Louisiana oysterman Terrance M. Shelley was scrambling to keep up with demand by New Orleans restaurants before BP Plc’s Macondo well blew out in April 2010, crippling the processing plant he opened six months earlier.

Big banks and other large investors are buying up tens of thousands of foreclosed rental properties across the country. According to tenants and regulators, they're not model landlords. Some fail to follow housing codes, leaving tenants to live without even a number to call in the most dire situations.

NEWBURYPORT — Water commissioners yesterday said they would investigate what local landowners claim has been a pattern of inaccurate water and sewer bills over a period of many years. Linda Paulhus and Herb Crooks, owners of rental properties on Woodwell Avenue and Northern Boulevard in Newbury, went before the commission last night, saying that if they were having problems with their water ...