BIOPHAGE A GOOD VIRUS THAT KILLS SUPERBUGS
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Trump Bans Corona Beer To Stop Spread Of The Super Virus
THE TRUTH IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU
Now that the superbug, “coronavirus,” has landed in the USA, our medical practitioners and government employees are taking it very seriously in effort to prevent its further spread within our borders. President Trump is among those in government showing grave concern.
But while all others talk about the virus and how to handle this potential outbreak, President Trump is actually taking action. Quick and decisive, Trump made an announcement today on how he intends to prevent further infection.
“This is a bug. A super bug, actually, they call it. That means it’s bad. Really bad.And I know what you’re thinking, but you’d be wrong. This isn’t like a caterpillar or a spider. It’s not that kind of bug. Nobody knew that. Nobody. But I’m here to tell you.This is a virus. It’s a disease. Like a cold or a flu but it can kill you. I won’t let that happen though. I have a plan.Effective immediately, Corona Beer will no longer be available for sale or consumption in the United States of America. It will be banned indefinitely.I know, I know… You all love that stuff, but this has to be done to protect all the good citizens of this country.”
President Trump is known for his quick action in times of danger. With this, he has proven to have more knowledge in the medical field than anybody at the CDC. We are lucky to have him.
Oil plunges deeper into bear market on coronavirus fallout
By Matt Egan, CNN Business
Jennifer Lopez and Hailey Bieber are making this swimsuit trend go viral
The spread of the coronavirus around the world is sending shockwaves through an oil market ill-prepared for a serious blow to energy demand.
© Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg/Getty Images Chemical and oil tanker Tina Theresa, right, sits docked near shipping cranes at the port of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany, on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. Germany's biggest bank has given the strongest warning yet that the nation is close to a recession as the coronavirus outbreak exacerbates its long-running industrial slump. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Oil prices plunged deeper into a bear market Wednesday, reflecting fears about the economic repercussions of the rapidly-spreading health crisis. Economists are warning the coronavirus could spark a severe economic slowdown or even recession in the United States and elsewhere.
The outbreak is the biggest shock to demand for oil since the 2008 financial crisis.
US crude dropped another 2.3% on Wednesday to $48.73 a barrel. That's the lowest price since January 2019 and it marks a 23% plunge from the recent peak of $63.27 a barrel on January 6.
"You're seeing the ripple effects of the coronavirus proliferate outside of China. That is what is turning investor sentiment on oil and other risk assets as well," said Michael Tran, director of global energy strategy at RBC Capital Markets.
Citing the coronavirus, on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs told clients it is cutting its 2020 oil demand forecast in half to just 600,000 barrels per day.
"If the coronavirus spreads further globally, then we expect further downside risk to our estimates," Goldman Sachs analyst Brian Singer wrote in a report.
The plunge in oil prices has clobbered energy stocks, which entered a bear market late last month. The ETF Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund, which tracks the sector, has lost a stunning 11% in the last three days and nearly 20% so far in 2020.
The oil patch suffered more selling Wednesday, even as the broader markets staged a fragile rebound. Devon Energy and Diamondback Energy fell more than 5% apiece, making them among the biggest losers on the S&P 500. Larger rivals ExxonMobil and Chevron also retreated.
Unlike recent oil bear markets caused by excess supply, this one is all about weakening demand. The shutdown of large parts of China's economy, combined with the spread of the coronavirus to South Korea and Italy, has caused a sharp decline in flight activity and vehicle traffic. That means there is less oil needed for jet fuel and motor gasoline.
For instance, United Airlines has suspended flights between the United States and four destinations in China. Near-term demand for flights to China has fallen to near zero and demand for flights to the rest of the trans-Pacific routes has plunged 75%.
Flight patterns from South Korea have dropped 25% to 30% below normal levels, Tran said, citing RBC's use of artificial intelligence to track real-time flight patterns.
"It's tough to suggest this a buy-the-dip opportunity," Tran said, "because there is very little evidence to suggest we're in for a v-shaped recovery in the near-term."
The weak demand outlook raises pressure on OPEC and its allies to take decisive action. The group is scheduled to meet next week in Vienna to decide whether further supply cuts are needed to balance the market.
"Historically during periods of demand shock, OPEC has come together to cut production to offset weakness in demand," Singer, the Goldman analyst, wrote.
Oil prices plunged deeper into a bear market Wednesday, reflecting fears about the economic repercussions of the rapidly-spreading health crisis. Economists are warning the coronavirus could spark a severe economic slowdown or even recession in the United States and elsewhere.
The outbreak is the biggest shock to demand for oil since the 2008 financial crisis.
US crude dropped another 2.3% on Wednesday to $48.73 a barrel. That's the lowest price since January 2019 and it marks a 23% plunge from the recent peak of $63.27 a barrel on January 6.
"You're seeing the ripple effects of the coronavirus proliferate outside of China. That is what is turning investor sentiment on oil and other risk assets as well," said Michael Tran, director of global energy strategy at RBC Capital Markets.
Citing the coronavirus, on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs told clients it is cutting its 2020 oil demand forecast in half to just 600,000 barrels per day.
"If the coronavirus spreads further globally, then we expect further downside risk to our estimates," Goldman Sachs analyst Brian Singer wrote in a report.
The plunge in oil prices has clobbered energy stocks, which entered a bear market late last month. The ETF Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund, which tracks the sector, has lost a stunning 11% in the last three days and nearly 20% so far in 2020.
The oil patch suffered more selling Wednesday, even as the broader markets staged a fragile rebound. Devon Energy and Diamondback Energy fell more than 5% apiece, making them among the biggest losers on the S&P 500. Larger rivals ExxonMobil and Chevron also retreated.
Unlike recent oil bear markets caused by excess supply, this one is all about weakening demand. The shutdown of large parts of China's economy, combined with the spread of the coronavirus to South Korea and Italy, has caused a sharp decline in flight activity and vehicle traffic. That means there is less oil needed for jet fuel and motor gasoline.
For instance, United Airlines has suspended flights between the United States and four destinations in China. Near-term demand for flights to China has fallen to near zero and demand for flights to the rest of the trans-Pacific routes has plunged 75%.
Flight patterns from South Korea have dropped 25% to 30% below normal levels, Tran said, citing RBC's use of artificial intelligence to track real-time flight patterns.
"It's tough to suggest this a buy-the-dip opportunity," Tran said, "because there is very little evidence to suggest we're in for a v-shaped recovery in the near-term."
The weak demand outlook raises pressure on OPEC and its allies to take decisive action. The group is scheduled to meet next week in Vienna to decide whether further supply cuts are needed to balance the market.
"Historically during periods of demand shock, OPEC has come together to cut production to offset weakness in demand," Singer, the Goldman analyst, wrote.
POST MODERN PULP FICTION
RIP Clive Cussler, Best-Selling Author and Adventurer, Is Dead at 88
Clive Cussler, the author and maritime adventurer who captivated millions with his best-selling tales of suspense and who, between books, led scores of expeditions to find historic shipwrecks and lost treasures in the ocean depths, died on Monday at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 88.
RIP Clive Cussler, Best-Selling Author and Adventurer, Is Dead at 88
Clive Cussler, the author and maritime adventurer who captivated millions with his best-selling tales of suspense and who, between books, led scores of expeditions to find historic shipwrecks and lost treasures in the ocean depths, died on Monday at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 88.
© Denver Post, via Getty Images The author Clive Cussler with one of his best-known books in 1977. He had a second career scouring the oceans for shipwrecks.
His death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for his publisher, Penguin Random House. No specific cause was given.
Mayan jungles, undersea kingdoms, ghost ships, evil forces out to destroy the world, beautiful women, heroes modeled on himself — Mr. Cussler’s vivid literary fantasies and his larger-than-life exploits swirled together for four decades, spinning off some 70 books and locating almost as many shipwrecks.
