WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Eleven student governments in the University of North Carolina system have signed a proclamation opposing legislation that would allow concealed weapons permit holders to store handguns in locked vehicles on the system's campuses.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports (http://bit.ly/195zlZ9) that the student leaders agreed to the proclamation Tuesday night and announced it on Wednesday.
Read the whole story at Associated Press
The Senate rejected a move to restore lower interest rates on some new federal student loans on Tuesday. Forty-nine senators voted against the bill.
On July 1, following congressional inaction, the rates on some new loans doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. This was the first effort to reverse that spike, which is expected to hit about 7 million students returning to college in the fall with an extra $2,600 increase in their payments.
Below, the Twitter and Facebook contact information of every senator who voted "nay" on the measure to lower student loan rates. (Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also voted "nay," but did so for procedural reasons, so that he could enter a motion to reconsider the vote at a later point):
If you're a college student who tries to navigate a kitchen for the first time, this is for you.
The beautiful village of Reddit has shared a list of all the things that must be purchased until he embarks on the path of becoming an adult in real life cooking. Scroll down for 10 items must be purchased as soon as possible and click here to read the entire thread.
1. "A slow cooker is a great thing have around and learn how to use. Pull a broth, meat and vegetables, go to class and then return to delicious homemade soup. You can Cook roasts there, make impressive sauces and stuff (my colleagues make a super delicious bean dip in the crock pot). "Yes!"-juzoe
2. "A can opener and a two-sided bottle opener. One with a pointed side so you can drill you fluid-filled canisters. (For example, cans from stock or broth). Then get a small magnet and stick it to the fridge. "Jewzeejew bottles and cans will not withstand an opportunity."
3. "A Foreman Grill. I am out of College and we still use it almost every day. Also a toaster oven. "Does anyone have time for a full-sized oven."-bringinthebo810
4. "A pot of dubious quality - enough to hold beans/noodles for 3-4" - falicor
5. "My advice is, don't go to savings in spices in bulk. Get the smallest who, come what may. Spices so quickly lose flavor. There is no need for a pound of cinnamon."-thegregbradley
6. "The mandolin. You can cut vegetables/fruits, super fast and super consistent. "Be careful, it is easy to let go and cut a finger too!"-mikebelanger
7. "Well the sharp knives." Victorinox makes some large sheets, which can be less than $30. "Check out the Fibrox line."-Roketderp
8. "A dish hot (if not have a stove)." - mkirklions
9 "Bread half sheet (13 x 18 - get two if you're planning to make biscuits)"-TechnoAllah
10. "Fire extinguisher. One that covers all types of fires."-crikfromcincy
U.S. households struggling with expensive student debt would be able to refinance into cheaper loans at no cost to taxpayers under legislation to be proposed by Ohio's senior senator.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) will unveil as early as today a proposal to grant the secretary of the treasury, a position Jack Lew now occupies, the authority to create a government-backed financing vehicle that could enable millions of distressed borrowers to refinance student debt not guaranteed by the government into new loans with significantly lower interest rates, according to a draft copy of his eight-page bill.
Brown’s legislation comes amid increasingly dire warnings from regulators and policymakers concerned that outstanding student debt -- now valued at nearly $1.2 trillion -- may put the economy at risk as overburdened households curtail spending, investment and savings in order to pay student loans, despite more than four years of record low borrowing costs.
“Why should our students and graduates be the last to benefit from historically low interest rates?” Brown said. “Helping graduates refinance their private student loan debt into more affordable terms frees up funds for them to buy houses, start businesses, or contribute to their communities. It makes sense for our students and graduates and it makes sense for our economy.”
Last month, President Barack Obama said that the $26,000 in debt carried by the average new college graduate “holds back our entire middle class.” Student loan payments “can last for years, even decades, which means young people are putting off buying their first car or their first house -- the things that grow our economy and create new jobs,” Obama added.
While most lawmakers appear to be chiefly concerned with the impending doubling of interest rates set to affect roughly a quarter of all future federal student loans starting Monday, Brown joins a small but growing group of legislators including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) attempting to help current borrowers.
About 60 percent of all federal student loans carry interest rates above 6 percent, according to July 2012 Department of Education data cited by the Center for American Progress. About three-quarters of all new federal student loans carry interest rates of 6.8 percent or 7.9 percent, forcing borrowers to pay record relative rates on their loans.
The rates, fixed by Congress, have not been updated to reflect the near-record low interest rate environment. For example, when Congress set the rates in 2007, the average new 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage could be had for about 6.3 percent, according to Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage financier. The average new 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage now carries a 3.9 percent interest rate.
The gap between what students and households pay to finance a college education and what the U.S. government pays to borrow has led to record profits for the Treasury, eclipsing earnings even at Exxon Mobil Corp., the nation’s most profitable publicly-traded company.
There is about $150 billion of private student debt, with new loans over the past few years carrying an average interest rate of 8 percent to 10 percent, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In recent years, student lenders have been able to generate increasing interest income off the loans they make relative to their own cost to borrow, something most banks are struggling with due to years of persistently low interest rates forcing them to reduce borrowers’ rates, the CFPB has noted.
