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Rulings by lower courts in two challenges filed against the debt relief program have put Biden's policy on ice. Biden announced in August that the U.S. government would forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year, or $250,000 for married couples. The Congressional Budget Office in September calculated that the debt forgiveness program would cost taxpayers about $400 billion. Biden and his predecessor Trump had invoked the law to pause student loan repayments. Biden on Nov. 22 extended the repayment pause to no later than next June 30 to give the Supreme Court time to decide the case.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday delayed a decision on whether to grant President Joe Biden's bid to implement his student loan forgiveness plan, announcing instead that it will hear full oral arguments on an expedited basis. In a brief order, the court said it would hear arguments in February with a decision soon to follow. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday refused to lift that hold, meaning that the administration could soon appeal that case to the Supreme Court too. A federal judge had ruled that the states did not have legal standing to pursue the lawsuit, but the appeals court disagreed, focusing on a Missouri agency that services federal student loans. The overall program is anticipated to help more than 40 million borrowers, the administration has said.

Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday declined to put that decision on hold, and the administration has said it plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Biden announced in August that the U.S. government would forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year, or $250,000 for married couples. A view of the U.S. Supreme Court building on the first day of the court's new term in Washington, U.S. October 3, 2022. "We stand firm against the president's political exploitation of our student loan program just before an election," Peterson said in a statement. Biden on Nov. 22 extended the repayment pause to no later than next June 30 to give the Supreme Court time to decide the case.

☆ Millions suffer from long Covid — and it costs them $9,000 a year in health-care expenses, on average
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

There is no cure or approved treatment for ME/CFS; as with long Covid, patient symptoms are merely treated or managed. 'People are trying all sorts of treatments'Getting an official long Covid diagnosis can be challenging, which can compound early expenses. Like many who suffer from long Covid, Pohl seeks relief from crippling symptoms wherever it's available. "There are so many of us now that it's taking months to see professionals," she said of long Covid patients. watch nowTime alone generally doesn't cure long Covid symptoms; it often requires some form of rehabilitation.

[1/2] Caucus goers wait in the corner for Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at their caucus site in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., February 3, 2020. After Iowa, both Democrats and Republicans hold state primaries that narrow down presidential candidates even further. Their push to change the primary calendar picked up momentum after 2020 when the Democrats' Iowa caucuses were plagued by technical and communication issues that delayed the announcement of a winner. The state has traditionally held the first primary, right after Iowa's caucuses, but some Democrats would like more-diverse Nevada to get that spot. But New Hampshire state law requires its secretary of state to set the primary date seven days before any other, providing state officials a firewall against any efforts to boot them as the first primary state.

☆ As overdoses soar in rural America, more clinicians are prescribing addiction medications
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Tony Leys | Kaiser Health News | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +12 min

The Health Resources and Services Administration, which aims to improve health care for underserved people, offers many of these grants. But the use of methadone for addiction treatment is tightly regulated, due to concerns that it can be abused. Federal regulators approved Suboxone in 2002, opening an avenue for addiction treatment in towns without methadone clinics. Or a patient’s primary doctor could take over the buprenorphine treatment after an addiction treatment specialist stabilizes a patient. Storjohann said some health care professionals believe addiction treatment would lead to frustration, because patients can repeatedly relapse.

☆ A 31-year-old mortgage broker who's been laid off twice decided to open a bakery and she's never been happier: 'I don't have the stress of wondering if I'm going to be laid off tomorrow'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Jordan Pandy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Taylor Audet was in mortgage lending for eight years and was laid off twice. Mortgage lending's turbulent job marketThe mortgage business has had a choppy two years in relation to staffing. "I'm in a small town, a small community, so you get to help people with their financial needs and that's pretty special." Taylor AudetWhile away from lending, Audet tapped into a hobby of hers that she always enjoyed: baking. "I don't have the stress of wondering if I'm going to be laid off tomorrow," she said.

☆ Factbox: Who are 12 U.S. Senate Republicans who voted to protect same-sex marriage?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Moira Warburton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Here is what they said about supporting the Respect for Marriage Act, which some social conservatives object to:SUSAN COLLINS, MAINECollins is one of the most moderate Senate Republicans. LISA MURKOWSKI, ALASKAMurkowski, a moderate Senate Republican, was the third Republican senator in 2013 to come out in support of same-sex marriage. DAN SULLIVAN, ALASKASullivan said he disagreed with the 2015 Supreme Court decision that established the national right to same-sex marriage. CYNTHIA LUMMIS, WYOMINGAlthough she also believes in "traditional" marriage, Lummis said she believed the separation of church and state was more important than individual religious opinions. She told Politico that although she believes "in traditional marriage," her stance evolved with growing popular support for same-sex marriage.

