+34
A collection of news stories on various topics including the World Cup, a flash flood in Utah, AIPAC's influence in Michigan, Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey', and more.
Trump celebrates the World Cup as a US victory as he presents trophy to the winner, Spain5 family members found dead after flash flood in a scenic Utah canyon, authorities say AIPAC has spent a record amount on Michigan's Senate primary, the biggest test of its influence yetNot Greek to them.
Scholars question Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'AP Entertainment WireGhana's fantasy coffins are a colorful celebration of life and legacyHow to keep the air inside your home clean during wildfiresAt the Kaaba during Hajj, a photographer captures sense of unity and devotionThunderstorms will clear wildfire smoke from Northeast ahead of World Cup final, meteorologists sayTaylor Farms recalls lettuce shipped to 27 states over cyclospora riskBeing a night owl may not be great for your heart but you can do something about itAI chatbots are at risk of spreading government restrictions on online speech, a new study saysTraditionalist Catholics face a difficult choice after Vatican cuts off breakaway groupAhora que está agobiado por Irán y la inflación, Trump cambia su tono sobre Jimmy CarterUS launches more airstrikes against Iran after announcing another death of a service memberThe Afternoon WireJD and Usha Vance welcome a baby boy, the first child born to a sitting VP in more than 150 yearsGround GameNot Greek to them.
Scholars question Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'AP Entertainment WireGhana's fantasy coffins are a colorful celebration of life and legacyHow to keep the air inside your home clean during wildfiresAt the Kaaba during Hajj, a photographer captures sense of unity and devotionThunderstorms will clear wildfire smoke from Northeast ahead of World Cup final, meteorologists sayTaylor Farms recalls lettuce shipped to 27 states over cyclospora riskBeing a night owl may not be great for your heart but you can do something about itAI chatbots are at risk of spreading government restrictions on online speech, a new study saysTraditionalist Catholics face a difficult choice after Vatican cuts off breakaway groupAhora que está agobiado por Irán y la inflación, Trump cambia su tono sobre Jimmy CarterBarbara Howaniec, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, poses for a photo in her office on Monday, June 15, 2026, in Portland, Maine.
After starting out as a teacher, she went back to school — and took out more loans — in hopes of landing a higher-paying job in the chemical processing industry. It never materialized, and then came Hurricane Harvey, a job loss and a car breakdown. By 2022, she was so broke she filed for bankruptcy.
She found work at a Texas prison and was rebuilding her life, saving up for weight-loss surgery, when this spring she heard from a credit-monitoring service. The student loans she thought had been discharged in bankruptcy had ballooned to $94,298 with interest, and she had to start making payments. She was in default.jumped by more than 4.2 million from April 2025 to March 2026, according to an Associated Press analysis.
The surge includes many who went off track in 2024, when loan payments started coming due again after a pandemic-era freeze. Hundreds of thousands more are months behind on payments, and another surge in defaults could be on the way. Millions of borrowers are facing higher monthly payments as the government dismantles its most affordableBorrowers enter default after missing payments for nine months, and the consequences can upend lives.
It hurts credit ratings and can lead to the debt being sent to collections.
“I am seeing despair and outrage and despondency and just a very wide mix of pretty extreme emotions, the likes of which I have not seen before,” said Alan Collinge, the founder of Student Loan Justice and the author of “The Student Loan Scam. ” The federal government can garnish wages and Social Security payments from borrowers in default, but the Trump administration in Januaryplans to begin collections on their loans.
A Moody’s Analytics report this spring said garnishments are likely to begin within the next year, warning of “an additional headwind in an increasingly fragile economy. ”Dreahn enrolled at Texas Woman’s University in 2004 as the first in her family to go to college. She cobbled together jobs, babysitting and working at a call center and an automotive shop. But she still needed to borrow heavily.
“There was one point where they were like, ‘If you don’t come up with the money, we’re dropping you from your classes,’” said Dreahn, who earned a degree in history with an emphasis on education and social studies. “And it was, ‘OK, what do I need to sign? ’”“You just kind of trust these advisers and trust these financial aid people that this is what you’re supposed to do,” Dreahn said.
While teaching, she took out more student loans to earn a pair of associate degrees from a public community college in Texas. She received a job offer at a chemical refinery, but it was rescinded because she was over the weight limit for the company’s safety equipment. She filed for bankruptcy in 2022 in hopes that it would “erase everything. ” She checked her online credit report afterward.
For each student loan, the report read: “Nice! You’ve paid off 100% of this loan. ” The message is sometimes shared with borrowers when student loans are consolidated or transferred to new companies — even when the person still owes money. Student loans are rarely discharged in bankruptcy.
Borrowers must prove the loans pose an “undue hardship. ” The process is cumbersome, and few qualify, advocates say.
“I was so relieved, like, ‘OK, now I can start life over,’” she said. “‘I can save some money. ’” She started working last year as a supervisor at a prison in Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston, and was living in an RV park to save money when she received the default notice.
