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Borrowers are reassessing their budgets as student loan payments resume after pandemic pause

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Millions of Americans must start repaying their federal student loans again in October, with monthly payments averaging hundreds of dollars a month. 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...

Israeli soldiers kill a Palestinian militant in the West Bank, saying he threw explosives

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, the latest death in a monthslong surge of violence in the occupied territory. The Israeli military said that soldiers late Friday shot two Palestinians who hurled Molotov cocktails at an army post near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian authority.The Palestinian Health Ministry said the soldiers killed Muhammad Rumaneh from the hardscrabble Amari refugee camp in Ramallah. The militant group Hamas claimed him as a member. Health officials did not identify Rumaneh’s age, saying that Israeli authorities were withholding his body.Israeli officials have suggested in the past that holding onto the bodies of Palestinians slain in security incidents can deter attacks and prevent the exaltation of assailants at funerals that often draw giant crowds of protesters.In lieu of a funeral, residents of Ramallah called for a general strike Saturday ...

‘I value vulnerability’: JP Saxe contemplates lost love in second studio album

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

TORONTO — You may assume Toronto singer-songwriter JP Saxe is as intensely acquainted with his innermost emotions as anyone could be. He insists you would be wrong.Despite his pandemic-era Top 40 hit “If the World Was Ending” introducing him as a deeply contemplative ballad writer, it only takes a few minutes into a morning chat to reveal Saxe is still on a quest to figure himself out.“People mistake the emotional transparency of my music for me having my emotions readily available,” the 30-year-old says as he sits on a couch in the offices of his record label.“I value vulnerability,” he adds. “But I don’t have that strength yet.”As he talks about shattered romantic relationships and picking himself up again, Saxe describes his sense of being successfully vulnerable as not having to spend months perfecting a song to convey his true emotions. He’s admittedly not there yet in his personal life, he notes.Last year, Saxe split with U.S. songwriter Julia Michaels, whom he met in a studio...

Mandatory security awareness training among changes since arrest of employee: RCMP

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

OTTAWA — The RCMP says it has introduced mandatory security awareness training for employees, one of several changes prompted by the 2019 arrest of a senior civilian member for allegedly leaking classified information.The Mounties say they have also made it easier to report security vulnerabilities, boosted the internal profile of departmental security operations and made strides toward creating a program to reduce the risk of personnel spilling secrets.The moves follow a June 2020 RCMP review report that called for a fundamental shift in the security culture of the national police force, to be led at the highest levels. The report, released last year through the Access to Information Act, made 43 recommendations, including training updates, stricter adherence to federal security screening standards and the possible introduction of random physical searches.The review, led by a retired RCMP superintendent, began after the September 2019 arrest of Cameron Jay Ortis, who was then direc...

Almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh’s people have left, Armenia’s government says

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — An ethnic Armenian exodus has nearly emptied Nagorno-Karabakh of residents since Azerbaijan attacked and ordered the breakaway region’s militants to disarm, the Armenian government said Saturday. Nazeli Baghdasaryan, the press secretary to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, said 100,417 people had arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh, which had a population of around 120,000 before Azerbaijan reclaimed the region in a lightning offensive last week. A total of 21,043 vehicles had crossed the Hakari Bridge, which links Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, since last week, Baghdasaryan said. Some lined up for days because the winding mountain road that is the only route to Armenia became jammed. The departure of more than 80% of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population raises questions about Azerbaijan’s plans for the enclave that was internationally recognized as part of its territory. The region’s separatist ethnic Armenian government said Thursday it would...

It’s back to school for Apple Valley, Eagan, White Bear Lake, Ramsey County, Woodbury school resource officers

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

It’s back to school for some school resource officers whose police departments paused their programs amid confusion over changes to state law.Apple Valley, Eagan, White Bear Lake and Ramsey County sheriff’s office have returned their officers or deputies to schools. Woodbury plans to Monday. The Mounds View police chief is still consulting with their city attorney, but he said it’s looking likely.Those departments say they were reassured by recently updated legal guidance from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the League of Minnesota Cities.But legal information this week from Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty differs from Ellison’s, and “that kind of set us back to where we were a couple of weeks, at least with those chiefs in Hennepin County and potentially some others,” said Jeff Potts, Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association executive director.Since 2015, state law has said school district staff is prohibited from using prone re...

