Former managers for Ohio-based payday lender Check ‘n Go were ordered to solicit poor, black residents, rewarded for pushing people into revolving loans and pressured to donate to a company executive running for the Ohio House, they said yesterday. Donovan and two former Washington-area store managers for Check ‘n Go, the nation’s second-largest payday lending company, spoke out yesterday at a news conference in Washington as part of an effort to get the District of Columbia Council to cap payday-lending interest rates. Bill Faith, the executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, said the former Check ‘n Go officials backed up his argument that payday loans trap people in a spiral of debt. Batchelder, a Medina Republican, said his bill would cap interest rates on payday loans at 36 percent annualized (the current limit is 391 percent), encourage banks and others to offer small loans and limit a borrower to two payday loans per year. Donovan also said yesterday that he felt pressured to donate to the campaign of company executive John Rabenold, a Republican running for the Ohio House in the 35th District near Cincinnati. read more