Payday Lending Form 15 Hearing Canceled, Settlement in Works

I've gotten nowhere in my attempts to catch myself up with the Issue 5 story. Pardon the lack of links, but the story is basically that the petitions that were turned in are largely unacceptable, and the lenders will have to go to a second round of signature collection in order to get on the ballot (they'll have a ten day second chance window). In the meantime, in what may or may not be considered a related story, the entire petition effort appears to have been put at risk by Arno Political Consultants, who came in to supplement signature gathering activities without (apparently) filing the proper paperwork.

Today comes this Press Release:

For Immediate Release:
Sept. 18, 2008


The following statement can be attributed to Bill Faith, executive director of the Ohio Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, and a leader in the Vote YES on Issue 5 campaign:

"Tomorrow's hearing to determine whether petitions circulated by Arno Political Consultants for Issue 5, the payday lending referendum, should be invalidated, has been canceled. The parties are working on a settlement and more information will be released tomorrow.''

Your guess is as good as mine.