Biden-Buttigieg put the brakes on 

'bomb trains'

Sarah Okeson,

 DCReport @ RawStory
March 20, 2021

President Joe Biden, known as "Amtrak Joe" for his train trips to Washington, D.C., from Delaware as a senator, could reverse the Team Trump approval of "bomb trains" carrying carrying liquefied natural gas.

The Trump rule financially benefits an energy company tied to a hedge fund that loaned millions to the Trump Organization and the Kushner Companies. New York prosecutors are examining those financial ties to Trump.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during his confirmation hearing that he planned to take a "hard look" at the rule.

Liquefied natural gas is even more volatile than Bakken crude oil carried on trains like the one that derailed and caught fire on July 6, 2013, in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. Most of the victims had to be identified with DNA samples and dental records. The bodies of five of the people were never recovered.

In April 2019, Trump called for federal rules to be rewritten so trains could carry liquefied natural gas. Drue Pearce, the political appointee who was the deputy administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, helped shepherd the regulation through the agency.

The Biden administration asked a federal judge in February to put lawsuits challenging the rule on hold to give Biden regulators time to review Trump's rules that affect climate disruption. Biden issued an executive order the day after he was sworn in to review rules that may worsen greenhouse gas emissions.

Earthjustice, one of the environmental organizations involved in the lawsuits, said the rule could bring LNG railroad cars through virtually all major U.S. cities and that a disaster could destroy an entire city.

Vapor clouds from liquified natural gas that ignite can burn as hot as 2,426 degrees. Liquefied natural gas is odorless because ethyl mercaptan, the foul-smelling compound added to natural gas for residential use freezes above the boiling point for liquefied natural gas.

On Oct. 20, 1944, liquefied natural gas leaked from a storage tank at East Ohio Gas Co. in Cleveland and got into the sewer lines, causing explosions over a square mile. The explosions and fires spread through 20 blocks, killing 130 people and destroying 79 homes and two factories in a neighborhood of Slovenian immigrants.

The Trump regulation financially benefits New Fortress Energy, a publicly traded company founded by billionaire Wes Edens. Fortress Investment Group, a New York City hedge fund co-founded by Edens, was part of a deal to loan the Trump organization $130 million to help build the Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago in 2005.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. has subpoenaed documents from Fortress about the deal.

Trump couldn't pay the loan which ultimately grew to about $150 million, according to documents filed in the New York Supreme Court by New York Attorney General Letitia James. She is investigating possible fraud by the Trump Organization.

James said that Fortress forgave more than $100 million of the loan, money that may have been taxable.

Fortress also loaned $57 million in October 2017 to a Jersey City, N.J., real estate project owned by Kushner Companies. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, transferred his stake in the project to a family trust.

SoftBank Group, a Japanese firm, bought Fortress Investment Group in 2017.

PHOTO'S ARE OF LAC MEGANTIC QUEBEC TRAIN EXPLOSION

Atlanta Suspect’s Fixation on Sex Is Familiar Thorn for Evangelicals

The man accused of killing eight people, including six women of Asian descent, blamed “sexual addiction,” a disputed term used in parts of evangelical culture.


Combating improper sexual desire is an enduring theme in contemporary conservative evangelicalism. Some men partner in “accountability groups” and install software that monitors their use of pornography.Credit...Ryan Christopher Jones for The New York Times


By Ruth Graham
March 20, 2021

When Brad Onishi heard that the man accused of a rampage at three Atlanta-area spas told detectives that he had carried out the attacks as a way to eliminate his own temptations, the claim sounded painfully familiar.

Dr. Onishi, who grew up in a strict evangelical community in Southern California that emphasized sexual purity, had spent his teenage years tearing out any advertisements in surfing magazines that featured women in bikinis. He had traded his online passwords with friends to hold himself accountable. “We had a militant vigilance: Don’t let anything in the house that will tempt you sexually,” Dr. Onishi, now an associate professor of religious studies at Skidmore College, recalled.

The evangelical culture he was raised in, he said, “teaches women to hate their bodies, as the source of temptation, and it teaches men to hate their minds, which lead them into lust and sexual immorality.”

Robert Aaron Long, the suspect in the massacres that left eight people dead, told the police this week that he had a “sexual addiction,” and he had been a customer at two of the spas that he targeted. He was so intent on avoiding pornography that he blocked several websites on his computer and had sought help at a Christian rehab clinic. A former roommate said that Mr. Long agonized over the possibility of “falling out of God’s grace.”


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When Mr. Long, 21, was arrested on Tuesday on his way to Florida, the police said, he told officers he had planned to carry out another attack on a business connected to the pornography industry.

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Many people saw clear signs of misogyny and racism in the attacks, in which six of the victims were women of Asian descent.

But Mr. Long’s characterization of his motivations was also very recognizable to observers of evangelicalism and some evangelicals themselves. He seemed to have had a fixation on sexual temptation, one that can lead to despair among people who believe they are failing to follow the ideal of refraining from sex and even lust outside heterosexual marriage.

Combating pornography and improper sexual desire is an enduring theme within contemporary conservative evangelicalism. In churches, men partner in “accountability groups” to hold each other responsible for avoiding sexual temptation and other moral dangers. Others use “accountability software” like Covenant Eyes, which monitors screen activity and sends reports about pornography usage to a designated “ally.” Countless books promise spiritual and practical strategies for breaking free of the habit.

