WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration, in an election-year bid to help distressed homeowners, on Friday expanded its main foreclosure prevention program, and pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive mortgage debt. The administration said it would extend the life of the Home Affordable Mortgage Program by a year through 2013 and widen it to reach more heavily indebted homeowners. ...
SEATTLE (Reuters) - A serial burglar nicknamed the "Barefoot Bandit" was sentenced on Friday in Seattle to 6-1/2 years in prison for his guilty plea to federal charges stemming from a sensational, two-year crime spree as a sometimes-shoeless teenage runaway. The federal judge also ordered that Colton Harris-Moore, 20, serve his federal sentence simultaneously with a state term of more than seven years in a move his lawyers say could see him freed before his 26th birthday. ...