USA Funds Helps Families Apply for Financial Aid for College

10 States Fail to Act to Qualify for Long-Term Jobless Aid
In a bitter battle late last year, Republicans in Congress filibustered an extension of the emergency Unemployment Insurance (UI) program for more than 1.4 million long-term jobless workers-and they didn’t approve the bill until they won an extension of Bush Tax Cuts for the rich. The Legislation will keep the program alive through 2011. It will be a vital lifeline in an economy where the jobless rate has been more than 9 percent for 20 straight months and is not expected to signif...

Karen Lawrence: The Cost of College: Weighing Expense With Value
If we had our choice, Sarah Lawrence College would never be listed among America's "Most Expensive" Higher Education institutions. These types of lists understandably generate media coverage, but leave the far more essential question rarely explored in depth: what value does this cost provide? This is precisely the question that prospective Students and their parents should be asking. To provide an answer relative to Sarah Lawrence College, I want to share details of our price, why we think t...

US abortions up for first time since 1990
The other side admits Abortion is wrong simply by its aversion to it. Do we say, “We regret to inform you more and more women are voting”? Or, “We have a dream, that black Civil Rights will be safe and legal but rare”? No, those freedoms are celebrated. Likewise, those insisting Abortion is a Constitutional Right should cheer when it proliferates, right? But you wouldn’t know by MSM’s headlines that the US Abortion rate, after almost 20 years of decline, is on...

Arizona lawmakers seek to block funeral protests
Phoenix (Reuters) - Arizona state lawmakers moved swiftly on Tuesday to try to block members of a Kansas-based fundamentalist church from staging anti-gay Protests at the Funerals of the six Shooting Victims in Tucson. By unanimous votes, state lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature passed emergency Legislation to bar such Protests within 300 feet of funeral and burial services for one hour before and after the ceremonies. Violators would face a Misdemeanor charge. Arizona Governor Jan Bre...

Gaston Caperton: Trends in College Pricing
If there's one thing I've learned as the president of the College Board, it's this: every person is born with the fundamental capacity to learn. The only question is whether that capacity is neglected or nurtured. Unfortunately, even at the outset of the 21st century, lower income Students remain underrepresented in Higher Education because of socioeconomic barriers like cost and unequal access to high quality schools. Five decades after the Supreme Court struck down "separate but equal," hig...

Keep Track of Student Loans in One Place
Have a lot of Student Loans but not sure exactly how much you owe or who to pay? Join the club. Student loans are frustratingly complicated; it's not easy to keep track of how much you owe and to whom. Enter the National Student Loan Data System, a website with real information you can use. The Federal Government tracks every federal student loan you ever borrowed and lists it there. Think it might be scary to see all your loans in one place? Well, yeah, but you gotta know. My loans span a 10-ye...

Christina Gagnier: The Undervaluation of California Higher Education
Today welcomed newly inaugurated California Governor Jerry Brown's unveiling of his proposed Budget for 2011-2012. As with every Budget cycle since the energy crisis hit California hard in 2002, drastic cuts were experienced by a host of programs, primarily those affecting the delivery of Social Services and, as has sadly become customary, Higher Education. It was essentially the Budget "Groundhog Day" that University of California and California State University Students have been experiencin...

Va higher ed gets proposed funding infusion
Virginia's public colleges and universities will be eligible to apply for $50 million to enhance Student enrollment and retention, increase the number of students pursuing science and health-care fields, and boost undergraduate Financial Aid. Dan Ix, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia's finance policy director, said Tuesday that institutions must apply for the funding by submitting proposals to Secretary of Education Gerard Robinson. The grants would go to institutions who propos...

A breakdown of Jerry Brown's budget
Taxes Gov. Jerry Brown wants voters to renew $9 billion in higher sales, income and vehicle taxes in a Special Election this spring. The Legislature passed the increases as part of the 2009 Budget, and they will otherwise expire by the end of June. Lawmakers' approval would be needed to put the extension on the ballot. Brown would ask voters to prolong a 0.25-percentage point surcharge on state income taxes, a 0.5-percentage-point increase in the vehicle license fee, a 1-cent increase in the ...

National teachers' union applauds Maryland. And itself.
Maryland's public schools pulled a three-peat as the nation's best in Education Week's annual rankings, and naturally, everyone's taking credit. (Didn't The Washington Examiner sponsor that thing that one time at that place? We sure did!) Loretta Johnson, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teams, congratulated Maryland's "laserlike focus on doing what works--proven strategies and promising innovations. The state has embraced a philosophy of trust, shared responsibility, and s...

California Reintroduces Its Own Dream Act
The DREAM Act is back, in California at least. Today Assemblyman Gil Cedillo re-introduced the DREAM Act which would allow undocumented youth who are accepted to college the ability to apply for institutional Financial Aid and state grants from the state’s public universities, state and community colleges. Cedillo’s new strategy is to split the bill in two. The San Jose Mercury News reports that one bill would allow undocumented immigrant Students who are California residents to appl...

Pass the California DREAM Act
California Assemblyman Gil Cedillo reintroduced a bill today that would make undocumented College Students in California eligible for in-state Financial Aid. Prospects for passage of the California DREAM Act are brighter this year since Governor Jerry Brown said he supported a previous version of the bill, while Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it three times. As a state measure, the law would have no effect on an applicant's Immigration status, which falls under federal authority. Even so, pas...

Brown proposes deep cuts, extending tax increases to fix California's deficit
California Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown released his Budget proposal on Monday that includes about $12.5 billion in Spending Cuts, extends the current increased Tax Rates and reshapes government. Brown called for a $127.4 billion budget, including an $84.6 billion general fund. His proposal would reduce welfare spending in half, cut nearly 20 percent from the state’s university system funding, and eliminate tax subsidies for redevelopment areas and hundreds of millions of dollars for “...

