Signs of the Times

States Lend a Hand in Time of Home Foreclosures

(USA TODAY) — States and local governments are stepping up help for residents coping with foreclosures and job losses amid a sinking economy. New assistance efforts range from laws that give homeowners time to renegotiate loans to job training programs. Many state and local efforts regulate foreclosures. There were 2.6 million foreclosures from Jan. 1 through Oct. 31 — a 45% jump from the same period last year. This year, 31 states and the District of Columbia passed 60 laws regulating foreclosures. They counsel homeowners, require lenders to notify the state before a foreclosure filing, or create a grace period for homeowners before lenders file a foreclosure, says the National Conference of State Legislatures. Cities and counties expect to launch more foreclosure-prevention plans as they get grants from a housing bill that Congress passed in July.

Consumer Prices Take a Record Drop in October

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Consumer prices plummeted at the sharpest rate on record in October as a slowing economy caused energy costs to drop for a third month, according to a Labor Department report Wednesday. The widely watched consumer price index fell 1%, the biggest drop since the department began keeping monthly data in 1947. Core prices, which exclude food and energy items, declined 0.1%. Energy prices dropped 8.6% in October, after declines of 3.1% in August and 1.9% in September. Gasoline prices plunged 14.2% in October, also a record drop. However, gasoline prices were still 12% above a year ago.

Home Prices Down 9% from a Year Ago

(USA TODAY) — The rise in foreclosures continued to drive down the median price of homes across the country in the third quarter, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Tuesday. Economists expect the fourth quarter to be worse Between 35% and 40% of all transactions were either foreclosures or pre-foreclosure sales — called short sales — in the quarter, the report says, causing the national median price of a single-family home to drop to $200,500, 9% lower than the third quarter of 2007 and 11.9% off the peak of the housing boom, in the third quarter of 2005. "Homes are selling because prices are plunging," said Patrick Newport, economist at Global Insight. "Prices are plunging because of distressed sales."

Military Recruitment Seen Rising Amid Job Woes

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of young people considering a military career has significantly increased for the first time in about five years, buoyed by more positive news out of Iraq. Military officials predict interest will rise even further because of the worsening economy. The percentage of young people who said they would probably join the military increased from 9% to 11% in the first half of this year, according to a Pentagon-sponsored survey.

Joint Chiefs Head Says War Stresses May be Growing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stress on U.S. troops from repeated combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan is "extraordinary" and may be worsening even as fighting eases in Iraq, the military's top officer says. In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Adm. Mike Mullen expressed hope that the strain will be relieved gradually as the Marine Corps and Army expand the pool of available forces. The Marines, for example, created an additional battalion this fall and plan to add another by February, Mullen said. That will allow them to "feed the fight as well as relieve the stress," he said. The Army, while also growing, will take longer to put additional combat units into the pipeline for fighting wars.

Banned Firms Got New U.S. Contracts in Iraq

WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) — A firm suspended from U.S. government contracts for allegedly bribing Army officers was awarded a new contract in Iraq two days after the suspension was imposed, government investigators found. The Pentagon paid the suspended company more than $1 million under the new contract. Contracting officers gave Lee Dynamics International a new contract in July 2007 despite warnings from military lawyers, according to a report issued by Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. The new, one-year contract allowed Lee Dynamics to continue operating warehouses for the Iraqi security forces. Army Maj. Gloria Davis, who was involved in awarding the company's initial contract in 2005, killed herself in December 2006 after telling investigators that she took $225,000 in bribes from company founder George Lee, federal court records show. Another Army officer, Lt. Col. Levonda Selph, pleaded guilty last year to taking $9,000 in bribes. Lee Dynamics, based in Kuwait, was one of three firms in the past two years that the U.S. military awarded new contracts or allowed to continue working on existing ones after they were banned.

• JJ Commentary: Who you know (and bribe) is still more important than law and justice in our government and military as end-time lawlessness grows.

