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Editorial: Poll finds student borrowers spent $$ they thought would be forgiven

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

If there was any doubt that today’s students are in desperate need of classes in financial literacy, it’s this: More than a third of student loan borrowers spent money they otherwise would not have, believing some of their debt would be forgiven by the Biden administration, according to a new poll.Don’t spend what you don’t have. That concept is admittedly at odds with a country that’s mired in credit card debt. As The Hill reported, a  typical American household now carries $10,000 in credit card debt, by one estimate.The aggregate picture is staggering: the nation’s credit card debt stands at $986 billion, according to the Federal Reserve. A Wallet Hub report put total card debt at $1.2 trillion at the end of 2022.Paying down credit card debt can be onerous, and a burden on many borrowers – especially if they racked up a good chunk of that debt paying for necessities during COVID shutdowns.Those carrying large credit card debt loads haven’...

Moore: Biden points finger at profits as cause of inflation

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently reiterated a point the Biden White House has been making for the past year: that inflation remains high not because of the Biden $6 trillion spending spree but because “high profit margins” captured during the COVID-19 pandemic drive up consumer prices.We then were told that the White House’s grand strategy to bring down sticker prices further at the store is to lower business profit margins for everything from drugs and computers to food and gasoline.How low should those evil profits go? To zero?Wait, since when are profits evil? The ability of a company to turn a profit is the very engine of growth — also of innovation, job creation and entrepreneurship.The only people who could possibly believe profits are nefarious are those who have never actually earned a profit. It isn’t so easy.As the late, great economist Walter Williams of George Mason University used to explain in his Econ 100 course: Farmers ...

Dear Abby: BF pauses relationship after sister’s death

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

Dear Abby: My boyfriend lost his sister unexpectedly to a heart attack. She was only 50. I’m trying to be there for him and give him his space while he’s grieving. The thing is, he has stopped responding or contacting me. Every few days, I’d send him words of support, but he doesn’t respond — not with a “thank you” or anything. This has been happening for the past week.Finally, I figured that he’s ghosting me and no longer wants to be bothered with me but doesn’t want to say it. So I told him I didn’t want to add to his stress, that I felt he was over our relationship and I wouldn’t bother him anymore. He responded, saying I’m taking it too personally, there’s nothing I can do to help and it’s something he has to go through.I know that. I understand grieving. But am I supposed to just wait until he feels like talking or being bothered with me, for however long it takes? I’m trying to be underst...

Nearly $4 million of meth found in tractor trailer roof

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

TECATE, Calif. -- Over 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine, worth nearly $4 million, was seized from a tractor trailer last Thursday at the Tecate Port of Entry, authorities said.The seizure occurred around 9:07 a.m. when U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers inspected a tractor trailer driven by a 46-year-old driver entering the United States from Mexico, border officials said.During the search, law enforcement found a total of 138 packages of methamphetamine hidden within the roof of the vehicle, according to CBP. The estimated street value of the drugs totaled $3,994,298. Rancho Bernardo Shell gas station reports 7,300 gallons of diesel fuel stolen “Our officers are always ready to serve and protect our borders,” stated Rosa Hernandez, PortDirector for the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. “The collaborative efforts to achieve this common goalare truly remarkable.”The driver was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for further process while CBP officers seized the tra...

Thousands of Ukraine civilians are being held in Russian prisons. Russia plans to build many more

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian civilians woke long before dawn in the bitter cold, lined up for the single toilet and were loaded at gunpoint into the livestock trailer. They spent the next 12 hours or more digging trenches on the front lines for Russian soldiers.Many were forced to wear overlarge Russian military uniforms that could make them a target, and a former city administrator trudged around in boots five sizes too big. By the end of the day, their hands curled into icy claws.Nearby, in the occupied region of Zaporizhzhia, other Ukrainian civilians dug mass graves into the frozen ground for fellow prisoners who had not survived. One man who refused to dig was shot on the spot — yet another body for the grave.Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are being detained across Russia and the Ukrainian territories it occupies, in centers ranging from brand-new wings in Russian prisons to clammy basements. Most have no status under Russian law.And Russia is planning to hold p...

