Woman suspected in Colorado Tesla dealership vandalism charged in federal court

• February 27, 2025

By COLLEEN SLEVIN

DENVER (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a woman in a string of vandalism against a Colorado Tesla dealership, including throwing Molotov cocktails at vehicles and spray painting “Nazi cars” on the building along with a message that appeared directed at company co-founder Elon Musk.

Lucy Grace Nelson appeared in federal court in Denver briefly Thursday after being arrested on a federal charge of malicious destruction of property. Her ankles and wrists were shackled and she wore a purple tie-dye shirt and red-and-black checked pants, as she sat in the jury box with other defendants waiting for their cases to be called.

Nelson rocked back and forth slightly as Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter informed of her rights and Nelson’s mother watched from the front row of the gallery.

When Neureiter questioned lawyers about why federal charges were brought, Nelson began to speak but her attorney, public defender Jennifer Beck, rushed across the room to stop her. Cassie Wiemken of the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the federal government had a compelling interest to prosecute the case because of the danger posed by the “incendiary devices” allegedly used.

After Neureiter noted that Nelson did not report any income or expenses in her application for an attorney, Beck told him that she receives support from her family.

Nelson’s mother and attorney declined to comment after the hearing.

Nelson’s sister, Jennifer McCown, said that her sister loves her family and has been recently volunteering to feed the homeless.

“She’s a loving, intelligent person who wouldn’t hurt another person for the world,” McCown said in a text. She did not comment on the allegations Nelson is facing.

Nelson was arrested Monday on separate state charges after police said she returned to the dealership in Loveland, Colorado with “additional incendiary devices” and materials used in vandalism. However, it wasn’t clear whether state prosecutors have filed formal charges against her. Police said Wednesday that they expected federal charges to be filed.

The case comes amid rising concerns voiced by Democrats and some Republicans about Musk’s influence over the administration of President Donald Trump and follows recent protests at Tesla storerooms elsewhere in the U.S.

Trump and cost-costing chief Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have been moving to slash the size of the federal government through large-scale layoffs, contract cancellations and other moves.

According to the federal criminal charges filed against Nelson, she is suspected of starting fires by igniting Molotov cocktails crafted from empty liquor bottles near vehicles that apparently did not cause much damage.

Photos included in the filing showed a small fire on the ground near vehicles. The dealership estimated that several incidents of vandalism over the course of about a month caused between $5,000 and $20,000 in damages, with an estimated $5,000 in damage to the vehicles.

Loveland police spokesperson Chris Padgett said police were investigating the possibility of someone else being involved.

In one of the incidents, someone spray painted an obscenity believed to be directed at Musk before being chased away by a security guard, according to a Loveland police affidavit.

Police said that at the time of Nelson’s arrest, they saw in her car cans of spray paint, gasoline, bottles and various cloth pieces that could be soaked with an accelerant.

​ Orange County Register 

Texas says doctor illegally treated trans youth. He says he followed the law

• February 27, 2025

By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — On the Texas border, Dr. Hector Granados treats children with diabetes at his El Paso clinics and makes hospital rounds under the shadow of accusations that have thrown his career into jeopardy: providing care to transgender youth.

In what’s believed to be a U.S. first, Texas is suing Granados and two other physicians over claims that they violated the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, calling the doctors “scofflaws” in lawsuits filed last fall that threaten to impose steep fines and revoke their medical licenses. He denies the accusations, and all three doctors have asked courts to dismiss the cases.

The cases are a pivotal test of intensifying Republican efforts to prevent such treatments, including President Donald Trump’s executive order that would bar federal support for gender-affirming care for youth under 19.

Some hospitals have already begun unwinding services for pediatric patients. But, so far, only Texas is demonstrating what punishing doctors looks like when bans are allegedly broken.

Granados, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he was meticulous in halting transgender care before Texas’ ban took effect in 2023. He denied that he continued prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to transitioning patients and said he was initially unclear which patients, who are not named in the lawsuit, he is accused of wrongfully treating.

The other accused doctors — both in Dallas — are under temporary court orders not to see patients and only practice medicine in research and academic settings.

“Looking at the patients was hard because they were kind of disappointed of what was going on,” Granados said of ending their care. “But it was something that needed to be followed because it’s the law.”

The lawsuits are believed to be the first time a state has brought enforcement under laws that ban or restrict gender-affirming care for minors, which Republicans have enacted in 27 states, including this month in Kansas over the Democratic governor’s veto. Although those accused of violating bans face criminal charges in some states, they do not in Texas.

Nationwide, doctors and hospital executives are reevaluating transgender health programs that carry a widening risk of litigation and losing federal funding. For transgender Americans, the climate has narrowed options for care and deepened fears.

Trump has launched a broad charge against transgender rights quickly in his second term, signing executive orders that include barring schools from using federal education dollars to support students who are socially transitioning. Supporters say restrictions protect vulnerable children from what they see as a “radical” ideology about gender and making irreversible medical decisions.

The Texas lawsuits were brought by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has previously gone beyond the state’s borders to launch investigations into gender-affirming treatment.

