The Daily Populous

Friday May 21st, 2021 night edition

image for Betsy DeVos must testify in student loan forgiveness lawsuit, judge rules

WASHINGTON — Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos must testify in a class-action lawsuit about her handling of student loan forgiveness claims, which involved delays in the administration's decision-making and ultimate denial of a significant number of the applications, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

In a 12-page ruling, Judge William Alsup denied a motion to quash a subpoena for the Cabinet secretary’s deposition, writing that “exceptional circumstances” warrant her to sit for one.

The ruling, first reported by Politico, says those circumstances “warrant the deposition of Secretary DeVos for three hours, excluding breaks,” though he acknowledged that it’s “rare” for courts to authorize depositions of Cabinet secretaries.

“If judicial process runs to presidents, it runs to Cabinet secretaries — especially former ones,” Alsup wrote.”

The lawsuit was brought by 160,000 student loan borrowers who claim they were defrauded by for-profit colleges and applied to the Department of Education for student loan forgiveness.

The department, however, implemented a 18-month halt to issuing final decisions, and once it began making them again, denial letters went out at an “alarming rate,” the judge wrote.

The judge is allowing for a two-week pause of the order in case of an appeal. »

Elon Musk Effect on Cryptocurreny? How Tesla CEO Moves Bitcoin, Dodgecoin with Just a Tweet

Authored by news18.com

With over 55 million followers, the celebrity CEO ‘literally’ shakes the market every time he posts something about cryptocurrencies on Twitter.

The latest impact of Musk’s tweet was noticed on May 19 when the entire crypto sector lost nearly $1 trillion at one point.

Musk’s tweets about dogecoin recently triggered a rally in the digital currency, which started as a social media parody. »

Republicans fail to block $1.9bn emergency funds to boost security in wake of Capitol riots

Authored by independent.co.uk

The House of Representatives has narrowly approved legislation for $1.9bn emergency funds to increase security at the US Capitol following the 6 January pro-Trump riots, despite efforts from Republicans and progressive Democrats to block the bill.

Ilhan Omar voted against the bill while Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Talib and Jamaal Bowman voted present.

The legislation provides funding for the new fencing that has been surrounding the Capitol, as well as new security measures to protect windows and doors into the building. »

Dave Filoni • Lucasfilm

Authored by lucasfilm.com
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Dave Filoni realized a lifelong dream in 2005 when he was selected by George Lucas to help build Lucasfilm’s animation studio from the ground up and create the company’s first series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Filoni is executive producer, episodic director and writer on the Emmy award-winning series The Mandalorian, and is currently in production on the new series The Book of Boba Fett.

He is also the creator and executive producer of the new animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch on Disney+. »