1. LOAN INVESTIGATIONS: As foreclosures surge, more investigators are looking into questionable loan practices. A University of Iowa analysis of 1,733 foreclosures in Chapter 13 bankruptcy found that almost half of the loans examined had dubious fees totaling millions of dollars. Borrowers and lenders disagreed on the amount of the mortgage debt in 96% of the cases, with an average difference of $3,533.

2. MAGNOLIA MULTIPLIES: The Magnolia Bakery, a West Village fixture that was featured in the HBO series “Sex and the City,” is opening a new uptown outpost. The store will be at 200 Columbus Ave. at West 69th Street.

3. RENTS RAISED: Some of the 274 rent-stabilized apartments at TriBeCa Green, built by the Related Companies with $110 million in federal Liberty Bonds, are reportedly being marketed as hotel suites for nearly double the stabilized rents, or $335 a night. Congress created the $8 billion Liberty Bonds program to help rebuild lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11, 2001, with $800 million of the tax-exempt bonds allotted to build rental apartments. But a corporate housing provider at the building has been accused of increasing rents by more than the allowed 10%.

4. SWIG TO BE SUED: Developers Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf have filed a summons, one of the first legal steps taken before filing a formal lawsuit, against their partner Kent Swig, with whom they purchased one of the city’s largest real estate brokerage firms, Brown Harris Stevens, in 1995. They are suing Mr. Swig over his recent acquisition of a competing residential management company, Helmsley-Spear, according to a legal filing in state Supreme Court.

5. BROKER SLAIN: A high-earning Prudential Douglas Elliman real estate broker, Linda Stein, was murdered in her Fifth Avenue home. Stein died from blunt impact injuries to the head and neck. Police have launched a murder investigation and no suspect has been arrested. Stein brokered real estate deals for Billy Joel, Sting, Michael Douglas, and Steven Spielberg. Before becoming a broker, she helped manage the Ramones and helped get the punk rock band signed to her former husband’s label, Sire Records.

6. COLGATE MAY LEAVE N.Y.: Colgate-Palmolive is considering relocating some employees to New Jersey from its 525,000-square-foot space at 300 Park Ave. Its lease expires in 2010, and it could keep a small presence at its Park Avenue digs while renting 200,000 to 300,000 square feet across the Hudson River, where Class A rents average in the $30s and $40s a square foot.

jsatow@nysun.com