The international attention on America’s subprime mortgage crisis has not translated into help for homeowners, advocates and experts say. Across the country, distressed borrowers are still losing their homes.

To address the immediate crisis, they say, the Obama administration must impose a moratorium on foreclosures, and then enact a plan to modify existing mortgages and make them affordable for struggling borrowers. But to avoid future crises, they say, the administration must move to prevent the predatory mortgage lending that created the foreclosures in the first place.

Since its passage two years ago, the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement has been stalled in Congress. As the Obama administration takes over, many are watching the agreement’s fate for signs of how trade, foreign policy, and human rights will intersect in a time of fierce economic pressures at home.

As the Labor Department prepares for new leadership, worker advocates pointed to one case as an example of what needs to change:

Workers at two Saigon Grill restaurants in New York City routinely worked six days per week, for 12 hours each day. The 36 men, all immigrants from China, were paid as little as $2 per hour.

This month, after years of litigation, a judge found the restaurant owners had violated state and federal labor laws, and awarded the workers a $4.6 million settlement.