McDonald Park area in St. Louis may get storm sewers
ST. LOUIS -- The neighborhood near McDonald Park may get storm sewers to minimize basement backups and Flooding in an area now served by combined sanitary and storm sewers. Trustees of the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District on Thursday will consider tentatively awarding a contract of $2,364,740 to Gershenson Construction Co. Inc. of Eureka, the lowest of four bidders for the work. The company would install about 4,100 feet of storm sewers 12 inches to 48 inches in diameter in the south St. Lo...

The Deadliest Gun States
The Daily Beast Reports, and includes an interesting quote from Eugene. "I am generally skeptical of Gun Laws," says Eugene Volokh, a Law Professor at UCLA. "The theory is that gun laws may prevent crimes of passion—domestic crimes, altercations over traffic incidents, or committed by someone who is otherwise law-abiding but has an anger problem… gun-control laws can potentially do something, but the kind of crime by which they can do the least is a mass shoo...

Move Over, WALL-E: Puttering Along Power Lines
Electric Power Research Institute A prototype of the robot that would monitor transmission lines for problems. Inspecting power lines more closely would reduce the number of times the lights go out, but the job is tedious and hazardous for workers and expensive for utilities because the lines often run far from roads and through mountains, forests and deserts. Soon, though, the Electric Power Research Institute hopes to farm the job out, to robots. These robots will not look like people. The in...

Car belonging to single mom of 3 stolen, gutted
Melissa Berman’s vehicle later was found, but it had been stripped of its engine and many of her possessions, including money, a passport and a treasured necklace created while her son, Ryder, was undergoing Chemotherapy treatments. Berman, a 34-year-old College Student from Waterford Township, describes herself as a hard-working mom trying to do the best she can for her kids. She said she doesn’t have money to buy a new car and is hoping someone mig...

Gulf Claims Czar Makes Mixed Progress on Transparency Pledges
On Dec. 13, Gulf spill paymaster Kenneth Feinberg promised to increase his operation’s transparency and improve its communication with claimants. Feinberg said he would address claimants’ struggles to get information about their claims by hiring field staff in the Gulf to answer their questions, publicly releasing his methodology for deciding payments and offering pro bono legal assistance to applicants. A month later, Feinberg has made mixed progress in carrying out these promises....

It Takes a Community to Repay a Loan: The Lessons of Prosper.com
Just before Christmas, the peer-to-peer Lending site Prosper.com decided to eliminate high-risk borrowers from its site after a high percentage of them failed to repay their loans. Launched and initially funded by e-Loan founder Chris Larsen, Prosper Marketplace was one of a number of peer-to-peer lenders that aimed to democratize the Lending process and allow anyone to seek loans from strangers or friends via the Internet, without dealing with banks, risk managers or underwriters. The theory ...

Kate Kelly: A Good American Story: Everyday People Provide the Important Details
Particularly in a week when people all over the country are filled with sadness because of the tragedy in Tucson, it is good to remember that this tragic circumstance is just a sliver of our American story. We are lost as a people if the only memories that continue on are of a shooting rampage in Tucson, the horror of 9-11 or the Murder of the Civil Rights workers in Mississippi in 1964. These stories are important for us to learn from, of course, but equally important are the day-to-day doin...

5 unbeatens, 2 winless left in Division I
A look at the five unbeaten and two winless teams remaining in Division I (through Monday, Jan. 10): Duke (15-0). Last win: 71-64 over Maryland, Blue Devils' 25th straight win overall. Next game: at Florida State (11-5) on Wednesday. Kansas (15-0). Last win: Blew 13-point second-half lead before beating Michigan 67-60 in overtime. Next game: at Iowa State (13-3) on Wednesday. Ohio State (16-0). Last win: 67-64 over Minnesota, which missed a final shot to tie. Next game: at Michigan (11-5) on Wed...

Arizona lawmakers seek to block funeral protests
By David Schwartz Phoenix | Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:32pm EST Phoenix (Reuters) - Arizona state lawmakers moved swiftly on Tuesday to try to block members of a Kansas-based fundamentalist church from staging anti-gay Protests at the Funerals of the six Shooting Victims in Tucson. By unanimous votes, state lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature passed emergency Legislation to bar such Protests within 300 feet of funeral and burial services for one hour before and after the ceremonies. Violators...

Ban on synthetic marijuana among first bills to be heard in Minnesota Senate
Two legislators will introduce Legislation on Monday to ban synthetic marijuana in Minnesota. Sens. Katie Sieben, DFL-Newport, and Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, will introduce a bill to ban “Spice,” “K2″ and other herbal products containing synthetic cannabinoids. Bans have already been imposed in much of Europe, and more than a dozen American states as well as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency made the substances illegal in December. “The use of this synthetic d...

U.S. Life Expectancy Declines
Newly released data from the Federal Government show a slight decrease in life expectancy for residents of the United States. According to the report, West Virginia is the worst state for mortality, with a death rate there that is almost 1.5 times greater than Hawaii, where people are living the longest. Data gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics showed that life expectancy for most American men was 75.3 years in 2008, down by one-tenth of a year from 2007. Women also saw a dro...

Ohio Company To Create 200 Jobs In Greenville
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- An Ohio company that provides customer support for colleges and universities plans to put a Call Center in Greenville and hire up to 200 workers. Perceptis Inc., of Cleveland, said Tuesday it will spend more than $1 million to set up the call center. The company provides help desk and customer support, assisting Students, faculty and staff with e-mail, admissions, enrollment, benefits, Payroll and Financial Aid. Marketing and Communications Director Shelly Stata said Percepti...