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Gregzs:
A delayed transportation infrastructure project moves forward in the Northeast Corridor

Gregzs:
California High School Is Teaching Teens to Drive 18-Wheelers

At first glance, it may sound odd to hear that high schoolers are learning to drive big rigs, but that’s exactly what’s happening at California’s Patterson High School. As NPR reports, Patterson High recently began offering a students the opportunity to attend a truck driving school as part of its Career Technical Education Program.

To be clear, it’s an elective course, so students who don’t want to go into commercial trucking aren’t expected to participate. But seniors who are interested have the opportunity to learn about the industry itself, proper safety practices, and how to obtain their commercial driver’s license all before they graduate high school.

According to the school’s website, after completing the year-long class, students will need to apply to a partner trucking company for real-world training before they can earn their CDL. It’s not all classroom instruction for the high schoolers, though. They also spend time in a lab setting, including about 20 hours on a simulator where they learn basics such as how to shift, reverse, and drive defensively.

“A lot of [students] who enroll in the course have never considered trucking as a career. Trucking doesn’t have a great reputation and it comes with a lot of misconceptions about what exactly a truck driver is,” said instructor Dave Dein in an interview with NPR. “If we don’t start promoting trucking to our youth, they only can make decisions on the information that they have.”

Speaking to NPR, senior Eduardo Dominguez-Sotelo — one of those aforementioned students who previously had no interest in trucking — said, “It was not an elective I would’ve chosen because I didn’t think that truck driving was for me. In the end, it actually ended up being a good fit for me.”

That doesn’t mean he plans to make trucking his entire career. Instead, Dominguez-Sotelo said he thinks it will be a good way to earn money part-time while studying computer engineering. Even if he only drives over the summer, he can expect to make quite a bit more than he would in food service or retail. Potentially as much as $12,000 according to the school’s website.

https://jalopnik.com/california-high-school-is-teaching-teens-to-drive-18-wh-1847895765

Gregzs:
Navient plans to cancel some student borrowers' loan debt. Who qualifies?


Student borrowers who took out loans that were serviced by Navient, one of the largest student loan collection companies in the country, were cautiously celebrating Thursday's announcement that tens of thousands of them would get their loans canceled under an agreement with more than three dozen states.

The total amount of debt to be canceled, as well as an accompanying restitution agreement, is major — a deal worth about $1.85 billion.

A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general are calling the resolution "a victory for student loan borrowers" in holding Navient accountable, after suing the company for allegedly misleading borrowers with deceptive lending practices and offering risky subprime loans. For its part, Navient is denying it violated consumer protection laws or caused borrowers harm, insisting it is settling the agreement "to avoid the additional burden, expense, time and distraction to prevail in court."

But for the average Navient customer hoping for immediate relief, they may be left disappointed, said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, a consumer advocacy group.

"Yesterday was a very big deal for certain people that have really been forgotten in our national conversation in the student debt crisis," Pierce said. "This will be life-changing for a specific group of those people. But for everyone else, the fight continues."

Who qualifies for debt cancellation?
About 66,000 student borrowers with Navient loans may see their debts forgiven.

These are borrowers with private loans — specifically, subprime student loans taken out through Navient's predecessor company, Sallie Mae, between 2002 and 2014. (Navient was formed in 2014 after Sallie Mae split into two business entities.)

In addition, those borrowers must have had more than seven consecutive months of delinquent payments prior to June 30, 2021.

Student borrowers who don't have subprime loans may still qualify if their private loans were made between 2002 and 2014 and they attended a for-profit school that was later the subject of state or federal law enforcement actions. Those schools include Corinthian Colleges, DeVry University and ITT Educational Services. A full list can be found on a website for the agreement.

Who qualifies for a restitution payment?
About 350,000 federal student loan borrowers whom Navient placed into a long-term forbearance plan would be eligible for a payment — about $260 per borrower.

State attorneys general say those forbearance arrangements had driven student borrowers further into debt because while those borrowers were able to pause or reduce their payments temporarily, their loans still continued to accrue interest.

Certain conditions apply to get the restitution, such as having at least one federal loan that was eligible for income-driven repayment and the borrower not having enrolled in income-driven repayment prior to the forbearance period.​

Borrowers whose federal loans were recently transferred to another servicer, Aidvantage, may still be eligible for restitution.

Which states were involved in the settlement?
Qualifying residents of the following states will be covered under the restitution agreement: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Washington, D.C., is also included.

In addition, borrowers who qualify for debt cancellation must also reside in one of the aforementioned states or in the following states: Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and West Virginia.

What actions should borrowers take?
If a borrower qualifies for either debt cancellation or a restitution payment, they will be contacted directly.

A settlement administrator is expected to send those borrowers a postcard in the mail this spring, and checks would go out in mid-2022.

For those borrowers who are set to get their private loans forgiven, they would be contacted in writing by July 2022.

The agreement among Navient and the states is still awaiting final court approval.

In the meantime, should borrowers keep paying off their loans?
Pierce recommends borrowers with private loans to keep paying or, if they can, consult an attorney about their situation.

Those with federal students loans are still benefiting from a moratorium on such payments through May 1, after the Biden administration extended the pause last month.

But there is permanent good news for those whose debt is forgiven, including under this latest settlement agreement with Navient, Pierce said.

Student loan forgiveness is tax-free as part of the White House's coronavirus stimulus package signed into law last year. Previously, any student loan debt canceled by the government was taxable.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/navient-plans-cancel-student-borrowers-loan-debt-qualifies-rcna12229?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma#anchor-Whoqualifiesforarestitutionpayment

Gregzs:
 :o

Florida woman impregnated with doctor's sperm in artificial insemination awarded $5.25 million


A federal court jury in Vermont on Wednesday awarded a Florida woman $5.25 million from a doctor who used his own sperm to impregnate her during an artificial insemination procedure in 1977.

The federal court jury in Burlington began deliberating on Tuesday and returned the verdict on Wednesday.

The verdict form filed in federal court in Burlington said the jury awarded plaintiff Cheryl Rousseau $250,000 in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages from Dr. John Coates III.

Rousseau's attorney Celeste Laramie said in an email Wednesday after the verdict was announced, the jury awarded the amount they had requested and the jurors found Coates' behavior “to be wrongful and offensive."

“The jury through its punitive damages verdict sent a message to any physicians who might think about lying to their patients or using their own semen to inseminate their patients," she said. "Such behavior will have serious consequences.”

Laramie said Rousseau's husband, Peter, was initially a party to the lawsuit, but the judge ultimately found that Peter Rousseau had failed to prove he had suffered damages. His claims did not go to the jury for consideration.

Coates' attorney did not say if they planned to appeal the verdict.

“We were surprised and disappointed with the verdict," Defense attorney Peter Joslin said in an email.

Last month, the Vermont Medical Practice Board permanently revoked Coates' medical license. Coates, who practiced obstetrics and gynecology in the central Vermont area in the 1970s, is now retired.

Coates is also facing a second, similar lawsuit filed last year that remains pending in U.S. District Court in Vermont.

The original complaint says Coates agreed to inseminate Cheryl Rousseau with donor material from an unnamed medical student, who resembled Rousseau’s husband and had characteristics that she required.

Rousseau had wanted a child with her husband but he had a vasectomy that could not be reversed, according to the complaint.

Coates performed the artificial insemination but inserted his own genetic material, the lawsuit said.

The Rousseau lawsuit said they discovered what had happened when their now-grown daughter sought information about her biological father through DNA testing. The daughter determined Coates was her father, according to the lawsuit.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/03/31/florida-woman-impregnated-doctor-sperm/7233106001/?fbclid=IwAR2_9pFu7XhiI5pQYQiSb8EhjFyTzmoS5sj9jVLq5CHE8hvdSm0oQMLpXR4

Gregzs:
‘Just to Stop Black People from Getting the Justice’: An Estate Attorney Attempted to Block Transfer of Stolen Land Back to Bruce Beach Family Heirs; A Judge Said Not So Fast


A Black California family is on track to reclaim their beachfront property stolen from them by the government with racist motivations. Descendants of Charles and Willa Bruce are breathing a sigh of relief after a recent court ruling helped save land that rightfully belongs to them from slipping out of their hands.

“There’s only four living heirs left,” said Bruce family spokesman, Chief Duane Yellow Feather Shepard. Widely known as ‘Bruce Beach,’ is a three-acre beachfront property located on Manhattan Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles County, California.

Last October when Governor, Gavin Newsom, signed Senate Bill 796 into law, it cleared the way for the state to return stolen land to descendants of Charles and Willa Bruce.

At the time, the family thought they were on the verge of taking back their land, until Palos Verdes Estates Attorney, Joseph Ryan filed a lawsuit trying to block the land transfer just a few weeks after the legislation was signed.

“We knew there would be folks who didn’t want to see the Bruces get this property back and Mr. Ryan proved us right,” said George Fatheree, attorney representing the Bruce family in its land reclamation fight.   

Shepard feels the lawsuit field by Ryan was racially motivated.

“Yes, it was racially motivated, he had no other reason to do it, there wasn’t any money out of his pocket, he wasn’t going to get any money from it, it was just to stop Black people from getting the justice they deserve,” Shepard said.

Ryan did not return Atlanta Black Star’s calls for comment, but claimed in his suit, transferring the land over to the Bruce family did not serve a public purpose and it would be unconstitutional. The judge disagreed.

“What the law says is the government can transfer its property, transfer its funds or use its resources in a way that serves a public interest,” Fatheree said of the judge’s decision. He went on to say the land transfer would be of public interest because of how it was stolen in the first place.

“Doing so does serve a public purpose and that public purpose is addressing past racial discrimination by the government,” he said.

Fatheree highlighted a portion of Judge Mitchell Beckloff’s comments on the case by saying, “Righting a government wrong perpetrated in breach of our core and fundamental constitutional principles works to strengthen governmental integrity, represents accountability in government and works to eliminate structural racism and bias. The government’s act of rectifying a prior egregious wrong based on racism fosters trust and respect in government.” 

Charles and Willa Bruce bought their beachfront property in 1912 for a little more than $1,200. The couple built a business on their beachfront property which served as a place of refuge for African-Americans seeking beach access without fear of racism and harassment, but the Ku Klux Klan and other racists at the time routinely terrorized Black patrons and the Bruce family.

Shepard says the city of Manhattan Beach seized the Bruce property in 1924 through eminent domain, claiming they would turn it into a park, and despite years of fighting to keep their land, by 1929 the Bruce family only received $14,000 for their property once it was taken. The couple died just a few years later.

Shepard is grateful Senate Bill 796 was signed into law. He says without it the family could have lost their 100-year fight to reclaim the land amid attorney Ryan’s lawsuit.

“He mounted a serious opposition to us getting that land and he brought up the right statutes had it not been for the legislation we got passed, that would have stopped the transfer of that land,” Shepard said.

Now with the latest hurdle crossed, the Bruce family hopes they can focus their attention on what to do with the land. “The plan for the land is to allow the county to keep their lifeguard training stations there for at least 30 years and pay us at least fair market value rent,” Shepard said.

Although the Bruce family has a plan in place to move forward, they hope Los Angeles County moves quickly with the land transfer before someone else upset the wrongs of a racist past are being corrected presents another roadblock.

“We’re nervous someone else may pick up and file a suit so there’s a lot going on so there’s good reason for us to want this expedited,” Shepard said nervously of any future lawsuits possibly preventing the Bruce family from land ownership.

Shepard says the direct descendants with rights to the land are the grandsons of Charles and Willa Bruce and one of the grandsons’ sons, making up the four direct living heirs.

https://atlantablackstar.com/2022/05/02/just-to-stop-black-people-from-getting-the-justice-an-estate-attorney-attempted-to-block-transfer-of-stolen-land-back-to-bruce-beach-family-heirs-a-judge-said-not-so-fast/

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