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☆ Biden's student-loan forgiveness is about to have its day at the Supreme Court. Here's everything you need to know.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The Supreme Court will hear two challenges to Biden's student-debt-relief plan on Tuesday. But the Biden administration has defended its legal authority and expressed confidence that the Supreme Court will uphold the plan. Prominent figures in the legal and political worlds have weighed in on the two high-profile Supreme Court cases in dozens of briefs filed to the Supreme Court. More than 170 Republican members of Congress have argued against Biden's relief, along with 17 Republican-led states, the US Chamber of Commerce, and over a dozen conservative-leaning advocacy groups. Millions of student-loan borrowers' financial futures hang in the balance.

☆ U.S. Supreme Court's 'major questions' test may doom Biden student debt plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( John Kruzel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

She did not realize she was setting off on a path toward another, less-welcome family first - racking up more than $150,000 in student debt. The major questions doctrine is an outgrowth of an approach favored by many conservatives and business groups to curb what they call the excesses of the "administrative state." Beginning in 2020, the administrations of President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Biden, a Democrat, repeatedly paused federal student loan payments and halted interest from accruing. Two lawsuits - one by six conservative-leaning states and the other by two student loan borrowers who opposed the plan's eligibility requirements - prompted lower courts to block it. 'INSUFFICIENT FUNDS'The major questions doctrine gives judges broad discretion to invalidate executive agency actions unless Congress clearly authorized them in legislation.

☆ Borrowers with student loans in default can get a 'fresh start' under this Biden initiative—how it works
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Kamaron Mcnair | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The change wasn't due to a sudden influx of borrowers rehabilitating their loans, but rather the beginning of President Joe Biden's "Fresh Start" initiative. Here's how the Fresh Start program works and how borrowers can take advantage. An easier path back to repaymentWhen you enroll in the Fresh Start program, your loans become "current" again, giving you access to student loan forgiveness and repayment programs. With the Fresh Start, they get another chance to do so. What happens to student loans in default?

☆ A GOP lawmaker wrote a one-sentence bill to abolish the Department of Education. His reasoning doesn't address student loans, grants, or any of the major things the department does.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The CBO previously said that getting rid of an agency would only cut spending if its programs were eliminated, as well. Last week, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a bill to abolish the Education Department, and it's a short, one-sentence read: "The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2022." Congress recently approved a $1.7 trillion budget for the government, including $79.6 billion for the Education Department. Former President Donald Trump also said in 2015 that he'd consider getting rid of the department, saying it could be cut "way, way, way down." Reagan's efforts were clearly unsuccessful, given both of those agencies are operating at full capacity today, and millions of Americans are now relying on the Education Department's Federal Student Aid Office to facilitate the disbursement of federal student loans and grants.

☆ Meet a new mom with $90,000 in student debt who's tired of 'the unfair game' of Biden's loan forgiveness: 'We need this fix'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

She would qualify for the full $20,000 amount of Biden's broad student-debt relief plan. Alexandria Mavin, 33, has $90,000 in student debt. A common thread among opponents of the debt relief plan is that it's unfair to those who have already paid off their loans, or funded their higher educations on their own. "It's crazy to see with just this one student loan being gone, how much financial freedom I'm finding just from one measly $400-a-month student loan," she added. But when it's 45 million people," Mavin said, referring to the number of Americans with student debt, "that's a scam."

☆ Biden touts 'making progress reducing student debt' but doesn't call out the lawsuits blocking his broad loan forgiveness plan during the State of the Union
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Biden touted "reducing student debt" during his State of the Union address. He did not mention the ongoing lawsuits that have blocked his broad student-loan forgiveness plan. When it comes to education, the president addressed increasing pay for teachers and providing two years of free community college, but he didn't have much to say about student debt. "And we're making progress by reducing student debt and increasing Pell Grants for working- and middle-class families." "Look, the opponents suing to stop my plan are the only thing standing between millions of Americans' crushing student debt and relief," he wrote on Twitter last month.

☆ Australian Cardinal Pell's funeral marked by arrival of protesters, mourners
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] People queue to enter the pontifical requiem Mass for Cardinal George Pell at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, Australia, February 2, 2023. AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts via REUTERSSYDNEY, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Protesters gathered and mourners began to arrive in Sydney on Thursday ahead of the funeral service of Australian Cardinal George Pell, a former top Vatican official who was acquitted in 2020 of sexual abuse accusations. Australian police said it had dropped a court bid to block the gathering after protesters agreed to change their initial protest route and gather in a road adjacent to St Mary's Cathedral, the venue of the funeral service. On Thursday morning, protesters gathered in a park opposite the cathedral, some holding signs reading "Pell Burn In Hell". The ribbons symbolised the pain inflicted on child sexual abuse victims, the protesters said.

