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Rent America is one of the several rent-to-own stores in Roanoke, Virginia. Photo by APF Fellow Michael Hudson

“Rent-to-Own”: The Slick Cousin of Paying on Time

Some people call Larry Sutton “The Reverend of Rent To-Own.” Sutton preaches the blessings of the rent-to-own business with the enthusiasm of a true believer. He owns a growing number of Champion Rent-to-own stores in Florida and Georgia: more than 20 so far.

Michael Hudson February 16, 1993
David Duke, rear, salutes a burning cross at a Klan rally in Euless, Texas in 1979, the year he said he left the KKK. Duke, a Republican, won a house seat in Louisiana by 227 votes, ran for governor and threw the state party into disarray over whether to support him or not. Photo by APF Fellow Vince Heptig.

How David Duke and the Born-Agains Wrecked Louisiana’s GOP

Louisiana has a spectacular history of corruption, most of it by Democrats. Disgust with that legacy animated Republican leaders, who took party organization as seriously as their rock ribbed conservatism. They had to. Outnumbered 3-to-1 by Democrats, Republicans held few offices until the

Jason Berry February 16, 1993
Most industries in Hungary have not been modernized since they were built. The Manfred Weiss Steel Company plant at Csepel Island, Hungary is shown in 1947, when it was at full production in a Soviet-Approved program to convert rural Hungary into a modern industrial state. Photo by AP Wide World Photos.

Chaos Unlimited: The Gap Between Theory and Practice in the New Hungary

Most of the workers at the Videoton television factory in Székesfehérvár, Hungary were under no illusions about the reliability of the Ukrainian market, the destination for 5,000 television sets that had rolled past their assembly line. It was nice to have the work,

Marianne Szegedy-Maszak February 15, 1993
Children from Operation Rescue drink apple Juice to rehydrate themselves near the Baton Rouge abortion clinic after several hours of morning prayers, singing and marching. Photo by APF Fellow Alissa Rubin.

Children of Rescue

BATON ROUGE-Brent Cadle, 16, drops onto all fours and looks up at his even younger audience. “First, we never walk; we crawl,” be says. The 40 children and a few parents sitting on the floor around him hug their knees and watch, rapt.

Alissa Rubin February 15, 1993
Eric Johnson at home in Wise, North Carolina

Opportunity’s Dance with One North Carolina Family

It was 1968. Arnetra Johnson, a black woman raising four bright-eyed babies alone in a rural North Carolina trailer park, was holding fast to the dream just as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had laid it out: black boys and white boys sitting

Charlise Lyles November 18, 1992
James Hogan’s problems started in 1989 when he borrowed and then paid $6,200 to a home-repair contractor in Atlanta to fix his roof and do other work. His attorney says an independent appraiser later asses the value of the work at $3,474. Fleet Finance tried to evict Hogan from his home. Photo by APF Fellow Michael Hudson

Loan Scams

Some days it seems like the phone at Annie Ruth Bennett’s house in southwest Atlanta won’t ever stop ringing. The callers want to sell her storm windows, debt–consolidation loans, burial plots. Her attorney says it’s all a scheme: They want to steal a

Michael Hudson November 15, 1992
Abortion remains the chief form of birth control in Russia. This rudimentary clinic for young girls in St. Petersburg operates as an assembly line, with one patient exiting as two wait in line.

Life and Death in St. Petersburg

As the first snow of the season fell on St. Petersburg, Russia, Svetlana, 17, sat with two new acquaintances on a bench. They talked, giggled, and waited. Three hours later, they would continue their conversation in the ladies room, over cigarettes, as they

Jason Eskenazi November 14, 1992
Rev. Robert Schaenck of Buffalo, NY holds a 17 to 19 week old fetus outside of the hotel where Bill Clinton was staying during the Democratic National Convention in New York. AP/Wide World photo

Project Rachael: Regretting Abortions

“A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children…because they were no more.” Jeremiah, Chapter 31, Verse 15. Gina’s hands move constantly. She never looks directly at the other women around the table. Her frail frame and

Alissa Rubin November 14, 1992
A Watauga County, NC farmer and his OPEC independent equipment get an early, steady start in the tobacco field.