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Mourners visited Gold Spa, where a gunman killed three Korean women.

Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times


Historically, some evangelical leaders have also drawn a direct line between pornography and violence. James Dobson, the influential founder of Focus on the Family, recorded a video interview with Ted Bundy the day before the serial killer’s execution in 1989. Mr. Bundy’s message was that an “addiction” to pornography fueled his crimes.


“What a tragedy!” Mr. Dobson wrote later, referring to Mr. Bundy’s violence. “There is a possibility, at least, that it would not have occurred if that 13-year-old boy had never stumbled onto pornographic magazines in a garbage dump.”

In recent decades, many conservative evangelical leaders and their churches have begun to speak more frankly about sex. “It’s very openly talked about that God created sexuality, it’s something not to be ashamed of, and that God made it for his purposes,” said Anson McMahon, a pastor in Buford, Ga., who was a guest speaker at several summer trips for young people in the early 2000s at the Baptist church later attended by Mr. Long.

But if conversations around sexual issues have become more frank, the message that sex is reserved for straight married couples has remained unchanged.

Many Christians trace their condemnation of pornography back to Jesus. “I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” he is quoted saying in the Gospel of Matthew.

For Protestants in particular, whose faith prioritizes correct internal beliefs and spiritual attitudes, that passage has contributed to a worldview in which inappropriate sexual thoughts are just as sinful as wrong actions.

The problem with pornography, in this view, is how it affects the person’s mind and heart.

“Masturbation in and of itself, the act is a biological act,” said Heath Lambert, the lead pastor of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., and author of a book for evangelical men struggling with pornography use. “What’s wrong is lust. What’s wrong is what happens in my heart.”


The attacks at the spas violated all church teachings, Dr. Lambert said, and he thought the obvious root of the violence was the pornography that the accused gunman “was using and trying to get away from.”

White evangelicals do not use pornography more than other demographics, said Samuel Perry, a sociologist at the University of Oklahoma who has researched the role of pornography in the lives of conservative Protestants. In fact, white evangelicals who regularly attend church look at pornography less than the general population.

But they report significantly more anguish around the practice. Almost 30 percent of white evangelicals say they feel depressed after using pornography, compared with 8.6 percent of white liberal Protestants and 19 percent of white Catholics, according to a survey Dr. Perry co-conducted in February as part of the Public Discourse and Ethics Survey. White evangelicals are also significantly more likely to report that they are “addicted” to pornography.

Dr. Perry described a phenomenon in some parts of evangelical culture that he called “sexual exceptionalism,” in which sexual sins are implied to be more serious than other categories.

“So many men boil down how they’re doing spiritually to how often they have looked at porn recently,” Dr. Perry said, reflecting on his research in evangelical settings. “Not whether they’d grown in their love toward others, given generously of their time, or spent time connecting with God, but if they masturbated.”



The shooting suspect was an active member of Crabapple

 First Baptist Church in Milton, Ga., which condemned his 

“stated reasons for carrying out this wicked plan.”

Credit...Nicole Craine for The New York Times


For some with experience in evangelical youth culture, Mr. Long’s fixation on sexual temptation was a reminder of a damaging approach to teaching young people how to address sexuality.

“It presents a very demeaning view of manhood,” said Rachael Denhollander, an evangelical advocate for sexual abuse victims. “Every time you teach a woman in the presence of a young man that it’s her responsibility to keep a man from lusting and that she has the power to keep him from sexual perversion by what she wears and what she does, what he hears is that it’s her fault.”

Jeff Chu, a writer in Michigan, attended an evangelical junior high and high school that, like many similar schools, enforced strict rules for the lengths of girls’ skirts with the goal of encouraging modesty. “It was so rarely about the men controlling their own desires, and so often about women not being temptresses,” Mr. Chu recalled. “So many of us who haven’t fit within the norms of that culture, whether it’s women or queer people, we’re always seen as the problem.”

A Rise in Attacks Against Asian-Americans

Eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed in the Atlanta massage parlor shootings. The suspect’s motives are under investigation, but Asian communities across the United States are on alert because of a surge in attacks against Asian-Americans over the past year.

A torrent of hate and violence against Asian-Americans around the U.S. began last spring, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Community leaders say the bigotry was spurred by the rhetoric of former President Trump, who referred to the coronavirus as the “China virus.”

In New York, a wave of xenophobia and violence has been compounded by the economic fallout of the pandemic, which has dealt a severe blow to New York’s Asian-American communities. Many community leaders say racist assaults are being overlooked by the authorities.

In January, an 84-year-old man from Thailand was violently slammed to the ground in San Francisco, resulting in his death at a hospital two days later. The attack, captured on video, has become a rallying cry.

And while the police said that Mr. Long claimed he was not racially motivated, some saw a connection between strict sexual beliefs and violence against Asian women in particular.

“Purity culture teaches young men to view young women who do not try to maintain modesty as sinister forces,” Dr. Onishi said. “It’s hard not to think about the fact that Asian women have been sexualized and set up to be viewed through the lens of an exotic other who is sexually desirable.”

