Journals Wave

  The   Biden  administration on Wednesday announced several new proposed changes to the federal student loan system, including measures that help discharge loans for physically and mentally disabled borrowers, limit interest capitalization rates, and help borrowers working as public service employees to earn forgiveness on their loans. In   a statement   unveiling the proposed expansion of student loan discharge programs, the Department of Education said it expected to finalize a full plan by Nov. 1, with the aim to have the changes take effect no later than July 1. Secretary of Education  Miguel Cardona  said in the statement that proposed changes “will protect borrowers and save them time, money, and frustration, and will hold their colleges responsible for wrongdoing.” “We are committed to fixing a broken system. If a borrower qualifies for student loan relief, it shouldn’t take mountains of paperwork or a law degree to obtain it,” Cardona sai...

  CLEVELAND — President   Biden  spent Wednesday afternoon in the key swing state of Ohio courting union workers, seeking to convince voters his policies are helping buttress the middle class as polls continue to show Americans souring on his handling of the economy. Biden spoke to a packed crowd at Max S. Hayes High School in Cleveland to announce the final rule for implementing a program created by his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law to support struggling multiemployer pension plans so that union workers have more retirement security. “Who is the backbone of this country? It’s you, the American worker,” Biden told the crowd, speaking in front of a sign that read “Jobs. Unions. Retirement Security.” “I see you. I hear you. And I always have your back — I promise,” he said. Biden faces extreme headwinds due to inflation, and poll after poll shows the president presiding over dampened approval ratings and particularly low marks on the economy. Those numbers have spawn...

  The Independence Day shooting in Highland Park, Ill., has put the spotlight on loopholes in federal and state gun laws as well as a lack of robust implementation that limits their effectiveness in preventing gun violence. The 21-year-old man accused of shooting and killing seven people and wounding dozens more on Monday slipped past Illinois’s red flag laws and legally obtained a high-powered rifle similar to an AR-15, raising questions about both the law and those sworn to uphold it. “Illinois has this law on the books and it’s on the books for exactly the scenario that we saw in Highland Park,” said Shannon Frattaroli, a professor in the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Red flag laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders, allow a judge to take away a firearm from someone based on the suspicion that the owner could use it to harm themselves or others. Family members, police or doctors, have to petition the court to take away the firearm, and that action c...