Ask Amy: Parents hesitate being awkward with sons

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

Dear Amy: We have three sons. They are grown, successful, and professional, with equally successful wives.They come to stay with us, use our cars to see their friends, eat what we prepare, and never offer to reciprocate.Should we say something?I think they should offer to take their father and me out for a meal or otherwise reciprocate, but this feels like it would be an awkward conversation!Advice?— Susan in OregonDear Susan: You are the parents of these adults. You’ve given and given and continue to give.Yes, this might be awkward, but please don’t run from awkward. Many powerful insights have been delivered by people brave enough to initiate an awkward conversation.Because your sons don’t seem to have quite completed their childhoods, I suggest that you take this next step as a vital parenting lesson you have yet to impart.Here’s the message: “Guys, it’s time to step up. Now that you’re all adults, we really do expect you to reciprocate when we host you. We are happy to hav...

The indispensable role of insurance-friendly improvements

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

Question: It is time to sell the family duplex. Our mother agrees. She lives in the owner’s unit. The second unit has a tenant.Your column promotes the benefits of presale seller inspections. Does that apply to income properties such as duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes? If so, will that help or hurt the new owner obtain hazard insurance coverage?Answer: Sellers of two- to four-unit apartment buildings benefit from presale seller inspections. Tenant cooperation is required. Also, it is a must to ensure your family’s duplex is insurable.Presale inspections can identify potential issues. Stay diligent. The inspectors and your current insurance person can make recommendations. Obtaining hazard insurance can be problematic. That could hurt your eventual duplex sale.Proactive steps to discourage insurance cancellation policies and keep hazard insurance in place are akin to potential buyers trying to obtain a policy. See a sampling of insurance-friendly improvements:Install an easily acc...

George W. Bush Is Building a Memorial to the War on Terror. He Wants Your Feedback.

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

U.S. soldiers from Bravo Company break down the door of a civilian Iraqi home in order to search the building in Baghdad on Oct. 31, 2005.Photo: David Furst/AFP via Getty ImagesYou may not know that there’s a memorial planned for the global war on terror. This would be understandable, since the global war on terror is like a toy that America was obsessed with for a short period of time and then grew tired of and has forgotten under the bed. To extend the metaphor, this would be the type of toy that continuously explodes and has killed millions of people.President Donald Trump signed legislation approving the memorial back in 2017. The bill created an exception to the Commemorative Works Act of 1986, which requires the passage of at least 10 years after the official end of a war before a memorial to it can be constructed in Washington, D.C. That was obviously unworkable regarding the global war on terror, which is tentatively scheduled to conclude five billion years from now when th...

Hovland and Åberg looks like a long-term Ryder Cup combo for Europe. They’ve already made history

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:43:24 GMT

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy (AP) — Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg has the makings of a Ryder Cup partnership for Europe for the next decade or more.The Scandinavian studs might never have a better session than the one they had on Saturday morning.Their 9-and-7 win over Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka took its place in Ryder Cup history as the biggest margin of victory in an 18-hole match.For posterity, Hovland took a photo of the scoreboard beside the 11th hole at Marco Simone, where the blowout finished after just 2 hours and 20 minutes.He couldn’t quite believe it. Neither could Scheffler, who was seen a few minutes later wiping away tears and being comforted by his wife.The world No. 1 and Koepka, a five-time major champion, were taken down by a guy playing his second Ryder Cup and another — Åberg — who only turned professional four months ago.“Obviously we make a strong team,” said Hovland, the world No. 4. “Regardless, I think we could have met a lot of guys and we wo...