A college dropout who once pumped gas and wrote advertising copy, Mr. Cussler resorted to a hoax to get his first book published. But his work — mostly action thrillers of the James Bond-Indiana Jones kind, plus nonfiction accounts of his marine quests and a few children’s books — made him a global celebrity.
His books sales have been staggering — more than 100 million copies, with vast numbers sold in paperback at airports. Translated into 40 or so languages, his books reached The New York Times’s best-seller lists more than 20 times, as he amassed a fortune estimated at $80 million.
Mr. Cussler looked like the hero of Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” You had to imagine the battered straw hat and the tired shoulders hunched over a gunwale, but after years of roaming oceans and diving for wrecks, he had that seafarer’s husky build and sunburned cheeks, and his face, more sea dog than bibliophile, was flecked with gray: the grizzled beard, the mustache, the eyes, the gray-white hair.
His death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for his publisher, Penguin Random House. No specific cause was given.
Mayan jungles, undersea kingdoms, ghost ships, evil forces out to destroy the world, beautiful women, heroes modeled on himself — Mr. Cussler’s vivid literary fantasies and his larger-than-life exploits swirled together for four decades, spinning off some 70 books and locating almost as many shipwrecks.
A college dropout who once pumped gas and wrote advertising copy, Mr. Cussler resorted to a hoax to get his first book published. But his work — mostly action thrillers of the James Bond-Indiana Jones kind, plus nonfiction accounts of his marine quests and a few children’s books — made him a global celebrity.
His books sales have been staggering — more than 100 million copies, with vast numbers sold in paperback at airports. Translated into 40 or so languages, his books reached The New York Times’s best-seller lists more than 20 times, as he amassed a fortune estimated at $80 million.
Mr. Cussler looked like the hero of Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” You had to imagine the battered straw hat and the tired shoulders hunched over a gunwale, but after years of roaming oceans and diving for wrecks, he had that seafarer’s husky build and sunburned cheeks, and his face, more sea dog than bibliophile, was flecked with gray: the grizzled beard, the mustache, the eyes, the gray-white hair.
© Ron Semrod/Associated Press Mr. Cussler in 1997.
His writing helped him amass a fortune of about $80 million.
Often compared to the thrillers churned out by Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and Ian Fleming, the Cussler novels featured formulaic plots, one- or two-word titles (“Cyclops,” “Dragon,” “Inca Gold,” “Poseidon’s Arrow”) and frequently a recurring hero, Dirk Pitt, an undersea explorer who cheats death and saves the world as he foils the diabolical plots of megalomaniac villains, while satisfying his taste for exotic cars and lusty women.
Mr. Cussler was hardly a stylist. Critics called his characters wooden, his dialogue leaden and his prose clichéd (“the cold touch of fear,” “a narrow brush with death”), while praising his descriptions of marine hardware, underwater struggles and salvage operations. But readers were swept along on the page-turning tides, and after his commercial breakthrough, “Raise the Titanic!” (1976), his books were frequently on the best-seller lists for months.
Mr. Cussler also connected with readers by turning his love for scuba diving into an oceanic lifestyle that paralleled and validated his superhero.
He first created the National Underwater and Marine Agency as a fictional government organization that employed his hero in the Dirk Pitt books. Then, in 1979, he founded an actual National Underwater and Marine Agency as a private nonprofit group committed to “preserving maritime heritage through the discovery, archaeological survey and conservation of shipwreck artifacts.” It underwrote his maritime ventures.
With Mr. Cussler leading expeditions and joining dives, the organization eventually located some 60 wrecks. Among them were the Cunard steamship Carpathia, first to reach survivors of the lost Titanic on April 15, 1912, then itself sunk by German torpedoes off Ireland in 1918; Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt’s coastal steamer Lexington, which caught fire and went down in Long Island Sound in 1840; and Manassas, the Confederacy’s first Civil War ironclad, sunk in battle in the Lower Mississippi in 1862.
His first nonfiction book, “The Sea Hunters” (1996, with Craig Dirgo), was an account of his NUMA exploits, some of which were portrayed in television documentaries featuring Mr. Cussler as narrator. Valuable artifacts raised by his expeditions were given to museums or governments.
Mr. Cussler, who named his franchise hero after his son Dirk, acknowledged that Dirk Pitt’s character was his own alter ego. His later novels, many co-written by his son or others, often included himself as a character who saves the day. His son, a daughter and friends were also used as characters in his books.
“I’ve been doing Dirk Pitt for 30 years,” Mr. Cussler told The Times in 2000. “Maybe I can find another writer down the line to take him over. It’s not the money; it’s the fans.
“I’d like to retire,” he continued. “I’m toying with the idea of Pitt having a son who shows up. He’s getting a little long in the tooth. When we started out, we were both 36 years old. Now he’s a little over 40, and I’m pushing 70.”
But 20 years later, he was still churning out books, sometimes two a year. His “Journey of the Pharaohs: A Novel From the NUMA Files,” written with Graham Brown, is scheduled to be published in March.
Clive Eric Cussler was born in Aurora, Ill., on July 15, 1931, the only child of Eric and Amy Hunnewell Cussler. His father was an accountant. Clive grew up in Alhambra, Calif., a poor student but an avid reader of adventure stories.
“I detested school,” he told Publishers Weekly in 1994. “I was always the kid who was staring out the window. While the teacher was lecturing on algebra, I was on the deck of a pirate ship or in an airplane shooting down the Red Baron.”
He attended Pasadena City College briefly, but left to join the Air Force when the Korean War began in 1950. He became a mechanic, flew supply missions in the Pacific but never saw combat. While stationed in Hawaii, he learned scuba diving and explored underwater wrecks. He mustered out as a sergeant.
In 1955, he married Barbara Knight. They had three children, Teri, Dirk and Dayna. His wife died in 2003. He later married Janet Horvath, who survives him, along with his children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
In California, Mr. Cussler pumped gas, wrote advertising copy and, from 1961 to 1965, co-owned Bestgen & Cussler Advertising in Newport Beach. Later, at the D’Arcy agency in Hollywood, he won several awards.
From 1967 to 1969 he was advertising director of Aquatic Marine Corporation in Newport Beach. In 1970, he joined Mefford, Wolff and Weir Advertising in Denver, where he became a vice president and creative director.
He began writing fiction at home in the late 60s, but his first two books, “Pacific Vortex” and “The Mediterranean Caper,” were repeatedly rejected. Unable even to get an agent, he staged a hoax. Using the letterhead of a fictitious writers’ agency, he wrote to the agent Peter Lampack, posing as an old colleague about to retire and overloaded with work. He enclosed copies of his manuscripts, citing their potential.
It worked. “Where can I sign Clive Cussler?” Mr. Lampack wrote back. In 1973, “The Mediterranean Caper” was published, followed by “Iceberg” (1975) and “Raise the Titanic!” (1976).
Despite an improbable plot and negative reviews, “Raise the Titanic!” sold 150,000 copies, was a Times best seller for six months and became a 1980 film starring Richard Jordan and Jason Robards Jr.
While Dirk Pitt books appeared throughout his career, Mr. Cussler also wrote other series: “The NUMA Files,” featuring the hero Kurt Austin and written with Graham Brown or Paul Kemprecos; “The Fargo Adventures,” about husband-and-wife treasure hunters, written with Grant Blackwood or Thomas Perry; “The Oregon Files,” set on a high-tech spy ship disguised as a freighter, written with Jack DuBrul or Mr. Dirgo; and “The Isaac Bell Adventures,” about an early-20th-century detective, written with Justin Scott.
