The BOP’s challenges have only intensified since Trump’s inauguration, which coincided with the resignation of Director Colette Peters. In the absence of permanent leadership, Acting Director William Lathrop has issued a flurry of directives to address sweeping policy shifts, including a mandatory return to in-office work, a hiring freeze, and the identification of probationary employees and those on administrative leave. These measures have left many BOP staff grappling with uncertainty. The deferred resignation offer has added to this turmoil. Employees were instructed to simply type “Resign” in reply to the email if they wished to accept the offer, with little…

Twenty-two years before he bet his company on bitcoin, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor sat down for a long interview with Forbes during which he invoked Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Churchill, Caesar and Lincoln. At that point, in 1998, the company was a Wall Street darling, thanks to its dot-com-era software suite. MicroStrategy was doing just $100 million in sales, but Saylor envisioned a day when its technology would be used by “everybody on the planet.” He was 33 and couldn’t see the coming March 2020 crash or that MicroStrategy stock would languish for two decades. From Forbes, September 7,…

The Federal government issued an executive order to pause all payments of federal assistance as of 5:00 January 28th excluding Social Security, Medicare and assistance provided directly to individuals. Clarification came that the pause would not affect student Pell grants but great confusion continued among colleges and universities as to what the impact of the pause would be. Fortunately, just before the pause was to go into effect, a judge ordered the pause paused until Feb. 3rd. As currently understood, the pause will stop all federal payments to colleges and universities for research grants, construction projects and other programs that…

GOP Tax Proposal Threatens More than Just Student Loan Foregiveness As part of a sweeping effort to offset the cost of a massive tax cut and immigration package, House Republicans are floating several controversial proposals to reshape the tax code. Among the options reportedly under consideration is eliminating the student loan interest deduction, a tax break that has provided financial relief to millions of low—and middle-income borrowers. While the Trump administration’s actions regarding student loan forgiveness have been the subject of considerable attention, the potential elimination of the student loan interest deduction also warrants scrutiny. This tax break has served…

Most people who receive restricted stock units, or RSUs, from their company as part of their compensation plan are gambling with their opportunity to grow wealth — without even knowing it. RSUs are powerful tools that you can leverage to quickly grow your net worth. But they can just as rapidly spiral out of control and create an unnecessary time bomb within your investment portfolio. If you have RSUs, here’s what you need to understand about the risks they can pose when mismanaged — as well as the strategy you can use to harness their power for the good of…

Entertainment giant Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital Partners have made the United Football League a major player in the sports world. The UFL could be headed towards strong growth with its leagues expansion goals, alongside its mutually beneficial alliance with the NFL to test rules and technology that sets it apart. When you add in its impressive media deals with Fox, which previously owned the USFL, and ESPN, which had the XFL’s media rights, a new era in spring football is ready for kick off. The Breakdown You Need To Know: With bigger media deals in…

This article has been updated to reflect additional information and comment by the U.S. Department of Education. The Trump administration released a sweeping memo on Monday that will suspend broad swaths of spending across nearly all sectors of the federal government. The breadth of the order is substantial, and could have major impacts for millions of Americans. And it’s at least possible that student loan forgiveness and federal aid programs could be swept up in the suspension. The memo, released by Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, appears to instruct federal…

Donald Trump’s decision to remove Department of Justice (DOJ) press releases for individuals convicted in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot has sparked a broader conversation about the lasting impact of publicizing criminal convictions. Critics argue that deleting these press releases is an attempt to rewrite history, but it also highlights the challenges faced by all returning citizens in overcoming the stigma of their past convictions. For many individuals who have served their sentences in federal prison, reentry into society is an uphill battle. Employers and landlords often rely on background checks that reveal felony convictions, making it difficult for…

The issue of inflated tuition in America has continued to plague both higher education institutions and students alike. Institutions, which have seen a steady decrease in enrollments over the last decade have made it a practice to apply tuition increases year-over-year to keep their bottom lines intact. Meanwhile, students are faced with the task of deciding whether the ROI on their education is worth the high price tag and if they want to spend the next couple of decades paying off student loans. According to the recently-published Chegg Global Student Survey 2025, students are actively seeking more cost-effective routes to…

There’s a good chance that the SAVE income-driven repayment plan will cease to exist in 2025, either through court order or changing legislation. When the Saving On a Valuable Education (SAVE) income-driven repayment plan was first announced by the Biden administration in August of 2023, borrowers with federal student loans were excited for several reasons. Not only did the plan lower monthly payments for most borrowers and pave the way to $0 monthly payments for millions more, it also aimed to stop interest from capitalizing on federal student loans. The SAVE plan would have also helped borrowers who originally borrowed…