| Contractor loses La. scholarship account data dating back to 1998
BATON ROUGE, La. -- A Boston-based contractor hired to store and safeguard state scholarship and college savings account data lost most of those records _ including bank account numbers and student and parent Social Security numbers _ during a move, officials say. "We certainly don't want to create any panic. But people should be aware and take the necessary steps," said Melanie Amrhein, executive director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance. "This is backup data off of a mainframe that contains sensitive personal information." Special equipment and software and "sophisticated computer skills" would be needed to get the compressed records from the TOPS scholarship program, START Saving Program, and Free Application for Federal Student Aid, according to a notice posted on the Internet.
A TV Ad For Obama
The opening salvo in the presidential air wars is a 30-second spot on health care to be broadcast in the Hartford-New Haven market and on cable systems in Fairfield County, said David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager.
Plouffe declined to say if the campaign will invest in expensive television time in New York, the home turf of Hillary Rodham Clinton. But he said they will compete in New York, even if polls show they cannot win.
The winner-take-all rules of Republican primaries force GOP candidates to carefully target their resources, but the Democratic primaries are proportional races.
"You can aggregate delegates even in someone's backyard, like Sen. Clinton's," Plouffe said.
Plouffe called the Connecticut buy "substantial," but declined to give specifics.
UVa Aid Policy Gets a Facelift
A year ago, the University of Virginia joined the growing list of selective institutions altering their financial aid policies to make them friendlier to students from low-income families. Now it has decided that it needs to do even more, and do it sooner, than originally planned. .
Ottawa fires nuclear safety commission head
The federal government has fired the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, days after she publicly accused Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn of interfering with the independence of the arm's-length watchdog. The former head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Linda Keen, says she will appear at a parliamentary committee about the reactor closure on Wednesday.(CBC) "The president was aware of the importance of maintaining Canada's and the world's supply of medical isotopes," said the statement from Lunn's office. "However, given the growing crisis, she did not demonstrate the leadership expected of the president under the existing legislative provisions of the Nuclear Safety and Control Act to put the commission in a position to address the situation in a timely fashion." Lunn and Keen have been at odds since the 50-year-old Chalk River nuclear reactor was shut down in November, prompting a worldwide shortage of medical isotopes.
50,000 to file IT returns again
Setting a record of sorts, traffic cops challaned nearly 1,600 violators in the Feroze Gandhi market here in the last one month. As per rough estimates, total revenue generated was around Rs 16 lakhs. The market is one of the busiest in the city, with a large number of business houses, commercial offices, banks and finance companies located here. Police sources said the market had recently become quite sensitive due to its proximity to the mini-secretariat, police headquarters and the CIA office. Vehicles parked dangerously close to the secretariat wall were a major threat, so vigil in the area was increased. SI Mukesh Kumar got the distinction of challaning nearly 1,000 vehicles. SSP R.K. Jaiswal, who had specially ordered increased monitoring in the market, has awarded him with a commendation certificate given by IG Zonal.
Why Do Minorities Receive More Subprime Mortgages? Can You Say ...
A new Center for Responsible Lending study shoots holes in industry rationale that bad credit histories of African-Americans and Latinos account for disproportionate subprime mortgages. SocialFunds.com -- In September 2005, the Fed released year 2004 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data revealing significant disparities between what white borrowers and what African-American and Latino borrowers pay for subprime mortgages. The subprime lending industry dismissed charges of racism, suggesting that African-Americans' and Latinos' shakier credit histories and lower down payments (among other potential explanations) justified the higher rates charged. A recent study by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), an anti-predatory lending research nonprofit affiliated with community development financial institution (CDFI) Self-Help, controls for these variables and still finds significant disparities, lending credence to charges of racism.
EMS flails against being gobbled up by Collier fire districts
Marco, Naples and EMS are not included in the above because as divisions of larger governments, all pass-throughs, subsidies and loans from other department funds could not accurately be accounted for. As Ave Maria University in eastern Collier, the Immokalee Fire Department will be responsible, in part, for providing fire-rescue service to the new town. Also, as residential and commercial development continues along U.S. 41 East — beyond the turnoff to Goodland — East Naples, Golden Gate and Ochopee will have to provide fire and rescue service. Golden Gate and Ochopee firefighters do not have ALS divisions. .
Candidates work the strip for voter jackpot
On Friday, the young mother answered the door in her working-class neighborhood and was startled to find the speaker of the California Assembly, Fabian Nez, with a horde of reporters in his wake. The powerful Democratic Latino leader was clutching an "America con Hillary" bumper sticker and a lawn sign, working the city's vast Latino neighborhoods on behalf of the campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. "Hillary has experience," he told her earnestly in Spanish. "She can help us ... on issues like immigration reform." Nez said he understood that the powerful Culinary Workers Union, to which many Latinos such as Reyes belong, had endorsed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. But "people are saying they want to vote for who we think is best," he said.
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