His nonfiction included “Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed” (1998, with Mr. Dirgo) and “Built for Adventure: The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt” (2011). Mr. Cussler, who had homes in Arvada, Colo., and Paradise Valley, Ariz., restored vintage cars and had about 100 in his museum in Arvada, including a 1906 Stanley Steamer, a 1913 Marmon and a 1921 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.
Often compared to the thrillers churned out by Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and Ian Fleming, the Cussler novels featured formulaic plots, one- or two-word titles (“Cyclops,” “Dragon,” “Inca Gold,” “Poseidon’s Arrow”) and frequently a recurring hero, Dirk Pitt, an undersea explorer who cheats death and saves the world as he foils the diabolical plots of megalomaniac villains, while satisfying his taste for exotic cars and lusty women.
Mr. Cussler was hardly a stylist. Critics called his characters wooden, his dialogue leaden and his prose clichéd (“the cold touch of fear,” “a narrow brush with death”), while praising his descriptions of marine hardware, underwater struggles and salvage operations. But readers were swept along on the page-turning tides, and after his commercial breakthrough, “Raise the Titanic!” (1976), his books were frequently on the best-seller lists for months.
Mr. Cussler also connected with readers by turning his love for scuba diving into an oceanic lifestyle that paralleled and validated his superhero.
He first created the National Underwater and Marine Agency as a fictional government organization that employed his hero in the Dirk Pitt books. Then, in 1979, he founded an actual National Underwater and Marine Agency as a private nonprofit group committed to “preserving maritime heritage through the discovery, archaeological survey and conservation of shipwreck artifacts.” It underwrote his maritime ventures.
With Mr. Cussler leading expeditions and joining dives, the organization eventually located some 60 wrecks. Among them were the Cunard steamship Carpathia, first to reach survivors of the lost Titanic on April 15, 1912, then itself sunk by German torpedoes off Ireland in 1918; Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt’s coastal steamer Lexington, which caught fire and went down in Long Island Sound in 1840; and Manassas, the Confederacy’s first Civil War ironclad, sunk in battle in the Lower Mississippi in 1862.
His first nonfiction book, “The Sea Hunters” (1996, with Craig Dirgo), was an account of his NUMA exploits, some of which were portrayed in television documentaries featuring Mr. Cussler as narrator. Valuable artifacts raised by his expeditions were given to museums or governments.
Mr. Cussler, who named his franchise hero after his son Dirk, acknowledged that Dirk Pitt’s character was his own alter ego. His later novels, many co-written by his son or others, often included himself as a character who saves the day. His son, a daughter and friends were also used as characters in his books.
“I’ve been doing Dirk Pitt for 30 years,” Mr. Cussler told The Times in 2000. “Maybe I can find another writer down the line to take him over. It’s not the money; it’s the fans.
“I’d like to retire,” he continued. “I’m toying with the idea of Pitt having a son who shows up. He’s getting a little long in the tooth. When we started out, we were both 36 years old. Now he’s a little over 40, and I’m pushing 70.”
But 20 years later, he was still churning out books, sometimes two a year. His “Journey of the Pharaohs: A Novel From the NUMA Files,” written with Graham Brown, is scheduled to be published in March.
Clive Eric Cussler was born in Aurora, Ill., on July 15, 1931, the only child of Eric and Amy Hunnewell Cussler. His father was an accountant. Clive grew up in Alhambra, Calif., a poor student but an avid reader of adventure stories.
“I detested school,” he told Publishers Weekly in 1994. “I was always the kid who was staring out the window. While the teacher was lecturing on algebra, I was on the deck of a pirate ship or in an airplane shooting down the Red Baron.”
He attended Pasadena City College briefly, but left to join the Air Force when the Korean War began in 1950. He became a mechanic, flew supply missions in the Pacific but never saw combat. While stationed in Hawaii, he learned scuba diving and explored underwater wrecks. He mustered out as a sergeant.
In 1955, he married Barbara Knight. They had three children, Teri, Dirk and Dayna. His wife died in 2003. He later married Janet Horvath, who survives him, along with his children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
In California, Mr. Cussler pumped gas, wrote advertising copy and, from 1961 to 1965, co-owned Bestgen & Cussler Advertising in Newport Beach. Later, at the D’Arcy agency in Hollywood, he won several awards.
From 1967 to 1969 he was advertising director of Aquatic Marine Corporation in Newport Beach. In 1970, he joined Mefford, Wolff and Weir Advertising in Denver, where he became a vice president and creative director.
He began writing fiction at home in the late 60s, but his first two books, “Pacific Vortex” and “The Mediterranean Caper,” were repeatedly rejected. Unable even to get an agent, he staged a hoax. Using the letterhead of a fictitious writers’ agency, he wrote to the agent Peter Lampack, posing as an old colleague about to retire and overloaded with work. He enclosed copies of his manuscripts, citing their potential.
It worked. “Where can I sign Clive Cussler?” Mr. Lampack wrote back. In 1973, “The Mediterranean Caper” was published, followed by “Iceberg” (1975) and “Raise the Titanic!” (1976).
Despite an improbable plot and negative reviews, “Raise the Titanic!” sold 150,000 copies, was a Times best seller for six months and became a 1980 film starring Richard Jordan and Jason Robards Jr.
While Dirk Pitt books appeared throughout his career, Mr. Cussler also wrote other series: “The NUMA Files,” featuring the hero Kurt Austin and written with Graham Brown or Paul Kemprecos; “The Fargo Adventures,” about husband-and-wife treasure hunters, written with Grant Blackwood or Thomas Perry; “The Oregon Files,” set on a high-tech spy ship disguised as a freighter, written with Jack DuBrul or Mr. Dirgo; and “The Isaac Bell Adventures,” about an early-20th-century detective, written with Justin Scott.
His nonfiction included “Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed” (1998, with Mr. Dirgo) and “Built for Adventure: The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt” (2011). Mr. Cussler, who had homes in Arvada, Colo., and Paradise Valley, Ariz., restored vintage cars and had about 100 in his museum in Arvada, including a 1906 Stanley Steamer, a 1913 Marmon and a 1921 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.
SURPRIZE !
Court sides with Trump in 'sanctuary cities' grant fight
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press
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NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration can withhold millions of dollars in law enforcement grants to force states to cooperate with U.S. immigration enforcement, a federal appeals court in New York ruled Wednesday in a decision that conflicted with three other federal appeals courts.
© 2018 Getty Images NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 11: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), officers gather for a debriefing after operations to arrest undocumented immigrants on April 11, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. New York is considered a 'sanctuary city' for undocumented immigrants, and ICE receives little or no cooperation from local law enforcement. ICE said that officers arrested 225 people for violation of immigration laws during the 6-day operation, the largest in New York City in recent years. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned a lower court's decision ordering the administration to release funding to New York City and seven states — New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, Virginia and Rhode Island.
The states and city sued the U.S. government after the Justice Department announced in 2017 that it would withhold grant money from cities and states until they gave federal immigration authorities access to jails and provide advance notice when someone in the country illegally is about to be released.
Before the change, cities and states seeking grant money were required only to show they were not preventing local law enforcement from communicating with federal authorities about the immigration status of people who were detained.
At the time, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said: “So-called ‘sanctuary’ policies make all of us less safe because they intentionally undermine our laws and protect illegal aliens who have committed crimes.”
The 2nd Circuit said the plain language of relevant laws make clear that the U.S. attorney general can impose conditions on states and municipalities receiving money.
And it noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly observed that the federal government maintains broad power over states when it comes to immigration policies.
In the past two years, federal appeals courts in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco have ruled against the federal government by upholding lower-court injunctions placed on the enforcement of some or all of the challenged conditions.
The appeals rulings pertain to the issuance of the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.
Created in 2006, it is the vehicle through which Congress annually dispenses over $250 million in federal funding for state and local criminal justice efforts.
