This Halloween weekend seemed like a good time to highlight some tricks and treats from the news headlines.

Trick: the latest concessions a working group of state attorneys general are making to reach a settlement with major mortgage lenders over foreclosure fraud and other abuses. Gretchen Morgenson, Yves Smith and David Dayen discuss the gory details. From Morgenson’s article for the New York Times:

Cutting to the chase: if you thought this was the deal that would hold banks accountable for filing phony documents in courts, foreclosing without showing they had the legal right to do so and generally running roughshod over anyone who opposed them, you are likely to be disappointed.

This may not qualify as a shock. Accountability has been mostly A.W.O.L. in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. A handful of state attorneys general became so troubled by the direction this deal was taking that they dropped out of the talks. Officials from Delaware, New York, Massachusetts and Nevada feared that the settlement would preclude further investigations, and would wind up being a gift to the banks.

It looks as if they were right to worry. As things stand, the settlement, said to total about $25 billion, would cost banks very little in actual cash – $3.5 billion to $5 billion. A dozen or so financial companies would contribute that money.

The rest – an estimated $20 billion – would consist of credits to banks that agree to reduce a predetermined dollar amount of principal owed on mortgages that they own or service for private investors. How many credits would accrue to a bank is unclear, but the amount would be based on a formula agreed to by the negotiators. A bank that writes down a second lien, for example, would receive a different amount from one that writes down a first lien.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller should be embarrassed to have led this effort. It’s past time for him to give up trying to reach a deal on such lenient terms for the banks.

Treat: U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley arranged for a surplus military Lear jet to be flown to Des Moines this week. It will be a unique teaching tool for some public high school students:

Teaching science and technology reached a new height as the Des Moines Public Schools’ Aviation Engineering Technology Program took possession of a Learjet Model 35. The aircraft will be based at the program’s lab, located at the Des Moines International Airport, and used as a teaching tool for high school students studying aviation technology and maintenance.

“At a time when science and technology education has never been more important, we are providing students in Des Moines with a hands-on, high-tech learning experience that will prepare them for great opportunities after high school,” said Jerry Bradley, director of the Aviation Technology Program. “The addition of this Learjet to our ‘teaching fleet’ puts us on the leading edge of high school aviation programs.”

Des Moines Public Schools’ Aviation Engineering Technology Program is one of only three high school programs in the nation certified by the Federal Aviation Administration to teach aircraft maintenance. In fact, the program in Des Moines is the only one of its kind among the nearly 4,000 school districts in the Midwestern states.

The Learjet Model 35 – also classified as a C-21 because of its use as a military transport – is a surplus aircraft from Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. It was acquired at a cost of $4,000.

Trick: Governor Terry Branstad may be hanging his own transportation advisory commission out to dry. This past week the commission formally recommended an increase in state gasoline taxes to help pay for work on roads and bridges. Branstad isn’t sold on what would be the first Iowa gas tax hike since his third term as governor, although he likes the idea of a new user fee for hybrid or alternative-fuel vehicles.

“Vehicles are changing dramatically. We’re going to more fuel-efficient vehicles. We’re going to hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles. We are seeing trucks now that are going to natural gas,” Branstad said after a taping of Iowa Press. “We need to come up with a mechanism to try to deal with those changes. I don’t think that there’s any particular panacea to how we address it.”

Bleeding Heartland remains skeptical that state legislators will approve a gas tax hike in an election year immediately following redistricting. The governor would need to spend a lot of political capital on that effort; for now he doesn’t appear to have the stomach for that fight.

Treat: Some Iowa school districts will receive grants “to reduce diesel emissions from their school bus fleets.” The state Department of Natural Resources is awarding the money thanks to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Diesel Emissions Reduction Act. The DNR will accept grant applications through December 6 and gives some background here:

Diesel bus engines manufactured before 1994 emit the most toxic diesel fine particles. Diesel oxidation catalysts replace mufflers and contain a honeycomb-like structure coated with an active catalyst layer that reduce harmful emissions by about 30 percent as they flow through the equipment. Closed crankcase ventilation systems remove 100 percent of the crankcase emissions that are generated while the engine is operating, removing the possibility of emissions building inside the bus cabin where students are.

Application judging is based primarily on five factors: 1) school district’s proximity to areas targeted for emissions reduction; 2) strength of school district’s idling reduction policy; 3) age and use of the bus to be replaced; 4) efforts school district makes to reduce air pollution, and 5) programs and curriculum the school district has for air quality, mobile source pollution and its effect on the earth’s atmosphere.

Diesel exhaust contains a variety of harmful gases and over 40 other known cancer-causing substances, including benzene, 1,3-butadiene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein. It also contains fine particles as small as red blood cells that attack lung tissue and enter the bloodstream. Those most vulnerable to the effects of diesel exhaust are children because their lungs are still developing. Diesel engine emissions are responsible for hospital admissions, asthma attacks and other respiratory symptoms and lost school and work days. Additionally it causes visibility reduction and is a potent greenhouse agent involved in global warming.

BEEP Supported Programs

The main objective of the Bus Emissions Education Program (BEEP) is to reduce childhood exposure to harmful diesel exhaust. The BEEP mission is to have the cleanest school bus fleet in the United States and to help educate Iowa’s school students on air quality and mobile source pollution and its health effects. BEEP was created through the collaborative effort of the School Administrators of Iowa (SAI), the Iowa Association of School Boards, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Iowa Department of Education, and the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association.

Since its inception in 2002, BEEP has funded the installation of 541 diesel oxidation catalysts on school buses and supported the use of biodiesel through two grants provided by the EPA. A grant in 2008 provided a $30,450 reimbursement match to eight school districts for the purchase of new school buses that replaced eight of the oldest and dirtiest school buses still operating in Iowa. A grant in 2010 provided seven school districts with up to $38,000 each to replace a school bus model 1993 or older with a new school bus that met 2010 EPA engine certification. They were also reimbursed 100 percent for the purchase and installation of a combination of up to 20 diesel oxidation catalysts and/or closed crankcase ventilation systems on bus models 2003 and older.

Trick: the list of 15 nominees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If I had to vote for five on that list, I would pick Laura Nyro, The Spinners, The Cure, War and Donna Summer. I’ll probably hear from the Guns and Roses fans out there, but I can’t see how most of those groups and performers even got on the nomination list. The Beastie Boys and Joan Jett and the Heartbreakers? What, one hit record makes you hall of fame material now?

Treat: Despite the ongoing conservative noise machine campaign against the EPA and pollution regulations, a recent nationwide poll showed that “Voters of both political parties and in all regions disagree with Congress’ anti-Environmental Protection Agency agenda, and support the EPA’s new rules to limit air pollution from coal-fired power plants.” Click here for the memo on the poll’s methodology and key findings.

Bonus treat: I’m not normally a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but their comeback to an 11th World Series championship was one of the amazing sports stories of the year. Sadly, I missed the historic game six of the World Series, during which the Cardinals came back from two runs down in the bottom of the ninth and two runs down in the bottom of the tenth to win in the eleventh inning. But I did catch most of game seven–very good baseball.

This is an open thread. What’s on your mind this weekend, Bleeding Heartland readers?