Tag: #upworthy
Federal Watchdog Issues Scathing Report On Ed Department’s Handling Of Student Loans
Federal Watchdog Issues Scathing Report On Ed Department’s Handling Of Student Loans
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Ed Dept failed to protect borrowers from companies that manage federal student loans, watchdog says in scathing report
BLAME
BETSY DEVOS
Navient and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, better known as FedLoan.
The audit documents several common failures by the servicers, among them, not telling borrowers about all of their repayment options, or miscalculating what borrowers should have to pay through an income-driven repayment plan. According to the review, two loan servicing companies, Navient and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, better known as FedLoan, repeatedly placed borrowers into costly forbearance without offering them other, more beneficial options.
A critical new report from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General finds the department’s student loan unit failed to adequately supervise the companies it pays to manage the nation’s trillion-dollar portfolio of federal student loans. The report also rebukes the department’s office of Federal Student Aid for rarely penalizing companies that failed to follow the rules.
BREAKING: Education Dept failed to protect borrowers from companies that manage federal student loans, watchdog says in scathing report. https://t.co/syC3a8GZoB
— NPR's Education Team (@npr_ed) February 14, 2019
Instead of safeguarding borrowers’ interests, the report says, FSA’s inconsistent oversight allowed these companies, known as loan servicers, to potentially hurt borrowers and pocket government dollars that should have been refunded because servicers weren’t meeting federal requirements.
“By not holding servicers accountable,” the report says, “FSA could give its servicers the impression that it is not concerned with servicer noncompliance with Federal loan servicing requirements, including protecting borrowers’ rights.”
“It’s hard to look at this as anything other than completely damning,” says Seth Frotman, a consumer advocate and former government, student loan watchdog who is now executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center. “This is the most damaging in a long line of investigations, audits, and reports that show the Department of Education is asleep at the switch when it is responsible for over a trillion dollars of student loan debt.”
K12 Department of Education #BetsyDevos Brother Founder Of Blackwater, Is Setting Up A Private Army For China
The controversial Blackwater founder says he is setting up two bases in China, but his company says “this does not involve armed personnel.”
Erik Prince — founder of the private military company Blackwater, financial backer of President Donald Trump, brother to the new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and frequent Breitbart radio guest of White House power broker Stephen Bannon — has been offering his military expertise to support Chinese government objectives and setting up two Blackwater-style training camps in China, according to sources and his own company statements.
The move could put him at odds with Trump, who has often taken a hard line against China, and could also risk violating US law, which prohibits the export of military services or equipment to China.
Erik Prince.
Former associates of the 47-year-old Prince told BuzzFeed News that the controversial businessman envisions using the bases to train and deploy an army of Chinese retired soldiers who can protect Chinese corporate and government strategic interests around the world, without having to involve the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
The American mercenary behind Blackwater is helping China establish the new Silk Road
For years, China has groomed landlocked Yunnan province in its southwest to be the country’s strategic bridgehead into Southeast Asia, building highways and rail lines to its borders with Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar to one day weave them into a regional, and eventually, transcontinental transport network.
As China pushes ahead with president Xi Jinping’s ambitious $1 trillion One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative—which reimagines a historic trade network as an overland Silk Road Economic “Belt” and a Maritime Silk “Road”—protecting Chinese business executives and other personnel and their rapidly growing investments in the region is more important than ever.
Mueller evidence shows Blackwater founder held meeting to create Trump-Russia back channel: report
Special counsel Robert Mueller has evidence showing that a meeting in the Seychelles last year between the founder of a private security company and a Russian official was intended to set up a back channel between the Trump administration and the Kremlin.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that a witness cooperating with Mueller has told investigators that the meeting was set up in advance, apparently contradicting what Erik Prince, the founder of the security contractor formerly known as Blackwater, has told lawmakers about the meeting.
Prince had previously told lawmakers and the press that his meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian official close with Russian President Vladimir Putin, happened by chance and was not set up ahead of time.
But the witness, a Lebanese-American businessman named George Nader, has testified before a grand jury that the meeting, which took place shortly before President Trump’s inauguration, was, in fact, a planned effort.
‘Here’s the system; it sucks’: Meet the Hill staffers hired by Ocasio-Cortez to upend Washington
They will help shape how Ocasio-Cortez works as an activist hoping to refashion the Democratic Party, while she also tries to serve as a more typical member building coalitions and moving legislation.
“It needs to be pointed out how insanely greedy” it is to be a billionaire, Riffle said. “We have to comprehend the scale of $1 billion — just the amount of money we’re talking about. Five million dollars is a lifetime’s fortune; you can live off the interest of that and still be in the top 1 percent. Five million dollars, times 100, is still only halfway to $1 billion.
“It’s a systemic failure on society’s part. On one part of the city, we have people with helipads and yachts that they park inside of yachts, and on the other side we have thousands of people who are homeless and children without health care or food. Those things should not exist simultaneously in a society.”
Toxic Plastic Numbers #3,4,5,6,7
Toxic Plastic Numbers #3,4,5,6,7
“Resin ID Codes.”
