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Efforts to crack down on bad real-estate deals and illegal mortgage activities continue in Arizona.

Last week, Transnation Title Company, a subsidiary of LandAmerica, agreed to pay a $600,000 fine and a $97,000 examination fee to the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions.

Transnation was fined for not recording liens correctly on hundreds of Arizona home loans that involved Residential Asset Management, RAM. The loans were for properties across the state, but most of the business went through Transnation's Pinetop, Ariz. Office.

Regulators found that on hundreds of loans, liens weren't recorded on time or properly, which allowed for multiple loans on properties that lenders and investors didn't know anything about.

 Several transactions run through Transnation's Pinetop office included buyers purchasing homes they never intended to live in and then deeding the trust back to RAM, according to the Department of Financial Institutions But RAM wouldn't assume the loan, instead it took out other loans on the properties.

Regulators also found Transnation allowed RAM to be involved in its own escrow deals. Escrow or title agencies are supposed to be a neural, third party in real estate deals.

RAM is a familiar name to regulators. Last year, Tempe-based Home One Mortgage or SJJ Corp., lost its mortgage brokers license, in part for allowing RAM to use its license to make home loans. RAM is not licensed to handle escrows or mortgages in Arizona, according to the Department of Financial Institutions.

Draining equity

Former Phoenix mortgage broker Rick McCullough has been indicted on fraud and theft charges that stem from what regulators and prosecutors layout as a scheme to steal home equity from elderly Phoenix residents.

Earlier this summer, the Department of Financial Institutions banned McCullough from the mortgage business. Recently he pled not guilty to the felony charges against him, according to the Arizona Attorney General. McCullough, president of CactusCash, was indicted by a state grand jury in late June for the charges.

The indictment against McCullough says he supposedly persuaded homeowners to refinance their homes through his business and then invest most of that money into the real-estate market through him. McCullough allegedly charges excessively high fees and then failed to invest the homeowners' funds in real estate and didn't have assets to guarantee the loans.

Instead, according to regulators, McCullough invested the money jewelry. The Attorney General alleges he stole more than $400,000 from a handful of Valley senior citizens.

To file a complaint against a mortgage broker or title agency, go to www.azdfi.gov.

For complaints against real estate agents, go to www.re.state.az.us.

The little girl sits looking at the blank piece of paper, her pen poised in midair.

It's not every day, after all, that a kid like Jesika is asked what she most wants in life. After a few minutes, the eight year old bends over the paper and starts making a list.

Jesika is one of a dozen homeless kids in Phoenix who recently was asked to dream a little for a project called Pictures of Hope. So what do 8 and 10 and 11 year olds most want?

Their answers might surprise you.

For several years now, Linda Solomon has been working with children who are one step from the streets. She's a Tucson photographer on an elegantly simple mission: “to show them that their hopes and dreams matter.”

To do that, Solomon is fanning out to six cities this year, meeting children who live in homeless and transitional shelters. Teaching them how to take photographs, talking to them about how to dream and giving them each a disposable camera and an assignment:

Show us.

The kids take pictures of things that symbolize what they want and the pictures are then turned into Christmas cards and sold. Thanks to financial support from General Motors, 100 percent of the proceeds from the Phoenix project will go to Homeward Bound, where these children live.

And sometimes, the proceeds far exceed mere money. Sometimes, one photo changes a life.

Last year, a nine-year-old San Diego girl, who lived in a Salvation Army shelter, took a picture of the sign at the entrance to San Diego State University. “I hope,” she wrote, “to get a scholarship.” The president of the alumni association saw the card and the girl was given a full ride.

Can you imagine being nine with nothing much to hold onto and then everything?

“These kids don't have fun lives,” Solomon said. “I mean, when you look at their lists and you see a seven year old whose only hope in life is to see his mother smile again. They reveal so much, I can't even tell you.”

Homeward Bound is a transitional shelter in northwest Phoenix, a place where families can get back on their feet. Most who live here are the children of single mothers who became homeless in one of usual ways: fleeing abuse, using drugs, making bad choices or all three.

“They come from a background that to dream or to hope or to imagine for the future is just so far reaching to them,” said Dana Bailey, a spokeswoman for the shelter. “But for them to be successful they have to be able to have these hopes and dreams.”

Jasmine, 13, wishes for a good education and “for my mom to get better.” She'd like to go to Northern Arizona University and become a veterinarian.

