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Thursday, January 20, 2011 – Daily News – 7A Banks say fewer loans are going bad NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are starting to get their household finances in order. In an encouraging round of earnings reports, major banks say fewer mortgages are going bad, credit card defaults are down and more people are paying the bills on time. One of the nation’s largest consumer lenders, Wells Fargo, said Wednesday that 29 percent fewer loans went bad in the last three months of 2010 than the year before. And late payments on loans considered likely to default declined for the first time since 2008. Late payments on credit cards issued by Bank of Ameri- ca, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup also improved at a record pace at the end of last year, according to an analysis by Bar- clays Capital. The reports are a sign that Americans are feeling more comfortable about their finances. Personal spending powers about 70 percent of the U.S. economy, and most economists say a fiscally fit consumer is critical to a strong economic recovery. “There are signs of stability and growth,” said JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. The bank news comes after a holiday shopping season in which spending was the strongest since 2006, and auto sales grew 11 percent last year, the first gains since 2005. Taken together, the spending indicators are the “strongest showing for consumers since the peak years of the last expansion,” and signal that the economy is “near a threshold of self-sustaining growth,” analysts at Citi Investment Research & Analysis said in a report earlier this month. Economists and policymakers are waiting for signs that the economic recovery can power itself rather than rely on outside supports, like the Fed’s decision to buy hundreds of billions of dollars in government bonds to drive down inter- est rates. The recent bank results are fueling that optimism. Citigroup said loan losses fell 11 percent from the previ- ous quarter as more of its customers kept up with payments. It was the sixth straight quarter of declining losses, allow- ing the bank to release $2.3 billion from the reserves it sets aside for bad loans and helping it to report a profit. JPMor- gan and Wells have also reported bigger profits because they could release loan reserves. Fewer customers were late on their monthly mortgage payments. The portion of Citi’s home loans that were 90 days overdue fell to 2.1 percent from 2.7 percent. And the bank set aside $4.8 billion for future losses, the lowest since the spring of 2007 and a sign it is more hopeful about the recovery. Despite the encouraging trends, banks are still reluctant to loosen lending. Credit reporting agency Transunion esti- mates that 8 million Americans who had credit cards a year ago don’t have them now, either by choice or because they were cut off. Banks slashed credit lines and closed millions of credit card accounts in response to regulations passed after the financial crisis. Individuals, too, are hesitant to borrow even when they have access to credit. Federal Reserve data show that total revolving debt held by U.S. consumers — mainly credit cards — fell to just below $800 billion in November, the lowest since September 2004. Each of the three biggest banks — Citi, JPMorgan and Bank of America, which are also the three biggest credit card issuers in the country — reported significant declines in card balances in the fourth quarter. Banks have been especially reluctant to resume lending to risky customers. The banks gave out millions of subprime loans to people with spotty credit histories in the first half of the 2000s, the primary reason for the collapse of the housing market. In the economic mess that followed, loan defaults increased sharply for all types of consumer loans — mort- gages, home equity loans, and credit cards. Default rates spiked and lenders reported massive losses. While Americans are spending more and the stock mar- ket is at its highest point in more than two years, there are still troubling signs that corporations don’t feel confident enough yet to start hiring again with gusto. On Wednesday, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which does business mostly with companies rather than individuals, turned in weak fourth-quarter results. Goldman advises companies on raising cash for business expansion and merg- ers and acquisitions. The investment bank’s chief financial officer, David Viniar, said in a conference call that its corporate clients seemed increasingly uncertain as the year progressed. He also said that increasing uncertainty in the world economy made it difficult to predict how confident companies would be in the near future. “Although there are positive signs in the U.S. economy,” Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit told analysts and reporters this week, “the housing market has yet to recover. Job cre- ation has been weak.” Mass. man tried to sell fake gold to police chief RANDOLPH, Mass. (AP) — Police say a Boston man picked the wrong mark when he tried to sell him fake gold jewelry at a grocery store. The man approached William Pace on Sunday and offered to sell him a bracelet and chain marked as 14 karat gold for $100. Two problems — Pace is the police chief in Randolph, Mass., and he owns a jewelry store. Pace, who was out of uniform, tells The Patriot Ledger he could tell the gold was fake by its look and feel. The suspect, identified by police as Johnnie Butts, will be issued a sum- mons to appear in court on a charge of attempt to commit lar- ceny by false pretense. Police are trying to determine if Butts sold any fake jewelry to others before approaching