Media Today

[Rick Plant]

Biden administration cancels $3.9 billion in student debt for 208,000 borrowers defrauded by ITT Tech

The U.S. Department of Education announced on Tuesday that it will cancel all remaining federal student debt taken on by borrowers who were defrauded by ITT Technical Institute since 2005, delivering $3.9 billion in relief to some 208,000 people.

ITT Educational Services was at one point one of the largest operators of for-profit technical schools in the U.S., and shut down in 2016. Borrowers shouldn’t have to apply for the relief, the Education Department said.

“The evidence shows that for years, ITT’s leaders intentionally misled students about the quality of their programs in order to profit off federal student loan programs, with no regard for the hardship this would cause,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, in a statement.

“The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to stand up for borrowers who’ve been cheated by their colleges, while working to strengthen oversight and enforcement to protect today’s students from similar deception and abuse,” Cardona added.

To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved the cancellation of nearly $32 billion in student loans for 1.6 million borrowers.

“President Biden continues to use existing statutory authority to forgive more student loan debt than any previous president,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/16/education-dept-cancels-3point9-billion-in-student-loans-for-itt-tech.html

[Rick Plant]

Michigan gas prices fall below $4 for first time since April
https://money.yahoo.com/michigan-gas-prices-fall-below-140428721.html

[Rick Plant]

Dow rises for fifth day, jumping 200 points after strong Walmart and Home Depot results

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied on Tuesday, rising for a fifth day as Wall Street assessed strong earnings results from Walmart and Home Depot.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average outperformed, rising 191 points, or 0.56%. The S&P 500 traded 0.1% higher and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.33%.

Walmart reported earnings per share that beat analyst expectations and stuck with its second-half outlook, which sent the stock up more than 5%. Home Depot shares jumped 4% after reporting results that beat expectations and maintaining its 2022 guidance.

Amid the news, retail names including Target, Best Buy and Bath & Body Works moved more than 4% higher. Retail earnings continue with reports from Target and Lowe’s on Wednesday.

“You’re seeing kind of that push-pull of reduced inflation, which is good for the market, and then slowing economic growth, which is bad for the market,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at the Independent Advisor Alliance. “I think the market is really trying to grapple [with] the information that’s coming in.”

Wall Street is coming off a solid session, with the major averages all rising Monday after a sharp intraday turnaround and building on the market’s rally off a June low.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/15/stock-market-news-futures-open-to-close.html

[Rick Plant]

WATCH | President Biden signs Inflation Reduction Act

AP) President Joe Biden will sign Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the “final piece” of his pared-down domestic agenda, as he aims to boost his party’s standing with voters less than three months before the midterm elections.

The legislation includes the most substantial federal investment in history to fight climate change — some $375 billion over the decade — and would cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 out-of-pocket annually for Medicare recipients. It also would help an estimated 13 million Americans pay for health care insurance by extending subsidies provided during the coronavirus pandemic.

The measure is paid for by new taxes on large companies and stepped-up IRS enforcement of wealthy individuals and entities, with additional funds going to reduce the federal deficit.

The House on Friday approved the measure on a party-line 220-207 vote. It passed the Senate days earlier with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a 50-50 tie in that chamber.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

All systems go in Houston as NASA prepares return to Moon



Rick LaBrode has worked at NASA for 37 years, but he says the American quest to return to the Moon is by far the crowning moment of his career.

LaBrode is the lead flight director for Artemis 1, set to take off later this month -- the first time a capsule that can carry humans will be sent to the Moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

"This is more exciting than really anything I've ever been a part of," LaBrode told journalists at the US space agency's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.

The 60-year-old confided to AFP that the eve of the launch is likely to be a long night of anticipation -- and little rest.

"I'm going to be so excited. I won't be able to sleep too much, I'm sure of that," he said, in front of Mission Control's iconic giant bank of screens.

Artemis 1, an uncrewed test flight, will feature the first blastoff of the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will be the most powerful in the world when it goes into operation.

It will propel the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft will remain in space for 42 days before returning to Earth.

From 2024, astronauts will travel aboard Orion for the same trip, and the following year, at the earliest, Americans will once again step foot on the Moon.

For the duration of Artemis 1, a team of about a dozen NASA personnel will remain in Mission Control 24 hours a day. The center has been renovated and updated for the occasion.

Teams have been rehearsing for this moment for three years.

"This is a whole new deal -- a whole new rocket, a whole new spacecraft, a whole new control center," explained Brian Perry, the flight dynamics officer, who will be in charge of Orion's trajectory immediately following the launch.

"I can tell you, my heart is going to be tum tum, tum tum. But I'll work hard to keep focused," Perry, who worked on numerous space shuttle flights over the years, told AFP, tapping his chest.

Moon pool

Beyond upgrades to Mission Control for the mission, the entire Johnson Space Center is a bit over the Moon about Artemis.

Beyond upgrades to Mission Control for the mission, the entire Johnson Space Center is a bit over the Moon about Artemis.

