Servicers

Bank of America has agreed to reduce the loan balances of underwater homeowners more aggressively than other banks, saying that by next month it will start contacting 200,000 borrowers who may qualify. The pledge is part of a side deal that BofA signed when it and other large providers of mortgage customer service reached a recent $25-billion foreclosure-abuse settlement with state and federal government agencies. Writing down the balance of home loans for underwater borrowers — people who owe more than their homes are worth — is a controversial practice.

Nearly a year after a social worker blew the whistle, Los Angeles County supervisors acknowledged Tuesday that a "crisis" had developed in a Wilshire Boulevard office building used to house difficult-to-place foster children and requested a new plan to house them. Supervisor Gloria Molina said the office near MacArthur Park, where the county's child protection agency has its nighttime, emergency operations, has become a "dumping ground" for hundreds of the county's most troubled children when social workers can't find a suitable foster home.

If you think Bluetooth is a rare dental condition and an app is what you eat before the entree, you might not be a candidate for today's high-tech, whiz-bang smart phones. Instead, you might be happier with a mobile phone geared toward seniors. Those phones typically don't have Web-surfing capability, GPS maps and video games. Instead they have large buttons, oversized digital readouts and hearing-aid compatibility, along with a relatively simple calling plan. Although senior-friendly phones aren't new, their lower prices and variety are. A recent price skirmish among wireless companies means seniors can get an easy-to-use cellphone and cheap service to go with it, said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the independent and nonprofit Alliance for Generational Equity.

WASHINGTON - The prostitution scandal that has embroiled the Secret Service is not evidence of a wider culture of boozing and paying for sex among those who are trained to take a bullet for the president, the director of the agency told skeptical senators. The senators challenged Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan to explain how it was possible, without an atmosphere of permissiveness among the agency's supervisors, that 12 agents could go out in separate groups on April 11 in Cartagena, Colombia, independently decide to bring women back to their hotel rooms, and then sign the women in at the front desk next to the agents' real names.

The Obama administration has punished three of the nation's largest banks, judging them unworthy of receiving financial incentives through its signature foreclosure relief program until they improve their practices. Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. were found to be in need of "substantial improvement" under the $75-billion Home Affordable Modification Program, officials said. It was the first time that the administration had taken any major punitive action against the banks in its program, which has been criticized by consumer advocates and Republicans as ineffective and falling short of its goals.

WASHINGTON — If you're one of the estimated 11 million homeowners burdened with an underwater mortgage, a new federal policy change could be good news: Starting in June, when you want to do a short sale to shed your mortgage and avoid foreclosure, you may not have to wait for months to hear back from your bank when you submit an offer from a potential purchaser. Instead, if your loan is owned or securitized by either of the dominant conventional mortgage market players — Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac — you can expect a response within 30 business days, with a final decision taking no more than 60 days.

If you have lost a job and are in danger of falling behind on mortgage payments, here's some potentially important news: The two largest players in mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are revising their policies on forbearance when unemployment interferes with the ability to stay current on a home loan. Forbearance means that a lender or mortgage servicing company will either suspend — cut to zero — or reduce required monthly payments for a specific period of time. On loans they own or have securitized, Fannie and Freddie are now directing servicers to forbear when a borrower can show a job loss.

Still searching for a fix for the housing market, the Obama administration is trying to make refinancing more attractive to hundreds of thousands of homeowners by significantly reducing fees on many government-backed mortgages. The changes could lead to a savings of about $1,000 a year on a typical mortgage refinance on top of the reduction in monthly payments from a lower interest rate, President Obama said Tuesday. "That would make refinancing even more attractive to more families," Obama said in announcing the Federal Housing Administration plan during a White House news conference.

If you give millions of seriously underwater homeowners a new equity position in their properties by reducing their principal mortgage debt, will they keep paying on their loans and avoid foreclosure? Call it a pipe dream or a significant model for other lenders and investors, but one company says it has found an important combination: Modify underwater borrowers' loans so that their payments are reduced to a manageable amount and cut their principal debt over time, but make the deal dependent on their scrupulous on-time monthly payments of the new amount plus sharing of a portion of any future profit they make on the house sale.

Taking borrowers at their word for how much they earn was a major cause of the mortgage meltdown. That practice may also be why an Obama administration program has struggled to convert temporary loan modifications into permanent ones. The government said Thursday that it would overhaul the program by requiring homeowners to document their incomes before trial modifications are granted. Borrowers previously could have their interest rates lowered and the terms of their loans extended on a trial basis without providing pay stubs or other financial documents.

Re "Is it possible to get a human on the phone at Google?," Column, May 18 I agree with David Lazarus that it is frustrating to be unable to contact a "live" person for customer service. Some companies offer free live help for a limited time after you buy a product. Before I buy a product that may require help to use, I always ask about the customer support policy. Google, however, is a totally different issue. It is not charging for the use of its search engine. Its revenue comes from advertisers, which I am sure have no problem contacting Google by phone to talk with a sales rep. I can understand Google not providing live telephone support because the users pay nothing for services.

