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House investigators today officially accused veteran New York Rep. Charles Rangel of 13 violations of congressional ethics standards, throwing a cloud over his political career and putting Democrats in a pickle throughout fall elections.
The allegations – which include failure to report rental income from vacation property in the Dominican Republic and to report more than $600,000 in assets on his congressional financial disclosure statements – came as lawyers for Rangel and the House ethics committee worked on a plea deal.
One was reached, sources tell the Associated Press, but Republicans indicated it was too late.
The deal between the lawyers will have little meaning if the committee members don’t approve it, and Republicans said at the proceeding they were insisting on going forward with a trial. The panel is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.
“Mr. Rangel was given multiple opportunities to settle this matter. Instead, he chose to move forward to the public trial phase,” said Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama, the senior Republican on the ethics panel
Many Democrats had urged Rangel to settle the case to avoid the prospect of televised hearings right before November congressional elections that will determine which party controls Congress next year.
However, as Friday’s public airing of the charges drew nearer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seem resigned to the case proceeding.
“The chips will have to fall where they may politically,” she told reporters. Pursuing ethics cases against House members is “a serious responsibility that we have,” she said.
The devil’s in the details. Not only do states have different statutes of limitations for different debts, but two states may treat the same debts differently. A credit card debt might be considered an open-ended account in one state and a written contract in another. The only way to know for sure is to check your state laws or consult an attorney.
You can inadvertently restart the clock. Generally, the statute of limitations starts ticking from the “date of last activity” on the accounts, said Los Angeles bankruptcy attorney Scott Bovitz. (If the account is still listed in your credit reports, the date of last activity should be noted there.) On a credit card debt, that could be the last payment you made or the last purchase you charged. But in some states, making a payment on an old debt, agreeing to an extended repayment plan or even acknowledging that the debt is yours can extend the statute of limitations or restart the clock.
A creditor may still sue you after the statute of limitations has run out. Suing or threatening to sue you after the statute of limitations has run out violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. To prevent the creditor from winning a judgment against you, you’ll need to show up in court and point out that the statute has expired.
The creditor may try to pick a better venue. If you sign a credit contract and move to a state with different limits, the creditor may try to sue you in the state that has the longer statute. If that’s not the state in which you now live, you should protest, because generally the state where you reside is the one whose statutes should apply.
Debts can still exist even if the creditor can’t sue. Some people erroneously believe that debts are erased after the statute of limitations has run out. Although the creditor’s ability to sue you has been curtailed, it can still try other methods to persuade you to pay, including calls and letters. The debt can also be sold to another collector that can renew efforts to get you to pay. A legitimate debt is truly gone only when it’s paid or erased in bankruptcy court.
Collectors can’t legally restart the seven-year clock by “re-aging” the debt (giving it a new delinquency date) or by selling it to another agency. The Federal Trade Commission shut down one large collection agency, Capital Acquisitions and Management, after charging the company repeatedly had re-aged debts in its attempts to collect.
Most flights between Europe and North America were delayed yesterday due to the spreading cloud of volcanic ash stretching across much of the northern Atlantic, the European flight control agency said.
Flights were rerouted north over Greenland or south over Spain to avoid the 2000km-long cloud stretching from Iceland to northern Spain, Eurocontrol said. This was due to increase flying times by about an hour in either direction.
Approximately 600 airliners make the oceanic crossing every day. Around 40 per cent were due to be rerouted south and the rest would skirt Iceland from the north.
The plume of ash yesterday also forced the closure of 15 airports in northern Spain and was expanding into southern France, carried along by Atlantic winds. Spain’s main international airports of Madrid and Barcelona were expected to remain open.
Just over 100 flights were cancelled at mainland Portugal’s three international airports yesterday because of the ash cloud.
Until Eyjafjallajokul, the volcano in southern Iceland, stops its emissions, the key to the future course of Europe’s ash crisis will be the prevailing winds.
The eruption of the volcano has shown no signs of stopping since it began belching ash April 13. It last erupted from 1821 to 1823.
Since the ash is reaching altitudes of up to 10,000m, in the path of most trans-Atlantic flights, it will effectively block the usual routes. Eurocontrol said this would cause significant congestion, particularly in the airspace over Spain and Portugal where many of the diverted flights are heading.
Fastest Growing Cities by State
Arizona: Buckeye
Number of households: 18,112
Pct. Chg: +10% since 2008 (+261% since 2000)
Average household income: $52,927 (–6% since 2000)
Why: Buckeye is one of the fastest-growing suburbs in Arizona and has seen a large influx of Asian residents, especially Vietnamese, according to Gadberry. While many new housing units are planned, the price of real estate in Buckeye has dropped nearly 12% since 2008, according to Trulia, and thousands of properties are in the foreclosure process.