Despite evangelicalism’s preoccupations with individual sexual morality, its leaders’ failures are so numerous as to have become cliché. In the most recent high-profile example, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries announced last month that its eponymous founder had a pattern of groping and exposing himself to massage therapists, among other sexual misconduct. Mr. Zacharias, who died in 2020, owned two day spas in the Atlanta area.

Mr. Long sought treatment for what he described to the police as a “sex addiction” at HopeQuest, an evangelical treatment center in Acworth, Ga., the city where one of the attacks took place. The center advertises its treatment of “sex addiction” and “pornography addiction” in addition to drugs, alcohol and gambling. The center lists indications for sex addiction including “‘crossing lines’ of personal beliefs or values in his/her behaviors, which results in extreme emotional distress and feelings of guilt and shame.”

The language of addiction is used often in evangelical circles to describe someone who uses pornography or engages in other sexual behaviors that violate their own values, but does not necessarily rise to the level of clinical addiction, Dr. Perry said.

“Sex addiction” is not an established psychiatric diagnosis, and there is a debate in the mental health community about how to define and treat compulsive sexual behavior.

“There’s no evidence-based treatment for sex addiction,” said Joshua Grubbs, an assistant professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University and a clinical psychologist. Evangelical sex addiction treatment tends to emphasize total abstinence from any sexual behavior outside heterosexual marriage. “They don’t take into account that humans are creatures with a drive for sex,” Dr. Grubbs said.

Mr. Long and his family were active members at Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton, Ga., which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. In the church’s youth group for high school students, Mr. Long was “one of those core young men involved in everything we did,” said Brett Cottrell, a former youth and missions pastor at the church.

In November, an associate pastor at the church, Luke Folsom, preached a sermon on the “battle” against sin. He quoted a verse from the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus tells his followers that it may be worth gouging out an eye if it causes them to sin.

He continued, addressing the use of pornography directly. “Cut it out by getting rid of your smartphone, getting rid of internet connection, anything and everything that would allow you to do it,” he said. “Your soul is at stake.”

Lust, he added, is “a heart problem, not just an eye problem.”

The church, which declined a request for an interview with its leaders, issued a statement on Friday that condemned the violence at the Atlanta-area spas, as well as the suspect’s “stated reasons for carrying out this wicked plan.”

The church also emphasized that the gunman alone was to blame for his actions. “The women that he solicited for sexual acts are not responsible for his perverse sexual desires nor do they bear any blame in these murders,” the church stated. “These actions are the result of a sinful heart and depraved mind.”





Ruth Graham is a national correspondent covering religion, faith and values. She previously reported on religion for Slate. @publicroad
A version of this article appears in print on March 21, 2021, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Shame of Lust Is Cross Known To Evangelicals. 

Zoom paying no taxes while getting rich is proof 'the system is rigged': Robert Reich

Bob Brigham
March 20, 2021

www.rawstory.com

The video conferencing service Zoom saw its revenues soar during the coronavirus pandemic, but the fact the company paid no federal income taxes reveals a dark lesson about our economy, a leading economist explained on Saturday.

"Zoom saw its profits increase 4,000% last year," former Labor Secretary Robert Reich noted.

"But, wait for it, paid no federal income taxes. Zero. Folks, the system is rigged," the Berkeley economics professor concluded.

Reich linked to an analysis by Matthew Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).

"Zoom Video Communications, the company providing a platform used by remote workers and school children across the country during the pandemic, saw its profits increase by more than 4,000 percent last year but paid no federal corporate income tax on those profits," Gardner wrote. "The company reports that it made $660 million of pre-tax profits for 2020, an exponential increase from its $16 million in pre-tax profits in 2019. The immediate shift to online activity explains the company's unprecedented income growth. For many, Zoom has become a ubiquitous daily meeting space, both for work, class instruction, family gatherings and evening happy hours."

The analysis noted that the company, "reduced its worldwide income taxes by $300 million in 2020 using stock-based compensation. As an ITEP report explains, companies that compensate their leadership with stock options can write off, for tax purposes, huge expenses that far exceed their actual cost. This is a strategy that has been leveraged effectively by virtually every tech giant in the last decade, from Apple to Facebook to Microsoft. Zoom's success in using stock options to avoid taxes is neither surprising nor (currently) illegal.

The company also used accelerated depreciation and tax credits for research and development.

"Zoom's corporate tax avoidance has helped create a short-term cash bonanza for the company: Zoom ended the fourth quarter of 2020 with $4.2 billion in cash and equivalents. This prompted one analyst on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call to ask how the company planned to spend it all, to which Zoom's CFO and CEO responded that while they haven't yet mapped out a strategy to deploy their newfound mountain of cash, 'if any of you have any great advice how to do that' they'd love to hear it," the report noted.

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS
Big pharma quietly planning price hike for COVID vaccines in 'near future': report

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF BIG PHARMA

Common Dreams
March 20, 2021

www.rawstory.com

Eager to capitalize on the lasting presence of the coronavirus, executives at Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Pfizer—the pharmaceutical corporations that supplied the Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in the U.S.—are quietly planning to hike prices on doses "in the near future," once they decide the pandemic is over, The Intercept's Lee Fang reported Thursday.

