Like all Arizona eighth graders, I took Arizona government. [We won't go into how long ago that was.]  I remember having to learn how a bill progressed through the legislature.  I don’t, however, remember that a bill could proceed like SB 1259 has.  SB 1259′s proposed effect:

Provides a chain of ownership during foreclosure proceedings and allows reimbursement of lawyer fees for injunctions or court cases that fail to prove ownership.

In other words, lenders would have to be able to actually prove that they owned a mortgage before they could foreclose on a property:

You see, the Arizona State Senate has passed Senate Bill 1259, sponsored by Michele Reagan, which would require the lenders that didn’t originate a loan to produce the full chain of title, or risk the foreclosure sale being voided. The bill now goes to the House for a vote, but with the Senate having passed it by an overwhelming margin of 28-2, it would seem that its passage is a fait accompli.

One blogger rejoiced:

Now Arizona will be a safe state to do business in because here, where I live, crazy as we might be on some things, we take contracts seriously, we take evidence seriously, and we take theft seriously. We don’t like bankers who cheat and steal. And we really don’t like lawyers who are complicit in the fraud — not just representing the interests of their clients as best they can. There are some law firms that were caught flat-footed by this and may have considerable exposure now to discipline, civil actions and even criminal liability for fabrication of documents, forgery and misrepresentation to the courts.

SB 1259 had been championed by Michele Reagan, who had been sued by her lender Colonial Bank, after asking who owned her note:

Senator Reagan wrote a letter to her own mortgage company —- or at least the one that said it was the mortgage company — and simply asked whether they were still the the holder of the note or if someone else was the creditor. For some inexplicable reason the Bank sued her creating a news furor and provoking Reagan to inquire further.

But here’s the part in the bill’s history that I didn’t remember reading about in my eighth grade government class.  After passage of an anti-foreclosure bill, SB 1259 morphed into a “fire district bill”.  That’s right.  It wasn’t amended or modified, but completely and totally replaced. This was done by the use of a “striker bill”. This must be done with the approval of the bill’s sponsor.  So why would Michele Reagan, who had been such a strong advocate for this bill, allow her bill to be gutted and replaced? 4ClosureFraud.org believes they have the answer.  It turns out that Colonial Bank and Reagan had a settlement conference on the same day that SB 1259 was amended.  Three days later, the case was dismissed with prejudice.

Maybe this is just an amazing coincidence, but one can’t help but wonder if something isn’t rotten in Phoenix.  Maybe they should have warned us in eighth grade that Arizona politics aren’t always as tidy as it appeared in our government workbooks.  Maybe then more Arizonans would be paying attention and asking WHY IN HECK IS THE MSM NOT COVERING THIS?

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UPDATE:

KPHO CBS 5 Phoenix (new video) (4/25-26 ’11): “Homeowner Bill Wiped Out, Replaced With Fire Districting Bill”

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