Difference between revisions of "User:RahalMccall69"

From eplmediawiki
Jump to: navigation, search
(Bill Whitaker- Local group Citizens for Responsible Lending seeks to rein in dubious payday loan practices)
(MOAPA, Nev.- Southwest mops up after heavy rains force rescues)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
@@@  
 
@@@  
Given the meeting was held <a href=http://architectscanterbury.co.uk/page.php?sale=Kate-Spade-Sunglasses-Case>Kate Spade Wallet</a>  in North Waco the same night Baylor University invited one and all to a free concert and fireworks show at its new $266 million stadium, I didn鈥檛 expect more than a few people to show, but some 60 to 70 fired-up, even angry residents attended, eager to do something about scandalous payday lending practices. Some wanted to know why the Waco City Council hasn鈥檛 followed the example of other cities in Texas and passed an ordinance at least moderately regulating such businesses.
+
MOAPA, Nev. The Southwest was mopping up Tuesday after pouring rains and flash flooding washed out part of a major rail line between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City; swelled a river so high that a Utah national park downstream was briefly shuttered; and closed a 50-mile stretch of heavily traveled Interstate 15 when soggy pavement crumbled.The cleanup began after seasonal monsoon moisture combined with the remnants of Tropical Storm Norbert to dump heavy rain throughout the Southwest and set a single-day rainfall record in Phoenix.The sun was out Tuesday in the small, southern Nevada town of Moapa In Nevada, where officials had feared that rushing water would overwhelm the banks of the swollen Muddy and Virgin rivers."We saw it right at the cusp and it didn't go over," said Erin Neff, spokeswoman for the Clark County Regional Flood Control District. "It's a near-miss."At least 30 homes in nearby Overton were flooded, and <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/clreplicashoes.php> Christian Louboutin Outlet Online</a> Clark County firefighters counted 18 rescues in the area, many involving submerged cars."I've been in this area since 1978. We've never had water like that before," said David Muns, a resident of Moapa, where more than four inches of rain fell in two hours.Transportation officials said a stretch of I-15 near Moapa could be closed for three to four days while they repair pavement that crumbled into slabs over muddy red dirt. One shattered section stretched for half a mile.Traffic was diverted along detours that added time and miles for the 20,000 vehicles a day that travel the highway connecting Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.Truck driver Randy Garca of Calhan, <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/images/guccioutlet.onlinesalecc.php>Gucci Outlet</a>  Colorado, said he hit a standstill Monday afternoon and didn't get rolling again until the next morning."We were hungry so we set up a barbecue," he said by phone from Cedar City, Utah.Union Pacific Railroad service was suspended while crews repaired track near Moapa that was undermined and washed out by flash flooding. Officials hoped to have the track bed and rails repaired by Wednesday for freight service to resume on the busy Las Vegas-to-Salt Lake City main line.In southern Utah, rangers at Zion National Park turned away visitors for several hours Tuesday when heavy rain and a surging river made park routes impassable. Mud, debris and a boulder blocked Route 9, the road through the main canyon.Wet weather also took its toll on neighboring states.Freeways in Phoenix became small lakes on Monday and rescuers scrambled to get drivers out of inundated cars after more than 3 inches of rain fell."We've never seen this," Mesa, Arizona, resident Greg Montierth said. "Arizona deals with sand and cactus and heat. We're not set up for it so I can understand why everybody's scrambling at the last minute."Cars also were stranded near Palm Springs and in the Coachella Valley in Southern California.On an I-15 overpass in the Moapa area, police officer Shanan Kelly said he and several construction workers helped rescue a woman who was swept into rushing water from the top of her minivan."It was very heroic and <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/clreplicashoes.php> Christian Louboutin Outlet Online</a>  awesome," Kelly said.Forty-two people were evacuated from a middle school and high school in Moapa and spent Monday night in a building at Clark County fairgrounds. Churches provided blankets, and a store and restaurant donated food before police escorted the people over the damaged I-15, according to Clark County spokeswoman Stacey Welling.About 190 people were evacuated from the Moapa Band of Paiutes reservation after tribal officials warned that waters were close to breaching a Muddy River dam. Officials were assessing damage to properties with leaky roofs and wet floors where water breached flood control channels."We had rivers running through people's yards. But as far as property damage to homes themselves, I think we fared pretty well," said Sherryl Patterson, administrator at the tribal office.National Weather Service meteorologist Charlotte Dewey warned that any additional precipitation in the Southwest could quickly cause new flooding because the ground is saturated.  