"Companies like Pfizer, which has not made the vaccine available to 85% of the world's population... are now waiting for the opportune time to raise prices once enough people have been vaccinated."
—Achal Prabhala, Access IBSA

Although the rapid development of coronavirus vaccines—made possible by large infusions of public resources—has given Big Pharma companies "a boost in goodwill... the public is still sensitive to drug pricing and the reputational risk has, so far, curtailed their ability to reap large financial rewards," Fang noted. "But that environment, they hope, will change once the pandemic ends: a date that drugmakers themselves reserve the right to declare."
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Many epidemiologists expect the coronavirus to become endemic, "and as Covid-19 mutations continue to spread and booster shots may be required on a regular basis, leaders from the three companies are enthusiastic about cashing in," wrote Fang.

"As this shifts from pandemic to endemic, we think there's an opportunity here for us," Pfizer's Chief Financial Officer Frank D'Amelio said during a recent healthcare conference sponsored by Barclays Bank. The potential need for booster shots, D'Amelio added, provides "a significant opportunity for our vaccine from a demand perspective, from a pricing perspective, given the clinical profile of our vaccine."

According to Fang, "Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have also pledged affordability for their vaccines for the duration of the pandemic but have indicated to investors that they plan to return to more 'commercial' pricing as early as later this year."

The three companies behind the approved Covid-19 vaccines, which are "already poised to be some of the most lucrative drugs of all time," expect to "bring in billions in profit this year alone," Fang noted.

That's true, Fang added, even though "the U.S. government has fully financed the research and development" of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson's vaccines, while Pfizer's vaccine "was developed in partnership with BioNTech, a company that received nearly $500 million in development assistance from the German government."

According to Fang:

Pfizer, one of the early global leaders in the vaccine race, is very clear about the enormous moneymaking opportunity they see in the vaccines. D'Amelio, the company's CFO, spoke on a Zoom call last Thursday at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference, to discuss the issue.

Carter Lewis Gould, an analyst with Barclays Bank, noted that Pfizer faced the particular challenges with "optics" but asked when the company could "pursue higher pricing down the road."

The current pricing, said D'Amelio, is "clearly not being driven by what I'll call normal market conditions, normal market forces," but rather the "pandemic state that we've been in and the needs of governments to really secure doses from the various vaccine suppliers." Once the pandemic ends, he continued, there will be "significant opportunity" for Pfizer.

Pfizer has agreed to prices of $19.50 per coronavirus vaccine dose in the U.S. and almost $64 per dose in the European Union, leading to projections that the company would bring in "$15 billion this year alone from sales, of which $4 billion would be purely profit," Fang wrote. But "those revenue projections are based on prices largely negotiated with governments under pandemic conditions, which could soon change."

As Common Dreams has reported, drugmakers have faced pressure from dozens of lawmakers and hundreds of civil society groups who are demanding that vaccine recipes be shared with manufacturers in developing countries, where inoculation rates are far lower. A failure to boost global vaccine production, experts say, will prolong the pandemic—exacerbating needless economic suffering and preventable deaths and possibly undermining the efficacy of vaccines as variants emerge.

Through its massive army of lobbyists, Big Pharma has been fighting calls to regulate drug prices as well as the India and South Africa-led proposal—supported by 70% of the U.S. public but opposed by President Joe Biden and the leaders of other wealthy nations—to temporarily waive the World Trade Organization's patent protections, which currently enable a handful of private companies to monopolize knowledge and technology related to coronavirus tests, treatments, and vaccines.

Fang wrote that Pfizer's Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla told investors during a call that "the company had little to worry about in terms of political opposition."

"We believe the industry has generated a great deal of goodwill with Congress and public opinion through our Covid-19 treatment and vaccine efforts," said Bourla.

During last week's Barclays Bank-hosted healthcare conference, Fang wrote, Moderna President Stephen Hoge said that "post-pandemic, as we get into those what I will call seasonal epidemics that you would expect to happen with a SARS-CoV-2 virus, we would expect more normal pricing based on value."

And at the Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference earlier this month, Fang noted, Johnson & Johnson's Executive Vice President Joseph Wolk told investors that the company would "reevaluate the vaccine for 'pricing that's much more in line with a commercial opportunity' when the pandemic is over."

As Fang reported:

Wolk noted that the end of the pandemic is a "fluid" question. The announcement, Wolk said, would come down to a percentage of people vaccinated, though he did not give any specific figures. The "pandemic period will be in place for the majority of this year, if not the entire piece of this year," he continued, before making it clear that the declaration would be left to Johnson & Johnson.

"I think when we look at it, it's not going to be something that's dictated to us," said Wolk.
The end of the pandemic may be declared by the World Health Organization or other international bodies. Drug firms, however, are not under a legal requirement to make prices based on the WHO's determination.

Achal Prabhala, coordinator for the AccessIBSA project, which advocates for access to medicines, told Fang that "Americans are amazed that they're getting vaccines for free. And of course they're not because they've already paid for them once and now they're amazed that they're not paying for them twice."

"Companies like Pfizer, which has not made the vaccine available to 85% of the world's population, are enjoying immense popularity in the U.S. and Europe because of the fact that they got the vaccines done fast, and they seem to work well," Prabhala continued. "That's an unusually good position for pharma, they're not used to being thought of as saviors."

"It's pretty interesting," he added, "that they are now waiting for the opportune time to raise prices once enough people have been vaccinated."

Big Pharma's profit-maximizing behavior, as documented in The Intercept's new reporting, is part of a long-standing pattern.