The governors' proposal raised oil industry concerns about fuel regulations differing from state to state. "We have good support," Fischer told Reuters. The legislation also has the support of Senator Kevin Cramer from North Dakota, a co-sponsor of the bill. Cramer's support is significant, as North Dakota is one of the top oil-producing states, Fischer said. Organizations including the API, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and the National Farmers Union wrote to congressional leaders this month to urge them to adopt legislation to expand nationwide E15 sales.

☆ A millennial investor who built a 25-unit real-estate portfolio in one year breaks down how she financed it — and how she uses social media to source deals
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

She started by searching for investing strategies online, then using social media to source deals. Amelia McGee wants you to know how simple it is to get started in real-estate investing. How McGee uses social media in real estate investingYou might have guessed that social media plays in big role in McGee's real-estate endeavors. It's a 27% cash on cash return and cash flows over $2,000 a month.' But McGee uses social media to find tenants as well as partners.

☆ U.S. weekly jobless claims at 3-month high; equipment spending resilient
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Lucia Mutikani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

"While this could be interpreted as evidence of a softening labor market, we would caution against this. They were boosted by a 5,024 jump in California, likely reflecting the technology sector job cuts. Economists, however, did not expect the technology sector layoffs would be a major drag on the labor market and the overall economy. These so-called core capital goods orders decreased 0.8% in September. Shipments of core capital goods jumped 1.3% after dipping 0.1% in September.

☆ Scott Walker says it's 'dangerous' for Trump to attack DeSantis, encourages Republicans to look at a number of 2024 hopefuls
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Scott Walker cautioned Trump against attacking Ron DeSantis in the wake of the 2022 midterms. Scott Walker said it's "dangerous" for former President Donald Trump to attack Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the two Floridians eye a potential 2024 presidential primary clash. So far, Trump remains the only major Republican to have announced a 2024 run. Walker would not say that Trump shouldn't run in 2024, rather he called for an expansive field that could feature many current Republican governors.

☆ Six states urge U.S. Supreme Court to keep block on Biden student debt relief
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Andrew Chung | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

In their filing, the states said Biden's administration is trying to "assert power far beyond anything Congress could have conceived." The administration has said the Nov. 14 decision to block the plan leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo. The administration stopped taking applications for student debt relief after that decision. Biden's administration asserts that the pandemic represented such an emergency. That timing, Biden said, would give the Supreme Court time to decide the case before the pause ends.

☆ In California, 10% of Legislature now identifies as LGBTQ
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

People by and large are totally fine with LGBTQ people, they support us, they are accepting and willing to vote for LGBTQ candidates,” California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a member of the LGBTQ Caucus, said Monday. Meanwhile, the Legislature has not yet reached parity in gender or in race and ethnicity, according to statistics from the California State Library. New Hampshire and Vermont have each had more LGBTQ legislators, according to the institute, but their legislatures are bigger than California’s and so have not reached the 10% threshold. Alaska and South Dakota elected their first out LGBTQ legislators, and Montana and Minnesota elected their first transgender legislators, according to the Human Rights Campaign. By contrast, “as California’s Legislative LGBTQ Caucus has grown, the state has led the nation in passing groundbreaking legislation protecting LGBTQ+ civil rights,” said Equality California spokesperson Samuel Garrett-Pate.

☆ Explainer: What's the latest on Biden's U.S. student loan forgiveness?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

On Nov. 22, Biden said he would extend the COVID-19 pandemic-era pause in student loan payments until no later than June 30, 2023. WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR LOAN FORGIVENESS? About 26 million Americans have applied for student loan forgiveness since August, and the U.S. Department of Education has already approved requests from 16 million. U.S. borrowers hold about $1.77 trillion in student debt, according to the latest Federal Reserve figures. Biden's student loan forgiveness plan could add $300 billion to $600 billion to the federal debt, economists estimate.

☆ Fewer states than ever could pick the next president
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Ronald Brownstein | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

Five states decided the last presidential race by flipping from Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden in 2020 – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Democratic and Republican presidential nominees have each carried 20 states in every election since at least 2008. Democrats did not demonstrate the capacity to threaten any of the GOP’s core 20 states, as Republicans did in Nevada. A race with just Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona as true battlegrounds would begin with Democrats favored in states holding 260 Electoral College votes (including Washington, DC) and Republicans in states with 235. After 2022, the list of genuinely competitive presidential states may be shrinking, but, if anything, that could increase the tension as the nation remains poised on the knife’s edge between two deeply entrenched, but increasingly antithetical, political coalitions.

