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How to manage holiday spending when you’re dealing with student loan debt

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — For Nicole Plauche and her family, Christmas is the time of the year where they can use their preferred love language: gift giving. This year, however, Plauche is worried about how much she can afford to spend on gifts. Her main struggle? Student loan payments. “It just doesn’t leave much room for anything outside of just basic necessities,” said Plauche, a 23-year old tech sales manager from Dallas, Texas. Marisa Johnson, 26, has approximately $145,000 in student loan debt from both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Since the COVID-era payment pause ended in October, she’s been paying back $300 a month while she waits to see if she’ll be enrolled in a new income-driven repayment plan.Because all of her money is going to necessities and paying back her student loans, Johnson hasn’t been able to spend as much on gifts as in previous years.“I’ve mostly been trying to think of affordable gifts or combining gifts with my older siste...

Book Review: The Velvet Underground’s story and afterlife told in the oral history ‘Loaded’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

Before they became synonymous with downtown cool, the Velvet Underground played a multi-band bill at a suburban New Jersey high school in 1965. Parents and kids in the crowd were repelled by the “screeching urge of sound” from Lou Reed and his bandmates, a local reviewer wrote, and retreated in horror after their second song, “Heroin.” The Velvet Underground soon found a more appreciative audience when artist Andy Warhol spotted them and set them up at the Factory, his Manhattan studio-and-happening space. But wide success and fame eluded the Velvet Underground during their fractious run. They became lionized as edgy musical groundbreakers later on — reversing the stereotypical rock band success story by breaking up and then conquering the world.Veteran journalist and author Dylan Jones tells that unusual story in “Loaded: The Life (and Afterlife) of The Velvet Underground.” Or more precisely, Jones weaves together an oral history that relies on the voices of friends, Warhol “supers...

Canopy Growth sells This Works skin care brand to U.K. investment firm

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

SMITHS FALLS, Ont. — Canopy Growth Corp. says it has sold its This Works skin care and wellness brand to a U.K. investment firm.The Smiths Falls, Ont.-based cannabis company says the deal with Inspirit Capital is valued at up to $15.9 million.Under the deal, Canopy will receive an upfront payment of $4.6 million in cash and in other consideration, a loan note issued by Inspirit Capital and payments for reaching unspecified milestones.Canopy says the deal has already closed and This Works’ leadership team, staff, and intellectual property will transfer to Inspirit Capital.The pot firm purchased This Works for $73.8 million in 2019, saying the London-based company founded in 2004 would be integral to Canopy’s entry into the natural wellness industry.This Works sells everything from moisturizers and cleansers to fragrances, sleep sprays and body oils.“We are resolutely focused on achieving North American cannabis market leadership, and this completed sale represents a...

Larry Kramer, the CEO of the mega climate funder, the Hewlett Foundation, looks back

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

Larry Kramer, longtime president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, doesn’t think it’s healthy for an executive to lead the same organization for more than 15 years. The problem, he says, is that it takes 10 years for a leader to get anything done.Nevertheless, Kramer, known for his early support of the fight against climate change, will make his own deadline. At the end of 2023, he will step down from his role from the organization he has led since 2012. In an interview with The Associated Press, Kramer talks about how Hewlett became the largest climate funder in the world from 2007 to 2018, as well as started funding around cybersecurity, political polarization in the context of democracy and reimagining capitalism.“We’re really broadly across the field,” Kramer says about Hewlett’s climate funding. “When we spot problems, we’ll start (working on) them and people will often follow. And that’s been true of a number of things in recent years, whether it’s...

AP Sports Story of the Year: Realignment, stunning demise of Pac-12 usher in super conference era

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

The commissioners from three of the remaining power conferences in college sports appeared together in a crowded convention center ballroom and were asked to ponder what was wrought by three tumultuous years of realignment that culminated in the destruction of a 108-year-old institution.“Obviously, not happy about the ultimate outcome to the Pac-12, but I’m in this position to give us the best options and future possible and we took advantage of the moment.” Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark explained during the session in Las Vegas.That moment came over a span of six weeks this past summer. The Pac-12 was ripped apart and redistributed by its competitors, regardless of geography. The stunning demolition, set in motion a year earlier, was accelerated when the Pac-12 couldn’t secure a media rights deal to match its competitors.The redrawing of the college sports map and demise of the Pac-12, a conference that claims the most NCAA championships and a legacy that includes the likes of ...

