Harlem Democrat Charles Rangel, one of the most powerful members of Congress, is in the hot seat after failing to reports hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and assets on his financial disclosure forms between 2002 and 2006. A good chunk of that money was in rental income from a home he sold a half-century ago, the records show. Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which sets the nation’s tax laws, is being investigated for his personal finances and fundraising. He has acknowledged omitting several assets, business transactions and sources of income, including a Merrill Lynch Global account valued between $250,000 and $500,000; tens of thousands of dollars in municipal bonds; and $30,000 to $100,000 in rent from a multifamily brownstone building he owned on West 132nd Street, The Associated Press reports. This is compounded by a recent amendment Rangel filed to his 2007 disclosure form showing that he also failed to report a cool half-million dollars in assets. Rangel says the omission was accidental. Naturally, Republicans, sensing an opportunity to oust one of their most powerful congressional foes, is calling for Rangel’s ouster. “The ball is in Speaker Pelosi’s court,” said Bill Steel, a spokesman for the House minority leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio. “How much longer will she allow Representative Rangel to keep such a powerful and influential position, given the staggering array of ethical allegations he faces?”

Belafonte is to sell civil rights leader’s papers.  Three important documents written by or related to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., including notes for King’s last, undelivered speech, are slated for auction Thursday in New York, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, who had a close relationship with the Rev. King and King’s wife, Coretta, put up for auction the papers, which experts at Sotheby’s auction house have estimated in value at between $720,000 and $1.14 million. Read more here.

Charges against Rangel put Dems in a pickle. With Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York the subject of an investigation by a House ethics panel over his ownership of several rent-controlled apartments in New York, his failure to pay taxes on an offshore rental property, and his use of office letterhead to solicit donations for a public-policy school that would bear his name, he could be in trouble with the Democratic Leadership that was critical of Republicans who behaved badly. Read the rest here.Fannie and Freddie were warned against the mortgage crash. Documents show that top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were warned years ago that the firms were offering mortgages that could pose a long-term danger to the nation’s largest mortgage brokers, borrowers and the industry, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. In documents obtained by the newspaper, Fannie and Freddie pushed into new, risky markets despite debates within the companies about whether the moves were the best way to go.