."

Facing record levels of unemployment and looming state welfare cuts, Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday finalized a plan to begin shifting responsibility for some of the most destitute residents to the federal government. County officials had set aside $7.2 million -- with the expectation of reaping twice that in savings -- to help general relief recipients apply for federal disability assistance or find work. They decided to use the funds to help recipients get into stable housing, locate medical records and obtain the detailed health assessments they need to apply for supplementary security income or veterans benefits.

Southland cities have tallied damage of more than $30 million from the Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 windstorms but appear likely to fall short of qualifying for federal disaster assistance. Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck said last week that the costs will probably not exceed the $50.3 million needed for a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster declaration. "It remains unlikely that we would reach the federal threshold," he said. Pasadena officials met last week with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank)

GMAC Financial Services will get a $3.8-billion boost in federal aid as the auto industry's key lender to consumers and related businesses struggles to regain its financial footing. The lifeline, the company's third helping of taxpayer funds in the last year, is aimed at keeping the Detroit lender on track to its goal of improved finances next year and an eventual profit. The infusion will raise the government's ownership stake to 56% from 35%. "These actions offer the best chance for GMAC to complete its overall restructuring plan and return to the private capital markets for its debt financing and capital needs in 2010," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Ronda Storms is a Republican state senator from Florida. She is also a mom who buys the groceries for her family of four. A few months ago, Storms, 46, started noticing that some fellow shoppers were using federal food stamp money to purchase a lot of unhealthful junk. And it galled her - at a time when Florida was cutting Medicaid reimbursement rates, public school funding and jobs - that people were indulging in sugary, fatty, highly-processed treats on the public dime. "If we're going to be cutting services across the board," she said, "then people can live without potato chips, without store-bought cookies, without their sodas.

President Obama on Friday challenged colleges and universities to cut costs and improve quality or risk losing out to competitors in the race for federal aid. "We are putting colleges on notice," Obama told students at the University of Michigan on Friday morning. "You can't assume that you'll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers every year will go down. " Obama probably won't be able to pass his college affordability agenda this year, with a divided Congress opposing most of his plans.

Southland cities have tallied damage of more than $30 million from the Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 windstorms but appear likely to fall short of qualifying for federal disaster assistance. Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck said last week that the costs will probably not exceed the $50.3 million needed for a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster declaration. "It remains unlikely that we would reach the federal threshold," he said. Pasadena officials met last week with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank)

Retreating from partisan stalemate days before a potential government shutdown, the Senate passed a temporary 2012 funding bill that also replenishes federal disaster aid. Senators approved the measure Monday night by an overwhelming vote, 79 to 12. The bill still needs approval of the GOP-led House, which is in recess, and Republican leaders hoped it could pass without a prolonged fight. Otherwise, government funding and aid for disaster victims runs out at the end of the week, when fiscal 2011 ends.

The federal disaster fund could run dry as early as Tuesday, but lawmakers showed no sign of compromise as another partisan showdown on the budget set the stage for a possible government shutdown later this week. Democratic and Republican leaders were not scheduled to talk Sunday about a measure to replenish the fund, which is used to aid victims and reimburse states hit by floods and other natural disasters, and to keep the government running past Friday, the end of the fiscal year.

A massive central Texas wildfire roared through ranchland and suburbs Monday, destroying nearly 500 homes — a state record for a single fire — as Gov. Rick Perry appealed for federal assistance to fight at least 63 blazes throughout the drought-dried state. The pine forests of central and eastern Texas, the northern panhandle and the southern Houston suburbs have been hit by scores of fires that have destroyed 1,091 homes and consumed 3.6 million acres, roughly the size of Connecticut, since the fire season began in November.

Walking past piles of water-soaked rubble, President Obama stopped to tell victims of Hurricane Irene that the federal government was on the case and would do what it could to help them rebuild their lives and homes. One woman blurted out a way he could do just that. "Give me a million bucks and I'll be happy," joked Patty Mayer, a Fayette Avenue resident. Obama pantomimed a search of his pockets. "Let me see how much I got. I didn't bring my wallet. " Often seen as emotionally removed from the country's hardships, Obama waded into a pocket of misery Sunday to try to buck up New Jersey neighborhoods stricken by the hurricane.

The federal government's approach to emergency relief has long been to open its checkbook and pay whatever it took to get communities back on their feet. Agencies had budgets for disaster response, but nature defied prediction; overruns were the rule, not the exception. After Hurricane Irene flooded large swathes of the Northeast, however, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) declared that the era of the open checkbook was over. Instead of borrowing from the future to pay for repairs, Cantor said, Congress must offset any new relief spending with cuts in other programs.