The Byrne Program was named for New York City Police Officer Edward Byrne, who at age 22 was shot to death while guarding the home of a Guyanese immigrant cooperating with authorities investigating drug trafficking.
ANOTHER TRUMPETTE IN THE SWAMP
A new senior leader at the White House personnel office: A college senior
By Daniel Lippman and Meridith McGraw
KAKISTOCRACY
The White House has hired a college senior to be one of the top officials in its powerful Presidential Personnel Office, according to three administration officials familiar with the matter.
JAMES BACON'S GRANDMA SAYS HE IS A NICE GUY BUT THE WRONG GUY
"He wasn't just a gopher at HUD. He was doing just a lot of substantial stuff," she said of James Bacon. "He's just a really good person.", or anybody else in her family, hasn't worked as a paralegal or a baseball coach.
A new senior leader at the White House personnel office: A college senior
By Daniel Lippman and Meridith McGraw
KAKISTOCRACY
The White House has hired a college senior to be one of the top officials in its powerful Presidential Personnel Office, according to three administration officials familiar with the matter.
© Patrick Semansky/AP Photo The White House has not yet sent around any formal internal notice of James Bacon’s new role.
James Bacon, 23, is acting as one of the right-hand men to new PPO director John McEntee, according to the officials. Bacon, a senior at George Washington University pursuing a bachelor’s degree, comes from the Department of Transportation, where he briefly worked in the policy shop. Prior to that role, while still taking classes, he worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he was a White House liaison, according to two other officials. At HUD, he distinguished himself as Secretary Ben Carson’s confidential assistant, according to two other administration officials.
James Bacon, 23, is acting as one of the right-hand men to new PPO director John McEntee, according to the officials. Bacon, a senior at George Washington University pursuing a bachelor’s degree, comes from the Department of Transportation, where he briefly worked in the policy shop. Prior to that role, while still taking classes, he worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he was a White House liaison, according to two other officials. At HUD, he distinguished himself as Secretary Ben Carson’s confidential assistant, according to two other administration officials.
Bacon worked for McEntee on the Trump campaign’s earliest days and also did some work on the advance team. He later did operations on the Trump transition. Bacon would have graduated on time if he had not taken time off from school to work on the campaign, an official said.
Bacon will be PPO’s director of operations overseeing paperwork and will assist on vetting. The role was previously filled by Katja Bullock, who is in her late 70s and was a veteran of the office in both Bush administrations, as well as the Reagan administration.
The White House has not yet sent around any formal internal notice of Bacon’s new role. A White House spokesman declined to comment.
McEntee replaced Sean Doocey, who is heading to the State Department.
McEntee, 29, held a meeting in a conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building last Thursday with White House liaisons of Cabinet departments where he asked officials to find Trump appointees who may be anti-Trump, according to an administration official familiar with the meeting. McEntee also told them that PPO was going to take a look at all appointees at some point and re-vet them to see if they’ve been disloyal in any way.
More dramatic changes are likely to be delayed until after November but the agency liaisons have been told to stop moving around officials who are viewed as anti-Trump to other agencies. (Axios first reported the details of the meeting.)
Bacon will be PPO’s director of operations overseeing paperwork and will assist on vetting. The role was previously filled by Katja Bullock, who is in her late 70s and was a veteran of the office in both Bush administrations, as well as the Reagan administration.
The White House has not yet sent around any formal internal notice of Bacon’s new role. A White House spokesman declined to comment.
McEntee replaced Sean Doocey, who is heading to the State Department.
McEntee, 29, held a meeting in a conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building last Thursday with White House liaisons of Cabinet departments where he asked officials to find Trump appointees who may be anti-Trump, according to an administration official familiar with the meeting. McEntee also told them that PPO was going to take a look at all appointees at some point and re-vet them to see if they’ve been disloyal in any way.
More dramatic changes are likely to be delayed until after November but the agency liaisons have been told to stop moving around officials who are viewed as anti-Trump to other agencies. (Axios first reported the details of the meeting.)
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images WASHINGTON, DC JANUARY 9: (L-R) White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, personal aide to the President John McEntee, and White House senior advisor for policy Stephen Miller walk to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on January 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Trump is headed to a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio on Thursday evening. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Another administration official described the meeting as “very positive” and McEntee reassured colleagues that there won’t be delays even though some PPO officials are leaving.
At least during his transition into the office, McEntee has for now kept on Michael Burley, who is associate director of presidential personnel and a special assistant to the president, but Burley is trying to figure out his next steps if he decides to leave.
After his acquittal, the president — emboldened and increasingly skeptical of anyone not a part of his original team — has relied on people like McEntee to act on his unofficial edict to fill the White House with loyalists and get rid of anyone feared to be part of the “deep state.”
McEntee worked on the Trump campaign in 2016 as the president’s body man, and in his role at the White House had constant access to the president, flying with him on Marine One and Air Force One, and at the president’s side to assist with any needs. He was fired from his role in 2018 by former chief of staff John Kelly because of security concerns tied to gambling allegations.
But McEntee wanted to return to the White House and is trusted by Trump, his family, and senior staff, was brought back earlier this year as the president is about to head into a reelection year and personnel changes are expected at the White House.
Despite having the trust of the president, McEntee’s lack of experience has raised concerns among some White House staff about his ability to run a critical White House office. One White House official pointed out that loyalty, in this case, trumped age and experience.
“He will do a great job because he has trust with POTUS,” said one former White House official.
The PPO office has been the subject of complaints and finger-pointing by some in the administration over its “frat-house” reputation, but serves an important function for vetting and hiring appointees. With McEntee at the helm of the office, however, it’s expected the president will take a more direct role than he has before.
“After three years of allowing others to control who would be around him and have power, he’s trying to take back some of the power and have a say in the staffing in the White House and administration,” a person close to the White House said. “A lot of the people in there weren’t actual allies of Trump, and didn’t actually support his agenda but had significant roles in his administration.”
Nancy Cook contributed to this report.
Another administration official described the meeting as “very positive” and McEntee reassured colleagues that there won’t be delays even though some PPO officials are leaving.
At least during his transition into the office, McEntee has for now kept on Michael Burley, who is associate director of presidential personnel and a special assistant to the president, but Burley is trying to figure out his next steps if he decides to leave.
After his acquittal, the president — emboldened and increasingly skeptical of anyone not a part of his original team — has relied on people like McEntee to act on his unofficial edict to fill the White House with loyalists and get rid of anyone feared to be part of the “deep state.”
McEntee worked on the Trump campaign in 2016 as the president’s body man, and in his role at the White House had constant access to the president, flying with him on Marine One and Air Force One, and at the president’s side to assist with any needs. He was fired from his role in 2018 by former chief of staff John Kelly because of security concerns tied to gambling allegations.
But McEntee wanted to return to the White House and is trusted by Trump, his family, and senior staff, was brought back earlier this year as the president is about to head into a reelection year and personnel changes are expected at the White House.
Despite having the trust of the president, McEntee’s lack of experience has raised concerns among some White House staff about his ability to run a critical White House office. One White House official pointed out that loyalty, in this case, trumped age and experience.
“He will do a great job because he has trust with POTUS,” said one former White House official.
The PPO office has been the subject of complaints and finger-pointing by some in the administration over its “frat-house” reputation, but serves an important function for vetting and hiring appointees. With McEntee at the helm of the office, however, it’s expected the president will take a more direct role than he has before.
“After three years of allowing others to control who would be around him and have power, he’s trying to take back some of the power and have a say in the staffing in the White House and administration,” a person close to the White House said. “A lot of the people in there weren’t actual allies of Trump, and didn’t actually support his agenda but had significant roles in his administration.”
Nancy Cook contributed to this report.
