Free Republic

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush must give up 15 percent of his congressional salary to begin repaying more than $1 million he owes on a delinquent bank loan to his now-shuttered Englewood church, a judge in Chicago ordered Wednesday. Cook County Circuit Judge Alexander White ordered the garnishment of more than $2,100 a month from the South Side Democrat’s $174,000 annual federal pay in what was another setback for the longtime congressman-turned-pastor who once promised that the house of worship he founded would help rebuild Englewood.

PASO ROBLES, Calif. (AP) — A pregnant California woman has filed a claim saying she found a bloody fingertip in a salad at an Applebee's restaurant in Paso Robles. Cathleen Martin of Atascadero tells The Tribune (http://bit.ly/1S8TXpx) in San Luis Obispo that she was with her husband and child at the restaurant in December and everyone ate from her Chinese chicken salad. Attorney Eric Traut of Santa Ana says the manager confirmed the fingertip belonged to a cook.

Many thousands of Americans who lost their homes in the housing bust, but have since begun to rebuild their finances, are suddenly facing a new foreclosure nightmare: debt collectors are chasing them down for the money they still owe by freezing their bank accounts, garnishing their wages and seizing their assets. By now, banks have usually sold the houses. But the proceeds of those sales were often not enough to cover the amount of the loan, plus penalties, legal bills and fees. The two big government-controlled housing finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as other mortgage players,...

The Environmental Protection Agency is rescinding regulations allowing the agency to garnish wages of those it says are delinquent on debts. A notice to be published in Thursday’s Federal Register formally withdraws the rule, issued earlier in the month. “In the direct final rule, EPA stated that if adverse comments were received by August 1, 2014, the direct final rule would be withdrawn and not take effect,” according to the terse notice. “EPA received adverse comments on that direct final rule.” However, the agency did not rule out proceeding with another version of the measure via a more deliberative rulemaking...