Legal News Stories | Community Development Digest

Feds File Lawsuit against ‘Meals Ready to Eat’ Manufacturer

A federal contractor that manufactures portable meals for the Department of Defense and other government agencies discriminated systematically against qualified men seeking entry-level production jobs, according to allegations spelled out in a lawsuit filed Wednesday (Dec. 9) by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

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Landlord’s Lead-Based Paint Hazard Proves Costly

The Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have reached a settlement with a Rockford, IL landlord to resolve a claim he failed to inform tenants, some with young children, that their homes may contain potentially dangerous lead.

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Feds Settle Decade-long Dispute over Timber-rich Tribal-held Land

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell on Tuesday (Oct. 6) visited the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in Durant, OK, to participate in a ceremonial signing of an historic agreement that allows the Nations and the federal government to avoid a trial which had been scheduled to begin July 14.

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Developer, Builders Group Test Chicago Housing Rule

Chicago-based developer Hoyne Development and the Home Builders Association of Chicago go to court over the city’s affordable housing requirements, two months before even more stringent rules are scheduled to take effect.

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Small Businesses Seek Injunction Against EPA ‘Waters Rule’

The National Federation of Independent Business is pressing a federal judge to block the EPA from enforcing its Waters of the United States rule until a lawsuit challenging the rule's constitutionality is resolved.

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Jewell Signs Historic Water Rights Agreement

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell on Friday (Feb. 27) signed an historic agreement at the Department of the Interior that guarantees water rights for the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation on the Nevada-Idaho border while providing certainty for upstream water users. Jewell was joined at the signing by Shoshone-Paiute Tribal Chairman Lindsey Manning and other Duck Valley Reservation Council members, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn and other federal, tribal and state dignitaries. The agreement specifies tribal rights in relation to upstream water users on the East Fork of the Owyhee River and provides for tribal water development projects. The settlement act authorizes the tribes $60 million in funding for water-related uses, which has been fully appropriated in past fiscal years. The secretary’s signature will provide final federal approval of the Shoshone-Paiute agreement, first authorized as part of the 2009 Omnibus Public Land Management Act. When the settlement is final, it will enable tribes to use the funds to completely rehabilitate the Bureau of Indian Affairs irrigation project serving the Duck Valley Reservation, as well as for other water-related purposes.

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(STATES) AZ Law Allows Post-Foreclosure Lawsuits

A new Arizona law set to take effect Sept. 30 would allow lenders to sue homeowners to recover the balance of what is owed a lender if a foreclosure sale fails to produce the full amount of a mortgage balance. The law pits lenders against builders and real estate agents roiling the entire real estat...

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Treasury Approves Final Rule Aiding National Banks' CD Investment Power

Treasury Dept. officials in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) are approving a final rule changing national banks' community development investment authority. The rule change as approved was written into last summer's Housing & Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the economic stimul...

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GAO Report Says Most TARP Distributions Used to Stabilize Financial Markets

Barely $300 billion of the Treasury Dept's $700 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Fund (TARP) money that has been disbursed, and two-thirds of what is out there has been used by banks to stabilize financial markets. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows how TARP funds are being spent in t...

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Treasury Offers Plans to Restore Securities Markets, Buy Troubled Assets

The Treasury Dept. announces details of a a new lending effort of up to $1 trillion to restore securities markets and offers new programs to buy banks' troubled assets, but their success will depend on their ability to attract private capital investors. The new Public-Private Investment Program (PP...

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