Airlines’ service cuts that ramped up this summer show no sign of relenting this holiday season, leaving more travelers likely to pay higher fares for fuller planes at crowded airports. And while dozens of small cities receive federal subsidies to support air travel through the long-running Essential Air Service program, Malarkey Black said even 29 of those communities are facing potential cutbacks due to pilot shortages. For the regional flights that do remain, “fares are up markedly as a result of service cuts,” said Scott Keyes, the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights. Major U.S. carriers have cited pilot shortages for their cuts at regional airports, with some of them saying the labor crunch would take years to resolve. “Commercial air service is an expected amenity to both businesses and residents alike,” Grover said, promising to work “relentlessly, tenaciously” to restore it.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt at the White House on Aug. 24, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Biden administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to reinstate its federal student loan program after a federal appeals court issued a nationwide injunction against the plan. The administration's request, which was previewed in another court filing Thursday, blasted the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit for blocking the debt relief plan. And if the Supreme Court accepts the administration's appeal, if could "set this case for expedited briefing and argument this Term," she wrote. The judge ruled that while the states raised "important and significant challenges to the debt relief plan," they ultimately lacked legal standing to pursue the case.

☆ GOP operative convicted of funneling Russian donation to Trump's 2016 campaign
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In this Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, file photo, Jesse Benton arrives for his sentencing hearing at the federal courthouse in Des Moines, Iowa. WASHINGTON — A Republican political operative and former campaign aide was convicted in federal court this week of funneling $25,000 from a Russian businessman to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The money for the donation originally came from Roman Vasilenko, a former Russian naval officer turned multilevel marketer and CEO of the "Life is Good International Business Academy." When Benton paid the Trump Victory committee for the ticket, he used his own credit card, pocketing the remaining $75,000 from Vasilenko. Thursday's conviction marks the second time that Benton has been found guilty of a campaign finance crime.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks regarding student loan debt forgiveness in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Wednesday August 24, 2022. The Biden administration said in a new court filing Thursday that it will ask the Supreme Court to lift an injunction and allow a major student loan debt relief program to resume. Earlier Thursday, the Biden administration revealed updated guidelines that will make it easier for those struggling with their student debt to discharge it in bankruptcy. "Amidst efforts to block our debt relief program, we are not standing down." "This belief may well stop them from making payments even if the Department is prevented from effectuating debt relief," he wrote.

In the 13 races in six battleground states where an election denier was on the ballot for governor, secretary of state or attorney general, 12 lost, according to the latest NBC News projections. Arizona — along with Michigan and Alabama — was one of three states where election deniers advanced to be the GOP nominees for governor, secretary of state and attorney general. In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, Republican Doug Mastriano — who was one of the most high-profile election deniers — lost the race for governor to Democrat Josh Shapiro. “But voters sent a very clear message that Americans deeply care about democracy and don’t want extremists running our nation’s elections.”The defeats of election deniers spanned well beyond swing states. All 14 races where election deniers won were in states that voted to elect Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

☆ Fact Check-Most Democrat wins for U.S. Senate races were called by Nov. 9; Dems did not ‘only’ win in states with mail in voting
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

For the midterm election on Nov. 8, there were 35 states that had Senate races. Delays were seen in Arizona and Nevada, where the Senate races were called for Democrats on Nov. 11 and Nov. 12 respectively. All four projected Democrat wins for the Senate races on election night, after the polls closed. In Illinois and Maryland, known as “Solid Democratic” states, the Senate race was called on election day. Only two of 14 U.S. Senate races resulting in Democrat wins in states that allow mail-in voting were not called by Nov 9.

During that same period, 29 states on average endured at least one federally declared disaster, according to the report by Rebuild by Design, a nonprofit that helps communities prepare for and recover from disasters. In 2021 alone, the U.S. suffered from 20 separate billion-dollar disasters. States that were hit with the most disasters include California, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee, which each experienced at least 20 disasters during the last decade, the report said. However, states with lower disaster counts that received the most disaster recovery funding per person include New York, New Jersey, North Dakota and Vermont. Additionally, counties that on average experienced more than a disaster every year over the last decade are located in Kentucky and Louisiana.

☆ Tyson Foods ends COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Tom Polansek | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The requirement "generally improved our ability to operate our business effectively in fiscal 2022," the report said. America's largest meatpacking union, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said it negotiated an agreement with Arkansas-based Tyson to end the mandate. He added that Tyson kept other safety protocols like requiring workers to self-screen for COVID-19 symptoms. Some Tyson workers remain worried about catching COVID-19 in chicken plants, said Magaly Licolli, director of Venceremos, an organization that advocates for poultry workers in Arkansas. "There is still the pandemic," said Licolli, who has criticized Tyson for not protecting plant employees.

☆ Student debt forgiveness is on hold for now—here's why it's blocked and what could happen next
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Kamaron Mcnair | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

After appearing to clear a number of other legal hurdles, President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness plan has been blocked. If the president's appeal in Texas is successful, it's likely the plaintiffs will escalate the case to the Supreme Court or vice versa. Still, federal judges are appointed by elected officials, and it so happens the judges striking down Biden's debt forgiveness were nominated by Republican presidents. Aside from appealing in Texas, the president has not yet announced next steps for the debt forgiveness plan or other relief for borrowers. The 8th Circuit Court's decision to keep the block on debt forgiveness for now adds to the likelihood of a Supreme Court case, she says.

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