TV News LIES

Banking regulators are set to hand down tough new rules to govern short-term, high-interest loans that have been blamed for trapping some Americans in a cycle of debt, according to people familiar with the matter.

The rules, which are slated to come out Thursday, could radically alter the operations of the small but growing number of banks, including Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp, that offer loans tied to anticipated direct deposits of salary, government benefits or other income. Critics say these products carry the same abusive high interest rates and balloon payments as the payday loans provided by storefront vendors.

The Internal Revenue Service issued more than $11 billion in improper payments through its Earned Income Tax Credit program last year, according to an inspector general’s report released this week.

Treasury Department deputy inspector general Michael McKenney found that the IRS has failed to comply for two consecutive years with the Improper Payments Elimination Act, which President Obama signed in 2010. The law requires federal agencies to reduce erroneous payments to a rate of less than 10 percent.

A couple serving probation for the 2009 death of their toddler after they turned to prayer instead of a doctor could face new charges now that another son has died.

Herbert and Catherine Schaible belong to a fundamentalist Christian church that believes in faith healing. They lost their 8-month-old son, Brandon, last week after he suffered from diarrhea and breathing problems for at least a week, and stopped eating. Four years ago, another son died from bacterial pneumonia.

President Obama will deliver the keynote address at Planned Parenthood's Gala dinner, which will honor Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and 'Girls' star Lena Dunham.

The event Thursday in Washington will celebrate "champions of women's health," the organization announced Tuesday.

“President Obama has done more than any president in history for women’s health and rights,” Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said in a statement.  “He understands that access to birth control and preventive health care are economic issues for women and their families.

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The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack, according to U.S. officials familiar with the interviews.

From his hospital bed, where he is now listed in fair condition, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has acknowledged his role in planting the explosives near the marathon finish line on April 15, the officials said. The first successful large-scale bombing in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era, the Boston attack killed three people and wounded more than 250 others.

Paul Kevin Curtis, the Mississippi man charged with sending ricin-laced letters to the White House, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge, was released on bond Tuesday and the FBI may have turned its attention to another man in connection with the poison attacks.

James Everette Dutschke, of Tupelo, Miss., said the FBI was searching his home in connection with the ricin letter case, according to the Associated Press. Dutschke told the AP that he was innocent and said he doesn’t know anything about the ingredients for ricin.