Payday Lenders Evade Regulations: A Summary of Findings from Surveying Payday Lending Establishments

The payday lending industry has grown exponentially from a few hundred locations in the early 1990s to nearly 25,000 locations nationwide. There are now more payday lending establishments than there are McDonald's and Starbucks locations combined. Nationwide, the Industry earns $6 billion in revenue. In California, there are 2,501 Payday Lending Licensees and Californians spend more than$757 million annually on payday loan fees.With such a massive small-dollar lending industry operating where an estimated 1.5 million California households use a payday lender 11 times annually, it would be reasonable to assume that California would have strict regulations to ensure compliance with the law, as well as robust protections for consumers against predatory payday lending. However, California has extremely lenient laws governing payday lenders.The reporting requirements of payday lenders to their regulatory agency, the California Department of Corporations, are minimal. This laissez-faire nature that "regulates" the payday industry pushed many financially-struggling consumers to turn to consumer advocacy groups to find small-dollar loan alternatives, as well as advocacy for greater restrictions for the payday industry

Hasse-Schmidt Derivations and Coefficient Fields in Positive Characteristics

We show how to express any Hasse-Schmidt derivation of an algebra in terms of a finite number of them under natural hypothesis. As an application, we obtain coefficient fields of the completion of a regular local ring of positive characteristic in terms of Hasse-Schmidt derivationsComment: 14 pages; A gap in the statement of Proposition (2.7) has been fixed and the proof of Theorem (3.14) has been adapte

Love, Timothy

Short Story, Honorable Mentio

Using coarse-scale physical lake characteristics to model lake sturgeon (acipenser fulvescens) feeding habitat and their prey

Coarse-scale, physical lake characteristics (lake fetch, shoreline exposure, and littoral-zone slope) were investigated as to their ability to predict benthic macroinvertebrate communities and lake sturgeon feeding along shorelines in the southern portion of Rainy Lake. Rainy Lake is a large water body and hosts a fishery shared between Minnesota, U.S.A. and Ontario, Canada. Benthic samples were drawn from different sections the littoral zone during a period of three months in the summer of 2010 and in August 2011

Attaining U.S. Effectively Connected Income in the Aftermath of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 and Its Aim to Repeal Extraterritorial Income Exclusion

This paper seeks to propose the construction of ways to facilitate investment in the United States, a suggested mapping, if you will. To that point where U.S. source income is created, it becomes imperative to effect some balance and accomplish an offset regarding the projected decrease in federal revenues resulting from the provisions within the Act, estimated at net $14.5 billion through year 2009,$5.7 billion accounted for in 2005 alone

Gathering Galax

Gathering Galax is a deliberately harvested collection of writings and images about plants, people and landscape in the form of a book and exhibition. The Cherokee people used the Galax plant for a variety of medicinal purposes, and it was advertised as a headache remedy in newspapers during the early 20th century. Galax’s most consistent use has been as decorative greenery for the floral industry. Mostly harvested by white Appalachians in the early 20th century, Latinos pick the majority of galax sold today. North Carolina is the center of the galax industry. The plant ships from this Appalachian region to Holland, England, and even Japan. It’s a global plant with its roots in the South. Gathering Galax shows with affordable printed material how entangled a world can become, all due to a tiny plant

Les Romans De Louis Guilloux Entre 1927 Et 1942: Aux Frontieres Du Populisme (french Text)

In 1942, Louis Guilloux was awarded the Prix Populiste for Le Pain des reves, a novel which, along with the six which preceded it, is generally considered to be representative of the populist literary trend. Guilloux\u27s novels are profoundly significant representations of historical events which took place during the first half of the 20th Century. The effect of periods of political turmoil upon society and the injustice brought down upon the working class figure prominently in Guilloux\u27s novels.;Following two lines of development, the thesis studies the novels both in their generic relationships with populist literature and from the point of view of their ideological significance. The ideas of Jean-Marie Schaeffer and Mikhail Bakhtin provide the basis for the theoretical framework in this study.;Chapter I presents certain preliminary theoretical considerations relating to problems of interpreting fiction, particularly during the period in question, and more generally with regard to the novel form. Chapter II covers the life and works of Louis Guilloux, the socio-political context in which he wrote and the populist movement to which he is said to belong. The following chapters focus specifically on the three novels which illustrate the peculiar nature of Guilloux\u27s populism in three essential aspects: spatial configurations, discursive forms and thematic components.;Chapter III studies the significance of spatial elements in La Maison du peuple (1927) emphasizing the opposition between concrete and ideal space, a recurrent feature of these texts.;Chapter IV looks at the significance, in Le Sang noir (1935), of the intricate relationship between the narrative discourse and the characters\u27 effective or ineffective use of language, which lead to interesting ambiguities requiring close interpretation.;Chapter V bears upon the system of motifs and themes that characterize Le Pain des reves (1942), again from the point of view of their partial links with the populist movement and their own specific developments.;The Conclusion brings us, mainly through a brief examination of Le Jeu de patience (1949), to the stage at which Guilloux\u27s works more clearly depart from the populist aesthetic. This section of the thesis emphasizes the hybrid nature of genres such as populism and the preference for a close textual analysis as the basis of generic attributions

