U.S. District Attorney Jeffrey Sloman has unveiled a massive, multi-agency bust of 41 people after authorities broke up a mortgage fraud ring in South Florida. The 41 defendants include bankers, appraisers, mortgage brokers, title agents, real estate agents, and straw buyers. They span six separate cases and are alleged to have committed over $40 million in fraud.

The joint federal and state task force was the result of hard work by the U.S. Department of Justice, Secret Service, U.S. Postal Service (USPS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other agencies.

Tokyo and Osaka have become the most expensive cities for expatriates, according to a cost of living survey.

The Japanese capital dislodged Moscow from the top spot of Mercer LLC's list of most expensive cities for foreigners while Osaka moved from 11th spot to number two. The Russian capital, last year's most expensive city for expats, fell to third spot.

The housing slump has caused a number of condos in the New York City to remain vacated, giving city officials another idea: a new way to house the city's growing number of homeless families

Developer Avi Shriki says he had to come up with a Plan B "when the market went south," so he decided to turn his $250,000 to $350,000 Crown Heights condos into shelters for the homeless, signing a 10-year contract with the Bushwick Economic Development Group.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has begun charging rent to homeless families who live in publicly run shelters but receive income from jobs.

The new policy is based on a 1997 state law that was not enforced until last week when shelter operators started requiring shelter residents to pay a portion of their income based on factors including family size and the shelter being used, without exceeding 50 percent of a family's income.

The next president of the University of Tennessee won't be homeless, but he likely won't live in the four-story, 11,000 square foot Gregorian-style brick structure that most college presidents have occupied since 1960.

With an annual operating budget of $180,000 a year, university officials think it would be cheaper to just give the next president a housing allowance and sell the waterfront house that sits on 3.4 acres.