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Software Radio Technology (SRT), the Alternative Investment Market (Aim)-listed group that produces radio-communications devices, had, even by the standards of the time, a woeful 2009.

Its managing director, Simon Tucker, who bought into the group after overhearing a conversation on a train, had plenty of good ideas of how to deal with the doom that was the financial crisis, especially in terms of freeing up entrepreneurs such as himself to get on with running businesses.

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Yet for the five candidates running to be the state’s next attorney general, the issue has not been on the radar.

The lack of attention to mortgage fraud is striking. Florida has led the nation in mortgage fraud every year since 2006. A Herald-Tribune investigation uncovered more than 50,000 potentially illegal cases at a cost of $10 billion. Homes and other properties bought and quickly resold, often by real estate insiders, fed the glut of bank failures, foreclosures and inflated property values that have combined to devastate Florida’s economy.

Current Attorney General Bill McCollum has faced harsh criticism for doing little to crack down on the illegal deals.

It was widely expected that those running for attorney general would make the issue a priority.

They have not.

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While climate scientists lament the fact that their flagship compendia, such as the IPCC reports, come under endless attack, scientists working on other environmental issues would love such high-profile pronouncements, even if they came with a similar cost. IPCC-envy was one of the rationales for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, published in 2005, and it is the main impetus behind the current development of an Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. When the equally inelegantly named TEEB process (it stands for The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) was set up at the G8+5 meeting in Potsdam in 2007 its political patrons had a clear model in mind.

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The twin towns of Lewiston and Auburn in Maine are trying to lure some of their young entrepreneurial talent back home with the Launch L/A initiative, reports WMTW Channel 8 News. The Lewiston-Auburn Chamber of Commerce is raising $100,000 – split about 80-20 between services and cash – which will be awarded to the winner of a contest for the best business proposal.

In September, Launch L/A will begin accepting proposals for consideration, and residents of the two towns can vote for a winner from a list of finalists in December. The proposals will be graded, receiving points for job creation potential, creativity and usefulness to the community.

“We hope they’ll come here and try their ideas,” L/A Economic Growth Council member Paul Badeau told WMTW. Full Post…

But so far, that has not been the case.

In fact, the most recent foreclosure data would seem to suggest that Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties may have dodged the bullet.

The great unknown is just how many loans on properties will ultimately fall into the distressed category.

Foreclosure filings in June hovered around their lowest point since summer 2009, according to data released Wednesday by RealtyTrac Inc., a California company that has been tracking the phenomenon.

Realtors will tell you that strong demand from investors and first-time buyers is taking distressed properties out of the market rapidly.

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