JAMES BACON'S GRANDMA SAYS HE IS A NICE GUY BUT THE WRONG GUY
"He wasn't just a gopher at HUD. He was doing just a lot of substantial stuff," she said of James Bacon. "He's just a really good person.", or anybody else in her family, hasn't worked as a paralegal or a baseball coach.
Insider could not find a contact for a firm under the name Schmitz & Secaris. The attorney Michael P. Socarras, who has worked with Republican politicians and runs the similarly named Virginia law firm Schmitz Socarras LLP, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
"There are a lot of James Bacons out there," Doris Bacon said.
Doris Bacon said that for anyone interested in politics, working in the White House today would be an interesting job.
"He wasn't just a gopher at HUD. He was doing just a lot of substantial stuff," she said of James Bacon. "He's just a really good person."
Arctic 'doomsday vault' stocks up on 60,000 more food seeds
Mounting concern over climate change and species loss is driving groups worldwide to add their seeds to the collection inside a mountain near Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen Island in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (about 800 miles) from the North Pole.
The "Noah's Ark" of food crops is set up to preserve plants that can feed a growing population facing climate change.
"As the pace of climate change and biodiversity loss increases, there is new urgency surrounding efforts to save food crops at risk of extinction," said Stefan Schmitz, who manages the reserve as head of the Crop Trust.
"The large scope of today's seed deposit reflects worldwide concern about the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on food production."
The head of the genetic bank of the Nordic nations, Lise Lykke Steffensen, said every single seed in the vault "holds potential solutions for sustainable agriculture".
"Solutions that are vital for feeding a growing population and achieving a green transition," she added.
- 'Before it's too late' -
A total of 36 regional and international institutions have contributed to the 60,000 samples that were deposited on Tuesday.
The new arrivals include staple crops such as wheat and rice, as well as wild varietes of European apple trees.
Also among the seeds are beans, squash and corn from the Cherokee Nation -- the first Native American group to send crops to the vault -- including their sacred White Eagle corn.
Britain's Prince Charles, who is known for his environmental advocacy, sent the seeds of 27 wild plants, including cowslips and orchids collected from the meadows of Highgrove, his country home.
"It has proved to be an exhausting and often demoralising task to persuade people of the utterly essential role played by all this diversity in maintaining vibrant, healthy ecosystems that sustain both people and our planet," the Prince of Wales said in a statement.
Story continues
"It's more urgent than ever that we act now to protect this diversity before it really is too late," he added.
The latest shipment will bring the number of seed varieties, stored in three underground alcoves at an optimum minus 18 degrees Celsius (-0.4 degrees Fahrenheit), to 1.05 million.
The seed bank has the capacity to hold up to 4.5 million samples.
Around two or three million samples "would be a good idea to make the future of the food of mankind even more secure," Schmitz told AFP in the freezing cold of Longyearbyen.
Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, fourth from the right, and other representatives outside the vault (AFP Photo/Lise Åserud)
- Conflict and climate change -
Little betrays the huge size of this granary for humanity on the icy mountainside except for its distinctive entrance: two towering grey walls emerging from the bowels of earth, topped with mirrors and pieces of iron creating a reflection that glimmers in the darkness of the polar winter.
The seed store was launched in 2008 with financing from Norway with the aim of safeguarding biodiversity in the face of climate change, wars and other natural and man-made disasters, earning it the nickname "doomsday vault".
Its usefulness was spotlighted during Syria's civil war when researchers were able in 2015 to retrieve from the vault duplicates of grains lost in the destruction of Aleppo.
The countries and institutions that deposit seeds in the vault retain ownership over them and can retrieve them when necessary.
More than 5,000 species of plants are now stored in the Arctic Archipelago, a frozen landscape where almost nothing grows.
The vault has itself been hit by climate change.
In 2016, water seeped into its tunnel entrance when the permafrost that encases it began to melt as Arctic temperatures climbed unusually high.
Norway has since financed work to insulate the vault from further effects of a warming and wetter climate, which scientists say is happening twice as fast in the Arctic than the global average.
UPDATED: Body cam captures
6-year-old's tearful pleas during arrest
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A police officer's body camera shows a 6-year-old Florida girl crying and begging officers not to arrest her as one fastens zip ties around her wrists at a charter school.
The video that Kaia Rolle's family shared with the Orlando Sentinel and other media outlets Monday shows the girl being arrested in September for kicking and punching staff members at her Orlando charter school.
“What are those for?” Kaia asks about the zip ties in the video.
“They’re for you,” Officer Dennis Turner says before another officer tightens them around her wrists and Kaia begins weeping.
Turner was fired shortly after the arrest. Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said at the time that Turner, a reserve officer, didn't follow department policy of getting the approval of a watch commander to arrest someone younger than 12.
“Help me. Help me, please!” Kaia pleads through tears.
As she is being walked to the vehicle, she cries, “I don’t want to go in a police car.”
The second officer, who has not been identified, responds, “You don’t want to? ... You have to.”
“Please, give me a second chance,” Kaia says.
The video shows the officer lifting the sobbing girl into the back seat of the police vehicle and putting a seat belt around her.
A short time later, Turner returns to the office to talk to Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy administrators, who appear dismayed by what they have witnessed in the school office.
The officer tells them that the juvenile detention center where Kaia was headed is “not like you think.” Turner tells the administrators he has made 6,000 arrests, including a 7-year-old.
When school employees tell the officer that Kaia is 6, not 8 like he thought, he replies, “Now she has broken the record."
Turner had worked in the police agency's reserve unit, which is mostly made up of retired officers who pick up extra-duty jobs for pay. Because he was a reserve officer, he was not a member of the collective bargaining unit, and the police union didn't represent him, Shawn Dunlap of the Fraternal Order of Police Orlando Lodge 25, said in an email Tuesday.
School resource officers came under close scrutiny in Florida after former Broward Deputy Scot Peterson failed to engage a shooter at a Parkland high school in 2018. He was charged last year with child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury. That case is ongoing.
The Orlando case drew yet more attention to the role of police in schools.
Jeff Kaye, president of California-based School Safety Operations Inc., said in an email that the officer would not only have been fired in some other states but possibly charged with a crime, such as oppression under color of authority.
School administrators might have been better served by contacting the child's parents and working with a counselor, rather than calling police, Kaye said.
“As long as everyone is safe, take a deep breath, slow things down, and make good commonsense decisions," Kaye said. “I can't think of any reason to ever arrest a 6-year-old child, but I say that based on my training and experience and not that of others."
Kaye said he's had several several school districts contact him since the video's release saying they want to re-examine their school resource officer programs, because they don't want something similar to happen in their schools.
Officials have said that Turner also arrested a 6-year-old boy at another school on the same day as Kaia's arrest for misdemeanor battery in an unrelated incident. However, the boy’s arrest was halted by superiors before the child made it through the full arrest process.
State Attorney Aramis Ayala said last September that she was dismissing misdemeanor battery charges against both children.
Body camera video: 6-year-old girl cries for help as Florida police arrest her at school
Grace Toohey
ITS FLORIDA ITS IN THE WATER
6-year-old girl cries, begs for help during arrest at Orlando school
VIDEO Kaia Rolle was sitting, listening to a school employee read her a story when two officers came in the room to arrest her.
“What are those for?” the 6-year-old girl asked the Orlando police officers.
“They’re for you,” Officer Dennis Turner said about the zip ties, before another officer tightened them around her wrists. Kaia immediately began weeping.
“No ... no, don’t put handcuffs on!” she wailed in body camera footage from the arrest, which Kaia’s family shared with the Orlando Sentinel Monday evening. The arrests of the girl and another 6-year-old at Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy in September drew national headlines and widespread condemnation, leading to the officer’s firing.
WOULD THIS HAPPEN IN A PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
THIS WAS A CHARTER SCHOOL NOT REALLY A PUBLIC SCHOOL
AND THEY HAVE A COP AS A RESOURCE OFFICER, IN AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
“Help me, help me, please!” the girl choked out through tears. The officers continued with the arrest. Employees at the Orlando charter school stood by.
