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Trump pressures journalist to accept doctored photo as real: 'Why don't you just say yes?' Head Start funding cuts threaten MA early childhood program success; FL tomato industry enters new era as U.S.-Mexico trade agreement ends; KY's federal preschool funding faces uncertain future.

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President Trump acknowledges the consumer toll of his tariffs on Chinese goods. Labor groups protest administration policies on May Day, and U.S. House votes to repeal a waiver letting California ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.

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Rural students who face hurdles going to college are getting noticed, Native Alaskans may want to live off the land but obstacles like climate change loom large, and the Cherokee language is being preserved by kids in North Carolina.

OR legislation aims to protect against debt collection practices

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Monday, January 22, 2024   

Oregon lawmakers could add greater safeguards for consumers from debt collectors this session.

The Family Financial Protection Act of Oregon includes a suite of provisions to shield consumers, including ensuring people can keep more of their wages from being garnished to pay back debts.

State Sen. Chris Gorsek - D-Gresham - is a supporter, and said the goal of the legislation is to keep debt from ruining people's lives.

"We're not trying to keep people from having to pay their debt," said Gorsek, "but we are certainly trying to protect them so that in the process of paying those debts they are not economically devastated."

The legislation would give people more time to file a legal complaint if a debt collector comes after them for the wrong amount, or if the debt is not theirs.

During testimony against similar legislation last year, opponents said it could raise the cost of loans because of the risk that more people won't pay them back.

Gorsek said he sees the bill as a way to provide economic stability to people's lives. He said it goes hand-in-hand with efforts to address the state's affordable housing crisis.

"If we can prevent more people from becoming houseless," said Gorsek, "it'll make the state's job and local counties' jobs and cities' jobs a lot easier - if we don't continue to see more people being pushed into that category."

The 2024 legislative session begins on February 5.




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