Massachusetts police arrested eleven armed men on Interstate 95 over the Fourth of July weekend. A spokesperson for the arrestees said group members are “Moorish Americans,” who were peaceably headed for Maine to do some training. And why...
Interest rates, as the tv hucksters constantly remind us, are near historic lows. So now is an excellent time to refinance your mortgage–maybe take out some equity to upgrade the bathrooms, take a little vacation, or purchase a home entertainment center.Or maybe...
With the end of an 18-month suspension of federal student loan payments only 90 days away, there are growing signs that President Biden may extend the moratorium beyond its current expiration.
The chickens have come home to roost. The federal government allowed millions of homeowners to suspend payments on their mortgages during the COVID crisis. Now that moratorium is ending, and all those missed payments are now due.Many American homeowners–maybe...
Bentley University, a private university in the Boston area, offers a new major this fall: Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Gary David, a sociology professor, was part of the design team for the new program. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, David...
Members of the clergy and other student loan borrowers engaged in religious-oriented work may now qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program after being excluded for over a decade.
My wife and I recently traveled to Waco, Texas, to attend a dear friend’s funeral. Our drive home to Baton Rouge took us through College Station, the home of Texas A & M University.We had left Waco early in the morning without eating breakfast, and we were...
A new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that student loan servicers have engaged in systematic mismanagement of a key student loan forgiveness program, often providing misinformation or misrepresenting the rights and options of...
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case that raises questions about whether student loans can be discharged in bankruptcy, leaving a tough student loan bankruptcy precedent in place for now.
I occasionally see television and print advertisements for weight-loss programs. Invariably, these ads show a slim, young, attractive woman with perfect teeth or a handsome young man with great hair and six-pack abs. We are encouraged to believe that these beautiful...
As the expiration of an 18-month pause on federal student loan payments approaches, pressure is building on the Biden administration to order an extension and enact broad student loan forgiveness. Could it happen?
As the expiration of an 18-month pause on federal student loan payments approaches, pressure is building on the Biden administration to order an extension and enact broad student loan forgiveness. Could it happen?
Senator Elizabeth Warren and other progressive Democrats in Congress are urging President Biden to extend the current pause on federal student loan payments and interest to at least March of 2022. Could that happen?
Millions of student loan borrowers could be at risk of having their child tax credit seized by the Department of Education.
Almost every day, I see a television ad for an investment firm that targets retirees. “Don’t just retire,” the tv spokesperson says. “Retire well.”Of course, everyone wants to retire well. For most of us, that means retiring with our...
The Biden administration is easing federal mortgage lending rules to give student loan borrowers a better shot at being approved for a home mortgage. Here are the details.
About 40 million student borrowers got some relief last year when the Department of Education allowed student debtors to temporarily skip their loan payments due to the COVID crisis.Even better, DOE did not charge interest on student loans during the forbearance...
A Biden administration official today made comments suggesting that the current freeze on federal student loan payments set to expire this fall could be extended further. What should borrowers expect?
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced that it will be cancelling $500 million in student loan debt for thousands of borrowers. Here are the details.
In a recent Wall Street Journal essay, R. R. Reno, Editor of First Things, wrote that he had stopped hiring graduates from elite colleges. He noted that he had watched a Zoom meeting of students at Haverford College (Reno’s alma mater), where students...
The data shows that 98% of applications for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) were rejected. Will the Biden administration take steps to fix the broken program?
Over half a million student loan borrowers may be entitled to have their student debt cancelled under federal law, but the U.S. Department of Education has not acted.
Violence is on the rise in Baton Rouge. Last year’s homicide rate–114 killings–broke a record, and we will probably break that record this year. Some of these killings occur near my neighborhood–the venerable College Town subdivision, where...
Recent developments may shed some light on whether or not Biden will move forward with mass student loan forgiveness in the coming months.
Once you refinance a federal student loan into a private student loan, you cannot convert it back into a federal loan again. So borrowers should be fully aware of what they may be giving up. And there is a lot that borrowers may be giving up this year.
In 2015, Dr. Reinhold Munker was a tenured professor of medicine at the Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport (LSU), where he conducted research in hematology and oncology.Apparently, Dr. Munker’s work environment was not ideal. After a staff...
When I was fifteen, I “hoed peanuts” one summer, weeding the peanut fields of Caddo County for one dollar an hour. Oklahoma summers are brutal, and temperatures were above 100 degrees Fahrenheit for weeks at a time.Hoeing peanuts is hot, tedious work. If...
A growing number of colleges and universities have announced in recent weeks that they would be forgiving student loan debt for their graduates using funds from President Biden’s recent stimulus bill.
Another city just called on Biden to forgive the student loan debt of millions of borrowers. Will he act?
“Spanish is a loving tongue,” so the song tells us, “soft as music, light as spray.” Indeed, Spanish is a lovely language, and I keenly regret not learning to speak it when I was young. I told myself I had no facility for languages, but I...
Could student loan borrowers see their payments reduced by a new Biden income based repayment plan?
Judson College, a Baptist school for women, announced that it will close its doors in July and file for bankruptcy. Only 12 new students enrolled at Judson for the 2021 fall semester, and only 80 current students committed to returning in the fall. As a Baptist news...
Looking back over half a century on my college years, I remember absolutely nothing about the courses I took–130 vacuous credit hours. I can’t say it was my college’s fault. I had no clear idea about what I wanted to do for a living. I changed...
The Biden administration is releasing a budget proposal this week, and advocates for student loan borrowers are expressing their dissatisfaction that the plan will include no student loan forgiveness or other relief for borrowers struggling with their student...
The Biden administration this week announced that it will begin the process of reviewing and overhauling major federal student loan relief programs, including student loan forgiveness programs and income based repayment plans. Here’s what it means for...
Biden again suggested that mass student loan cancellation would primarily benefit Ivy League students. Students and borrower advocates have pushed back.
