Just because state and federal regulators reached a settlement with banks over foreclosure fraud – we think – doesn’t mean that the banks have rid themselves of their liabilities, even on these foreclosure fraud-related issues. In Massachusetts, a new ruling by the state Supreme Court may formally grant borrowers the ability to contest their foreclosures on the grounds of faulty document processing. And there are similar cases dealing with commercial property mortgages.

Sen. Brown clearly supports the discriminatory federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), but tries to change the subject instead of directly admitting it.

So here’s one lagging mystery about the foreclosure fraud settlement: what becomes of Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley’s lawsuit against five banks over deceptive practices and illegal foreclosures? Now we know.

This settlement arises from multiple abuses found in the servicing of loans and the foreclosure process over the past several years. At the height of the housing bubble, banks sliced and diced mortgages and traded them with little regard for the rules following land recording or securitization to such a sloppy extent that they lost track of the true owner on potentially millions of homes.

To cover up for this massive failure, banks and their servicing units have been found to have routinely forged, back-dated and fabricated documents at county recorder offices and state courts across the country. Furthermore, they employed “robo-signers,” who signed hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of documents and affidavits without any knowledge of the underlying mortgages. In addition, investigations uncovered massive servicing abuses, including illegal fees charged to borrowers, putting borrowers into foreclosure at the same time as they were working out loan modifications, failing to honor previous settlements where promises were made on modifications, and countless other errors that maximized servicer profits and gouged homeowners.

There are also cases of wrongful foreclosures where homeowners have been turned out of their homes without just cause, and servicer-driven foreclosures, where servicers illegally added late fees and applied payments inaccurately, pushing the homeowner into foreclosure. This is but a smattering of the examples of foreclosure fraud and servicer abuse found in a series of interlocking investigations, court depositions, reviews of documents in registers of deeds offices, and homeowner testimonials.

Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard professor, consumer advocate and candidate for US Senate in Masachusetts, said today that the Federal Housing Finance Agence (FHFA) must increase their actions on behalf of homeowners, including principal reductions, something that the agency has resisted to this point. Speaking along side Barney Frank, Mike Capuano and MA AG Martha Coakley, Warren’s message was aimed straight at FHFA’s Ed DeMarco, who’s been stalling on principal writedowns.

Last week it seemed Eric Schneiderman’s suit against MERS and three banks using MERS represented a carve-out on the final foreclosure fraud settlement. There was speculation that other states might have carve-outs or grandfathered suits, so they would be able to pursue those investigations and prosecutions and still join the settlement. But Bloomberg reports today that some states with active lawsuits would have to settle them as part of the deal.

As a country we are quickly approaching a critical cultural and political tipping point on this issue.

Massachusetts could soon become the newest state to allow patients to legally use medical marijuana. The Massachusetts Secretary of State recently certified four citizen initiative petitions, including a medical marijuana one. The medical marijuana initiative would allow patients with debilitating medical conditions and doctor’s certification to possess up to a 60-day supply of medical marijuana. The initiative would also allow for the creation of some non-profit medical marijuana care centers which could grow marijuana to provide to certified patients.

A Boston non-profit has announced a pilot program with mortgage banks (e.g., Bank of America) to purchase near foreclosure mortgages at market value and re-finance to the home owners at just above market prices. It’s effectively a principal write down, a better deal for the banks that could help a few homeowners too.

The Lowell Sun printed two of the dozen or more letters to the editor today critical of the Sun’s December 16 anti-trans “Christmas” column, written by Dan Phelps. But the Lowell Sun has still not apologized for the anti-trans column.