The Lawsuit Machine Going After Student Debtors

The Lawsuit Machine Going After Student DebtorsIn 2003, Adam Beverly borrowed $30,000 from Bank One, now owned by JPMorgan Chase, to help cover the cost of attending Ohio State University. He never graduated. Three years later he found himself being sued by National Collegiate Student Loan Trust, which claimed he owed more than $45,000 with interest and penalties.

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The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015

The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactiveThe Counted is a special Guardian project to record all people killed by police in the United States this year. We have gathered information from official databases and crowdsourced counts to create a full and detailed view of killings by law enforcement agents in the US.

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Review of Sam Harris’ Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

Review of Sam Harris’ Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion(reprinted in the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies, June 2, 2015) I recently finished Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion, and found it a welcome addition to the literature on mindfulness. It also adds to the growing literature that tries to find alternatives to the antiquated religions which are slowly losing their appeal for millions of people.

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‘Stop illegal NSA spying’: Rand Paul vows to let USA Patriot Act expire

‘Stop illegal NSA spying’: Rand Paul vows to let USA Patriot Act expireThe Republican Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul has announced a crusade against the Patriot Act, promising he will delay Sunday’s debate and force the expiration of controversial provisions that allow bulk spying on US citizens. “I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program,” the Senator from Kentucky wrote in a statement on his presidential campaign website.

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‘Total hero:’ Apple co-founder says Snowden gave up his life to reveal NSA surveillance

‘Total hero:’ Apple co-founder says Snowden gave up his life to reveal NSA surveillanceApple co-founder Steve Wozniak gushed over former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, calling him a “total hero” and saying he “gave up his life” to reveal the agency’s surveillance programs. In a wide ranging interview with Arabian Business, Wozniak spoke about surveillance, hacking, privacy and security, in addition to Snowden.

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Clinton Foundation hit with racketeering lawsuit

Clinton Foundation hit with racketeering lawsuitBill and Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation have been hit with a racketeering lawsuit in Florida court. The lawsuit, filed by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, includes a legal request to have the Florida judge seize the private server on which Hillary Clinton and her aides hosted their emails while she served as secretary of state.

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Seeding campaigns to remake state supreme courts

Seeding campaigns to remake state supreme courtsEureka entrepreneur Robin Arkley II helped seed organizations that fund efforts to elect conservative supreme court justices across the country. Such groups are turning their attention to elect Republican state attorneys general. Judicial Crisis Network likely will become active if President Baracl Obama has more U.S. Supreme Court vacancies.

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250+ Tech Companies and Digital Rights Groups: TPP Could Criminalize Journalism and Whistleblowing

250+ Tech Companies and Digital Rights Groups: TPP Could Criminalize Journalism and WhistleblowingHundreds of tech companies and digital rights groups – including Imgur, DreamHost, Namecheap, AVG, Mediafire, Internet Archive, BoingBoing, Piwik, Private Internet Access, and more than 200 others – signed a letter to Congress today stating: Criminalizing Journalism and Whistleblowing: TPP’s trade secrets provisions could make it a crime for people to reveal corporate wrongdoing “through a computer system.”

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Robert Reich Demolishes Myth that College Is Gateway to the Middle Class

Robert Reich Demolishes Myth that College Is Gateway to the Middle ClassI know a high school senior who’s so worried about whether she’ll be accepted at the college of her choice she can’t sleep. The parent of another senior tells me he stands at the mailbox for an hour every day waiting for a hoped-for acceptance letter to arrive. Parents are also uptight.

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Trade and Trust

Trade and TrustOne of the Obama administration’s underrated virtues is its intellectual honesty. Yes, Republicans see deception and sinister ulterior motives everywhere, but they’re just projecting. The truth is that, in the policy areas I follow, this White House has been remarkably clear and straightforward about what it’s doing and why.

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Why We Have an Oversupply of Almost Everything (Oil, labor, capital, etc.)

Why We Have an Oversupply of Almost Everything (Oil, labor, capital, etc.)The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article called, Glut of Capital and Labor Challenge Policy Makers: Global oversupply extends beyond commodities, elevating deflation risk. To me, this is a very serious issue, quite likely signaling that we are reaching what has been called Limits to Growth, a situation modeled in 1972 in a book…

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It’s Not My Bill, Woman Sues Debt Collector Wins $83 Million Read

It’s Not My Bill, Woman Sues Debt Collector Wins $83 MillionBusiness A Missouri woman won $83 million in a lawsuit against a debt collector who tried to sue her for a credit card bill that wasn’t hers. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, acted maliciously when it tried to squeeze $1,000 from Maria Guadalupe Mejia when the debt actually belonged to a man in another state with a similar sounding name, a jury found.

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US Bank, Bank of America win dismissal of mortgage claims

US Bank, Bank of America win dismissal of mortgage claimsThe dismissals came in three decisions late Monday by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan. In the first, Forrest rejected an attempt by funds from BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), Allianz SE’s (ALVG.DE) Pacific Investment Management Co and TIAA-CREF to hold US Bancorp liable for alleged defects in 843 RMBS trusts collateralized by $778.6 billion of loans, causing tens of billions of dollars of losses.

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Defective Mortgage Loans Cost Nomura and RBS US$806 million

Defective Mortgage Loans Cost Nomura and RBS US$806 millionAs the US District Judge, Denise Cote pronounced, “The magnitude of falsity, conservatively measured, is enormous”, the Nomura Holdings Inc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc were ordered to jointly pay US$806m to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for sale of defective residential mortgage-backed securities.

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​Psychiatric drugs kill 500k+ Western adults annually, few positive benefits

​Psychiatric drugs kill 500k+ Western adults annually, few positive benefits – leading scientistPsychiatric drugs lead to the deaths of over 500,000 people aged 65 and over annually in the West, a Danish scientist says. He warns the benefits of these drugs are “minimal,” and have been vastly overstated. Research director at Denmark’s Nordic Cochrane Centre, Professor Peter Gøtzsche, says the use of most antidepressants and dementia drugs could be halted without inflicting harm on patients.

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L.A.’s mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Bank of America tossed

L.A.’s mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Bank of America tossed – MyNewsLA.comA federal judge rejected a mortgage discrimination lawsuit brought by the city of Los Angeles against Bank of America, according to a ruling obtained Friday. In a written decision, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson determined that the municipality could not sue under the U.S.

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