"Michael and Pamella Negrea have never been late on a mortgage payment in the 15 years they've owned their home in Eastlake. But they've been foreclosed on three times," so opens an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer--which essentially takes GMAC to task for a faulty foreclosure.

Here's another article about a man in Florida who was "foreclosed" on by Bank of America even though he paid for the house in cash, and didn't even have a mortgage! Here's a column in the Washington Post siding with the plaintiffs lawyers; it includes a picture of people demonstrating outside of a JPMorgan Chase office in Oakland, Calif.

We've noted before that this is a media friendly story--populist, lots of opportunity for outrage, a clear villain. Every local paper in the country is probably working on a foreclosure piece right now, and there are plenty of people to interview. So the PR risks here are tremendous.

Banks need to get moving on this front pronto. The public relations staff has some challenges ahead. They may need to spend as much time working to reassure the public as they are working to reassure shareholders. Banks must confront this.

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