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Student loan payments resume after COVID-era pause, forcing borrowers to tighten belts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

Millions of Americans must start repaying their federal student loans again in October, with monthly payments averaging hundreds of dollars. To get ready, borrowers are cutting expenses, taking on additional work, and looking for options to reduce their monthly payments.Megan McClelland, 38, said she has started asking for October shifts with a catering company and a winery to help supplement her income.McClelland’s main job is as a counselor at Petaluma High School in California. During the more than three years payments were suspended because of the pandemic, she paid off her car loan and was able to save for the first time. She’ll put the $235 she was spending on her car payment toward her student loan, but that still leaves another $270 or so she’ll have to reallocate or earn.“It had been a huge relief the past few years to not have that financial burden,” she said. “In the next months, I’m looking to see where I can scale back in my budget. Probably less...

United Airlines pilots approve costliest US contract, worth $10B+

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

United Airlines Holdings Inc. pilots approved a new four-year contract that is the costliest ever at a U.S. carrier, providing a cumulative increase in total compensation of as much as 40.2% over the life of the agreement.The contract, with $10.2 billion in value over the four-year term, leaves Southwest Airlines Co. alone among the four biggest U.S. carriers without a new post-pandemic pilot accord. The United agreement was approved by 82% of those voting, the Air Line Pilots Association said Friday. More than 97% of all United aviators cast ballots.United pilots join counterparts at Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. in using an industrywide shortage of aviators as leverage to secure their first post-pandemic contracts with not only notable pay raises, but multiple changes to improve scheduling and work-life balance. The new United contract includes $1.7 billion in new policies that affect quality of life, such as increased profit sharing and improved pay during...

Department of Justice: IRS contractor charged with leaking tax returns of Trump

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service was charged Friday with leaking tax information to news outlets about thousands of the country’s wealthiest people.Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., is accused of stealing the tax return information and giving it to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020, the Justice Department said in a statement. Littlejohn declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press, which also left a message for his attorney, Lisa Manning.Both organizations published numerous articles about the tax information, some of which dated back more than 15 years, charging documents state.The outlets are not named in charging documents, but the description and time frame align with stories about former President Donald Trump’s tax returns in The New York Times and reporting about wealthy Americans’ taxes in the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.The 2020 New York Times report found Trump paid $750...

Ticker: Apple says it will fix the overly hot iPhone 15

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

Apple is blaming a software bug and other issues tied to popular apps such as Instagram and Uber for causing its recently released iPhone 15 models to heat up and spark complaints about becoming too hot to handle.The Cupertino, California, company said Saturday that it is working on an update to the iOS17 system that powers the iPhone 15 lineup to prevent the devices from becoming uncomfortably hot. In a short statement provided to The Associated Press, the company didn’t specify the timeline for its software fix. Apple says it’s also working with the apps that have been causing problems, saying Instagram modified its app for iPhones this week.Wall Street wraps its miserable September with another weak finishWall Street closed out its worst month of the year with more losses. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% Friday after an earlier gain withered, and the majority of stocks within the index sank. The Dow fell 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite edged higher by 0.1%. Solid gains fo...

California Instacart workers to begin receiving restitution payments

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KSWB) -- Did you work for Instacart in California between Sept. 13, 2015 and Dec. 15, 2020? If so, you may soon receive a restitution payment.The money stems from a $46.5 million settlement from a lawsuit filed against the giant grocery delivery app back in 2019. The suit was negotiated by San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliot, who argued that the multi-billion-dollar company failed to pay its shoppers and drivers what they were owed. Top 8 San Diego area suburbs for first-time homeowners: study The suit alleged that the San Francisco-based company misclassified its workers as independent contractors when they should have been considered employees.Now, millions of dollars in Instacart funds are ready to be distributed. The attorney's office announced last week that digital payments are expected to begin immediately.Around 125,000 people are eligible for these restitution payments.“We fought hard to ensure California’s Instacart workers are paid what they are owed,...

