Lisa Madigan

Stalking is a serious crime with serious consequences.

Navient's actions have led to student borrowers needlessly carrying billions of dollars in debt, and the company must be held accountable.

Navient/Sallie Mae treated student loan borrowers unfairly from start to finish.

Consumers don't need to be forced to pay billions for so-called smart technology to know how to reduce their utility bills. We know to turn down the heat or air conditioning and shut off the lights.

In 2011, when the General Assembly passed the law allowing civil unions, Illinois took an important step forward to recognize that gay and lesbian couples have the right to build lives together and create strong, loving families.

A ban on same-sex marriage violates the state Constitution's equal protection clause.

In every community in Illinois, same-sex couples have chosen to join together and, in many instances, to raise families of their own. These couples are our relatives and friends, our neighbors, co-workers and parents of our children's classmates. They deserve the same rights and responsibilities that civil marriage offers straight couples.

The last thing our children need is less protection.

Unlike public universities and private, not-for-profit colleges, for-profit schools are owned by revenue-seeking businesses often more intent on boosting their bottom line than educating their students. They use hard-sell tactics to recruit prospective students, and veterans have become particular targets.

Demand to know the school's accreditation. Regional accreditation is preferable to national, particularly if you want to transfer credits. Check with the certifying association or potential employer in your field to ensure successful completion of the program will actually qualify you for that job.

Even if you can afford the price of college, you cannot afford a worthless degree.

Do not enter into an agreement you cannot afford. Take precautions to avoid institutional loans with double-digit interest rates.

The creation of a consumer agency, structured similarly to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, levels the playing field. It gives consumers a powerful advocate at the federal level.

My investigation found Sallie Mae put student borrowers into expensive subprime loans that it knew were going to fail.

Stalking is a crime that can paralyze an otherwise productive person with fear.

Much of the blame for the Great Recession lies with abuses in the housing market - namely the creation of risky and unsustainable home loans that were packaged and sold as quality investments around the globe.

The party on Wall Street never ends - while the rest of us pick up their tab and suffer the hangover.

I've repeatedly seen unscrupulous lenders use every con in the book to charm and lie to homeowners. Lenders actually paid brokers a premium to put people in higher-priced loans with toxic features, such as adjustable rates and prepayment penalties.

Your mortgage shouldn't have been treated as a wager - it should be a way to provide a home and financial stability for you and your family.

I often say that paying off your debt is like dieting. There are no miracle cures; it takes discipline and hard work.

Hard work, careful planning, and realistic financial advice will be required by many to regain solvency.

If home ownership is the American dream, then foreclosure certainly is the American nightmare. It destroys more than credit. It destroys lives. And its effects are felt beyond the individual family that it devastates. It shakes our entire economy.

As I travel across Illinois and talk with people, and as others reach out to my office desperate for help, I am becoming convinced that, despite their rhetoric, many lenders have no interest in actually helping their customers.

For many, the loan modification process has been a giant sham.

Foreclosure is nothing new. And it certainly will always be a fact of life for some.