On Sunday, Sept. 7 at 11 a.m. the Treasury Secretary of the United States announced that the government will be taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship.

The first thing to understand is that conservatorship simply means control. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, also known as agencies, are the backbone of the real estate and mortgage financing markets. These agencies are responsible for making sure that there is always adequate funding for consumers to obtain mortgage financing for real estate.

Fannie and Freddie are government-sponsored agencies, which means that the government created them. However, up until Sept. 7, the government did not control them. Fannie and Freddie are public corporations.

As you have been hearing reported for the last few months, both of these agencies have been suffering financial losses in the billions of dollars. These losses are directly related to the national housing and financing crises that exists.

The record number of foreclosures, mortgage delinquencies and personal bankruptcies are destroying the value of the mortgage securities that Fannie and Freddie hold in their portfolios. Simply put, mortgage securities that are held by these tow agencies are backed by the consumers ability to pay their mortgages on time.

When consumers are not able to pay their mortgages, and the value of real estate declines, the securities that these agencies hold lose value. This results in the agencies inability to operate and ensure that additional funding will be available for future lending. In the end, they cannot survive without help.

The bottom line is that the current credit crisis has reached epidemic proportions and that the survival of Fannie and Freddie is a must. The government stepped in to take control was the only solution to ensure that funding will be available for mortgages and to provide stability to the housing market.

What does this mean in general?

Below are bullet points that explain the major aspects of the government takeover and how it will affect the market.

• The United States Treasury now has the ability to provide an unlimited amount of funding to purchase mortgage backed securities from these agencies. The ability for Fannie and Freddie to sell their securities that money will remain available for lending.

• The government control means that these companies are now backed and controlled by the government. This will almost immediately begin to create stability within the financial markets. The stabilization of the financial markets is one of the first steps to creating an economic recovery.

• The bailout of these agencies will be paid for by the taxpayers, however unlike the Bear Stearns bailout, the stockholders in Fannie and Freddie will not be rewarded. Treasury Secretary Paulson has made it very clear that prior to any stockholder receiving any dividends from either Fannie or Freddie; the taxpayers must be paid back first.

• At the present time there is no estimate as to how much the bailout will cost the taxpayers. A major factor in determining the total cost will be determined by how quickly the financial and real estate markets stabilize.

• Interest rates are expected to remain stable for mortgage financing over the next few months. Rates are significantly lower since the announcement making financing more affordable. As of Sept. 9 Jacie Casteel from Sterling Mortgage in Lakeport reported that rates have dropped to 5.875 with zero points for a 30-year fixed mortgage.

What opportunities exist for homeowners and homebuyers?

• With the stabilization of the markets, the decline in property values is expected to slow down. If you have been waiting for values to drop further, it is possible that the bottom is very near and sitting on the sidelines much longer may cause your cost of homeownership to increase. The time to act is NOW.

• Lending guidelines may get a little tougher with new government control. This potentially means that accessing funds for mortgage lending may become a little more challenging and make it harder for borrowers to qualify. Once again, if you have been waiting to purchase or refinance your home, now may be one of the most affordable times to do so.

There are many unknowns pertaining to the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, the takeover was a must and the actions of the government will eventually bring badly needed stability to the markets helping to reinvigorate the battered housing market in the US.

Ray Perry is a Realtor with CPS Country Air Properties. Jacie Casteel is a loan agent with Sterling Mortgage.

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We all know that politicians exaggerate, embellish and enhance their stories. And sometimes, we suspect, they outright lie, which isn't very smart in this age of electronic record-keeping.

McCain-Palin supporters are trying to pass her off as a feminist with statements like this: "Palin's candidacy brings both figurative and literal feminist change." (Article at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/06/INB312NP3M.DTL&type=politics)

Being a working mother and being elected to office do not make you a feminist. Hard-working, ambitious – yes. Not necessarily a feminist. The essence of feminism is refusing to tolerate victimization of women in any area – economic, social, health, education, opportunity.

The GOP team would work to ban all abortion, "even in the case of rape," Sarah Palin said. There is no area where women have been more victimized than in rape. Rape cases are seriously under-reported because the survivors are unwilling to face the common disbelief, and the subsequent trial, when their entire life history might be put on display and questioned as if they were the person on trial.

