Yes, the cash advance clowns have been captured in Arizona. But that doesn't mean all payday loan establishments across the nation are safe. A recent case in California proves as much.

Authorities spent the afternoon searching for an armed robber who entered a local business, held a gun to a customer’s head and demanded money.

It took place around 1 p.m. Wednesday. The man walked into a bad credit payday loan store in the area of Seventh and Sage streets and made off with thousands of dollars, according to Deputy Brian Taylor of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Victorville station.

When the suspect walked into the store, a woman was standing at the counter, cashing a check in hopes of receiving a helpful, cheap payday loan. The man stuck the gun to her head and told the clerk he'd shoot the woman if the clerk didn't give the suspect all the money in the store, Taylor said.

He then also demanded money from the woman he'd threatened to kill. He was very greedy. The clerk started sending cash through a window before the suspect took it and ran off, leaving the pay day loan establishment on foot.

The suspect is described as a black man approximately, 6 feet tall and weighing 190 pounds, wearing a red shirt with playing cards on the front, a red baseball hat and blue jeans.

The California debate over military payday loans rages on. The fight was taken to the radio airways yesterday.

As reported by The San Diego Business Journal, those turned to the correct dial must've heard quite the debate yesterday. Because payday advance lenders supposedly thrive around military bases, their high-interest loans have drawn criticism from military brass.

Consequently, San Diego bad credit payday loan experts offered their take on the issue during an Internet radio show yesterday afternoon.

An archived program will soon be available on www.wsradio.com and is from a show called the “Entrepreneur Magazine Money and You Show.”

Rear Adm. Len Hering - San Diego’s “Navy mayor” - and Michael Calhoun of the Center for Responsible Lending in North Carolina discussed the issue of faxless online payday loans with the show’s trio of hosts, all from San Diego-based USA Federal Credit Union.

We doubt they got along too well, but hopefully listeners learned a great deal about the overall issue of payday loans online while making a decision on them for themselves in the future.

Military payday loans? You've recently made a new enemy. The high-interest cash advances that target our armed forces are under attack in California, as the Center for Responsible Lending leads the way.

As High-ranking Navy and Marine officers, consumer groups and their allies in the legislature tried to ban such pay day loan lending, it appears as though the'll fall short when the legislative session ends this week.

"We may have missed a chance to keep our service people out of the clutches of predators," said Paul Leonard, director of the California office of the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit that goes after predatory lenders."Our legislators could give them some financial body armor, but it doesn't look like that will happen."

In California, the average faxless payday loan borrower ends up paying $660 on a $255 an advance. Making monetary matters worse, thse providers cluster around the nation's military bases seeking to hook young, cash-strapped, financially inexperienced soldiers and sailors on this expensive kind of debt. Military people are three or four times more likely to be victims of payday lenders, the Pentagon says.

"We're hearing more and more stories from sailors who get themselves in a cycle of debt," says Navy Capt. Mark Patton, who testified for the military at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee.

Worst of all, payday advance companies are hurting the military's ability to defend the country.

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The movement to regulate military payday loans may be taking place in Washington, D.C., but that hasn't stopped its affects from being felt in California.

As The Daily Breeze reports, those involved in the battle area. Appealing to the Legislature's wartime patriotism and sympathy for soldiers trapped in a cycle of debt. They have help from Torrance Assemblyman Ted Lieu.

Lieu is pushing legislation to protect military families from being preyed upon by these allegedly cheap payday loan companies that often charge more than 400 percent annual interest.

"The military doesn't often come to the state Capitol to ask for help. They are doing that now in a time of war and I ask that we give them that help," said Lieu, a Democrat and former Air Force attorney who remains on reserve duty.

While Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on the Assembly Bill 1965, spokesman Bill Maile said "the governor strongly supports efforts to increase protections for military personnel against predatory lenders."

We all do. Here's what the proposted bill would include:

• A 36 percent cap on the interest rate at of a military payday loan.

• A ban on ALL payday loan companies from using military insignias in advertising and from implying in advertising that they are endorsed by the armed forces.

