Rtc

Federal thrift regulators will auction off more than 100 properties in the first Baltimore-Washington area auctions sponsored by the Resolution Trust Corp.The RTC auctions are set for April 29 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va., May 1 at the Holiday Inn near Baltimore-Washington International Airport and May 2 at the Holiday Inn in Silver Spring.But if you expect to pay $5 and come away the owner of a bankrupt resort, guess again.Most of the assets on the block are more modest.

Worried that Maryland's most vulnerable children are often shortchanged by overburdened social workers, state officials are calling for smaller caseloads and more consistent services.A study by two state agencies proposes a pilot program to test reforms that would cut caseloads by half to two-thirds in some areas, making each social worker and a half-time aide responsible for no more than eight families. Four existing child welfare programs would be combined, so each social worker-aide team would be responsible for all of a family's needs.

WASHINGTON -- Stanley G. Tate, chosen by President Clinton to manage the savings and loan cleanup, bitterly withdrew his nomination yesterday, calling Washington a "vicious city" in which he had been subjected to anonymous death threats and encountered entrenched opposition from bureaucrats opposed to any reform.Mr. Tate, a Florida real estate developer and banker, also blamed Donald W. Riegle Jr., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, for refusing to meet with him or hold a confirmation hearing on his nomination to head the Resolution Trust Corp.

OVER the past four years, I have worked with a team of Johns Hopkins University researchers to support school reform in several of Baltimore's most troubled zoned high schools. I have witnessed the courage, spirit and dedication of school-based administrators and teachers who are working hard to create more effective learning environments for their students.The reforms many of these schools are implementing have the potential to place them at the forefront of a national movement in urban high school restructuring.

The Resolution Trust Corp. announced yesterday that four area financial institutions have acquired the remaining assets of Standard Federal Savings Bank for franchise fees totaling $8.36 million.The four institutions -- Enterprise Federal Savings Bank, Loyola Federal Savings Bank, Farmers & Mechanics National Bank and Maryland Federal Savings and Loan -- bought 11 branches and will assume $99.7 million in insured deposits and other assets.The largest purchaser of the Gaithersburg-based thrift's remaining assets was Enterprise Federal, which acquired four branches with deposits of $33.8 million.

He came to the auction on a whim and in the excitement wound up spending $88,000 on a vacation home in Ocean Pines that he'd never seen.Warren Klawans of Pikesville proved to be just the sort of bidder the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC) had in mind when it put 30 properties on the auction block before a crowd of about 500 last night."Obviously, I didn't get a bargain," said the 57-year-old Mr. Klawans, a retired real estate broker, after he emerged from the noisy auction room to learn more about the home from an agent.

With 90 percent of its work done, the Resolution Trust Corp. is winding down the painstaking job of cleaning up the worst financial mess in the nation's history.But there are still 63 failed savings and loans, and $68 billion worth of foreclosed properties to be sold nationwide. Four of those thrifts and about $82 million worth of property are located in Maryland.Yesterday one of the RTC's regional advisory boards came to Baltimore to hear from a diverse group of constituents bent on ensuring that the largest real estate sale in history proceeds fairly, and that everybody gets a chance at their piece of the pie.The advisory board, chaired by Ferris, Baker Watts Inc. Senior Vice President Edwin S. Crawford, is one of six regional panels that meet four times a year in cities throughout their regions.

WASHINGTON -- Stanley G. Tate, chosen by President Clinton to manage the savings and loan cleanup, bitterly withdrew his nomination yesterday, calling Washington a "vicious city" in which he had been subjected to anonymous death threats and encountered entrenched opposition from bureaucrats opposed to any reform.Mr. Tate, a Florida real estate developer and banker, also blamed Donald W. Riegle Jr., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, for refusing to meet with him or hold a confirmation hearing on his nomination to head the Resolution Trust Corp.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration, disturbed by what it considers sloppy supervision and runaway spending at the Resolution Trust Corp., has imposed an unprecedented 30-day freeze on new contracts at the thrift cleanup agency.Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, acting chief executive of the RTC, has ordered a full-scale review of the contracting process, a Treasury Department spokeswoman said yesterday.Interviews indicate that lower-level employees of the cleanup agency have routinely violated the RTC's system of internal controls and authorized the expenditure of large sums of taxpayer money without the proper approvals.

MIAMI -- The Resolution Trust Corp.'s decision to cancel a $300 million auction of failed savings and loans' property was the culmination of what many analysts had long presumed: The auction was doomed from the start."