For instance, hospitalizations skyrocketed last year, but routine visits to the doctor's office and demand for new prescription medications fell sharply as a result of the pandemic. As Common Dreams reported at the time, the pharmaceutical industry planned to make up for lost revenue by raising prices on more than 300 drugs in the U.S. on January 1.

"Big Pharma's greed is a danger to public health," Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said last summer, when Gilead announced that it would charge U.S. hospitals $3,120 per privately insured patient for a treatment course of remdesivir, a Covid-19 drug whose development was financed in large part by taxpayers.

Last week, before the latest reporting on Big Pharma's plans to raise Covid-19 vaccine prices in the coming months, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged Biden to join the more than 100 countries that support an emergency waiver of the WTO's restrictive intellectual property rights agreement.

"It is unconscionable," said Sanders, "that amid a global health crisis, huge multibillion dollar pharmaceutical companies continue to prioritize profits by protecting their monopolies and driving up prices rather than prioritizing the lives of people everywhere, including in the Global South."

Biden Cancels $1 Billion Of Student Loans

Zack Friedman
Contributor FORBES

Personal Finance
Bestselling Author, The Lemonade Life.

 I write and speak about leadership and greatness.

President Joe Biden cancels student loans 

(Photo by Joshua Roberts/Getty Images) GETTY IMAGES

This story is developing.

The Biden administration is cancelling $1 billion of student loans.

Here’s what you need to know.

Student Loans

In the ongoing debate over student loan cancellation, at least some borrowers will get student loan forgiveness. In a major announcement, the U.S. Department of Education will enact student loan cancellation for 72,000 student loan borrowers who previously had some student loans cancelled, but now will get full student loan cancellation. The Biden administration says the previous formula to cancel student loans in cases of fraud or school closure that was used in the Trump administration — which often created partial student loan forgiveness — was unfair to student loan borrowers.

Under a federal law known as the borrower defense to repayment, borrowers could get federal student loan cancellation if they attended a school that engaged in deceptive or illegal practices or closed suddenly. In 2016, the Obama administration issued new rules to protect student borrowers and get student loan relief. These rules existed as a form of consumer protection because absent these rules, student loan borrowers would still have to pay off student loans even if they didn’t find gainful employment after attending schools such as ITT Technical Institute or Corinthian Colleges.

Betsy DeVos: Student loan forgiveness is too generous

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said the borrower defense to repayment rules were too generous to student loan borrowers, awarding too much student loan forgiveness, and hurting taxpayers who footed the bill. Last year, attorneys general from 22 states, plus the District of Columbia, sued U.S. Secretary of Education in federal court over her decision to limit student loan forgiveness for students. DeVos rewrote the borrower defense to repayment rules so she could, in her words, strike a balance between the needs of students and taxpayers. DeVos says her student loan forgiveness rules would save taxpayers $11 billion over 10 years. Under the DeVos standard, student loan cancellation was not automatic, borrowers had to apply for student loan relief, and borrowers had three years to prove their claim of financial harm.

How this will change student loan cancellation

Easier to get student loan cancellation

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona will replace the previous formula for student loan cancellation in cases of fraud with a new standard that will provide “a streamlined path” so borrowers can get full student loan cancellation. This decision to roll-back decisions (and create new policies) regarding student loans likely are the first of more to come. For example, in the history of income-driven repayment plans, only 32 student loan borrowers have ever received student loan forgiveness. In the coming months, expect additional policies that could advance rights for student loan borrowers and help with student loan forgiveness and even student loan cancellation. This could include, for example, improving income-driven repayment plans. The Education Department will also work to ensure that these borrowers remain eligible to get federal student loans and have their credit scores repaired, as necessary.

“Borrowers deserve a simplified and fair path to relief when they have been harmed by their institution’s misconduct,” Cardona said. “A close review of these claims and the associated evidence showed these borrowers have been harmed, and we will grant them a fresh start from their debt.”

Student loans and bankruptcy

Student loan borrowers also have been successful in gaining student loan discharge through the bankruptcy process. This student loan borrower, for example, got $430,000 of student loans cancelled.

Student loan servicers

Student loan servicers also could face increased scrutiny in the Biden administration. A federal judge recently found that Navient, which services $300 billion of student loans, misled student loan borrowers.

Tax-free student loan forgiveness

The new stimulus package, the American Rescue Plan of 2021, does not include any student loan cancellation for student loan borrowers. However, the stimulus bill makes any student loan forgiveness tax-free through December 31, 2025. So, if Congress or the president cancels student loans or you get student loan forgiveness through an income-driven repayment plan, you won’t owe any income tax on the amount forgiven.

Will your student loans get cancelled?

You may be wondering what this means for your student loans and whether your student loans will get cancelled. Today’s announcement signals an Education Department that is friendlier to student loan borrowers and that is open to student loan cancellation, particularly in cases of fraud. However, this is not the only student loan cancellation to expect. Biden still wants to cancel $10,000 of student loans immediately, which is separate from the announcement today to cancel $1 billion of student loans for 72,000 student loan borrowers. According to the latest student loan debt statistics, There are still 45 million more borrowers who collectively owe $1.7 trillion of student loan debt, many of whom are hoping for some amount of student loan cancellation. While wide-scale student loan cancellation may come in some form, it may take longer than expected. While there are various proposals for student loan cancellation, Democrats have not formulated a student loan forgiveness plan that Congress can pass.