“I just feel like, where is that light at the end of the tunnel now that I thought I had? ” Dreahn said. As a pandemic relief measure, the federal government allowed borrowers to suspend student loan payments until 2023, and President Joe Biden’s administration then provided a one-year grace period. That ended in fall 2024, allowing loans to enter into default after nine months of missed payments.
A surge in defaults followed, and today around 9.5 million borrowers — over 1 in 5 — are in default, including those whose loans were well past due before the pandemic, according to the AP analysis. The previous record for borrowers in default had been 8 million in December 2019. There are also 870,000 borrowers with loans between 181 and 270 days late, on the edge of default, according to federal data.
Meanwhile, 33% of borrowers at for-profit schools nationally were at least 90 days late on payments, more than twice the rate of borrowers at public schools, additional federal data shows. Most private colleges that offer traditional degrees are nonprofit. For-profit colleges generally offer career-focused degrees and credentials and often serve students of color.
Career Education Colleges and Universities, an association of private trade schools, has created a task force to reach out to students about the importance of loan repayment, said Jason Altmire, the group’s president and CEO. Some borrowers are so overwhelmed by their debt and changes to the federal student loan system that they’ve stopped paying. Barbara Howaniec, a 63-year-old psychiatric nurse practitioner from Auburn, Maine, already has defaulted.
She borrowed around $62,000 for her master’s degree from New York University, graduating in 2001. But after two decades of payments, she still owes around $67,000 with interest. She had put her loans in deferment for short stints while her children were young, unaware that interest would continue to accumulate. Howaniec had hoped to have her loan forgiven after 25 years under an income-based repayment plan.
But then came a letter saying the repayment schedule had changed and she owed 355 more payments. By the time she finished paying, she would be 91. She made call after call, but she said the advice varied by whoever picked up the phone. Last year, as she paid for her own children’s college, she quit paying her own loans.
“I had already paid what I had borrowed. I’m like, no, I’m not going to pay anymore,” Howaniec said. As a self-employed person, she said she doesn’t have to worry about the government garnishing her wages. Shannon Khan, a 46-year-old mental health worker from Webster, Texas, hasn’t paid her student loan for two months as she investigates her options.
She did not have to pay anything while enrolled in SAVE, but she was moved last fall to another income-driven repayment plan, with a required monthly payment of $847. She thought she was close to having her remaining balance forgiven, but she recently learned her payment will jump to $1,683 a month — an amount her loan servicer said she will need to pay for nearly a decade.
Dreahn had never been entirely clear how much she was borrowing when she was a student. As an adult, the process remained opaque. She had multiple loans transferred to different loan servicers. And then her loans were deferred when she went back to school.
“It’s a huge, huge mess,” Dreahn said. “It’s almost like it just gets sold off and you’re just lost in the system somewhere until you figure out that, ‘Oh, they want $700 this month. What? ’”“I’m trying to figure out: One, how I’m going to make it work.
And two, what do I give up? ” Dreahn said.
“How do I manage buying groceries as well as making sure the bills are covered and this payment never gets missed? ”“That was a six-figure career that I lost due to my weight,” she said, her voice breaking.
“The money that I’m trying to save now that was going to be for surgery is going to be paid to student loans instead. ”The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’sHollingsworth has worked for The AP for 25 years, covering stories of interest in the Midwest and beyond. She is based in Kansas City, Missouri.
Scratch the next story
World Cup US Politics Flash Flood AIPAC Christopher Nolan
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Multiple News Headlines: US-Iran Tensions, Tate Arrests, Mile Record, and MoreA collection of diverse news stories covering international relations, crime, sports, culture, health, weather, technology, and investigations. Highlights include US and Iran nearing all-out war, social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrested in Miami, British runner Josh Kerr breaking the men's mile world record, Ghana's fantasy coffins, tips for reducing daily choices, Pamplona's bull run photography, wildfire smoke clearing before World Cup final, Taco Bell lettuce linked to parasite, in-flight anxiety coping, thumb pain relief from texting, interfaith pilgrimage in East India, and Trump's shifted tone on Jimmy Carter amid Iran and inflation concerns.
Read more »
Multiple news headlines including Trump on World Cup, Tate arrests, and various global eventsA collection of news stories covering topics such as Donald Trump's comments on the World Cup, the arrest of social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, political statements by Senator Ossoff, Rory McIlroy's accusations at the British Open, Ghana's fantasy coffins, the birthday of the world's oldest captive gorilla, Pamplona's bull run photography, wildfire smoke forecast, a lettuce recall, in-flight anxiety, AI chatbot restrictions, traditionalist Catholics, US strikes on Iran, a father-son arrest in a Forest Service incident, Wisconsin Democratic governor primary, and a ceremony in Paris marking the anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv roundup.
Read more »
World Cup, Political Strikes, and Gorilla Birthday: Today's Top StoriesA roundup of major news including Trump's World Cup comments, US-Iran tensions, Tour de France updates, and a landmark gorilla birthday.
Read more »
Mbappe Becomes First Male Player in History to Win Multiple World Cup Golden BootsThe French star striker took home the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot after a whopping 10 goals this summer.
Read more »