| Court sides with Banking Dept. in high-cost loan lawsuit
A payday lending business violated Pennsylvania consumer law by providing loans of as much as $500 to people in return for 6 percent interest plus a $150 monthly fee, a state court ruled Tuesday. A Commonwealth Court panel agreed with the Banking Department's claim that fees charged by Advance America Cash Advance Centers exceeded limits of the state's Consumer Discount Company Act. The Banking Department sued Advance America's parent company, NCAS of Delaware LLC, in September, three months after the company began offering the loan product. The lawsuit called Advance America's $150 "monthly participation fee" an illegal and usurious sham. The opinion issued Tuesday prevents Advance America from continuing to lend money or "collecting on lines of credit or loans currently outstanding in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pursuant to the" violations of state law.
St. Louis woman files class-action suit against payday lender
A St. Louis resident has filed a class-action suit again Advance America, a major payday lender, accusing the company of predatory lending, according to a news release by Simon-Passanante P.C., a St. Louis law firm.
The firm represents Cynthia Williams, the lead plaintiff, in this lawsuit, which was filed Monday.
In the news release, the law firm said at the heart of the lawsuit is the allegation that Advance America systematically traps customers in loans they cannot repay by violating Missouri law.
The firm said the suit was filed against the Spartanburg, S.C.-based company and its subsidiaries Cash Advance Centers of Missouri, doing business as Advance America.
The company operates 2,900 cash advance stores in 37 states, about 82 of which are in Missouri.
Court: Cash advances violate law
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A payday lending business violated Pennsylvania consumer law by providing loans of as much as $500 to people in return for 6 percent interest plus a $150 monthly fee, a state court ruled Tuesday. A Commonwealth Court panel agreed with the Banking Department's claim that fees charged by Advance America Cash Advance Centers exceeded limits of the state's Consumer Discount Company Act.
The Banking Department sued Advance America's parent company, NCAS of Delaware LLC, in September, three months after the company began offering the loan product.
The lawsuit called Advance America's $150 "monthly participation fee" an illegal and usurious sham.
The opinion issued Tuesday prevents Advance America from continuing to lend money or "collecting on lines of credit or loans currently outstanding in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pursuant to the" violations of state law.
Don Harris is the award winning Weekday Sports Anchor for News 4 WOAI (TV) and contributor on SportsTalk San Antonio on ...
The Pittsburgh Penguins announced on Friday that the team will delay the opening of their new arena until the start of the 2010-2011 season. The franchise announced in March that they reached an agreement with city, county and state officials for the financing of a new arena that will keep the club in the Steel City for the next 30 years.
At a cost of $290 million, the new building will be constructed across the street from Mellon Arena, home to the Pens since the team's 1967 inception. Rather than rush to have the arena open in 2009 with further improvements still pending, the team decided to complete construction before opening for any events.
The new timetable is not likely to increase the cost of the new construction, and the official groundbreaking which was scheduled for next Spring is also not expected to be affected.
Landry’s finally releases 2006 annual report
After a long and costly delay, Landrys Restaurants Inc. on Friday released its 2006 annual report, posting a $21.8 million loss related mostly to the sale of its Joes Crab Shack chain.The report, which comes almost seven months after the companys fiscal year ended Dec. 31, sheds some light on what triggered a chain of events that has Landrys, in the words of its chief financial officer, facing irreparable harm. The 10-K report says a shareholder lawsuit caused the company to undertake a review of its stock-option practices. The review found no fraud and prompted no action from the Securities and Exchange Commission. But it cascaded into a $400 million dollar debt problem, causing agencies to lower Landrys credit rating, bruising the companys stock price earlier this month and leading to a temporary restraining order against bondholders that will come to head Thursday in an island courtroom.Landrys reported a net loss of $21.8 million, or 99 cents per diluted share last year, compared with net income of $44.8 million, or $1.95 per diluted share in 2005.
Reverse sexual harassment
When we hear the phrase "sexual harassment," we often think of women who are victimized by their male bosses, but there's a growing number of men who are claiming they've been harassed by their female supervisors or co-workers. When the violations are reported there is often retaliation and one Oklahoma man says it has happened to him. Issac Beverly knows that some people will laugh when they hear his story, but what happened to him is anything but a laughing matter.
"I had to find a new job. Bills got behind. That also stressed my family as well," Issac Beverly says. Beverly, who's been married for five years, says he was sexually harassed by a female co-worker at his former job over the course of six months. It's a civil rights violation that normally happens to women, but the alleged advances sound familiar.
Harassment suit against Sweeney is dropped
A lawsuit accusing Gloucester County's most powerful politician of sexually harassing a senior Democratic Party official has been dropped. Stephen M. Sweeney, director of the county Board of Freeholders and a Democratic state senator, said yesterday he felt ecstatic to be vindicated. "It's been like living in a dime store novel," Sweeney said. "I'm just very happy it's over and my name's been cleared." Diane Kirwan-Patterson, once the acting executive director of the Gloucester County Democratic Party, filed a harassment lawsuit in October, contending that Sweeney made sexually suggestive comments to her on numerous occasions in the late 1990s. Her lawyer, Clifford Van Syoc, withdrew the case against Sweeney on Wednesday, one day after Sweeney gave a sworn deposition in the case.
FDIC asks appeals court to drop $72.3 million fine
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. asked a federal appeals court in New Orleans Tuesday to overrule a Texas judge who had ordered the agency to pay a $72.3 million fine for bullying financier Charles Hurwitz, whose Maxxam Corp. controls Pacific Lumber. In essence, the FDIC, the agency responsible for insuring bank accounts, is trying to overturn a victory that Hurwitz won two years ago in a federal court in his hometown of Houston. In that 2005 ruling, a U.S. district judge found that bank regulators had browbeaten Hurwitz into selling some old-growth redwood trees for preservation in public parks. The appeal, which should be decided by year's end, is one of several controversies that have spun out of Hurwitz's 1986 takeover of Pacific Lumber, the Humboldt County logging firm that is going through bankruptcy hearings in a separate federal proceeding in Texas.
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