On Thursday, the U.S. Postal Service announced that it will begin acting on its plan to close hundreds of processing centers around the country, The Washington Post reports.

The service is facing bankruptcy and has stated that it cannot wait for Congress to pass legislation to help rehabilitate it. According to officials, around 13,000 postal workers will be laid off as a result of the closures.

“Octomom” Nadya Suleman’s bankruptcy case has been thrown out, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Suleman filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on April 30, claiming to be in more than $1 million of debt. Her case was stopped dead in its tracks, however, when Suleman missed her deadlines.

Nearly everyone has some idea of what Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection entails. Yet, for whatever reason, bankruptcy protection is often shrouded in myth and rumor. In addition, the people who file for bankruptcy are often stigmatized as irresponsible deadbeats.

Below, we’ve broken down five of the most pervasive myths about bankruptcy, according to U.S. News & World Report.

On a recent episode of Dr. Phil, former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens opened up to the good doctor about his impending bankruptcy, the Toronto Sun reports.

T.O. reportedly broke into tears as he described how he’d blown nearly the entire fortune he earned during his 14-year career in the NFL.

A homeowner in Houston, Texas has filed a suit claiming a debt collection agency found out that her house was on fire, showed up, and seized the her possessions as the fire blazed, Courthouse News Service reports.

According to the filings, a residential fire broke out at Mara Kafarela’s property, damaging the structure and its contents. Blackmon Mooring, a debt collection agency hired by one of Kafarela’s creditors, “somehow learned” of the fire and decided to strike while the iron was hot, according to Kafarela.

According to a recent study, anywhere from 200,000 to one million Americans are expected to be too broke to file for bankruptcy this year, CNNMoney.com reports.

The average cost of filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection is over $1,500. While $300 of that is attributable to court filing fees, the remainder goes to the bankruptcy lawyers.

Millions of graduates are currently struggling to pay off their student loans debts. Since student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, many graduates find themselves sinking further and further into student loan debt without any way out.

So what happens when you default on your student loan? Below, we’ve included some of the means the Department of Education has at its disposable to collect on defaulted student loans.

“Octomom” Nadya Suleman filed for bankruptcy on Monday in California, The Associated Press reports. According to the filings, she is $1 million in debt.

The mother of 14 said that she wants a fresh start and believes that bankruptcy protection is what’s best for her children. “I have had to make some very difficult decisions this year, and filing Chapter 7 was one of them,” Suleman said.

Many young people who have graduated recently into an ailing economy have found the weight of their student loans to be crippling. According to recent data from the 2010-11 school year, about 7.5 million undergraduates use Stafford loans to pay for college.

President Obama recently called on Congress to address the issue of rising student loan interest rates. On Friday, the U.S. House approved a $5.9 billion bill to maintain low interest rates for Stafford student loans, USA Today reports. However, the means by which the bill would pay for the extension have proved controversial.

While filing for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy will help you get out from under your debt burden, it will also require that most of your assets be liquidated to pay off creditors. Thanks to bankruptcy exemptions, however, many filers will not have to start from scratch after their filing goes through.

Exemptions protect certain types of property from being liquidated during bankruptcy. Below, we’ve included three of the most important bankruptcy exemptions and the accompanying caps Arizona law places on them.