Eleven-year-old Vincent, too, hopes for a scholarship and like any red-blooded American boy, to someday play Major League Baseball. As we talk, he mentions that he's never actually gotten to play on a real team.

“Many times, we turn away,” Solomon said. “We don't want to look. We don't want to recognize someone who's homeless. With these children, I think they're expressing values and lessons that anyone can learn from.”

Mercedes certainly is. The seven year old's No. 1 wish is to help people.

Then there is Jesika, who lives at the shelter with her mother and her nine-year-old sister. They bounced around from place to place until finally there was no place left to land other than the street.

They've been at Homeward Bound 18 months now and in that time they've begun to heal and to begin again. But some things, it seems, are not so easily forgotten.

Jesika's No. 1 wish is for food.

(Column published Aug. 16, 2008, The Arizona Republic)

It got a little easier to get from here to there and still be breathing last year. A report just released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 227 fewer people died on Arizona's roads in 2007 than the previous year.  That's an 18 percent decrease in dead people on the pavement.

Only four states saw bigger declines in fatalities: Vermont (-24 percent), South Dakota (-24 percent), Wyoming (-23 percent) and Delaware (-21 percent).

Nationwide, the number of people killed on the roads was down 3.9 percent, to the lowest level since 1994. Alcohol-related fatalities also declined by 3.7 percent.

So why is Arizona down 18 percent while the rest of the nation is down 3.9 percent?  A spokeswoman for the NHTSA couldn't tell me. She said they're still compiling stats.

Could it have something to do with 2007 being the year in which the Legislature cracked down on DUI? Maybe Sen. Jim Waring's bills that required those convicted of extreme DUI to actually serve their 30-day sentences?  Maybe Rep. David Schapira's bill that required anybody convicted of DUI to put a ignition-interlock device in his or her car?

Now, if we could just do something about long-term treatment for those who need it.

Hey, Ben! Did you notice that inflation has reached 5.6 percent?

Think maybe you can carve some time out of your busy schedule of bailing out bigwigs who imprudently invested in mortgage-backed securities and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?

Just a thought.

The following Cardinals won't play tonight: FS Antrel Rolle (ankle), FB Dionte Johnson (ankle), C Al Johnson (knee), G Carlton Medder (elbow), WR Early Doucet (hamstring), DE Darnell Dockett (pectoral), DT Gabe Watson (knee).

The Chiefs will be without: WR Kevin Robinson, RB Jamaal Charles, LB Napoleon Harris, LB Donnie Edwards, S Jon McGraw, DE Trevor Johnson, T Branden Albert, DE Brian Johnson. Only Edwards and Albert are starters.

Here are five things I'm interested in watching tonight here at Arrowhead Stadium:

'QB Kurt Warner is starting. Warner didn't play last week against New Orleans, and coaches are starting him tonight to make sure he gets enough snaps. Matt Leinart will play, too. Coach Ken Whisenhunt said Leinart remains his starter, so I'm thinking this might be Warner's most extended action of the preseason. I would think Whisenhunt would want to get Leinart a lot of work in the third game of the preseason next week in Oakland.

'Rookie DE Calais Campbell starts at left end in place of Darnell Dockett, who is out with a pectoral muscle strain. Campbell has looked good in camp and in the first preseason game last week. The Chiefs offensive line isn't overpowering, but tonight should help coaches decide just how much Campbell will be able to help this season.

'WR Anquan Boldin is expected to play after missing last week's game against the Saints. I think coaches will limit his number of snaps. But it would be nice to see Boldin make a few plays to signal that he's over his hamstring injury.

'A couple of guys need to bounce back after poor performances last week. Aaron Francisco is starting at free safety in place of Antrel Rolle, who is out with an ankle injury. Francisco failed to make a couple of plays in coverage last week. Punter Dirk Johnson was inconsistent last week. Whisenhunt still has confidence in him, but that might be hard to maintain if Johnson is shaky again.

Ken Whisenhunt's decision to start Kurt Warner against Kansas City Saturday night might be an indication that Warner is closer to gaining the starting job than many have thought.

Matt Leinart remains the starter, and there was a notion that his competition with Warner was Whisenhunt's way of motivating the young QB. That might still be the case, but it seems odd that the coach would go to such great lengths to keep Leinart motivated. After all, Leinart hasn't played much since suffering an injury in the fifth game last year and could use all the snaps he could get.

The decision to start Warner probably shouldn't have been such a big surprise. This week, Warner ran the first team for two straight days. Whisenhunt downplayed that, but it was the first time it had happened in camp.