Blacks are suffering like no other in housing messing.
Feds take over mortgage giants. With nearly one in 10 U.S. homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages, the Bush administration Sunday took over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an attempt to avoid a complete housing meltdown. Together, the two government-sponsored firms hold or back half of America’s mortgage debt. By putting Fannie and Freddie into a conservatorship – removing CEOs Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron, respectively – it is the “best means of protecting our markets and the taxpayers from the systemic risk posed by the current financial condition” of the two enterprises, says Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. “…[T]hey will no longer be managed with a strategy to maximize common shareholder returns, a strategy which historically encouraged risk-taking,” Paulson said in a statement. Under the government plan, the Treasury and Federal Housing Finance Agency would purchase a new class of preferred stock in the two entities that “will ensure that each company maintains a positive net worth,” Paulson said.  This is “more efficient than a one-time equity injection, because it will be used only as needed and on terms that Treasury has set,” he said. “With this agreement, Treasury receives senior preferred equity shares and warrants that protect taxpayers. Additionally, under the terms of the agreement, common and preferred shareholders bear losses ahead of the new government senior preferred shares.” While Americans across the racial spectrum are suffering in the current mortgage crisis, nobody has been more affected than Blacks and Hispanics, who, according to the NAACP, have been unscrupulously targeted with high-interest loans. The civil rights group has filed a class-action lawsuit against a dozen and a half of the largest mortgage companies, saying that they took advantage of Black borrowers.

NAACP names voting outreach director. The nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, which has made voter registration a key component of its outreach during its century-long history, is taking its voter-empowerment efforts to a new level. “In addition to protecting the right to vote, we will reach out to displaced and recently purged voters who need our assistance in getting their voting rights restored,” said NAACP Interim President & CEO Dennis Courtland Hayes. The NAACP has appointed Kirk Clay to head its Civic Engagement Department, which is designed to remove roadblocks and disincentives to voting. This includes ensuring voter empowerment, protecting voters’ constitutional rights, monitoring redistricting and census statistics and promoting ballot initiatives to address social justice issues. “I am proud to represent the NAACP during this historic moment in time,” said Clay. “One of my priorities will be to ensure that every eligible American who wants to vote can, and that every vote is counted.” Clay worked as the Director of Outreach for major gifts at Common Cause where he also developed a diverse national coalition of strategic partners to promote election reform, ethics in government and government accountability. He worked at the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation as deputy director and is the former co-chair of that organization’s Black Youth Vote program.

Smoking Gun reveals that Rick Ross was prison guard

Maybe it’s time for MCs to revisit a few old-school party rhymes. If not, The Smoking Gun Web site is around to keep those claiming hardcore, thug backgrounds as honest as Boy Scouts. For the second time this year, Smoking Gun has outed a performer who appears to have embellished his street credibility. Rick Ross had previously denounced photos that surfaced last week as “Photo Shop fakes created by fake people to entertain fake people.” But TSG reports that the pics, showing a younger, clean-shaven Ross in prison-guard gear, are authentic. The site indicates that William Leonard Roberts, aka “Rick Ross,” has a social security number and employee record matching those of a man who worked in corrections for 18 months in 1995. Ross reportedly earned $22, 913.54 a year. TSG previously blew singer Akon’s false claims of prison time and having master-minded an auto theft ring out of the water. Crime may not pay, but lying about it apparently does.

RZA to make directorial debut

While many rappers make the leap to acting, few have gone the route of directing films. Wu Tang Clan’s RZA, having studied filmmaking with Quentin Tarantino and having made a recent appearance in American Gangster, is set to helm a forthcoming martial arts feature. RZA joins Ice Cube, Will Smith and Queen Latifah in the ranks of hip-hop veterans who’ve moved beyond acting to executive roles in the film industry. He also made an appearance in Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai.

Ashanti takes on a new role
Grammy-winning singer and Long Island native Ashanti has a new gig: tourism ambassador. The R&B singer was introduced Tuesday at a news conference as one of nine ambassadors who will promote tourism in Nassau County on Long Island. County Executive Thomas Suozzi placed an orange blazer with a tourism patch over her white dress at the event at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, where 16 tourists were offered an all-expenses-paid tour of Nassau. Ashanti sang at Suozzi’s two mayoral inaugurals in her native Glen Cove.Ashanti says it’s “amazing” to be asked to “give something back to the community.” The singer recently released her fourth studio album, “The Declaration.” The tourism campaign pitches Nassau as “The Island Next Door” and is targeted at visitors to the city.