Free Republic

President Joe Biden’s one-time federal student loan debt relief program, which would forgive up to $20,000 in loans for federal borrowers, remains on hold after a federal district judge in Texas declared the program unconstitutional earlier this month. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis issued a nationwide injunction barring the program days later. The whiplash leaves more than 26 million people who applied for relief —16 million of whom were already approved — caught in limbo about the future of their federal student loans. Those who were approved received notice from the Department of Education that their...

What if on Election Day you could not only help the candidate of your choice - be it Eliot Spitzer, Jeanine Pirro or Hillary Clinton - win elected office, but win a cool million yourself? Well, on Nov. 7, voters in Arizona will be deciding whether their state should set up a lottery giving one lucky voter $1 million just for casting a ballot. New York needs some of the same fresh thinking. Our 2002 midterm election drew just 46% of eligible voters, putting us 39th in the nation in turnout. Meanwhile, 75% of state residents play the lottery every...

A Quebec man wants a consolation prize from his local newspaper after experiencing the thrill of winning the lottery, only to discover the paper had printed the wrong numbers. Ulysee Maillot thought he had won last week's $42 million Lotto 6-49 jackpot - the second-largest in Canadian history - when he saw his numbers printed in Sunday's Montreal Gazette. Maillot, 62, was already plotting how he would spend the money when he discovered a few hours later that the Gazette had made a mistake. "I felt sick," he told Global Television. "I never said a word. I was weak, I...

I have just learned that Oklahoma, which recently started a lottery, will be joining Powerball in January 2006. Am I excited? Well yes and no. I am excited at the prospect of having the chance of winning millions in Powerball, but I am not so excited that my sense of reality is skewed. Nevertheless, the chance does exist. So to prepare I Googled the term "lottery winner financial advisor" and got the site http://www.note.com/note/pp/jackpot.html. Very common sense information on how to prepare for winning a major lottery prize, and stay grounded in the fact that your chances of winning are...

Lottery officials admitted today that they knew ticket sales would not cover an advertised $8 million Lotto Texas jackpot this month, saying they used the higher number to keep players interested in the game. The Texas Lottery Commission set an estimated jackpot for the June 8 Lotto Texas drawing even though staff reports estimated sales could only cover $6.5 million, Product Manager Robert Tirloni told commissioners today. "At the time that we did these estimations, I felt that it was critical for the long-term health of the game for the jackpot to increase if there was no jackpot ticket sold,"...

Multnomah County makes over $25,000 issuing same-sex marriage licenses (Portland-AP) -- Multnomah County made over $25,000 after issuing 422 marriage licenses, mostly to gay couples. The most populous county in Oregon made $25,320 Wednesday. Previously, county officials say the most marriage licenses issued in one day was 68. Governor Kulongoski cautioned that the marriages may not be legal. He cited the state's 140-year-old marriage statute. It defines marriage as a "civil contract entered into in person by males at least 17 years of age and females at least 17 years of age." Kulongoski said the 19th Century writers clearly...