His office did not respond to requests for an interview. At a court hearing Wednesday involving the Dallas doctors, an attorney in Paxton’s office declined to comment and referred questions to the agency’s press office.

“I will enforce the law to the fullest extent to prevent any doctor from providing these dangerous drugs to kids,” Paxton said in a statement this month.

A practice in El Paso

Granados is one of two pediatric endocrinologists in El Paso, a desert city of about 700,000 where mountains rise in the distance.

Granados, 48, is from Ciudad Juarez, the neighboring Mexican city that sprawls out south of El Paso. He said that after attending medical school in Mexico he completed additional training in New York and Connecticut but he wanted to return to what he said is an underserved region.

He opened a gender clinic at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso before starting his own practice in 2019. Before the ban, Granados said, treating transgender youth was just an extension of his practice that also treats youth with diabetes, growth problems and early puberty.

He said he accepted transgender patients only if they had first received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a mental health provider.

“It was not different from doing everything else that a pediatric endocrinologist does,” he said. “It was just taking care of children who required that specific therapy.”

Emiliana Edwards was among them. Now 18, she called Granados an “amazing” caregiver who carefully explained her gender-affirming treatment. But at her first appointment after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the ban in 2023, Edwards said the room felt different, “like there were wires everywhere.”

“It felt like we couldn’t talk about anything really, even the most simple stuff,” she said.

Her mother, Lorena Edwards, said Granados put a “cold stop” to her daughter’s care.

“It was just: ‘I don’t provide that care anymore.’ And it was done,” she said.

Bringing cases to court

At the heart of Texas’ lawsuits against Granados, Dr. May Lau and Dr. M. Brett Cooper are allegations of prescribing treatment to transition their patients’ sex after the ban took effect.

In one instance, the state accuses Granados of prescribing testosterone to a 16-year-old, alleging that although the doctor’s records identify the patient as male, the teenager’s sex assigned at birth is female. Granados and Lau are also accused of having instructed patients to wait until after the ban was in place to fill prescriptions.

Granados does not dispute that he has continued prescribing puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy. He said those treatments are not for gender transition but for children with endocrine disorders, which occur when hormone levels are too high or too low.

He said he prescribes testosterone for many reasons, including for patients whose testicles don’t work or had to be removed because of cancer. Others have brain tumors, or surgery or radiation to the brain, that impact puberty. Patients with early onset puberty also need puberty blockers, he said.

Attorneys for Lau said she has always complied with the law and the claims have no merit. Attorneys for Cooper did not respond to requests for comment.

“This is really part of a bigger pattern of extremism within the state that even other states have shied away from replicating,” said Sarah Warbelow, vice president of legal for the Human Rights Campaign.

Transgender adults and youth make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, according to estimates by the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ research center at the UCLA School of Law.

Going elsewhere for care

Granados’ trial has been set for late October; trial dates have not yet been set yet for Lau and Cooper. While the cases are pending, Lau and Cooper agreed to practice medicine only in research and academic settings and not see patients.

Neither Lau or Cooper attended the Wednesday hearing in their cases by a judge who is set to decide where their trials will be held.

Under Texas’ ban, the state medical board is instructed to revoke the licenses of doctors who are found to have violated the law.

Lorena Edwards said she watched her daughter thrive during her transition then descend into melancholy as laws targeting transgender rights gained steam.

Emiliana Edwards has switched to receiving treatment in neighboring New Mexico — where gender-affirming care is legal — but she said attacks on the transgender community have taken a toll on her mental health.

“We’re normal people, too, and we’re just trying to live,” she said.

​ Orange County Register 

As Mardi Gras approaches in New Orleans, maskers and parades take center stage

• February 27, 2025

By JEFF AMY, JACK BROOK and STEPHEN SMITH, Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Carnival season 2025 is approaching its climax in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast, with big parades rolling down the main routes as some revelers get fancied up for formal balls while others dress in costume to poke fun and make merry.

Three parades will roll Thursday night in New Orleans with scores of masked riders on colorful floats. More processions will continue every day through Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. Costumed revelers will jam the French Quarter as more parades roll in New Orleans’ suburbs, other Louisiana cities, and all along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts.

What is Mardi Gras?

Carnival in New Orleans and around the world is rooted in Christian and Roman Catholic traditions. The season begins on Jan. 6, the 12th day after Christmas, and continues until Mardi Gras, which is the final day of feasting, drinking and revelry before Ash Wednesday and the fasting associated with Lent, the Christian season of preparation for Easter.

Carnival celebrations have become thoroughly secularized in New Orleans, where the largest and best-known celebrations in the U.S. include street parties, fancy balls and boisterous parades. Some of the parades are high-tech extravaganzas that feature massive floats laden with flashing lights and giant moving figures.

“It’s all about family. It’s like a six-mile-long block party and nothing could be more fun. It’s for everyone,” said Virginia Saussy of the Krewe of Muses, which is set to parade Thursday night. “You got to come experience it to understand.”

How else do people celebrate Mardi Gras?