Pace. JPA (Continued from page 1A) amount would most likely be paid over a period of time as a special assess- ment on property tax bills. Conversion from their individual septic systems to the new district-wide sewer system could cost property owners another $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the septic systems they have now. There may be grant assis- tance available on a case by case basis, but the area as a whole did not qualify as a low income area for grant opportunities, Antone said. Additionally, individual property owners will have to pay a one-time connec- tion fee of $1,800 and a monthly service charge, which is yet to be deter- mined by the sewer authority. The entire system would be connected to the city’s wastewater treat- ment plant. Initial plans included discussions of building a separate plant, but that option was too costly, Antone said. FRESNO (AP) — A trial court judge in central California has thrown out key sections of a state law restrict- ing handgun ammunition sales, barring authorities from registering bullet buy- ers’ thumbprints on the grounds that it would be unconstitutional. Tuesday’s ruling in Fresno County Superior Court, saying the law would have created uncertainty by forcing local sheriffs and firearms shops to decide for themselves what caliber of bullets were covered under the regula- tions. The statute also would have com- pelled customers to buy their handgun ammunition in face-to-face transac- tions, which they said would not have prevented a tragedy like the Jan. 8 shooting rampage in Arizona that killed six people and wounded 13 oth- ers, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Gif- fords. Authorities said shooting suspect Jared Loughner legally purchased 9 mm ammunition the morning he opened fire at Giffords’ district meet- and -greet outside a supermarket on the northern outskirts of Tucson. Parts of the law may still be imple- mented, and California’s newly elected attorney general Kamala Harris is con- sidering an appeal, spokesman Jim Finefrock said Wednesday. ‘‘This was just going to cost police and shell ammunition sellers money. It really wasn’t going to stop violent crime or criminals from getting ammu- nition,’’ said attorney Chuck Michel, who brought the case on behalf of the California Rifle and Pistol Association Foundation with partial funding from the National Rifle Association. ‘‘All this was going to do was impose a tremendous and expensive burden on law enforcement.’’ Handgun ammo rules thrown out ‘‘Good old California was just a little too Gun rights supporters applauded energetic and liberal in thinking that this would have made a difference in catching criminals. It’s great that the judge saw that the law was defective and threw it out.’’ — Barry Bauer, co-plaintiff Democratic Senator Kevin De Leon introduced AB 962 in 2009 as an attempt to keep handgun ammo out of the hands of criminals, drug abusers or the mentally ill, and it was signed into law that same year. Fresno County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hamilton’s oral ruling covers key sections of that law that rely on a state code defining handgun ammunition as ‘‘principally for use in pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed,’’ a defini- tion he said was so vaguely written it was unconstitutional. The judge’s decision blocks the cre- ation of a licensing and registration system governing ammunition sales, and prevents gunshops from taking buyers’ fingerprints, elements of the law that were set to go into effect on Feb. 1. Regulations in some California cities limiting ammo sales, including in Sacramento and Los Angeles, will not be affected. ‘‘Ammunition is the fuel that feeds violence. This is deplorable, especially in light of what just took place in Tuc- son,’’ said De Leon, of Los Angeles. ‘‘I’m very disappointed that this judge would, with very little analysis, discard an important statute that is a valuable law enforcement tool just to save ammunition purchasers from a minor inconvenience.’’ A spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown did not immediately comment on the ruling. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives does not reg- ulate the sale of ammunition nation- wide, and could not confirm whether California was the only state with such specific laws restricting the sale of handgun ammunition. Barry Bauer, the owner of a popular sporting goods store in Fresno, said the law would have kept his staff busy fill- ing out paperwork about whether bul- lets were intended for deer hunting or target practice, rather than serving his customers. Bauer, who sells about 10,000 boxes of ammunition a year to the thousands of hunters who travel to cen- tral California for dove, deer and duck seasons, said he doesn’t keep records differentiating whether the ammuni- tion he sells is used in long guns or handguns. ‘‘Good old California was just a lit- tle too energetic and liberal in thinking that this would have made a difference in catching criminals,’’ said Bauer, a co-plaintiff. ‘‘It’s great that the judge saw that the law was defective and threw it out.’’ School steps up security after Tuesday’s student shooting LOS ANGELES (AP) — Security officers wield- ing metal detecting wands meticulously searched backpacks and students Wednesday in a long line outside a Los Angeles high school where two 15-year- olds were shot in a class- room a day before. The stepped-up security measures come after a 10th-grader carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic hand- gun in a backpack some- how accidentally dis- charged it Tuesday when he put the bag down on a desk at Gardena High School, authorities said. A bullet pierced a boy in the neck, exited, and hit a girl in the head. The boy was doing well Wednes- day, but the girl remained listed in serious condition with a skull fracture. The girl regained con- sciousness and could move her body Wednesday morning after surgery to remove a blood clot from her brain caused by the bul- let’s impact, said Julie Rees, spokeswoman for Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. The 17-year-old sus- pect, who was already on probation for a fight at school, was arrested. Police said Wednesday two other students were also taken into custody for investiga- tion of concealing evi- dence. A boy allegedly traded clothes with the fleeing suspect and a girl took the suspect’s backpack, police Detective A. Batris said. In an unrelated incident Wednesday, authorities said a bulletproof vest has saved the life of a Los Angeles school police offi- For the city that means having to prepare for the increased inflow, City Manager Martin Nichols said. The city’s plant can hold up to 2.5 million gal- lons of sewage per day. The plant is operating at 1.4 mgd and has a com- mitment of an extra 1.6 mgd for planned or ongo- ing development. The con- nection from Antelope at the onset would add .4 mgd and eventually 1.0 mgd. “This puts us on a course to inevitably expand sooner than we have to,” Nichols said. cer who was shot as he confronted a man who appeared to breaking into cars near El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills. City Police Chief Char- lie Beck said the man got out of a car and fired sever- al times, hitting the officer at least once in the chest. Security experts and school officials say it is almost impossible to com- pletely prevent students from bringing guns onto school campuses, but there are basic precautions that should be followed, includ- ing random metal-detect- ing checks. Since 1993, Los Ange- les Unified School District has required some campus- es to randomly check stu- dents with hand-held metal-detectors every day at different times. A preliminary review of security at Gardena, how- ever, showed the 2,400-stu- dent school had lapsed in that procedure, a district official said. There was no check on Tuesday, and possibly not on other days as well, said Deputy Superintendent John Deasy. ‘‘I think it’s at least fair to say from the level of review at this moment that it was spo- radic,’’ he said. After an investigation, disciplinary action will be taken that could involve fir- ing some officials, Deasy said. He ordered Wednesday that all district high schools to comply with the random search policy. School Police Chief Steven Zipperman, who heads a force of 340 police officers and 147 school The joint powers agree- ment gives the city time to plan for financing and constructing the plant extension with hopes of the city providing service safety officers to police some 1,000 campuses, noted that even if the school had conducted a random check Tuesday morning, it may not have revealed the gun in the backpack. Zipperman said he’ll be reviewing compliance with the district’s security proce- dures and ways to tighten them. ‘‘Secondary schools should be doing random searches on a daily basis,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ll be taking a look at the current frequen- cy of that.’’ Although some call for metal-detector searches of all students, the long line Wednesday morning at Gardena demonstrated the logistical problem with that, he said. ‘‘It’s not feasible to run these schools as if you were boarding an air- plane,’’ Zipperman said. ‘‘There has to be that fine balance between not dis- rupting school operations and safety and security.’’ Random checks are an effective deterrent to kids who think of bringing weapons to school, said Ken Trump, president of consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services. But they must be truly random, conducted at different times of the day and in different places on campus, even on buses, he said. The best line of defense is an alert staff and student body, Trump said, noting that most incidents of guns at schools are reported by kids. ‘‘You have to create a climate where it’s not seen as snitching, it’s saving lives,’’ he said. to the Antelope system two years after its comple- tion. If everything goes as planned, the Antelope sewer system should be completed in 5 years. Located in Chico, CA The school district has an anonymous tip line to report suspicious activity, Zipperman said. Surveillance cameras, metal detectors and X-ray machines are other tools increasingly being used by schools, along with basic procedures such as limiting building access to one entrance, said Patrick Fiel, former security director at Washington, D.C., public schools who is now a con- sultant with ADT Security Services. An effective communi- cation system with parents is another essential compo- nent of a security program, he said. Gardena parents criticized the school for not informing them about the incident and keeping them waiting for news outside the school. William Modzeleski, who head the U.S. Depart- ment of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, said research shows ‘‘more listening ears’’ are needed for kids, who may bring guns to school to protect them- selves or just as a status symbol to show off. ‘‘More and more, what we’re seeing with these shootings, there’s often a disconnect between stu- dents and adults,’’ he said. ‘‘There’s a need to under- stand kids and their motiva- tion to attack this prob- lem.’’ Above all, experts said schools need to think proactively about violence. ‘‘It’s a mentality. A lot of schools say it’s not going to happen to us,’’ Fiel said. ‘‘But it’s happening more often in suburban, urban and rural schools.’’ 529-3655 www.affordablemortuary.net