While You Were Sleeping: July 2009

The gist of what you may have missed.

by KellyAnne McGuire, June 25, 2009

The trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to evacuees after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will now be available for purchase by residents for $5 or less, White House officials announced in June. Many of the residents of the 3,446 trailers are elderly, disabled, or homeowners who are in the process of repairing their uninhabitable houses. Occupants had previously been told they would be evicted after May 31. Many had been storing their possessions in their cars, fearing that the trailers would be confiscated.
Source: New York Times

Cigarette butts contribute to about 30 percent of all litter nationwide and 28 percent of litter that washes up onto beaches worldwide. This poses environmental concerns, as cigarette filters are not biodegradable and contain harmful chemicals and toxins like nicotine, benzene, and cadmium that leach into waterways. There are also economic factors to consider: San Francisco alone spends up to $11 million dollars annually to clean up cigarette litter. Manufacturers are working on creating a biodegradable cigarette, but until then, advocacy groups such as Keep America Beautiful are emphasizing the need for more ashtrays and receptacles in public areas.
Source: New York Times

May saw the lowest death toll of Iraqi civilians since the 2003 US invasion, with 134 deaths. A year before, in May 2008, 505 Iraqi civilians died due to war-related violence. In addition, 12 US troops were killed during the month, bringing the confirmed US death toll in the Iraqi conflict to 4,311.
Sources: Reuters, www.icasualties.org

The Legacy Loans Program (LLP), which was intended to help banks clear their balance sheets by selling off bad mortgages and loans, will be postponed. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) admitted that it could not get enough banks interested in the program, whose aim was to sell off $1 billion in troubled home mortgages. Since there is no market value for the mortgages that banks are holding onto, there could be more than $1 trillion in total losses not currently on bank balance sheets, some analysts estimate. This raises concerns about the real state of the banking system. Despite uninterested banks, the FDIC plans to continue development of the LLP as an option for the future.
Sources: New York Times, www.fdic.gov