Free Republic

Jefferson - Bill Brandel likes Ike, wants Willkie, knows in his heart Goldwater is right and is cool for Coolidge. The Jefferson city alderman and retired schoolteacher has amassed a collection of thousands of campaign buttons and memorabilia sporting slogans that resonated with voters, and some that didn't. His hobby began when he was too young to vote, when his grandmother gave him an "I Like Ike" pin back in the 1950s. Later he worked for Barry Goldwater's failed presidential bid in 1964 and started collecting Goldwater pins - some colored gold emblazoned with the candidate's name in Periodic Table...

Deceased Woman's Name Was Robo-Signed on Thousands of Affidavits Martha Kunkle has come back to life. She died in 1995. Yet her signature later appeared on thousands of affidavits submitted by one of the nation's largest debt collectors, Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc., in lawsuits filed against borrowers. Some regulators complain that the use of Ms. Kunkle's name reflects an epidemic of mass-produced, sloppy and inaccurate documentation in the debt-collection industry. Lawsuits have surged as more borrowers fall behind on payments and collection firms turn to courts to get what they are owed. After being sued for fraud, Portfolio Recovery Associates...

Paris-based Canadian designer Calla Haynes Autumn Fall 2010 Lookbook is a serene and placid experience, filled with designs and creations, a bountiful celebration of stripes, pastels, ikats and plaids, that you will come to regard as your old comfortable favorites.

To the Editor: Every church depends by faith on God to supply its needs through the collection of tithes and offerings from its members for its operation. However, churches and ministries should be careful to not abuse that supply or to bring dishonor to God. In this current economic turn-down almost every church and ministry has suffered some loss of income due to the suffering of its members. Yet, it seems that some churches and ministries are deemed to be too big to fail. (Where have we heard that before?) One large church has spent $900,000 more than it took...

One man's fetish for stuffed, dead animals and snake skinned clothes is U.S. Customs agents' worst nightmareLions and tigers and bears and just about any other exotic animal you can think of were found on a mega yacht in Miami and caused quite an expensive problem for one of the wealthiest men in America. A yacht stuff with dead exotic animals and merchandise made from their skins was confiscated in Miami. The owner of the vessel is Tamir Saphir, one of... The decorative animal hides, stuffed heads and ivory carvings are illegal to have in the U.S., an endangered species...

Debt collectors are dunning the dead, seeking payment from deceased debtors or their next-of-kin by using sophisticated databases that scan probate court records and other information sources as a way to bolster revenues in depressing economic times, according to news reports. The New York Times is reporting that though many banks may need a bailout and some homeowners can't make their mortgage payments, the departed are definitely paying down their part of the debt. Post-mortem harassment is the latest trend in debt collecting, and one of the thriving parts of the reviled industry. In Minneapolis, Minn., teams of debt agents...

CCHD is the "Catholic Campaign For Human Development". Catholic Churches around the country will hold a second collection at Mass this coming Sunday for this group that has in the past given to union organizing groups and ACORN. Freeper research is needed about these groups that were funded by the CCHD in 2007. Any info you can find is appreciated.

In a controversial practice known as "balance billing," health-care providers are going after patients for money they don't owe As health-care costs continue to soar, millions of confused consumers are paying medical bills they don't actually owe. Typically this occurs when an insurance plan covers less than what a doctor, hospital, or lab service wants to be paid. The health-care provider demands the balance from the patient. Uncertain and fearing the calls of a debt collector, the patient pays up. Most consumers don't realize it, but this common practice, known as balance billing, often is illegal. When doctors or hospitals...

KCRA - SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- More than 70,000 consumers complained about third-party debt collectors in 2007, but one Sacramento couple said they have good reason to bark about the bill they received. Steve Fanelli received a bill from AFNI collections claiming an Andy Fanelli owes Verizon Online $142.34. And although Steve Fanelli does indeed live with an Andy Fanelli, there is a small, furry problem with the bill. Andy Fanelli is Steve Fanelli's dog. more

My daughter, who is 22 now, was in an auto accident last year. She flipped and totalled her car, and damaged her knee. All is ok, thank God. She is on my auto insurance policy. She had health care through her employer. I let her handle all the contacts and coordinate her benefits. Here is the situation. Auto insurance had $10k medical payments. They paid their obligation. Her healthcare insurance has a $2k deductible. The healthcare insurance tells her the auto insurance payments have no effect on the deductible, even though that $10k reduced what the healthcare insurance paid by...

QUESTION for freeper lawyers & paralegals & wannabees: If loan paperwork does not specifically state that a loan company can sell a loan, what legal basis could they have to sell it? What legal basis can another loan company buy it? For example: If a loan is defaulted, the loan company eventually files bankruptcy, zeroes the loan, and reports it as zeroed on the credit report, what legal basis could they have for subsequently selling the loan, especially if the loan docs do not state that power? Loan docs do state that whoever they transfer the loan to inherits all...

Okay, so this rare vanity is directed to my FReeper brethren to see if any of you have run across this situation. And to warn potential victims in case you're about to. Out of the blue, I received a collections notice from a company called ANFI Collections, for a debt of some $100 dollars due to Verizon Florida, Inc. Now some 15~20 years ago, I did live in Florida, and I did have local phone service with GTE, now part of Verizon (they listed a # and it sounds like it might have been mine, but it's been so long...

Democrats push to end private tax collectionsWed Jul 18, 2007 3:51PM EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Wednesday moved to end a treasured Republican program that allows private debt collectors to pursue tax debts owed to the U.S. government. The House Ways and Means Committee, on a mostly party line vote of 23-18, approved a bill ending the program enacted in 2004 by the then Republican-led Congress. Democrats, who now control Congress, and unions opposed the program, saying it was a costly way to collect tax debts that could more efficiently be collected by IRS...

