Edwards denies having known about the money

Foreclosure auctions in Minnesota were down Ray ban sunglasses slightly during the first three months of the year, but there was an 11 percent increase in the number of people headed toward foreclosure.

"There are signs that there's another batch of foreclosures coming down the pike in Minnesota," said RealtyTrac's Daren Blomquist.

One in 312 Minnesota homeowners with a mortgage received either an auction notice or warning of an auction. Across the country notices were filed on 572,928 properties, or one in every 230 households. RealtyTrac doesn't break out the number of auctions.

The report comes in the wake of positive movement in the real estate market. Home sales in the Twin Cities have been up by double digits for the past several months, and in March the median sale price of all closed sales was up for the first time in nearly burberry handbags two years. Prices were up in large part because of a significant decline in foreclosure sales, which have been putting a statistical drag on home prices for the past several years.

Blomquist said the lull in foreclosure auctions was largely a result of the robo-signing scandal and a subsequent moratorium on new foreclosure actions, and noted that there's "definitely evidence of another round of foreclosure coming down the pipeline."

How that uptick in foreclosure notices will affect the market is unclear. Blomquist said that about half of all homeowners who receive notices end up going into foreclosure and their houses are sold at auction. What's more murky is how long it will take for those bank-owned listings to work their way into the market.

Ed Nelson of the Minnesota Home Ownership Center said that while there are a lot of positives in the housing market, including more cooperation from lenders, banks still need to do a better job of helping homeowners avoid losing their homes.

Earlier this year the Home Ownership Center said that while foreclosures across Minnesota last year fell 17 percent to the lowest level since 2007, the problem was shifting from the big cities to exurban and rural areas where homeowners might Oakley sunglasses not have access to services that might help them.

"Those struggling with their mortgages need to know that there is help available so that they can become part of those positive trends," Nelson said.

After years of investigation, denials and delays, jury selection began Thursday for the criminal trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards.

Edwards sat at the defense table as about 180 potential jurors filed into a Greensboro, N.C., courtroom. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Eagles then asked Edwards to stand and face them. He grinned and nodded as the judge introduced him.

The trial had been scheduled to begin in late January, but was delayed after Edwards’ lawyers told the judge he had a serious heart problem that required burberry watches treatment. Compared with the quick-smiling candidate of four years ago, the former U.S. senator, now 58, appeared slightly gaunt in the cheeks but still had no trace of gray in his carefully parted hair.

Edwards faces six criminal counts related to nearly $1 million in secret payments made by two campaign donors to help hide the married Democrat’s pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008.

“This is not a case about whether Mr. Edwards was a good husband or politician,” the judge said from the bench. “It’s about whether he violated campaign finance laws. ... The Constitution says trial by jury, not trial by burberry ties Internet or trial by gossip.”

Edwards’ parents and eldest daughter sat in the court as Eagles emphasized to the potential jurors their role in the upcoming trial and ordered them not to tell anyone, even their families, that they had been called for the Edwards case. She also advised them to put out of their minds any media coverage they had seen and to ignore any legal dramas they might have seen on television, because such shows may mischaracterize the law or burberry shirts for women cheap how a courtroom operates.

“You can watch Law & Order, Judge Judy, John Grisham; put it out of your mind,” Eagles said. “I will tell you what the law is.”

The jurors were then ushered to other parts of the courthouse to fill out lengthy written questionnaires. Their answers will be used to begin the screening process, set to resume Monday.

By the end of next week, the large jury pool is to be winnowed down to 12 jurors and at least four alternate jurors expected to attend each day of the proceedings. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin April 23.

The trial is expected to last six weeks, though the judge warned it could go even longer.

“There are many ways that on TV justice is not realistic,” she said. “One of those is that trials occur in an hour.”

The money at issue in the case flowed to Andrew Young, a former campaign aide who initially claimed the baby was his. Young is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution. The mistress, Rielle Hunter, may testify as part of Edwards’ defense. Nike sunglasses, cheap nike glasses sale, 50% off.

Following years of adamant public denials, Edwards acknowledged paternity of Hunter’s daughter in 2010.

A key question will be whether Edwards knew about the payments made on his behalf by his national campaign finance chairman, the late Texas lawyer Fred Baron, and campaign donor Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, an heiress and socialite who is now 101 years old. Both had already given Edwards’ campaign the maximum $2,300 individual contribution allowed by federal law.

Edwards denies having known about the money, which paid for private jets, luxury hotels and Hunter’s medical care. Prosecutors will seek to prove he sought and directed the payments to cover up his affair, protect his public image as a “family man” and keep his presidential hopes viable.

If convicted, Edwards faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and as much as $1.5 million in fines.

U.S. marshals taped off a lane at the front steps of the courthouse so that Edwards and his family could exit the building without being crowded by louis vuitton bracelet the media.

Asked if he had any comment, Edwards gave a terse “No” and got inside an SUV waiting at the curb.