Staying in the Southern Highlands Against the Odds

Photos and article by APF Fellow Dorothea Jackson There is a flat room-sized rock that sticks out into a pool in Big Santeetlah Creek, which borders Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in Graham County, N.C. The place is called Rattler’s Ford, a name that

Dorothea Jackson November 14, 1992
A villager holds three liquor bottles for use in the fiesta celebrations of the Guatemalan village of Todos Santos. He is a member of Cofradia, a religious brotherhood.

Happiness and Despair in Guatemala

A young boy participates in the holy week procession in Santiago, Atitlan. A boy enjoys the festive day as crowds gather in front of the church in Todos Santos. The village of Todos Santos celebrates its name-sake holiday, All Saints Day, with an

Vince Heptig August 29, 1992
Hundreds of youths marched on Lexington Avenue on July 17, 1964 to the 67th Street police station to protest the death of James Powell, who was killed the night before by a police lieutenant. Photo by AP Wide World Photos

How a Campaign for Racial Trust Turned Sour

Glamorous young mayor John Lindsay had been in office all of two months when he threw down the gauntlet on the issue of civilian police review. The occasion, in February 1966, was the inauguration of a new police chief, a man known to

Tamar Jacoby August 18, 1992
NEW YORK--Traders at the New York Merchantile Exchange bid on oil contracts amid falling prices. AP/Wide World Photo

Approaching Financial Meltdown

On March 27, an Azerbaijani missile hit an Aeroflot jet and bounced off without exploding. But the news broke into bank trading rooms as rumors of war between Russia and the Ukraine, sending shivers throughout the international currency market. SIDEBAR – What, Me

Gregory Millman August 18, 1992
Protests in Harlem in 1964 erupted after policeman Thomas Gilligan shot a 15-year-old black youth, James Powell, to death on July 16th. Gilligan said the shooting was self-defense. The killing precipitated several days of violence in Harlem. Photo by AP Wide World Photos

How a Campaign for Racial Trust Turned Sour

Glamorous young mayor John Lindsay had been in office all of two months when he threw down the gauntlet on the issue of civilian police review. The occasion, in February 1966, was the inauguration of a new police chief, a man known to

Tamar Jacoby August 13, 1992
Gay families are becoming more public and finding greater acceptance.

A Gay Family

Photos by Marc Geller Derek grew up in Washington, D.C. in a strong, stable dual income family with a number of brothers and sisters. He was trained as an accountant and made rapid progress; by his late twenties he was named head of

Frank Browning August 9, 1992
Farms across the entire Appalachian region have at least a few rows of Christmas trees growing, now that western North Carolina has become the nation’s major source of holiday trees. This small Christmas tree farm is in Pickens County, South Carolina. Photo by APF Fellow Dorothea Jackson

The Ways and Means of Holding on in the Highlands

If one only had an aviator cap of thin, fine leather, with earflaps and a chin strap that one snapped in a gesture of importance while settling into the feed trough, er, cockpit, one could shout, “Contack!” (an important aviator word) with a

Dorothea Jackson August 7, 1992
McDonnell Douglas’ huge long-range airliner, planned for 1997, would have had its wings built in Taiwan under an arrangement crafted in part by Brock, who now represents the Taiwanese. Drawing Courtesy of McConnell Douglas

Bill Brock’s Global Visions

Former U.S. Trade Representative William Brock and John McDonnell, the chairman of McDonnell Douglas Corp., were talking at a business conference in southern California about two years ago when the conversation turned to the company’s future. McDonnell Douglas, a $17 billion-a-year enterprise, was

Steven Dryden May 11, 1992
At Chimbai, in the delta of the Amu River, the plentiful fish from the nearby Aral Sea used to be part of the daily diet. Now the market offers only a handful of fish from local canals.

How the Soviets Destroyed a Sea in Thirty Years

Muynak, Uzbekistan – In this frightened town, life has always meant fishing. Men’s faces are leathered by lifetimes on the Aral Sea; their arms thickened by the weight of countless nets hauled from the waters. The women’s hands are scarred from millions of

James Rupert May 10, 1992
The view near the top of the Appalachian range at Craggy Gardens, on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville. Mist and clouds brush the mountain tops after a spring rain. The rhododendron gardens are natures own.

Living at Home: Money and Migration

Photos and text by APF Fellow Dorothea Jackson The Old South Carolina highway that snaked through the first wave of the Blue Ridge Mountains ends now in Lake Keowee. Literally, just short of where a covered bridge used to span the formidable green

Dorothea Jackson May 8, 1992