• The prohibition of interest from accumulating when military personnel are deployed overseas, such as in Iraq or Afghanistan.

• The borrower also would have 30 days to start repaying the regular or faxless payday loan after returning to a U.S. base.

As the Department of Defense and the Pentagon take aim at this issue, hope is strong for the payday advance bill to pass.

Despite it success as an instant payday loan company in The Golden State, Allied Cash Advance has relocated its corporate headquarters from the Bay Area to Miami, citing the high cost of doing business in California, the company said Wednesday.

The business was founded in 1999 with a single location in Northern California.

Today, ACA is one of the nation's largest payday cash loan lenders with more than 250 branches in a dozen states. The move took place in 2005 but the company didn't make an official announcement regarding it until this week.

Indeed, Allied is a long way from its early days when John Lie-Nielsen and Scott Crockett left their corporate finance positions at Montgomery Securities, now part of Bank of America, to launch the payday advance lender.

The creation of Allied grew out of the bankers' careful reading of a payday advance lender's regulatory filing to go public, which was being handled by a rival investment bank. The two bankers, whose friendship goes back to their college years, liked what they saw in terms of the profitability of extending short-term loans to school teachers, mechanics and others who sometimes have trouble making ends meet at the end of the month.

The bankers also got inspired to be entrepreneurs after sitting in countless meetings at Montgomery.

"We saw that the person with the most money in the room wasn't necessarily the smartest, but the one who took action," Lie-Nielsen said.

Can't blame the guy for trying to make a buck.

Simply put: members of the U.S. military are under financial attack.

The issue of military payday loans is growing especially strong in California, as the battle to quiet abusive lending programs is having an impact on the ability of armed forces to do their jobs.

"Predatory lending practices represent a real and growing threat to the military readiness of our Navy men and women stationed in California," said Rear Adm. Len Hering, who represents all Navy bases in California as commander for the Navy Region Southwest. "The connection between military readiness at this time when our nation is at war and the marketing of payday loans outside of our gates is well-established."

According to a report from the California Reinvestment Coalition, the highest concentration of instant payday loan lenders in the state can be found near Camp Pendleton. It claims 70 offices are located near the Marine base where more than 60,000 military and civilian personnel work. The situation is just as bad outside of the Naval Station San Diego.

The Center for Responsible Lending claims such military payday loans are designed to trap borrowers. On the surface these cash advances seem innocent; but, when you dig little deeper, things get pretty ugly.

The typical two-week payday loan has an annual percentage rate of 400 percent.

"Given that they are living paycheck-to-paycheck, it is not surprising that most borrowers are unable to pay the loan back in full on its first due date," said Charles Lowery of the Center. "Short of cash, and faced with either paying $300 to retire the loan, or paying $45 to put off the hardship and avoid default for another pay period, borrowers will typically need to pay the $45 fee to float the loan."

California law does ban rollovers, but payday advance lenders have found loopholes that allow the abuse to continue.

Fast payday loan lenders take advantage of the fact that California has some of the weakest laws in the country, said Major Gen. Michael Lehnert, commanding general of Marine Corps Installations West.

"Here in San Diego we regularly see rates of 460 percent (over the course of a year), and I have seen rates as high as 920 percent being charged legally against our service members. Ultimately, because we expect our Marines to be financially responsible, their ability to re-enlist, compete for good jobs and keep a security clearance is affected," he said.

Armed forced leaders are supporting legislation pending in Sacramento that would cap the interest rate on any military payday loan at 36 percent.

A payday loan company with offices in Arcadia and Eagle Rock, Calif., faces allegations of deceptive business practices and fraud in a complaint filed Tuesday by the California Attorney General's Office.

The complaint, reports the Pasadena Star-News, will be heard in Pasadena Superior Court and seeks at least $2 million in civil penalties from the now defunct Fast Cash payday loan service. The complaint seeks $350,000 in restitution for the firm's former customers.

The company is alleged to have charged excessive and illegal penalties to customers who wrote bad checks to secure what are commonly known as payday loans.