A friend tells me that when she was raped and beaten nearly to death 30 years ago in Vallejo, the detective handling the case said to her, "A woman can run faster with her skirt up than a man can run with his pants down around his ankles." That's a fairly mild example of the disdain, disbelief and humiliation that women reporting rape often have to endure.

Palin did her best to increase the victimization while she was mayor of the small town of Wasilla, Alaska, from 1996 to 2002.

A story in the Mat-Su Frontiersman on May 23, 2000, reported that Wasilla was charging women who reported being raped $300 to $1,200 for the forensic exam kit used in the investigations. It was picked up by America Blog (http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/wasilla-charged-rape-victims-for-their.html) a couple of days ago and has since been reported on television.

Alaska Governor Tony Knowles had signed legislation protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for tests to collect evidence of the crime. The Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies covered the cost of exams, but Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon didn't agree with the new legislation. He said the new law would cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases. He was Palin's appointee, after she fired the former chief who didn't fully support the policies.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that at the time the city was paying a lobbyist, hired by Palin, $40,500 yearly to seek earmark funding in Washington, DC (www.adn.com/sarah-palin/background/story/194505.html).

Spin me any yarn you want about what a good mother she is, how she managed to fight the Good Ol' Boys while getting their support, why she had to charge the state for overnights in her own home (a 30-mile commute from her state office in Anchorage) or why she even bothered to talk to the city librarian about banning books – just don't try to tell me she's a feminist, OK?

Sophie Annan Jensen is a retired journalist. She lives in Lucerne.

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They really believe it is "God's will" that a marriage contract can only be between one man and one woman and that this has been "the definition of marriage since the dawn of time," as it's poetically put by Frank Schubert, who is co-managing the Yes on 8 campaign.

That must create an uncomfortable disconnect for Yes on 8 leader Michael Bumgarner, a retired insurance executive and devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, with a long history of marriages involving one man and several women.

Schubert heads the Sacramento political consulting firm Schubert Flint Public Affairs. One of the partners is Richard Wiebe, a former California deputy insurance commissioner.

Oh wait – insurance again? Isn't that the industry that was so prominent in opposing the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s?

Ellie Smeal, founder of the Fund for a Feminist Majority and former president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), reported this to the 1995 National NOW Conference: "The real opposition to the ERA was silent and stayed in the background." For example, during the Illinois campaign for passage of the ERA, Smeal was shown an internal General Electric memo outlining their reasons for opposing the ERA. She says, "It talked about wages, benefits, health insurance and money. At the time women were making 59 cents for every man's dollar. Someone was pocketing 41 cents. If you think the ERA was a debate about the draft or single-sex toilets, you're wrong; it was and is about money.

"Insurance companies were also major players behind the defeat of the ERA. They wanted to continue their discriminatory practices. In Florida, the 'dean' of the Senate was a partner in a law firm that represented 14 insurance companies. Guess which way the Florida Senate voted? The same was true in many other states; the number one ERA opponent in Louisiana was a state legislator who was an insurance defense attorney."

A major contributor to the Yes on 8 campaign is the Knights of Columbus, which kicked in a million dollars recently. Easy to understand, right? The K of C is a Catholic men's organization, very active in charity work, very family-oriented. And did you know the Knights' 1.7 million members include "over 1,200 full-time life insurance professionals"? They do far more than sell insurance, but it is a major function of the organization and a major reason to join. See www.kofc.org/un/insurance/index.cfm.

The ERA says this: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

The campaign against it relied on some pretty twisted arguments, including drafting women into military service. And today we have no draft. Unisex toilets were a prominent threat, although they don't seem to have caused the downfall of some European countries which have them, or of the many families which share a bathroom.

The current arguments seem equally silly. Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in May of 2004, and California in May this year. Canada approved it in 2005,the Netherlands in 2000,Spain in 2005 – you can read more about other countries' laws at www.ilga-europe.org/europe/issues/marriage_and_partnership/marriage_and_partnership_rights_for_same_sex_partners_country_by_country.

