This past weekend, the U.S. Treasury placed the two housing GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in conservatorship to stabilize and restore confidence in our mortgage markets. This is a historic step that will change the face of our financial system for generations to come.

Yesterday afternoon, I participated in a conference call held by senior Treasury officials and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director James Lockhart. They outlined the following steps taken by Treasury and FHFA:

Conservatorship: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into immediate conservatorship by FHFA. This morning, the GSEs are expected to resume normal business operations with FHFA assuming the power of their Boards and managements. Current Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Styron are being replaced, but will stay on through a transition period. Herb Allison (for the last eight years chairman of TIAA-CREF and former vice chairman of Merrill Lynch) will be CEO at Fannie Mae, and David Moffett (former vice chairman and CFO of US Bancorp) will assume the CEO role at Freddie Mac. All lobbying and political activity of the GSEs will cease immediately...

Imagine the chaos if a tremendous earthquake...

The current unemployment rate for African-Amercians stands at 9.3 percent in Washington State, which is a little over double the overall unemployment rate of 4.5 percent...

Evidence is mounting that the agency charged with preparing Portland to cope with a disaster, Multnomah County's Office of Emergency Management, is now its own disaster area. Poor leadership, mismanagement...

What's happening for you in Portland this week? Read here a day-by-day diary of free community events to fill your spare time. For a full calendar please click on "Read the complete article" below.

What's happening for you in Seattle this week? Read here a day-by-day diary of free community events to fill your spare time. For a full calendar please click on "Read the complete article" below.

http://www.miniclip.com/games/classroom-pilot/en/ Classroom…

"It happens," says Jimmy Mac, after watching BMXer TJ Ellis crash his bike on his first run. Ellis' second competition run – a successful trick run around the dirt course at the Wendy's Invitational AST Dew Tour – didn't earn him enough points to stay in the competition in Portland. Mac, who manages Ellis and owns the Bulldog Bike Company, says he's not worried....

Rainier Beach High School posted a 19 percent jump in the Washington State Assessment of Learning scores, released this week.
Seattle Public Schools results overall were higher than the state average, which officials said was remarkable because most large urban school districts score below state averages.
The trend in 10th grade achievement remains strong with gains in every area tested....

Umalali: The Garifuna Womens' Project featuring members of the Garifuna Collective plays The Pacific Jazz Institute at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 3. Descendents of enslaved Africans who were shipwrecked during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, eventually intermarrying with the Carib and Arawak Indians of the Caribbean, the Garifuna people live primarily in small towns and villages on the Caribbean coasts of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua...