Gilead
Donald Trump
Finances
Fig. 1. Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas, undated image credited to https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/ [bad link], CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
[Allen] Weisselberg is expected to go to the Rikers Island city jail complex to serve about 100 days of his [five-month] sentence on the expectation he will be credited for good behavior and released in April, according to [defense lawyer Nicholas Gravante, Jr.]. His age or health conditions could also mean he will be placed in the medical ward, or he could be segregated from the general population of inmates because of his notoriety. . . .
The Trump Organization faces fines and penalties of up to $1.6 million. The company will be sentenced Friday [January 13] for scheme to defraud, conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records.[1]
Shayna Jacobs, “Trump financial officer Allen Weisselberg sentenced to five months in jail,” Washington Post, January 10, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/10/trump-financial-weisselberg-prison-sentence/
Speaker of the House of Representatives, 2023
Fig. 1. Photograph credited to Office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, date inconsistent with title but given as November 9, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Natalie Andrews, “What’s in Kevin McCarthy’s Deal With Conservatives,” Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-in-kevin-mccarthys-deal-with-conservatives-11673188873
David Morgan and Moira Warburton, “U.S. House adopts rules sought by hardliners to control McCarthy,” Reuters, January 9, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-vote-rules-that-will-constrain-mccarthys-power-2023-01-09/
Student loans
Fig. 1. Unattributed and undated image via James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,[2] fair use.
To prevent student-debt balances from ballooning in the future, the administration plans to halve, to 5% from 10%, the amount of discretionary income borrowers must pay each month on their undergraduate loans if they are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan. Borrowers with incomes below 225% of the federal poverty line wouldn’t have to make monthly payments on their loans. The administration estimated that that level corresponds to an individual income of less than roughly $30,600 annually or any borrower in a family of four who makes less than about $62,400 a year.
Borrower loan balances won’t grow as long as they make their monthly payments, even if a low-income borrower’s monthly requirement is set at $0. The change would also forgive loan balances for people enrolled in income-based plans after 10 years of payments, down from 20 under many of the current options, for borrowers whose original loan balances were $12,000 or less.[3]
Gabriel T. Rubin, “Biden Administration Plans to Ease Rules for Income-Based Student-Loan Forgiveness,” Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-eases-rules-for-income-based-student-loan-forgiveness-11673322971
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Unauthorized violence
Fig. 1. “Ed Gainey poses with CeaseFirePA during the 2020 Women’s March in Downtown Pittsburgh.” Photograph by Megan Gloeckler, undated, via Pittsburgh City Paper,[4] fair use.
Megan Guza, “2 involved in Route 51 police chase charged with homicide in Carrick shooting death,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 10, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/10/pittsburgh-route-51-police-pursuit-chase-carrick-homicide-charges/stories/202301100076
- [1]Shayna Jacobs, “Trump financial officer Allen Weisselberg sentenced to five months in jail,” Washington Post, January 10, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/10/trump-financial-weisselberg-prison-sentence/↩
- [2]Richard K. Vedder, “Eliminate or Radically Restructure Federal Student Loans,” James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, September 16, 2020, https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/09/eliminate-or-radically-restructure-federal-student-loans/↩
- [3]Gabriel T. Rubin, “Biden Administration Plans to Ease Rules for Income-Based Student-Loan Forgiveness,” Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-eases-rules-for-income-based-student-loan-forgiveness-11673322971↩
- [4]Charlie Wolfson, “Neighborhood groups try to curb shootings as Pittsburgh’s mayoral campaign puts political focus on gun violence,” Pittsburgh City Paper, October 20, 2021, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/neighborhood-groups-try-to-curb-shootings-as-pittsburghs-mayoral-campaign-puts-political-focus-on-gun-violence/Content?oid=20401296↩