OPINIONS/EDITORIALS Guest Columnist
By Charlene Crowell
Time Is Now to Combat Predatory Lending years ago. In December 2013 and for the first time, CFPB sued to secure consumer refunds of illegally collected money. According to the filing, "defendants engaged in unfair, deceptive and abusive practices, including illegally debiting consumer checking accounts for loans that were void." CFPB charged that California-based CashCall, its subsidiary WS Funding LLC, affiliate Delbert Services Corporation, a Nevada collection agency were all the same ownership. Loans ranging from $850 to $10,000 were sold with up-
The fight for fair lending got a big boost on Aug. 31 when a federal court rejected a payday loan collector's attempt to evade consumer laws. The decision against CashCall, a California-based online payday and installment lender, upheld the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's authority to investigate and fine lenders for unfair, abusive or deceptive practices. The court ruling is a key step in a legal battle that began nearly three
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front fees, lengthy repayment terms and interest rates as high as 343 percent. CFPB charged that these loan terms violated state laws in at least 16 states that had in place licensing requirements, interest rate caps — or both. As early as 2009, Cash Call also partnered with Western Sky Financial, another company, to claim that tribal law rather than state law applied to their loans. Readers may recall a series of television ads promoting Western Sky's quick and easy loans. The federal court disagreed and
dismissed challenging arguments, finding CashCall to be the true lender. The relationship with Western Sky was tantamount to a "renta-bank" scheme. In part the ruling stated affected states "have expressed a fundamental public policy in protecting its citizens." CFPB's late summer court victory is similar to another recent enforcement action by the Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation. In that state's court, CashCall was found to be a lender that tried to evade state usury limits by using the rent-a-bank scheme.
Today there are 90 million people who live in the District of Columbia and 14 states where excessively priced payday loans are not allowed. Collectively, these states save more than $2 billion a year that would otherwise be spent on payday loan fees. Consumer advocates are celebrating this important victory. It is one that upholds the importance of strong state laws and effective enforcement. "This important ruling validates the right of states to protect their cit-
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By James Clingman
'Sweet Unity' Among Black People Great news! In the tradition of those who have called for supporting our African relatives in some form or another, THE One Million Conscious and Conscientious Black Contributors and Voters, has developed one way to do just that. In addition to creating more conscious black millionaires via our own "cash mob," we have consummated a partnership with Sweet Unity Farms Coffee, a network of small scale family owned coffee farms or-
ganized as cooperatives in Tanzania; it was established in 1996 by David Robinson, son of baseball great Jackie Robinson, and his family in the Mbeya region of Tanzania where the Robinson family began their own farm on 280 acres in 1989. Since 1983, David Robinson has been involved in the economic development in Africa through sustainable economic ventures. David is the founder and managing director of The Higher Ground Development Corporation, a Tanzanian company established in 1985 with the objective of helping to bring Tanzanian
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producers into the global economy through the collective strengths of cooperative organization and international partnerships. In 1998, David and his family founded the American corporation Up-Country International Products Inc., which is the sole distributor and marketer of Sweet Unity Farms Coffee. The New York City-based company is managed by David's daughter, Metarere Robinson, together with African-American partners. David Robinson is a glowing example of actually doing what many black folks simply talk about: con-
necting with our brothers and sisters in Africa via profit-making businesses. Now it's time for us to step up our game, and the opportunity to do that is available to all who want to build strong, practical and sustainable relationships. This is yet another opportunity to put our money, a relatively small amount of it, where our mouths are. In case you don't know, three of the five best coffees in the world are grown in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya. Tanzanian is famous for its "High Mountain Grown" Peaberry grade coffee.
Blogger Coffee Man Dan says, "A Peaberry is the result of a coffee cherry (fruit) producing a single bean instead of the usual two half-beans. This results in a coffee bean with a more concentrated flavor. Only about 7% of any coffee cherry crop is Peaberry." I have bought Sweet Unity Farms Coffee for several years and have written about it for years as well, noting it in my book, "Black Empowerment with an Attitude." Believe me, if you like coffee, you will absolutely
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By Karl A. Racine, D.C. Attorney General
An Independent AG with a Public-Interest Agenda When District voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of converting the then-subordinate Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to an independent office, they made clear that the new OAG should act in the public interest for all D.C. residents. Since the Office of the Attorney General became independent in 2015, my hardworking colleagues and I have attended well over 200 community meetings. Regardless of neighborhood, we have heard a
consistent message: District residents want an equitable and just city. That includes having a competent, transparent, ethical, and fair government that works for everyone; it means workers getting paid for an honest day's work so they can support their families; and it requires protecting our city's most vulnerable consumers from predatory businesses. With that mandate in mind, we are advocating that the Council pass several bills when they return from their summer recess on September 20. Government Ethics and Transpar-
28 SEPTEMBER 15 - 21, 2016
ency: District residents are sick and tired of public corruption and the appearance of impropriety. That's why we introduced the Campaign Finance Transparency and Accountability Amendment Act of 2016. This bill would strengthen three major pillars of the District's campaign-finance law: 1) ending pay-toplay politics; 2) making political donations transparent, and 3) creating a "bright line" between candidates and PACs. Under current law, donors to D.C. political campaigns can receive significant financial benefits from the District government. Our
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bill prevents anyone — including corporations — from engaging in major business with the District government for two years after donating to a District political campaign or PAC. This prohibition would preclude campaign donors from receiving large business contracts, major grants, or significant tax breaks from the District. Beyond this proposed legislation, we welcome and support further discussion around creating a public financing system that would seek to get money out of politics. Protecting Workers: With a booming economy bringing more
jobs to the District, we must protect our workers from "wage theft," or the practice of denying workers their rightful pay. A 2014 report by the D.C. Employment Justice Center noted that, on average, each lowwage worker loses $51 per week to wage theft, or $2,634 per year. That amounts to 15 percent of their annual income. Wage theft also reduces the District's tax revenues. To address this issue, we introduced the Wage Enforcement Initiative Amendment Act of 2016.
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