WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI says cases of mortgage fraud jumped by more than 30 percent in the fiscal year that ended last September. The bureau says there were more than 46,000 cases of suspected mortgage fraud from October 2006 through September 2007 at a cost of more than 813 million dollars.

There have already been 33,000 such cases in just the first half of fiscal 2008.

Common types of mortgage fraud are misrepresentation of income or assets, forged documents, misrepresentation of a borrowers' intent to occupy a property and inflated appraisals.

Assistant director Kenneth Kaiser calls the millions in reported losses "just the tip of the iceberg" in actual financial damage suffered by fraud victims.

The FBI has opened more than 1,300 mortgage-fraud cases along with 19 corporate investigations linked to the subprime lending crisis.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 6:15pm EST May 13, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Association of Realtors says median home prices fell in two-thirds of the cities surveyed during the first three months of this year.

The real estate trade group reports that median prices for existing single-family homes dropped in 100 of 149 metropolitan areas in the January-March period. During the same period 48 metropolitan areas saw prices increase. One reported no change.

Nationally, the median home price fell to $196,300 in the first quarter. That's down nearly 8 percent from the same period a year ago.

The decline is the latest indication of the problems facing the housing market.

An economist for the Realtors says part of the problem is that it was hard to get so-called jumbo loans because of the credit squeeze triggered by rising mortgage defaults.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 11:15am EST May 13, 2008

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Americans facing rising gasoline and diesel prices are cycling about, saddling up, singing out and, sometimes, going to extremes.

Dozens of Alabama students are bicycling up to 10 miles each way to their rural high school. An Indiana man was arrested for belting out a protest song from the roof of a convenience store. A sign-maker in Kentucky is riding his horse on business errands. And a Tennessee sheriff is investigating a more disturbing protest: a slain deer hanging from a gasoline station sign.

A Purdue University professor who teaches a class on the sociology of protest says most protesters aren't just working toward the goal of lower gas prices. Rachel Einwohner believes they're also making a statement "about their collective identity, as environmentalists or however they see themselves."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 1:51pm EST May 13, 2008

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government ran a budget surplus of $159.3 billion in April, smaller than a year ago.

The Treasury Department reported Monday that the budget surplus for April was 10.4 percent lower than in April 2007.

The government traditionally runs a surplus in April, the month that tax returns are due. However, the weak economy has been dampening growth in revenues this year.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 2:39pm EST May 12, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An extra penny for your thoughts.

Mailing a letter costs a little more, with the price of a first-class stamp rising to 42 cents today. People who planned ahead and bought Forever stamps for 41 cents each can still use them without extra postage.

Forever stamps also are going up to 42 cents. But buyers may want to stock up anyway, looking ahead to next May when prices are expected to be adjusted again.

The cost to mail a post card also goes up a penny, to 27 cents. Certified mail costs a nickel more, at $2.70. Priority and express mail also are getting more expensive.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted: 4:13am EST May 12, 2008