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dkf's JournalBank Forgives Dead Student's Loan; Family Fights to Change Law
Six years after the death of Christopher Bryski, a 23-year-old student at Rutgers University, Key Bank has agreed to forgive his student loan. But Bryski's family is not stopping there: It's now fighting to change the laws in the hope of sparing others the trauma it endured as lenders continued to hound it for payment on its dead son's debts.
Christopher Bysksi died on July 16, 2006, after sustaining a traumatic brain injury in a fall that left him in a coma for two years.
Because his father had co-signed his student loan from Key Bank, he was obligated to continue to make payments under the terms of the private loan agreement. He paid more than $20,000 of the $50,000 debt, coming out of retirement to make the monthly payments, according to Ryan Bryski, 34, Christopher's brother.
But Ryan Bryski, an Air Force veteran, said various lenders continued to call the family and ask to speak to Christopher, despite the family informing them of, first, Christopher's vegetative state, and later, his death.
http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=16227855
Beware of private student loan debt. It survives beyond the student. Amazing.
‘The life of Julia’ and the new frontiers of presidential politics
On Thursday morning, President Obama’s campaign launched a new interactive infographic — “The life of Julia.”
Her’s how it works:You follow a cartoon woman named Julia from age 3 to age 67. At each step along the way, you learn how she was helped by policies pushed by Obama and how she would be hurt by differing policy prescriptions favored by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Oversimplified? Yes. Slanted to favor Obama? Of course.(This is politics, after all.) Effective? Well, just look at how Republicans responded — by talking about #Julia on Twitter and Tumblr all day.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/the-life-of-julia-shows-obama-camps-web-savvy/2012/05/03/gIQAIy1YzT_blog.html
Obama campaign's "Julia" turns into Republican fodder
(CBS News) When the Obama campaign unveiled its fictional character Julia, officials hoped she might become a household name to show how the president's vision for the United States would benefit millions of Americans, especially women.
Instead, she is getting attention from Republicans who hope to use her to symbolize what they see as Mr. Obama's failures: An overreaching government.
According to the Twitter analytic Topsy, #Julia has been mentioned more than 20,000 times in the past two days as Republicans have been gleefully attacking Julia with their own interpretation of what she represents.
In "The Life of Julia," the Obama campaign released a web slideshow that takes the viewer through the life stages of a fictional woman named Julia. At age three, a slide says Julia is enrolled in the government Head Start program, which says presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney would slash. Later in life, the web tool says Julia received cheaper student loans, a Pell Grant and a tax credit. She benefited from the health care law and in her older years, Julia received Medicare and Social Security.
To Republicans, she represents a society increasingly dependent on government handouts.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57428336-503544/obama-campaigns-julia-turns-into-republican-fodder/
Gross Says U.S. Economy Suffering From ’Structural’ Unemployment
Bill Gross, manager of the world’s largest mutual fund, said U.S. unemployment is now a structural, and not cyclical, problem stemming from technology advances and the lack of retraining.
“Jobs are being structurally destroyed,” Gross said in an interview today with Ken Prewitt and Tom Keene on Bloomberg Radio’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.” Employment figures released today reflect “the inability of the U.S. economy to provide jobs.”
Gross, co-chief investment officer at Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., said the government had exhausted traditional fiscal and monetary responses in its attempt to spark higher growth. “They have to start looking elsewhere,” he said.
Washington should consider changes to trade and currency policies, as governments in Brazil, China and Europe have done, Gross said. A depreciation of the dollar would increase the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing abroad, he said.
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-04/gross-says-u-s-economy-suffering-from-structural-unemployment.html
FDA may let patients buy drugs without prescriptions
In a move that could help the government trim its burgeoning health care costs, the Food and Drug Administration may soon permit Americans to obtain some drugs used to treat conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes without obtaining a prescription.
The FDA says over-the-counter distribution would let patients get drugs for many common conditions without the time and expense of visiting a doctor, but medical providers call the change medically unsound and note that it also may mean that insurance no longer will pay for the drugs.
Under the changes that the agency is considering, patients could diagnose their ailments by answering questions online or at a pharmacy kiosk in order to buy current prescription-only drugs for conditions such as high cholesterol, certain infections, migraine headaches, asthma or allergies.
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/29/fda-may-let-patients-buy-drugs-without-prescriptio/?page=all
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