Americans are losing their homes at an astronomical rate, a new report shows. Compared to last year, 32 percent more people lost their homes. And for those residing in Nevada, Florida and California, the rate of foreclosures was even worse. Nationally, more than 342,000 households – about one in every 374 homes – got at least one warning in April about possible foreclosures on their homes, RealtyTrac Inc. told The Associated Press. Also, according to the California-based foreclosure-listing firm, April marked the second straight month with more than 300,000 households getting a foreclosure filing. “We’ve never seen two consecutive months like this,” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president for marketing, told AP. “It’s the volume that’s surprising.” While American homeowners of all races have been slammed by declining home prices, low employment opportunities and overall economic malaise have hit African Americans and Latinos the hardest.

A Buffalo Soldier is reburied at Arlington. Buffalo soldier Cornelius Charlton gave his life for his country in the Korean War and got a Medal of Honor for it. But not until this week did the Bronx, N.Y., native finally get the rest of what was coming to him when the Army sergeant’s remains were buried in Arlington National Cemetery – ending a half-century of mystery, bitter tears and a quest to fully honor the fallen young hero. Graying veterans from the Bronx who made it their mission to get a fellow Black soldier into the hallowed ground he had long been denied were on hand for the burial on Wednesday, reports The New York Daily News. “Finally, after 56 years, he is where he should be,” said Robert Gumbs, one of the veterans. “I know the sorrow my family carried in their hearts for decades,” said Zenobia Penn, Charlton’s niece. “My grandparents and my mother were bitter about the injustice.” Charlton died nine days shy of his 22nd birthday, showing extraordinary heroism. He was with the 24th Infantry Regiment, the “Buffalo Soldiers,” the last all-Black unit. On June 2, 1951, he took command when the platoon leader was wounded and led an assault on a hill near Chipo-ri. He killed six enemy soldiers before he suffered a chest wound. He refused medical aid and continued up the hill and was hit by another grenade. Before he died, he raked the enemy position with gunfire, eliminating it.  Eight months after his death, in February 1952, his parents were given his posthumous Medal of Honor. The medal qualified him to be buried in Arlington, but he was not. “The Army didn’t tell the family he was eligible. Was it administrative oversight or did race play a role?” Gumbs said. Charlton was buried in the family’s plot in East Gulf, W.Va.  The military says no one has been barred from Arlington because of race. Meanwhile, his fellow soldiers lobbied for Charlton to be re-interred at Arlington and got Rep. Jose Serrano and the United Spinal Association to donate two buses to transport the Bronx veterans and the Charltons to the ceremony on Wednesday.

Congress wants more for hurting homeowners. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced a change in the economic rescue plan on Wednesday, saying the treasury won’t buy distressed assets of failing banks as originally planned but will look for other ways to sure-up the economy. Meanwhile, congressional leaders continue to urge Paulson to do more to help distressed homeowners and help the failing auto industry, which could cost the country up to 1 million jobs should it go under. Their pressure comes as mortgage companies report that 14 percent of the nation’s mortgages are in foreclosure. But Paulson said Wednesday that the $700-billion rescue package was designed for financial institutions, hinting that the Bush administration might not use the fund to bail out auto companies. “We care about our auto industry in the United States. They area key part of our manufacturing industry,” Paulson said. But he emphasized that the intent of the package “was to deal with the financial industry.”  The Treasury chief suggested that Congress could use the 25-billion-dollar loan program approved in September to help automakers develop fuel-efficient vehicles. The White House did say on Wednesday that it is open to any suggestions from Congress on how to help the auto industry. The Bush administration was not responsible for automakers’ problems, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, but she added the government knows the auto industry is very important to the American people and it will work with the companies and Congress to find solutions.

Detroit-area youths raise funds to sing to Barack Obama. A group of 44 choral students is working to raise $28,000 for a trip to January’s Heritage Inaugural Festival in recognition of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidency. Michigan’s Southfield High School Concert Choir is scheduled to perform at an inaugural ball and throughout the weekend. “I have voted in every presidential election before,” choir director Daryl Taylor tells The Detroit News. “I’m an African-American woman, and to go to something as historic as this is going to mean a lot for a lot of these kids.”

More states are enacting laws to protect drowning homeowners.

With more and more homeowners drowning in an ocean of mortgage debt, federal and state authorities are stepping up efforts to beat back the sharks. As foreclosures have skyrocketed over the past year, the flim-flam artists have come out in full force, say officials with the Federal Trade Commission and the FBI. “This fraud virus has probably been around, but until recently, it didn’t flower into a major issue,” says Brad Elbein, regional director of the FTC. The commission notes that so far this year it has filed three major foreclosure-rescue cases, one of which involved thousands of victims. It filed only one rescue case during all of last year. “The scope is probably going to be potentially as large as the mortgage fraud problem itself,” Sharon Ormsby, the FBI’s chief of financial crimes, told USA Today. The FTC is warning struggling homeowners to be wary of those offering relief for a fee. First of all, they say, many government-certified credit and foreclosure counselors can help negotiate the waters of foreclosure free of charge. One common rescue company scam involves an offer to pay the mortgage while allowing the homeowner to live in the home and pay rent. After the owner signs over the deed, the company sells the house and snatches the equity. “These are relatively new scams that are growing and becoming an increasing problem,” said Gavin Gee, director of Idaho ’s Department of Finance. A new Idaho law requires rescue companies to give homeowners five days to change their minds. According to USA Today, at least 14 states have passed laws to protect floundering homeowners. For example, Iowa bars foreclosure rescue companies from charging fees up front; Florida requires that foreclosure-rescue firms include a cancellation provision in the agreement; Washington state requires rescue companies to give homeowners a five-day period to change their minds. In the year since the mortgage crisis erupted, more than 1 million homeowners have lost their homes to foreclosure. A million more are teetering on the brink of foreclosure – 90 days past their mortgage due dates.

Farrakhan blasts the U.S. education system.

No wonder Black children are failing in school, Minister Louis Farrakhan told hundreds of listeners during a speech titled “Educational Challenge: A New Paradigm for the 21st Century,” which wrapped up a three-day education conference in Chicago . America ’s education system was never designed for them. Rather, he said, it was designed for a few well-to-do Whites and their children, and it has systematically alienated Black children and other people of color from the curriculum and refused to include them in a plan to advance their knowledge or their circumstances. “With a system of education that puts up the elite, good education was never designed for the masses,” Farrakhan said. “It is rooted in White supremacy. This is why we’re having all these problems in education, because the idea at the root of it represents a finite idea that has to end in order for something new and better to come in.” The fiery head of the Nation of Islam was joined on stage by another controversial minister, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who drew criticism against Sen. Barack Obama during the presidential primary for telling an audience at the senator’s Trinity United Church of Christ that Hillary Clinton believed she was entitled to the presidency because she is rich and White. In speaking to the packed house of parents, educators and activists, Farrakhan told parents to challenge the curricula of public schools and insist that they are studies that their children can relate to. “When the children can’t see themselves in the education, they’re not interested,” Farrakhan said. “Teach them who they are.” But education is not the only thing this nation needs, he added. “There are people coming out of college with degrees that say we have achieved what this world has to offer,” he said. “. . . [We are seeing] the collapse of the economy – but look at all the people with a doctorate in economics.” Farrakhan also praised Obama, who distanced himself from the minister in February, “The world is looking for change, so the brother has struck the right chord,” Farrakhan said.