If those laws have caused problems for heterosexuals in any of those places, the stories are not showing up on Internet searches.

For insurance companies, the ERA would have meant equalizing pay for many women employees, and extending benefits to women that, in some cases, were reserved for men. Today, some companies offer a broader range of benefits to spouses than to domestic partners. At a minimum, insurance companies will have considerable expense for revising and rewriting their policies.

This isn't about California. It's about precedent for a nationwide spread.

Here's the good news: Equality can be good for business. The Boston Globe reports Provincetown's tourist business has been revitalized since Massachusetts repealed a 1913 law which banned same-sex marriages for out-of-staters.

Full disclosure: Sophie Annan Jensen has no dog in this fight. She's a straight woman who intends to stay happily unmarried. She doesn't know of any gay relatives and has no interest in her friends' sex lives. She has always supported the ERA.

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Sam Aanestad calls the California Right to Know End-of-Life Options Act an unnecessary “intrusion” into the doctor-patient relationship.

At Compassion and Choices, the nation’s largest end-of-life choice organization, we see things differently. We know talking about death won’t kill you. If patients aren’t ready to hear the truth, they won’t ask for it. No one should force an unwelcome conversation, but the Right to Know Act doesn’t do that. When patients do ask, they want and deserve accurate, complete information. And then, no one should keep it from them.

The Right to Know End-of-Life Options Act (AB 2747), written by Assembly members Patty Berg and Lloyd Levine, passed the California Legislature and now awaits the governor’s signature. This landmark law simply requires that when a terminally ill person asks about end-of-life options, doctors tell them about all legal choices. Aanestad asserts patients don’t need this kind of information and claims it would do more harm than good. Well, let’s allow patients to make that decision for themselves.

Compassion and Choices sponsored the Right to Know Act because we know dying patients may suffer greatly without crucial information. We also know people with end-stage cancer may suffer through rigorous, futile chemotherapy treatments weeks or even days before death because they think they have no choice. Doctors are not always straightforward about the true prognosis and offer false hope. As a result, treatments can leave patients too weak for spending quality time with loved ones, rectifying relationships or seeking spiritual peace. When patients have full information about all of their options, they are empowered to knowingly choose – or refuse – difficult treatment.

Research is on our side. The May issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology reported terminal patients who have an end-of-life discussion with their physician are more likely to receive hospice care and less likely to enter an Intensive Care Unit.

Another recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association lists study after study showing that oncologists often continue aggressive chemotherapy long after it is likely to extend life.

Aanestad seems to believe that withholding this crucial information is a humane way to deal with people who are dying. As an organization working with the dying for 28 years, we know information and counseling regarding end-of-life care options is essential to the comfort and peace of many terminally ill patients and their families. These poignant conversations help patients weigh all options and make an informed decision that reflects their values and beliefs. It gives the physician an opportunity for a heartfelt discussion of the benefits and risks of all available treatments, and it can facilitate earlier access to hospice care.

AB 2747 does all of these things. It offers peace and comfort to patients and their families who want to know more. This is why we urge Gov. Schwarzenneger to sign the bill. Knowledge won’t kill you, but cancer will. How can we withhold the information that can bring so much comfort and peace of mind to those deciding how to spend their last days on earth?

Barbara Coombs Lee is president of Compassion and Choices, a nonprofit group focused on end-of-life issues.

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Unity was a key message at this past week's Democratic National Convention. Photo courtesy of Wanda Harris.

DENVER – On Friday, after spending the week in Denver for the Democratic National Convention, we were congratulating ourselves for deciding to wait until Saturday to fly home.

We all managed to get volunteer assignments at Invesco Center for Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday night, which gave us great seats for the evening activities. It also meant we had to file out of the arena along with 86,000 other supporters, walk a mile to the light rail station, catch the free mall bus, remember where we parked our rental van, locate it and drive to our condo 20 minutes away in Arvada. After sharing our experiences for the day and having a midnight snack our heads hit the pillows about 2 a.m.

We all agreed that the evening was awesome and that we definitely have a winning team for November.

By now you have all watched the speeches or seen snippets of them on the news so we will just say that being in the Pepsi Center when they were delivered and feeling the passion and enthusiasm of each of the speakers and the crowd was awe inspiring and history making and we were grateful and honored to be here.

