Senator calls for freeze on credit card rates

Senator calls for freeze on credit card rates

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, who is fighting for his political survival, proposed Monday an immediate interest rate freeze on existing balances for the estimated 700 million credit cards in circulation.

The legislation is unlikely to go anywhere in the Senate, where business-minded Democrats would join Republicans in casting the measure as draconian and unnecessary.

Banks say that capping interest rates would cut their profits and force them to lend less money, which would reduce spending and worsen the economy.

Dodd’s proposal seemed aimed at reconnecting the Connecticut Democrat with voters, many of whom have questioned his close ties to big banks after he was tied to a sweetheart loan scandal. The Senate Ethics Committee cleared him of violating any rules, although his poll numbers remain shaky.

Cop accused of pulling gun at haunted house

ESSEX, Md. — A Baltimore city police officer delivered the fright of a lifetime to a haunted house employee, pulling a gun on the chain-saw-wielding man at the end of his act, authorities said Monday.

Sgt. Eric Janik, 37, was charged with assault and reckless endangerment for pointing his service handgun at the worker, who was dressed as Leatherface, the killer from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” Baltimore County police said.

The employee, Mike Morrison, followed Janik and several other people up a staircase Sunday night at the end of the haunted house tour in a bid to get “one last scream” out of them, police said.

When the group exited into a parking lot, Janik pulled his gun and pointed it at Morrison from less than 10 feet away, according to police and Morrison, who said he dropped the chain saw, put his hands up and backed away.

The saw had no chain.