MOSCOW - Stiff new penalties aimed at opposition protesters were given preliminary approval Tuesday by Russian lawmakers loyal to President Vladimir Putin, the target of mass rallies and demonstrations before his March election victory. The bill, which opposition parliament members termed draconian and protested by threatening to file out of a legislative session, calls for fines of up to $50,000 and up to 200 hours of community service for organizers of rallies and demonstrations that grow violent or exceed the approved number of participants.

Actor Kelsey Grammer is back at it — trying to sell his home in the Beverly Crest area — this time for $17.999 million. Priced in 2008 at $19.9 million, the mansion is described in the listing as modern Traditional in style. The two-story house, built in 1980, features a central hall, media room, a library, a wine cellar and a service entrance. There are seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms and 10,567 square feet of living space. Lawn, a swimming pool, a six-car motor court and a four-car garage complete the grounds of more than three-quarters of an acre.

Dear Liz: Our mother just turned 64, and our father is divorcing her. She hasn't worked in years because of significant physical and mental health issues. My sister and I have been trying to figure out how she's going to survive on $750 a month, which is the equivalent of half his Social Security. She has always had serious issues with money management, which is why there are no retirement savings or a house. We are now about to embark on the maze of social service benefits that an older woman below the poverty line can receive, partly so we can decide whether she's better off staying put where she is in Arkansas, moving to my sister's in Texas, moving to be near me in Maryland, or moving to her childhood home of Chicago, where most of her friends are. For a lot of complicated reasons (mostly related to the mental health issues)

An Acton man convicted of building-code violations for constructing an elaborate home complex dubbed "Phonehenge West" was ordered by a judge Friday to perform two months of community service and repay Los Angeles County at least $83,488. Alan Kimble Fahey, 60, a retired phone company technician, was found guilty last June of a dozen building code violations because he did not obtain proper permits to construct the ornate Acton property, which many of his supporters considered a work of art. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Daviann L. Mitchell ordered Fahey to perform 63 days of community service, "of which a minimum of five days must be served at the L.A. County or Kern County morgue," Mitchell said.

I love my dog. Sure, he has issues - what lover doesn't? He wheezes when he sleeps, or when he's awake. There is an unexplainable darkness to his soul that emerges when he's under extreme stress. He also has a taste for the blood in mosquito bites. (The vet thinks he might be a vampire.) Being from L.A., our dog is prone to anxiety attacks and an almost debilitating sense of envy, particularly when coming upon younger, fitter dogs, which almost all dogs are. The last time we weighed him, he was close to 300 pounds.

If you're in trouble on your mortgage and can't get a loan modification, check out the Obama administration's standardized short-sale plan that's scheduled to roll out in the next several months. The program, outlined Dec. 1 by the Treasury Department, is an attempt to streamline what has traditionally been a contentious, time-consuming process by requiring lenders and others to use nationally uniform documents, timelines and financial incentives. A short sale involves a lender or investor agreeing to collect less than the balance owed on a mortgage debt out of the proceeds of a negotiated sale of the property.

Up to 3 million homeowners could save about $1,000 a year because of a reduction in fees, announced Tuesday by President Obama ,  on refinancing their government-backed mortgages. In addition, the White House said it was taking new steps to help military members whose homes were improperly foreclosed by large mortgage servicers. Among the steps, the servicers have agreed to conduct a review overseen by the Justice Department of all foreclosures of military members since 2006 to determine if they violated a federal ban on such actions for active duty service members.  Any violations will result in the servicer paying the military member's lost equity, plus interest, plus $116,785.

SACRAMENTO - The state paid a $74,400 settlement to a company co-owned by the husband of state Sen. Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel) after her office repeatedly called the prisons agency to check on a claim filed by the firm. The senator's husband, David Walters, co-owns a company that provides pharmacists to the California corrections system. The firm filed a claim with the state last year contending that the business was underpaid for its services. A spokesman for Mimi Walters said this week that the aide who made the calls, D. Everett Rice, was following the senator's policy to aggressively help constituents deal with state red tape.

Prodded by an ultraconservative Catholic group, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., has criticized Friday's scheduled speech at Georgetown University by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Although Sebelius favors abortion rights, the "sin" that incurred the archdiocese's displeasure was the Obama administration's proposed rule requiring insurance coverage for contraception for employees of religious hospitals and educational institutions. Because Sebelius' actions "present the most direct challenge to religious liberty in recent history," the archdiocese suggested, students at the Jesuit-affiliated university shouldn't be able to hear her speak at an awards ceremony for its Public Policy Institute.