After Kaia was placed in a police SUV to be taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center, Officer Turner returned to the school’s office and spoke to administrators, who were concerned about Kaia. He downplayed the juvenile detention center, saying it’s “not like you think.”
He told them he had arrested 6,000 people in his career — the youngest, to that point, was 7. When school employees told him Kaia was 6, not 8 like he thought, he did not seem concerned.
“Now she has broken the record,” he said.
Kaia, a first grader at charter school, had a tantrum earlier in the day where she had kicked and punched three school employees, leading to her arrest on a charge of misdemeanor battery, according to her arrest report. However, by the time Turner and another officer approached Kaia to detain, cuff and arrest her, the girl had calmed down, the video shows.
The school staff member who had been reading to her told Kaia she had to go with the officers, and that her grandmother would pick her up later.
While walking with the officer to the car, Kaia continued to cry, “I don’t wanna go in a police car.”
The second officer, who has not been identified, replied, “You don’t want to? ... You have to.”
“Please, give me a second chance,” the girl responded, still crying.
The officers put her in the backseat of the police SUV.
Turner then returned to the school’s office, reminding one employee that he will need a statement from her, and said she will likely get a subpoena. The woman agreed, though she said she was upset.
The arrest report Turner completed said that a member of the school’s faculty, Beverly Stoute, had requested to press charges against Kaia, something the school has denied. The video does not show any staff member attempting to stop the arrest, though several are obviously rattled.
“The restraints, are they necessary?” one school employee asked.
“Yes,” Turner said.
Then, he added: “If she was bigger, she would have been wearing regular handcuffs.”
He then told the school administrators that the youngest person he ever arrested previously was 7 years old, a boy who he had caught stealing at an Albertsons. He said he arrested the boy because he “thought it was a joke" while the other children caught in the act had started crying.
Officials have said that Turner also arrested a 6-year-old boy at Nixon Academy the same day as Kaia for misdemeanor battery in an unrelated incident. However, the boy’s arrest was halted by superiors before the child made it through the full arrest process.
Details about the boy’s arrest have not been made public.
The following day, prosecutors dropped the charge against Kaia.
Orlando Police Department officials have said Turner violated agency policy on arresting children younger than 12, which requires officers to get a supervisor’s approval — something Turner did not do. However, his decision was not illegal as Florida currently does not have a minimum age for arrest.
Meralyn Kirkland, Kaia’s grandmother, said she is hoping that when people watch the footage of her granddaughter’s arrest, they will support a proposal to change that law by making 12 the minimum age for arrest. She said she would also like to see school resource officers receive more training and preparation, especially to work with young children.
“I knew that what they did was wrong, but I never knew she was begging for help," Kirkland said in an interview Monday night about the video. “I watched her break.”
The body camera footage still upsets her, Kirkland said, especially when Turner “callously” talks about arresting children.
“You’re discussing traumatizing a 6- and 7-year-old — and that’s a boasting right for you?” she said. “These are babies.”
Kirkland said her granddaughter had sleep apnea, which could cause her to act out in school — a condition that Kirkland had repeatedly worked with the school to manage, she said.
Kaia was completely processed at the county Juvenile Assessment Center, where the girl’s mugshot and fingerprints were taken, Kirkland said, adding that employees at the center had to use a step stool so Kaia could reach the camera for the mugshot.
Kaia has since re-enrolled in a private school, after refusing to attend a school with an officer on campus, Kirkland said. She said she worries about how the trauma from the arrest will affect her granddaughter in years to come.
Turner, who was fired days after the arrest became national news, had worked in OPD’s Reserve Unit, which is made up of retired officers who are required to work a certain amount of hours at the agency per month and can pick up extra-duty jobs for pay.
Over the course of Turner’s 23-year tenure at OPD prior to retiring last year, he was disciplined seven times for violations of department policy that ranged from unsafe driving to a child-abuse arrest in which he was accused of injuring his 7-year-old son. He was also accused of sending threatening text messages to his ex-wife in 2009 and racial profiling, records show.
USA
Retired, or Hoping to Be, and Saddled With Student Loans
STUDENT DEBT IS MORLEY'S CHAINS
WHICH IS WHY BERNIE WILL WIN
When Patrick Donohue retired in May after a 20-year career in customer service at AT&T, he and his wife, Kay, didn’t celebrate. Instead, they argued over which pension option was better: obtaining a large portion right away or scheduling small monthly payments.
Retired, or Hoping to Be, and Saddled With Student Loans
STUDENT DEBT IS MORLEY'S CHAINS
WHICH IS WHY BERNIE WILL WIN
When Patrick Donohue retired in May after a 20-year career in customer service at AT&T, he and his wife, Kay, didn’t celebrate. Instead, they argued over which pension option was better: obtaining a large portion right away or scheduling small monthly payments.
© John Francis Peters for The New York Times Patrick Donohue with two of his four daughters, Carly, left, and Kelly, at their old high school in San Diego.
At issue was whether the lump sum might free them from paying further interest on the $97,932 they borrowed from the federal government so their four daughters could attend college, or if doing so would mean sacrificing their long-term financial stability. Ultimately, they settled on the monthly payments, guaranteed for both their lifetimes.
“Kay’s position was, we would outlive the lump sum,” said Mr. Donohue, 64, of San Diego. His inclination to take it may have been just as practical, though: “After eight years of paying off loans, my concern was that we didn’t have much of a cushion if we encountered a major expense.”
It’s a dilemma more American retirees can relate to: While most borrowers are 18 to 39 years old, people over 60 are the fastest-growing segment of the population with student loan debt, according to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In all, more than 2.8 million Americans over 60 are contending with student debt, a number that has quadrupled from 700,000 in 2005, according to the bureau. The cost is swelling, too: Between 2012 and 2017, for those age 60 and older, the average amount of student loan debt almost doubled, ballooning to $23,500 from $12,100.
The Donohues’ situation is typical. According to that 2017 report, which uses the most recently available figures, 73 percent of borrowers over 60 are paying off student loans they either took out or co-signed to help children and grandchildren through college. Only 27 percent are chipping away at their own or their spouse’s education.
Those numbers don’t surprise Persis Yu, director of the National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project. “We’re taught that sacrificing for our children is what we’re supposed to do,” she said. “What parent would say, ‘No, I’m not going to provide this opportunity for my child to go to college, even if it’s to my own financial detriment?’”
A 2019 AARP Public Policy Institute report found that 15 years ago, borrowers 50 and over held $47 billion of the nation’s $455.2 billion in student loan debt. By 2018, that figure had risen to $289.5 billion of an overall $1.5 trillion.
There are big risks to taking on this debt, and painful consequences if you fall behind: A person’s Social Security benefits can be reduced up to 15 percent if the borrower defaults, not to mention serious quality-of-life issues.
The kind of issues Kimberly Weihl, 55, of Midland, Mich., is facing, for instance. When Ms. Weihl took out a loan for her daughter to attend Saginaw Valley State University in 2007, she was already paying down $60,000 of her own student debt. Now she owes $77,000. Her daughter, who dropped out after two years at Saginaw State and is living at home, is working as a waitress and not yet able to help with payments, which come to $500 a month.
Ms. Weihl cannot foresee a future in which she is able to retire from her nursing job. “I’m convinced I’m going to die before I resolve this,” she said. “I can’t sleep at night. My stomach is in knots.”
Julie B. Miller, a researcher at the M.I.T. AgeLab who is studying how college debt affects family relationships, said student loans and longevity planning are at odds within many debt-saddled households. Pre-retirement milestones like paying off a mortgage get shelved in favor of paying off loans, she said. In some cases, like Ms. Weihl’s, borrowers’ mental or physical health suffers.
