White House to extend student-loan payment pause to June 30
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced that his administration would extend the pandemic-era pause in student loan repayments through June 30 amid legal challenges to his debt-forgiveness plan.
Payments now set to resume Jan. 1 won’t be required again until June 30 or until 60 days after court challenges to Biden’s loan forgiveness plan are settled, according to people familiar with the matter. A federal appeals court last week blocked the administration from carrying out Biden’s plan to cancel as much as $20,000 in debt for some borrowers.
“I’m confident that our student debt relief plan is legal,” Biden said in a tweet. “But it’s on hold because Republican officials want to block it.”
The decision followed a ruling earlier this month from a federal judge in Texas finding the plan unlawful. The Department of Education has stopped accepting applications for loan forgiveness, thrusting millions of Americans into financial limbo.
—Bloomberg News
Fauci to be deposed in lawsuit claiming free speech violations
WASHINGTON — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt will depose Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, on Wednesday, as part of an ongoing lawsuit that accuses the Biden administration of coordinating with social media companies to stifle free speech.
The deposition is part of a May lawsuit filed by Schmitt, who was elected to the U.S. Senate earlier this month, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry that attempts to show the Biden administration violated the First Amendment by working with social media companies to limit speech, particularly around COVID-19 and elections.
“Since we filed our landmark lawsuit, we have uncovered documents and discovery that show clear coordination between the Biden Administration and social media companies on censoring speech, but we’re not done yet. We plan to get answers on behalf of the American people. Stay tuned.”
The Department of Justice and the Republican attorneys general have gone back and forth for months over what records needed to be released and whether certain figures — like Fauci and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki — should have to produce emails or be deposed, though both requests were granted by a district court judge in Louisiana.
—The Kansas City Star
A Catholic priest told a church official he was attracted to teens. They told him not to 'worry about it'
BALTIMORE — In the 1980s, Father Brian Cox told an official with the Catholic church he had a problem — he was attracted to teenage boys.
The official, according to court papers, brushed him off, telling the Westminster priest not to “worry about it.” Cox, in a taped conversation with one of his victims, said a bishop once told him he was a priest, and priests don’t need help.
It later would be revealed, through court records and newspaper reporting, that Cox had molested children at St. John Catholic School — an extension of the St. John Westminster parish where Cox was a pastor — from 1978 to 1989. He stayed on as an assistant at St. John, but his post formally ended in 1995 when an unnamed “third party” came forward to church officials and accused Cox of sexual abuse.
Cox is one of more than 150 Catholic clergy assigned to the Archdiocese of Baltimore who sexually abused children over the decades, according to a report prepared by Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh’s office.
—Baltimore Sun
Rainbow flags are getting more pushback at World Cup, despite FIFA promises
Attempts to ban the universal symbol for LGBTQ rights at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar have drawn in the highest levels of the U.S. government, as fans continue to turn up at matches with rainbow flags in support of the community.
Several people wearing rainbow-colored clothing said they were stopped from entering stadiums. An American professor carrying a small rainbow flag on the metro said a fellow passenger threatened him after accusing him of disrespecting local traditions.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also criticized a decision by FIFA to impose “sporting sanctions” on players wearing rainbow armbands.
The incidents appear to fly in the face of promises by organizers that the rainbow would be allowed at games in the conservative Muslim Gulf country, where homosexuality is a criminal act punishable by jail time.
—Bloomberg News