Gender Based Violence as a Continuum of Human Rights Violations in Russia and the Czech Republic

Gender-based violence can take various forms – physical, sexual, psychological, and economic. Violence against women is a global public health problem and not only violates human rights, but also hampers productivity, reduces human capital, and undermines economic growth. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, human trafficking for sexual exploitation and domestic violence have become a significant problem in post-communist countries. The fall of the Soviet Union also shaped national gender policies in post-communist countries. Despite the common challenges they face, success in implementing anti-trafficking procedures and measures against domestic violence varies from country to country. According to the U.S. Department of State annual reports, Russia has been recognized as a country with an extremely low level of government effort to eliminate human trafficking since 2005. In June 2013, Russia was downgraded to the lowest possible Tier 3 ranking, which means that it might be subjected to certain sanctions. Russia is identified as a country of origin, transit, and destination for both victims of sex and labor trafficking. On the contrary, the Czech Republic has been ranked in Tier 1 before 2011 and again for three years in a row since 2012 which is a rare high ranking for a former post-communist country. Annually over fourteen thousand women in Russia are murdered by their current or former intimate partners. It literally means that every two hours three women in Russia die because of domestic violence. Despite alarming statistics, federal legislation to combat domestic violence is lacking in Russia. In a contrast, the Czech government introduced a comprehensive multilevel mechanism of protection of victims of domestic violence. Through comparison of policies against human trafficking and domestic violence in Russia and the Czech Republic, I attempt to evaluate recognition of gender-based violence and a strategy for fighting it in selected countries

Postoperative Complications after Thoracic Surgery in the Morbidly Obese Patient

Little has been recently published about specific postoperative complications following thoracic surgery in the morbidly obese patient. Greater numbers of patients who are obese, morbidly obese, or supermorbidly obese are undergoing surgical procedures. Postoperative complications after thoracic surgery in these patients that can lead to increased morbidity and mortality, prolonged hospital stay, and increased cost of care are considered. Complications include difficulties with mask ventilation and securing the airway, obstructive sleep apnea with risk of oversedation, pulmonary complications related to reduced total lung capacity, reduced functional residual capacity, and reduced vital capacity, risks of aspiration pneumonitis and ventilator-associated pneumonia, cardiomyopathies, and atrial fibrillation, inadequate diabetes management, positioning injuries, increased risk of venous thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism. The type of thoracic surgical procedure may also pose other problems to consider during the postoperative period. Obese patients undergoing thoracic surgery pose a challenge to those caring for them. Those working with these patients must understand how to recognize, prevent, and manage these postoperative complications

A Close Look at Audit Standards and Best Practices How to Validate the Existence of an Asset

A comparative analysis will be conducted seeking to identify how to obtain sufficient evidence to determine the existence of an asset within an organization during an independent audit. The external auditor is often regarded as the “gatekeeper” of the financial markets which has a fiduciary duty to its clients. (Choy, Fields, & King, 2008) Accounting firms are required by operation of law to act in an ethical manner and have a social responsibility to protect the interest of the public. However, there exists an ongoing issue in the performance of audits by larger firms. In a recent study conducted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, members found that 1 in 3 audits contain deficiencies that should not have been signed off by the firm.[1] (Chasan, 2015) This capstone will research the current standards and practices related to determining the asset existence within an organization. The capstone will look at current cases involving problems and suggest strategies for validating the existence of an asset by an organization. [1] Significant audit performance deficiencies are defined by Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as deficiencies that result in the audit firm lacking sufficient evidence to support its audit opinion. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspectors conduct annual inspections to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the firm’s quality control policies and procedures. Annual inspections assist in determining whether deficiencies are present in public company audits including weaknesses in the firm’s business practices