Stew of News - Detroit shooting, BOA exposed

7 teenagers wounded in drive-by shooting

Lovely men with guns in what must have been an ugly-green minivan opened fire on a group of teenagers at a bus stop near a school Tuesday, wounding at least seven, two of whom were in critical condition, AP reported.

My guess is they were pissed...and stupid.

Two or three scumbags with guns oozed out of the minivan and asked for someone by name before displaying their toughness by opening fire at the crown, a Detroit Police spokesman said according to an AP report.

The students' names and ages weren't immediately released, AP said.

Wronged bank clients and workers demand reform

Consumer and labor groups are demanding Bank of America (BOA) and other lenders reform their sales practices so that workers under pressure to meet sales quotas do not screw customers over with costly and unnecessary products.

The whistle-blowing campaign was announced Tuesday as the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled legislation to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which is part of the Obama administration financial regulation overhaul, Reuters reported.

Former BOA employees (among them bank whores) allege their supervisors drove them to burden consumers with needless debt and fees to fatten the bank's earnings and the paychecks of senior executives, claiming the bosses threatened to screw them too if they complained (I just threw up in my mouth a little). Some say the banks were stiffing them with puny salaries, so they had to hit the "screwing the customer" quotas to earn needed bonuses.

Representative Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who sits on the House Financial Services Committee said lending standards could be compromised by "the urgency to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell." (Could be? Ya think?)

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), National Association of Consumer Advocates, and U.S. Public Interest Research Group organized the campaign.

Bank of America spokeswoman Anne Pace rejected the allegations (nah...really?), noting the SEIU misrepresented BOA's relationship with its customers and associates. (Where there's smoke, there's fire...if you ask me...though unions can be one of the worst pains one can get in the ass.)

She said the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank, the largest in the U.S., is "pro-associate and believes that managers are well-equipped to respond to associates' needs," and is committed to ensuring that customer fees are "transparent and predictable." (Blah, blah, blah...yada, yada, yada.... ugh. Sounds like something straight out of the bank's mission statement or some bullshit like that.)

Christopher Feener, who used to work in the bank's credit card unit, complained (victims or whiners?) the bank regularly violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, pushing workers to falsely threaten legal action against customers (bastards!). He said his team was sometimes pushed to call customers' neighbors about delinquent accounts "to embarrass the customer and actually encourage the neighbor to bring over a message."

I Just threw up in my mouth again.

Sources: AP, Reuters, Me
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