In a blow to consumers, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that mortgage lending subsidiaries of national banks are exempt from state regulation. Every state attorney general and bank regulator had urged the High Court to protect these state laws, especially in light of federal inaction in the face of abuse by predatory lenders.

But the Court in its Watters v. Wachovia decision, upheld the power of the Bush Office of the Comptroller (OCC) to pass regulations shutting down such state laws. Those federal decisions, as Progressive States discussed a few weeks ago, directly fed the predatory lending mortgage bubble and helped encourage the abuses that may lead to 2.2 million subprime borrowers facing foreclosure on their home loans.

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Some conservatives are pointing to the unravelling of the Duke lacross rape case as supposedly showing some kind of reverse racism against whites. They shouldn't.

If anything, the fact that, despite having a prosecutor trying to nail them, the rich white defendants were able to marshall both the public support and financial resources to most likely avoid jail emphasizes the difference facing other defendants-- especially the legion of innocent defendants unjustly convicted as highlighted by groups like the Innocence Project.

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some conservatives are pointing to the unravelling of the Duke lacross rape case as supposedly showing some kind of reverse racism against whites. They shouldn't.

If any

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