Student loan forgiveness: President Biden announced the federal government would forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for other borrowers. Biden also announced a revised plan for what is known as income-driven repayment (IDR), cutting the amount borrowers have to contribute each month from 10% of their discretionary income to 5%. Student loan forgiveness is politically popular -- but not all Democrats are on board.
Trump’s PAC money: The Save America PAC, former President Trump's largest PAC, has raised tens of millions of dollars. But campaign finance rules say that money can't be used for a campaign if Trump decides to run in 2024.
Senate races to watch: Four months ago — the last time we wrote about the top 10 Senate seats most likely to change hands in the 2022 midterms — Republicans were growing confident they would win the chamber. But a lot has changed since then. Here’s our new look at the 10 Senate races to watch in November.
COVID and prisons: More than 11,000 inmates have been released from federal prison since spring 2020, when law enforcement began prioritizing home confinement to fight the spread of COVID-19. Now, advocates say people are being sent back with little or no warning for drug use, drinking alcohol or “technical violations” like failing to answer a call from a probation officer. |
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The Shot: A back-to-school lunch bill |
As kids head back to school, many parents are preparing to lose free meals that had been provided during the pandemic just as families are feeling the strain of high food, gas, housing and utility costs.
During the pandemic, schools were able to provide meals for free to kids regardless of income as a part of COVID-19 assistance passed by Congress to reduce food insecurity. This meant that nationally, an estimated 10 million kids who would have previously paid for school meals were able to get them free. But Congress did not agree to provide universal free lunches for this school year.
Depending on where families live, lunchtime can cost parents upwards of $5 per school meal.
"We are not on the edge, but our grocery budget could not afford $7.50 a day [for her kids' school lunches] five days a week," said Vanessa Gamma, a mother of three attending Mountain View. "It would just be not something that even not on the edge we could afford." Click here for more from NPR's Ximena Bustillo. |
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