The consumer agency has suggested that Washington policymakers consider government-initiated loan workout and refinancing schemes for distressed borrowers. A senior CFPB official, Rohit Chopra, is due to repeat that suggestion Tuesday during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.
Brown’s proposal, which he calls the “Refinancing Education Funding to Invest for the Future Act,” mandates that whatever means the treasury secretary uses to enable borrowers to refinance their debt, “it shall not result in any net cost to the federal government” -- a potential boon to lawmakers eager to curry favor with young voters and middle-class families but wary of increasing government spending.
The bill in some ways resembles a 2008 law, “Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act,” which provided lenders with guarantees and cheap financing to stimulate new lending. Brown’s legislation seeks to help borrowers who are struggling with debt repayment.
“During the crisis, policymakers employed a number of creative tools to revive the student lending market,” Chopra said in prepared remarks he planned to deliver at Tuesday's hearing. “Policymakers might now focus on the following objectives to increase private capital participation and market efficiency: spurring loan restructuring opportunities [and] jumpstarting a student loan refinance market.”
Brown’s legislation targets both.
His bill calls on the treasury secretary to first determine whether borrowers “are unable to secure adequate credit accommodations with existing private education loans.” If the secretary makes such a determination, the official then would have the authority to create a scheme to help borrowers.
The proposed legislation suggests that policymakers consider using the Federal Reserve, Federal Home Loan Banks, and Federal Financing Bank -- a government corporation that borrows from the treasury and lends to agencies and borrowers with government guarantees -- as sources of credit to refinance borrowers.
The CFPB suggested a similar idea last month.
During the recent financial crisis, the Fed created numerous extraordinary programs designed to stimulate credit. The world’s largest financial institutions, particularly foreign-based banks, were the biggest beneficiaries, Fed data show.
Also on HuffPost: Get AlertsBANGOR, Maine -- Lawyers for a transgender girl and an elementary school that required the fifth-grader to use a staff bathroom instead of the girls restroom clashed before Maine's highest court Wednesday over whether her rights were violated, a case that lays bare the difficult decisions facing school administrators.
The family and the Maine Human Rights Commission sued, but a judge in the state's lower Superior Court ruled that the Orono school district acted within its discretion by requiring her to use a staff bathroom after there was a complaint about the student using the girls bathroom.
After Wednesday's hearing, the student, Nicole Maines, who's now 15 and attending a high school in southern Maine, said she wouldn't wish her experience on anyone else and hope the justices hear her out.
"I hope they understood how important it is for students to be able to go to school and get an education and have fun and make friends, and not have to worry about being bullied by students or administration, and be accepted for who they are," the sophomore said.
At issue is whether the school violated the Maine Human Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation. But state law also requires separate bathrooms for boys and girls in schools.
Melissa Hewey, lawyer for the school and school district, said afterward it should be up to the Legislature to clarify the issue.
"To the extent that the people in Maine decide that this law in Maine should be changed, then that should be done. But right now the law is what it is, and our school district didn't violate it," she said.
The case goes beyond just the bathroom issue to the broader question of what's best for transgender students, said Jennifer Levi, director of Transgender Rights Project for the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders.
"At the core of this case is whether the promise of equal educational opportunities for transgender students is realized," she said.
It's a topic that school administrators are grappling with nationwide.
Policies about transgender adults are still evolving, and the thinking about how to handle children who identify with the gender opposite of the sex they're born with is even more complex.
Last year, the American Psychiatric Association removed "gender identity disorder" from its list of mental health ailments. And the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics filed a brief urging that transgender children be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice.
In the Maine case, Nicole Maines is a biological male who from an early age identified as a girl.
School officials initially allowed her to use the girls bathroom in her school, but the policy was altered after the grandfather of a fifth-grade boy complained to school officials. Maines' attorneys said she felt like she was singled out by having to use the staff bathroom.
The family and their child are not identified in the lawsuit alleging discrimination under the Maine Human Rights Act. But they've since been identified Wayne and Kelly Maines and their identical twins, Nicole and Jonas.
Wayne Maines struggled to maintain his composure as he gave a brief statement outside the Penobscot Judicial Center, where the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard the arguments.
"It has been extremely difficult, but I'm pleased to be here and to have our case heard, and I'm very hopeful for a good outcome," he said, with Nicole, Jonas and his wife at his side.
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Follow David Sharp at http://twitter.com/David_Sharp_AP
Also on HuffPost: Get AlertsDuring my exclusive broadcast conversation with Sen. Elizabeth Warren tonight on PBS, she states, "We can't be a country that invests in big banks and won't invest in our students who want an education. Let's not call it postmortem just yet; let's call it we're still in the middle of the fight."
Watch the clip here:
Tune-in tonight for our entire conversation on Tavis Smiley on PBS! For more information and your local TV listings, visit: www.pbs.org/tavis.Follow Tavis Smiley on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tavissmiley
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