Personal Finance Notebook: 96 percent consumer loan rate is legal (The Sacramento Bee)
Question: My daughter called me about an online loan she made with a place called "CashCall." Apparently she made the loan for $2,300. Although she made payments of more than $200 per month for the past year, she recently discovered the balance owed is now $2,800 -- more than the original loan amount.

This week in soccer (Los Angeles Times)
By Grahame L. Jones , Times Staff Writer Five things happening around the world 1Several of Europe's leading teams cleared the hurdles in their paths Tuesday as Arsenal, Barcelona, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Sevilla won their European Champions League matches without undue difficulty.

ProLogis, Deutsche Bank, KPMG: Global Real Estate Deals (Bloomberg.com)
By Compiled by Isabella Steger. Editor: G. Reynolds.

INDENTURED DOCTORS (Las Vegas Sun)
The sign at the clinic says "walk-ins welcome," but a sick person would have had a hard time finding a doctor here. It's a weekday at the Health Care Center of Southern Nevada, a cinder block building on a dilapidated stretch of Lake Mead Boulevard.

KB Home posts loss, expects things to get worse (Los Angeles Times)
The builder refocuses on first-time buyers to weather the slump. It issues a grim forecast. When Jeffrey Mezger took the helm as KB Home's chief executive 10 months ago, he knew the nation's housing market was facing new challenges. After five years of an astonishing run-up in home prices and sales, the building industry was suddenly in the throes of a nationwide slowdown.

Inland home builders put on brakes (The Press-Enterprise)
Home construction is falling more dramatically in Riverside and San Bernardino counties than anywhere else in the state, as builders put on the brakes until they sell a glut of completed houses and wait for the market to rebound.

5 Questions: Bart Darfler (The Naperville Sun)
When real estate broker and auctioneer Bart Darfler raises his voice, chances are he's raising money for worthy causes at the same time.

Amazing Case of Loan and Mortgage Fraud (KLAS Las Vegas)
Loan and mortgage fraud is becoming big business across the country and crooks continue to find new ways to take advantage of almost anyone and steal any identity. Eyewitness News has uncovered an amazing case that involves a victimized grandmother in San Diego, a failing Los Angeles loan company and a Las Vegas man who doesn't care who he hurts.

On the Record: John Stumpf, president and CEO, Wells Fargo & Co. (San Francisco Chronicle)
John Stumpf is president and chief executive officer of Wells Fargo & Co., the largest banking company based in the West and one of the nation's dominant financial institutions. Stumpf, 54, stepped into Wells Fargo's top job in June, capping a 25-year career...

An American dream goes sour in the fine print (Naples Daily News)
The Torralba family’s taste of the American dream began to sour in May 2006, two months after they had bought a modest home at the southern end of Silicon Valley, when they received notice from a man who claimed that they owed him money. Without realizing it, the Torralbas had taken a $74,000 “down payment assistance” loan from the man, Pablo Curiel, who wanted them to pay $679 a month.