Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Paycheck politics
Where do politicians turn when they need a spot of cash? In the case of the Democratic Party of San Diego County, to Advance America, “one of the nation’s leading payday loan companies” that has “helped millions of hardworking Americans overcome financial challenges,” according to its website. The Spartanburg, South Carolina–based firm gave the party $1000 on August 18, according to a recent financial report.
A lot of states ban such lending operations, which allow clients to borrow against their next paycheck, and there’s a move afoot in Congress to impose a nationwide prohibition of the practice. The loans don’t come cheap. California law, which limits the amount of such transactions to $300 each from a given lending firm, currently allows the lender to charge up to 15 percent of the face value of a paycheck, while waiting two weeks to cash it, amounting to an average annual rate of 460 percent.
Customers tend to be lower-income workers living paycheck to paycheck who don’t have enough credit to get a better deal elsewhere. Ninety percent of industry revenue comes from those who have to roll over their loans every payday, says the Center for Responsible Lending, which wants to stop the practice. Advance America argues that the loans are a “dignified, transparent and responsible” way to get quick cash without “asking family or friends for money or risking personal items as collateral.”
The firm, which has 19 storefronts in San Diego County, is working both sides of the fence to advance its agenda in Sacramento. In May, it contributed $1000 each to Democrat Marty Block and Republican Joel Anderson, and on June 10, according to disclosure filings, it paid $21.36 to take Anderson out to lunch at Sacramento’s Lucca Restaurant. The firm spent a grand total of $19,628 in the second quarter of the year lobbying legislators regarding Assembly Bill 377, authored by Norwalk Democrat Tony Mendoza, which would raise the $300 loan maximum to $500, and AB 33, which would reorganize state lending regulators. On March 18, Mendoza got a dinner worth $75.92 at Sacramento’s McCormick and Schmick’s. Both bills are still making their way through the legislature. Reached this week by phone, county Democratic Party chairman Jess Durfee said there “was no clear reason for the contribution," which he said “came in unsolicited.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
Paycheck politics
Paycheck politics
Where do politicians turn when they need a spot of cash? In the case of the Democratic Party of San Diego County, to Advance America, “one of the nation’s leading payday loan companies” that has “helped millions of hardworking Americans overcome financial challenges,” according to its website. The Spartanburg, South Carolina–based firm gave the party $1000 on August 18, according to a recent financial report.
A lot of states ban such lending operations, which allow clients to borrow against their next paycheck, and there’s a move afoot in Congress to impose a nationwide prohibition of the practice. The loans don’t come cheap. California law, which limits the amount of such transactions to $300 each from a given lending firm, currently allows the lender to charge up to 15 percent of the face value of a paycheck, while waiting two weeks to cash it, amounting to an average annual rate of 460 percent.
Customers tend to be lower-income workers living paycheck to paycheck who don’t have enough credit to get a better deal elsewhere. Ninety percent of industry revenue comes from those who have to roll over their loans every payday, says the Center for Responsible Lending, which wants to stop the practice. Advance America argues that the loans are a “dignified, transparent and responsible” way to get quick cash without “asking family or friends for money or risking personal items as collateral.”
The firm, which has 19 storefronts in San Diego County, is working both sides of the fence to advance its agenda in Sacramento. In May, it contributed $1000 each to Democrat Marty Block and Republican Joel Anderson, and on June 10, according to disclosure filings, it paid $21.36 to take Anderson out to lunch at Sacramento’s Lucca Restaurant. The firm spent a grand total of $19,628 in the second quarter of the year lobbying legislators regarding Assembly Bill 377, authored by Norwalk Democrat Tony Mendoza, which would raise the $300 loan maximum to $500, and AB 33, which would reorganize state lending regulators. On March 18, Mendoza got a dinner worth $75.92 at Sacramento’s McCormick and Schmick’s. Both bills are still making their way through the legislature. Reached this week by phone, county Democratic Party chairman Jess Durfee said there “was no clear reason for the contribution," which he said “came in unsolicited.”
Comments