On Mardi Gras in southwest Louisiana, some people will take part in the Cajun French tradition of the Courir de Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday Run. These rural processions, with links to rituals from medieval France, feature masked and costumed riders, with stops where participants perform and beg for goods. Inebriated maskers often chase live chickens to include in a communal gumbo at the end of the day.

In New Orleans, some African Americans mask in elaborate beaded and feathered Mardi Gras Indian suits, roving the city to sing, dance, drum and perform. The tradition, a central part of the Black Carnival experience in New Orleans since at least the late 1800s, is believed to have started in part as a way to pay homage to area Native Americans for their assistance to Black people and runaway slaves. It also developed at a time when segregation barred Black residents from taking part in whites-only parades.

How is New Orleans reacting to the New Year’s Day attack?

Following the Jan. 1 truck attack that killed 14 people in the heart of New Orleans, the Department of Homeland Security upgraded Mardi Gras to its highest risk rating. This means there will be significantly more law enforcement officers present than in prior years, said Eric DeLaune, who is leading Mardi Gras security as special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans.

The city hosted the Super Bowl in early February and will employ many of the same security measures: SWAT teams on standby, armored vehicles along street corners, helicopters circling overhead and plainclothes agents mingling in crowds. The city will deploy 600 police officers, along with hundreds more from state and local agencies.

“We’ve made an effort to make carnival season as safe as we possibly can without intruding on the historical and cultural context of Mardi Gras,” said DeLaune, a Louisiana native who grew up attending the parades. “We didn’t want to change the feel of Mardi Gras.”

What are other security precautions?

Thousands of revelers will gather along the city’s oak and mansion-lined St. Charles Avenue to watch towering floats, marching bands and celebrities parade. To protect them, a “serpentine” layout of heavy barricades has been arranged on the road’s opposite side to bar fast-moving vehicles while still allowing traffic.

“You’re going to weave it like a snake,” New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters at a February press conference. “That will slow anybody down who thinks they are going to use a vehicle as a weapon.”

Drones are banned, she added. Ice chests and coolers — which had been used to plant explosives during the Jan. 1 attack — will remain barred from the busiest section of the city’s historic French Quarter, said Louisiana State Police Superintendent Robert Hodges.

Why is Mardi Gras so late this year?

Because it’s linked to Easter, the date of Mardi Gras can fall anywhere between Feb. 3 and March 9. That’s because Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

This year’s date of March 4 is one of the latest possible. That means warmer temperatures are likely along the Gulf Coast rather than the often cool and clammy weather of February. However, there’s a chance of rain on Tuesday in the region.

What are ‘throws?’

“Throw” is a noun used to describe the trinkets that float riders in parades and walking members of carnival clubs — known as krewes — give to spectators. Shimmery strings of plastic beads are ubiquitous, although some krewes are exploring alternatives out of environmental concerns. Participants in the parade of New Orleans’ Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club hand out highly sought-after painted coconuts.

At Thursday’s Muses parade, glittery hand-decorated shoes are the prize souvenir.

“The first year we created a bead that was a stiletto shoe and it was just to be a commemorative bead — but it took off,” said Saussy, who is the chairwoman of Muses’ theme and floats. “People love shoes, who knew?”

Amy reported from Atlanta.

​ Orange County Register 

As bird flu spreads, feds might undercut states by firing scientists, removing data

• February 27, 2025

By Nada Hassanein, Stateline.org

As bird flu cases inundate more poultry and dairy farms, state officials worry that the Trump administration’s firings of federal scientists and other actions will undermine efforts to track the virus and protect Americans.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture rushed to rehire workers who were involved in responding to the outbreak and were fired amid federal workforce cuts. These employees were part of a federal network that oversees labs responsible for collecting samples and confirming H5N1 tests.

State officials also fear funding cuts will hamper those federal labs, and say that by scrubbing some public health data from government websites, the administration may complicate efforts to track the outbreak.

Federal labs are “key for us to be able to do our work, and we need to make sure those labs stay funded, or we can’t do what we do,” said Dr. Amber Itle, the state veterinarian for Washington state. Itle said federal money pays for most of her office’s bird flu efforts, and that the nation’s bird flu surveillance system — one of the most robust in the world — needs to stay in place.

President Donald Trump’s budget cuts and firings include thousands of terminations across the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, among others. While the USDA scrambled to rehire its workers, public health experts say federal agencies often work in tandem to respond to health emergencies.

A dozen probationary employees also were let go this month at the Manhattan, Kansas-based National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, a USDA spokesperson told Stateline. The federal facility works closely with the USDA and aims to protect agricultural systems against animal diseases. The spokesperson said these positions were administrative and “not deemed essential to the functions of the lab.”

“When we start to take away resources that we need to support animal health response, that ultimately could threaten public health,” Itle said, “because if we can’t find it in animals, we could be exposing people without knowing it.”

The Trump administration initially removed reams of public health data related to poverty, pollution, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, adolescent health, racial inequities, sex, gender and LGBTQ+ people from federal agency websites. Some of the data was quickly restored. But Washington state health officials said they are downloading bird flu-related information in case it disappears.

