In light of the colossal failure of regulators to stop the rampant fraud and incompetence that put us in our economic mess, this busy new administration is applying the Washington solution - proposing a new federal agency to bring some law and order to the wild world of financial products. In his weekly address on June 20, President Obama described the Consumer Financial Protection Agency this way:

It will have the power to set tough new rules so that companies compete by offering innovative products that consumers actually want – and actually understand. Those ridiculous contracts – pages of fine print that no one can figure out – will be a thing of the past. You’ll be able to compare products – with descriptions in plain language – to see what is best for you. The most unfair practices will be banned. The rules will be enforced.

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Last month, a Whistleblower reader sent me on a quest. Rachel from cardholder services has called this guy, as she has zillions of other people, and he wanted her to stop. You can’t tell where she’s calling from with your caller ID, and once you get a live person, he or she won’t tell you either. She has even called people at the FTC, who so far haven’t been able to stop Rachel, or her sidekicks Heather and Michelle.

A reader named Bill claimed to have found Rachel, after he followed the recorded directions, got a breathing human and badgered the person to give him a callback number. That connected him with a credit repair company called DHC Financial Services Group LLC at 5300 Recker Highway in Winter Haven, Florida. That’s right, Florida, Whistleblower readers.

The company pitch: “Our mission is provide each and every client with a financial plan that will eliminate your debt 3-5 times faster than your current payment practices, without having to make any larger payments than you currently are. We guarantee to show each client an initial savings of $2500 in interest and finances charges overall or the service is free.”

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Crosstown construction refugee Mary VanSlooten is moving across the highway to Richfield, after reaching an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Transportation in April that committed the agency to buying her south Minneapolis home and paying her moving and closing costs on her new place, according to my report today. MnDOT’s West Area Manager, John Griffith, wasn’t able to track down the agency’s cost until this morning. Here’s what Griffith told me in an email:

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Ariel Wade called Whistleblower last week to say she had been refused service at the 24-hour White Castle. Her story was told in words, pictures and video on Sunday. The reactions to the story have been strong, judging by the phone calls, emails and more than 200 online comments. I knew that would be the case, so I warned Wade ahead of time, knowing that many of them would be nasty. That’s something I’m having to do regularly now, because commenters are ready to pounce on anyone who speaks publicly about feeling they’ve been mistreated by the system. Some have asked me why we allow commenting at all. My response is, because the news audience of 2009 expects and demands it, and I would rather have those discussions going on with the source of the chatter in close proximity. Our web site allows users to turn comments off, if they turn you off.