In Florida, payday loan controversy continues to erupt. The latest?

A state unit of EZCorp Inc., one of the nation's largest pawn-shop chains and payday cash advance lenders, is taking heat from state regulators who accuse it of operating unlicensed offices and stonewalling an investigation of its lending activities. The Orlando Sentinel had the report.

EZCorp's Florida operation, which includes EZPawn and EZPawn Money Payday Loan Store, has failed to register with the state or obtain a license to make payday loans, according to a lawsuit filed recently in state Circuit Court in Orlando. Allegedly, EZPawn Florida Inc. unlawfully blocked examiners from inspecting its loan papers and other records.

Specifically, an instance from three months ago involving an EZPawn store on East Colonial Drive in Orlando is cited. Managers at the store refused state agents access to their records. Despite a series of letters and discussions, the payday loan company has refused to cooperate with the state, regulators say.

What the payday loan suit seeks: An order compelling the company to let regulators inspect the books and records at the Colonial Drive location. It also seeks an administrative fine of $1,000 a day until the company complies.

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Another terrorist attack? Scary. A natural disaster? We'd prefer not to think about it. But debt from credit cards and pay day loans? A recent poll shows this is the fear that most worries Americans.

More than 80 percent of citizens point to this issue as serious problem; worse, 35 percent say their level of debt has increased in the past five years. These numbers are courtest of a nationwide survey from the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan research and educational institute in Washington.

The poll said that 23 percent of Americans aren’t able to pay their monthly debts - be it from credit cards, student loans or faxless payday loans - while 48 percent said higher living costs are contributing to their fiscal dilemmas.The situation also affects a growing number of Ohioans, reports The Columbus Dispatch, with the state ranked sixth in the nation in the most bankruptcy filings during the first quarter of this year.

"The economy might be strong and unemployment may be down, but that’s not what people are feeling in their individual lives," said Bill McInturff, co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies. "You have one out of four people who can’t pay their debt."

According to the survey, 33 percent of Americans carry nonmortgage debt of more than $10,000. Moreover, only 51 percent are able to pay their entire credit card bill each month. Numbers were not available for specific payday loan balances. The problem, the survey said, is so pervasive that it’s become "a growing threat to the American middle class and the American dream."

"People don’t see debt as a low-income problem," said Anna Greenberg, vice president of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a research and strategic consulting firm in Washington. "More people view it as a problem for middle-class families who are worried about not being able to have a secure retirement or are afraid of being victim to identity theft."

Overall, debt in the country has increased substantially over 30 years, with the average American household holding $8,000 in credit card debt. Do the math and this result adds up to over $813 billion owed. That's a lot.

Here comes the Pentagon.

As the debate over military payday loans rages on, the goverment plans on getting prominently involved. The Pentagon is expected to ask Congress to cap the interest rate payday advance lenders can charge troops, according to defense and congressional sources.

It's a move that could drive the payday loan industry out of military lending.

The Defense Department's report will recommend a series of steps to protect troops from dangerous cash loan lending practices that can push them deep into debt and, officials argue, hurt their ability to focus on military missions. Pretty major stuff.

The Pentagon has declined to discuss conclusions of the report, which was due July 7. However, Col. Michael Pachuta told a National Association of Federal Credit Unions conference last week that the report would likely recommend a series of steps to Congress, including the interest rate cap.

Congressional and industry sources familiar with the report also say it may support proposals to cap the APR on no fax payday loans to servicemen at 36 percent.

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Indianapolis, Ind., prides itself on being among the most affordable large cities in the nation, but that low cost of living does not always extend to the city's working poor.

The Indianapolis Star reports that a number of factors including predatory lending, expensive car insurance and high-cost home loans are draining the pockets of low-income families across the nation. A Brookings Institution study put Indianapolis near the top in a number of categories measured to gauge poverty levels in cities of various sizes.

