January 17, 2017

DeVos Declines to Support For-Profit College Accountability Rules

Senate HELP committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and the Trump transition conspired to hold Betsy DeVos’s confirmation hearing to be Secretary of Education at the bizarre early bird special time of 5 pm. Faced with a billionaire nominee who has financial investments in education companies, has favored privatization over public education, has failed to finalize
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January 17, 2017

Lieberman, Introducing DeVos, Fails to Disclose That His Law Firm Represents Trump

Former Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) tonight introduced Donald Trump’s controversial nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, to the Senate HELP Committee. Lieberman lavishly praised DeVos, but failed to inform the American people that his law firm, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, “have represented Trump in all manner of matters since at least 2001.
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January 12, 2017

Should America Pick A Secretary of State Who Faces Fraud Investigations?

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Among the most disturbing aspects of Rex Tillerson’s confirmation hearing — he failed to disavow the idea of “a national registry for American Muslims”; he declined to offer an opinion on whether Vladimir Putin (pictured above with Tillerson) had committed war crimes; he said he didn’t view climate change “as the imminent national security threat
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January 11, 2017

Trump Loves Putin; We Need a Secretary of State Who Doesn’t

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There are several possible explanations for Donald Trump’s frequently professed deep admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin: his esteem for authoritarian dictators as men who get things done; his desire to embarrass President Obama by claiming Putin is a better leader; his pandering to alt-right voters who admire Putin as they pine for global white
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January 9, 2017

98 Percent of College Programs That Flunked Performance Test are For-Profit

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  The U.S. Department of Education this hour has released the first round of measures under its new contested gainful employment rule, which tests which career college programs, though a combination of high prices and low quality, leave too many of their graduates with overwhelming student loan debt. The requirements of the final gainful employment rule are
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January 9, 2017

What For-Profit Colleges Really Think About the Gainful Employment Rule

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With the U.S. Department of Education today planning to release gainful employment data, showing which career colleges are leaving their students with overwhelming debt, and with Trump Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos likely to face questions about career college accountability at her confirmation hearing set for Wednesday, below is a critical new analysis from the
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January 3, 2017

New Student Lawsuit Details ITT Tech Scam

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Former students from across the country today filed a blockbuster lawsuit against the collapsed for-profit college giant ITT Tech. The students’ complaint, seeking to intervene in the ongoing bankruptcy proceeding filed by the company, draws on testimonials from hundreds of students — veterans, single mothers, and more — who say they were deceived and abused
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December 12, 2016

With Exxon CEO in Trump Spotlight, A Primer on The Company’s Climate Court Fight

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Donald Trump’s public contemplation of picking ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be U.S. Secretary of State raises a range of controversies, including Tillerson’s dealmaking with Russia and close ties to Vladimir Putin. It also intensifies attention on ExxonMobil’s escalating court battle with the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts over the question of whether the company improperly
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