From the bay shores of Worcester County to the Catoctin foothills of Frederick, a surge in development has sparked a political backlash that threatens to shake up courthouses across much of the state this fall.Fed up with crowded classrooms, jammed roads and vanishing open space, voters in five counties ousted incumbents in last month's primary elections who had been tagged by critics as too pro-development. Growth remains a hot topic in races for county executive, council or commissioner in at least a dozen counties.

FireManchester: Firefighters from Hampstead and Lineboro assisted Manchester at 6: 13 p.m. Monday, responding to an apartment fire in the 3100 block of Main St. Units were out 32 minutes.rTC Pub Date: 9/30/98

The Ryland Group Inc. announced yesterday that it will pay $8.7 million in fines, restitution and interest to resolve felony charges that its mortgage subsidiary defrauded the federal government.Under an agreement with the U.S. attorney's office in Jacksonville, Fla., Ryland Mortgage Co. admitted to two counts of "impeding the functions" of the U.S. Resolution Trust Corp., when the unit of the Columbia-based homebuilder worked as a loan servicer in 1993.Ryland, which at one time serviced nearly $4 billion worth of RTC loans, had been set to go to trial Oct. 13 on the charges.

LAS VEGAS -- Amid the jangle of the slot machines on one of America's most famous strips, pirates battle it out aboard ships at Treasure Island, volcanoes erupt outside The Mirage and Roman statues stand guard at Caesars Palace. In the middle of it all, straight out of suburbia, sits the mall.Though it's surrounded by neon-bright casinos and hotels, the Rouse Co.'s Fashion Show Mall on Las Vegas Boulevard has no blackjack or blinking lights. It holds an allure of a different sort -- Macy's, Saks and Neiman Marcus, all satisfying the itch to spend.

HERE ARE some suggestions on where -- and where not -- to put your money now:BUYER BEWARE: "Mutual funds with high turnovers could beat the market, yet their shareholders would lag the averages," says adviser David Dreman in Forbes, April 20."If a fund turned its portfolio over 100 percent a year, an investor could pay a federal tax of at least 20 percent, possibly 40 percent. Be careful of funds with high historic turnover rates.""In this high market, what are the 'Big Boys' buying?" asks Personal Finance, April 8. The newsletter lists favorite stocks of these "legendary investors":Warren Buffett: Coca-Cola Co., Disney (Walt)

COLLEGE PARK -- Whether Maryland coach Dick Edell likes it or not, the Terrapins can't motivate themselves as being the underdogs. It's an unwanted reversal of roles this year, where Maryland is the motivation.But the No. 3 Terps showed their talent can be more troublesome than their emotion yesterday, putting together a mediocre effort yet still coasting past Penn State, 14-6, before 317 at Byrd Stadium. Andrew Whipple was involved in six of Maryland's first nine goals with two goals and four assists, and Matt Hahn added three goals.

WASHINGTON -- The Tooth Cave pseudo scorpion in Texas. Petroglyphs in New Mexico. Toxic waste almost everywhere.These are just some of the bizarre and vexing problems the U.S. government has inherited in its bailout of the savings and loan industry. And they are likely to become more numerous as more thrifts fail.The Resolution Trust Corp., the new federal agency that has taken on the assets of hundreds of failed S&Ls, recently found to its horror that at least 2,000 of the properties it has seized cannot be sold on the open market.

WASHINGTON -- After spending nearly $100 million on failed computer systems, the federal agency supervising the enormous savings and loan cleanup has virtually abandoned efforts in Washington to keep detailed records on thousands of parcels of real estate and other assets it is trying to sell.Rather than try to rehabilitate its crippled systems, the central headquarters of the Resolution Trust Corp. will maintain only limited in formation on its vast inventory of real estate and loans from failed thrifts.

From my view as a former federal prosecutor, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's grand jury investigation into the Monica Lewinsky case appears to be highly irregular. The focus of the case and Starr's investigative techniques deviate from the established standards of federal prosecutors.Starr got off to a bad start in the Lewinsky matter. He was appointed as independent counsel to investigate Whitewater. Although he has an unusually large staff and has spent more than $30 million, his four-year investigation has failed to make a case against his target, President Clinton.

Annapolis Mayor Dean L. Johnson is asking that another $2.3 million be pumped into a $5.6 million traffic circle project under way on West Street because of increased costs for construction and placing overhead wires underground.The resolution, introduced by Johnson at the city council meeting last night, calls for decreasing the budgets of five other capital improvement projects to free up money for the West Street project.When questioned by council members about the increased costs, city Administrator Walter N. Chitwood III replied, "We are looking hard at the estimates to see where they were overly conservative."