: News

Former Mortgage Exec Pleads Not Guilty In VA

Play associated audio

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) A federal judge has set a November 1 trial date for the former head of a major mortgage lending company accused of scheming to steal more than half a billion dollars from the government's financial bailout fund.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema set the date despite protests from Lee Bentley Farkas' lawyer that it will be impossible for the defense to go through the millions of pages of documents in the case by that time.

Farkas pleaded not guilty Friday in Alexandria to charges including conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud in connection with the alleged plot at Taylor, Bean + Whitaker Corp.

Farkas still doesn't have a permanent lawyer in the case because his assets have been frozen. However, the government is expected to unfreeze some of them so that he can pay for his defense.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

NPR

Three-Minute Fiction Readings: 'Geometry' And 'Snowflake'

NPR's Bob Mondello and Susan Stamberg read excerpts of two of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. They read Snowflake by Winona Wendth of Lancaster, Mass., and Geometry by Eugenie Montague of Los Angeles.
NPR

Gals Who Grill: What Will It Take For Women To Man The Q?

The grill "is the one and only male-dominated appliance in America," says a researcher who recently crunched the numbers. He found that men are more than twice as likely as women to be the primary grillers at home. One reason? Grilling can feel like a form of recreation.
NPR

IRS Hearings Highlight Ambiguity Of Nonprofits In Politics

The congressional hearings about the IRS's handling of Tea Party applications for tax-exempt status raise the question of why and how tax-exempt groups engage in politics in the first place.
NPR

Google Reportedly Faces FTC Antitrust Probe Over Display Ads

The Federal Trade Commission is in the early stages of opening an antitrust probe into how Google runs its online display advertising business, according to a report by Bloomberg News, citing sources who want to remain anonymous because the FTC has not announced the probe.

Leave a Comment

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.