Vladimir Putin has officially registered as a candidate for the Russian presidential election

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday presented documents to Russia’s Central Election Commission to register as a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. “He submitted them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media.Supporters of Putin on Saturday formally nominated him to run in the 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate.The nomination by a group of at least 500 supporters, under Russian election law, is mandatory for those running not on a party ticket. Independent candidates also need to gather at least 300,000 signatures of support from 40 regions or more.The group that nominated Putin included top officials from the ruling United Russia party, prominent Russian actors and singers, athletes and other public figures. Putin has used different tactics over the years. He ran as an independent in 2018 and his campaign gathered signatures. In 2012, he ran as a nominee of the Kremlin’s United Russia party, so there was no need fo...

Locked out of local government: Residents decry increased secrecy among towns, counties, schools

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

Cheryl Geidner figured council members in Volant, a tiny borough north of Pittsburgh, would adopt a preliminary year-end budget despite no discussions at public meetings on the proposed financials.She never figured they’d raise property taxes by 57%.“There had never been a mention of that,” said Geidner, a property owner who helps oversee a business with her husband, John, in the town of 126 residents. “You didn’t see the budget. You didn’t see the ordinance. I think everybody was somewhat taken aback.”The plan, given final approval last week, will steeply increase tax bills: A property assessed at $100,000, for example, would have been billed $700 in 2023. In 2024, that bill will rise to $1,100. The council’s silence leading up to the decision highlights what some observers say is a striking trend toward secrecy among local governments across the U.S. From school districts to townships and county boards, public access to records and meetings in many states is worsening over time, o...

Pope approves blessings for same-sex couples if the rituals don’t resemble marriage

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document explaining a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking God’s love and mercy shouldn’t be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” to receive it.The document from the Vatican’s doctrine office, released Monday, elaborates on a letter Francis sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October. In that preliminary response, Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didn’t confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage.The new document repeats that rationale and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman. And it stresses that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding.But it says requests for such blessings should not be denied full stop. I...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 24-30

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 24-30:Dec. 24: Actor Grand L. Bush (TV’s “The Visitor,” film’s “Demolition Man”) is 68. Actor Stephanie Hodge (“Unhappily Ever After”) is 67. Bassist-synthesizer player Ian Burden of Human League is 66. Actor Anil Kapoor (“Slumdog Millionaire”) is 64. Actor Wade Williams (“Prison Break,” “The Bernie Mac Show”) is 62. Singer Mary Ramsey of 10,000 Maniacs is 60. Actor Mark Valley (“Boston Legal”) is 59. Actor Diedrich Bader (“The Drew Carey Show”) is 57. Actor Amaury Nolasco (TV’s “Deception,” “Prison Break”) is 53. Singer Ricky Martin is 52. “Twilight” series author Stephenie Meyer is 50. TV host Ryan Seacrest (“American Idol”) is 49. Actor Michael Raymond-James (“Once Upon a Time,” “True Blood”) is 46. Actor Austin Stowell (“12 Strong”) is 39. Actor Sofia Black-D’Elia (“Your Honor,” “The Mick”) is 32. Singer Louis Tomlinson of One Direction is 32.Dec. 25: Actor Hanna Schygulla (“Barnum,” ″Casanova”) is 80. Singer John Edwards of The Spinners ...

Snow, flurries on the way today as temperature drops in GTA

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

It’s a mild and rainy start to the work week but things will look and feel a lot more like winter by Monday evening.A temperature drop throughout the day Monday will set things up for a potentially icy and snowy evening commute, and there is a possibility we could be waking up to snow on the ground on Tuesday morning.“Rain, switching over to snow as we head into this evening,” says CityNews chief meteorologist Natasha Ramsahai. “It is going to be slick driving tonight and into tomorrow.”Monday’s guaranteed high of 6 C has already been reached as of 8 a.m. as cold air starts to move in leading to an overnight low of -4 C. Showers are expected to turn into wet flurries and then snow by the late evening.Areas in the north part of the GTA could see as much as five centimetres of snow, with up to three centimetres possible in areas south of Highway 401.Tuesday will see sun and cloud and a chance of flurries with a guaranteed high of -1 C. Things will r...