"I think legislators are aware of the problem but not really aware of how big it is. And the poverty rate in our state is growing," said Lisa Travis, the advocacy and education coordinator of the Indiana Institute for Working Families.

Indianapolis ranked second in the number of low-income residents who took advantage of controversial "refund anticipation" tax loans. The metro area also boasts the fourth-highest concentration of check cashing places and alternative short-term, payday loan providers.

Most of the other cities in the survey had a much higher cost of living than Indianapolis, according to at least one online database. 

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According to one Keizer City Councilor, Eugene has the right idea when it comes to payday loans.

Charles Lee wants his city to adopt various payday loan reforms immediately - long before a statewide law goes into effect in July 2007 regarding these cash advances.

He points to similar ordinances already are in effect across other cities, such as Bend, Oregon City, Silverton, Troutdale, Gresham and Portland. These complement the statewide law passed during the April special session.

"I heard that other cities were taking a lead on this," Lee said. "That's what piqued my interest."

The ordinance would provide borrowers with the right to a payment plan; end interest-only payments by requiring payment on principle before each new quick payday loan; and allow borrowers to cancel the loan within 24 hours without penalty

"The payday loan industry seems like a huge problem for working families," Lee said.

Next spring, the state law will cap interest rates that lenders may charge for short-term payday cash advances. It will be an important initiative, but does no good for current borrowers suffering from debt.

That's why other areas took action. Silverton city leaders were acted promptly, discussing a payday loan ordinance.

"We had members of the community who said that people in need were struggling," Silverton City Councilor Randal Thomas said.

The Silverton City Council, therefore, adopted its law in May. Several large, faith-based charities and other groups such as Oregon Food Bank, Our Oregon, the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force and the Oregon Catholic Conference are supporting city cash advance payday loan ordinances, as well.

In what shouldn't exactly be a shock, a recent report states that low-income individuals around the country pay extra for every day fees/items than their better off counterparts. 

Why is this the case? Because this group of citizens take out higher-interest mortgages, shop at rent-to-own furniture stores and use payday loan companies often. The study was sponsored by the Brookings Institution study, which analyzed services in San Francisco, Oakland and 11 other cities.

The report - "From Poverty, Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower-Income Families" - calls on government officials to create laws to curb services that gouge low-income consumers, such as regulating the entire field of faxless payday loans. Matt Fellowes, the report's main author, praised San Francisco's new push for mainstream financial services in poorer areas as an example.

"Reducing the fees by just 1 percent would add up to $6.5 billion in new spending power for the families," said Fellowes, a senior research associate at Brookings. "It would enable low- and modest-income residents to save for and invest in assets, like homes and retirement savings or pay for child expenses like health care and education."

Among the cities Brookings studied, San Francisco stood out most for its high concentration of providers that specialize in short-term payday loans and check-cashing businesses - where customers pay $5 to $50 to cash a check. Its poor neighborhoods have the second-highest concentration per capita.

Moreover, you're nearly five times more likely to find a check-cashing business in a poor area than any other neighborhood in this city. In the Tenderloin, the city's poorest area, there are 10 check-cashing businesses alone!

Payday advance lenders, of course, offer cash for a consumer's own post-dated check, charge 500 percent-plus in annual interest.

"Check cashing and payday lending are probably the biggest financial impediments facing low-income people," said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition. "It is a huge problem in San Francisco."

It’s a troubling fact that members of the military and their families are a target for shoddy, disreputable businesses.

The Center for Responsible Lending, located in Durham, N.C., is a major consumer advocate, and one that asserts payday loan firms single out the nation's troops for their vulnerable combination of a steady government income, youth and financial inexperience.

When it’s time to deploy, the nation's military families also face extra expenses such as calling cards, care packages and buying six months’ worth of toiletries at once. It can be too easy to take out a quick payday loan without looking at the terms closely enough.

To help protect military families from shady banks or business scams, the Better Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina has proposed a series of seminars aboard military bases in their 33-county region.