Rep. Jamaal Bowman triggered a fire alarm in a House office building amid voting on a funding bill

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman acknowledged triggering a fire alarm Saturday in one of the U.S. Capitol office buildings as lawmakers scrambled to pass a bill to fund the government before the midnight shutdown deadline. The fire alarm sounded out around noon in the Cannon House Office Building and prompted a building-wide evacuation at a time when the House was in session and staffers were working in the building.The GOP-controlled House Administration Committee, which oversees issues pertaining to the Capitol complex, posted a picture of a person pulling the fire alarm who appeared to be Bowman. The committee posted the picture on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, and said the incident was under investigation.A spokesperson for the New York lawmaker said in a statement to The Associated Press that the lawmaker did not intend to trigger a building-wide alarm as he was rushing to make it to the House floor. “The Congressman regrets any confusion,” the statem...

The police chief who led a raid of a small Kansas newspaper has been suspended

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

The police chief who led a highly criticized raid of a small Kansas newspaper has been suspended, the mayor confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday. Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield in a text said he suspended Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday. He declined to discuss his decision further and did not say whether Cody was still being paid.Voice messages and emails from the AP seeking comment from Cody’s lawyers were not immediately returned Saturday. The Aug. 11 searches of the Marion County Record’s office and the homes of its publisher and a City Council member have been sharply criticized, putting Marion at the center of a debate over the press protections offered by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Cody’s suspension is a reversal for the mayor, who previously said he would wait for results from a state police investigation before taking action. Vice-Mayor Ruth Herbel, whose home was also raided Aug. 11, praised Cody’s suspension as “the best thing that c...

North Macedonia national park’s rising bear population poses a threat to residents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — A rising bear population is posing a threat to people in an area in western North Macedonia, where bear break-ins are increasingly common. A dozen cases this year of bears attempting to break into houses in search of food have been reported by fearful villagers living in the mountainous area of the Mavrovo National Park, the country’s largest. Some villagers have demanded that authorities take urgent measures for their protection.The head of the national Crises Management Center, Stojance Angelov, told The Associated Press on Saturday that in the last five years the population of brown bears in the national park has doubled.“There are between 160 and 180 brown bears in Mavrovo National Park,” Angelov said. “Experts indicate that there should be up to 70 bears in this region, and their number now has doubled.”Angelov said that according to the residents of the village of Zirovnica, there are about 30 bears that feed in the area and oft...

Jimmy Carter admirers across generations celebrate the former president’s 99th birthday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — J. Edgar Hoover became the federal government’s top cop. Ellis Island closed as a portal for immigrants to the United States. France hosted the first Winter Olympics. And a baby in rural Georgia became the first future American president born in a hospital.The year was 1924, and that tiny fellow in Plains was James Earl Carter Jr., known as “Jimmy” from the start.The 39th president was celebrated Saturday at his presidential library and museum ahead of his 99th birthday on Sunday. The party was moved up a day to ensure it wouldn’t be canceled by a potential federal government shutdown that Congress was working feverishly Saturday to avoid. “I think of him as a man who did so much to help low-income people and minorities–and I was both growing up,” said Marcia Rose, who brought her grandchildren from suburban Marietta to the Carter Presidential Center near downtown Atlanta.A native of Buffalo, New York, Rose said she is not old enough to have voted for Carter, a ...

What would a government shutdown mean if Congress can’t reach a late-minute deal Saturday?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a midnight deadline approaching, Congress was working to avert a government shutdown that would disrupt many services, squeeze federal employees and roil politics.The House on Saturday approved a 45-day funding bill to keep federal agencies open as Speaker Kevin McCarthy dropped demands for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic votes for passage to send the package to the Senate.House Republicans, fueled by hard-right demands to cut spending, had been forcing a confrontation over federal spending.In a shutdown, some government entities would be exempt — Social Security checks, for example, would still go out — and other functions would be severely curtailed. Federal agencies would cease all actions deemed nonessential, and many of the federal government’s roughly 2 million employees, as well as 2 million active-duty military troops and reservists, would not receive paychecks.A look at what could happen in the event of a shutdown Sunday.WHAT IS A GOVERNM...