Payday and auto-title loan stores 鈥?usually the businesses have the word 鈥渃ash鈥?in the name 鈥?often victimize the unwitting poor by appealing to their occasional need for fast cash, such as when car repairs crop up. The problem is the loans are marketed on a two-week or monthlong basis with astronomical interest rates or fees so high that the borrower often can鈥檛 pay the loan back. He can end up paying in interest or fees many times the value of the original loan. Talk about your cycles of poverty.
+
Associated Press writers Paul Davenport and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix, and Michelle Price in Salt Lake City contributed to this report. Rindels reported from Las Vegas.
Citizens for Responsible Lending, which formed last winter, has some three dozen members and first met with city leaders in January, says at least 29 such loan businesses operate in the Waco area, with annual percentage rates of up to 500 percent and loan terms that pull borrowers into even greater debt.
+
  What鈥檚 more, watchdog groups such as Texas Appleseed and the Texas Catholic Conference say payday and auto-title loan outfits in Waco have a reputation for some of the most punitive collection practices in the state. Jennifer Allmon, associate director of the Austin-based Texas Catholic Conference, learned of a Waco man so in debt to an auto-title loan company that he gave up his regular lodgings and moved into a homeless shelter long enough to save money to pay off the loan.
+
His mistake: telling lenders about it.
+
鈥淎nd they showed up and repossessed his vehicle with all of his possessions and he went to the homeless shelter and lost not just his truck but everything he owned,鈥?she said. 鈥淭hey were able to get assistance through an attorney to get his truck back, but the contract had a stipulation that all possessions in the truck were the property of the auto-title loan company, so he never got back his clothing, his furniture and his bedroom set. And, you know, it鈥檚 something to be willing to live in a homeless shelter to pay your debts.鈥?
+
Ann Baddour of the public interest law center Texas Appleseed dismisses the argument that such businesses help people in emergencies, especially given the outlandish annual percentage rates ranging from 200 to 600 percent: 鈥淎 product that <a href=http://architectscanterbury.co.uk/page.php?sale=Kate-Spade-Scout-Bag>Kate Spade Scout Bag</a>  is designed for people to fail is not an answer. People may get the money they need on Day One, but on Day 30 they鈥檙e worse off than when they walked into the store.鈥?
+
Baddour and Allmon say they鈥檙e not out to eliminate such businesses but to ensure they鈥檙e regulated to keep more people from falling for the lure of quick cash with treacherous strings attached. However, payday loan industry lobbyists with deep pockets have blocked reforms, such as capping how high interest rates can go. One proposal discussed locally: alternative lending products offered through credit unions and community lenders or financial assistance through nonprofits or church groups.
+
Local advocates of reform say state Rep. Kyle Kacal, R-Bryan, who represents some economically struggling areas of Waco and Bellmead, has promised to back some sort of reform. And, they note, state Rep. Charles 鈥淒oc鈥?Anderson, R-Waco, sits on the Texas House Investments and Financial Services Committee and, thus, could be pivotal in such reforms. They say Anderson has asked for more information.
+
Community organizer Alexis Christensen of Waco Community Development says state data indicate <a href=http://architectscanterbury.co.uk/page.php?sale=Kate-Spade-Maryanne-Bag>Kate Spade Maryanne Bag</a>  some $10.5 million is drained from the local economy each year because of such businesses in the Waco area 鈥?and that regulating these businesses, whether through city ordinances or action by the Legislature, would complement the mission behind Prosper Waco, our city鈥檚 impressive anti-poverty coalition.
+
She鈥檚 got a point. As a recent survey of our poverty problem by the prestigious W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research confirmed this year, it鈥檚 hard to get to work in Waco when you lack a car. And it鈥檚 tough coming home when you haven鈥檛 paid the rent.
+

