Payments

Members of a union for Harford County educators have accepted an agreement with the school system that will allow members to accept a one-time bonus that had been held up for months over a disagreement with County Executive David R. Craig. Nearly 2,000 Harford government employees received the first half of the $1,250 bonus in December and expect the remaining money in June. But the teachers union rejected the offer, saying Craig did should have run the offer by union and school board first.

Stef Gray launched an online protest against a $50 loan forbearance fee imposed by private student loan giant Sallie Mae. The fee is $50 per loan for a maximum of $150 per three-month reprieve on payments. Gray, who says she hasn't been able to find a full-time job since graduating last year, launched an online campaign against the fee. So far she's collected more than 78,000 signatures in support. Sallie Mae said yesterday it is revising the fee, adding that this was something it had been thinking about for some time.

Harford County's teachers union and school board reached a tentative deal Wednesday to amend this school year's contract to include half of the county executive's proposed bonus disbursement. The amendment allows for a one-time payment of $625 for all teachers, as long as the funding is approved by County Executive David R. Craig, a Republican and teacher in the district for 34 years, and the County Council, according to a statement Wednesday evening from Harford County's public schools.

Maryland officials said on Friday that they had seized $400,000 in overdue child support payments from one parent, the largest such collection state history. "I hope that this collection sends a clear message to non-custodial parents that Maryland is committed to collecting the support that is due to our children," said a statement from Ted Dallas, the secretary of the Department of Human Resources. The agency is charged with collecting child-support payments and has investigators with the Child Support Enforcement Administration.

An article by Payments Source, a sister publication of the American Banker, recently reported that J.P. Morgan Chase has stopped filing lawsuits to collect on credit card and other debts in several states - including Maryland. The publication noted that Chase had fired in-house attorneys involved in collections. A review of electronic court records by the American Banker found that Chase collections efforts disappeared in Maryland, California, Florida, New York, and Washington, and dropped off dramatically in Illinois in recent months.

A former assistant vice president for M&T Bank in Baltimore has been charged with mail fraud, prosecutors said, after she defrauded a federal export credit agency and an international corporation to pay American Express bills and her taxes. Rosamaria T. Somarriba is accused of taking more than $223,000 between 2006 and 2011, according to a criminal information filed Dec. 19 in federal court for the District of Maryland. Somarriba worked in the bank's international trade finance division, according to the court filing.

Jeremy Schwarz's op-ed piece contrasting unemployment insurance and welfare makes several points that don't bear up under scrutiny ("Unemployment benefits are not like welfare," Dec. 21). He's correct that people pay insurance to protect themselves in case of an adverse event; however, workers do not pay for unemployment insurance. Unlike Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, to which both employers and employees contribute, unemployment insurance is paid entirely by the employer.

The state may have erroneously paid up to $2.5 million on health care through the Medicaid program for more than 300 low-income residents after they died, according to a state legislative audit released Wednesday. The payments were discovered after auditors checked the names of Medicaid recipients from January 2008 through August of this year against Social Security records to capture those who died out of state. The program had relied on state vital statistics to track deaths.

Another challenge by ground rent holders to Maryland's 2007 reform laws has been revived, with lease holders claiming that a state law unconstitutionally diminished the value of their property by making collection of payments costly and difficult to enforce. Attorneys for ground rent holders in a pending class action lawsuit say that a recent ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals dooms the law being challenged, according to a recent motion. They are asking a judge in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court to invalidate the law. But in a newly filed motion, the attorney general's office says otherwise.

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been working to design mortgage documents that makes it clear to homebuyers the cost of their loan and other important details. It has posted sample documents, asking consumers to weigh in on which form is best. Now, it's working with the Department of Education to do the same on federal student loans. The CFPB posted a sample loan form , requesting comment. But that's not all. The Bureau also launched a tool to help borrowers struggling to repay loan to understand their options.