Mortgage Fraud Jumps by 45% on Fewer Loan Applications in U.S.
Source: Mortgage Asset Research Institute

Reported incidents of mortgage fraud in the U.S. increased by 45 percent on fewer loan applications in the second quarter of 2008 from a year ago, according to a new report released today by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARISM), a LexisNexis service. The MARI Quarterly Fraud Report is based on data submitted by MARI subscribers on loans originated in the second quarter of this year that have since been classified as fraudulent.

Key findings from the MARI Quarterly Fraud Report include that fraud most often occurs at the beginning of the loan process. More than 65 percent of fraud incidents are attributed to “General Application Misrepresentation” – a trend that has continued over the past two quarters. General Application Misrepresentation is when information such as when an incorrect name, occupancy or asset is potentially misrepresented during the application process. This fraud trend is followed closely by reported misrepresentations related to “Income” at 36 percent of Q2 applications and “Employment” at 20 percent of Q2 applications.

+ Full Report (PDF; 668 KB)

Security Clearance Reform — Upgrading the Gateway to the National Security Committee
Source: U.S. House of Representatives, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (via Federation of American Scientists)

Security clearances, which are determinations that a person is eligible for access to classified information, enable millions of Americans to serve our country in the arenas of national security, homeland security, and foreign policy. The number of federal government employees and contractors requiring clearances has expanded in recent decades, especially in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As a result, backlogs developed and the length of time for processing security clearances grew. In turn, greater awareness of the need to share information and promote collaboration across government agencies drew attention to the cumbersome and outdated nature of the process for granting security clearances and for ensuring that clearances granted by one agency permit access to the others.

Under Title III of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) assumed responsibility for the majority of security clearance investigations, previously performed by the Department of Defense (DOD); and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) became the entity responsible for security clearance policy and procedures across the U.S. Government.

Throughout the 110th Congress, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management (the Subcommittee or ICM) has monitored the implementation of reforms of the security clearance process embodied in IRTPA. It has focused its attention on the Intelligence Community, whose personnel hold approximately 10 percent of the total number of security clearances. The Subcommittee’s oversight has built on over 25 years of congressional concerns about security clearances, including numerous studies by Congress’s Government Accountability Office (GAO).

A key feature of Title III of IRTPA, which aims to bring greater efficiency, speed and interagency reciprocity to the clearance process, is the centralization of responsibility. The following is a summary of how the requirements of Title III have been met.

Hat tip: Combined Arms Research Library

Personalized Medicine: From Concept to Reality (PDF; 89 KB)
Source: Fierce Biotech (via Enterprise Florida)
From Enterprise Florida newsletter:

Personalized medicine is often described as “the right drug for the right person.” It uses an individual’s genetic information to improve health outcomes. Consider for example the fact that, according to a study quoted in a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, most drugs prescribed today are effective for less than 60% of patients who take them. As an alternative, personalized medicine offers many potential benefits – from safer, more efficient drugs better tailored to meet an individual’s needs to huge healthcare savings due to better prevention, diagnostics and treatment. Until recently, this emerging trend has been the domain of small biotech companies. Today, with a looming shortage of new blockbuster drugs and growing advances in genetic research, big pharmaceutical companies are finding personalized medicine very attractive. Learn about the current developments and remaining challenges facing this hot field in the new
Personalized Medicine White Paper, written by FierceBiotech editor, John Carroll, and brought to you by Enterprise Florida.

WMD Panel Releases Report to Congress: World at Risk: Nuclear and Biological Weapons Pose Greatest Peril
Source: Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism

A congressionally appointed commission is calling on the President-elect and the next Congress to immediately initiate several concrete actions, unilaterally and with the international community, to address the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction that pose the greatest peril: nuclear and biological weapons.

The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism released its report, “World at Risk” today, and is briefing Vice President-elect Biden, President Bush and congressional leaders.
…
The Commission centered its findings on several areas where it determined the risks to the United States are increasing: the crossroads of terrorism and proliferation in the poorly governed parts of Pakistan, the prevention of biological and nuclear terrorism, and the potential erosion of international nuclear security, treaties and norms as we enter a nuclear energy renaissance.

The WMD report also details concrete recommendations to ensure a more efficient and effective domestic policy coordination structure, oversight reform and enhanced cooperation among appropriate law-enforcement and counterterrorism communities.

+ Full Report (PDF; 432 KB)

New Rules Requiring an Automated Voice or Keypress Opt-Out for Recorded Message Telemarketing Calls Take Effect Today
Source: Federal Trade Commission

Effective today, any telemarketing call that delivers a prerecorded message must include a quick and easy way to opt-out of receiving future calls. The opt-out must work both for consumers who answer these calls in person and for those whose answering machines or voicemail services receive the calls.