Revision as of 04:36, 18 September 2014

@@@ MOAPA, Nev. The Southwest was mopping up Tuesday after pouring rains and flash flooding washed out part of a major rail line between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City; swelled a river so high that a Utah national park downstream was briefly shuttered; and closed a 50-mile stretch of heavily traveled Interstate 15 when soggy pavement crumbled.The cleanup began after seasonal monsoon moisture combined with the remnants of Tropical Storm Norbert to dump heavy rain throughout the Southwest and set a single-day rainfall record in Phoenix.The sun was out Tuesday in the small, southern Nevada town of Moapa In Nevada, where officials had feared that rushing water would overwhelm the banks of the swollen Muddy and Virgin rivers."We saw it right at the cusp and it didn't go over," said Erin Neff, spokeswoman for the Clark County Regional Flood Control District. "It's a near-miss."At least 30 homes in nearby Overton were flooded, and <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/clreplicashoes.php> Christian Louboutin Outlet Online</a> Clark County firefighters counted 18 rescues in the area, many involving submerged cars."I've been in this area since 1978. We've never had water like that before," said David Muns, a resident of Moapa, where more than four inches of rain fell in two hours.Transportation officials said a stretch of I-15 near Moapa could be closed for three to four days while they repair pavement that crumbled into slabs over muddy red dirt. One shattered section stretched for half a mile.Traffic was diverted along detours that added time and miles for the 20,000 vehicles a day that travel the highway connecting Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.Truck driver Randy Garca of Calhan, <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/images/guccioutlet.onlinesalecc.php>Gucci Outlet</a> Colorado, said he hit a standstill Monday afternoon and didn't get rolling again until the next morning."We were hungry so we set up a barbecue," he said by phone from Cedar City, Utah.Union Pacific Railroad service was suspended while crews repaired track near Moapa that was undermined and washed out by flash flooding. Officials hoped to have the track bed and rails repaired by Wednesday for freight service to resume on the busy Las Vegas-to-Salt Lake City main line.In southern Utah, rangers at Zion National Park turned away visitors for several hours Tuesday when heavy rain and a surging river made park routes impassable. Mud, debris and a boulder blocked Route 9, the road through the main canyon.Wet weather also took its toll on neighboring states.Freeways in Phoenix became small lakes on Monday and rescuers scrambled to get drivers out of inundated cars after more than 3 inches of rain fell."We've never seen this," Mesa, Arizona, resident Greg Montierth said. "Arizona deals with sand and cactus and heat. We're not set up for it so I can understand why everybody's scrambling at the last minute."Cars also were stranded near Palm Springs and in the Coachella Valley in Southern California.On an I-15 overpass in the Moapa area, police officer Shanan Kelly said he and several construction workers helped rescue a woman who was swept into rushing water from the top of her minivan."It was very heroic and <a href=http://capstone.edu.sg/clreplicashoes.php> Christian Louboutin Outlet Online</a> awesome," Kelly said.Forty-two people were evacuated from a middle school and high school in Moapa and spent Monday night in a building at Clark County fairgrounds. Churches provided blankets, and a store and restaurant donated food before police escorted the people over the damaged I-15, according to Clark County spokeswoman Stacey Welling.About 190 people were evacuated from the Moapa Band of Paiutes reservation after tribal officials warned that waters were close to breaching a Muddy River dam. Officials were assessing damage to properties with leaky roofs and wet floors where water breached flood control channels."We had rivers running through people's yards. But as far as property damage to homes themselves, I think we fared pretty well," said Sherryl Patterson, administrator at the tribal office.National Weather Service meteorologist Charlotte Dewey warned that any additional precipitation in the Southwest could quickly cause new flooding because the ground is saturated.

Associated Press writers Paul Davenport and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix, and Michelle Price in Salt Lake City contributed to this report. Rindels reported from Las Vegas.
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
extras
Toolbox