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Hundreds of World War Two veterans from Missouri have taken free trips to the National World War Two Memorial in Washington D. C., thanks to the Honor Flight program.
Missouri Honor Flights are operating from several cities, part of a four-year old program that began in Ohio and has spread throughout the nation. [Read more...]
A new scam in town helps those without good credit present a better credit score to lenders. The scheme has drawn the attention of the federal prosecutor’s office in Kansas City.
To obtain some loans, the credit score is everything. Some who have a low score have been able to obtain loans anyway by renting, buying or just ripping off another person’s good credit score.
Gene Porter, Chief of Fraud and Corruption Unit in the US Attorney’s office in Kansas City, says often the person with a poor credit score simply buys a good credit score from someone else.
“We’re seeing it just absolutely multiply,” Porter says. “Where people are buying somebody else’s credit score in order to qualify for a loan, getting the loan, taking it out and, boom, it’s not being paid, it’s going into default.”
In an already shaky credit market, lending institutions can’t take many such hits. Authorities so far have identified at least $11 million in fraudulently obtained mortgages in the western half of the state with losses totaling $5 million.
Porter understands it doesn’t make much sense to sell a good credit rating to someone who might abuse it.
“Obviously, if they are letting that happen willingly, they’re running a great risk of their own credit scores being destroyed in the process, understand that’s part of it. But it’s going on,” according to Porter.
Federal authorities in Kansas City spotted a couple of instances of credit history fraud a few years ago, but they say it has been cropping up more and more since the financial market collapse and the recession it triggered.
A soldier from Independence is among 31 people injured in a shooting rampage that left at least 12 people dead at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas.
21-year-old Keara Bono was shot in the left shoulder and is being treated for her injuries. She was wounded when at least one, possibly three, fellow soldiers went on the deadly shooting spree. It happened around 1:30 this afternoon.
KMBC-TV in Kansas City has spoken to Peggy McCarty, the mother of the wounded Missourian, who has talked to her daughter. According to McCarty, her daughter has had the bullet removed from her shoulder and is being treated for a cut to her head.
Cardinals Care, the charitable foundation of the St. Louis Cardinals, said the 14th annual Winter Warm-Up will move to the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch and tickets will be available starting Friday, November 27th.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is hosting a Friday event in Moberly aimed at helping to promote community and economic development. It’s called “Tool and Techniques for Rural Development,” with the Fed joined by the University of Missouri Extension and Moberly Area Community College.
Glenda Wilson, Assistant Vice President and Community Affairs Officer for the St. Louis Fed, sees this one-day event as an opportunity to zero-in on the future of community and economic development – particularly in rural Missouri. [Read more...]