Michael Crusan, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, compared state-federal bird flu cooperation to a dance.

“You can’t swing dance without a partner,” Crusan said. “So how are we supposed to keep this process running smoothly?”

70 human cases

The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, known as H5N1, has killed millions of wild birds and has led to emergency culling of commercial flocks.

Nationwide, there have been 70 confirmed human cases since 2024, according to the CDC. Most of these cases have been among farmworkers, who are in daily close contact with poultry and cattle.

California has tracked the most cases, with 38 patients, nearly all exposed to the virus from dairy herds, followed by Washington state with 11 cases. Other infections in humans have been confirmed in Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin.

In recent weeks, Ohio and Wyoming reported their first human cases of the virus. A CDC study found cases among three dairy veterinarians, with one working in a state that had no infected cattle.

In January, a patient in Louisiana died after contracting the virus, the first human death from bird flu. The patient was an older adult with underlying medical conditions, and had contracted the virus after exposure to a backyard flock and wild birds.

Hospitalization remains rare. For now, bird flu doesn’t easily infect humans and doesn’t spread from person to person, health experts say. The CDC says there is little risk to the general public, but that could change as the virus mutates and continues to infect mammals such as cattle. The virus also has been found in domestic cats.

To eradicate bird flu, experts are emphasizing comprehensive case surveillance, testing and an overall public health strategy that recognizes the interdependence of humans, animals and the environment.

“You can’t have healthy humans without healthy animals, wild and domestic, and healthy environments,” said Maurice Pitesky, a food security expert at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. “Ultimately, you’re trying to reduce the potential of the virus to move from those wild waterfowl to those farm animals.”

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said the pressure is mounting to safeguard farms.

“The longer this virus circulates on farms, especially infecting dairy cattle and exposing humans that work on those farms, the more chances it has to evolve to something that is more dangerous for humans,” Adalja said.

The virus has been detected in more than 200 mostly wild and feral mammals in the U.S. since 2022. Those mammals may have become infected from eating fresh wild bird carcasses, but there is no indication of transmission from mammal to mammal, experts say.

A recent CDC study found cases in two indoor cats belonging to dairy farmworkers. Other infections in cats have been linked to raw pet food. Officials are urging people to refrain from drinking raw milk and from feeding dogs and cats raw pet food.

“The more mammals it infects,” Adalja said, “the more chances it has to adapt to mammals.”

All 50 states

More than 166 million birds across all 50 states have been infected nationwide since 2022, according to CDC data as of Tuesday. Over the past month, the virus has been detected in 86 commercial flocks and 51 backyard flocks. Infected poultry flocks must be culled when an outbreak occurs. In groceries nationwide, egg prices have surged amid the shortages.

The virus is also suspected in recent die-offs of wild birds. In five Michigan counties as of mid-February, more than 300 dead wild birds, including geese and mallard ducks, have been found, the state Department of Natural Resources reported. The department has issued guidance on how waterfowl hunters and property owners can stay safe when encountering dead birds.

Melinda Cosgrove, laboratory scientist manager at the department’s Wildlife Health Section, said her state’s confirmed positive cases are mostly in poultry flocks. To stay abreast of potential cases in the wild, the state has an “Eyes in the Field” webpage by which residents can report sick or dead wildlife to help the department track potential cases.

Those migratory birds are behind the spread across farms, said Kevin Snekvik, executive director of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. “Birds migrating north and south up to Alaska, they’re the culprits,” said Snekvik, who is also a professor at Washington State University’s Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology.

States have also been monitoring changes in bird flu patterns by tracking the virus in wastewater. The U.S. has long avoided vaccination of poultry because many of its trading partners will not import vaccinated birds. But federal officials earlier this month gave conditional approval of an updated version of a previous vaccine to protect poultry against the H5N1 virus.

Farmworker testing

In Nevada, a recent spillover to dairy cattle of a specific H5N1 genotype previously found in birds was detected in a milk sample, officials announced earlier this month.

Seventeen states have reported outbreaks in dairy cows. Cows usually recover from the virus, but cattle must be isolated when the virus is detected to prevent further spread. It can be spread to humans through close contact.

Despite the widespread cases in dairy farms, not all states have joined a federal-state partnership to test milk. Currently, 36 states test under the surveillance strategy.

Helping dairy and poultry farmworkers get tested is important for public health response. But many farmworkers are immigrants with no sick leave and who may speak primarily Indigenous languages or Spanish. The Trump administration’s deportation efforts have caused further reticence to report symptoms, said Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, a food systems scholar and human geographer at Syracuse University who studies agricultural labor.

“You have a population of workers who don’t have access to health care to begin with,” she said, noting how many dairy farm laborers live in rural or remote places far from city centers. “You have this geographical barrier. You have a linguistic barrier. You have a cultural barrier. And then, of course, today, you have on top of it a lot of fear.”

Since dairy cattle infections were first detected in California in September 2024, the state’s Animal Health and Safety Lab, the only lab in the state handling the most dangerous samples, has received between 400 and 2,000 samples weekly, lab director Ashley Hill wrote in an email to Stateline.