Hillary Clinton’s speech reconfirmed to her 18 million diehard supporters the reason we were on her team to the bitter end and helped to woo over many of those who were not yet on the Obama bandwagon.

Michelle Obama – as she related the values, dedication and passion her husband feels about America and the American people, particularly those without a voice – helped us to renew our desire to work harder in our own Lake County to help elect like-minded candidates.

President Bill Clinton’s address reminded us of a better time in America when we could afford to fill our tanks and buy groceries without the need to use monies from our savings to do so. His five-minute standing ovation was a testament to his ongoing popularity with Democrats.

Sen. Dennis Kucinich whipped the crowd into a frenzy as he spoke of the need for social change in our country.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, giving perhaps his last address to a Democratic National Convention, stated that nothing could keep him away from this one. Speaking with a clear voice he assured the crowd, which honored him with numerous outbursts of applause, that he would be back in the capitol and ready to get back to work in January.

Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden helped all understand why Obama chose him as a running mate and wife Jill surprised us all when she mentioned a special guest and Barack Obama appeared. People who were trying to make a quick getaway came running back to their seats.

California was well represented with our share of speakers taking the podium and chair of the party, Art Torres, stating during the roll call vote, “California Passes.”

Pros of this convention included great speeches, terrific music and musicians, fun people watching, nice weather most of the time and friendly Denverites.

Cons were transportation, the worst we have every seen and had to endure every day; credentials were picked up at the Denver Center every morning followed by an eight-block walk to the shuttle buses that dropped everyone off a mile from the security check point. After arriving there bags were checked by security followed by another long walk into the Pepsi Center. We have all started the exercise program scheduled for next Monday a week early. The organization of volunteers left much to be desired but it can’t be easy to coordinate 10,000 volunteers.

Overall, it was an experience to remember and treasure for a lifetime.

Wanda Harris – along with other fellow Lake County Democrats Becky Curry, Sunol Westergren and Wendy White – attended the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week.

President Bill Clinton looks on during a speech at the convention. Photo courtesy of Wanda Harris.

Sen. Ted Kennedy addresses the convention. Photo courtesy of Wanda Harris.

Mile High Stadium, where Sen. Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech. Photo courtesy of Wanda Harris.

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Wanda Harris (center) and fellow delegates at the Democratic National Convention. Courtesy photo.

DENVER – With the arrival of Becky Curry and Wendy White (who came by motorcycle from her home In Glenhaven) on Monday the Lake County contingent is present and accounted for at the Democratic National Convention.

Those of us who arrived earlier checked into the volunteer headquarters to try and secure positions at the Pepsi Center where all the action would be taking place.

Sunol Westergren landed a spot on the Green Team and Wanda Harris was accepted on Access Control/Security at the Pepsi Center and worked on level three seating honorary cuests, coming full circle from the prior conventions when she “was” one.

The good news is the position comes with a center stage view of all the speeches. All the Lake County attendees have a chance to work at Invesco Center on Thursday night when Barack Obama delivers his acceptance speech.

The excitement here is unlike anything any of us has experienced before … there was not an empty seat in the Pepsi Monday night when Howard Dean gaveled the delegates to order, which if not mistaken is a record for Democratic conventions.

The opening night speakers were received with thunderous applause and none more enthusiastically then Sen. Edward Kennedy whose remarks brought everyone to their feet several times.

Michelle Obama’s remarks brought tears to the eyes of many of the young volunteers, both male and female, who have been attracted to the political arena for the first time by the excitement of the promise of CHANGE that Barack and Michelle Obama bring.

The people watching is unprecedented … seen so far up close and personal … Anderson Cooper, Ted Koppel, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former California Gov. Gray Davis, Gloria Allred and Caroline Kennedy.

On Wednesday we gathered to join the women’s march in honor of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the 88^th anniversary of women’s right to vote, attending Emily’s List event where Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. It was another full but very exciting day.

Wanda Harris, Becky Curry, Sunol Westergren and Wendy White are Lake County delegates to the Democratic National Convention, held in Denver this week.

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