Republicans claim payout from big-bank settlements being steered toward 'special interests'

House Republicans are accusing the Obama administration of letting millions of dollars from recent mortgage-lending settlements go toward politically favored advocacy groups, in turn "shortchanging" the people originally harmed by the financial crisis.
The separate deals were reached with the Justice Department in summer 2014, with Citigroup agreeing to pay $7 billion for misleading investors over mortgage-backed securities and Bank of America paying $16.65 billion for similar actions.
But of the $24 billion, roughly $150 million is tabbed for financial-counseling agencies -- a category that includes liberal-leaning groups such as the National Council of La Raza.
While some Americans likely will need help figuring out how to recover money through the settlement -- help these organizations could give -- Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are questioning why certain activist groups are on the Department of Housing and Urban Development-approved list.
“The Obama administration is shortchanging victims by using these settlements to send money to their pet projects rather than allowing it to go to directly to the people who were harmed in the first place,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told FoxNews.com on Monday.“Furthermore, the administration is also abusing the separation of powers by using these cases to funnel money to their preferred special interests in an attempt to do an end run around Congress, which the Constitution grants the power of the purse.”
Goodlatte pointed specifically to groups such as La Raza and NeighborWorks America -- a network of community development organizations that his office compared to the defunct, controversial low-income advocacy group ACORN.(ACORN disbanded in 2010 after losing government funding amid a controversy over misconduct captured in hidden-camera videos. NeighborWorks is not affiliated and has declined to even work with groups that are.)
Goodlatte said the settlement deal also could result in banks having to pay an additional half-billion dollars to the “controversial activist groups.” A House Judiciary subcommittee will hold a hearing Thursday on the matter.
Concerns about the HUD-approved groups have been raised since at least 2012, when the agency announced the release of $42 million for mortgage counseling, with groups like La Raza and the National Urban League being eligible service providers.
The Urban League received $1 million and La Raza received roughly $1.7 million from HUD, according to the conservative website WesternJournalism.com.
La Raza supports administration-backed, comprehensive immigration-reform legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants and President Obama's recent executive actions that suspended deportation for millions.
La Raza’s nonprofit 501(c)4 group, the NCLR Action Fund, spent $147,521 exclusively on Democratic candidates during the 2014 election cycle.
Group spokeswoman Lisa Nauarrete said Monday that La Raza, though, has been an approved counselor since the first Bush administration and has yet to "receive a dime" of settlement money.
"The argument seems terribly speculative to us," she said. "And the amount is less than 1 percent [of the settlement]. That's a minuscule part."
Goodlatte and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, have been pursuing issues related to the settlements since last year, including sending a letter in November to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting additional information about the “questionable terms” of the deal.
The Justice Department did not return a request Monday for comment on the eligible groups and the deal itself.
Documents provided to FoxNews.com by HUD show hundreds of national and local housing-counseling groups are approved by the agency for settlement money.
A La Raza affiliate was listed in at least five states and the District of Columbia. A NeighborWorks group was listed in five states, and a National Urban League group was listed in nine.
Goodlatte and Hensarling also have raised concerns about the incentive structure in the settlements with Citigroup and Bank of America, which were preceded by a similar one in 2013 with JP Morgan for $13 billion. They argue the deals have an incentive clause in which banks earn $2 worth of credit for every dollar donated to the groups above a certain threshold, compared with a dollar-for-dollar credit for government-mandated consumer relief.
“This makes donations to activist groups far more attractive to banks than providing relief to injured consumers,” Goodlatte and Hensarling said in their 2014 letter to Holder. “As a result, the settlement appears to serve as a vehicle for funding activist groups rather than as a means of securing relief for consumers actually harmed.”

Just as Bad Cartoon

Carson getting 'personnel, rationale' in place for possible 2016 White House run

Dr. Ben Carson acknowledged Sunday that he is building a campaign team for a potential 2016 presidential run and indicated he will make a formal announcement by May.
“We’re making sure all the infrastructure is in place -- personnel and rationale,” said Carson, a conservative favorite expected to run in the Republican primary. “We’re putting all of that together.”
Carson indicated on “Fox News Sunday” that he will, in the next couple of weeks, announce an exploratory committee toward a White House bid and that he would make public in May whether we will formally enter the race.
The 63-year-old Carson continues to do well in early polling.

“We’re making sure all the infrastructure is in place . . ."- Dr. Ben Carson

He finished tied for fifth in a Bloomberg Politics/Saint Anselm New Hampshire Poll for potential GOP candidates released Sunday.
He finished behind former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Carson tied with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Carson criticized President Obama’s plan to provide free community college education to Americans. He said existing Pell Grants already help students from low-income families receive a higher education. And he offered advice for those who don’t qualify for assistance.
“W-o-r-k,” he said, arguing that government is not responsible for providing everything to it citizens, including those in low- and middle-income families.
"We don't have to give away everything," Carson said. "That was never the intention. The government is not there to give away everything and to take care of people. It is to facilitate our ability to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's it."
Carson also weighed in on the recent debate about immunization and the measles outbreak that has divided the potential 2016 GOP White House field. He said parents should immunize their children.
Carson said many parents who don’t immunize are the victims of old misinformation and suggested the public health community hasn’t done a good enough job of getting out the correct information, which is that the obvious upsides outweigh the potential downsides, such as allergic reactions.
However, he argued the issue shouldn’t be partisan.
“It’s not a Republican or Democratic issue,” Carson told Fox News.
Days earlier, Paul suggested parents should have their children immunize but also argued that "the state doesn’t own the children.”

