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☆ Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan is in jeopardy. Here are 4 major takeaways from the Supreme Court's oral arguments.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Biden's student-debt relief on Tuesday. The nation's highest court heard more than four hours of oral arguments in two high-profile cases that reviewed Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for federal borrowers, which lower courts temporarily paused in November. "We're talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans," Chief Justice John Roberts said, referring to the estimated costs of Biden's plan and the number of affected borrowers. Justice Elena Kagan raised a hypothetical national emergency of an earthquake and the education secretary responded by deciding to cancel student loans for those harmed. Still, even if Barrett and the court's three liberals find that the states and borrowers lack standing, they would need another conservative vote to uphold Biden's debt relief.

☆ Student debt forgiveness heads to the Supreme Court—here's what borrowers need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Kamaron Mcnair | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Activists and students protest in front of the Supreme Court during a rally for student debt cancellation in Washington, DC, on February 28, 2023. The Supreme Court hears oral arguments this week against and for President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness plan. The Biden administration has appealed both rulings, maintaining the president is within his authority to cancel federal student debt. Who will benefit the most from student debt forgiveness? What happens if the Supreme Court stops debt forgiveness?

☆ How the Supreme Court may approach Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday on Biden's student-loan relief plan. Supporters say the relief is lawful, while opponents say Biden's policy is unconstitutional. The states claim that MOHELA will lose revenue from servicing loans because of Biden's relief. Concerning the constitutionality of Biden's plan, advocates on both sides say they feel confident their respective views will prevail at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decisions by June.

☆ Student-Loan Forgiveness Case at Supreme Court Hinges on ‘Harm’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Gabriel T. Rubin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Challengers to President Biden’s student-debt cancellation plan want the high court to decide whether the administration overstepped its authority. Challengers to President Biden’s mass student-debt cancellation plan must clear a hurdle before the Supreme Court can move on to the merits of the case: Showing that they would suffer harm from the program. The high court will hear arguments on Tuesday related to Mr. Biden’s plan to cancel up to $10,000 in debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 annually, with extra relief going to people who received Pell Grants. Individuals and Republican state officials sued the administration last year seeking to block the plan from going into effect.

☆ A group challenging Biden's student-loan forgiveness in the Supreme Court this week says it's 'very clear' the relief is illegal: 'We feel very good about our case'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Job Creators Network, one of the groups challenging Biden's student-debt relief in the Supreme Court, said it feels "very good" about its case. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments for two lawsuits that blocked the relief. Biden's administration and Democrats have pushed back on the plaintiffs' standing to sue. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is taking on two lawsuits that paused Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers. Both of the lawsuits challenging Biden's plan said the broad debt relief is an overreach of that authority and should not be done without Congressional approval.

☆ 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.

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