Thursday December 23 Housing and Economic stories

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Toll scofflaws get free ride with confidential license plates - (www.insidebayarea.com) For 18 months Scofflaw No. 593 blew through FasTrak toll plazas at two Bay Area bridges almost every day and never paid up. Scofflaw No. 593 -- named for the random number assigned to the anonymous driver in regional toll reports -- was able to do this because the driver was part of a largely outmoded program that prevents certain government employees' addresses from being traced through their license plates. Because they can't easily be traced, some are abusing the system by intentionally zipping through FasTrak lanes without an electronic toll account. In all, 1.5 million government employees, elected officials and their families have the so-called "confidential address" plates, part of a program started in 1978 to protect police and others involved in law enforcement from being tracked to their homes by criminals. Those drivers could be police officers, an officer's spouse or child, judges, prison guards, child abuse investigators, state legislators or even museum guards. Who are they specifically? Don't ask. It's a secret, even when laws get broken. Public records show Scofflaw No. 593 dodged a bridge toll -- $4 at the time -- 467 times in 18 months, sometimes twice in the same day. That's $1,868 in unpaid tolls. If the average citizen did this once, a ticket would soon arrive in his or her mailbox ordering payment of the skipped toll plus a $25 fine, though the fine would be waived if the driver signed up for FasTrak. And Scofflaw No. 593 isn't alone. He or she is one of 4,415 drivers who blew through Bay Area bridge tolls 27,335 times from June 2008 to May 2010 without paying while driving a car registered through the Department of Motor Vehicles' confidential address program, playing a game of catch-me-if-you-can with toll authorities while the rest of the motoring public coughed up the $4 toll or faced fines. Eventually, these scofflaws with confidential plates can sometimes be tracked down to their places of employment. But even when they are found, toll data show they aren't paying, or, in some cases, paying as little as 12 cents per violation. That's how much one driver paid for each of 242 violations -- a total of $29.04 -- when the violator was located, according to data the Metropolitan Transportation Commission released last week.

Despite being outmoded, a confidential license plate program keeps growing - (www.insidebayarea.com) At the time, it made perfect sense. In 1978, it was easy for anyone to use California Department of Motor Vehicles records to link a license plate number to the plate-holder's name and address. Police officers, judges and others who dealt with some of society's seamier denizens were unhappy about that, lest their work follow them home. So state Sen. Lou Cusanovich, a Republican from the San Fernando Valley, carried a bill -- signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown -- creating a confidential address program so state and local prosecutors and public defenders, state lawmakers, judges and peace officers, as well as their spouses and live-at-home children, could put their work addresses on DMV records instead of their home addresses. Then the underlying law changed. Actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered in 1989 by a stalker who had gone through a private investigator to get her home address from DMV records. The Legislature reacted by passing a new law, written by Democratic Assemblyman Mike Roos of Los Angeles, to make most DMV records confidential, accessible only by police, courts, banks, insurers and some select others. Asked recently whether his 1989 legislation made the 1978 confidential-address program obsolete, Roos -- now a public affairs consultant -- replied, "Probably so." But the confidential address program established more than a decade earlier not only remained in place, it kept expanding. For example, then-Assemblywoman Jackie Speier, now a Democratic U.S. representative from Hillsborough, got a law passed in 1994 to add stalking victims to the list; then-Assemblyman Don Perata, an Oakland Democrat, in 1998 said spouses and children of peace officers killed in the line of duty could stay in the programs for three years after the death; and then-Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, a Los Angeles Democrat, in 2001 added nonsworn court workers and psychiatric social workers.

Anonymous cyberwarriors stun experts - (www.ft.com) Internet subcultures rarely make front page news. But when the mysterious forces of Anonymous took it upon themselves to attack opponents of WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website, their success took everyone – not least victims such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal – by surprise. This year has seen military and security experts often warn about the prospects of “cyberwarfare”. Few expected the most prominent assaults against large companies to come from a scattered group of anarchists and idealists with no identifiable leader, membership or nationality. The loose internet grouping that calls itself Anonymous has been notorious in web circles for years, particularly for its apparently random attacks on the music industry, Kiss singer Gene Simmons, YouTube and the Scientologists. Its wilfully illiterate grammar and black humour has permeated the internet far beyond the 4chan message-board, which originally spawned it. Even as the more serious matters of attacks on big companies were plotted this week, Anonymous followers in 4chan’s open chat rooms chimed in with insults and jokes. But with what it has dubbed “Operation Payback” the group has mounted its most ideological crusade yet.

A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives - (www.nytimes.com) On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan. The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential. Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk. In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks.

The Nerve to Say No - (www.nytimes.com) DECIDING what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage giants that helped set the financial crisis in motion, will be a huge job for Congress next year. The man in the middle of that melee is likely to be Joseph A. Smith Jr., the commissioner of banks for North Carolina since 2002. In November, the Obama administration nominated him to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie and Freddie’s regulator. Last Thursday, Mr. Smith’s confirmation hearing took place. Beyond prepared remarks, Mr. Smith said little at the brief and sparsely attended hearing. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, questioned Mr. Smith about his plans for the agency and asked him to reply in writing. On Tuesday, the committee will consider the nomination.

OTHER STORIES:

The Fed? Ron Paul’s Not a Fan. - (www.nytimes.com)

Ron Paul Says He Doubts Bernanke Can Prevent Inflation Outbreak - (www.bloomberg.com)

Analysis examines what it's like to be a 'rich' family in America - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Schwarzenegger's proposal for plugging budget shortfall stalls - (www.latimes.com)

U.S. Posts $150.4 Billion November Budget Deficit - (www.online.wsj.com)

Two bank closures bring year total to 151 - (www.reuters.com)

Issuers East to West Rush to Offer Build America Bonds - (www.bloomberg.com)

Boston emerges as a major hub in insider probe - (www.reuters.com)

Attraction to bond funds snaps in Nov. - (www.news.yahoo.com/s/ap)