You can do it yourself — without a credit repair company — In the wake of news that most medical debt will be removed from consumer credit reports this summer, you may be wondering how to be sure your credit report is accurate going forward. 70% of Medical Debt to be Removed from Credit Reports Credit reporting agencies announce relief for consumers facing medical debtadvocateandy.medium.com An accurate credit report matters because your credit score is used for things like getting a mortgage…

A man, a job, and a secret — James found himself sitting alone in his car at around 8:30 each night, wet from a mixture of his own sweat and the sprinklers on the fresh rack — the place in the tiny store where the vegetables were displayed. He’d light up a White Owl Sweet and roll down…

A long simmering problem finally boils over — According to Jessica Wildfire, the answer to “Who Wants to Teach” is nobody. It’s difficult to look at local news from just about anywhere in the country without seeing stories about a large number of teacher vacancies and no one standing in line to fill them. I’ve written about this…

Google, Meta may be violating equal credit laws with their marketing — Jason Mikula at Fintech Business Weekly reports on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) notice to Big Tech companies about potential liability under various consumer protection laws. The CFPB has put “Big Tech” on notice that they may be considered service providers to financial services companies that use their advertising…

The creative writing platform slowly moves toward 5000 members — I’ve been writing on Simily since January of this year and regularly chronicling my experience there so Medium readers can learn more about this new platform focused on creative writing. This Notification is About Simily Simily sometimes upgrades features, but not the ones that matteradvocateandy.medium.com Last week, I wrote about winning the “Story of the Month” for my piece “Birds of Pray.”

More than $1 million spent to shift outcomes of primaries — I wrote recently about Team Kid PAC, the political action arm of Tennesseans for Student Success. Team Kid's Payroll Dark money PAC spends nearly $400,000 to promote school privatization I've written before about Tennesseans for Student…tnedreport.com The dark money, pro-privatization group spent heavily to influence key races in the August primary. As Adam Friedman in the Tennessean notes, Team Kid was joined by other privatization groups in spending that ultimately…

Car repair lender teams up with TAB Bank to offer 189% interest rate loans — EasyPay Finance is making the news and not in a good way. 8 News Now in Las Vegas has noted that auto repair lender EasyPay is teaming up with Utah-based TAB Bank to offer predatory auto repair loans with rates up to 189%. If you’re thinking about financing an auto…

Infraction leads to customer refunds — I’ve written quite a bit recently about the growing Buy Now, Pay Later industry. Warm and Fuzzy Grocery Debt? The dark side of Buy Now, Pay Lateradvocateandy.medium.com Today’s installment comes from an article by Jason Mikula in Fintech Business Weekly. Mikula notes that a California regulatory board has cited Buy Now, Pay Later operator Four for operating without a license.

A complicated memory — I was standing there. At the funeral home. Looking at a display of pictures from my father’s life. And I saw it. A picture of my dad’s dad. My papaw. He was pictured with his two sons. He was wearing a stained white t-shirt. This had to be quite a…