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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Payday Loan Study: Absence Doesn’t Make the Heart Grow Fonder

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007   

Nashville, TN – Absence does not make the heart grow fonder -- at least, not when it comes to payday loan stores. The level of "need" for the easy loans is being questioned in Tennessee, after a study of payday loan customers in North Carolina revealed the loans not only did not solve their financial problems, but created even bigger issues for them down the line. The North Carolinians who were surveyed said they were glad when the state shut down the industry.

Report author Roberto Quercia, with the Center for Community Capital, explains once payday lenders left North Carolina, their former customers simply learned to get by without the "quick fix" of a short-term, high-interest loan.

"When individuals speak with their creditor and come to terms on some kind of arrangement, they can pay back what they owe in a manner that works for everybody."

In Tennessee, some credit unions now offer short-term, lower-interest loans for consumers in a financial pinch. Quercia believes that's a step in the right direction.

"There is still a need for some small-dollar credit product that is affordable and takes into account a customer's ability to pay back the loan."

Payday loans in Tennessee usually come with annual interest rates exceeding 400 percent, while Congress recently capped rates at 24 percent for military families citing the loans as a possible national security risk. Results of the North Carolina study are available online, at www.ccc.unc.ed.


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