“They’ll say, ‘It’s either, make my loan payment this month or do the root canal,’” Ms. Miller said. Sometimes consequences cross generations. “We’ve had borrowers say, ‘My loans are impacting my willingness to help my mom, who’s in a nursing home, financially.’”
The Donohues’ debt load owes itself to four separate loans. Each daughter graduated from a California public university. The part that mystifies Mr. Donohue is how the cost of education so quickly managed to outpace his ability to pay.
“I graduated from a private college, the University of the Pacific, in 1978,” he said. “There were state scholarships available at that time, and I had a little baseball scholarship, and I came out with $3,000 in debt.” (This amounts to about $12,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars.) He was able to pay that off before he got married in 1988. Since then, he said, “the cost of college has become a nightmare and a scandal.”
His daughters do not disagree. Kelly Donohue, 31, the oldest daughter, recently paid off her portion of the family’s loans. But she still worries about her parents’ future. “The parent loan situation has definitely made me think about how I’ll support them when they’re no longer able to work. This is something I factor into my own financial planning.”
Like Ms. Weihl, the Donohues borrowed federal money, in the form of Parent Plus loans. Another option for parents and grandparents is co-signing private loans. Both carry their own risks.
Parent Plus loans “basically fill the gap between what a child might qualify for on their own, which is usually not very much, and the cost of attendance,” said Jessica Ferastoaru of Take Charge America, a nonprofit provider of student loan counseling for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Often, a student will max out federal student loans before turning to private or Parent Plus loans. According to the Education Department, dependent students qualify for $5,500 to $7,500 in loans per year.
Plus loans differ from private loans in a few important ways. One, there is no cap on loan amounts and, in Mr. Donohue’s opinion, not much in the way of warnings to discourage parents from asking for unmanageable sums. “When you apply, their formula is not complete enough,” he said. “What ends up happening is they give out money too easily, and you backslide.”
Another way they differ from private loans is that the signing parent — grandparents are ineligible for Parent Plus loans unless they have adopted the grandchild — is on the hook exclusively for repayment. In addition, “there’s no way to transfer these loans to the student, and the interest rates can be quite high,” Ms. Ferastoaru said, adding that the current rate is about 7 percent.
The risks in co-signing a private loan include fewer repayment plan options; the possibility that the student will miss or skip payments, leaving the co-signer responsible; and an increase in the balance if the loan has an adjustable interest rate, said Lori Trawinski, the AARP Public Policy Institute’s director of banking and finance. In 2017, AARP Research conducted a study of 3,300 people over age 40 who took out loans for someone else, most often children or grandchildren. Among those 50 and older who co-signed a private student loan, 25 percent had to make at least one payment because the student borrower did not.
Those on the older end of the study group were more likely to default than younger co-signers. Decreased income levels after retirement, higher medical expenses and tighter budgets are the likely culprits, Dr. Trawinski said. According to a 2016 Government Accountability Office report, nearly 40 percent of borrowers 65 and older were in default on federal student loans. Dr. Trawinski suspects that number is rising steadily, a result of upticks in Parent Plus borrowing. “Family incomes have not increased enough to keep pace with inflation, much less the dramatic increase in college costs over the past several decades,” she said.
That pension option Mr. Donohue chose provides about $1,000 a month, and his student-loan payments are about the same. To cover living expenses, Mr. Donohue recently went back to work in customer service at Sprouts, a local grocery store. Before he took that job, he and his wife were dipping into their 401(k). Ms. Donohue is not working while she cares for her 94-year-old father.
Dr. Trawinski said parents and grandparents should protect themselves before taking out loans by doing the math beforehand, factoring in what-ifs, like the death of a spouse. They can also protect themselves and urge children to attend less expensive schools. And they should know that if they ever need to declare personal bankruptcy, student loan debt cannot be discharged, or wiped away.
“Often these are emotional decisions,” she said. “Sometimes they end up requiring you to sacrifice your long-term financial security.”
At issue was whether the lump sum might free them from paying further interest on the $97,932 they borrowed from the federal government so their four daughters could attend college, or if doing so would mean sacrificing their long-term financial stability. Ultimately, they settled on the monthly payments, guaranteed for both their lifetimes.
“Kay’s position was, we would outlive the lump sum,” said Mr. Donohue, 64, of San Diego. His inclination to take it may have been just as practical, though: “After eight years of paying off loans, my concern was that we didn’t have much of a cushion if we encountered a major expense.”
It’s a dilemma more American retirees can relate to: While most borrowers are 18 to 39 years old, people over 60 are the fastest-growing segment of the population with student loan debt, according to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In all, more than 2.8 million Americans over 60 are contending with student debt, a number that has quadrupled from 700,000 in 2005, according to the bureau. The cost is swelling, too: Between 2012 and 2017, for those age 60 and older, the average amount of student loan debt almost doubled, ballooning to $23,500 from $12,100.
The Donohues’ situation is typical. According to that 2017 report, which uses the most recently available figures, 73 percent of borrowers over 60 are paying off student loans they either took out or co-signed to help children and grandchildren through college. Only 27 percent are chipping away at their own or their spouse’s education.
Those numbers don’t surprise Persis Yu, director of the National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project. “We’re taught that sacrificing for our children is what we’re supposed to do,” she said. “What parent would say, ‘No, I’m not going to provide this opportunity for my child to go to college, even if it’s to my own financial detriment?’”
A 2019 AARP Public Policy Institute report found that 15 years ago, borrowers 50 and over held $47 billion of the nation’s $455.2 billion in student loan debt. By 2018, that figure had risen to $289.5 billion of an overall $1.5 trillion.
There are big risks to taking on this debt, and painful consequences if you fall behind: A person’s Social Security benefits can be reduced up to 15 percent if the borrower defaults, not to mention serious quality-of-life issues.
The kind of issues Kimberly Weihl, 55, of Midland, Mich., is facing, for instance. When Ms. Weihl took out a loan for her daughter to attend Saginaw Valley State University in 2007, she was already paying down $60,000 of her own student debt. Now she owes $77,000. Her daughter, who dropped out after two years at Saginaw State and is living at home, is working as a waitress and not yet able to help with payments, which come to $500 a month.
Ms. Weihl cannot foresee a future in which she is able to retire from her nursing job. “I’m convinced I’m going to die before I resolve this,” she said. “I can’t sleep at night. My stomach is in knots.”
Julie B. Miller, a researcher at the M.I.T. AgeLab who is studying how college debt affects family relationships, said student loans and longevity planning are at odds within many debt-saddled households. Pre-retirement milestones like paying off a mortgage get shelved in favor of paying off loans, she said. In some cases, like Ms. Weihl’s, borrowers’ mental or physical health suffers.
“They’ll say, ‘It’s either, make my loan payment this month or do the root canal,’” Ms. Miller said. Sometimes consequences cross generations. “We’ve had borrowers say, ‘My loans are impacting my willingness to help my mom, who’s in a nursing home, financially.’”
The Donohues’ debt load owes itself to four separate loans. Each daughter graduated from a California public university. The part that mystifies Mr. Donohue is how the cost of education so quickly managed to outpace his ability to pay.
“I graduated from a private college, the University of the Pacific, in 1978,” he said. “There were state scholarships available at that time, and I had a little baseball scholarship, and I came out with $3,000 in debt.” (This amounts to about $12,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars.) He was able to pay that off before he got married in 1988. Since then, he said, “the cost of college has become a nightmare and a scandal.”
His daughters do not disagree. Kelly Donohue, 31, the oldest daughter, recently paid off her portion of the family’s loans. But she still worries about her parents’ future. “The parent loan situation has definitely made me think about how I’ll support them when they’re no longer able to work. This is something I factor into my own financial planning.”
