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BORROWERS BETRAYED

Bad mortgage brokers ran wild, Florida admits

In a stinging critique of the state's oversight of the mortgage industry, top Florida investigators found that state regulators failed to alert police agencies to crooked mortgage brokerages, ignored citizen complaints and allowed hundreds of people with criminal histories to peddle loans.

The report released Tuesday to Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet criticized the Office of Financial Regulation, saying the agency broke down in key areas, including screening brokers and shutting down shoddy operations, while the state grappled with the nation's worst home loan fraud crisis.

The investigation, carried out by the Inspectors General of the State Cabinet Offices, concluded the state's regulatory system was ``insufficient to protect the people of the state of Florida.''

Watchdog Report

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2006

House of lies

The Miami Herald revealed waste, favoritism and lack of oversight at the Miami-Dade Housing Agency.
1998

$10 buys one vote

Herald probe reveals inner-city deals in Miami's mayoral race
- Nonprofit agency had role in vote collections
- Suarez adviser investigated in vote buying
1990

Murder in the temple of love?

Yahweh's conviction affirmed
- From idealists to 'death angels'?
- U.S. investigates financial deals by Yahweh cult
1986

U.S. helped contras get missiles

Miami Herald reporters won a Pulitzer for their coverage of the U.S.-Iran-Contra connection.
- Despite ban, U.S. helping contras
- Language snag stalls funds probe
1976

Freeing Pitts and Lee

Miami Herald investigation led to the release of two men wrongfully convicted of murder twice and sentenced to death.
1967

2 on Death Row freed

State attorney Richard E. Gerstein Saturday announced the re-opening of the Mary MEslener murder case. He instigated an investigation at the request of this newspaper because of doubts of the guilt of the man convicted of the crime six years ago.

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2006

Predators among us

A special state program to treat Florida's worst sexual predators is not only failing, but backfiring. Some...
2007

Poverty peddlers

The Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust squandered millions on insider deals, pet projects and bad loans.
2006

House of lies

The Miami Herald revealed waste, favoritism and lack of oversight at the Miami-Dade Housing Agency.
Airport firm feeds Dade's political machine

Miami-Dade politicians and lobbyists regularly asked the company managing Miami International Airport's mas...
Shootings by police put lives in danger

In dozens of shootings since 1990, city of Miami police officers have shot unarmed people in the back, fire...
UNHEEDED WARNINGS

DCF lapses proved fatal for 37 kids

David Nieves Jr. is buried in the Garden of Promise, under a gravestone emblazoned with a teddy bear, clad ...
Crumbling Schools

Miami-Dade Public Schools squandered tens of millions of dollars on a mangled construction program, delayed...
Union paid private bills for Tornillo

Murray Sisselman, who served as UTD president for 27 years, wanted to come clean in his final days. He dire...
Fields of despair

The recruiters come rolling through in roomy vans, searching for a fresh crop of farmworkers from the homel...
Charity used for leader's private benefit

The executive director of Camillus House used his employees and homeless clients to renovate his own homes ...
How developers cash in on farmland
- How reform turned into curse for sheriff
» More

Dade judge enjoys lavish lifestyle

A lengthy Miami Herald investigation reveals that Dade Circuit Judge John Galardi Gale -- a judge since 197...
Florida lawmakers generous to a fault

Millions in state tax dollars given away, spent unchecked
Agency executives wrote checks to themselves

At a time when Miami's oldest inner-city social service agency could not make its payroll, two top executiv...
Lawyers tap into public piggy bank

A group of private lawyers has run up six-figure incomes by repeatedly billing Dade County taxpayers for ho...
BSO sting put public in danger

The robberies were part of a terrifying crime wave in Broward County two years ago -- and most of it was mo...
Abused adults: Silent casualties

Essie Weaver, dead from bedsores and infection, lived the last of her 83 years mostly in a wheelchair in a ...
How a politically connected farmer overcharged Dade government for thousands of oversized palms

A prominent South Dade farmer, paid millions by Metro to landscape county roadways, charged taxpayers for t...
» More

1986

U.S. helped contras get missiles

Miami Herald reporters won a Pulitzer for their coverage of the U.S.-Iran-Contra connection.
Public wrath startles port commission

Tax plan stirs ire
Why did 2-year-old have to die?

The truth is that 2-year-old Bradley McGee was almost potty trained. At his grandma's, relatives clapped fo...
» More