Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, October 10, 2024…
- On the campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris often talks about standing up for voters. One of her biggest tests of this promise came more than a decade ago, during the peak of the subprime mortgage crisis.
- Riverside’s city council struck down a proposal by the city attorney and police department to prohibit items that could be used as weapons during protests.
- Health officials have confirmed a third human bird flu case in the Central Valley. The state Department of Public Health is also investigating two other presumptive positive cases.
Kamala Harris Took On Big Banks After The Foreclosure Crisis. It Helped Define Her Career
It was the fall of 2011, and the American housing market was in freefall — California was ground zero. Hundreds of thousands of Californians had already lost their homes to foreclosure, and millions more were underwater on their mortgages, owing more than their homes were worth. Many were facing exploding mortgage payments as adjustable-rate loans skyrocketed.
As California’s newly elected attorney general, Kamala Harris took office as policymakers were grappling with the worst economic crisis in decades, and Californians were suffering: In 2009, as the subprime mortgage crisis began to peak, more than 3.5 million California households were delinquent on their mortgages; Florida was the next highest state with 3.1 million families behind.
As Harris assumed her role, other state attorneys general were negotiating as a group with the five largest banks over their outsize responsibility for the foreclosure crisis. But California wasn’t initially part of that group. In her autobiography, “The Truths We Hold,” Harris recounts instructing her staff on her first day to join those multi-state settlement talks. By the fall, however, she made the risky decision to pull out, convinced that the banks were gunning for a deal that wouldn’t offer homeowners enough money or new protections — and would shield the banks from future probes.
That decision would prove pivotal in shaping Harris’ political career and public image, becoming a frequent reference point in her campaign narratives — including during her speech this summer at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Riverside Rejects Proposed Law Banning Face Coverings And Other Items At Protests
Riverside’s city council has rejected a proposal from the city attorney and police department to ban items like flag poles, wooden sticks and other potential weapons at protests, as well as restrict face coverings except for medical or religious reasons.