THE LIST Names for collectors May 23, 2007 There are a number of special names for people who collect things: Archtophilist: a person who collects teddy bears Bibliophilist: collects books Brandophilist: collects cigar bands Conchologist: collects shells Deltiologist: collects postcards Lepidopterist: collects butterflies Numismatist: collects coins Philatelist: collects stamps Philographist: collects autographs Plangonologist: collects dolls Receptarist: collects recipes Vexillologist: collects flags SOURCE: FACTMONSTER.COM

Alex Gordon has yet to play a single game in the major leagues and yet his rookie card is the hottest in all of baseball, selling for as much as $2,550 in recent weeks. Is Gordon the Kansas City Royals' next great player? Could be. But that isn't why his card, which is No. 297 in Topps' 2006 set, is worth that kind of money. The piece of cardboard is worth that much only because it never should have been produced in the first place. Last year, in part to reduce confusion in the marketplace, the Major League Baseball Players...

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- The city tax collector is ready to put a local church that has been in New London since 1835 on the auction block for payment of a $4,339 tax bill. At issue is a bill sent out last July for property that the Second Congregational Church rents to the nonprofit Drop-In Learning Center.

Divorce can uncork nasty custody battleAlmost 300 cases of the finest wine, and it evaporated like morning mist. Five-hundred-dollar bottles. Thousand-dollar bottles. The French Bordeaux from his children's birth years, which he planned to uncork at their weddings. The 1966 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild he wanted to share one day with his brother. The only vintage that remained in his ransacked office, Doug Eisinger said, was a single bottle of 1990 Dom Perignon. "I plan on drinking that on the day of my divorce," he said. Eisinger, 37, who lives in Sherwood Forest in Anne Arundel County, claims that his estranged wife,...

Agency Details Shekinah, Inc 7755 Center Avenue, Suite 1000 Huntington Beach, CA 92648 Phone: (714) 475-5460 Fax: (714) 475-5471 Web Address: NONE!     Head Debt Collectors: James Arley Trent,45, Owner Devin Molina, CEO (#1 bro in law to Trent) Cecilia Trent, wife, (controls the money) Dana Koprowski, flunkie David Vasquez, VP (#2 bro in-law to Trent) David Brown aka David Noble, gofer Joe Dorsey, fall guy Dan Durbin aka/Daniel Schiele, the liar & con man debt collector!   Luis Esteban Vasquez, Attorney, CA Bar#162798 (Rent-A-Lawyer) so they can intimidate you with calls from a "Law Office" A check of...

LACONIA — A Meredith woman in a battle with breast and brain cancer is now facing the costly reality of not having medical insurance. A Superior Court judge has ordered her and her husband, sued by Lakes Region General Hospital for non-payment of medical bills, to make payment secured by an attachment on their home. In March, the hospital filed suit against Paul Hough and his wife, Wanda, of 19 Water St., Meredith for $48,081.26 in medical bills, plus accruing interest and legal fees connected to the collection efforts. Judge Larry Smukler granted the hospital's motion for summary judgment on...

It’s fascinating what people choose to collect as a hobby. As a kid, I collected stamps. It wasn’t much of a collection. I loved the colorful triangle stamps put out by some country named, as I recall, Tanya Touva. At least I assumed it was a country. It could have just been some guy in Nova Scotia with a printing press and a clever scheme to separate 10-year-olds from their nickels and dimes. Somewhere along the way, my stamp album and I were separated. I also collected baseball cards – the kind that came wrapped in wax paper with a...

The Senate passed legislation Thursday that will make it harder for Americans to rid themselves of debt by filing for bankruptcy. The House is expected to pass the measure next month, delivering to President Bush a second victory this year on pro-business legislation he had sought. The vote was 74-25 to approve the most thorough overhaul of bankruptcy laws in a quarter-century.

A company selected to build a toll road from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio has a reputation for aggressively collecting money from motorists, treating customers poorly and frequently raising tolls without public input. Those are among the complaints lodged against Cintra -- selected in December to build the first leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor -- by motorists on the company's toll roads in Toronto and Chicago. Across North America, private companies such as Cintra are spending billions of dollars to build roads in exchange for the right to collect tolls for 50 to 100 years -- relieving taxpayers of the...

<p>Imagine doing a Google search for a phone number, weather report or sports score. The results page would be filled with links to various sources of information. But what if someone typed in keywords and no results came back?</p> <p>That's the scenario critics are painting of a new bill wending its way through Congress that would let certain companies own facts, and exact a fee to access them.</p>

No one should be able to own facts about other people. Our names and numbers, and also the laws we must obey, should not be property that can be owned by corporations and policed by federal courts. But special interests, such as the Software and Information Industry Association, are seeking new powers to own facts about us and about information we need. After quietly shopping a bill to Members of Congress for several weeks, the Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act was finally introduced last week as H.R. 3261. The Constitution authorizes Congress to create copyrights. But your name,...

Some lay Catholics speak with their wallets. What can ordinary Catholics do to encourage their bishop to take more serious action against priest sex-abuse? A group of Catholic laymen in Chicago think they've found the answer. They have founded a group to encourage local Catholics to boycott the parish collection plate until they've seen Francis Cardinal George get tough with sexual abusers in the priesthood and open up archdiocesan files for a full accounting of four decades of clergy abuse.,p. Members of the Ad Hoc Committee for Prevention of Sex Abuse by Clergy insist that the cardinal allow an independent...