Prerecorded telemarketing messages are permitted only in limited circumstances – only when the caller has an established business relationship with the consumer being called. Now, additional restrictions on prerecorded messages are going into effect. Under Do Not Call amendments adopted in August, effective today, any permitted prerecorded message must provide the called consumer with an interactive means to opt out of receiving future calls from the seller or fundraiser using the prerecorded message. Moreover, the consumer must be able to opt out at any time while the message is playing by pressing a particular number or speaking a particular word. Once the consumer has opted out, his or her phone number must be automatically added to the in-house Do Not Call list of the calling seller or fundraiser. Then the call immediately must be disconnected so that the consumer’s line is cleared.

If the prerecorded telemarketing message is left on an answering machine or voicemail service, it must include a toll-free opt-out number that, when called, also connects to an automated voice or keypress opt-out mechanism. This will allow consumers to opt out at any hour of the day or night when they retrieve the message, without having to wait until the next business day to call.

+ FTC Issues Final Telemarketing Sales Rule Amendments Regarding Prerecorded Calls
+ Text of the Federal Register Notice (PDF; 358 KB)

Semiannual Report to Congress (PDF; 5.1 MB)
Source: Federal Communications Commission, Office of Inspector General

During this reporting period, OIG activity focused most intensively on investigations, audits and Universal Service Fund (“USF”) oversight. This report describes audits that are in process, as well as those that have been completed during the preceding six months. OIG investigative personnel continued to address issues referred to, or initiated by, this office. Where appropriate, investigative and audit reports have been forwarded to the Commission’s management for action.

Information developed during this reporting period, including the initial results from the second round of USF audits, indicates that closer scrutiny of USAC’s management, processes, controls and self-improvement efforts is needed. Closer co-ordination by USAC with the FCC’s Managing Director and the Chief of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau should improve remediation and transparency and facilitate further improvements in the administration of USAC’s programs. Similarly, closer co-ordination by NECA’s management with the FCC’s Managing Director and with the Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau should improve the operation of the Commission’s Telecommunications Relay and Video Relay Services program.

U.S. Stimulates Global Market for Methane Recovery and Use as Fuel - The Way to Go Clean, Green and Fight Climate Change
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

nternational leadership by the United States to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is highlighted in the third annual Methane to Markets (M2M) partnership report. Current U.S. supported M2M projects, when fully implemented, will deliver estimated annual emissions reductions of more than 24 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, tripling the reductions achieved in 2006. M2M reduces greenhouse gas emissions by recovering methane (also a primary component of natural gas) from agricultural waste, coal mines, landfills, and oil and gas systems and using it as clean energy.

The “U.S. Government Accomplishments in Support of the Methane to Markets Partnership” report summarizes the contributions of participating U.S. government agencies and highlights the projects and activities since the partnership began in November 2004. The report was developed collaboratively by EPA, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

+ Full Report (PDF; 1.8 MB)

FDA Reports Significant Progress in Protecting the Food Supply
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today released a report on its implementation of the Food Protection Plan that was launched a year ago to protect both domestic and imported food from accidental and intentional contamination. The Plan, which outlines strategies for prevention, intervention and response, is designed to address food safety and food defense for both domestic and imported products and covers the full lifecycle of food, by encouraging the building of safety into every step of the food supply chain.

+ Food Protection Plan: One-Year Progress Summary

Sex, Gender, and Women’s Health: Why Women Usually Come Last (PDF; 710 KB)
Source: Disease Control Priorities Project

Both sex and gender matter in health. They may act independently or, more often, they interact to bring about different disease patterns between men and women. Researchers have found that women’s biology (their genetic makeup, physiology, or hormones) seems to have more influence on the onset and progression of diseases than gender. But gender differences in society influence whether women recognize their symptoms and act on them, whether they can seek and obtain quality health care, and how well they comply with treatment.

Eurostat regional yearbook 2008
Source: Eurostat

Eurostat regional yearbook 2008 offers a wealth of information on life in the European regions in the 27 Member States of the European Union and this year also in the candidate countries and EFTA countries. If you would like to dig deeper into the way the regions of Europe are evolving in a number of statistical domains, this publication is for you! The texts are written by specialists in the different statistical domains and are accompanied by statistical maps, figures and tables on each subject. A broad set of regional data are presented on the following themes: population, urban statistics, gross domestic product, household accounts, structural business statistics, labour market, sectoral productivity, labour cost, transport, tourism, science, technology and innovation, health and agriculture. The publication is available in German, English and French.

+ Full Document (English version) (PDF; 8.29 MB)

Symantec Report on the Underground Economy (July 07–June 08) (PDF; 3.3 MB)
Source: Symantec
From press release:

Symantec Corp. today released its Report on the Underground Economy. The report details an online underground economy that has matured into an efficient, global marketplace in which stolen goods and fraud-related services are regularly bought and sold, and where the estimated value of goods offered by individual traders is measured in millions of dollars. The report is derived from data gathered by Symantec’s Security Technology and Response (STAR) organization, from underground economy servers between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.

The potential value of total advertised goods observed by Symantec was more than $276 million for the reporting period. This value was determined using the advertised prices of the goods and services and measured how much advertisers would make if they liquidated their inventory.