America Reacts To $1 Billion Of Student Loan Cancellation


President Joe Biden cancels $1 billion of student loans (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images) GETTY IMAGES

President Joe Biden just cancelled $1 billion of student loans—and this is how America reacted.

Here’s what you need to know.

Student Loans

Student loan cancellation is here, and the the U.S. Department of Education just cancelled $1 billion of student loans for 72,000 student loan borrowers. These student loan borrowers previously had some student loans cancelled, but now will get full student loan cancellation if they attended a school that engaged in deceptive or illegal practices or closed suddenly.

What do people think about this major decision to cancel student loans? Here is a non-comprehensive, general cross-section of some of the feedback from across social media:
1. Biden cancels $1 billion of student loans — let’s celebrate

Many people on social media lauded the decision to cancel $1 billion of student loans, saying it was a significant step to address student loan cancellation. Student loan borrowers have been hoping for financial relief, and they say Biden delivered on his promise. Not only did Biden ensure student loan cancellation, but he did so in the first 100 days of his administration. Importantly, this student loan cancellation will be tax-free to the student loan borrowers. The new stimulus package makes student loan forgiveness tax-free through December 31, 2025

2. Student loan cancellation — this is just the beginning

Congress may cancel student loans more than once. While some borrowers cheered the decision to cancel student loans, others framed this student loan cancellation as only the first step in a bigger process for student loan forgiveness. They view this announcement as a potential precursor to Biden cancelling student loans through executive order or Congress cancelling student loans through legislation. Whether the amount of student loan forgiveness is $10,000, $50,000 or another amount, this group views this student loan cancellation as only the beginning of a broader plan to fix student loans.

3. Student loan cancellation — this only help some borrowers

Another group of people on social media criticized Biden’s student loan cancellation. Why? While they recognized the magnitude of the headline number of $1 billion, they mentioned that the actual amount of student loan forgiveness paled in comparison to both the amount of outstanding student loan debt and the aggregate numbers of student loan borrowers. For example, the latest student loan debt statistics show that 45 million borrowers collectively owe $1.7 trillion of student loan debt. On a percentage basis, $1 billion of student loan forgiveness equates to 0.6% of all student loans outstanding. Similarly, 72,000 student loan borrowers benefits about 0.2% of all student loan borrowers. So, this group of people aren’t particularly impressed with this latest move for student loan cancellation.

4. Will my student loans get cancelled?

A fourth group of people are asking: “Will my student loans get cancelled?” Some of these student loan borrowers attended schools that closed, while others say their college defrauded them. If your school misled you or engaged in illegal deceptive practices, you may be able to get student loan forgiveness for some or all of your federal student loan debt. You can apply for student loan cancellation under borrower defense to student loan repayment forgiveness

.
5. Biden cancels $1 billion of student loans, but taxpayers will pay

A final group of people on social media say that this student loan cancellation is an unfair wealth transfer that sticks taxpayers with the bill. They say that student loan cancellation isn’t free; it’s funded by taxpayers. Some social media users question why taxpayers must bail out student loan borrowers who made bad decisions to attend for profit colleges, for example. (One retort from several social media users: Congress has bailed out large corporations. Why not forgive student loans for individual borrowers in financial need?). Others ask why there should be wide-scale student loan forgiveness for some borrowers when millions of other borrowers duly paid off their student loans by making financial sacrifices and, in some cases, working multiple jobs. They say there are several reasons why student loans shouldn’t be cancelled and they don’t want taxpayers paying for student loan forgiveness when the vast majority of Americans either don’t have student loans or didn’t attend college.

Biden student loan forgiveness: what’s next?

This may not be the only student loan forgiveness that will happen during the Biden administration. Congress and the president are both considering wide-scale student loan forgiveness. Importantly, this $1 billion of student loan cancellation is different than the wide-scale student loan cancellation that potentially could impact millions of student loan borrowers. The borrowers impacted through this major student loan announcement are a select group of people who got partial student loan forgiveness, but Biden wants to make these borrowers whole through borrower defense to repayment and cancel the remainder of their federal student loans too. The debate to cancel student loans for more student loan borrowers will continue. Therefore, don’t expect wide-scale student loan cancellation now. However, don’t expect all 45 million borrowers to get student loan forgiveness or get all their student loans forgiven. It’s more likely that Congress will limit who qualifies, how much student loan forgiveness there will be, and when the student loan cancellation might come. If Congress, rather than the president, cancels student loans, progressives in Congress will need to deliver a student loan bill that moderate Democrats can support. Make sure you create your own student loan plan because there is no guarantee that your student loans will get cancelled. Here are some potential options to consider:

Student loan refinancing (lower interest rate, lower monthly payment)

Income-driven repayment plans (lower monthly payment for federal loans)

Public service loan forgiveness (student loan forgiveness for federal loans)

Animal behaviour: Female wild bonobos provide care for infants outside their social group

Scientific Reports

March 19, 2021

Observations of groups of wild bonobos, reported in Scientific Reports, suggest that two infants may have been adopted by adult females belonging to different social groups. The findings may represent the first report of cross-group adoption in wild bonobos, and potentially also the first cases of cross-group adoption in wild apes.

