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Bidders Get Feisty Over Foreclosed Homes

Credit Yuki Noguchi / NPR

Daily auctions are held on foreclosed properties in front of the county courthouse in Corona, Calif. About 80 bidders, representing investors, show up to bid on properties.

Credit Yuki Noguchi / NPR

Mike Strugatz is an investor who's bought and renovated about two dozen distressed homes in the Riverside and Lake Elsinore area. He says with less inventory on the market recently, it's getting harder to find properties, and banks are demanding higher prices even for destroyed homes.

Credit Yuki Noguchi / NPR

Jennifer Bryant has made more than 30 offers on houses, mostly from her cellphone, in many cases without viewing the property. She has lost every bid, and says she often loses to all-cash buyers.

By Yuki Noguchi

Originally published on Thu June 21, 2012 5:21 am

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For-sale homes in California are sparse, even in areas with high foreclosure rates. It has led to buyers like Jennifer Bryant, who is willing to throw money at just about anyone willing to sell her a house.

Since February, Bryant has made 35 offers on homes in Riverside, only to be elbowed out by other bids. With few houses available and many bidders chasing these properties, she feels she has, at most, an hour to consider each house.

2:50 am

Thu June 21, 2012

Native American Comic Living The 'Indigenous Dream'

Credit Courtesy of Charlie Hill

Comedian Charlie Hill says he's achieved the American dream, but that it's been out of reach for many fellow Native Americans.

By Elizabeth Blair

Originally published on Thu June 21, 2012 8:53 am

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2:49 am

Thu June 21, 2012

50 Years Later, Still Free, Still Battling The Weather

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Credit Joan Marcus / The Public Theater

Orlando (David Furr), Rosalind (Lily Rabe, right) and Celia (Renee Elise Goldsberry) in As You Like It. The Public Theater's production opens the 50th-anniversary season at New York's Delacorte Theater.

Credit Martha Swope / New York Public Library

Kevin Kline in the 1983 Shakespeare in the Park production of Richard III, years after his first job at the Delacorte Theater carrying a spear in a different production of the same play.

Credit George E. Joseph / New York Public Library

Deborah Rush and Meryl Streep in the 1978 Shakespeare in the Park production of The Taming of the Shrew. Streep did a reading of Romeo and Juliet with Kline on June 18, to mark the Delacorte's 50th anniversary.

By Jeff Lunden

Originally published on Thu June 21, 2012 5:21 am

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On Monday evening, one of New York's most cherished cultural institutions celebrated an anniversary. The Delacorte Theater, home of the free annual Shakespeare in the Park, turned 50, and Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline led an all-star cast in a staged reading of Romeo and Juliet.

When Kline was still a student in the drama program at The Juilliard School, he made his professional debut at the Delacorte. "My first job was carrying a spear in Richard III," he remembers.

2:48 am

Thu June 21, 2012

Fred Hammond: A 'Phenomenon' On The Gospel Chart

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Credit Courtesy of the artist

Gospel singer Fred Hammond has cranked out a chart-topping single.

Credit Courtesy of Verity Records

By editor

Originally published on Thu June 21, 2012 5:21 am

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2:36 am

Thu June 21, 2012

In Pakistan's Anti-Corruption War, A Lonely Warrior

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Credit Julie McCarthy / NPR

Retired senior police investigator Zafar Qureshi, 59, stands outside his home in Lahore, Pakistan, where security guards are stationed 24 hours a day. The former police official has probed some of the highest profile cases of official misconduct in Pakistan, and says he fears for his safety and that of his children in a country that he says is steeped in a "culture of corruption."

Credit Aamir Qureshi / AFP/Getty Images

Arsalan Iftikhar Chaudhry (center), son of Pakistan's Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, leaves the Supreme Court after attending a hearing. He is facing allegations of accepting bribes from a powerful property developer totaling some $4 million.

Credit Mohsin Raza / Reuters/Landov

Sonia Naz (left) accused two Punjab police officers of extorting money from her and then sexually assaulting her after she complained to a court. Qureshi's investigation supported her claims, but he says he was forced out of a job as a result. Meanwhile, Naz's seven-year-old case has been revived by the Supreme Court.

By Julie McCarthy

Originally published on Thu June 21, 2012 9:35 pm

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Pakistan's National Assembly has been summoned to elect a new prime minister for the fragile coalition of President Asif Ali Zardari. A consensus candidate, current Textile Industry Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin, emerged soon after the Supreme Court's dramatic firing of outgoing Premier Yusuf Reza Gilani.

The court disqualified Gilani from office this week for defying court orders to pursue dormant corruption charges against President Zardari.

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Crisis In The Housing Market

3:03 am

Thu June 21, 2012