Credit card information is the most advertised category of goods and services on the underground economy, accounting for 31 percent of the total. While stolen credit card numbers sell for as little as $0.10 to $25 per card, the average advertised stolen credit card limit observed by Symantec was more than $4,000. Symantec has calculated that the potential worth of all credit cards advertised during the reporting period was $5.3 billion.

Internet Gambling Stays Low Among Youth Ages 14 to 22 But Access to Gambling Sites Continues; Sports Gambling Makes Resurgence
Source: Annenberg Public Policy Center

After last year’s precipitous decline, card playing for money on the Internet has remained at the same low level among both high school and college-age males, according to the latest National Annenberg Survey of Youth.

Card playing for money at least once a month on the Internet among male youth remained at the same level in 2008 (3.3%) as in 2007 (2.4%) (see Table 1). Weekly rates of gambling also did not change, going from 1.1% to 1.7% (see Table 2). Card playing in general remained at about the same levels for both monthly (26.0% to 25.6%) and weekly (5.0% to 4.2%) play (see also Figure 1).

“The card playing fad that we saw earlier in the decade appears to have lost its steam among young people ages 14 to 22,” said Dan Romer, director of the Annenberg Adolescent Risk Communication Institute that conducts the annual survey. In addition, the strong drop in weekly use of Internet sites following passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 appears to remain in place.

Despite the leveling off of card playing, access to Internet gambling sites remains open to those youth who are able to bypass the law by using third-party payment systems. Projected on a national basis, more than 300,000 youth in the study age range (14 to 22) gamble for money at least once a week on the Internet, and over 700,000 do so at least once a month.

+ Full Document (PDF; 41 KB)

Greenpeace report reveals global coal costs of €360 billion in 2007 - minimum
Source: Greenpeace

Greenpeace today released an analysis showing that the global cost of coal was at least €360 billion last year alone. The report, “The True Cost of Coal”, released with the independent Dutch Institute CE Delft, arrived at this figure by looking at very modest CO2 damage costs, health costs and mining accidents.
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Coal burning has existed for centuries, and its use as a fuel has been recorded since the 1100s. It powered the Industrial Revolution, changing the course of first Britain, and then the world, in the process. In the US, the first coal-fired power plant – Pearl Street Station – opened on the shores of the lower East River in New York City in September 1882. Shortly thereafter, coal became the staple diet for power plants across the world. Today, coal is used to produce nearly 40% of the world’s electricity. However, burning coal is one of the most harmful practices on the planet.

+ Full Report (PDF; 1.8 MB)

Retirement Annuity and Employment-Based Pension Income Among Individuals Age 50 and Over: 2007’ and ‘Employer Spending on Benefits, 2007
Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute

+ Latest update: This article provides the latest data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population survey on retirement annuity and pension income for the population age 50 and over. It confirms earlier findings that gender, marital status, age, education, and other demographic variables have a significant impact on the likelihood of a worker receiving a retirement annuity and/or employment-based pension income in retirement.

+ Gender: In 2007, 42.6 percent of men age 65 and over received annuity and/or pension income, with a mean amount of $18,293 per year, compared with only 27.9 percent of women age 65 and over, who had mean annual pension income of $11,895.

+ Plan participation gender gap is closing: On average, today’s younger women tend to spend more time in the work force than did women who were age 50 and over in 2007. Women’s participation in retirement plans has risen significantly in recent years, closing the gap in retirement plan participation with men. The aggregate pension and annuity recipiency for women and the amounts they receive are likely to increase relative to men over time as these younger generations retire.

Office of Inspector General Releases Statistical Analyses of Audits of Universal Service High Cost Fund (PDF; 90 KB)
Source: Federal Communications Commission, Office of Inspector General

The audits were initiated to determine whether distributions from the Universal Service Fund, were being made in accordance with the Commission’s directives and provide data for statistical estimates of erroneous payments as required by the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (”IPIA”). The audits were performed by commercial audit firms contracted and managed by USAC with FCC-OIG oversight.

An “erroneous payment” is defined by the Office of Management and Budget under the IPIA to be “any payment that should not have been made or that was made in an incorrect amount under statutory, contractual, administrative, or other legally applicable requirements. Incorrect amounts are overpayments and underpayments (including inappropriate denial of payment or service). An improper payment includes any payment that was made to an ineligible recipient or for an ineligible service, duplicate payments, payments for services not received, and payments that are for the incorrect amount. In addition, when an agency’s review is unable to discern whether a payment was proper as a result of insufficient or lack of documentation, this payment must also be considered an error.” Under IPIA standards, a program is at risk if the erroneous payment rate exceeds 2.5 % and the amount of erroneous payments is greater than $10 million.

The estimated erroneous payment rate for the High Cost Program (”HCP”) was 23.3%. The previous estimate was 16.6%. Total estimated erroneous payments were $ 971.2 million as compared with the previous estimate of erroneous payments of $617.8 million. Accordingly, the FCC-OIG concluded that the High Cost Fund program is “at risk” under applicable IPIA criteria.

+ Full Report (PDF; 463 KB)