The View From The Ground: A Federal Prison Crisis Federal prison camps are often portrayed as the safest and easiest to manage within theFederal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Most inmates housed in these facilities are minimum security, pose little risk of violence, and have a low likelihood of reoffending. With fewer correctional officers than higher-security prisons and minimal threats of violence, these camps should be among the most manageable institutions in the system. However, prison camps are among the most expensive to operate (aside from high-security prisons), and both BOP officials and inmates report growing challenges in managing their populations.…

PSLF Executive Order And Student Loan Forgiveness Freeze Wreak Havoc On Student Loan Borrowers Ashley Morgan did everything right. She was among the first in her family to attend college, earning a debate scholarship to cover most of her undergraduate tuition at Baylor University. She worked multiple jobs in graduate school and took on student loans for law school, confident that her clear, well-paying career path would allow her to manage the debt. She wasn’t reckless—she followed the system, relied on the promises of income-driven repayment plans and student loan forgiveness, and planned for the long term. Yet now, still…

CEO William Lansing has burnished the credit score’s dominance and pushed through price hikes, making a bundle for long-term shareholders and himself an almost-billionaire. By Stephen Pastis, Forbes Staff In January 2012, the revenue, profit, stock price and reputation of credit scoring company FICO still hadn’t recovered from the hit they all took during the housing bust and financial crisis of 2007 and 2008. That’s when the board abruptly replaced the company’s chief executive, a Ph.D. econometrician, with one of their own members: William Lansing, a lawyer who had spent nearly a decade as a McKinsey consultant, done stints in…

According to NBC News, there were 88,000 college students in Gaza when the war broke out in October 2023. The students’ lives were upended. Shyama was one of those students. Islamic University of Gaza Campus Destroyed Shyama was a third-year student at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), an internationally recognized institution with 18,000 students. Her home, near the occupied border, was bombed at the start of the war and she and her family were forced to evacuate; Shyama fled with a single bag containing her computer and a change of clothes. Over the next several months, she and her…

“Why didn’t they teach this in school?” is a common thought when it comes to filing personal income taxes. Taxes are often one of the most complex and least understood aspects of personal finance. For those recently divorced, the first year of filing separately from your former spouse can feel especially daunting. Despite the stress, with each passing year filing taxes will become much easier. To help you navigate this, we have compiled answers to some of the most frequently asked questions to ensure you start your tax season on the right foot. Who Will Prepare My Return? Hiring a…

By stunningly lopsided votes (Senate 32-1-2, House 70-0-0), the Idaho legislature has approved the passage of the Idaho Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, known as “UPEPA”, into law. The Idaho UPEPA now goes to Governor Brad Little for signing but will not go into effect until January 1, 2026. This now makes ten states that have adopted the UPEPA as their Anti-SLAPP statute (or 11 if one counts Oregon as some do). Thus, the UPEPA now represents almost one-third of all the Anti-SLAPP statutes in the United States. Looking at the text of the legislation, which is found as Idaho…

Imposter scams have long been among the most lucrative for scammers. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost $2.7 to imposter scams second only to investment scams in 2023. While there are many variations of this scam, the most common variations have involved scammers calling, texting or emailing their victims posing as a trusted government agency, such as the FBI, IRS, US Postal Service, FTC or the Social Security Administration. Other times the scammers will pose as a company with which we commonly do business such as Amazon or Netflix. The scammer then, under a wide variety of pretenses,…

Trump Signs PSLF Executive Order President Donald Trump signed a new executive order to reshape the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, known as PSLF, by excluding certain borrowers. The order, signed March 7, directs the Department of Education to bar federal student loan relief for public-service workers employed at organizations deemed to have “a substantial illegal purpose.” In the order’s words, “Individuals employed by organizations whose activities have a substantial illegal purpose shall not be eligible for public service loan forgiveness.” This marks a dramatic shift in PSLF’s scope – effectively targeting specific groups of nonprofit and public-sector employees under…

President Trump and Elon Musk aim to slash the IRS budget and workforce. Here’s a cost effective service that should survive. By Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes Staff The middle-aged woman seated across from me in Kotzebue, Alaska in late February couldn’t conceal her delight. Last year, she’d spent nearly $2,000 to have her simple 1040 tax return prepared–money that covered a 547-mile flight to Anchorage, a $500 commercial tax prep fee and a hotel room for a couple nights as she waited to see if the preparer had questions. Kotzebue, population 3,000 (with 70% of residents Native Americans), has no…

Many people watching the economy — not just economists but also traders and business owners of all sizes — are getting nervous. Job hires were below expectations for the second month in a row and layoffs have taken a big jump. There are growing signs that labor market dynamics, which helped form the foundation of an expected soft landing of the economy after the high inflation bout, may now be on shaky ground. How The Labor Market Interacts With The Economy The labor market’s strength has been critical to the economic recovery. The Federal Reserve’s dual mandate is to achieve…