"Fast Cash extorted outrageous amounts of money from its customers. They threatened lawsuits, tried to squeeze settlements, and, when that did not work, they deceived the court to win improper judgments against more than 400 customers," Attorney General Bill Lockyer said in a prepared statement.

Under California law, when a customer bounces a check used to secure a faxless payday loan, the lender can collect a penalty equal to the amount of the check, plus a $15 handling fee. The complaint alleges Fast Cash demanded customers pay four times the amount of the bad check, and took to small claims court any customer who refused to pay.

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In the Golden State, a battle over military payday loans is raging. The same cannot be said for regular cash advances, however, those resources meant to assist the common consumer.

In fact, one company is adding payday loans to its list of financial services. Yesterday, California Payroll announced its partnership with AeroAdvance, Inc., a San Jose-based payday loan company. Throug AeroAdvance.biz, AeroAdvance’s online payday loan portal, California Payroll will offer its clients payday advance services.

“With payday advance services, our clients can offer their employees a solution without assuming the administrative or financial burden of providing short-term loans,” said Henry Lonsdale, President of California Payroll.

In many cases, the employer is put in a difficult situation when employees request paycheck or payday advances.

“Now all employers can provide their employees an easy and convenient option for payroll advances without having to decide whether or not to provide a loan,” continued Mr. Lonsdale.

Payday advance services are 100% free to California Payroll clients, enabling them to offer their employees discounted payroll advance rates far less than the retail stores they may already be utilizing.

“By partnering with companies like California Payroll, consumers now have alternatives to the brick and mortar, as well as other online, instant payday loan stores,” said Jon Sanchez, President/COO of AeroAdvance. “Through our partnerships, we are able to provide more competitive rates and personalized service.

According to the California Reinvestment Coalition, the men and women of the U.S. military have become prey to modern loan sharks. By that, the consumer group is talking about military payday loan organizations blanketing bases and doing all they can to trap service members in dangerous cycles of debt.

Now, California legislators have a chance to protect them in a hearing scheduled for August 8. Last month, the State Assembly passed, with a vote of 71-1, a bill with limited protections for military personnel from payday lenders.

In its current form, the bill, AB 1965, does not cap the interest rate on payday loans below the current State rate of 459 percent.

In contrast, the U.S. Senate recently passed with strong bipartisan support an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would cap the interest rate for all forms of credit to active duty military personnel at an APR of 36 percent, including all fees and service charges.

The California Reinvestment Coalition is concerned about payday lending and its negative effects on military personnel, low-income communities and in particular, minorities. California senators have been urged to amend AB 1965 to include a 36 percent cap on faxless payday loan interest rates.

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In what shouldn't exactly be a shock, a recent report states that low-income individuals around the country pay extra for every day fees/items than their better off counterparts. 

Why is this the case? Because this group of citizens take out higher-interest mortgages, shop at rent-to-own furniture stores and use payday loan companies often. The study was sponsored by the Brookings Institution study, which analyzed services in San Francisco, Oakland and 11 other cities.

The report - "From Poverty, Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower-Income Families" - calls on government officials to create laws to curb services that gouge low-income consumers, such as regulating the entire field of faxless payday loans. Matt Fellowes, the report's main author, praised San Francisco's new push for mainstream financial services in poorer areas as an example.

"Reducing the fees by just 1 percent would add up to $6.5 billion in new spending power for the families," said Fellowes, a senior research associate at Brookings. "It would enable low- and modest-income residents to save for and invest in assets, like homes and retirement savings or pay for child expenses like health care and education."

Among the cities Brookings studied, San Francisco stood out most for its high concentration of providers that specialize in short-term payday loans and check-cashing businesses - where customers pay $5 to $50 to cash a check. Its poor neighborhoods have the second-highest concentration per capita.

Moreover, you're nearly five times more likely to find a check-cashing business in a poor area than any other neighborhood in this city. In the Tenderloin, the city's poorest area, there are 10 check-cashing businesses alone!

Payday advance lenders, of course, offer cash for a consumer's own post-dated check, charge 500 percent-plus in annual interest.

"Check cashing and payday lending are probably the biggest financial impediments facing low-income people," said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition. "It is a huge problem in San Francisco."