The lab currently has just five technicians authorized to do most of the testing and a handful of support staff who can chip in. Lab technicians are set to strike this week along with university health care, research and technical professionals across the state, according to the union, which represents 20,000 workers.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

How Trump could lower certain mortgage rates

• February 27, 2025

President Donald Trump wants to reduce short-term and long-term interest rates.

You’re probably wondering how a president can do that while not stepping over the Federal Reserve.

First, let’s consider short-term interest rates. With the inflation rate still at 3%, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell isn’t going to lower the short-term Federal Funds rate anytime soon.

The Fed’s target rate is 2%. The fed funds rate directly affects what the Prime Rate is. Today, the prime rate is 7.5%. This matters because home equity lines-of-credit are tied to prime.

Trump can’t force Powell to reduce rates, nor can he fire him. So, for now, we’re out of luck with short-term rates dropping.

Let’s turn to long-term interest rates.

Trump could order the Treasury Department to start buying mortgage-backed securities, like when the Federal Reserve bought roughly $1.45 trillion of MBSs during the Great Recession. That was popularly known as quantitative easing. Buying MBS can reduce mortgage rates by increasing competition and increasing mortgage market liquidity.

The Federal Reserve was able to effectively print money during the mortgage meltdown days.

The down side: Treasury would have to borrow money, which would increase the federal debt, according to Ted Tozer, former Ginnie Mae president under President Barack Obama.

“Increasing the debt is inflationary,” he said.

One sure-fire way to reduce interest rates is to get rid of the hidden (to consumers) mortgage fee or mortgage tax charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and known as a loan level pricing adjustment or LLPA.

Trump could mandate through an executive order for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (Fannie and Freddie’s regulator and conservator) to eliminate the LLPA. Or FHFA could do this on its own.

“It will be interesting to see how the new FHFA approaches the loan level charges imposed by the government agencies FNMA and Freddie Mac,” said Brad Seibel, chief investment officer, Sage Home Loans.

Seibel described the LLPA as “direct loan costs” that are passed from the lender to the consumer, significantly affecting lower-FICO score and lower down-payment borrowers.

“Hopefully we will see some relief from these charges that drive up the cost of homeownership for so many,” he told me.

The FHFA did not respond to my query regarding any intentions to drop the LLPAs.

What is an LLPA?

This fee is charged to borrowers who take out conventional mortgages from the likes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Essentially, it is a risk charge that determines how much extra a borrower pays, for depending on various factors such as the lowest middle FICO credit score of all borrowers, loan-to-value, property type, purchase or refinance, cash-out refinance, occupancy type and number of units. The one-time fee comes at loan origination whether it’s a purchase or refinance loan.

For example, let’s say you were a well-qualified buyer buying an owner-occupied condo for $1 million, putting 20% down. Your middle FICO score is 740. Your LLPA amounts to 1.625% of the loan amount. If you took that hit in dollars it would be $13,000. If you take that risk-based pricing hit by converting the cost to a higher rate you would go from 6.625% to 7.25% for a 30-year fixed. That’s a 0.625% rate increase.

I’ll note that borrowers usually take the rate hit, rather than paying the LLPA up front.

Principal and interest payment at 6.625% is $5,122. At 7.25% your principal and interest payment would be $5,457. The LLPA drives up the monthly payment by $335. That is $13,000 or $335 x 360 months, equal to $120,600. In this one simple example you can knock the rate down by 0.625 if LLPA are eliminated. LLPA can be much more expensive than the example above I provided. For example, second homes and investment properties can take a 4.25% rate hit.

So, where is today’s risk for Fannie and Fred? Few borrowers are in financial trouble.

The mortgage payment delinquency rate in the last quarter of 2024 was 3.98%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. As of January 2025, the foreclosure rate was 0.23%, according to Statista.

How did LLPAs come about?

Fannie and Freddie started using LLPAs following the 2008 mortgage meltdown, helping to mitigate risk and increase capital for the mortgage giants.

After the meltdown, regulators and Congress via Dodd-Frank tightened regulations on lenders offering risky loan programs. That’s why today’s loans perform so well — there’s a lot more underwriting rigor before a loan is funded.

What came before the LLPA?

The mortgage industry used risk-based pricing like credit scores and loan-to-value. It was a simpler matrix without the detailed calculations and adjustments provided by LLPAs.

Eliminating the LLPA would be a godsend for borrowers wanting to refinance. Purchase borrowers will also benefit from the lower rates, but home price spikes are likely with the increased borrowing power.

Freddie Mac rates

The 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.76%, 9 basis points lower than last week. The 15-year fixed rate averaged 5.94%, 10 basis points lower than last week.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported a 1.2% mortgage application decrease compared with one week ago.

Bottom line: Assuming a borrower gets the average 30-year fixed rate on a conforming $806,500 loan, last year’s payment was $97 more than this week’s payment of $5,236.