Each number (1 through 6) signifies a specific type
of plastic and usually appears inside a small triangle (often formed by
three adjoining arrows) imprinted on the bottom of a plastic item. The
number “7” is used to represent a group of other plastics or
combinations of plastics.
Lax regulations
“The use of these chemicals is totally
unregulated internationally,” Cooper said. “So even if there is a
voluntary agreement in domestic markets, the cheap stuff from
developing countries or export processing zones makes it on to our
shelves and into our homes.”
Among the more worrying materials
for contaminate leaching is PVC (polyvinyl chloride), commonly referred
to as vinyl. The chemicals leached during the PVC lifecycle include
mercury, dioxins and phthalates. PVC is used in numerous consumer
products, including adhesives, detergents, lubricating oils, solvents,
automotive plastics, plastic clothing, personal-care products (such as
soap, shampoo, deodorants, fragrances, hair spray, nail polish), as
well as toys and building materials.
Organizations including the
U.S.-based National Toxicology Program, the Environmental Protection
Agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health agree that vinyl
is one of only 52 chemicals/compounds designated as a confirmed human
carcinogen.
Often
found on the bottom of plastic bottles, other containers, and shopping
bags, the numbers and letters shown with the chasing-arrows “recycling”
symbol mean the following:
#1 PETE or PET (polyethylene terephthalate): used for most clear beverage bottles.
- #2 HDPE (high density polyethylene): used for “cloudy” milk and water jugs, opaque food bottles.
- Number 3 Plastics #3 PVC or V (polyvinyl chloride): used in some cling wraps (especially commercial brands), some “soft” bottles
V (Vinyl) or PVC
Found in: Cooking oil bottles, clear food packagingHarvard-educated Dr. Leo Trasande of the Mt. Sinai School of
Medicine advises consumers to avoid number 3 plastics for food and
drinks. (If you’re unsure, look for the little symbol that should be
printed on the container. Some brands have left the symbols off, which
is a major problem.) Why? Number 3 plastics may release toxic breakdown products (including pthalates) into food and drinks. The risk is highest when containers start wearing out, are put
through the dishwasher or when they are heated (including microwaved).
PVC manufacturing can release highly toxic dioxins into the
environment, and the materials can off-gas toxic plasticizers into your
home. - #4 LDPE (low density polyethylene): used in food storage bags and some “soft” bottles.
- #5 PP (polypropylene): used in rigid containers, including some baby bottles, and some cups and bowls.
- #6 PS (polystyrene): used in foam “clam-shell”-type containers,
meat and bakery trays, and in its rigid form, clear take-out
containers, some plastic cutlery and cups. Polystyrene may leach
styrene into food it comes into contact with. A recent study in Environmental Health Perspectives
concluded that some styrene compounds leaching from food containers are
estrogenic (meaning they can disrupt normal hormonal functioning).
Styrene is also considered a possible human carcinogen by the World
Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.Number 6 Plastics
PS (polystyrene)
Found in: Disposable plates and cups, meat trays, egg cartons, carry-out containers
Number 6 plastics (polystyrene) are made into soft Styrofoam-style cups as well as rigid foams and hard plastic products, so remember to look for those little numbers in the arrows (don’t feel bad if you need a magnifying glass). Avoid using them as much as possible.Why? Number 6 plastics can release potentially toxic breakdown products (including styrene). Get this: particularly when heated! That insulated coffee cup — the one that ‘knows’ when to keep your drink warm — doesn’t seem so smart anymore does it? - #7 Other (usually polycarbonate): replace with 1, 5 or corn-based plastics, or even shatter-resistant glass.
used in 5-gallon water bottles,
some baby bottles, some metal can linings. Polycarbonate can release
its primary building block, bisphenol A, another suspected hormone
disruptor, into liquids and foods. In 1998, the Japanese government
ordered manufacturers there to recall and destroy polycarbonate
tableware meant for use by children because it contained excessive
amounts of bisphenol A. Other sources of potential bisphenol A exposure
Water Stored in Plastic
Water bottles are be made from various types of plastic — polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polypropylene (PP), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl), and others. To reiterate, they all migrate to some degree. I will focus on just one chemical that migrates out of one plastic that is used to make products with high use and sales profiles.
Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a monomer used in the synthesis of PC plastics, epoxy resins, and composites, as well as a heat stabilizer in PVC. The list of products containing BPA is long. Some rigid containers such as water and baby bottles are made of PC. The popular Nalgene® water bottles are made of Lexan® brand PC. In the medical industry, it is used for syringes, containers, lenses, and dental products. Keep in mind that the FDA regulates only plastics in contact with foods and not any of the other exposures a person might commonly experience every day at home, school, or the office. Because the FDA approves plastics for specific uses rather than for individual chemicals, BPA is not explicitly regulated.[20] It is important to note that all exposures, no matter what origin, are relevant and cumulative. Even other chemicals that act in the body in similar ways can be part of the total effect. The body’s natural defenses try to breakdown toxins as they enter. These are called metabolites and can be significantly more toxic than the original chemical.