“We recognize the special needs of military families,” said Beverly Baskin, the Better Business Bureau's regional president and CEO, who came to Camp Lejeune in June to discuss the process of bringing seminars to the base.

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Legislation sponsored by Senators Jim Talent (R-Missouri) and Bill Nelson (D-Florida) to stop predatory payday loan practices targeted at members and their families has been approved by the U.S. Senate.

The Talent-Nelson Amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill would limit the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) charged to soldiers and their spouses for a cash loan. In many cases, lenders are charging over 800 percent APR on military payday loans to armed service members, leaving them in financial distress.

In this month's issue of Seapower magazine, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Navy, commented on the pressing concern.

"A sailor's financial readiness directly impacts unit readiness and the navy's ability to accomplish its mission," he said. "I am concerned with the number of sailors who are taken advantage of by predatory lending practices, the most common of which is the payday loan."

According to Sen. Talent, the Department of Defense is reporting that predatory practices are directly impacting military readiness.

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God isn't the only one who hates payday loans. The Center for Responsible Lending is the nation's foremost consumer advocacy group.

Now, the Durham nonprofit the Center for Community Self-Help on Monday announced that it has promoted Michael D. Calhoun to president of its Center for Responsible Lending affiliate - a new for for those in the payday loan world to deal with.

Calhoun previously had served as the center's general counsel and lead lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and various state capitals. He was a lead author of a 1999 anti-predatory mortgage lending law in North Carolina.

The Center for Community Self-Help said that Calhoun's promotion to the top spot at CRL indicates an even greater focus on lobbying by the group, which also does research into predatory pay day loan lending.

"Mike Calhoun's unmatched knowledge of economics, consumer law and community development lending fostered Self-Help's mission over the past decade," said Martin Eakes, CEO of the Center for Community Self-Help. "He's a powerful leader with great experience in federal and state policy."

According to CRL, predatory lending most often occurs in "subprime mortgages, and payday, car title, and overdraft loans, and typically involves hidden fees and high interest rates."

The Center for Community Self-Help is the parent of the Self-Help Credit Union and Self-Help Ventures Fund. The group aims to provide loans - NOT with interest rates similar to those of payday loans online - and other financial services to minorities, women, rural residents, and low-wealth families.

Not everyone knows what to do about payday loans. In troubling financial times, it can be a confusing issue. Fortunately for Mitzi Rivers, somone very important gave her a clear idea of what cash loan path to take.

"I ask God how," the Wichita mother of six explains.

She believes God recently answered her question about how to climb out of a financial pit caused by payday loan use when she stumbled into a Sunflower Community Action meeting in June about payday and car title loans.

About $330 of Rivers' paycheck every two weeks was going toward paying just the fees on seven payday advances.

"A lot of it was due to the fact that some of my bills were higher - electric and gas," she said. "Then gasoline went up. I had some moving expenses. I didn't have enough money to go from one paycheck to another."

She took out her first payday loan to get over the hump.

But soon, this was her life:

• She worked overtime - on paydays she would drive around town to each lender to pay off her debts. Each time she paid off one quick cash loan, she took out another one.
• She was so exhausted on those days that after visiting the last lender on a Friday, she would go home to bed and pray.

"Lord," she said she had thought. "I need to get out of this."

And then it was so …

Rivers was driving near Tabernacle Baptist Church on June 10 and noticed a crowd. She stopped to get information about vacation Bible school. Instead, she learned about the Sunflower meeting.

Rivers met later with J.J. Selmon, community organizer for the northeast chapter of Sunflower, a Wichita grassroots group. He told her about Communities United Credit Union. Our heroine, subsequently, called the credit union to see if it could help pay off her savings account payday loans, some credit card debt and a car loan. Selmon evenwent with her to the meeting.

She and a credit union employee sat down and took a hard look at her debt. About a week later, Rivers called Selmon, ecstatic. The credit union had approved her loan! Her new monthly payment is $300 less than what she had been paying on her troublesome payday advances.