Bonobos form social groups of multiple males and females that sometimes temporarily associate with one another. Nahoko Tokuyama and colleagues observed four groups of wild bonobos between April 2019 and March 2020 in the Luo Scientific Reserve in Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The authors identified two infants whom they believe were adopted by female bonobos from different social groups.

Flora, a 2.6-year-old female, was cared for by Marie, an 18-year-old female with two young daughters. Ruby, a 3-year-old female, was cared for by Chio, a 52–57-year-old female whose own offspring had emigrated to a different social group. Flora’s biological mother, Fula, visited Marie’s social group prior to Marie caring for Flora but was not observed interacting with members of the group and it is unknown whether she is still alive. Ruby’s biological mother was not identified by the authors.

The authors believe adoption had occurred as Marie and Chio were observed providing maternal care to the infants, including carrying, grooming, nursing and nesting with them, for periods longer than 18 and 12 months, respectively. The authors observed no aggression between members of Marie’s and Chio’s social groups towards Flora or Ruby. Analysis of faecal mitochondrial DNA samples indicated that the infants and carers were not maternally related.

The findings indicate that adoption in bonobos may not only involve cases where there are kin relationships or pre-existing social relationships between adoptive and biological mothers. The authors suggest that the potential adoptions may have been driven by bonobos’ altruism, strong attraction to infants and high tolerance towards individuals outside of their own social group.

Full paper  available at:

 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-83667-2

'Sonic Boom' heard in UK likely caused by 'daytime fireball' meteor

"Normally when you hear that it's a good sign that you have got rocks that have made it to the surface. It's incredibly exciting and I'm a bit stunned."

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
MARCH 22, 2021 

A bright fireball, believed to be a meteor streaks across

 the sky over city of Austin, 2019
(photo credit: ORLANDO RODRIGUEZ /VIA REUTERS)


A loud "sonic boom" heard throughout parts of England Saturday afternoon appears to have been caused by an "extremely rare" type of meteor known as a daytime fireball, the BBC reported Sunday.

The loud sonic boom was reported in Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Jersey, and was accompanied by pictures and videos on social media depicting an object appearing to fly across the sky.

But after experts analyzed the images, they determined it was a meteor.
University of Oxford aviation meteorology expert Simon Proud took to Twitter to confirm this, and showed footage of the meteor flying over the UK captured via weather satellite.

According to Dr. Ashley King of the UK Fireball Alliance, the meteor would likely have been flying at supersonic speeds.

"Normally when you hear that it's a good sign that you have got rocks that have made it to the surface. It's incredibly exciting and I'm a bit stunned," he said, according to the BBC.

The alliance has also asked people in the area to report finds of any fragments, which are believed to be small blackish stones or dark dust, BBC reported.

The incident occurred ahead of a planned flyby of a sizeable asteroid named 2021 EQ3, which is set to fly closer to the Earth than the Moon Monday night, though the 38 meter-wide asteroid will not pose any risk to anything or anyone on the planet, or any nearby satellites.

TO SEE THE ACTUAL UK FIREBALL CLICK HERE

https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/editors-picks/meteor-captured-on-dashcam-footage-qLuFSZwX

Majority of British support nurses’ strike 

against 1% pay rise, poll find

Exclusive: More than three-quarters back more generous increase

Andrew Woodcock

Political Editor@andywoodcock

THE INDEPENDENT
3/19/2021

(PA)

A majority of British voters would back nurses taking strike action against the 1 per cent pay rise offered by the government after a year on the Covid-19 frontline, a new poll has revealed.

The Savanta ComRes survey for The Independent found 53 per cent support for industrial action by NHS nurses, against just 28 per cent in opposition.

The unusually high level of backing for walkouts by essential frontline health workers was reflective of strong opposition to the government’s pay offer to NHS staff in England.

Just 11 per cent said that nurses should receive a 1 per cent hike, compared to an overwhelming 77 per cent who said the settlement should be more generous - including 25 per cent who said the rise should be 10 per cent or more.

The Royal College of Nursing is demanding a 12.5 per cent increase for its members, branding health secretary Matt Hancock’s offer “pitiful”.

The Royal College of Nursing’s chief executive and general secretary Dame Donna Kinnair said the findings showed ministers were out of touch with public backing for better rewards for nurses.

“In standing by its measly pay offer, the government has grossly misjudged how much the public values our highly-skilled professional nursing staff,” Dame Donna told The Independent.

“The prime minister saw up close how NHS nursing staff can make the difference to patient safety when he needed treatment.

“He must urgently reconsider his 1 per cent recommendation. It is the only way to secure more nurses for the future.”

The RCN this month set up a £35m strike fund to prepare for possible industrial action.

The independent panel that advises the government on NHS salaries - covering nearly all hospital staff, but not GPs and dentists - is due to make its own pay recommendations in early May, when ministers will make their final decision.

Today’s poll showed similar support for pay increases for NHS doctors, with 13 per cent of those questioned backing the 1 per cent offer, against 71 per cent saying it should be higher.

Just 5 per cent said nurses should join other public sector workers in taking a pay freeze to help pay down the debts incurred during the pandemic, with 8 per cent saying the same for NHS doctors.

Ministers argue that the contribution made by NHS staff in the fight against coronavirus has been recognised in their exemption from the pay freeze imposed on public sector workers with salaries over £24,000, and say the proposed hike is above the current inflation level of 0.9 per cent.

