National News - Page 84

Biden Approves $4.28B in Public Service Loan Forgiveness

By Rebecca Carbarllo The Biden administration announced Friday the approval of $4.28 billion in additional student loan relief for 54,900 borrowers across the country who work in public service. This relief brings the total loan forgiveness by the administration to approximately $180 billion for nearly 5 million Americans, according to the Education Department. “Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration made a pledge to America’s teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants that we would fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I’m proud to say that we delivered,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. Some Democrats

Honoring Nikki Giovanni: Poet, Icon, and Bold Black Voice

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By Curtis Bunn The three-hour drive Kwame Alexander had taken countless times from Nikki Giovanni’s home in Christiansburg, Virginia, to Washington, D.C., felt different on Thursday morning. Three days prior, he had stood by Giovanni’s bedside with her family and a handful of close friends as the legendary poet and activist took her last breath. Giovanni died Monday at age 81 of complications from lung cancer. Alexander spent the week with her wife, Virginia C. Fowler, and others helping with funeral arrangements. But in the solitude of his car as he returned home, Alexander revisited the unique bond he and Giovanni

Walmart Sued for Secretly Creating Driver Pay Accounts

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By Alina Selyukh A federal lawsuit alleges that Walmart deceived more than a million delivery drivers by creating deposit accounts without their knowledge or consent, using their Social Security numbers and other personal information. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday accused Walmart and payments platform Branch Messenger of costing delivery drivers over $10 million in fees through these accounts since 2021. Walmart, in turn, accused the agency of filing a rushed lawsuit full of errors. The government’s lawsuit says Walmart told drivers, who deliver its shipments to customers’ homes, that they would lose their jobs if they didn’t use Branch accounts

IRS to Send $1,400 Stimulus Payments to 1M Taxpayers

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Approximately 1 million taxpayers will automatically receive special payments of up to $1,400 from the IRS in the coming weeks. The money will be directly deposited into eligible people’s bank accounts or sent in the mail by a paper check. The IRS said it’s distributing about $2.4 billion to taxpayers who failed to claim a Recovery Rebate Credit on their 2021 tax returns. People who missed one of the COVID stimulus payments or had received less than the full amount were able to claim the credit. But the IRS on Friday said it discovered many eligible taxpayers hadn’t done so.

Biden Commutes 37 Federal Death Sentences to Life Terms

By Deepa Shivaram President Biden used his clemency authority Monday to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row to life without parole, in one of the most significant moves taken against capital punishment in recent presidential history. Biden did not commute the sentences of three men who were involved in cases of terrorism or hate-fueled mass murder, including Robert Bowers, convicted for the 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue; Dylann Roof, convicted for the 2015 mass shooting at a Black church in Charleston, S.C.; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon. In a

Tuskegee Airman Jerry T. Hodges Jr. Dies at Age 99

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On Dec. 19, 2024, Jerry T. Hodges Jr., a revered Tuskegee Airman and civil rights pioneer, passed away at the age of 99. As the last surviving Tuskegee Airman from Arkansas, Hodges leaves a profound legacy that extends far beyond his years in aviation. Born on June 29, 1925, in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in the Arkansas Delta, the challenges of segregation marked Hodges’ early years. In 1943, he graduated as valedictorian from Robert R. Moton High School in Marianna. His passion for aviation soon led him to leave Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) to enlist in the Army Air Corps

Fani Willis Disqualified in Trump Georgia Case: Appeals Court

By Sam Gringlus Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office cannot continue prosecuting the Georgia election interference case involving President-elect Donald Trump, the Georgia Court of Appeals has ruled. However, the court declined to dismiss the case itself. Fulton County prosecutors quickly notified the court that they intend to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. “While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under

Teamsters Lead Historic Strike Against Amazon Nationwide

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By Alina Selyukh Amazon faced a coordinated picket effort as drivers and warehouse workers at multiple locations around the U.S. on Thursday pressed the retail giant to recognize their unions. The campaign launched by the Teamsters union comes during the holiday-shopping rush, though Amazon says it has not affected operations. The union had said workers would strike at seven locations in major delivery hubs: around the cities of New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco and that it had organized the “largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history.” By the afternoon, according to NPR’s reporters and media photos, picketers

TikTok Urges Supreme Court to Block Looming U.S. Ban

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TikTok on Monday asked the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to block the federal law that would ban the popular platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company agreed to sell it. Lawyers for the company and China-based ByteDance urged the justices to step in before the law’s Jan. 19 deadline. A similar plea was filed by content creators who rely on the platform for income and some of TikTok’s more than 170 million users in the U.S. “A modest delay in enforcing the Act will create breathing room for this Court to conduct an orderly review and

Shirley Chisholm Awarded Congressional Gold Medal Honor

By Donna M. Owens Bipartisan legislation to honor the late Shirley Chisholm, the nation’s first Black congresswoman, became law last week, as the 118th Congress winds down with a final flurry of bills. President Joe Biden signed the Shirley Chisholm Congressional Gold Medal Act on Thursday, posthumously honoring Chisholm, who died in 2005, with Congress’s highest award for her distinguished service and achievements. Days prior, Vice President Kamala Harris signed the measure in her role as president of the U.S. Senate, flanked by the bill’s two lead sponsors, Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. “I see no one more deserving

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