California: Lincoln
Number of households: 21,997
Pct. Chg: +10% since 2008 (+250% since 2000)
Average household income: $90,608 (+16% since 2000)
Why: Lincoln, a suburban development 30 miles from Sacramento, is the fastest-growing suburb of California and the third fastest-growing town in the U.S. New office buildings, shopping centers, housing developments, and custom home properties have gone up in recent years as a part of the local development plan, according to ZipRealty.
Georgia: Braselton
Number of households: 13,929
Pct. Chg: +8% since 2008 (+118% since 2000)
Average household income: $113,664 (+67% since 2000)
Why: Gadberry Group noted Braselton, a suburb of Atlanta, as a remarkable high-growth area due to increases not only in population, but also average income and average household net worth ($532,628). Companies operating here such as Sears Logistics, Tractor Supply, Mitsubishi, and Progressive Lighting have helped to generate jobs.
Indiana: Avon
Number of households: 11,521
Pct. Chg: +8% since 2008 (+73% since 2000)
Average household income: $97,355 (+35% since 2000)
Why: Avon has experienced rapid growth since the 1990s due to its convenient location 10 miles from Indianapolis, where health care, social services, and education are the leading industries, according to Simply Hired.
Iowa: Urbandale
Number of households: 16,402
Pct. Chg: +8% since 2008 (+44% since 2000)
Average household income: $93,655 (+12% since 2000)
Why: Urbandale, within an hour’s drive from Kansas City and Minneapolis, has a lower unemployment rate than the national average. The insurance and finance industries are major employers.
North Carolina: Wake Forest
Number of households: 17,803
Pct. Chg: +8% since 2008 (+118% since 2000)
Average household income: $82,771 (+18% since 2000)
Why: Not far from the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle, Wake Forest has attracted residents with excellent quality of life, public schools, and health-care resources. Gadberry also notes the high percentage of children and ethnic diversity here.
South Carolina: Fort Mill
Number of households: 10,474
Pct. Chg: +8% since 2008 (+91% since 2000)
Average household income: $72,090(+23% since 2000)
Why: Companies such as Continental Tire and music distributor Muzak are located in Fort Mill, near Rock Hill, S.C., and Charlotte, N.C. While many financial companies moved into the area during the housing boom, they have mostly pulled out, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Tennessee: Spring Hill
Number of households: 11,814
Pct. Chg: +10% since 2008 (+183% since 2000)
Average household income: $92,347 (+44% since 2000)
Why: Spring Hill saw the fourth-largest increase in number of households on Gadberry’s list, driven largely by the jobs created by GM’s plant, which manufactured Saturn vehicles until 2008, when it started making the GM Traverse.
Texas: Atascocita
Number of households: 23,917
Pct. Chg: +8% since 2008 (+108% since 2000)
Average household income: $99,272 (+26% since 2000)
Why: Atascocita, 18 miles from Houston, boasts golf courses and country clubs. Residents can also boat and fish in nearby Lake Houston, a manmade lake. According to Gadberry, the number of Hispanic households increased by 278% since 2000, making it the largest-growing segment of the population.
Utah: South Jordan
Number of households: 13,622
Pct. Chg: +9% since 2008 (+82% since 2000)
Average household income: $108,300 (+37% since 2000)
Why: Development in this city, 10 miles from Salt Lake City, was fueled by the availability of land and large lots, planned communities, and a charming rural atmosphere. The new Daybreak Community development is expected to attract many more residents.
This story is nearly unbelievable, but anything is possible in America. Two teens are claiming Craigslist helped them sell their bodies and become sex slaves.
They say, “Craigslist makes horrific acts like this so easy to carry out, and the men who arrange them very rich,” said one of the teens, who said she was forced into prostitution at the age of 11.
The girls submitted an open letter to the Washington Post about the Internet classifieds site in a time when a federal judge kept an investigation of Craigslist “adult services” section. The Letter was posted as an ad.
One of the young ladies said a pimp “put my picture on Craigslist, and I was sold for sex by the hour at truck stops and cheap motels, 10 hours with 10 different men every night. This became my life,” read an account by “AK.” Men “answered the Craigslist advertisements and paid to rape me.”
Craigslist has been deemed the Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking. Ouch.
Sex trafficking: 1. Does happen 2. Happens in America 3. Happens via Internet.
In the words of Antoine Dodson, “Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife, and yo’ husband cuz they rapin’ er’body out her’.”