But with economists expecting inflation to rise over the coming year, the increase is likely to equate to a real-terms cut in spending power, once higher prices are taken into account.

UK
UNISON 

Outsourced security staff at East Lancashire Hospitals call off strike plan after last minute deal

By Robert Kelly robertkelly83 News Reporter


Outsourced security staff at East Lancashire Hospitals call off strike plan after last minute dealt

SECURITY staff employed by private contractor Engie Services Ltd within East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust have postponed the strike action they had planned over their employer’s failure to pay NHS rates.

The staff - who work at Burnley General Hospital and Royal Blackburn Hospital were set to begin a 48-hour strike on Sunday at 6.30pm.

But in a dramatic turn of events, the hospital workers have postponed their plans to strike after receiving a last-minute pay offer by their employer Engie.

Currently, Engie only pays the hospital workers the minimum wage rate, which leaves some of the Lancashire security staff up to £6,000 per year worse off compared to security guards employed on NHS terms.

The French company has offered to pay the hospital workers NHS Agenda for Change hourly pay rates for the next four weeks whilst they continue to negotiate with UNISON to permanently resolve the issue.

UNISON North West regional organiser Rebecca Lumberg said: “This is a welcome step in the right direction. We have always said that this is a strike that could be avoided if Engie made a genuine offer to this dedicated group of security workers.

“Security staff keep our hospitals safe and they deserve full NHS Agenda for Change pay and working conditions, especially after putting their lives at risk during the pandemic.

“Engie’s offer to pay NHS rates for basic hourly pay is a welcome gesture of goodwill and will temporarily provide security workers with a living wage. But this group are determined to secure full NHS Agenda for Change pay levels, including enhancements for hours worked at evenings and weekends.

“If Engie do not offer NHS pay rates on a permanent basis within the next four weeks, this determined group of security workers are ready to announce further strike dates.”

The Lancashire Telegraph have contacted East Lancashire Hospitals Trust for a comment on the news.

INDIA

Rising temperatures in Maharashtra to impact crop productivity: Study

After unseasonal rains and hailstorms struck various parts of the state last month, more than 20,000 hectares of crops -- mainly wheat and bajra -- were affected.


Written by Sanjana Bhalerao | Mumbai |
March 21, 2021 6:57:35 pm

Of the 58.74 lakh* hectares of rabi acreage in the state, 20,000 hectares sustained damage. Wheat and bajra crop, especially, sustained extensive damage. Similarly, market-ready onion plots were damaged. (Representational) 

*LAKH IS 100.000

Mumbai, Pune, Satara and Solapur districts will register significant warming — by 1 to 2.5 degrees Celsius — post-2033, a climate change study has found. Rising temperatures and extreme rainfall events in Maharashtra are also likely to have a serious impact on the food plate. The observation was made in a study titled ‘Future Climate Change Scenario over Maharashtra, Western India: Implications of the Regional Climate Model for the Understanding of Agricultural Vulnerability’, published in the peer-reviewed journal Springer Nature.

The study by Rahul Todmal, Assistant Professor of Geography at Vidya Pratishthan’s ASC College in Baramati, assesses the vulnerability of agriculture in the state due to the changing climate.

Based on the estimate climatic data from IITM- Pune and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the period between 2015 and 2100, the study states that Maharashtra is very likely to experience considerably warmer conditions after 2033, whereas parts of Konkan and Madhya Maharashtra will register significant warming (by 1 to 2.5 degree Celsius). The study indicated that the annual mean minimum temperatures are expected to rise significantly across 80 per cent of Maharashtra districts over the next five decades.

The study also highlights the impacts on production of crops such as jowar (18 per cent reduction) sugarcane (up to 22 per cent), rice (0-49 per cent) due to increase in the annual temperature by 2050.

After unseasonal rains and hailstorms struck various parts of the state last month, more than 20,000 hectares of crops — mainly wheat and bajra — were affected. Hail and thunderstorms lashed various parts of Maharashtra, including districts of Buldhana, Jalna, Nanded, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon and Sangli. Of the 58.74 lakh hectares of rabi acreage in the state, 20,000 hectares sustained damage. Wheat and bajra crop, especially, sustained extensive damage. Similarly, market-ready onion plots were damaged.

Todmal, who hails from a farming family in Ahmednagar, experienced the impact of climate change that ravaged his farmland. He said, “Agronomic studies have confirmed that the warmer climatic conditions never favour agricultural productivity. The future temperature rise is very likely to reduce the productivity of traditional rain-fed (jowar, bajra, pulses) crops and irrigated cash crops (sugarcane, onion, maize etc.) as well. The rise in annual minimum temperature, particularly during the winter season, may adversely affect the productivity of wheat.”

He added that the future winter and summer seasons are very likely to become warmer and hotter, respectively.

While Bhandara, Gondia, Akola, Washim, Parbhani, Hingoli and Yavatmal districts may register a significant rise in monsoon rainfall by 53–123 mm, pockets in Ahmednagar, Aurangabad and Jalgaon districts are expected to undergo a notable increase in rainfall without any spatial pattern, he observed

The study recommends that the Maharashtra government needs to consider these environmental changes while formulating policies regarding agricultural and water resources.