Kerry opens door to 2016 White House bid, but just slightly

Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he has not ruled out a 2016 White House bid, which would put him in a wide-open Democrat primary field behind front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Kerry, the party’s presidential nominee in 2004, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “nobody ever says never.”
However, he said he could think of “no scenario whatsoever” in which he would start such a campaign.
“I haven't thought about it. And I'm, as you can tell, pretty busy," Kerry said from Germany, where he is participating in the Munich Security Conference.
To be sure, as the country’s top diplomat, Kerry has been busy traveling around the world to help resolve an array on international crisis and situations, including the battle against Islamic extremist groups, the Iran nuclear deal, a potential Israel-Palestinian peace agreement and Ukraine’s battle against Russian-backed separatists.  
Among those being mentioned as potential Democratic primary challengers to Clinton, a former secretary of State and 2008 White House candidate, are former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vice President Joe Biden, who ran for president in 1988 and 2008.
Clinton has not declared a candidacy.
Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator, has previously suggested that his current job is his last in politics.

Kerry says US ‘on the road’ to defeating ISIS, amid claims terror group is spreading

Secretary of State John Kerry and a top White House official claimed Sunday that the U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State is working – despite warnings from other corners of the Obama administration that the terror network is in fact spreading.
Following the purported deaths last week of two ISIS hostages and concerns about the U.S. needing to do more, Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the U.S.-led coalition was "on the road" to defeating the Islamic extremist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Iraq and Syria.
He argued that coalition forces have recaptured 22 percent of the populated areas that ISIS once held in the region “without launching what we would call a major offensive."
The claim came just days after Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, delivered a grim assessment of the group’s evolution in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee. He described how the group was surfacing in North Africa.
"With affiliates in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, the group is beginning to assemble a growing international footprint that includes ungoverned and under governed areas,” Stewart testified.
Defense secretary nominee Ashton Carter, who had his confirmation hearing Wednesday, also told Congress this past week he is aware of reports that ISIS may try to expand into Afghanistan.
Still, retired Gen. John Allen, the White House special envoy on the Islamic State, told ABC’s “This Week” that the United States has accomplished its goal of devising a “comprehensive plan” and striking a “hard blow.”
“I believe they have actually,” said Allen, pointing to the northern Syria town of Kobani. Kurdish troops took control of the town several days ago after hundreds of coalition airstrikes on ISIS positions.
Kerry and Allen got some support for their argument from Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh.  
Judeh told ABC later in the show that ISIS is “on the run,” but that certain victory “will not be quick.”
“They are not gone yet,” he said. “The air campaign has degraded their capabilities on the ground. They still control territories. They still have access to Syria’s cash and funds and sophisticated weaponry… . But there is no doubt we shall prevail.”  
Allen and Judeh’s positive analysis was preceded Sunday by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, who says the United States’ overarching strategy for combating Islamic extremist groups is not working.
“The counterterrorism component works just fine to go after the high-value targets and key leaders,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “But we need a much broader strategy that recognizes that we’re facing not just this tactical problem of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. … I think what I’m saying is the strategy that we have is not working, and it’s clearly not working.”
He estimated the size of the enemy has doubled in the past 10 years and pointed to such hotspots as middle-central Asia, northern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. 
However, Flynn also made clear the responsibility to craft a comprehensive plan goes beyond the White House to Congress.
Flynn made his remarks as Congress prepares this week to consider whether to give Obama the authorization to use military force against Islamic State.
Some critics of the current administration plan -- essentially airstrikes in Iraq and Syria with U.S. troops helping train local militias -- want to send American combat troops into the region.
However, the so-called “boots on the ground” strategy appears unpopular for war-weary Americans.
And on Sunday, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, a potential 2016 White House candidate and ardent Obama administration critic, voiced opposition to sending U.S. troops overseas.
“I don’t believe right now we need American boots on the ground. And the reason is, we have boots on the ground already, with the Kurds,” he told ABC.
However, he also argued the U.S. needs to supply them with more weapons.

