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.

Mortgage giants propose a rescue plan. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants now controlled by the U.S. government, said Tuesday that they planned a broad new effort to reduce the loan burdens of homeowners facing foreclosure. The program will be offered to people who are at least 90 days behind on their payments and already have paid for the bulk of their mortgage, according to government officials. The plan is to change the mortgage by reducing the interest rate so that the monthly loan payment is no higher than 38 percent of the borrower’s monthly income. The government plan could help as many as 300,000 families that are delinquent in their mortgage payments at taxpayer expense, reports The Washington Post. But people with knowledge of the details said Tuesday that it was more limited than a program advocated by Sheila Bair, chairman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The plan may apply only to so-called conforming mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have guaranteed. While there are trillions of dollars worth of those loans, they are far less than, and generally separate from, the bulk of subprime loans that are at the heart of the nation’s foreclosure crisis. The foreclosure rate on loans owned by Fannie Mae is about 1.72 percent. By contrast, the foreclosure rate on adjustable-rate subprime loans is nearly 20 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.