Canceled Iraq Contracts Cost U.S. $600 Million

WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) — The Pentagon spent about $600 million on more than 1,200 Iraq reconstruction contracts that were eventually canceled, nearly half of them for mismanagement or shoddy construction, government investigators say. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) found that 42% of canceled contracts were terminated because the contractor either failed to deliver or performed poorly. The rest were canceled for the "convenience of the government," usually for security problems, lack of funding or changing requirements. The $50.8 billion U.S. reconstruction program in Iraq is winding down, with about 70% of the money already spent on about 50,000 projects. Still, federal investigators continue to find examples of waste, fraud and mismanagement.

• JJ Commentary: Government waste remains a growing source of funds that greatly contribute to increased debt.

Schwarzenegger Opens Calif. Climate Summit with Obama

BEVERLY HILLS — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened his international climate change summit on Tuesday by upstaging himself with an even bigger political star — President-elect Barack Obama. Schwarzenegger, a Republican whose efforts to combat global warming in California have generated worldwide acclaim, wants to show that governments can balance environmental protection and economic growth. He hopes his summit will influence negotiations over a new climate treaty during a United Nations gathering in Poland next month. In a taped message to attendees, Obama said his administration is committed to a cause that has all but languished at the federal level during the term of President George W. Bush. U.N. negotiators have a December 2009 deadline to complete the next global warming treaty, which would succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. That treaty, which expires in 2012, does not include the USA or China — the world's largest emitters. Negotiators want to cut in half the amount of carbon dioxide discharged into the atmosphere from transportation, industry and power generation by mid-century.

Cost of Diabetes in U.S. Rises to $218B

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — As diabetes is rapidly becoming one of the world's most common diseases, its financial cost is mounting, too, to well over $200 billion a year in the U.S. alone. That figure includes direct medical care costs, from insulin and pills for controlling patients' blood sugar to amputations and hospitalizations, plus indirect costs such as lost productivity, disability and early retirement. "The numbers just keep going higher and higher, and what we want to say is, 'It's time for government and businesses to focus on it,'" said Dana Haza, senior director of the National Changing Diabetes Program, who believes diabetes will be the country's biggest health problem in the future, worsened by the obesity epidemic.

Primary Care Doctors in Short Supply

(USA TODAY) — Primary care doctors are an endangered breed of physician, a new survey suggests. The Physicians' Foundation, an Irving, Texas, non-profit group of state medical societies and physician leaders, commissioned a survey in May of virtually every primary care doctor in the USA as well as 50,000 doctors in subspecialties such as cardiology. Primary care doctors include family practitioners, general internists, pediatricians and obstetricians/gynecologists. Throughout the country and across all specialties, more than three of four respondents said they believed there was a shortage of primary care doctors. The shortage could grow more critical: About half the respondents said they planned to reduce patient loads or stop practicing within the next three years. More than half said they wouldn't recommend that young people pursue careers in medicine. The main reason is that the health care system "tends to undervalue what it is that a primary care doctor does." Many medical students start out aiming to be primary care doctors, but then they realize they could pay off their accumulating debt more quickly as a subspecialist.

Israeli Tanks Forge into Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli tanks forged into the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, drawing mortar fire from Palestinian militants and intensifying violence that has chipped away at a tenuous cease-fire. Israel and Hamas have been trading fire for two weeks after nearly five months of relative quiet. The tanks did not respond to the Palestinian fire. The June 19 truce is due to expire next month, and both sides might be trying to dictate more favorable terms in anticipation of the agreement's renewal.

Indian Navy Sinks Suspected Pirate 'Mother Ship'

NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said Wednesday, as separate bands of brigands seized Thai and Iranian ships in the lawless seas. The owners of a seized Saudi oil supertanker, meanwhile, negotiated for the release of the ship, anchored off the coast of Somalia. A multinational naval force has increased patrols in the waters between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, where pirates have grown bolder and more violent. Larger "mother ships" are often used to take gangs of pirates and smaller attack boats into deep water, and can be used as mobile bases to attack merchant vessels. Tuesday hijackings raised to eight the number of ships hijacked this week alone, he said. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

Magnitude-4.1 Quake hits Southern California

TEMECULA, Calif. (AP) — A moderate earthquake struck early Monday in a remote area of the Cleveland National Forest in northern San Diego County. There were no reports of damage or injury. It was followed by a magnitude-3.8 aftershock five hours later, the USGS said. The quake was felt from San Diego to Palm Desert.