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A new bill would make 2-year colleges debt free. Here's how it would work.

College is expensive. Congress has two very different ideas on how to handle that.

On July 24, House Democrats unveiled the Aim Higher Act, a proposal that would allow people to attend a two-year community college debt-free.

“We want a world where parents do not have to choose between college for their kids or paying the rent,” said Rep. Susan Davis (D-California).


Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.

In short, the proposal would force states and the federal government to work together, simplifying the application process for financial aid, increasing funding for Pell grants, improving protections against predatory lenders, and increasing outreach to underserved communities like Native Americans.

Democrats say their proposal is a response to a competing bill from House Republicans called the PROSPER Act, which also seeks to simplify the financial aid process but would also cut federal funding for at least two major aid programs by $15 billion over the next decade. It came about one day after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos proposed cutting back debt relief options for students who have been defrauded by predatory lenders.

Political observers say the Aim Higher Act isn’t likely to make serious progress in the current session of Congress. So, why did Democrats even propose it?

Congress is up for grabs in November 2018, and we’re starting to see what Democrats would do if they win control.

Historically, the party that wins the White House usually loses seats in Congress during the next midterm election. And with President Donald Trump’s low-approval ratings, there’s a lot of talk about Democrats potentially taking control of the House, though the Senate is still considered a long shot.

In light of that, a potential Democratic agenda is slowly starting to take shape. Along with the Aim Higher Act, Democrats in Congress recently launched the "Medicare for All" caucus committed to a proposal that would essentially replace Obamacare with universal health care. It already has 70 members and a formal proposal with official support from 120 Democrats in Congress.

“It’s an opportunity for us,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) said. “There has never been a coordinated effort to share information around the prospect of ‘Medicare for All.’ This is historic.”

That doesn’t mean either of those bills will ever become law. Trump is still president and has threatened to veto any universal health care bills Congress sends to him.

But if power in Congress is split after the 2018 midterms, it’s likely Democrats and Republicans will be under pressure to work together to get legislation passed. At the very least, voters are starting to get a clearer picture of what their vote in November could actually mean.

The issue of high cost higher education is just one of the issues that both sides agree needs a solution.

Democrats and Republicans may not agree on the answer but there seems to at least be a near consensus about the problem.

Offering solutions that lift up those in need is something our government should be doing more of, and these kinds of policy moves are giving people something to vote for instead of just another thing to vote against.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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Representative Image from Canva

Let's not curse any more children with bad names, shall we?

Some parents have no trouble giving their children perfectly unique, very meaningful names that won’t go on to ruin their adulthood. But others…well…they get an A for effort, but might want to consider hiring a baby name professional.

Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

But honestly, when you hear this name, I think you’ll agree she was totally in the right.

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One of the most popular health trends over the last few years has been staying as hydrated as possible, evidenced by the massive popularity of 40-oz Stanely Quencher cups. The theory among those who obsess over hydration is that, when you pee clear, you’ve removed all the waste in your body and are enjoying the incredible benefits of being 100% hydrated. Congratulations.

However, according to Dr. Sermed Mezher, an NHS doctor in the UK, peeing clear isn’t always a sign of being healthy.

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Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

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Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

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Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

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