Like Ms. Weihl, the Donohues borrowed federal money, in the form of Parent Plus loans. Another option for parents and grandparents is co-signing private loans. Both carry their own risks.
Parent Plus loans “basically fill the gap between what a child might qualify for on their own, which is usually not very much, and the cost of attendance,” said Jessica Ferastoaru of Take Charge America, a nonprofit provider of student loan counseling for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Often, a student will max out federal student loans before turning to private or Parent Plus loans. According to the Education Department, dependent students qualify for $5,500 to $7,500 in loans per year.
Plus loans differ from private loans in a few important ways. One, there is no cap on loan amounts and, in Mr. Donohue’s opinion, not much in the way of warnings to discourage parents from asking for unmanageable sums. “When you apply, their formula is not complete enough,” he said. “What ends up happening is they give out money too easily, and you backslide.”
Another way they differ from private loans is that the signing parent — grandparents are ineligible for Parent Plus loans unless they have adopted the grandchild — is on the hook exclusively for repayment. In addition, “there’s no way to transfer these loans to the student, and the interest rates can be quite high,” Ms. Ferastoaru said, adding that the current rate is about 7 percent.
The risks in co-signing a private loan include fewer repayment plan options; the possibility that the student will miss or skip payments, leaving the co-signer responsible; and an increase in the balance if the loan has an adjustable interest rate, said Lori Trawinski, the AARP Public Policy Institute’s director of banking and finance. In 2017, AARP Research conducted a study of 3,300 people over age 40 who took out loans for someone else, most often children or grandchildren. Among those 50 and older who co-signed a private student loan, 25 percent had to make at least one payment because the student borrower did not.
Those on the older end of the study group were more likely to default than younger co-signers. Decreased income levels after retirement, higher medical expenses and tighter budgets are the likely culprits, Dr. Trawinski said. According to a 2016 Government Accountability Office report, nearly 40 percent of borrowers 65 and older were in default on federal student loans. Dr. Trawinski suspects that number is rising steadily, a result of upticks in Parent Plus borrowing. “Family incomes have not increased enough to keep pace with inflation, much less the dramatic increase in college costs over the past several decades,” she said.
That pension option Mr. Donohue chose provides about $1,000 a month, and his student-loan payments are about the same. To cover living expenses, Mr. Donohue recently went back to work in customer service at Sprouts, a local grocery store. Before he took that job, he and his wife were dipping into their 401(k). Ms. Donohue is not working while she cares for her 94-year-old father.
Dr. Trawinski said parents and grandparents should protect themselves before taking out loans by doing the math beforehand, factoring in what-ifs, like the death of a spouse. They can also protect themselves and urge children to attend less expensive schools. And they should know that if they ever need to declare personal bankruptcy, student loan debt cannot be discharged, or wiped away.
“Often these are emotional decisions,” she said. “Sometimes they end up requiring you to sacrifice your long-term financial security.”
---30---
Hurun rich list: New Chinese billionaires outpace US by 3 to 1
While the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China has hammered the world's second-biggest economy, it has also driven up stock valuations of Chinese companies in online education, online games and vaccinations, the report said.With much of China stuck at home due to quarantines and travel restrictions, demand for online services has surged, lining the pockets of billionaire founders such as Robin Li of Baidu , owner of popular online video platform iQiyi.
Healthcare entrepreneurs specializing in vaccinations did well, including An Kang of Hualan Biological Engineering and Jiang Rensheng of Zhifei Biological Products .
"China today has more billionaires than the U.S. and India combined," said Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and chairman of the Hurun Report, which counted 629 U.S. billionaires and 137 in India.New Chinese entrants include Cheng Xianfeng of drug maker Yifan Xinfu Pharmaceutical and Shen Ya of online discount retailer Vipshop .
"A boom in tech valuations and strong stockmarkets across the U.S., India and China propelled the billionaires to record heights," said the British accountant, who began publishing the list in 1999.U.S. tycoons still led the list, with Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos retaining the top spot for a third year with a $140 billion fortune. Jack Ma of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group topped China's billionaires with $45 billion and came in No. 21 overall, but he was overtaken by Elon Musk from Tesla due to soaring shares in the U.S. electric carmaker.
Technology was followed by property, manufacturing, capital and retail as a major source of wealth in the past year.
© Reuters/CHINA STRINGER NETWORK People stand near a window overlooking the financial district in Shanghai
Despite the U.S.-China trade war, Ren Zhengfei, founder of Shenzhen-based telecoms giant Huwei Technologies, blacklisted by the U.S. government, saw his personal wealth grow 7% to $3 billion, roughly on par with that of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Beijing is the world's billionaire capital for the fifth year, with 110 billionaires, against 98 in New York. Shanghai overtook Hong Kong to claim third spot.
(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Luoyan Liu in Shanghai; editing by Richard Pullin)
AND HOW THEY GOT TO BE BILLIONAIRES
STATE MONOPOLY CAPITALISM
VS
MONOPOLY MARKET CAPITALISM
AND THE WINNER IS....
BEIJING (Reuters) - China minted three times as many new billionaires than the United States in the past year, with fortunes made in drugs and online entertainment after a mini-boom from the coronavirus outbreak, a ranking of the world's wealthiest people shows.
The Greater China region, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, created 182 new billionaires in the year to Jan. 31, taking its total to 799, according to the 2020 Hurun Global Rich List released on Wednesday. That compares with 59 new U.S. billionaires.
VS
MONOPOLY MARKET CAPITALISM
AND THE WINNER IS....
BEIJING (Reuters) - China minted three times as many new billionaires than the United States in the past year, with fortunes made in drugs and online entertainment after a mini-boom from the coronavirus outbreak, a ranking of the world's wealthiest people shows.
The Greater China region, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, created 182 new billionaires in the year to Jan. 31, taking its total to 799, according to the 2020 Hurun Global Rich List released on Wednesday. That compares with 59 new U.S. billionaires.
While the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China has hammered the world's second-biggest economy, it has also driven up stock valuations of Chinese companies in online education, online games and vaccinations, the report said.With much of China stuck at home due to quarantines and travel restrictions, demand for online services has surged, lining the pockets of billionaire founders such as Robin Li of Baidu , owner of popular online video platform iQiyi.
Healthcare entrepreneurs specializing in vaccinations did well, including An Kang of Hualan Biological Engineering and Jiang Rensheng of Zhifei Biological Products .
"China today has more billionaires than the U.S. and India combined," said Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and chairman of the Hurun Report, which counted 629 U.S. billionaires and 137 in India.New Chinese entrants include Cheng Xianfeng of drug maker Yifan Xinfu Pharmaceutical and Shen Ya of online discount retailer Vipshop .
"A boom in tech valuations and strong stockmarkets across the U.S., India and China propelled the billionaires to record heights," said the British accountant, who began publishing the list in 1999.U.S. tycoons still led the list, with Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos retaining the top spot for a third year with a $140 billion fortune. Jack Ma of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group topped China's billionaires with $45 billion and came in No. 21 overall, but he was overtaken by Elon Musk from Tesla due to soaring shares in the U.S. electric carmaker.
Technology was followed by property, manufacturing, capital and retail as a major source of wealth in the past year.
© Reuters/CHINA STRINGER NETWORK People stand near a window overlooking the financial district in Shanghai
Despite the U.S.-China trade war, Ren Zhengfei, founder of Shenzhen-based telecoms giant Huwei Technologies, blacklisted by the U.S. government, saw his personal wealth grow 7% to $3 billion, roughly on par with that of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Beijing is the world's billionaire capital for the fifth year, with 110 billionaires, against 98 in New York. Shanghai overtook Hong Kong to claim third spot.
(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Luoyan Liu in Shanghai; editing by Richard Pullin)
AND HOW THEY GOT TO BE BILLIONAIRES
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