In the middle of the giant astronaut training tank -- the world's largest indoor swimming pool at more than 200 feet long, 100 feet wide and 40 feet deep -- a black curtain has been erected.

On one side of the so-called Neutral Buoyancy Lab is a mockup of the International Space Station, submerged.

On the other, the lunar environment is gradually being recreated at the bottom of the pool, with giant model rocks made by a company specializing in aquarium decorations.

"It's only been in the last few months that we started to put the sand on the bottom of the pool. We just got that large rock in two weeks ago," said the lab's deputy chief Lisa Shore. "It's all very new for us and very much in development."

In the water, astronauts can experience a sensation that approaches weightlessness. To train for eventual voyages to the Moon, simulations must replicate the Moon's one-sixth gravity.

From a room above the pool, the astronauts are guided remotely -- with the four-second communications delay they will experience on the lunar surface.

Six have already done training and six more will do so by the end of September. The latter group will wear the new spacesuits made by NASA for Artemis missions.

"The heyday of this facility was when we were still flying the space shuttle and we were assembling the space station," explained the lab's office chief John Haas.

At that time, 400 training sessions with astronauts in full spacesuits took place every year, as compared with about 150 today. But the Artemis program has infused the lab with new urgency.

When AFP visited the facility, engineers and divers were testing how to pull a cart on the Moon.

'New golden age'

Each session in the pool can last up to six hours.

"It's like running a marathon twice, but on your hands," astronaut Victor Glover told AFP.

Glover returned to Earth last year after spending six months on the International Space Station. Now, he works in a building dedicated to simulators of all varieties.

He said his job is to help "verify procedures and hardware" so that when NASA finally names the Artemis astronauts who will take part in crewed missions to the Moon (Glover could be on that list himself), they can be "ready to go."

Using virtual reality headsets, the astronauts can get used to walking in dark conditions at the Moon's South Pole, where the missions will land.

The Sun barely rises above the horizon there, meaning there are always long, dark shadows that impair visibility.

The astronauts must also get used to the new spacecraft like the Orion capsule, and the equipment on board.

In one of the simulators, seated in the commander's chair, personnel are trained to dock with the future lunar space station Gateway.

Elsewhere at the space center, a replica of the Orion capsule, which measures a mere 316 cubic feet (nine cubic meters) for four people, is in use.

"They do a lot of emergency egress training here," Debbie Korth, deputy manager of the Orion program, told AFP.

Korth, who has worked on Orion for more than a decade, said everyone in Houston is excited for the return to the Moon and for NASA's future.

"Definitely, I feel like it is like a new golden age," she said.

© 2022 AFP

[Rick Plant]

Secret Service knew Trump supporters were targeting Pelosi but failed to pass that along until hours after riot began: emails

Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew

BREAKING: The Secret Service knew of a threat to Nancy Pelosi on January 6th days before the insurrection, but did not pass it along until hours after the Capitol had been breached

https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1559923825369923584


Secret Service held onto Pelosi threat until after insurrection
https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/secret-service-held-onto-pelosi-threat-until-after-insurrection/

[Rick Plant]

Hurricane center keeps its eyes on tropical wave in the Caribbean



A tropical wave near Central America is moving north and could become the fourth named storm of the year.

The wave is near Nicaragua and eastern Honduras and is forecast to move across Central America and emerge over the Bay of Campeche, where it could emerge Friday as an area of low pressure. However, it could be met with trouble as dry dust from the Saharan Air Layer is forecast to appear in the same location Friday, according to the National Weather Service tracker. The SAL is a migration of African dust, which pushes west and into the Caribbean, drying out atmospheric conditions of the Atlantic basin and making it too dry for hurricanes to form.

The NHC gives the system a 20% chance of formation in the next five days. If it does develop, it would be the fourth named system of the year and take on the name Danielle.

Despite multiple forecasts of above-average storm production, the season has been off to a slow start given the historic record of Atlantic storms, which typically sees four named storms by Aug. 15, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Earlier this month, the NOAA reaffirmed its preseason prediction of an above-average hurricane season with a range of 14 to 21 named storms. The NOAA expects most storms to emerge during the season’s peak, occurring between mid-August and mid-October.

So far, the 2022 season has seen three named storms: Alex, Bonnie and Colin — the latter of which fizzled at the beginning of July. After a month of tropical silence, the NHC has been jumping around the last 10 days, tracking short-lived systems with the potential to form into depressions or tropical storms.

Over the weekend, the NHC was tracking a broad trough of low pressure in the mid-Atlantic, but its chances of formation dropped to 0% by Monday morning. Before that, the NHC had eyes on a system in the Gulf of Mexico, but it failed to form into more than a spate of showers and thunderstorms that drenched southeastern Texas. And before that, a system off the African coast was demanding attention before environmental factors snuffed its chances.

Hurricane season ends on Nov. 30.

Orlando Sentinel