Wednesday, May 1, 2024

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1/ Biden will cancel $6 billion in student loans for people who attended the Art Institutes, a shuttered group of private for-profit colleges accused of fraud. “This institution falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies,” Biden said in a statement. The move will provide relief for 317,0000 people who enrolled in the colleges between 2004 and 2017. This latest round of student loan forgiveness brings the total approved by the Biden Administration to almost $160 billion for nearly 4.6 million borrowers – an average of nearly $35,000 per student. (NPR / Associated Press / New York Times / CBS News / Bloomberg)

2/ The Federal Reserve held interest rates unchanged at their highest level in two decades. The federal funds rate has been between 5.25% and 5.50% since July 2023. After the consumer price index came in at 3.5% on an annual basis last month, the central bank said there’s been “a lack of further progress” toward its 2% percent inflation goal. (Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / CNBC / CNN / ABC News)

3/ A federal court blocked Louisiana from using a new congressional map for this year’s elections, which created a second majority-Black district. In the 2-1 decision, the judges ruled the new map amounted to an “impermissible racial gerrymander” that violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. The ruling in favor of a group of self-described “non-African American” voters comes after the state legislature was ordered to redraw congressional districts to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The case is likely to reach the Supreme Court, which leaves uncertainty about which map will be used for this year’s elections that are six months away. (Politico / NBC News / New York Times / NPR / Washington Post / USA Today)

4/ Democrats won a special election House seat in New York, further shrinking the Republicans’ majority in the House. Democratic state Sen. Tim Kennedy defeated Republ...

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