Lisa Madigan, the attorney general of Illinois, is investigating subprime mortgage lender Countrywide "as part of the state's expanding inquiry into dubious lending practices that have trapped borrowers in high-cost mortgages they can no longer afford," says the New York Times.

Lisa Madigan, the attorney general, has subpoenaed documents from Countrywide relating to its loan origination practices, a person briefed on the matter said. Rick Simon, a Countrywide spokesman, said the company was cooperating with the investigation but declined to comment further.

The inquiry follows an investigation by Ms. Madigan's office into One Source Mortgage, a Chicago mortgage broker that recently closed its doors. Ms. Madigan sued One Source on Nov. 27, contending that the company misled borrowers by promising low rates on mortgages without advising them that their payments would jump sharply shortly after the loans were made. Countrywide was One Source's primary lender, according to the lawsuit. One Source is being investigated for tricking borrowers into signing up for loans in which only a part of the interest is paid, resulting in a mortgage that grows, rather than shrinks as time goes on. These loans are illegal in 25 states, but, of course, not in Illinois—the Sucker State.
The attorney general's lawsuit contended that One Source put borrowers into loans with terms they did not understand, especially so-called pay option adjustable-rate mortgages. These loans allow borrowers to pay only a fraction of the interest owed and none of the principal, resulting in a growing rather than a shrinking mortgage balance. Countrywide was One Source's main provider of pay option loans, documents in that case show.

"This company's conduct is a prime example of unscrupulous mortgage brokers that has led to a foreclosure crisis for many Illinois homeowners," Ms. Madigan said when she filed the suit against One Source. One Source mortgage brokers are accused of inflating borrowers incomes, telling customers that they had to close before the terms of the deal were explained, lying about the terms of the mortgages, and closing mortgages in as little as 15 minutes.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is the Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, which recently Our home state of Illinois is the largest producer of pumpkins in the US (Yes, we really do think that's cool, ok?)

Sadly for you, it rained too much in the Sucker State and you probably paid a lot more for your pumpkins this year, says NPR.

"We had 24 inches of rain for two weeks at the end of August," said Carrie Goebbert, owner of Goebbert's pumpkin farm in South Barrington, Illinois. "So all of our pumpkins were set, and a lot of them (because of the warm night and warm days) were fully mature and ended up rotting in the fields. They were basically floating."

She had to import pumpkins from Kentucky, New Mexico and Texas to meet demand; and raise prices from 35 cents to 39 cents a pound.

Still, her profits will be down substantially, Goebbert said.

"I know certainly in the surrounding farms -- within 60 miles of our farm in every direction -- had the same problem," Goebbert said In other news: The series of crazy rain storms split one of our Mom & Dad's maple trees right in half. Sorry, nation, for the expensive pumpkins. Mother nature is fickle.

Reader and commenter ChicagoOutfit is having trouble with Illinois' much-loved tollway system. His I-Pass account has someone else's transponder attached to it and he's paying for some random jerk's tolls. He calls the ISTHA and has it removed, but Illinois doesn't refund his money and the transponder keeps coming back.

(For those of you who have never lived in the good state of Illinois, I-Pass is like E-Z Pass in other states, but presumably more corrupt and less efficient due to its association with the State of Illinois. For those of you who don't know what E-Z pass is, it's a thing that lets you pay tolls without opening your window or stopping.)

Hey there Consumerist, I'm not sure this is a "tip"... but I'm wondering if someone out there can help me move forward with an annoying problem I've had all year with the Illinois I-Pass system's billing:

Later this morning (Wednesday, Oct. 24) will be the fifth time this year that I have to call and tell them that they have, yet again, tied someone else's I-Pass transponder to my account... deducting money from my debit account each time said other person uses his/her rouge I-Pass transponder and brings my account down to a $10.00 "re- fill" amount. And, it's the same rogue I-Pass transponder every single time (#01500376144) this year!

I have been "assured" that it will not happen again on each previous occasion, but it never holds true. All Illinois I-Pass does is delete said rogue I-Pass from my account, but *never* credits me back the money deducted by the rouge I-Pass! I have no other debit account that I could tie mine to (and in Illinois, if you do not use the I- Pass system... you pay double the toll fee), if not I'd just turn it off. I've been in Beijing, China for over a week and can see the usage of the rogue I-Pass transponder on my account.

- What can I do to force them to give me every cent the rogue I-Pass transponder (#01500376144) has used