Bloomington City Council Passes Payday Resolution

On November 14, by a vote of six to three, the Bloomington City Council passed a resolution urging the state of Illinois to prohibit usurious small consumer lending in the state of Illinois.  This resolution identifies payday loans and small consumer loans exceeding 36% APR interest rates as having an "unreasonable adverse effect upon the elderly, the economically disadvantaged, and other citizens of the State of Illinois."

Bloomington is the first IPA municipality to pass such an ordinance.  IPA has active payday campaigns in four other municipalities.  Aldermen supporting the resolution included: Mboka Mwilambwe, Jennifer McDade, Bernie Anderson, Karen Schmidt, Jim Fruin, and Robert Fazzini.  Voting against the ordinance were David Sage, Judy Stearns and Steven Purcell.

IPA has statewide meeting on Payday and Title Lending

30 leaders and staff from four IPA chapters came together on November 12 to determine IPA's 2012 goals and strategy on predatory lending.  Karen Harris from the Sargent Shriver Center on Poverty Law, was a guest presenter.

Don Carlson, IPA Executive Director, summarized IPA's organizing work on payday lending during 2011.  Attendance at IPA actions on payday lending has exceeded 300.  IPA leaders have met with 27 aldermen in 4 cities and have earned 8 media stories.  Leaders throughout the state have written dozens of letters to the editor and over 2000 signatures have been collected on petitions asking city council members to pass ordinances that would cap payday lending interest rates at 36%.

The focus in 2012 will include:

• Local Organizing- working to pass ordinances  that will either cap payday interest rates, zone the payday lenders out, or restrict their practices in such a way as to make it onerous for them to continue to lending at usurious interest rates; working to pass resolutions that can be used in statewide organizing efforts; keeping the issue in the public eye.
• Statewide Organizing- focus on Governor Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan to publicly commit that PDL is predatory and that PDL campaign contributions are toxic; gear up for 2013 legislative fight.
• National Organizing- focus on Senator Durbin to reintroduce national CAP 36.
• Title Lending- Engage in a 2012 campaign to regulate the title lending industry at the statewide level.  

Pro Payday Forces Get Violent with IPA

Following the Bloomington City Council Meeting on Monday, November 14, a group of pro-payday thugs surrounded IPA Executive Director, Don Carlson, on city property as he exited City Hall. 

Refusing to let Don pass and shouting obscenities, the leader, who identified himself as Roger Peterson, began to chest-bump Don.  There were multiple witnesses to the altercation which was unprovoked.  One witness reported it to a police officer near the scene immediately after the incident.  Don followed up by filing a report the next day.  It is being investigated by the police. 

IPA is developing a policy for ensuring the safety of leaders and staff at public events.  But the organization is steadfast in its intent not to let bullies keep us from organizing for economic justice against the exorbitant fees charged by payday lenders.  We will prevail. 

Your action is needed to stop tax breaks for Illinois' "Wall Street."

The Illinois General Assembly is still working to give a huge tax give-away of between $100 and $200 million to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Options Exchange--Illinois' "Wall Street."  These are the speculators who helped crash the economy and who are two of the most highly profitable corporations in America.

The tax increase passed on working people last year would go directly into the  pockets of CME and CBOE.  This while public schools, services for seniors, children and the disabled  and infrastructure spending continue to get cut!

Please call House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie and tell her to kill Senate Bill 397 (the new bill number) and not to to give our tax money to CME and CBOE. Its that simple. 

Her number is 773 667-0550.

Immigrant Families Live in Limbo 

The McLean County Sheriff department has called ICE over 70 times in 2011. That is seventy Latino families who don't know what the future will bring to their families or to their community.

In May 2011, Latinos United for Change (L.U.C.) began to investigate what was happening with the McLean county jail and ICE. After several calls to L.U.C. with tales of immigrants in the county jail waiting for ICE arrive, L.U.C. sent an invitation to a private meeting to the McLean County Sheriff Mike Emery.

In June, eight leaders had a meeting with the sheriff and asked for information about the people ICE was requesting to detain. The sheriff replied that he was unaware that his staff was calling ICE at all. He told the group that he would investigate the policy and send us the data that we requested.  To date, the data has not arrived.

Additionally, since the initial meeting with the sheriff, the number of ICE detainments has reached to record levels in McLean County.

L.U.C./IPA is hosting a community meeting on this issue on December 3.   We have invited the McLean County Sheriff to attend the meeting.  We would like him to stop honoring immigration detainers for misdemeanors and traffic violations.  He has the right to refuse to honor them as they are not criminal warrants.  McLean County can be the first county outside of Chicago to stand on the side of families.      

Come out to the meeting:

Saturday December 3, 2011 3pm-5pm

Bloomington Public Library - Community Room

205 E. Olive St.

Bloomington, IL  61701

Read more about this in the Pantagraph:

Traffic stops creating rift between Hispanic community, police  

50 New Leaders Trained This Fall

50 IPA leaders have completed new leader training in Bloomington/Normal and Springfield.  Peoria has scheduled new leader training for Saturday, January  14 at the Unitarian Church.  If you would like to attend this training, please call Dawn at (309) 827-9627.

IPA's Inaugural Fundraising House Party Smash Success 

IPA thanks Laurie and Ray Bergner for hosting IPA's first ever fundraising house party.  The event was a smash success, raising $5,000 for the organization.  And fun was had by all.  We would also like to thank Orlyn and Jana Edge who will be hosting a similar event in Normal, IL on Dec. 1 and the Decatur IPA Chapter who will be hosting a chapter-wide fundraiser on Dec. 8.  Thank you all for being champions for IPA! 

The Face of IPA

Who are we? We are Illinois Peoples Action!  We are a diverse group of people with varying backgrounds and denominations - yet are one and the same in terms of seeking justice values, family empowerment and economic security. 

As members of IPA, we would like to show you off.  We want to use visual snapshots of our members and supporters to be featured on our website.  These photos will also be used to put a "face" on IPA with foundations and the general public.  

Please send group pictures that include active IPA members. If possible, take these pictures in front of your church or affiliated organization. Please include the correct name and spelling of the church, and the names of the individuals in the pictures.

Support IPA with a generous donation

The work of Illinois People's Action is possible, in part, due to generous contributions from members and friends.  If you like the work we're doing, please consider sending us a gift.  IPA is a 501(c)3 organization and your gifts are tax deductible.   

You may send your tax-deductible donation to IPA via Credit Card or PayPal using this link:    

or by mailing a check to IPA:

Illinois People's Action

510 E. Washington Street, Suite 309

Bloomington, IL 61701\

Thank you for your support.

Don Carlson, Executive Director

Illinois People's Action