Borrowers with some types of federal student loans have until today to consolidate their loans to qualify for full student loan cancellation or credit toward cancellation. The Education Department is expected to conduct a one-time adjustment in the summer but borrowers who want to be considered for the adjustment have to submit a request to consolidate their loans by Tuesday. This one-time adjustment is meant to show a more accurate payment count for student loan borrowers. Here’s what you need to know: WHICH TYPES OF LOANS NEED TO BE CONSOLIDATED? Borrowers with these types of loans must con ..read more

The well-documented struggles of the local journalism industry, ranging from layoffs and shuttering outlets to declining readerships and newspaper subscription losses, prompted state legislators to step in and offer some potential relief.  Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recently enacted budget, with bipartisan support, made room to financially bolster local broadcast, print, and ethnic media with $30 million annually in payroll tax credits for the next three years.  The move to include the Newspaper and Broadcast Media Jobs Program was an eleventh-hour decision in this year’s budget, according ..read more

Last November, 187 members of the United Nations’ General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution to end the United States’ economic blockade of Cuba. This is the same resolution U.N. members have been voting in favor of since 1992: it’s a call for the United States to end the 62-year-old trade embargo that makes it illegal for U.S. companies to do business with Cuba. Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, told the Amsterdam News that the unending blockade has hurt all Cubans, especially Afro Cubans. Statistically, more white Cubans have migrated from Cuba sinc ..read more

Local Harlem advocates led by Silent Voices United held an action outside the Victoria Theater on Thursday, April 18 calling for the passing of the SMOKEOUT Act, which fast-tracks the city’s ability to shut down illegal marijuana shops. It passed in the state budget just hours later, and will be effective immediately, according to Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, the bill’s author.  “The SMOKEOUT Act calls for local control and for the power to shut down shops to be put in the hands of the cities and municipalities,” the Queens lawmaker said in a statement. “I am proud to say that New Yor ..read more

A contract covering roughly 20,000 security guards in Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ (SEIU 32BJ) expired at midnight on May 1 as members called on employers to retain their healthcare, increase their retirement benefits, raise their wages, and recognize Juneteenth as an official paid holiday. Sitting across the negotiating table is the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB), as well as several private companies including Allied Universal that directly employ union members. They enlist SEIU 32BJ security guards to protect landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, Rockefe ..read more

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a proposal to adopt a near-total ban on noncompete agreements (NCAs) between employers and workers. The ban, which would end the prohibition on some workers being able to leave a job and get hired by another company in the same industry or to potentially start a company in that same industry, would go into force nationwide.  According to the FTC, 18% of the U.S. population––some 30 million people––have signed NCAs. “Noncompete agreements bind about one in five American workers. That’s astounding,” FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said ..read more

Vanguard Independent Democratic Association (VIDA), a Black-led civic organization with origins in the 1960s in central Brooklyn, threw the gauntlet down at the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and its candidate slate at a heated public meeting this past Monday.  On one hand, some of VIDA’s ire is reflective of the widening generational rift between “old guard” Democrats and younger “insurgent” socialist Progressives in New York. The groups have been at odds since U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) won a congressional seat in 2018 and prophesied a wave of other DSA-backed can ..read more

More than 775,000 fans attended last week’s NFL Draft held in downtown Detroit, Michigan, breaking the previous record of 600,000 football followers that flooded Nashville, Tennessee, in 2019 to partake in the annual gathering that has become the second most popular event on the league’s calendar behind only the Super Bowl.    At the Giants’ and Jets’ draft headquarters in East Rutherford and Florham Park, New Jersey, respectively, the teams painstakingly considered their options before settling on their first round picks. Both selected players that fill pressing needs. The Giants h ..read more

The basketball gods have a sense of irony and drama. After the Knicks overcame a five-point deficit at Madison Square Garden with 45 seconds remaining to improbably defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 104-101 in Game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven matchup, 10 days later, they afforded Philadelphia reprisal. Leading by six points with 28.2 seconds to go in regulation in Game 5 at MSG on Tuesday night, cerebral lapses, missed foul shots, and the remarkable shooting by 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey erased the 96-90 lead and sent the game into overtime knotted at 97-97. The Knicks’ lack of ..read more

NBA legends and future Basketball Hall of Famers LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers) and Kevin Durant (Phoenix Suns) have been eliminated from the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Stephen Curry didn’t even make it that far as the Golden State Warriors’ season ended in the play-in tournament. It is the first time at least one of the three hasn’t been in the second round of the playoffs since 2005. But a new crop of young players is ushering in the next generation of potential greats, led by 2024 NBA MVP finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder and A ..read more