☆ A conservative group blocked student-loan forgiveness because 2 borrowers wanted more relief than they qualified for. Here's why it thinks no one else should get to benefit from Biden's plan.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

One of the cases involves two student-loan borrowers who sued because they didn't qualify for the full $20,000 amount of relief. "Extra breathing room for millions of Americans is on hold because of lawsuits brought by opponents of this Administration's student debt relief plan," the White House wrote on Twitter this week. Here are some standouts from the Job Creators Network's argument on why Biden's student-loan forgiveness should be blocked. The debt-relief plan demonstrates "gross over-inclusiveness"Leading up to the announcement of Biden's debt relief, many advocates and Democratic lawmakers were urging him to make the relief as expansive as possible, without any thresholds. "There was a national emergency that impacted millions of student borrowers," the official said.

☆ Grace Young Wants to Keep Chinatown Restaurants in Business
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Emily Bobrow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Growing up in San Francisco, Grace Young watched her father shop daily in Chinatown for whatever he needed to make traditional Cantonese meals at home. As an award-winning cookbook author and culinary historian, Ms. Young, 66, has spent decades shopping the same way in New York’s Chinatown, going to one store for meats, another for produce. When Ms. Young saw these familiar streets empty out at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, she sensed that a way of life she had taken for granted was suddenly under threat. Misinformation about Asian-Americans carrying the virus hit Chinese businesses especially hard. “I realized I hadn’t truly appreciated how much Chinatown means to me.”

☆ Kevin McCarthy reportedly agrees to leave cuts to Social Security and Medicare off the table in debt ceiling negotiations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Kevin McCarthy agreed not to cut Social Security and Medicare in debt ceiling negotiations, Sen. Joe Manchin told reporters. "Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security," Trump said in the video. Save Social Security, don't destroy it." It's still unclear what other types of cuts Republicans are considering in these negotiations. … Does that mean cuts to Social Security or Medicare or child care or Pell Grants?"

☆ Pope Francis Mourns Cardinal Pell, Who Called His Reign a ‘Catastrophe’
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Pope Francis on Saturday said prayers at the funeral of Cardinal George Pell in St. Peter’s Basilica. VATICAN CITY— Pope Francis said the final prayers at Cardinal George Pell’s funeral on Saturday, but didn’t lay to rest the grievances of many conservatives for whom the late cardinal was a leading spokesman. Cardinal Pell, a pugnacious Australian who died on Tuesday, served Francis as Vatican finance minister but differed sharply with the pope’s progressive approach, including his leniency on divorce and homosexuality. The late cardinal bluntly criticized his boss in a memo, published last year under a pseudonym, which described the current pontificate as “a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe.”

☆ Vatican holds funeral for Cardinal George Pell who decried Pope Francis’ rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The Australian cardinal who decried the papacy of Pope Francis as a “catastrophe” was given a funeral Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica, with the pontiff imparting a final blessing for the once high-ranking Vatican prelate. Cardinal George Pell, 81, died on Jan. 10, shortly after undergoing hip surgery in a Rome hospital. Pell later returned to his native Australia to be tried on child sex abuse charges over allegations that he molested two choirboys while he was archbishop of Melbourne. As is customary for funerals of cardinals, a final blessing, delivered in Latin, in the form a prayer for mercy and eternal rest, was recited by Pope Francis. Gaenswein unleashed a torrent of criticism of Francis in interviews hours after Benedict died in retirement at the Vatican on Dec. 31 and in a book published days later.

☆ Pell's secret memo casts shadow at cardinal's funeral
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/7] Pope Francis attends a funeral of Cardinal George Pell in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, January 14, 2023. About 300 people attended Pell's funeral Mass in a secondary chapel of St. Peter's Basilica. In keeping with tradition for deceased cardinals, the Mass was said by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Italian Giovanni Battista Re. But Pell was given a standard solemn Vatican funeral for a cardinal. Father Joseph Hamilton, Pell's personal secretary, declined to comment on Magister's report and Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said it had no comment.

☆ Cardinal Pell lies in state, funeral plans overshadowed by memo revelation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

VATICAN CITY, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Australian Cardinal George Pell was lying in state on Friday, with funeral preparations overshadowed by revelations that he was the author of an anonymous memo that branded Pope Francis' pontificate a catastrophe. Early on Friday, a reporter saw about 20 people kneeling in prayer in the church when it opened for 10 hours of lying in state. The small church, which is normally used for baptisms and weddings, is one of the oldest in the Vatican. Last year, respected Italian journalist Sandro Magister, who has a long track record of receiving leaked Vatican documents, published an anonymous memo circulating in the Vatican condemning Pope Francis' papacy as a "catastrophe". Pell will be buried in the crypt at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, where he served as archbishop, the Australian Church has announced.

☆ Pell wrote secret memo calling Francis' papacy 'catastrophe', journalist says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Commentators of every school, if for different reasons ... agree that this pontificate is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe," the memo begins. The Vatican's political prestige is now at a low ebb." Pell appeared to like the more liberal-minded Francis personally, but not how he ran the Church. Francis supported Pell privately during the abuse saga and on the day of the acquittal offered Mass for all who suffer unjust sentences. "The political influence of Pope Francis and the Vatican is negligible.