What I see: Locally, well-qualified borrowers can get the following fixed-rate mortgages with one point: A 30-year FHA at 5.5%, a 15-year conventional at 5.375%, a 30-year conventional at 5.99%, a 15-year conventional-high balance at 5.75% ($806,501 to $1,209,750 in LA and OC and $806,501 to $1,077,550 in San Diego), a 30-year high balance conventional at 6.5% and a jumbo 30-year fixed at 6.375%.

Eye-catcher loan program of the week: A 30-year mortgage, with 30% down locked for the first 5 years at 5.75% with 1 point cost.

Jeff Lazerson, president of Mortgage Grader, can be reached at 949-322-8640 or jlazerson@mortgagegrader.com.

​ Orange County Register 

Iowa’s Capitol fills with protesters as lawmakers consider bill removing gender identity protection

• February 27, 2025

By HANNAH FINGERHUT, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Amid a heavy police presence and hundreds of vocal protesters, Iowa lawmakers on Thursday considered an unprecedented bill that would strip the state civil rights code of protections based on gender identity, a move opponents say could expose transgender people to discrimination in numerous areas of life.

Both the House and Senate were expected to vote on the legislation Thursday, the same day the Georgia House backed away from removing gender protections from the state’s hate crimes law, which was passed in 2020 after the death of Ahmaud Arbery.

Iowa’s bill, first introduced last week, raced through the legislative process, despite opposition from LGBTQ+ advocates who rallied at the Capitol on Monday and Tuesday.

On Thursday, opponents of the bill filed into the Capitol rotunda with signs and rainbow flags to rally before, during and after a 90-minute public hearing, shouting, “No hate in our state!” There was a heavy police presence, with state troopers stationed around the rotunda and hearing room.

Of the 167 people who signed up to testify at the public hearing before a House committee, all but 24 were opposed to the bill. Each time a person who had spoken opened the hearing room door to leave, the roar of protesters outside filled the room, forcing repeated pauses.

To avoid delays, state troopers blocked off the hallway outside the room, creating a “natural buffer,” said Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens. The move was intended to allow the public hearing to proceed while also protecting First Amendment rights to demonstrate, Bayens said.

In Iowa, gender identity was added to the civil rights code in 2007 when Democrats controlled the Legislature. If removed, Iowa would be the first state to undo explicit nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity, said Logan Casey, director of policy research at the Movement Advancement Project.

In Georgia, the changes to the hate crimes law were proposed in a bill that would restrict sports participation for transgender students. That’s something the state’s high school athletic association now does by policy but that Republican leaders insist needs to be in law and also apply to colleges and universities.

A Georgia House committee rewrote the bill at the last minute Wednesday to leave the word “gender” in the state’s hate crimes law after Democrats warned removing the word could end extra penalties for crimes motivated by bias against transgender people.

Iowa’s bill would remove gender identity as a protected class and explicitly define female and male, as well as gender, which would be considered a synonym for sex and “shall not be considered a synonym or shorthand expression for gender identity, experienced gender, gender expression, or gender role.”

Supporters of the change say the current code incorrectly codified the idea that people can transition to another gender and granted transgender women access to spaces such as bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams that should be protected for people who were assigned female at birth.

Iowa Republicans say their changes are intended to reinforce the state’s ban on sports participation and public bathroom access for transgender students. If approved, the bill would go to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who signed those policies into law. A spokesperson for Reynolds declined to comment on whether she would sign the bill.

V Fixmer-Oraiz, a county supervisor in eastern Johnson County, was the first to testify against the bill. A trans Iowan, they said they have faced their “fair share of discrimination” already and worried that the bill will expose trans Iowans to even more.

“Is it not the role of government to affirm rather than to deny law-abiding citizens their inalienable rights?” Fixmer-Oraiz said. “The people of Iowa deserve better.”

Among those speaking in support of the bill was Shellie Flockhart of Dallas Center, who said she is in favor as a woman and a mother, a “defender of women’s rights” and someone “who believes in the truth of God’s creation.”

“Identity does not change biology,” Flockhart said.

About half of U.S. states include gender identity in their civil rights code to protect against discrimination in housing and public places, such as stores or restaurants, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank. Some additional states do not explicitly protect against such discrimination but it is included in legal interpretations of statutes.

Iowa’s Supreme Court has expressly rejected the argument that discrimination based on sex includes discrimination based on gender identity.

Several Republican-led legislatures are also pushing to enact more laws this year creating legal definitions of male and female based on the reproductive organs at birth following an executive order from President Donald Trump.

Trump also signed orders laying the groundwork for banning transgender people from military service and keeping transgender girls and women out of girls and women’s sports competitions, among other things. Most of the policies are being cha

Associated Press writer Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Angels SS Zach Neto to start the season on the injured list

• February 27, 2025

TEMPE, Ariz. — The faint hope that Zach Neto might not need to start the season on the injured list is now gone.

Manager Ron Washington acknowledged – for the first time this spring – that the Angels shortstop won’t be ready for Opening Day, which is exactly a month away.

“We like the progress,” Washington said. “I think he’s gonna tell us how soon he can get back. No way it’s going to be the 27th of March.”

