Week In Review

The middle class complain about bank fees. The poor and working poor, who can't afford bank accounts, do business with payday lenders.

One of last week's top stories focused on . It wants the legislature to increase the amount it can advance its customers. The limit is now $300. The industry wants that boosted to $500. 

Critics say payday lenders charge exhorbitant interest and should be curtailed. Supporters say payday lenders fill a need and take big risks when they extend credit.

The story provoked .

Interestingly, on Friday the Alameda County Department of Public Health said it has received a $200,000 grant to help "households (that) do not have access to a checking or savings account and use predatory financial services – such as check cashers, payday lenders, and pawn shops – to meet their banking and credit needs."

This is an issue that is not going away.

Lawsuit against San Leandro makes national news

Last week , the Wall Street Journal wrote about the legal battle between the and San Leandro.

As , it is a zoning dispute that became a federal case.

The church wanted to expand into a building that the city wanted to preserve for an industrial tenant.

Congress has given religious organizations ways to challenge rules that could arguably interfere with their exercise of religious freedom.

The city is now on the defensive in a legal battle that has cost it an estimated $570,000 in legal fees so far. The Journal speculated that a settlement could cost San Leandro about $4 million.

Medical records breach affects local hospital patients.

a computer stolen from Sutter Health contained more than 4 million patient records.

Patients at San Leandro Hospital may have been among those affected.

Fortunately no Social Security numbers were lost.

But the information was still sensitive.

Over 3 million Sutter patients throughout Northern California had their names, dates of birth, email addresses and other information leak out.

For an additional 1 million Sutter patients the breach was even worse. They lost another layer of data -- the specific dates and nature of treatments.

Karen Barney, a spokeswoman for the Identity Theft Resource Center, said identity thieves could use such information as bait to go phishing —  that is, pose as a medical provider to trick the recipient of a message into divulging their Social Security and/or bank account number.

Sutter is going to mail a letter to the nearly one million people whose treatment data was released.

Sutter has established a toll-free number to help patients determine whether their data was lost. Call (855) 770-0003 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

When prompted, patients should enter this 10-digit reference code: 7637111511

If you get a letter, please share any non-sensitive information with Patch.

School board floats parcel tax proposal.

Pollsters will soon be asking San Leandro voters whether they would support a parcel tax to help the city's public schools make up for budget cuts.

The school board hasn't officially decided whether or how much to seek in additional funding.

But , discussion at the Tuesday night school board meeting suggests members are inclined to go for a mail in ballot in May.

They looked at proposals that would cost each homeowner from $48 to $124 per parcel, and would allow seniors to opt out of paying, but made no decisions.