Former teen performers accuse an agent of sexual assault. They’re hoping it’s Japan’s Me Too moment

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Kazuya Nakamura says he was 15 when one of the most powerful men in Japanese entertainment history forced him to have sex while he was part of a troupe of backup dancers managed by the legendary talent agent.At least a dozen other men have come forward this year to say they were sexually assaulted as teenagers by boy band impresario Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019, beginning with three who spoke anonymously to the BBC for a documentary broadcast in March. The story has all the elements of a major Me Too reckoning, but in Japan, response has been muted.While opposition politicians set up a committee in parliament to investigate, and the talent agency Kitagawa founded promised to do the same and offered a brief apology, the news still rarely makes the front pages or lead television news broadcasts.Kitagawa shrugged off similar allegations for decades. National media almost completely ignored the story, and Kitagawa’s business continued to thrive, even when a Tokyo appea...

Takeaways from the AP investigation into thousands of Ukrainian civilians held by Russia in prisons

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are detained in a network of formal and informal prisons across Russia and the territories it occupies, where they endure torture, psychological abuse and even slave labor. And Russia plans to build dozens more prisons, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.The AP spoke with dozens of people, including 20 former detainees, along with ex-prisoners of war, the families of more than a dozen civilians in detention, two Ukrainian intelligence officials and a government negotiator. Their accounts, as well as satellite imagery, social media, government documents and copies of letters delivered by the Red Cross, confirm a widescale Russian system of detention and abuse of civilians that goes directly against the Geneva Conventions.Here are findings from the AP investigation:1. The number of Ukrainian civilians held in Russian prisons is now in the thousands, many without charges. At least 4,000 civil...

Black Lives Matter movement to mark 10 years of activism, renews call to defund the police

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

The Black Lives Matter movement hits a milestone on Thursday, marking 10 years since its 2013 founding in response to the acquittal of the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.Gunned down in a Florida gated community where his father lived in 2012, Martin was one of the earliest symbols of a movement that now wields influence in politics, law enforcement and broader conversations about racial progress in and outside the U.S.BLM activists and organizations plan to mark a decade of the movement with in-person and virtual events. Calls to action include a renewed push to defund police departments and reinvest in Black communities that have suffered disproportionately from police brutality, unequal treatment in criminal justice systems and mass incarceration.In the wake of Supreme Court decisions that stymied relief from student loan debt held disproportionately by Black borrowers and banned affirmative action in higher education, the need for BLM’s existence couldnR...

Dangerous heat wave baking US Southwest brings triple digit temperatures, fire risk to California

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — After a historically wet winter and a cloudy spring, California’s summer was in full swing Thursday as a heat wave that’s been scorching much of the U.S. Southwest brings triple digit temperatures and an increased risk of wildfires.Blistering conditions will build Friday and throughout the weekend in the central and southern parts of California, where many residents should prepare for the hottest weather of the year, the National Weather Service warned. Midday highs were mostly expected to be above 100 degrees (37.7 C), and desert areas could reach 120 (48.8 C), forecasters said. Little relief was expected overnight, when temperatures could remain in the 80s (above 26.6 C). An excessive heat watch was in effect through Sunday for interior Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. “Please plan accordingly, this is not the time to be hiking or be outside for long durations,” the weather service’s LA office said on Twi...

House Republicans set to interrogate FTC’s Khan over ethics, antitrust issues

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:18 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans who say the Federal Trade Commission has been overzealous and politicized under President Joe Biden are set to interrogate agency head Lina Khan on Thursday, bringing her before the House Judiciary Committee for the first time amid her court battles with big technology companies.Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has criticized Khan in recent months on a multitude of issues, including what he says are politically motivated actions directed at Elon Musk after he acquired Twitter last year, questions about whether she should have recused herself from certain cases and her legal actions against tech giants on antitrust issues. In April, the committee subpoenaed Khan after an investigation by the panel that concluded the FTC “harassed” Twitter in the wake of Musk’s acquisition.The hearing will examine “mismanagement of the FTC and its disregard for ethics and congressional oversight under Chair Lina Khan,” the Judiciary panel’s website says.The he...