That’s the day the Angels open the season against the White Sox in Chicago. When the Angels announced that Neto was having right shoulder surgery in November, general manager Perry Minasian said there was “a possibility he does miss some of the beginning of the season.”

Since then, the Angels have given no more specific timeline, including leaving open the possibility that Neto might not go on the injured list at all.

Now, it seems the Angels are focusing on getting Neto back “soon after” Opening Day, Washington said.

“Soon after could be a week after,” he said. “Could be two weeks after. Might be a month.”

Neto, 23, has said all along he’s felt good about his progress, which he believes to be “ahead of schedule.”

Neto is now throwing at a distance of 60 feet and taking batting practice on the field. He’s not hitting or throwing every day, though.

“The biggest thing is coming back as healthy as possible,” Neto said. “Not only looking for short term, but for long term, hopefully not getting any setbacks. The decision is not on me, it’s on training staff, if they feel I’m ready for Opening Day or not. But my main goal is to get back as quick as possible.”

Neto also said he did not regret that he waited until November to have surgery on his right shoulder, which was hurt on a head-first slide in the final week of the season.

“The doctor knows best, more than I do,” Neto said. “We all agreed on giving me a month to see if I could rehab it, to get stronger and stuff. But that wasn’t the case. Unfortunately, had to go to surgery. I’m fortunate enough that I did it. I didn’t want anything in the long run to happen.”

The Angels have a few choices to play shortstop while waiting for Neto to return.

The first option is likely Kevin Newman, a 31-year-old veteran who signed a $2.75-million deal shortly after Neto’s surgery. Newman filled in at shortstop with the Arizona Diamondbacks last year when Geraldo Perdomo was hurt. Newman hit .278 with a .686 OPS with Arizona.

Veteran Tim Anderson is in camp on a minor-league deal. Anderson is a two-time batting champ whose career has stalled the past couple years.

The Angels also picked up Scott Kingery, who has played 138 big-league games at shortstop.

It likely that two of those three players will be on the Opening Day roster, with one as the starting shortstop and one as the backup middle infielder.

SLOW START

Jo Adell was hitless in his first nine at-bats of the spring. Although that’s obviously too small of a sample size to be cause for concern, it was enough to prompt Washington have a talk with Adell.

“It’s early, no panic going on, but there are some things we see we want to try to help him correct,” Washington said. “Just be more aggressive. He’s trying to control the strike zone too much. It’s too early to try to control the strike zone. We’ve got to start swinging that bat and then control the strike zone. He’s just doing it opposite.”

This is a big spring for Adell, who established himself as an everyday right fielder with a strong finish at the plate and improved defense last season. Now, the Angels are asking him to play center field. So far Adell got a bad jump on a ball that fell for a double and he lost a ball in the sun.

NOTES

Right-hander Jack Kochanowicz was scratched from his scheduled start Thursday, as expected, because of time he missed with an illness. The Angels are planning on having Kochanowicz pitch Friday, but they haven’t decided if that will be in relief in one of their two Cactus League games or in a simulated game. Left-hander Reid Detmers is scheduled to start Friday afternoon against the White Sox in Tempe, and left-hander Yusei Kikuchi will start against the Dodgers on Friday night in Glendale. …

Washington returned to the ballpark after missing three days with flu-like illness. The sickness took down several players and coaches briefly. Infield coach Ryan Goins is still out. …

Closer Kenley Jansen was scheduled to throw live batting practice Thursday. Jansen and setup man Ben Joyce are each expected to pitch “soon” in Cactus League games, Washington said. …

Washington said the Angels are still doing tests on right-hander Sam Bachman, who said earlier this week he’s “working through a little bit of stuff.”

​ Orange County Register 

Austin rents tumble 22% after building spree

• February 27, 2025

Yasmine Acebo makes her living by hooking up renters with deals on Austin apartments. In recent months, they haven’t been hard to find.

In the midst of a pandemic-era population surge, rents jumped a staggering 25% in 2021 in the Texas capital for one of the biggest increases in the nation. But a development boom and new policies encouraging housing density have sent vacancy rates soaring. Now, landlords are struggling to fill gleaming new developments and offering major discounts to lure newly empowered renters.

“Nearly all apartments in Austin are doing some sort of specials for move-ins,” said Acebo, an agent with Pauly Presley Realty. One recent example: a client was searching for a one-bedroom apartment in South Austin and settled on a unit at Perch Apartments about 20 minutes from downtown. It normally would have cost $1,420 per month, but in return for applying the day after her visit and leasing at least 13 months, she received two months free rent, a waived administration fee and a $600 credit.

“It was inevitable once you noticed how many apartments were going up,” Acebo said.

As the US confronts a housing crisis so severe that it became a wedge issue in the presidential election, helped fuel some of the fastest inflation in decades and made it all-but-impossible to recruit teachers, fire fighters and restaurant workers to high-cost areas, the Texas capital has become the poster child for advocates who say the only way out is by building more homes. And while other cities run by progressives including San Francisco and Chicago face criticism for onerous permitting processes, Austin has cut regulations to speed up development. It appears to have worked.

