OHIO

OHIO

Ex-AK Steel employee guilty of falsification

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — A former AK Steel employee has paid more than $16,000 restitution for forging and cashing checks meant for fellow union members during a lengthy lockout.

Jeffrey Baker pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal misdemeanor charge of record falsification. He faces up to one year in prison when he’s sentenced April 7.

Baker admitted to forging and cashing more than 100 checks distributed by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, authorities said. The $150 payments were meant to help union members during a yearlong lockout at AK Steel Holding Corp.’s Middletown Works that ended in March 2007.

NATION

30-year mortgage rates drop below 5 percent

McLEAN, Va. — Rates on 30-year mortgages set a record for a fifth straight week by dropping to below 5 percent, the lowest mark since Freddie Mac started tracking the data in 1971.

Freddie Mac reported Thursday that average rates on 30-year fixed mortgages dropped to 4.96 percent this week, down from the previous record of 5.01 percent established last week. It was the 11th straight weekly drop, and way below the rate of 5.69 percent at the same time last year.

The average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.65 percent. That rate was 4.62 percent last week, the lowest point since June 2003, Freddie Mac said.

Associated Press