Also on today’s menu:
About That Opposition To Student Loan Forgiveness
Massachusetts Releases List Of Bad Officers
Infrastructure Law Provides For Broadband Deployment
Meeting with prospective voters at the Weirs Community Center on August 21, Democratic presidential challenger Marianne Williamson described her campaign as a grassroots economics-focused and populist approach that will resonate with people concerned about affordable housing, education, and health care, and the widening levels of economic inequality in the United States. She said her priorities include increasing the minimum wage, providing free public college, and the cancellation of student debt.
Williamson said the party should return to the principles of Franklin D. Roosevelt: “unabashed, unequivocal advocacy for the working people.” She said there is an ongoing “populist realignment” away from the traditional two-party power machine and said voters should support the candidate most aligned with their beliefs.
Laconia resident Carlos Cardona serves as Williamson’s campaign manager.
About That Opposition To Student Loan Forgiveness
There is a lot of confusion about student debt forgiveness. When students borrowed money through government programs, they were told the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program would offer repayment plans based on their incomes. The Government Accountability Office discovered in 2022 that poor record-keeping had left students without that option, and interest on unpaid debt compounded the problem.
Heather Cox Richardson explained that the rising costs of college and cuts to government support for education have resulted in more than 45 million people owing more than $1.6 trillion, “an amount equal to the size of the Australian economy”. Rather than recognizing that the problem lies not with students but with the student loan structure, many Americans view student loan forgiveness as offering “free money” for poor choices or sloth.
Heather makes reference to law professor Bruce Mann’s book, Republic of Debtors, which explained how early Americans redefined bankruptcy to allow defaulting on commercial debt due to the volatility of market forces, while holding ordinary people like farmers and tradesmen accountable for the debt they could not repay — “an oddly narrow understanding of economic risk, excluding as it did the hazards and chance that could rain economic ruin on farmers, tradesmen, and other nonmerchants. Moreover, it treated noncommercial debt as somehow avoidable” which made nonpayment equivalent to a moral failing.
While there is an option through bankruptcy to demonstrate that repaying a student loan would cause undue hardship, creditors may challenge such a request. The bankruptcy courts look at whether repayment of the loan would prevent the person from maintaining a minimal standard of living, whether the hardship will continue for a significant portion of the loan repayment period, and whether the borrower has made good-faith efforts to repay the loan before filing for bankruptcy.
The Biden Administration has tried to offer relief to more than 800,000 borrowers of more than $39 billion in student debt. In discussing his loan forgiveness program on July 14, Joe Biden said, “Republican lawmakers — who had no problem with the government forgiving millions of dollars of their own business loans — have tried everything they can to stop me from providing relief to hardworking Americans. Some are even objecting to the actions we announced today, which follows through on relief borrowers were promised, but never given, even when they had been making payments for decades. The hypocrisy is stunning, and the disregard for working and middle-class families is outrageous.”
Massachusetts Releases List Of Bad Officers
While New Hampshire continues to shield police officers with histories of dishonesty from public disclosure despite maintaining an Exculpatory Evidence Schedule, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has released the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission database, which contains the names of more than 2,100 police officers who have been subject to discipline for sustained allegations of misconduct. The records go back to 1984, with files from 273 Massachusetts law enforcement agencies.
POST Commission Executive Director Enrique Zuniga, said, “Over the past year, law enforcement agencies submitted disciplinary records and POST staff has worked carefully to validate these officer records for publishing. We know that releasing this information furthers police accountability and is a matter of great public interest.”
The database includes the names of the officers disciplined, their departments, the date and description of the misconduct, and any disciplinary steps the department took as a result. The database does not include information about unsustained or unfounded allegations against officers.
The New Hampshire Exculpatory Evidence Schedule includes only the name of the officer, agency, and date of alleged misconduct. The reason for an officer’s placement on the list is not provided in detail, usually only comprising one or two words, such as “Truthfulness” or “Criminal Conduct” and sometimes simply “Unknown.” The New Hampshire Legislature added language allowing an officer to keep his name off the list for years while appealing its disclosure.
Infrastructure Law Provides For Broadband Deployment
The United States Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has allocated $196.5 million to deploy affordable, reliable high-speed internet in New Hampshire as part of a larger $42.45 billion provided to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories, and the University of New Hampshire is mapping broadband access across the state. The New Hampshire Broadband Mapping Initiative aims to identify where internet access is available, how it can become more widely available, and how to encourage higher levels of broadband adoption and usage in the state.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week that it will spend another $667 million on rural broadband loans and grants, with the funding awards going to 38 projects in 22 states and the Marshall Islands. Nearly $100 million will go toward grants for three projects in Alaska, while Arkansas, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin also get new funding.
The grants and loans allow for broadband access in areas that would not be profitable for the private sector to provide. “We’re delivering this funding because the internet is no longer a luxury,” said Mitch Landrieu, the White House coordinator for the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law. “It’s a necessity to fully participate today’s society.”
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