Economics 101

Nowhere in the country have rents declined as much as they have in Austin — now 22% off the peak reached in August 2023, according to Redfin. The median asking rent is $1,399 per month, down $400 in less than three years.

Once the “slacker” capital of the country, Austin’s reputation as a low-cost city had already been waning when it was completely upended during the pandemic. But now, as rents nosedive, the picture has changed yet again, so much so that the capital city is no longer the priciest place to rent within Texas. The drop has sparked fresh debate between Yimbys, shorthand for pro-development, “Yes-in-my-backyard” advocates, and Nimbys, the pejorative name for those who resist change.

“This is really Economics 101; it’s supply and demand,” said Cindi Reed, the director of sales at MRI Apartment Data.

In 2021 — which Reed calls “the year of extreme” — developers poured into Austin as pandemic-era corporate relocations surged and remote workers flocked to the city seeking lower taxes, sunny weather, a plethora of tech startups and a robust social scene. Builders typically take two years to go from buying land to welcoming tenants, and as their cranes climbed into the sky, the new arrivals crammed in to the existing apartment stock.

The rental occupancy rate reached 91.7%, the highest level since 2015. Housing became the dominant issue of the city’s mayoral race as businesses worried pricey apartments might complicate the city’s cost-friendly image.

“There is no question that we are in a cost-of-living emergency in this town,” Kirk Watson said during his successful campaign for mayor in 2022.

Then came the flood of new apartments. Developers dumped almost 50,000 rental units on the city in 2023 and 2024, according to Fannie Mae data. That represented a 14% increase in the supply, the biggest on a percentage basis for any major US metro area.

“The rental market here is saturated with availability,” said Jody Lockshin, a veteran Austin broker and the owner of Habitat Hunters. Landlords have almost no leverage, and she has seen buildings offer three months free to new tenants and rate reductions to keep ones already in place.

Developers Tishman Speyer and Ryan Cos. are offering as long as eight weeks free rent at ATX Tower, a high-end residential and office development in the heart of downtown. With about 370 units, the building features some of the most elaborate amenities in the city, including an indoor cinema, a co-working lounge and a 20th-floor pool overlooking Republic Square Park. Prices start at $2,352 for a studio and climb to almost $8,000 for a three-bedroom.

RPM Living, a management and development firm, is offering four to six weeks free at its high-end rentals, including The Bowie and The St. Mary, where residents can get a tan by poolside cabanas.

Managers at some of the country’s biggest real estate investment trusts expect it will be a while before Austin landlords regain power.

“The supply picture is really tough and there may be a year or so of delay before we kind of reengage in that market,” Mark Parrell, the chief executive officer of Equity Residential, one of the country’s largest apartment REITs, said in a recent earnings call.

Camden Property Trust assigns letter grades to each of its markets at the start of the year based on their expected performance. Last in its class: Austin, with a C-minus. The firm expects to see rent growth pick back up eventually, but says the supply glut needs to work itself out first.

Building at Speed

The last attempt at significant building code reform, called CodeNEXT, burned $8.5 million and five years on a rewrite that went nowhere before the city council spiked it in 2018. But as it became harder to find an affordable place to live, a new political consensus emerged in Austin.

“After years of inaction, everyone felt the urgency of the moment,” said Zo Qadri, a Democrat who was elected to the city council in 2022. “Housing was the No. 1 issue. It was the lack of affordability.”

That year, Watson, who had led the city as mayor during the dot-com boom, returned to the job. He focused on slashing delays in the permitting process, and the city scaled back rules that limited the height of buildings within 540 feet (165 meters) of single-family homes. Austin also became the largest city in the US to end parking mandates.

More recently, Austin has focused on boosting the supply of single-family homes by allowing developers to build as many as three units on lots that were previously restricted to one home and slashing the minimum lot size to 1,800 square feet from 5,750. The city has received about 350 applications for homes under those two programs.

“Everyone in the building and development community was surprised by the change in winds from a housing perspective,” said Cody Carr, a homebuilder who has completed two projects that take advantage of the three-units-per-lot change and is working on four more.

Home prices have also dropped from pandemic heights, down 23% since May 2022 as interest rates climbed, but like apartment rents remain well above pre-pandemic levels. The median sale price last month was $515,000, up about 34% from the median of $383,380 buyers paid in January 2020, according to Redfin.

The push for greater affordability has also made for strange bedfellows as conservatives in the state legislature — which is dominated by the far right — embrace some of Austin’s moves with similar policies at the state level.

One bill signed into law last session opened a pathway for developers facing long permit delays to get approval from officials in other municipalities or any licensed engineer. This session, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who leads the state Senate, declared affordable housing one of his top priorities. Already, a raft of bills have been introduced to promote accessory dwelling units, reduce minimum lot sizes and slash parking minimums.

“I think that the lege does a lot of horrible stuff,” Qadri said, citing state lawmakers’ efforts to block cities from enacting more liberal legislation in areas like labor and finance. “But there are at times, at least as it relates to housing, these glimmers of hope and good work that can be done.”

​ Orange County Register