☆ Biden's student loan forgiveness plan is 'unlawful,' two professors say, but legal challenges carry 'dangerous implications'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Although they call President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan "unlawful," two university law professors are urging the Supreme Court to reject the legal challenges that have been brought against it. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear two of those legal challenges. The law professors say it's supposed to be the party most affected by a policy that challenges it in the courts. But the law professors say that, in that case, MOHELA should have brought the legal challenge, not the states. "Missouri is not the proper party to pursue relief for MOHELA's lost loan servicing fees," Baude and Bray wrote.

☆ George Pell, Powerful Australian Cardinal Who Was Charged, Acquitted of Child Sex Abuse, Dies at 81
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Robb M. Stewart | Stuart Condie | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Cardinal George Pell , who cast an imposing shadow over the Roman Catholic Church from the gold-mining town he grew up in, across Australia and to Rome before a fall from grace in his 70s, has died. “It is with deep sadness that I can confirm His Eminence, George Cardinal Pell, passed away in Rome in the early hours of this morning,” Anthony Fisher , archbishop of Sydney, wrote in a post on Facebook. “This news comes as a great shock to all of us.”

☆ George Pell, Powerful Australian Cardinal Who Fell From Grace, Dies at 81
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Robb Stewart | Stuart Condie | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Australian Cardinal George Pell, whose abuse conviction was overturned, dies at 81
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

CANBERRA, Australia — Cardinal George Pell, who was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse before his convictions were later overturned, has died in Rome at age 81. Pell, an Australian, was once the third-highest ranked Catholic in the Vatican after earlier serving as the Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney. But Pell returned to his native Australia in 2017 in an attempt to clear his name of child sex charges. Pell’s reputation remained tarnished by the church’s child sex abuse scandal. Pell was born on June 8, 1941, the eldest of three children to a heavyweight champion boxer and publican also named George Pell, an Anglican.

[1/3] Australian Cardinal George Pell gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters in Rome, Italy December 7, 2020. Archbishop Peter Comensoli, the Archbishop of Melbourne, said Pell had died from heart complications following hip surgery. An Australian appeals court ruling in 2020 quashed convictions that Pell sexually assaulted two choir boys in the 1990s. Pell took pride in having set up one of the world's first schemes to compensate victims of child sexual abuse in Melbourne. The inquiry, known as a Royal Commission, began in 2013 a five-year investigation into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church and other institutions.

☆ Biden admin defends stalled student loan plan in Supreme Court brief
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Jan 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department late on Wednesday filed a brief with the Supreme Court defending President Joe Biden's student debt relief plan and arguing that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona had clear authority to provide the loan forgiveness. 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. Students who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students would have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled under the plan, which has been on hold due to legal challenges. Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Andrea Shalal, editing by Dan WhitcombOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Biden's administration just filed a full legal defense of its student-loan forgiveness plan to the Supreme Court, saying the debt relief falls 'comfortably' within the law
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Justice Department filed a defense of Biden's student-debt relief to SCOTUS on Wednesday night. This filing comes ahead of February 28, when the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on the two lawsuits that have blocked the implementation of the debt relief. The other lawsuit was filed by two student-loan borrowers who sued because they did not qualify for the full $20,000 amount of relief. Another primary argument Biden's administration has pushed back on is the idea that the debt relief would harm MOHELA. The Justice Department argued MOHELA is a separate entity from Missouri and should not be considered alongside harms to the state.

☆ Delinquent student loans can reduce Social Security by $2,500 a year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Getty ImagesIf you are delinquent on federal student loans and collect Social Security benefits, you may have your monthly checks reduced. Social Security benefits are typically subject to partial withholdings after prolonged federal student loan delinquencies. Today's Social Security beneficiaries who are behind on federal student loans are not subject to benefit withholdings, as those collections have been suspended as part of the federal student loan payment pause that has been in effect since March 2020, Minsky noted. "No one is having their Social Security checks garnished right now," Minsky said. How policy may influence debtsBiden has proposed broad student loan forgiveness of up to $10,000 for federal student loans, or up to $20,000 for Pell grant recipients.

WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department late on Wednesday filed a brief with the Supreme Court defending President Joe Biden's plan to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans, arguing that two cases lacked standing to challenge the debt relief. Biden in August said 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. Students who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students would have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled under the plan. In fact, the Justice Department said, the HEROES Act expressly exempted the department from notice and comment procedures. Over 16 million borrowers have already been approved for debt relief and millions more have applied.

☆ Resuming student-loan payments this year without Biden's debt cancellation could be especially harmful to borrowers with auto and credit card debt, the NY Fed says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Even if the Supreme Court strikes down student-debt relief, payments will likely resume this year. This could be particularly harmful for borrowers with other forms of debt, the NY Fed said. The Fed said a resumption without relief would put borrowers with other forms of debt, like credit card and auto, at increased risk of falling into delinquency. "Eligible borrowers have always had higher delinquency rates on these debts," the Fed wrote, referring to borrowers who would be eligible for Biden's student-debt relief. Borrowers just don't want to see payments resume without relief.

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