Obama, Merkel aim to keep united front amid dispute over arming Ukraine

A previously scheduled Monday morning White House meeting between President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken on greater import as both leaders attempt to keep a united front in the midst of a dispute over whether to arm Ukrainian forces battling Russian-backed separatists in the country's east. 
The Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday that Obama has held off on making a final decision on whether to provide so-called lethal aid to Kiev until his meeting with Merkel, which will also be attended by Vice President Joe Biden.
Support for weapons deliveries has grown in Washington as Russian-backed separatist rebels have made significant gains in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks. For her part, Merkel has given Russian President Vladimir Putin until Wednesday to agree to a road map to end the bloody fighting. Merkel and her French counterpart, Francois Hollande, spoke by phone to Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Sunday, with the aim of finalizing a deal Wednesday in the Belarussian capital of Minsk. 
The differing approaches of the U.S. and Germany came to a head over the weekend at a security conference in Munich, Germany, at which Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., accused Germany of abandoning Ukraine, which he described as a "struggling democracy."
That comment brought a rebuke from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who said "Perhaps we are so insistent [on negotiation] because we know the region a bit."
It fell to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to smooth things over, as he said both the U.S. and Europe were "united in our diplomacy."
"There is no division, there is no split," Kerry added. "I keep hearing people trying to create one. We are united, we are working closely together."
German diplomats have warned that any new arms deliveries will cause Russia to respond in kind, leading to more bloodshed and the end of any chance for a negotiated settlement to the conflict. Western officials told the Journal that Germany will move to increase sanctions against Russian companies if Merkel determines that Russia has blocked a deal.
For their part, some U.S. officials tell the paper that giving Ukraine more weapons would force Putin to rethink his strategy. Western and Ukrainian officials believe that regular Russian troops are embedded with the rebels. Russia has denied this, and officials say that has caused authorities in Moscow to hold secret burials for troops killed in Ukraine all over the country in the hope of avoiding suspicion and backlash from military families. Russia has also repeatedly denied providing training and equipment to the separatists. 
"If we help Ukrainians increase the military cost to the Russian forces that have invaded their country, how long can Putin sustain a war that he tells his people is not happening?" Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday in Munich. 
The plan presented to Poroshenko and Putin last week by Merkel and Hollande would call for a case-fire and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the front line to create a demilitarized zone. The plan would also call for separatist forces to withdraw from the territory they have captured while preventing Ukrainian forces from entering it during any future negotiations for a permanent settlement.

Brian Cartoon

Brian Williams does not face investigation, stepped aside voluntarily, source says

Brian Williams decided on his own to step aside from his NBC newscast for several days and was under no pressure to do so by network executives, a person familiar with the situation says.
The move on Saturday, developed in consultation with the NBC brass, was not a thinly disguised suspension. In fact, no one, including NBC News President Deborah Turness, suggested that Williams take time off, this person says.
What’s more, according to the source, NBC is not conducting an internal investigation of its anchor, as has been widely reported. The network is engaging in journalistic fact-gathering so it can respond to questions about the crisis created by Williams’ false story about having been in a helicopter in Iraq that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. That means there will be no report with a finding on his conduct, this person says.
Williams knows that he needs to address the situation beyond the botched apology this week that made matters worse. And he has a prime forum coming up: An appearance scheduled for Thursday on CBS’s “Late Show” with David Letterman.
Williams is strongly considering keeping the appearance and using it as an opportunity to clear the air and address the lingering questions, the source says, but no final decision has been made.
Ironically, the anchor will be sitting in the same chair where he told Letterman the false Iraq story in 2013—a clip that has been widely replayed to show that he has repeatedly claimed to have been in the downed Chinook.
No one, including Williams, is minimizing the gravity of the situation. He is said to be embarrassed and very remorseful about the crisis that he created by misrepresenting what happened in Iraq in 2003.
NBC executives have not publicly defended Williams, fueling media speculation that his job may be in jeopardy. But the person familiar with the situation says Williams wanted no such public show of support, fearing it would appear to be the kiss of death.
That’s because NBC management had expressed support for David Gregory before dumping him as moderator of “Meet the Press,” and for Ann Curry before pushing her off the “Today” show.
Williams understands how badly he has damaged the news division. He told colleagues this week that while the Iraq debacle was solely his mistake, he hurt all of them because he is the high-profile face of NBC News.
He also is acutely aware that by saying during his apology that he was in a “following aircraft” behind the chopper that was hit—which was debunked by Stars & Stripes—he prolonged the controversy and made matters worse.
On the central question of why he claimed to have been in the helicopter that was struck by an RPG, Williams is said to believe that he simply succumbed to the sin of exaggeration. Armchair pundits have been analyzing whether he somehow convinced himself that he was a hero by taking enemy fire.
For now, at least, Williams’ job at NBC, where he has been the top-rated network anchor for a decade, appears secure. But that could change if journalists poke more holes in other stories reported by Williams.
For instance, a report in the New Orleans Advocate questioned whether Williams actually saw a dead body floating by his hotel when he was covering Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as he has repeatedly said.
The New Orleans Times Picayune reports Saturday that since the anchor was staying at the Ritz-Carlton in the French Quarter, “it is possible Williams saw floodwater outside the hotel, as water pouring in from failed levees reached that [area]. The Associated Press reported that a news photographer and a law enforcement official said they saw bodies in the area.”
By handing his anchor duties to Lester Holt for a week or so—there is no exact timetable—Williams hopes to minimize the distraction that his credibility problems have created. But whether he can achieve his goal of regaining the audience’s trust depends on how he handles the mounting questions in the days ahead.